Located in 2091 in the Rengkok cyber-metropolis, Ruin puts the player in the shoes of a masked sociopath guided in his thirst for revenge by the voice of a hacker supposed to help him free his brother captured by the megacorporation Heaven. Between two levels (pretty but also very similar to each other) the player can be lulled by the atmosphere of the city and walk around to chat with some NPCs, Reikon Games having had the idea of using one songs from the divine Susumu Hirasawa to accompany these only non-violent moments.

Otherwise, the player has the necessary arsenal to do some pretty carnage and the progression is marked by a generous tree of skills including hyper-acceleration, an energy shield, a kinetic barrier, a reflex amplifier or even the possibility of hacking an enemy. note that Ruin is still available in the Xbox Game Pass catalog.

Also according to the game's Twitter account, the studio Reikon Games has confirmed that the announcement of its next title will take place this year and that it should not deviate too much from the style of Ruin since it will register in a register dark future tinged with cyberpunk.

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Ruin: the cyberpunk twin-stick shooter is on Switch - The Miracle Tech

After news of the Cyberpunk 2077 release date delay sunk in, the rumors started flying. While developer CD Projekt Red said the delay was necessary to allow for "more time to finish playtesting, finishing and polishing" and give it "the precious months we need to make the game perfect", fans started speculating that there were more specific - and dire - reasons for the delay.

The rumors postulated that Cyberpunk 2077 didn't run brilliantly on PS4 and Xbox One. CD Projekt Red just wasn't willing to release it in its current condition, hoping that a few more months of work could shore it up. While CD Projekt Red itself didn't directly respond to the rumors at first, God of War creative director Cory Barlog sparked off a brief Twitter thread to debunk them from his own perspective as a game developer.

The whole thing is worth reading, but the gist of it is that Barlog says no game looks good or runs well until the developers set aside their normal work to just optimize the hell out of the thing in the months or weeks leading up to launch. There's nothing unusual or deceptive about a game looking bad and running poorly before then, even relatively close to its planned release date - it's just how modern games are made.

"Cory Barlog hit the nail on the head," CD Projekt Red senior quest designer Philipp Weber said on the studio's official forums. "Of course we're optimizing for the Xbox One, and for the PlayStation, and for the PC, because that's what you do in the last stretches of game development. While the game is made, lots of things are unoptimized, because they're all in flux, changing, and still not finished.

"So simple answers like 'They delayed the game because of X' might make for a good rumor, but don't hold a lot of truth. There's always many reasons. Among them, and I can speak for myself, simply fixing bugs, so the game is as polished as possible. No hidden agendas, just working on making the game better."

Maybe it doesn't make the extended wait for Cyberpunk 2077 any easier, but hopefully most fans can go back to the "arghh I can't wait" kind instead of the "oh no what if it sucks" kind.

At least there's plenty to play before September rolls around - check out our guide to the most promising upcoming games.

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Cyberpunk 2077 dev says Cory Barlog's frank delay explanation "hit the nail on the head" - GamesRadar

Update: It looks like we may already have a teaser of what Cyberpunk 2077 is going to show off next week at the Taipei Game Show. CD Projekt Red put out a video for the Chinese-language audience that shows a few brief snippets of gameplay along with a behind-the-scenes look at the game's localization process. The video hasn't been officially shared on Cyberpunk 2077's Western platforms, but you can check it out via this unofficial YouTube upload. I'd say about half of the video is in Chinese while the other half is in English, but you can enjoy the peeks at gameplay regardless of what languages you speak.

Original story: After finding out in recent weeks that Cyberpunk 2077 was going to be delayed and that its multiplayer component wouldn't arrive until 2022 at the earliest, we're due for some more uplifting news about where the game is right now. Thankfully, it sounds like developer CD Projekt Red is ready to deliver. The company has confirmed that it will be in attendance at the Taipei Game Show starting on February 6, VG247 reports, and that it will premier "previously undisclosed content from Cyberpunk 2077" to a select audience while it's there.

"Previously undisclosed content" could be just about anything - a new trailer, new screenshots, new music, a behind-the scenes look at the modeling of Keanu Reeves' digital ghost chest hair. In the past, CD Projekt Red has used behind-closed-doors presentations like the one it's teasing for the Taipei Game Show to debut extensive new snippets of gameplay. There's a good chance that will be the case again, and if it is, folks who don't attend the show will probably have to wait a while longer to see it for themselves.

That said, even if CD Projekt Red holds back the juiciest "undisclosed content" for attendees, it typically has at least a little bit of new hotness to share with the general public around the same time. It would be nice to throw the rest of the world a bone while we're still moping around after that delay news, right? The studio has already confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077 won't be on next-gen consoles when they launch but some other tidbits would be welcome.

We'll keep our eyes peeled for any announcements to come from the showfloor. Keep your holo-vids jacked into our feed and various other pieces of cyberpunk terminology until then.

See what else is on the way next with our guide to video game release dates.

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Cyberpunk 2077 will show "previously undisclosed content" next week and this could be a teaser for it - GamesRadar

January 30, 2020 3:27 PM EST

Cyberpunk 2077 has been in the hotseat recently, first with announcement that the titles release has been pushed back to September and then the reveal that the developers will continue to experience studio crunch to ensure the games release. So the news that QLOCwill be working with CD Projekt Red on Cyberpunk 2077s development and testing is a positive sign to say the least:

QLOC is a team that focuses on co-dev, porting, remastering, quality assurance, and localization. Last year alone they worked on Tales of Vesperia: Definitive Edition for PC, PS4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch, did QA testing for Metro Exodus, worked on Nintendo Switch ports of Hellblade: Senuas Sacrifice followed by Dragons Dogma: Dark Arisen and the PC port of Mortal Kombat 11. They also finished the PC port of Yakuza Kiwami 2 earlier in 2019. Needless to say QLOC is a very experienced company with a lot of talent, so their contribution to Cyberpunk 2077 is sure to be a fantastic one.

Concerning the delay of the game itself, once the rumors started circulating about the causes Cory Barlog, Creative Director at SIE Santa Monica Studio and known for his work on the God of War series, spoke up in a multi-tweet thread about delays caused by optimization. EVERY game runs badly until you optimize for the hardware in the final push before gold. GAMES ARE VERY UGLY, FOR A LONG TIME, UNTIL THEY ARE NOT. Traditionally, that is right near the end. This is due to the absolutely fucking bananas level of complexity and moving pieces required to make any game today. Philipp Weber, a Senior Quest Designer at CD Projekt Red, later confirmed that to be the case.

Some of the other developers had already taken to Twitter to assure fans that the delay would be worth it. Senior level designer Miles Tost said that while fans might be let down by the delay, explained that it will be worth it in the end for sure and thanked fans for their support. Likewise, CD Projekt Red QA lead ukasz Babiel said on behalf of the studio that well deliver, dont worry.

The delay also had consequences on the release of its multiplayer mode: Given the expected release of Cyberpunk 2077 in September, and speaking of a series of events we expect to occur after that date, 2021 appears unlikely as a release date for the Cyberpunk multiplayer, stated Michal Nowakowski, CD Projekt Reds SVP of Business Development and Member of the Board.

Cyberpunk 2077 launches on September 17th, 2020 on PS4, Xbox One, PC, and Google Stadia. The game is available for preorder on Amazon now. Check out our timeline of what we know about the game so far.

This post contains affiliate links where DualShockers gets a small commission on sales. Any and all support helps keep DualShockers as a standalone, independent platform for less-mainstream opinions and news coverage.

January 30, 2020 3:27 PM EST

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Cyberpunk 2077 Adds Developer QLOC to Team, Will Support in Development and QA - DualShockers

Youre going to have to wait a while longer to play Cyberpunk 2077 (Picture: CD Projekt)

Its one of the most anticipated games of 2020 but now it seems well all have to wait a little longer to get our hands on Cyberpunk 2077.

CD Projekts follow-up to The Witcher 3 had been due to hit consoles in the spring but has followed in the footsteps of Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Marvels Avengersin having its release date delayed.

So just what is going on, whys it been put back and when will the game actually be released?

Heres what you need to know

CD Projekt broke the news of the delay last week in a statement on Twitter saying that the release date had been put back to allow them more time to work on the game.

We are currently at a stage where the game is complete and playable, but theres still work to be done, they said.

Night City is massive full of stories, content and places to visit, but due to the sheer scale and complexity of it all, we need more time to finish playtesting, fixing and polishing.

We want Cyberpunk 2077 to be our crowning achievement for this generation and postponing launch will give us the precious months we need to make the game perfect.

Expect more updates on progress as we get closer to the new release date, they added.

Were really looking forward to seeing you in Night City, thank you for your ongoing support!

The game had originally been scheduled to drop on 16 April.

However it wont be released now until 17 September.

While the company has made clear that it needs more time to polish the game prior to release, speculation over the delay has emerged from other sources with one suggesting the makers are having trouble getting the game to run on current gen consoles.

The insider, named Borys Niespielak, claimed on a recent podcast (in Polish) that the Xbox One is proving particularly problematic and current performance is extremely unsatisfactory.

Translations of the podcast on Discord, via altchar.com, suggest that the main storyline of the game was finished three months ago but that the side missions are still being worked on.

MORE: Cyberpunk 2077 on PS5 and Project Scarlett doable but not next year

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Why has Cyberpunk 2077 been delayed and what is the new release date? - Metro.co.uk

New Cyberpunk 2077 details may be revealed later this week, as something new is going to be shown at the Taipei Game Show.

According to VG247, previously undisclosed content from Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be shown during the event. This content is apparently going to be premiered to a select audience, so it definitely sounds like it is going to be some new footage that has not been shown before.

Dragon Ball Z: Kakarot January 31st Update to Further Reduce Load Times and More

Last week, it has been confirmed that QLOC is going to help CD Projekt Red for the development of Cyberpunk 2077. The team worked on some high-profile ports and remasters such as Dark Souls Remastered and Tales of Vesperia Definitive Edition. CDPR also addressed the rumor that Cyberpunk 2077 has been delayed due to bad performance on current-gen base consoles.

Of course we're optimizing for the Xbox One, and for the PlayStation, and for the PC, because that's what you do in the last stretches of game development. While the game is made, lots of things are unoptimized, because they're all in flux, changing, and still not finished.

So simple answers like "They delayed the game because of X" might make for a good rumor, but don't hold a lot of truth. There's always many reasons. Among them, and I can speak for myself, simply fixing bugs, so the game is as polished as possible. No hidden agendas, just working on making the game better.

Cyberpunk 2077 was supposed to be released in April, but it has been delayed earlier this month, as the development team needs more time for polish.

We are currently at a stage where the game is complete and playable, but there's still work to be done. Night City is massive full of stories, content and places to visit, but due to the sheer scale and complexity of it all, we need more time to finish playtesting, fixing and polishing. We want Cyberpunk 2077 to be our crowning achievement for this generation and postponing launch will give us the precious months we need to make the game perfect.

Cyberpunk 2077 releases on PC, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One on September 17th.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Previously Undisclosed Content to be Shown This Week at Taipei Game Show - Wccftech

Observer

Observer is one of those uniquely cyberpunk ideas, letting you play as a detective that can hack into peoples brain implants and see their memories and thoughts.

Its not often that you see cyberpunk games combined with psychological horror, but the team behind Layers of Fear does it well in Observer.

The entire game is played from a first-person perspective, and it revolves around investigation and interrogation mechanics, as per the detective theme.

2084 Krakow, Poland is a fascinating place to experience in Observer, and if you love cyberpunk themes and aesthetics, boy youll find a lot to love here.

Deus Ex is still the quintessential cyberpunk game, a throne that Cyberpunk 2077 may challenge upon its release. While you could certainly go back and play the original game which is a classic, youll have an easier time jumping into Human Revolution and its sequel, Mankind Divided.

Needing no prior knowledge of the series, Human Revolution tells the story of Adam Jensen, the head security officer for Sarif Industries, the worlds leading producer of augmentation.

Like its predecessors, Human Revolution provides a fantastic amount of freedom in its gameplay, and how you approach each and every situation, whether its through stealth, hacking, or straight up shooting.

Theres an abundantly interesting world and set of characters to explore, and Human Revolution comes packed with heavy cyberpunk themes; transhumanism, secret society conspiracies, a world ruled by corporations, and more.

Va11- Hall-A is one of the most unique experience you can find in the cyberpunk genre, and its description is just like it sounds, mixing bartending action with a visual novel.

You play as a bartender at the dive bar VA11-HALL-A, and the bulk of the action has you mixing drinks for customers while they tell you their problems of living in a cyberpunk dystopia.

The most interesting part, however, is that the story can change depending on which drinks you serve patrons, and how you respond to them.

An engrossing narrative and quirky cast of characters help keep things surging along.

Ironically, despite its name, Remember Me hasnt been remembered as more than a flawed cult classic, but its a fascinating cyberpunk title.

Developed by Dontnod, the creators of Life is Strange, Remember Me takes place in 2084 Neo-Paris. A company called Sensen has created a technology that allows users to upload their memories to the net, and even remove memories they dont want.

Story is the most interesting part of Remember Me, and its a unique take on the dystopic cyberpunk future, told through the lens of a strong protagonist named Nilin.

In terms of gameplay, Remember Me is a pretty typical platformer and melee brawler with Arkham-esque combat.

Adventure games are the perfect fit for exploring cyberpunk worlds, and you cant get much more engrossing of a world than in Red Strings Club. In the games world a corporation called Supercontinent Ltd. is at the forefront of giving humans enhancements through implants.

You follow three characters, an enhanced freelance hacker named Brandeis, the implantless owner of the Red Strings Club named Donovan, and an android formerly owned by Supercontinent named Akara-184.

These threes paths cross when they try to stop Supercontinent from releasing Social Psyche Welfare, a program designed to eliminate negative emotions like sadness and anger from all implanted humans.

Interestingly, Red Strings Club actually has unique gameplay for each character. As Donovan you mix drinks for customers, trying to probe them for information in the process. Akara creates implants via a pottery wheel-like device to insert into subjects, and Brandeis uses stealth to sneak into Supercontinent headquarters.

Some seriously dark themes and a gorgeous pixel art style help make this one of the more unique cyberpunk games out there.

Shadowrun is one of the forerunners of both strategy and cyberpunk games, and 2014s Shadowrun Returns brought the franchise back in a big way.

A deep character customization system lets you create your own cyberpunk hero to drop into the world of Shadowrun. The long-running series combined cyberpunk with elements of fantasy, with a cyberpunk world inhabited by races like humans, elves, dwarves, orcs, trolls, and more.

The futuristic fantasy setting makes Shadowrun Returns much different from the bulk of cyberpunk content out there, and the isometric turn-based strategy harkens back to the best days of Shadowrun and XCOM.

There have been a number of Souls-likes over the years, but the Surge and The Surge 2 are some of the best weve seen. Both games take place in a world where humanity has exhausted natural resources, leading to a strained society and diseases that drive humanity to the brink of extinction.

Augmentations and enhancements are a huge part of both the story and gameplay. The Surge 2 has a unique dismemberment system that lets you collect weapons or enhancements from body parts that you cut off of enemies.

Challenge is, of course, central to the experience, and The Surge 2 lives up to the Souls-like name, giving you a ton of options for equipment, weapons, and playstyle.

The Surge 2 drastically improves upon the setting of the first game, with a full-fledged city to explore. So if youre looking for an ultra-challenging cyberpunk experience, the Surge games are for you.

Katana Zeros precise, methodical gameplay is an absolute joy to experience. Each level has you navigating a 2D side-scrolling environment, with nothing but your katana to use. Theres no health and each blow is a one-hit kill, but you have plenty of tools at your disposal, like the ability to block bullets with your sword, slow down time, and dodge projectiles.

The game takes place in a dystopic future, set in New Mecca. The story chronicles the experiences of Subject Zero, an assassin enhanced with a drug called Chronos, letting him predict the future and slow time.

The narrative is full of conspiracies, and its insanely stylish in its presentation.

Far Cry: Blood Dragon feels like a fever dream you had one night after playing too much Far Cry 3. The neon-splashed shooter is basically a parody of 1980s films and video games, putting you in the shoes of a military cyborg named Rex Power Colt.

Blood Dragon takes place in a dystopic version of 2007, where you have to stop a rogue colonel named Sloan from reverting the planet back to a prehistoric state.

Everything about Blood Dragon is tongue-in-cheek, from the ridiculous weapons and shooting, to the cheesy one-lines and gruff cyborg soldiers.

Its a fairly linear experience, but a neo-futuristic one that you definitely wont regret playing.

Transistor comes from the talented team at Supergiant Games, makers of Bastion and Pyre. Just like their other titles, Transistor combines gorgeous art with phenomenal storytelling to make for a highly emotional experience.

An isometric action-RPG, Transistor takes place in the futuristic city of Cloudbank, where you play as a famous singer named Red. A failed assassination attempt on her by a mysterious group named Camerata, leads Red to discover a sword called the Transistor. Buried in the chest of a man, the Transistor has taken his consciousness as well as Reds voice.

A fantastic soundtrack by Darren Korb is essential to every aspect of the game, and its story unravels in subtle ways that you dont usually see.

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10 Cyberpunk Games to Play While You Cope With the Cyberpunk 2077 Delay - Twinfinite

1C Entertainment and developer RuneHeads have announced that their cyberpunk dungeon crawlerConglomerate 451will be leaving Steam Early Access on 20th February. Having received multiple updates during the early access phase, this first person dungeon crawling adventure will launch with lots of new features, including new enemies, areas, bosses, roguelike features and more

Conglomerate 451puts players in the role of the CEO of a special agency that has been tasked with cleaning up sector 451 of Conglomerate city, a district of the city that has become the playground for corrupt corporations. Thanks to a recently signed constitutional decree, players will have access to all manner of advanced technology including cloning, cybernetic implants, DNA manipulation and more.

With Roguelike elements that add weight to the smallest decisions, players will need to make effective use of agents, hacking techniques and high tech tools developed by the R&D department.

The game features:

Conglomerate 451will leave Steam Early Access on 20th February.

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Cyberpunk dungeon crawler Conglomerate 451 to leave Early Access this February - Flickering Myth

After attending a preview event for Square Enixs upcoming co-op shooter, Outriders (which well have a bunch of coverage out for soon), we were treated to a studio tour of CD Projekt Red, the studio behind the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher franchise.

Upon entering their offices, you can find the Collectors Edition statues for both The Witcher III and Cyberpunk 2077 (in huge forms). The Cyberpunk 2077 statue is incredibly detailed and entirely 3D printed. Interestingly enough, if youre lucky enough and happen to be in Poland, you can head into their offices and see these for yourself.

As we walked through the studio, each boardroom is themed from a part of CD Projekt Reds history. So for instance, you have a Cyberpunk themed one (which you can see below), theres a Gwent one, one for The Witcher and an insane archive room where theyve got all of the board game equivalents and collectives for the games that they have created.

Theres magazine walls for each of their games, so youve got walls dedicated to The Witcher 1 and 2 (including the Playboy cover, where the first time a CGI character was an official playmate), The Witcher 3 magazine wall and a Cyberpunk magazine wall.

The toilets have Yen and Geralt signage, which was cool to see (and a nice touch to their most popular characters) and theres GOG and The Witcher art work all over the wall.

We got a brief look at the Cyberpunk development area, but this was restricted due to the recent delay, but there were neon signs and cool Cyberpunk areas, which is what youd expect. What is immensely evident, is just how much these studios care about the game worlds that they have created. The little details that youll find in their games are littered throughout the office.

Enjoy some of the 50+ photos that we took below. It doesnt quite deliver the feeling of being inside one of the most popular studios, but hopefully theres a few little cool tidbits that you can take from it.

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We Went Inside The Cyberpunk 2077/The Witcher Game Studio And It Did Not Disappoint - Press Start Australia

With Cyberpunk 2077 delayed until September 17th, 2020s first half seems severely lacking in dystopian sci-fi. Thankfully, 7th Sector, a mysterious cyberpunk puzzle game from one-man developer Sergey Noskov, seems set to fill that void when it comes to PS4 on February 5th.

7th Sector has you piecing together a dark, branching narrative as you control several different characters, all with their own distinct abilities. With unique puzzles, an ominous atmosphere and an immersive soundtrack by Nobodys Nail Machine, 7th Sector looks like the ideal antidote for your Cyberpunk 2077 woes.

7th Sector releases for PlayStation 4 on February 5th. Check out the games trailer above.

To keep up to date with all of our latest news and reviews, follow us on Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube. Thanks, you sexy beast.

We sometimes link to online retail stores. If you buy something from our links, we may make a small commission which goes towards keeping the lights on and coffee in the pot.

Max is a lover of games, fine whisky and dogs with soft faces. Often seeking out games Chris dubs artsy sh*t, some say Max has a refined taste, while others simply consider him pretentious. Wherever you stand on the matter, he undeniably writes words. His other hobbies including leading a cult, touching dogs faces and telling everyone he is vegan.

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Satiate Your Cyberpunk 2077 Hype With 7th Sector, Coming February 5th - Pure PlayStation

Taipei Game Show is right around the corner, and with it comes news and brand new previews of the most anticipated games of the year. A number of huge names in the industry are expected to show up to the four day exhibition, including Sony, who won't be appearing at E3 this year.

For those unfamiliar with TGS (not to be confused with Tokyo Game Show), the event is a four day showcase of upcoming games and gaming tech. Starting in 2003, the show has attracted developers from around the world to Taipei, Taiwan, however, this year seems to be boasting some of the most impressive sets from the past few years.

RELATED: Final Fantasy 7 Remake Players At Risk of Losing Their Pre-Orders

Among the highly anticipated titles coming to TGS, Sony's displays, including Last of Us 2, Final Fantasy 7 Remake, and Nioh 2, are among the most notable. However, CD Projekt Red may trump the tech giant with a new look at the recently delayed Cyberpunk 2077, giving players a never before seen look at the game. Similarly, Sega seems to also be planning to dominate the show with 10 new games, including Yakuza 7, the latest title in one of the company's best selling franchises.

A number of the games announced to be showcased at TGS have faced delays and long development roads in the past, so their appearance at the show is at least a positive for players looking forward to releases like Last of Us 2 to be hitting shelves soon. In addition to the big names in the industry heading to Taipei for the show, a reported 233 indie developers will be arriving from all over the world to showcase the next wave of independent titles. With representation from at least 21 countries, TGS will be a true melting pot of game developers that will be sure to have a lasting impact on gaming in 2020.

As always, an exhibition like TGS is sure to have its surprises, and considering how the dates line up with certain PS5 rumors, February may be a month to remember for game reveals. Regardless of rumors and hearsay, there is still plenty going on at the show to get fans excited for, especially with some hopefully positive news coming for all of the recently delayed titles that will be making an appearance. The show begins on February 6th and goes until February 9th, so next week should prove to be a big week for game reveals.

Taipei Game Show is scheduled to run from February 6th to February 9th.

MORE: CD Projekt Red Says Cyberpunk 2077 Delay Was Not Because of PS4, Xbox Performance

Source: VG24/7

Xbox Series Leak Shows How Microsoft Could Top Sony's PS5

Tags:Sony,Final Fantasy 7,CD Projekt Red,PS4,Cyberpunk 2077,Xbox One,The Last of Us 2,Nioh 2,Yakuza,PS5

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The Last of Us 2, Cyberpunk, and More Confirmed for Taipei Game Show - GameRant

Cyberpunk 2077 is an upcoming role-playing game to be released this year. It is developed and published by CD Projekt. The date of the game release is just getting delayed as there is still work to do on the game. It is an adaptation from the Cyberpunk franchise, and the game takes place in dystopian Night City, which is an open world with a total of 6 distinct religions.

The game also has Keanu Reeves as a special role and even of Elon Musks Cybertruck.

The players will be able to play the game from a first-person perspective that sometimes switches to third person depending on situations with abilities of machinery and hacking. They will also have a lot of range of weapons and an option for melee combat if needed.

Cyberpunk 2077 is developed by using the REDengine 4 game engine. About 500 members are involved in the making of the game. This number of staff members were also not involved in making the companies previous game The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The game also broke the record set by The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt for the most number of pre-booking of the game.

There is a lot of shooting in the Cyberpunk 2077 with lots of customizable guns like street-modified Tech Shotgun and a sniper rifle whose bullet follows the enemy. The fights will be fast-paced and chaotic, but not that aggressive.

You can also customize your character from the skin to the tattoo to hairstyle or clothing. Almost everything can be customized.

The game can further be delayed because the latest test on the console was not good. It could delay up to 2021, but nothing is sure now.

Here is the reasons for the delay, check it out the views.. !!!!

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Fans might need to wait a little longer for Cyberpunk 2077. Will the delay be worth it?? - Gizmo Posts 24

Lazr is an explosive cyberpunk platformer where youthe titular freelancing android with laser eyeshave to shoot and leap your way through corporate offices and neon streets. For all your futuristic tricks, however, you're a lo-fi gal at heart, and one of Lazr's most notable features is its cloth physics.

Sure, Lazr's a walking weapon with preternatural speed, but sometimes the most effective way to infiltrate a megacorp is just by climbing up a rope. Maybe that rope is also on fire. Indeed, the very first mission of the demo immediately tasks you with clambering up a burning rope ladder while assholes shoot lasers at you. It doesn't mess around.

Even at the best of times, my reflexes betray me, but on a Monday I'm even more useless than usual, so I confess I spent most of my time with Lazr dead and swearing. You've got to be nimble, dashing through closing doors and grabbing walls and ropes so you don't fall to your death, usually while avoiding a hail of lasers and bullets. Expect a lot of stopping and starting as you memorise the levels, but once you do Lazr has a compelling rhythm.

Lazr's shell is customisable, so you can upgrade your abilities and add skills like auto-fire and other handy tricks that make the bastard-hard levels a bit less crushing. More importantly, you can also get your hands on a holographic dog, which comes in a choice of colours. Maybe this dystopian future isn't so bad.

Creator Garrick Campsey made the prototype to test dynamic cloth simulation in a platformer, but now it's going to be a full game; though Campsey needs help from prospective Kickstarter backers to make that happen. Lazr's campaign is live now and is looking for $10,000.

"Lazr's original concept came from a challenge posed by a fellow programmer to add verlet (dynamic motion simulation) cloth simulations into a platformer," Campsey explains on the Kickstarter page. "A prototype was built, and it turned out to be so much fun, that a decision was made to turn it into a larger demo. A video recording of the demo went viral on Twitter, and a decision was made to make Lazr into a full fledged game. However, in order to achieve this goal, Lazr needs your support!"

The demo has been updated for the Kickstarter and now features 15 levels split into missions, challenges, training and social levels. There are a couple of boss fights, too, and 24 mods that you can stick on Lazr. You can grab it on Itch.io now. If you're playing on Windows and want to use an Xbox controller, grab the DX demo. If you want to play on Mac, Linux or use a Dualshock controller instead, you'll need to download the OpenGL version.

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Lazr is a cyberpunk platformer with a free demo and a thing for cloth physics - PC Gamer

It's easy to say that 7th Sector won't appeal to all gamers, but for those who like to solve puzzles and discover the secrets of an abstract storyline, this title is a must-play. Revealing its secrets through gameplay, 7th Sector is a cyberpunk puzzle adventure that takes the idea of puzzle games into new territory.

Players begin their life inside 7th Sector as a shadowy figure on a television set. But somehow, this figure can morph into a tiny spark. Thisspark of energy must travel along a series of wires, triggering machines to open doors to allow it to continue its way forward. Eventually,the sparkcan take over machinery, including electronic balls to large robotic dog-like creatures that can shoot their way through enemies. There are however, no tutorials, and while traveling through the game, the player must solve a series of puzzles to keep moving on. The puzzles are as varied as the things that the spark can inhabit, and include easy jigsaw-like challenges to contrivances that will require the player to remember everything they learned in high school algebra.

Related:Lost Ember Review - A Breathtaking Journey Seen From The Eyes of Many

To say that these puzzles are often difficult is an understatement, but there's a real feeling of accomplishment when figuring them out and moving on to the next level. Forget about looking for walkthroughs, too, because many of these puzzles change with each playthrough. Each level of the game offers up details about the game's setting, a cyberpunk city of the future, while also telling an abstract story that at times feels a lot like The Matrix, particularly towards the end. How players make their way through each level, though, affects the outcome of the story. This, along with the changing puzzles, gives the game good replay value.

The only issue players might find with 7th Sector has to do with its controls. It's easy to move the spark from wire to wire, but once the spark is inhabiting something like a remote-controlled toy car, things get a little tricky. The controls work great in moving from left to right and vice versa, but when a player needs to move an object in three dimensions, the controls can make those efforts frustrating.

Where 7th Sector shines, though, is with its mood. There is no dialogue, only sound effects and music that set the scene. The graphics are gorgeous and lend themselves to the futuristic dystopia the player finds themselves in, and the visual style is nothing short of extraordinary. The feeling this game gives the player is akin to Limbo, another "simple" sidescrolling platform game that knew how to use atmosphere to evoke emotion. This is especially true when players fully realize the game's true story.

Again, though, 7th Sector isn't for everyone: this is a challenging puzzle game that can get frustrating at times. However, those up for the challenge will find their intellects stimulated by the unique puzzles, but also sucked in by the story the game ultimately wants to tell.

Next:Weakless Review - This Gorgeous & Complex Puzzler Is Far Too Short

7th Sectoris available for PC and will arrive on Nintendo Switch, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 on February 5, 2020. A digital copy of the PS4 game was provided to Screen Rant for the purposes of this review.

4 out of 5 (Excellent)

Star Wars Reveals What Happened To Lukes Lightsaber After Empire Strikes Back

Robin Burks is an entertainment and science/technology writer, as well as a published author, avid con-goer and costumer/cosplayer. She currently writes about pop culture and entertainment for ScreenRant.com, but has also written for TechTimes.com and DVICE.com.Robin is also the author of a series of speculative fiction novels: Zeus, Inc.; The Curse of Hekate; and Return of The Titans. In 2014, Indie Reader named the protagonist of that series, Alex Grosjean, as one of its Top Five Smart, Strong and Relatable Female Characters. The series was also inducted into the 2018 Darrell Awards Coger Hall of Fame in Memphis, TN. Since then, she has published her fourth novel, Madame Vampire, and is currently working on a series of young adult novels.Robin, who currently lives in Missouri with her five cats, loves all things French and has a serious obsession with Doctor Who. Visit Robin's website for more information on her fiction work or to contact her.

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7th Sector Review: Cyberpunk Puzzler Makes You Think Outside The Box - Screen Rant

Cyberpunk 2077

2020 here, and there are some big games on the way. Publishers and platform holders are here to hype the new consoles, others are squeezing in last-gen blockbusters, and everyone is gearing up for a nebulous, profitable future. Many of these games are easy to wrap your head around: The Last of Us Part 2 will feature some major technical improvements over previous Naughty Dog games but retain a core narrative third-person concept. Halo Infinite will be Halo, but probably one geared more towards games as service. Animal Crossing: New Horizons will be Animal Crossing, but with some new horizons in the mix. And then theres Cyberpunk 2077.

Cyberpunk 2077 comes out in April, before the genuine run-up to the new consoles. Its a big one: the new RPG from The Witcher developers CD Projekt Red , based on the classic tabletop property with a healthy infusion of sky-high promises. In the past, CD Projekt Red found success by amplifying what it was already doing with an absurd amount of ambition. and thats the playbook here with Cyberpunk 2077 to a T: take the reputation the studio developed with The Witcher 3 and use it to make maybe the biggest RPG the world has ever seen.

Cyberpunk 2077 is unwieldy in a way you see with basically no other projects this side of Rockstar. Its an open world RPG with strong elements of immersive sim: something like a Deus Ex Game but with a city-sized level broken into smaller pieces. It promises factions, reputation systems and branching storylines dependent on player choice. It comes with radically different fighting styles that can be mixed and matched at will: guns, stealth, melee, magic(hacking) and exploration, with dialogue skills that can be used to augment or circumvent. Given that we currently live in a cyberpunk dystopia, it will necessarily interact with real-life controversy 1000 times more often than The Witcher 3, and already has. It has crowds of NPCs, cars, motorcycles, skill trees and stats, it has Keanu Reeves.

At a certain point, it really becomes a question of what isnt in the game. Cyberpunk 2077 is meant to have more or less everything that you could put into an action RPG rolled into what are meant to interlocking, complimentary systems.

Will it work? The Witcher 3 was massively ambitious compared to The Witcher 2, and at the time everyone wondered whether or not this developer could pull something that huge off. It did. Its essentially the same story this time around, amplified by the scale of making something even bigger than the The Witcher 3.

Like I said, Im nervous. I badly want it to work, because this is basically everything I like in all kinds of games rolled into one package. The problem and the promise, here, are one and the same. It is the idea of an open world Deus Ex on the scale of The Witcher 3, and thats intoxicating.

But some of what Ive seen so far is dicey. First-person combat is wildly different from third-person combat, and some of what I saw at E3 didnt look quite smooth, and there were some scenarios that didnt seem like they could quite cooperate with the promise of different playstyles or branching narratives. Crowds looked a little wooden, menus looked dense and incomprehensible. I dont know if I was seeing necessary compromises for bringing a game of this scale down to the size of an E3 demo, or necessary compromises for making a game of this scale at all.

I badly want this to be everything CD Projekt Red has promised. But Im just not sure that any developer can nail every single portion of this sprawling project, and the game as described sort of needs that to happen. I hope this is all wrong, but this is game is one of my biggest concerns going into 2020.

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In 2020, I Have To Be Nervous About Cyberpunk 2077 - Forbes

Naming your game after the genre of fiction its set in is a funny thing. Imagine if BioWare had spent the last decades peddling its two big RPG series, Space Opera and High Fantasy, before floundering a bit with the release of Mecha-Science-Fantasy. Its especially bold when the genre in question is cyberpunka subcategory of sci-fi that has always been kind of nebulous, its edges as fuzzy as if youd just swallowed a palmful of Dex octagons.

Theres a bulletpoint list of markers you can run through, sure. Cybernetic limbs. Mega-corporations. Hackers. Neon billboards and Japanese kanji. Ethernet cables that go straight into your skull. Neologisms that sounded cool and futuristic in 1984 but now seem a little silly and dated... and, yep, Cyberpunk 2077 has them all.

Ultimately, though, these are empty signifiers. You could cobble together a generic golem out of these things and accurately call it cyberpunkIm looking at you, Netflixs Altered Carbonbut that doesnt get at what made these stories exciting in the first place: the sense of a terrifyingly plausible future. Not in that hard sci-fi way, of future tech so detailed you could probably request a spec sheet for it, but more the way technology warps the society that creates and uses it. And CD Projekt Red seems to agree.

It is deeply fascinating to us to explore the relationship of humanity and technology and how it shapes life in 2077, says 2077 level designer Miles Tost. What does this level of technology mean in a world where rich and poor have basically taken on entirely new meanings in terms of their dimensions?

The open-world RPG is actually a remarkably good fit for cyberpunk. Like the noir detective stories it originally drew inspiration from, cyberpunk is fundamentally a genre of the cityplaces where the population clusters, and subcultures can grow quickest around new technologies. And so it feels natural that most of what weve seen of 2077 hasnt really been about player character V. For now, at least, theyre something of a cipher, and Night City is the undisputed star of the game. Well, except for Keanu, maybe.

Its the promise of Night City that gets you, isnt it? The promise of an open world as crowded with details and vignettes as it is with cybernetically-enhanced bodies. In the gameplay demos weve seen so far, stepping out onto the street means being nearly overwhelmed with chunks of world-building and background dialogue picked out in surtitles that hover over the speakers head.

Side quests, an area in which CD Projekt has pretty thoroughly proved its chops in the past, also provide a great chance to squeeze in a few extra perspectives on how this future is shaping its people. And theyre a great way of pulling you through the world, the same way a lot of cyberpunk fiction uses the thread of a detective story.

Even the first-person perspective youre roaming the city in feels like the right choice. Those soaring, spinners-eye shots of Blade Runners cityscape might be the one image pretty much everyone points to when talking about the genre, but for my money, cyberpunk futures are best viewed from the pavement.

Those stacks of skyscrapers are a way of literalising the rich/poor divide thats so vital to cyberpunks vision of the world. The 1% (or, more accurately, the 0.001%) live clear of the grime, in upper orbit or mega-suburbs or gleaming penthouses. The megacorporations arent just a stock genre elementtheyre a way of showing how access to technology is mediated by our capitalist overlords. What does an obsolescence cycle look like for an ability-boosting implant? What if your bionic eye came as a mandatory part of your job? And what would happen when you left?

If you wanted to sum up cyberpunk in a single handy soundbite, itd be the one that Neuromancer author William Gibson has wheeled out in countless interviews: The future is already hereits just not very evenly distributed.

So if youre not one of the people craning their necks from down on the street, then you most likely deserve the guillotine, or whatever the cyberpunk equivalent is. Probably just a guillotine with a few cables and neon lights stuck on the side, to be honest. Whether all this matching of genre features and game tropes is happy coincidence or careful design, its hard to tell. But CD Projekt certainly seems to understand what has traditionally made cyberpunk interesting.

To us, cyberpunk explores a dystopian world of low life and high tech in which we focus on street-level stories. Our protagonist is not the kind that is out to save the world, Tost says. Its an absolutely textbook definition of the genre, one that takes in the wisdom of cyberpunk scholars like Bruce Sterling, Lawrence Person and especially Mike Pondsmith, creator of the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper RPG, now consulting on 2077.

Everything thats been shown so far promises a faithful adaptation, a game worthy of the label it has stuck on itself. But I said at the outset that cyberpunks main thrill is catching an ugly little glimpse of our own future, and that future surely looks very different now to the way it did two or three decades ago. So, given that CD Projekt clearly knows its cyber-onions, how is the developer intending to spin its own vision out of all those influences?

Its funny because were trying to re-envision how people from the 80s and 90s envisioned the future, and then lace that future with modern nuance, Tost says. Its an issue thats particularly noticeable with the outdated technology that comes packaged with the genretheres nothing less cyberpunk than Wi-Fi, for examplebut it goes deeper than that.

I think theres a degree of truth in assuming that cyberpunk was born out of the fears of people in the 80s and these fears were consciously exaggerated enough to form a separate genre, he says. The image of megacorporations you know from 2020 [the second edition of Pondsmiths Cyberpunk RPG] was born out of fears of privatising the state and asking: What would you do if democracy was a capitalist-controlled farce?

And were adding some contemporary scares to that as well. How has social media, for example, evolved in 2077? What power does it hold?

Outdated technology comes packaged with the genretheres nothing less cyberpunk than Wi-Fi

The games main way of addressing this topic seems to be through Braindances. As Tost explains it, these are, a way of experiencing someone elses past experiences, including their emotions, what they felt, in a virtual reality representationa localised dose of cyberspace. Its an idea with its roots in the tabletop RPGs sourcebooks, which predate the likes of Twitter or Facebook, but its easy to see how it could be extrapolated out into something with more timely social media parallels.

Braindances are presented as a form of escapism from the grim realities of life in Night City, with people using them to play tourist inside celebrities heads and live out staged fantasies that appear to be real. Its Instagram for your frontal lobes, or Twitch by way of the holodeck.

Among the modern fears shaping 2077s world, Tost also namechecks the specter of climate changea fairly inescapable part of our current future. In the game, global warming is apparently the reason for Night Citys large Haitian population, presumably because the island nation is now underwater.

Whether CD Projekt actually has anything interesting to say on either of these topics remains to be seenbut hey, thats what playing the game is for.

There is one aspect of 2077s future that has already raised a few red flags, though: its treatment of body augmentation. Whether in the form of prosthetic limbs or brain mods, this has always been a big theme of cyberpunk stories, and one that can be harmful if not dealt with properly. And all the way back to the original RPG, Cyberpunks handling has always been a little clumsy.

In the original tabletop game, adding modifications to your characters body caused a literal humanity stat to drop (though the most recent edition takes a more nuanced approach). That doesnt seem to be present in 2077, but Tost outlines one of the consequences which has carried over: A mental illness, that in 2077 is still very poorly understood, called Cyberpsychosis can cause people to run amok when they implant themselves with too much cyberware and in the process lose their humanity.

There are no mechanical implications to cyberpsychosisthis cant happen to the player, Tost says, because itd be an instant game overbut its still integral to the games fiction, and the presence of a mental illness thats self-inflicted by too much technology sets alarm bells ringing. Its like CD Projekt talking about the idea of the natural body being sacred, and augmentations profane. This stuff might sound OK, until you apply its logic back to the real-life present and realise the things it says about, for example, disabled and trans people are potentially offensive.

One of the benefits of reconstructing a genre three decades on from its initial peak should be the chance it offers consider, with modern sensitivity, what aspects werent treated well the first time round and address them. Maybe this will play out in the full gamethere might well be a side quest dedicated to exploring the topic more thoughtfully and sensitivelybut the early signs are a little troubling.

But theres no question that 2077 gets the genre, whatever your fuzzy definition. All the cool surface bits are there, presented more lavishly than weve ever seen before: the chrome-and-black style, the nostalgic-meets-futuristic tech, the grime illuminated by bursts of neon. CD Projekt knows the right references to drop, and the studio has demonstrated that its understanding runs a little deeper than that.

For better or worse, the game will likely overwrite the public understanding of what cyberpunk means. This is a genre whose boundaries are defined by precious few textsthe undisputed cyberpunk canon consists of roughly one bookand no straight-up cyberpunk work has reached the audience CD Projekt is going to.

So yes, Cyberpunk 2077 is cyberpunk. Duh, its right there in the title. The important question now is exactly how the developer chooses to define and explore that.

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Does Cyberpunk 2077 hold true to the cyberpunk genre? - PC Gamer

Theres an innate joy to a good cyberpunk game; that sense of fighting The Man, of struggling up from the gutter in a world that doesnt care, of being a rebel with a cause and, more importantly, some serious hardware. Sometimes its a depressing odyssey, other times, very tongue in cheek. Here, then, are our pick of the games worth selling your genitals on the black market for.

Released: 2001 Publisher: Eidos InteractiveDeveloper: Ion Storm

Few cyberpunk games have the same indie-rock feel as Anachronox, the game from Ion Storm that wasnt Deus Ex or Daikatana. Its Tom Halls tribute to pretty much everything Tom Hall loves, from the dimension-shifting titular planet to comic book worlds, to the fact that you spend much of the game travelling with a planet as a companion. A literal planet. Shrunk down, hovering next you, its people voting on what they all want to do next. Anachronox is a janky experience to be sure, but an unforgettable one, and its a genuine tragedy well never get the planned sequel.

Released: 1994Publisher: VirginDeveloper: Revolution Software

Beneath A Steel Sky offers a different feel to most cyberpunk; a somewhat low-key, sardonic take, in a city that thrives on cruel mundanity. Its not long before youre digging deeper into cyberpunk tropes, however, as you battle the omnipresent computer system LINC, explore cyberspace in search of clues, and save a city thats Blade Runner by way of Hull. Along the way you get the delightful company of your robot buddy Joey, who mirrors the genres love of transhumanism with his own slow evolution from humble circuit board towell, spoilers. Best of all, its completely free.

Released: 2015Publisher: Wadjet Eye GamesDeveloper: Wadjet Eye Games

It may be a fantastic adventure, but Technobabylon stands out most for having a deep sense of heart. Cyberpunk is often a cold genre, either through pessimism or a focus on the dehumanising nature of technology. Technobabylon flips that, with a story that comes at the usual elements from an entirely human directionfamily, loss, isolation and community. Its icier elements remain brutal, from restaurants that serve cloned human flesh to terrorists whose bones have been turned into bombs, but its the warmth that makes it unforgettable. That and the jingle for T.H.E. Foods, which will, alas, never leave you.

Released: 2016Publisher: Sukeban GamesDeveloper: Ysbyrd Games

Most cyberpunk games have you fighting against a corrupt system in some way. VA-11 HALL-A is more about helping it get drunk. Its a mix of visual novel and bartending simulator, where you bounce between mixing drinks and talking with the bizarre visitors at your seedy bar. The trick is that, by mixing the right drinks, you can make them open up and tell you stories of the harsh world outside. Some of those guests are dogs. Its that kind of bar. VA-11 HALL-As clever ideas and well realised setting are well worth visiting for a round or two.

Released: 2011Publisher: Streum on StudioDeveloper: Streum on Studio

Were meant to give you a pithy summary of EYE at this point, but thats just not going to happen. You wont find many games so devoted to making your brain melt, from its convoluted plot to the way the game works. Youre an amnesiac caught in a dreamscape, and things only get more surreal when you enter the real world and find yourself surrounded by groups with names like the Secreta Secretorum and the Meta-Streumic Force. EYE is every cyberpunk trope thrown into a big futuristic blender and then spiced up with a little LSD. Its endlessly fascinating, especially if you like Deus Ex but find it just a bit too predictable.

Released: 1999Publisher: EADeveloper: Irrational Games

The System Shock series isnt quite the same flavour of cyberpunk as most of the games on this list, but it stands as one of the first truly successful attempts at the genre. Its villain, rogue AI SHODAN, is deservedly considered one of gamings greatest baddies, and the first games take on cyberspace as a surreal maze of wireframe graphics and deadly geometric shapes certainly warrants the series its place. The sequel largely drops that element, but replaces it with a new interest in transhumanism by way of the improvements offered by a more evolved SHODAN, who refuses to be humbled by needing to rely on a mere fleshbag.

Released: 2016 Publisher: UbisoftDeveloper: Ubisoft

The first Watch Dogs was more overtly cyberpunk than its sequel, but its also a far inferior game. Watch Dogs 2 picks up everything it did well, particularly the use of hacking as a primary weapon and a city in which everything can be manipulated, and throws out everything else. While the sequel doesnt have much raw story, it does a great job of making new hero Marcus Holloway feel like part of something important. Watch Dogs 2 puts you at the bottom of the social ladder, then hands you a hacksaw to bring the system crashing down. Doing so makes for great set-pieces and a genuine feeling of power.

Released: 1997Publisher: VirginDeveloper: Westwood Studios

Westwoods Blade Runner absolutely nails the style of the movie, recreating its locations with fully animated backgrounds, and offers a score painstakingly recreated by the composer from the original. Its a brand new story in the Blade Runner universe, playing out concurrently with Deckards. The first act especially is a masterful bit of work, plunging you deep into the world and dripping with atmosphere. You get to perform the Voight-Kampff test, face off with replicants who arent afraid to thrust you into an arcade sequence without warning, and generally live for a while in a more-or-less perfect recreation of LA, 2019.

Released: 2014Publisher: Harebrained SchemesDeveloper: Harebrained Schemes

Its amazing that we had to wait so long for either of the two big cyberpunk tabletop RPGs to make their way to PCif you ignore Microsofts team-based FPS Shadowrun, which everyone really should. Despite both SNES and Mega Drive owners getting Shadowrun games in the early 90s, we had to wait until 2013 for Harebrained Schemes Shadowrun Returns. The original campaign, Dead Mans Switch, is solid enough. The sequel (originally an expansion pack before thankfully being re-released as a standalone game), is phenomenal.

Shadowruns take on cyberpunk is a complex one, mixing in magical and fantasy elements, with the playersshadowrunnersas mercenaries in a world gone mad. Dragonfall absolutely nails this, essentially giving you a team, a general objective to raise enough money for a big mission, and a city of opportunities to pick and choose from. Its not a complex business simulation or anything like that, but it conveys the vibe of being a shadowrunner far more effectively than a series of mandatory missions ever could. You spend time with your team and get to know their personalities and problems, help them out, and slowly improve your gear until youre ready to take on literal dragons.

All of this plays out in two basic modes: RPG exploration, and solid tactical combat that makes good use of your team and their abilities. The magical parts of the setting really help with these, allowing the action to go beyond guns.

The third game, Shadowrun: Hong Kong, was also an excellent RPG, but it was this sense of actually being in control that made Dragonfall stand out, both in its series and the genre in general. Its a structural approach we dont often see, and yet one that doesnt get in the way of a strong main storyline and a satisfying ending. What Dragonfall lacks in raw technology, with its relatively simple engine and graphics, it more than makes up for in scope and heart.

Its one of the best RPGs of the last few years, and one of the best cyberpunk games full stop. Harebrained is now part of strategy behemoth Paradox Interactiveheres hoping its working on something even bigger and better.

Released: 2011Publisher: Square EnixDeveloper: Eidos Montreal

Honestly, the question was never whether Deus Ex would end up topping this list, but whether this or the original would take the crown.

The first game is of course a classic, but time hasnt been especially kind to its technology or some of its ideas, and politically its from a very different era. Human Revolution lacks some of its raw scope and imagination, but is a far sleeker experience that builds on what the original does so well, and what other franchises have brought to the immersive sim genre in the intervening years. Yes, the boss fights suck, and can rightly go and stand in the corner with those copies of Invisible War and Mankind Divideds garbage ending, but in all other respects, Human Revolution still holds up extremely well as a glimpse of a possible future.

It helps that, while the original Deus Ex was largely built around conspiracy theoriesgroups like the Illuminati and so onHuman Revolution concentrates on transhumanism and the societal chasms between the haves and have-nots that are only widened by the addition of technology. As gravelly-voiced, professional not-asker-for- this Adam Jensen, youre in the rare position of being in the middle of the situation, with a body full of fancy toys that isnt exactly yours. Youre neither truly with the rich and powerful in their ivory towers, nor down with the gutter-rats, but perfectly placed to either prop up a failing society or help it come crashing down.

This gives Human Revolution a resonance that many other supercop fantasies struggle with, in a world perfectly set up to explore technology in both its positive and negative forms. The same science that can replace an arm or eyeball can also be abused, or simply demonised, with just a few flicks of a switch. Fancy cyborg gear can elevate the average person, but also make them subject to its creators in both body and soul. Is it a fair trade? What if the people just seize it?

The sequel, Mankind Divided, focuses on the social issues of all this, with questionable success. Human Revolution handles it more elegantly by simply presenting the situation, and allowing you, the player, to decide which path is correct. Admittedly, this boils down to pressing a button and watching a video clip, but still. While it lasts, its a solid shooter, a thought-provoking game, and also it lets you punch people through walls.

Continued here:

The 10 best cyberpunk games on PC - PC Gamer

In Night City, even the sky glows neon. Radioactive fallout from the Fourth Corporate War has turned dusk and dawn red, some districts are nothing but rubble and abandoned combat tanks, while others have been reclaimed and thrive again.

This is the setting for Cyberpunk Red, a tabletop RPG in the same world as Cyberpunk 2077, but a few decades earlier in the year 2045. Its a pen-and-paper RPG played with dice and character sheets, like Dungeons & Dragons or Call of Cthulhu, a format for games thats seen a popular resurgence in recent years.

The best explanation of tabletop RPGs is still that given by Abed in Community: This is a roleplaying game. It takes place entirely in our collective imagination. I tell a story and you make choices in the story.

Both Cyberpunk 2077 and Cyberpunk Red owe their existence to a tabletop RPG designed by Mike Pondsmith and published by R. Talsorian Games in 1988. Its rules have been through several iterations, the most popular version being Cyberpunk 2020, which described a corporate-run Night City in the Free State of Northern California in what was then a hard-to-imagine near future. As the actual year 2020 approaches, Cyberpunk Red moves the setting forward, streamlining rules and assumptions along the way.

Pondsmith describes the relationship between R. Talsorians tabletop RPGs and CD Projekt Reds videogame by comparing them to Star Wars, saying that if his original game was the first movie, right now Talsorian is running The Empire Strikes Back, while 2077 is essentially Return of the Jedi or beyond even.

The first taste of Cyberpunk Red is a Jumpstart Kit, a set of rules aimed at beginners. Theres a worldbook that outlines the setting, complete with an introductory scenario and a set of six ready-made characters with roles like Rockerboy, Tech, and Nomad to choose from. A full-length rulebook is currently being written, with R. Talsorian running on Valve Time: Itll be done when its done. Right now, the jumpstart kit is enough to get your first game of Cyberpunk Red going.

Night City as portrayed here is the same place weve seen in footage of Cyberpunk 2077, with districts such as beachfront Pacifica and details like the elite paramedics of Trauma Team very much in evidence. Yet this version of the city is being rebuilt after a warits skyline full of cranes and its radioactive corporate zone only visited by desperate scavs.

Nomad packs, road warriors from the hellscape between cities, have been recruited to help with the reclamationpresumably if you can drive an armoured battletruck you can handle bulldozers.

The internets broken too, thanks to future wars being fought online as wells as in meatspace. Jacking directly into cyberspace can cook your brain, so people rely on lower-tech solutions, airgapped local networks and a CitiNet thats geographically restricted and only slightly more advanced than the modern web. The worlds most advanced AIs have all taken the opportunity to flee to a secure Ghost World on a system in the abandoned ruins of Hong Kong run by a ghost in the machine named Alt Cunningham, which sounds like something the videogame could well follow up on.

Though there are hints of whats to come, the focus is on describing the world in the Time of the Red so you can run your own games there. Its a setting where designer drugs are legal and people wear armoured jackets down the street, unions dont exist and corporations make employees sign lifetime contracts. Segotari sells interactive braindance games with names like Elflines Online, theres a world currency, and posergangs biosculpt themselves to look like characters from The Brady Bunch and The Wizard of Oz.

Its got a sense of humour even as it bills this as a dark future, but that was true of Cyberpunk 2020 as well, with its clown gangs and red-and-black glowing holozones denoting which areas of the street were no-parking zones in the event of a Free Fire Emergency because vehicles there could legally be used as barricades by police or corporate units.

It may contain some daft jokes and satire, but its still a dystopia. One section of Night City has been abandoned by the police and become a combat zone, where gangs like the cybered-up Iron Sights and neo-fascist Red Chrome Legion rule. Its not a nice place to live, but an exciting place for games.

Cyberpunk 2020 had an elegant central mechanic, but incongruously complicated rules for combat. It was a game that preached style over substance and yet had rules for fighting designed so that over time they would statistically resemble the results of the FBIs Uniform Crime Reports. Those rules were called Friday Night Firefight. Cyberpunk Red calls its combat rules Thursday Night Throwdown, and explains that there will be a fuller version to come in the core rulebook.

These rules combine fiddliness and abstraction, so Im not sure theyll please people who want cinematic, narrative fights or those who want to know the diameter of exit wounds in millimetres.

A nice addition is the rule for what happens before a fight, called the Facedown. Characters add their Reputation and Cool scores to the roll of a d10, and whoever wins intimidates the other. The loser can back down or fight on, but will take a -3 on every roll.

As for netrunning, it was always a pain in Cyberpunk 2020 because, though it took seconds from the hackers perspective, it took ages at the table, and could be done from the couch before a mission even started. Now, netrunning is something you have to do up close, wirelessly but within six meters of an access point, and it plays out in real time. While the netrunner is running Banhammer to defeat Black ICE, the rest of the party can be holding off the guards.

Thats fun, but almost all of the netrunners abilities and programs boil down to their Interface stat versus a difficulty value. If they beat it they move on to another challenge, if they fail then things stall. Still, its an improvement over the old rules.

My players had fun with character creation. The Jumpstart Kit provides six pre-generated characters with names and faces though the rules suggest changing those and I heartily recommend it, just for a sense of ownership. Then you make a lifepath for them. A selling point of the Cyberpunk games, lifepaths present you with tables that delineate your life before the game starts.

Its likely youll have more enemies than friends, and two of my players came out with zero pals, which immediately says something about them as people. Deceased family members are common, along with kidnappings and betrayals. The book explains that the versions of lifepaths presented here are truncated, and the rulebook will give them more substance, but even these miniature lifepaths gave my players rich backstories full of ideas for future plotlines I could run.

The last thing in the Jumpstart Kit is a set of beginner adventures, the first of which is fleshed-out while the rest are left as notes. This intro scenario is called The Apartment, and it casts all the PCs as living together in a building thats about to be violently taken over. The siege can play out in multiple ways, and I appreciate the freedom to mould it to your players with suggestions based on what abilities they have. One of the options is to have the neighbours betray them, but my players immediately bonded with the kooky NPCs, so Im glad I threw that out.

One thing missing is an equipment guide with prices and names. Most of the gear on the character sheets is plain, a Very Heavy Pistol or a Groundcar, but cyberpunks a genre where nameology matters, where you want to be able to whip out a Malorian Arms Flechette Pistol and have it mean something.

Still, all my complaints are minor quibbles. Its effective at creating a mood, and my players immediately understood the vibeones playing a wannabe pro gamer named Zigz, while anothers got a tragic past and calls himself Jack Saturday. The gold standard for beginner RPG products is still the D&D Starter Kit, and the best introduction to roleplaying will always be enthusiastic friends who are already into it, but failing that Cyberpunk Reds Jumpstart Kit and a viewing of Blade Runner or Bubblegum Crisis does the job admirably.

See the article here:

A guide to Cyberpunk Red, the latest edition of the tabletop game - PC Gamer

This quartet of games arent the only big releases on the horizon, with other major titles also slated for a 2020 release.

Resident Evil 3, Persona 5 Royal, Doom ETERNAL, Dying Light 2, Halo Infinite, Animal Crossing New Horizons and Half-Life Alyx are also out next year.

As is Marvels Avengers, Bloodlines 2, Nioh 2, Minecraft Dungeons, Tales of Arise, Yakuza: Like A Dragon, Oddworld Soulstorm, Watch Dogs 3 and more.

Plus, already announced titles that dont have a release date yet such as Zelda Breath of the Wild 2, Bayonetta 3 and Hellblade 2 could come in 2020.

Besides the great selection of exclusives pencilled in for next year, Sony and Microsoft are also set to launch their next-gen consoles.

The PS5 and Xbox Series X are both set to release in the run-up to next Christmas.

READ MORE: Xbox Series X vs Xbox One and PS4: Microsoft share the specs PS5 will need to match

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Last of Us 2, Final Fantasy 7, Cyberpunk 2077, Ghost of Tsushima: 2020 will be AMAZING - Express

Few fictional genres possess such strong stylistic associations as cyberpunk. The word instantly conjures images of cities soaked in neon-lit rain, where glittering glass skyscrapers loom over squalid slums, where the lines between the organic and the synthetic have become blurred beyond recognition, and where virtual worlds are often just as real and just as dangerous as the physical one.

The strength of cyberpunks aesthetic makes games which adopt it easy to identify, but it also makes breaking away from that style a challenge. Here, wed like to celebrate the different shades of cyberpunk gaming has conjured, delving into how these virtual visions of imagined futures reflect the themes their developers wanted to explore.

Shadowrun Returns blends cyberpunk with fantasy to create a world where orcs with prosthetic arms serve you drinks in underground dive taverns, while trenchcoat-wearing elves get into gunfights on the cracked streets of Seattle.

Here, you can see concept art from both the original game and its two expansions/sequels, Dragonfall and Hong Kong. Compared to Mankind Divided and Observer (overleaf ), Shadowrun offers a much broader sense of its own world, depicting how cultures differ and overlap across its various locations.

Much of Shadowruns concept is closely aligned with how the final game looks. Not only does it define the games cel-shaded aesthetic, it also shows us the perspective from which the game is played. See if you can spot the katana-wielding orc sneaking through the dockyards in the image below.

Featuring a sterling performance from the late, great Rutger Hauer, Observer is a sci-fi detective horror created by Bloober Team, the developer of Layers Of Fear. It sees players investigating a murder at an apartment block, hacking directly into the minds of witnesses and victims to solve the case.

Observer is more directly inspired by Blade Runner than any other game mentioned here. As well as featuring one of the movies actors, Observers crumbling apartment block strongly evokes the tenement Roy Batty chases Rick Deckard through in the films climax, where the high-tech society hasnt fixed the dripping pipework and damp-ridden plasterboard that the citys lower echelons call home.

Observer paints an aggressive and invasive vision of technology. Its cobalt-blue holographs spread through the apartment block like a virus, creating barriers that inhibit detective Dan Lazarskis progress. Meanwhile, software in the minds Lazarksi hacks into construct virtual horrors that stalk him right back.

While it clearly owes a debt to the Deus Ex games that preceded it, particularly the sepia streets and skyscrapers of Human Revolution, Mankind Divided nonetheless takes its cyberpunk aesthetic in some interesting new directions. Set in Prague, it cleverly melds medieval architecture with the gaudy holograms and jagged metallic structures of its imagined future. At launch, Mankind Divided stood out particularly for its extreme attention to detail. Its a world in which every desk and alley is cluttered with the detritus of life.

All the art seen here was drawn by Mathieu Latour-Duhaime, a veteran artist currently working at EA Motive. As well as doing general concepts, Duhaime also masterminded Mankind Divideds eye-popping Golem City area, a sprawling slum-metropolis that provides a literal vision of an urban jungle. Electrical wires dangle everywhere like rainforest vines, and the yellowish strip lights give a sense of viewing the sun through a thick canopy of foliage.

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Great concept art that celebrates the cyberpunk aesthetic - PC Gamer