Don’t Miss This GTA Reference In Cyberpunk 2077 – Kotaku

Cyberpunk 2077s one-and-done expansion, Phantom Liberty, arrived on September 26, 2023, bringing with it a new story and a new location to explore. But fans have found another unique addition the expansion introduces: a subtle reference to another open-world game also set in a fictional take on California.

Phantom Liberty Is Undoing One Key Thing That Cyberpunk Got Right

Early on in Phantom Liberty, V must make a phone call to a certain character to get the plot moving. As some fans have pointed out, theres a cryptic set of numbers scratched into the phone:

2 x 9 1 x 9 L 1 x 6 1 x 7 2 x 45

Cyberpunk sleuths have been quick to call out the similarity to a particularly epic fast food order in 2004s Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Early on in San Andreas, CJ, Sweet, Ryder, and Big Smoke hit up a Cluckin Bell, one of GTAs fast food parodies. While everyone else orders one meal, Big Smoke takes the opportunity to get in his days-worth of calories with the following order:

Ill have two number 9s, a number 9 large, a number 6 with extra dip, a number 7, two number 45s, one with cheese, and a large soda.

Cyberpunk 2077 is no stranger to video game references and easter eggs. During the Delamain side quest, a certain homicidal AI sounds an awful lot like another digital lady prone to killing. Naturally, there are several references to The Witcher 3 which, like Cyberpunk, was also developed by CD Projekt Red. There are other San Andreas references in Cyberpunk too, such as another instance of Big Smokes order at a Capitan Caliente restaurant, and a recreation of Grove Street, a key San Andreas location, in the Santo Domingo district of Night City.

The same phone in Phantom Liberty can also be used to dial up other cute game references, such as The Witcher 3s theme.

Its nice to see subtle nods and references to gamings recent past. I just wish they didnt make me so damn hungry.

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Don't Miss This GTA Reference In Cyberpunk 2077 - Kotaku

2024 Will Be The Year I Finally Play Cyberpunk 2077 – TheGamer

The history of Cyberpunk 2077 is fraught with disappointment, anger, and backlash. After years of hyping up the games release and overpromising on gameplay mechanics, CD Projekt Red launched an infamously broken version of the game in 2020 which led to Sony delisting the game from the PlayStation store until it was fixed. Since then, the studio has been fighting an uphill battle to mend its reputation, fix the game, and get it closer to what it was always meant to be.

This has given us one of the great video game redemption stories of the decade, though many are still disappointed that the end product wasnt the same game that they were promised from the start. The Phantom Liberty expansion has been generally praised by critics and fans both, but not as much as the Cyberpunk 2.0 update. The free update reworked the skill and perk systems, added vehicle on vehicle combat, updated police AI, and more.

Now, with patch 2.1, CD Projekt Red is finally putting Cyberpunk 2077 aside. This patch will be the games last major update, adding a usable metro system to Night City, allowing radio use when on foot, and adding new vehicles, among other changes and additions. The studio will now be focusing on the next game in The Witcher series, which has likely been somewhat neglected due to the studios campaign to redeem Cyberpunk 2077.

I had no desire to play Cyberpunk 2077 until update 2.0. When it first came out, I was freshly out of university, severely underpaid at a lifestyle writing internship, and had already heard all the discourse on how broken it was and how it wasnt all it had been hyped up to be. Already short on funds and even shorter on time, I decided Id skip it until a better time came. When I had more money to spend, and when I wasnt exhausted from being overworked, Id buy it and play it, I decided. Years went by, but I just never got around to it. It still wasnt that good, there were other, better games to spend my money and time on, and besides, they were still making changes.

Finally, Cyberpunk 2077 is as complete as it will ever get, and by all accounts, its a good game even if its not perfect. Plenty of people I know have finished it, plus the expansion, and enjoyed the experience. I get paid a living wage, and part of the reason I get paid that wage is that I know things about video games, so I can justify the time I spend on the game as me doing industry research.

Mercifully, the release calendar for next year is bare. Once I finish Yakuza 6 in preparation for Like A Dragon: Infinite Wealth and play that to completion, I have absolutely nothing else going on. Im not incredibly keen on any of the games coming out in the first quarter of 2024, which means I have plenty of free time to catch up on all the games Ive been dying to play but never got around to. That means I can finish all the Like A Dragon games, play tons of indies, and yes, finally play Cyberpunk 2077.

The fact that Im excited to play a game from 2020 that was panned across the board at launch is an achievement in itself on CD Projekt Reds part. I love an underdog, and I love a redemption arc Cyberpunk 2077 has gone from an industry meme to a respectable game that, at the very least, takes a decent swing at giving fans the game it was always envisioned to be. My hopes arent sky high, but Im looking forward to seeing just what it is that everybody learned to love about it. And, of course, Im looking forward to seeing Keanu Reeves.

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2024 Will Be The Year I Finally Play Cyberpunk 2077 - TheGamer

Wait, was Cyberpunk 2077 just quietly in early access for three years? – PC Gamer

"A delayed game is eventually good," Nintendo legend Shigeru Miaymoto is falsely claimed to have said, "a bad game is bad forever." What about a game that I really liked but had some serious issues on launch, so nobody else liked it, but it gradually improved over the course of three years and now everybody kinda digs it?

I'm talking, of course, about Cyberpunk 2077. With its significant transformation since an initial launch in 2020, Cyberpunk feels like it was in early access that whole time, even though it never laid claim to the new-school release model.

But could it have benefitted from being deliberately presented as such, with an accompanying shift in development priorities and milestones? I aim to argue with myself until we don't have a clear answer either way.

The thing that made me write this is how much my carrying a torch for Cyberpunk during its long post-launch wilderness era felt like the dance I do with every early access game I've ever been into: play the hell out of it at launch, then constantly ask "is it time to jump back in yet?" every time it gets a new update.

Like with most early access games I follow, the answer with Cyberpunk was "no" right up until it got its transformative 2.0 update, here the equivalent of an early access game's full release.

Similar to games that release in EA, Cyberpunk got revenue flowing for CD Projekt while the Red team continued to work on the game. It's unclear from the outside how resources were distributed and when development on The Witcher 4 began in earnest, but it's clear that CDPR has devoted significant resources and manpower to Cyberpunk over the past three years.

The major differences, to my eye, are that CD Projekt invited a now-legendary reputational black eye with Cyberpunk 2077's poor state at launch, with the upside that it benefitted from the hype of a full release at that time, recouping the cost of development almost immediately. While CD Projekt's reputation has largely been restored, there still remains this question mark hanging over what it does next, as PCG senior editor Robin Valentine elaborated in a recent feature.

I'd like to caveat any speculation by saying I doubt a formal early access launch was ever in the cards for Cyberpunk 2077: it was too expensive, in development for too long, with too much riding on it for CD Projekt to have taken that strategy three years agonot to mention the difficulties of doing so with a multiplatform release. But I wonder if the company might be more open to the idea now, given how things played out.

The elephant in the room is Baldur's Gate 3, which was released in early access the same year Cyberpunk 2077 had its initial launch. While there are plenty of differences between the two (and vastly different external pressures on each developer), I think it's an instructive comparisoncould CD Projekt have found similar success with Larian's model?

I find myself thinking of how much Cyberpunk's first act, which only lets you explore a single district of Night City while the rest are closed off, could have been modified into an early access sandbox akin to Baldur's Gate 3's opening wilderness area. Huge gameplay changes and plot twistsincluding Keanu Reeves' performance as Johnny Silverhandcould have made for hype-building enticements to the final game.

Night City being a single, contiguous map complicates matters compared to Baldur's Gate 3's discrete areas and acts, but I still think it could have worked. I can imagine the invisible wall-defying mavericks releasing YouTube videos of their out-of-bounds explorations in like, 2021 or so, but with only an unpopulated city waiting to greet them I think it would have just served as an excitement-building exercise for the full game.

It feels like everything is getting released into early access now.

I also wonder how the more bounded, scaled-down goal could have alleviated the intense pressure CD Projekt Red faced in the final run to Cyberpunk 2077's initial launch. I don't think early access launches are a panacea in the face of crunch or anything, but a Cyberpunk build of this nature strikes me as a less daunting prospect for the team to have gotten out the door in December of 2020 or even one of Cyberpunk's earlier missed targets for a release date.

Moving forward, I wonder if this is a cost/benefit analysis CD Projekt will be making with The Witcher 4 and its myriad other projects waiting in the wings. Formal early access presents its own challenges, and it isn't the only way to release a game in an acceptable state, but the developer can't afford another situation like the initial launch of Cyberpunk 2077.

One other consideration, though, is that it feels like everything is getting released into early access now, no matter what it's labeled as. Even Baldur's Gate 3, which was in a perfectly acceptable state at its full launch in August compared to some of 2023's PC port disasters, has seen additions and changes above and beyond the usual bug fixes and tweaks in the months since its release. It's gotten multiple overhauls to its ending, hundreds of lines of new dialogue, and a harder-than-hard permadeath difficulty, all likely building towards a "Definitive Edition" in the style of Larian's Original Sin games.

Hell, maybe life's just early access, man: this existence a mere illusory "early access" to the cosmic full launch we can only know once we leave this mortal coil behind for a fifth-dimensional perspective.

Sorry, I got lost there for a second. Anyway, I'd still bet that The Witcher 4 won't get a Baldur's Gate 3-style early access release despite all that, but it certainly doesn't seem like the crazy idea it would have been before this year.

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Wait, was Cyberpunk 2077 just quietly in early access for three years? - PC Gamer

Cyberpunk 2077 Sequel May Give Greater Meaning to Players’ Life Path – FandomWire

The latest update 2.0 and the DLC, Phantom Liberty, have breathed new life into Cyberpunk 2077 this year. The revival of the game that was hated after release due to the several glitches and bugs, has been one of the most successful stories in the gaming industry over the past three years. So much so, that gamers are already looking forward to the second title.

Until more details emerge about a follow-up from the developers, fans have been busy coming up with a wishlist for elements to be included in the Cyberpunk franchise. One of the oft-repeated enhancements fans have mentioned is an improved life path for characters.

Theres not much known about a Cyberpunk follow-up apart from a codename, Orion. With the last big update already out for the first title, the developers are said to be working towards a new Witcher title, which is not to say that a sequel isnt in the conceptual stage.

The titles Narrative Director, Philipp Weber, recently appeared in the Answered Podcast along with Lead Quest Designer, Baej Augustynek, to speak about quests in a game in general. Cyberpunk 2077 gives gamers a choice of three life paths to choose from right at the beginning, before players finalize their character.

Players can choose from a nomads path, a street kids path, or a corporate path. Whichever path the gamer chooses eventually merges into one storyline as the game progresses. Weber mentioned that he would make the life path a bit less mudded than how it was in the game.

The games Lead Quest Designer, Baej Augustynek, also chimed in with his thoughts about the life paths, which he mentioned as being a life that players leave as V. Augustynek added that the paths never really mattered in the game once the actual story kick-starts. At the moment, the path is designed in a way that it ends as early as in the prologue of the game. This is an aspect of the title that Augustynek mentioned requires more work for it to matter more in the game.

Fans on a Reddit discussion shared their views about improving upon that by having a lengthier intro that can let players get a deeper look into each of the life paths. Others called for the life paths to be more impactful and have better consequences in the end. Some even wanted the life paths to be scrapped completely.

Each of the three life paths could be improved with longer intros, as has been mentioned by fans on a variety of social media platforms. Many are saying the Street Kid Path should have brought Jackie and V together and set up connections. The corporate path with more involvement with Jenkins and more corporate espionage missions with V. This path could have also had an extended run where players made contacts early on to help out in later missions.

Nomad with a longer story about reasons behind leaving the Bakkers and making contacts within Aldecaldos. Missing out on what could have brought an interesting spin in the main campaign depending on the life path choices, was highly disappointing to fans. Choices made along the way had a high impact on consequences in previous Witcher games from CDPR. A similar approach here would have made things a lot more interesting.

There might be other elements as well that could drastically change in the sequel with the game switching to a third-person view either permanently or adding that as an option. Bringing in a morality system in the follow-up title could also make it more unique.

As seen in Red Dead Redemptions 2 where characters behave differently around NPCs for not killing everything that moves or if players choose to be an outlaw and gun down everyone and be hated and feared by the NPCs. This could bring in a more immersive experience for players as they stay wary of their approach.

It is still easily a few years away before the gaming community can expect anything related to the sequel to be officially announced by CDPR. Until then, Cyberpunk is sure to keep the fans engaged with its new update and DLC.

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The best Cyberpunk 2077 builds and character classes – Gamesradar

The best Cyberpunk 2077 builds are ways of mixing certain attributes, perks and skills to deadly effect, merging various qualities to create "classes". Sure, classes don't exist in Cyberpunk 2077 per se, but it's a helpful framework for what you're attempted to create and helps keep you focused. If there's a specific Cyberpunk 2077 build you'd like to make, then here are some things to try out.

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This Cyberpunk 2077 assault build is essentially an all guns blazing, soldier class that can be used for pretty much every encounter as long as it's loud. For this, you'll want to level up strength-related attributes and get perks that assist combat.

Best attributes:

Best perks:

Best weapons:

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A Cyberpunk 2077 hacker build is essential when hacking is such a crucial element of the game. While it lends itself to stealth, you can still win full on fights and kill plenty of enemies while hardly touching a weapon. (Although a good weapon is always handy if anyone gets too close.)

Best attributes:

Best perks:

Best weapons:

A Cyberpunk 2077 stealth build is a good choice thanks to all the different ways you can complete missions. For this, you'll want decent hacking ability because distracting enemies will be key, along with strong silenced weapons for taking out targets.

Best attributes:

Best perks:

Best weapons:

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The best Cyberpunk 2077 builds and character classes - Gamesradar

Everything new in the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update – Gamesradar

The Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update has been a huge revamp for the whole game, adding in loads of new features and updating many core systems to make them easier to use and more effective. Since this 2.0 update is a patch for the base Cyberpunk 2077 game, everyone who owns the game gets it for free, you just need to make sure you have the patch downloaded - importantly, it is separate from the Phantom Liberty expansion! Overall, this patch has fixed many aspects of the ambitious RPG, making it a much smoother experience and far closer to CD Projekt Red's original vision. Here's a quick look at the new and improved features in the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update.

Even more new features have been added to the game thanks to the smaller Cyberpunk 2077 2.1 update, which focuses more on smaller additions to liven up Night City that didn't quite make the cut for the 2.0 patch release.

Most of the time, we'd be vehemently against giving the police more powers and making them stronger, but it's a much needed revamp in Cyberpunk 2077. In the initial version of the game, the police were essentially useless - police changes weren't really a thing, and they would often teleport around the place.

In 2.0, they're both smarter and stronger. You'll find officers patrolling the streets, they'll chase you down in their vehicles, and even set up roadblocks to cut you off. The heat system, which goes up to five stars, will be familiar to many of you, and if you do reach that level, MaxTac will be after you. Which is essentially all the firepower you can imagine - good luck shaking them off your tail. From our time playing 2.0, it can still be a little easy to lose them, but it's infinitely better than it was previously.

The vehicular combat improvements come as a trio, starting with firing your weapons from behind the wheel. Whether you're using the cockpit camera or you're behind the car, you can wield your gun and lock onto enemies looking to ram you off the road. If you're in a car, this means shooting through the windshield or the side window - although some of the fastest Cyberpunk 2077 cars can open sliding doors to shoot though - whereas if you're on a bike, you can also use melee weapons if you're close enough. For vehicles with mounted weapons, you have the option of powerful weaponry like gatling guns too.

One of the most-needed features when it comes to vehicular combat comes in the form of quickhacks though. You can now target other cars while driving and cause all sorts of chaos such as slamming their brakes or accelerating them straight into a wall, tampering with their steering, or exploding them entirely.

Long gone is the perk system of old. V now has five attributes, each with their own winding skill trees, and a whole myriad of perk points to dish out. You can't unlock all the perks so there's no point in trying, but what this does allow for is specialised Cyberpunk 2077 builds. Fancy going all-in as a stealth ninja, utilising Cyberpunk 2077 quickhacks and sticking to the shadows? Focus on the intelligence, cool, and technical ability attributes, then invest in perks such as Ninjutsu, Killer Instinct, and All Things Cyber.

Alternatively, there are loads of melee weapons to be found in Night City, and you can spec into them as a brawler with the Body and Reflexes attribute. Wrecking Ball allows you to charge into enemies on foot, followed by Quake which is a huge ground pound. I played through Phantom Liberty a third way though, which was as a ranged firearms expert. Reflexes and Cool helped for this, alongside Intelligence and Technical Ability, as it was more jack-of-all-trades when it came to utilising cyberware. What's even better is that you can plan out your Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 build using their online build planner.

Additionally, while it's not directly related to perks, there are also skills you can upgrade. These are done entirely passively and reward you with some small buffs every five levels, such as +1 perk point, an increase to movement speed or carrying capacity, or something more specific like reducing the RAM cost for quickhacks used on vehicles and devices. Here is the full list of skills:

The perk system isn't the only core mechanic that has undergone some significant changes - so has cyberware. Cyberware pertains to all of the cybernetic implants and augments you can install on V, which range from replacing their arms with powerful melee weapons to armor and healing buffs to quickhack and RAM recovery upgrades.

As V levels up, your cyberware capacity increases, allowing you to equip more powerful enhancements. You can also invest in the Edgerunner and Renaissance Punk perks to increase this further, which is crucial if you want to make the best build because some of the high-end cyberware takes up a lot of capacity.

While we've covered the main features coming to Cyberpunk 2077 2.0, that's not everything. Crafting blueprints are long gone, being replaced by tiered item components, so it's simpler to craft items from scratch and upgrade your existing arsenal. Clothes are now cosmetic only - your armor is dictated by cyberware, so you can wear whatever outfit you like without missing out on any stat buffs. Not to mention there are also new radio stations, general improvements to combat AI, UI/UX tweaks, and more.

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Everything new in the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update - Gamesradar

Where to find Skippy the smart pistol in Cyberpunk 2077 – Gamesradar

The Cyberpunk 2077 Skippy smart pistol is a special weapon that talks - it really is a very smart pistol, and which has two modes: Stone Cold Killer or Puppy Loving Pacifist. It'll also unlock a new mission in Cyberpunk 2077 called Machine Gun, but for all of these to occur, first you need to find Skippy itself, which has simply been dropped in a nondescript alleyway somewhere. I'll explain where to find the weapon Skippy in Cyberpunk 2077 below, as well as the two different modes, and what you need to do for the Machine Gun mission.

You can find Skippy in Cyberpunk 2077 on a random corpse in an alleyway, in the Vista Del Rey suburb of Night City. Just head to the east side of Heywood to zero in on that location. It's marked on the map as an undiscovered location, south of the College St fast travel point.

From the fast travel point, turn south down the street and cross the road. Right before Saeko's the big bluey-green building with enormous metal pillars at the front there'll be some graffiti on a red wall by an alleyway. Jump over the gate and you'll find Skippy on the ground by a corpse.

When you first pick up Cyberpunk 2077 Skippy, it will introduce itself to you and you'll have a few dialogue options to chose though. Once you've exhausted all the taking and eventually you'll need to choose between Stone Cold Killer or Puppy-Loving Pacifist mode.

This basically set the gun to lethal or non-lethal: Stone Cold Killer means Skippy will exclusively target headshots, while Puppy-Loving Pacifist will only aim for the legs. However, there's a catch here to whatever you pick: after 50 kills and a few days if you picked Stone Cold Killer Skipp will switch to Puppy mode. If you've already picked that he'll stay there, or switch to lethal mode if you chose the dialogue options "I don't know" or "I'm not having a conversation with my gun".

Basically, whatever you pick first there's a high chance Skippy will flip to the other option after a few days.

When you've had Skippy for a few days in Cyberpunk 2077, he'll reveal who his original owner is and begin the Machine Gun quest. That will task you with returning Skippy back to Regina the NCPD fixer in Night City, who you'll have spoken to plenty of times before, and original owner.

Regina will be in a building adjacent to Lizzie's Club. When you go inside and show her Skippy you can him over or walk away. Giving Skippy to Regina will complete the quest and reward you with 7K in cash. However, you might want to check what mode it's stuck in before you give it up because Skippy is seriously powerful in Stone Cold Killer mode. So if that's what it's settled in I'd recommend hanging onto it.

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Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 veterans working on new Unreal Engine 5 open-world RPG – GAMINGbible

Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3 are now in the not-too-distant past, but there is reason to be excited as some CD Projekt Red veterans are working on a brand-new open-world RPG made in Unreal Engine 5.

Despite Cyberpunk 2077 having one of the biggest redemption arcs in gaming history, CD Projekt Red recently announced that it was done updating the game in favour of working on its inevitable sequel. The same can be said for The Witcher 3 which has received no major updates since July of this year.

While CDPR now shift their efforts onto the next entries in both of the above franchises, some devs have departed the studio to work on something altogether new.

Check out the Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty trailer below!

Posted to r/GamingLeaksandRumours, one user has revealed CD Projekt Red veterans have formed a brand-new studio called Rebel Wolves and it is currently working on its first game potentially titled DAWNWALKER: ORIGINS.

The news originally comes from Kurakasis on Twitter, an account dedicated to video games research who shared the information about the upcoming IP.

Rebel Wolves, a studio formed by CD Projekt RED veterans, is working on a game potentially titled DAWNWALKER: ORIGINS. The first title in the DAWNWALKER Saga, they wrote. This is based on the company's trademarks, recently registered domains and various statements on their website and LinkedIn.

The user claims that two website domains have recently been registered and the IP is expected to be a story-driven RPG set in a brand-new dark fantasy universe built on Unreal Engine 5.

Additionally, DAWNWALKER: ORIGINS is expected to be released on PC and next-gen consoles, is an offline single-player title and will revolutionise the RPG genre. An unearthed job listing also hints at it being open-world but is not expected to be on the scale of The Witcher 3.

Finally, the source claims development is currently in the Alpha stage and as of three months ago, over 100 employees were working on it.

With no official announcement, it is worth taking this news with a pinch of salt. However, a brand-new IP from CD Projekt Red veterans is an exciting rumour nonetheless.

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Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 veterans working on new Unreal Engine 5 open-world RPG - GAMINGbible