E3 2019 & post-E3 2019 - Media News & Previews

[Shavod]

So, by now, we've all heard the news about binary gender options being removed, you now pick a body type.

Fine by me, I'm on board with that. NPCs will still call you "He" or "She" if you want. Truly couldn't care less, do NOT want to start a political conversation, and the controversy surrounding this debate is completely irrelevant to me and this post.

My question is, will NPCs still react to your gender as previously confirmed, or has that been removed as an unfortunate side-effect of this change?

If anyone knows, or if anyone is willing to ask a Red, that'd be cool. Thanks.

EDIT: Secondary question. My assumption before was that you'd be able to mix and match different body type aspects. In fact, they keep saying "mix and match" whenever this topic comes up, but if your only options are "male or female voice, male or female body type," that's quite limited.

Will you be able to have male sex organs but a female-presenting body (which may make you appealing to NPCs with certain sexual preferences), and vice versa? What about breasts or lack thereof on a male/female body?

Note, when I say male/female, it's for simplicity's sake. Not to pigeonhole anybody.

I don't have any official confirmation on that, however I recall that in one of the more recent interviews they stated that characters that you can romance still have their own sexual preferences, which makes me believe that people will still react to you differently depending on your gender. Plus I doubt they would rerecord lines for several different characters just to make them more gender neutral.

As for the second question, I think it works similar way the original character creator was, so you still pick the default "male looking" and "female looking" form, afterwards you get all the options to mold it however you want, but this time you get both male and female attributes that you can modify it with. The other part of the question I don't have the answer for, but I definitely hope that you can pick "boobsless" feminine form for male character, otherwise my dream of making Jojo inspired character will be utterly ruined.

 

[Snowflakez]

I don't have any official confirmation on that, however I recall that in one of the more recent interviews they stated that characters that you can romance still have their own sexual preferences, which makes me believe that people will still react to you differently depending on your gender. Plus I doubt they would rerecord lines for several different characters just to make them more gender neutral.

As for the second question, I think it works similar way the original character creator was, so you still pick the default "male looking" and "female looking" form, afterwards you get all the options to mold it however you want, but this time you get both male and female attributes that you can modify it with. The other part of the question I don't have the answer for, but I definitely hope that you can pick "boobsless" feminine form for male character, otherwise my dream of making Jojo inspired character will be utterly ruined.

Sweet! Thanks. @Rawls, too.

 

[Rawls]

Sweet! Thanks.

No problem.

At least we can put this to bed now. A LOT of people said I (and, by extension, you) was wrong when I tried to discuss it on the Discord (which, incidentally, I'm no longer a part of), but it's true after all.

Indeed it looks like you were right. Also

 

[Night_City_Native]

While I'm cool with most of the game being from the first person perspective, the reveal that third person cutscenes have been removed make me wonder what the point of the character creator is.

If the entire game is FPP, do you even see your character at any point other than in the character creator?

Am I missing something?

 

[Rawls]

While I'm cool with most of the game being from the first person perspective, the reveal that third person cutscenes have been removed make me wonder what the point of the character creator is.

If the entire game is FPP, do you even see your character at any point other than in the character creator?

Am I missing something?

Inventory, mirrors, while driving (optionally), looking down at own body, and maybe in planned photo mode. Also it's been said that some NPCs will comment on some stylistic and/or physical characteristics of the player character.

 

[Snowflakez]

While I'm cool with most of the game being from the first person perspective, the reveal that third person cutscenes have been removed make me wonder what the point of the character creator is.

If the entire game is FPP, do you even see your character at any point other than in the character creator?

Am I missing something?

Rawls pretty much covered it all, though I'd like to point out that the photo mode may not necessarily be in TPP. I mentioned it on Discord once about.. a month? two? ago and Lilayah was swift to correct me, and said something along the lines of "its' not necessarily TPP." So we'll see.

As for the mirrors, I'm hoping it means you can see your character when you walk by them, and not that they're "fogged up" (or otherwise impossible to actually look at) until you walk up and "interact" with them in a static pose. That'd suck.

The thing is, if they are something you can just look in as you walk by, that necessarily means there are full TPP animations already in game, because as devs you have to account for every possible movement a player could do to avoid breaking immersion and showing a t-pose. This does NOT mean the devs will include a TPP mode, but it does make a TPP exploration mod much more likely. What if a player jumps up and down? Spins in a circle? Pulls out their gun and starts shooting? Punches the air, crouches, etc.? Gotta display it, or make mirrors interact-only.

I'm hoping for more news on mirrors moving forward.

 

[Rawls]

Interesting - https://www.playstationlifestyle.ne...franchise-future-witcher-and-cyberpunk-games/

"The Company believes that maintaining the observed growth dynamics and expansion of its activity profile will depend on further enhancement of its world-class videogame development skillset and on maintaining effective communication channels with the global gaming community. Managing two separate major franchises (The Witcher and Cyberpunk), along with several independent development teams, enables the Company to conduct parallel work on several projects and smoothens its long-term release schedule. This migration towards a dual-franchise model supported by several independent product lines also permits optimization of manufacturing and financial activities, mitigates important risk factors and makes it easier for Company employees to seek professional fulfillment."

 

[Snowflakez]

Interesting - https://www.playstationlifestyle.ne...franchise-future-witcher-and-cyberpunk-games/

"The Company believes that maintaining the observed growth dynamics and expansion of its activity profile will depend on further enhancement of its world-class videogame development skillset and on maintaining effective communication channels with the global gaming community. Managing two separate major franchises (The Witcher and Cyberpunk), along with several independent development teams, enables the Company to conduct parallel work on several projects and smoothens its long-term release schedule. This migration towards a dual-franchise model supported by several independent product lines also permits optimization of manufacturing and financial activities, mitigates important risk factors and makes it easier for Company employees to seek professional fulfillment."

Makes sense. So, basically, the Bethesda model.

 

[Draconifors]

Personal opinion here, as usual, but I think the removal of TPP cutscenes is a good thing. Sudden, drastic camera changes tend to take me "out" of the game, if you know what I mean, so it's a lot smoother when cutscenes are in the same perspective as most of the rest of the game.

On the flip side, player characters have a tendency to do stupid things (stupid, as in something my character would never do if I were in control; letting enemies get too close, running in the wrong direction, etc.) in cutscenes and that is less frustrating to see in TPP than in FPP.

--------------------

Interesting - https://www.playstationlifestyle.ne...franchise-future-witcher-and-cyberpunk-games/

The article has a couple of hugely misleading comments, which cost it some credibility in my eyes, but the main news is indeed interesting despite that.

 

[CyberBobber]

While I'm cool with most of the game being from the first person perspective, the reveal that third person cutscenes have been removed make me wonder what the point of the character creator is.

If the entire game is FPP, do you even see your character at any point other than in the character creator?

Am I missing something?

Maybe they are running out of time, so they dont have time to make TPP cutscenes. Cant blame them really, they probably have gotten tons of ideas from fans etc.

 

[sinister.sinner]

Maybe they are running out of time, so they dont have time to make TPP cutscenes. Cant blame them really, they probably have gotten tons of ideas from fans etc.

If I have to guess I'd guess it's a creative decision. If they would run out of time, they would push back the release as they are not known for compromising on their vision or quality of the game.

 

[Metropolice]

While different people have different preferences, I personally would've preferred a longer "third person coverage" of the character in cutscenes or dialogue. Basically, in a game primarily relying or using first person, I take any (third person) "screen time" I can get.

 

[Snowflakez]

Yeah, I don't think I've outright said it, but I'm genuinely disappointed by this decision.

Without getting too deep into the TPP/FPP "immerzunne" debate again ( ), I'd just like to say that I find the occasional third person cutscene to be deeply immersive, satisfying to watch (because I actually see my character, with my customizations, physically interact or speak with others and the environment), and flat-out neat due to the cinematic camera angles it allows for.

I understand their decision, but I'm not happy about it. We already knew we weren't getting a TPP mode and that's fine, most of us have come to terms with it. But I do not think the occasional third person cutscene would have hampered their focus on immersion in the slightest, and there are any number of examples I could point to as evidence of that. I hope they keep forced player movement (in these FPP scenes) to a minimum -- if there's one thing that triggers my motion sickness to the max, it's a complete lack of control over my first person camera with no warning.

That said, I'm otherwise pleased with a lot of the recent news. Not all, but a good amount of it. I look forward to more, and especially the gameplay in the near future.

 

[slavchen]

Even though the news regarding total exclusion of TPP cutscenes from the game (based on Facebook reply from the game page) seems conclusive enough, I'd say we should wait for additional confirmation (in one of the gameplay videos, dev interviews, or dev diaries).
Personally, I think there're gonna be some short introductory (or expositional) TPP cutscenes like the one with Jackie and V in the elevator or V's apartment.

 

[CyberBobber]

If I have to guess I'd guess it's a creative decision. If they would run out of time, they would push back the release as they are not known for compromising on their vision or quality of the game.

Hmm, are you sure about this? Ive seen companies acting differently, some stick to the deadline some delay.

 

[sinister.sinner]

Hmm, are you sure about this? Ive seen companies acting differently, some stick to the deadline some delay.

I can't be sure. But they delayed TW3 until they were happy with it.

 

[Mybrokenenglish]

I can't be sure. But they delayed TW3 until they were happy with it.

it was released buggy as hell though. It took them 4 months to fix king's gambit quest.

 

[nsf001]

Since there will be sex scenes in game, full-FPP is almost impossible....

 

[Garrison72]

I really liked the cutscenes in TW3 since they were so well done and actually added to the story, but I know they wouldn't have removed them in Cyberpunk if it wasn't for creative reasons. 99% is in FP anyway. The question about romance scenes though...they would be really odd in first person, so maybe there'll be none now.

 

[BluPixel]

Since there will be sex scenes in game, full-FPP is almost impossible....

Now, this should be interesting ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

or just a fade to black.