‘Death Stranding 2: On the Beach’ looks even more baffling than the original game – Engadget

As expected, the PlayStation State of Play today featured an in-depth look at the latest from famed developer Hideo Kojima, in the form of an exceedingly creepy and cinematic preview of Death Stranding 2: On the Beach. Sam, played by Norman Reedus, is back in a trailer that makes very little sense if you haven't played the first game and even if you did, the contents of this preview might not make a ton of sense. Rest assured, you'll still be running around wildly impressive landscapes with your giant yellow backpack.

But it sounds like you won't actually have to run around delivering things, because bots are able to do that in this world. The real surprise is when Sam gets captured and runs across his brother, played by the ubiquitous Troy Baker... who pulls out a guitar/gun and starts shredding to take on some enemies? Sure. It'll still be a bit before we see what this all amounts to, as it doesn't arrive until sometime in 2025.

At the end of the stream, though, Kojima teased an all-new project in the works, though it won't be entering full production until after Death Stranding 2 is complete.

Correction, 1/31/24, 6PM ET: This post originally stated this was our first look at Death Stranding 2.We've updated it to say this is our first in-depth look, as the game was first announced in December of 2022.

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'Death Stranding 2: On the Beach' looks even more baffling than the original game - Engadget

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

When you think about it, Cyberpunk 2077 was the 2020 game of the year after all – VG247

For better or worse, in the year of our lord two-thousand and twenty-three, video games are now seldom complete products. They grow, evolve, and change over time - and in many ways, challenge the traditional wisdom of giving out end-of-year awards. Is there a better example of this than Cyberpunk 2077?

Even Baldurs Gate 3, as mind-bogglingly good as it was from the moment of release, has changed tremendously over the last couple of months - tweaking, changing, adding. It had several years of early access, too. My personal game of the year for 2023, Street Fighter 6, is released with the explicit understanding that it will grow in size - probably as much as double - over the course of its lifetime.

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Cyberpunk 2077 originally released in 2020, and, well you all know how that went. I was one of the people who was hoodwinked, to put it mildly, by CD Projekts approach to the review process. I played it on my high-spec PC and thought it was pretty great, with classic open world launch bugs that I figured would be ironed out over time. I ended up giving it a positive review on my other website.

On VG247, James was even more glowing, and gave it a 5-star rating that instantly attracted a wave of abuse once it became clear how broken it was on the console versions CD Projekt never let us see. I even ended up writing a review addendum warning people not to conflate a positive PC score with the PlayStation and Xbox versions; something Ive never done before.

But three years later, its fair to say that its a very different game. And, heres the thesis of this article: I think if you look at all the games released in 2020 now, and think about which I recommend somebody play above all others Cyberpunk 2077 is, indeed, 2020s game of the year.

Nobody wouldve argued it back then, obviously. The bugs and problems were too apparent, even if one could see the great game behind them, keen to burst forth. But even if we put 2023s new addition, expansion Phantom Liberty, to one side I think this is the best game that was released in 2020. With Cyberpunks version 2.0, the game is finally fulfilling its full potential. That realization allows it to outstrip my 2020 game of the year Final Fantasy 7 Remake and other contenders like Streets of Rage 4, Microsoft Flight Simulator, The Last of Us Part 2, and Animal Crossing New Horizons.

None of this entirely absolves CD Projekt RED of the sins of 2020, obviously. The truth is, this game shouldnt have been released at all on the last-generation consoles - and the company has to live in the knowledge that, had it owned that, it may have released to be one of the most beloved games around, much as The Witcher 3 did. Thats likely a bitter pill to swallow, especially when combined with the ritual humiliation that followed the games release. We should forgive, but not forget. Its an important lesson for developers, publishers, and even media everywhere. Its a cautionary tale for some fans on the dangers of hype, also.

But it is to CDPRs credit that it didnt just ride off into the sunset with its tail between its legs and return straight to The Witcher for a quick shot of goodwill. The company wanted to rescue its reputation, and the Cyberpunk IP - and so they put the hours in. The end result is undeniable.

In the pantheon of video game turn-arounds, this stands tall. Its up there with Final Fantasy 14, except I dont really think that counts, because the release of FF14: A Realm Reborn was not fixing an old game, but instead building an all-new game in record time and simply replacing the old with the new for free. The only remotely similar case of a launched game benign repaired in real time around a player base I can even think of is that of No Mans Sky - a similarly towering achievement.

Add on the fact that expansion Phantom Liberty is legitimately one of 2023s best video games all on its own, and the strength of Cyberpunk can no longer be denied, I think. When I look back on 2020 in the years to come, this will be its most stand-out game - but only with an understanding of what came after.

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When you think about it, Cyberpunk 2077 was the 2020 game of the year after all - VG247