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

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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

CD Projekt Reveals How It Made Cyberpunk 2077’s Male and Female Protagonists in Equal Measure – IGN

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Cyberpunk 2077 lets players choose either a male or female version of protagonist V to play as, but developer CD Projekt Red made them both equally valid from the very beginning of development.

Speaking on the Answered Podcast, CD Projekt Red lead quest designer Baej Augustynek revealed an interesting tactic the developer used to ensure the character didn't have one particular world view.

"Funny story, when we were working on Cyberpunk we made the conscious decision that the quest designers were going to think of V as a female character, while the writers think of V as a male character," Augustynek said. "So we didn't want to have any kind of gaze, be it a female gaze or male gaze, and approach to the world."

Augustynek said that, for him, V will always be a woman, and he doesn't think of the man version as the real one. But other staff within CD Projekt Red will likely believe the opposite. The topic has been hotly debated since Cyberpunk 2077 was released, with players questioning which one is the canon character or who feels more authentic in the world. But it turns out, it's both.

CD Projekt Red narrative director Philipp Weber said it was a stark difference from working on The Witcher games too, as most of the studio, if not all, was very familiar with longtime protagonist Geralt of Rivia.

"It was a real conscious voice because we were used to Geralt," he said. "We were always used to writing for Geralt, making quests for Geralt, so when we knew, 'Okay, we're making a new character, and that character can also be a woman,' we just made it a rule when we wrote our quest design documents to always write 'she'. So we remind ourselves in our brain that this is a different kind of character, where now we actually have to consider more than maybe with Geralt."

Cyberpunk 2077's development is now all but complete, with CD Projekt Red releasing the final major update for it, Update 2.1, earlier in December 2023. Fans expected the game changing Update 2.0, which arrived alongside the Phantom Liberty expansion in September, to be the final big patch for Cyberpunk 2077 until CD Projekt Red announced a final one would arrive alongside the new Ultimate Edition.

Update 2.0 laid the foundation for the new Cyberpunk 2077 experience, completely revamping the game with features such as a new perk system and improved AI. It also brought closure to an Elon Musk fan theory, a reference to the late racing legend Ken Block, and bizarre additions to the game's biggest mystery.

In our 9/10 review of the expansion, IGN said: "Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty completes an immense turnaround for CD Projekt Red's future RPG kickstarted with the anime spin-off, Cyberpunk: Edgerunners and its latest 2.0 Update."

Ryan Dinsdale is an IGN freelance reporter. He'll talk about The Witcher all day.

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CD Projekt Reveals How It Made Cyberpunk 2077's Male and Female Protagonists in Equal Measure - IGN

Everything new in the Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 update – Gamesradar

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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

Owlcat devs rank top games they played in 2023, from BG3 and Cyberpunk 2077 to Disco Elysium and Dishonored – Game World Observer

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It is always interesting to see what games developers enjoy themselves. Owlcat, which just successfully launched its new RPG Warhammer 40k: Rogue Trader, shared the top titles that their staff played in 2023.

Owlcat Games posted the top games that our dear owlcats played this year on X (formerly Twitter), adding that while were in love with our games, however, to make it fair, we decided not to add them. It is also worth noting that some titles on the list were released before 2023.

Baldurs Gate 3, one of this years biggest hits from fellow RPG creators at Larian Studios, ranked 1st. Not only did it smash the charts on Steam and receive recognition from millions of players around the world, but it also won Game of the Year awards at the Golden Joystick Awards and The Game Awards.

The second-favorite game that Owlcat developers played this year was Cyberpunk 2077. In 2023, CD Projekt finally managed to win back players trust by releasing a massive update for the base game and successfully launching the Phantom Liberty expansion. The latter has already sold over 4.3 million copies,

Other 2023 releases on Owlcats list include Remedys award-winning survival horror title Alan Wake 2 (#4), Avalanche Softwares global bestseller Hogwarts Legacy (#6), and Mundfishs shooter Atomic Heart (#10).

The full top 10 can be seen below:

2023 was also a successful year for Owlcat Games. On December 7, the studio released Rogue Trader, a complex RPG set in the Warhammer 40,000 universe. Despite many bugs and other technical issues, the game peaked at over 46.7k concurrent players on Steam and became one of the top-grossing titles on the platform upon its launch.

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Owlcat devs rank top games they played in 2023, from BG3 and Cyberpunk 2077 to Disco Elysium and Dishonored - Game World Observer

Should you call Reed and agree to the deal or kill Reed in Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty? – Gamesradar

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With the Phantom Liberty agree to Reeds deal or kill Reed choice, you need to decide if you'll try and make amends with Reed and the NUSA, or see Songbird's journey through to the end. It's a complicated choice that presents itself at the end of one of the expansions story paths, especially due to Reed's dedication to his mission and what Songbird reveals just before, changing the whole context of V's journey through Phantom Liberty. Whichever option you decide on will determine the ending you get for the expansion too, and might even let you reach the new ending for the main Cyberpunk 2077 story. Here are the consequences of choosing to either call Reed and accept his deal or kill Reed and save Songbird in Phantom Liberty.

Obviously, big spoilers below as this is the final choice in the Help Songbird path of Phantom Liberty!

If you choose to help Songbird in the Firestarter mission, you will help her get through the spaceport terminal to reach the train that leads to the Moon rocket. During the train journey, So Mi will reveal that shes been lying to you the whole time and that the Neural Matrix can be used only once. This leads into the first choice of this Phantom Liberty ending deciding whether to call Reed. After that, youll be confronted by Reed while carrying Songbird and will need to decide how youll deal with them both, ending Phantom Libertys story.

When the train pulls into the rocket launch area, youll have to choose whether youll simply pick up Songbird and carry her to the rocket or call Reed to strike a deal to get the Neural Matrix cure. Choosing to pick up Songbird just means you can walk straight to the rocket pod and face Reed you are not locked out of any of the endings by not calling him.

If you do call Reed, hell ask that you give up Songbird and in return, youll get the cure you were promised. Youre then faced with these responses to Reed:

So, however you get through this choice, youll always carry Songbird over to the rocket pod where Reed will emerge and face you on the walkway. You must put Songbird down, otherwise Reed will eventually just shoot you and youll have to reload your checkpoint.

The option to kill Reed, or draw weapon, isnt available to you straight away, so you need to talk to Reed a bit first. If you did not call Reed or rejected his deal when calling him, V will draw a revolver after putting Songbird down and youll be presented with some dialogue options. Choose either Songs dyin or cant let you take her, and youll then get more dialogue options after some chatter, with one of them being draw weapon. You can keep talking with Reed and this option will keep coming up, but eventually youll get to a point where you can only holster or draw your weapon.

Choosing to draw your weapon causes the game to slow down and you need to shoot Reed in the head before he does the same to you. With Reed dead, you can pick up Songbird and place her in the rocket, then watch it blast off while you chat with Johnny Silverhand. After this, the credits roll and then youll be looking at the spaceport the next morning while talking to Johnny. There are no missions after this, and Phantom Libertys story is over if you get this ending.

There are a few ways you can reach this ending in Phantom Liberty. The easiest method is to call Reed on the train and agree to the deal as mentioned, you are locked into this ending once you do this. Alternatively, if you did not call Reed, or rejected his deal, make sure you choose the holster weapon when available to deescalate and strike a deal with Reed.

Once you agree to the deal, Reed takes So Mi, then the credits roll. Afterwards, youll speak to Johnny and then youll get a call from Reed. This eventually leads into a mission called Through Pain To Heaven, where youll have one final talk with Reed at a gas station, then hell give you details on the new Cyberpunk 2077 ending for the main story.

If you decided to agree to Reeds deal but refuse anything in return (this can be done when calling Reed or after holstering your weapon), you wont be permanently locked out of the new story ending either. After the credits, Reed will message you and youll get one last chance to either accept or reject the promised surgery. Based on my testing, rejecting the cure here seems to permanently lock you out of this ending while accepting leads you into the Through Pain To Heaven mission like normal.

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Should you call Reed and agree to the deal or kill Reed in Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty? - Gamesradar