Every day and every time I play this game, I find something I didn't see (or notice) before. Ever since I first started playing the game I thought to myself, "There's got to be more to this game than what's apparent", doing what I've seen videos about, people going wild with apophenia and imagination either trying to find/solve a greater or hidden mystery in the game or looking for hints of something else in the game that's suggestive and subversive. That feeling has waned over the last year because I keep finding shit that I either never noticed, hadn't encountered, or hadn't played enough of the game to figure out about its mechanics. $60 has paid for itself well over. Meanwhile, the people doing the coverage for the game in the media spew more politics than they convey game mechanics, the unlauded working features of the game, the sometimes 4+ outcomes and/or approaches to every mission. I've probably listened to hours of bitching about the game from people showing footage of their gameplay and usually what they show is a bunch of insane murder sprees and bloodbaths, and never say things like "did you know XYZ would happen if you didn't kill everybody?" or "did you know that XYZ is the outcome because you didn't have to take this or that route?" It appears that the WORST players are the pundits about the game. I've seen more people looking for glitches and breaks in the system than I have of people showing interesting things like "this door only opens in this or that condition". Before Cyberpunk 2077, I thought the best game FOR ME was Assassin's Creed Origins. But, I stopped playing it after I finished all of the stories and DLCs because it really doesn't have any replayability. After you've killed everybody, there's no intrigues, nothing more to learn beyond the common narrative of an academically preferred perspective of Egypt. Ultimately, it became good for riding horses and chariots around gigantic maps nothing more to do but find random pieces of silica that may have been missed. Cyberpunk did something different. It gives a BIG world, a bunch of lore, scattered and sometimes subversive stories, a bunch of easter eggs, combinatoric ways of building a character. Multiple outcomes and approaches to missions, a city that feels as real and diverse as any American city, both in people, architecture, and "weather".
I work in a data center. But, when I'm home, I write code and play Cyberpunk 2077, and a few other games. The irony, the game has actually inspired some of the programs I've written. Some, to solve some of the mysteries I've seen in the game. For instance, "Hey, that's written in Binary! I should write a binary reader!", and "Hey, there are cards scattered all over this game. I should write a system to play with cards". There probably some other stuff I've done. Ironically, the intrigue about the game is so deep that I've been evaluating the modding tools provided by CDPR scoping and scanning, debating on whether I should take a stab at hacking the game to see what I can alter and/or contribute to the experience. CDPR gave a LOT with this one. I ended up buying the whole Witcher series and have no interest in playing in that world. I just wanted to give CDPR more support for what they did with Cyberpunk 2077. I haven't been so awed and inspired by a game since Planescape's Torment. Something that I think was a masterpiece from circa 1997.
Ironically, The Bandit as the DLC car was brilliant. At first, I thought it simply looked funny, then I realized that it drives better than most vehicles that are either better on paved roads or unpaved roads. The Bandit and Thorton Colby are the best vehicles outside of the motorcycles. Best handling. People complain a lot, they aren't so good about being appreciative. My preferred games are either Adventure or Tactical. Cyberpunk 2077 tends to cover everything that I expect from an FFT or XCOM game minus team-based tactics/strategy. I stopped playing the Endless series of games in entirety. I've been playing Sci-Fi Racing games and old-school arcade games when I'm not playing CP77. The Irony? CP77 has the drama of the Endless series of games. It just doesn't have the AI of those games. It's probably the gift and curse of an RPG that has to come to a narrative conclusion. I usually imagine the future of gaming thinking, "What if the Fixers of CP77 operated like the AI of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. . . . It would be harder to operate it as an RPG, but it would be a damned near-perfect game. . . FOR ME!"
I work in a data center. But, when I'm home, I write code and play Cyberpunk 2077, and a few other games. The irony, the game has actually inspired some of the programs I've written. Some, to solve some of the mysteries I've seen in the game. For instance, "Hey, that's written in Binary! I should write a binary reader!", and "Hey, there are cards scattered all over this game. I should write a system to play with cards". There probably some other stuff I've done. Ironically, the intrigue about the game is so deep that I've been evaluating the modding tools provided by CDPR scoping and scanning, debating on whether I should take a stab at hacking the game to see what I can alter and/or contribute to the experience. CDPR gave a LOT with this one. I ended up buying the whole Witcher series and have no interest in playing in that world. I just wanted to give CDPR more support for what they did with Cyberpunk 2077. I haven't been so awed and inspired by a game since Planescape's Torment. Something that I think was a masterpiece from circa 1997.
Ironically, The Bandit as the DLC car was brilliant. At first, I thought it simply looked funny, then I realized that it drives better than most vehicles that are either better on paved roads or unpaved roads. The Bandit and Thorton Colby are the best vehicles outside of the motorcycles. Best handling. People complain a lot, they aren't so good about being appreciative. My preferred games are either Adventure or Tactical. Cyberpunk 2077 tends to cover everything that I expect from an FFT or XCOM game minus team-based tactics/strategy. I stopped playing the Endless series of games in entirety. I've been playing Sci-Fi Racing games and old-school arcade games when I'm not playing CP77. The Irony? CP77 has the drama of the Endless series of games. It just doesn't have the AI of those games. It's probably the gift and curse of an RPG that has to come to a narrative conclusion. I usually imagine the future of gaming thinking, "What if the Fixers of CP77 operated like the AI of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. . . . It would be harder to operate it as an RPG, but it would be a damned near-perfect game. . . FOR ME!"