Category Archives: Cyberpunk

As an accomplished composer and music entrepreneur, MARO has a knack for storytelling.

He has long been championed for the dark, heady sound design found in his potent electronic music productions. Look no further than his riveting songs on the official Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack, which remain some of the record's most populara statement that speaks volumes considering it also features tracks by Grimes, Run The Jewels and Nina Kraviz, among others.

Now, MARO is on the verge of releasing a new album, Rejects, which he affectionally calls an "audio musical" with its own visual universe. He tells us the album has not only a metaphysical backstory, but a formidable list of collaborators, like Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah and Raekwon. Ergo, he's positioning to release his most impactful project to date.

We caught up with MARO to discuss what he has cooking in 2022 and the road toRejects.

EDM.com: Please give us a general overview of your new album, Rejects. Whats special about it?

MARO: Rejects is an audio musical. Its an hourlong journey through an unfriendly universe Ive created especially for this project. Every guest artist appears in its own role, taking a part in the musical. I play the role of your guide, taking you through the story, meeting people who tell their tales. On the way, you will meet arms dealers, revolutionists, monks, drug users, drug dealers, and all kinds of people living in the low city and doing what they do best to survive.

As the listener, you dive in to an experience of music, dialogue, song effects and world-class graphics. I wanted to give the listener a chance to escape from the everyday routine and reset his or her mind.

EDM.com: You have some insane contributors on this album. Its not many dance music producers who can claim to have Wu-Tang Clan's Ghostface Killah, Raekwon, Cappadonna, Deadly Hunta, Awich, Lex Lu and P-Money on their original studio albums. How did you get these legendary artists onto your album? Whats your history and relationship with each of them?

MARO: Throughout the years, Ive worked with a very wide range of artists from all around the globe. When you meet someone and have something in common, you keep the contact. You never know when it can boomerang back to you. At first, my Rejects story was based on mostly electronic music, but I needed to find a way to tell a story, to get more narration. Naturally, rap is 100% this kind of craft, so I decided to invite people I knew would deliver a great story, fit the role, or both.

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EDM.com: Sounds like you were long cultivating relationships along the way.

MARO: Many of them, Id already met on my way. For example, Id met Raekwon about 15 years ago when we were playing at a festival in Warsaw that I was also producing. With Deadly Hunta, I made a track for the Cyberpunk 2077 soundtrack. With Lex Lu, I worked on the production of a few Polish artists and I then invited her to work with me on the Cyberpunk 2077 game.

EDM.com: For those not immediately familiar with your background, can you explain your specialty as a Platinum Award-winning mix/mastering engineer and the founder/creator of Bettermaker?

MARO: Basically, I can say that Im addicted to music. All my life oscillates around it! Since I was 14, I knew my way and that I wanted to spend my life in one of the most difficult businesses there are: the music business. Since then, I learned, and I collected music and the gear to become a DJ and a music producer. I have two degrees: one in sound engineering and another in acoustics. Right now, I own the Addicted To Music Studios where I work with my team. Im a DJ, a music producer, and a sound engineer.

On top of that, I have the Bettermaker company which produces studio gear and software used by the best professional mix and mastering engineers from all around the world. Bettermaker also makes software for music producers, a plugin called the EQ232D. Throughout the years, Ive performed as a DJ allover the world and worked with people from Jamaica to China. I have quite a few Platinum and Gold records on my walls for production and sound engineering, and I still have fun as hell doing all of this.

MixOne

EDM.com: You describe your album, Rejects, as a multimedia release, complete with visuals as well as audio. Is it interactive?

MARO: The album will be heavily illustrated. Were planning on making an interactive gallery with the works of so many talented artists who worked on Rejects. I think they did such an amazing job, the music would not be complete if the listener would not know the musicals graphic design. Every artist has his or her alter-ego, every skit has its own comic scene, every song has its own cover. This album will be a feast for your ears, as well as for your eyes. Were leaking some of it already on rejects.tech, so go check it out! Im sure you will not be disappointed.

EDM.com: How do you want listeners to interact with Rejects, when they experience the album?

MARO: My ideal interaction would be to play my LP, sit comfortably and watch the full-sized album while you listen to the chapters. Let the music and the visuals take you away on a journey with me, to my world. But I also understand that many people will stream it somewhere on their way and within time, cherry-pick the tracks that they like the most. Thats okay with me, too.

Facebook: facebook.com/maromusic1/Instagram: instagram.com/maromusic1/Twitter: twitter.com/MaroMusicSpotify: spoti.fi/3MxEdvp

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MARO On His Upcoming Album, an "Audio Musical" With Its Own Universe - EDM.com

Developer Ramen VR has attracted a great deal of attention from virtual reality (VR) enthusiasts since the release of Zenith: The Last City, with the game even briefly hitting the top of the Steam player charts.

Though still in Early Access, fans are hopeful that Zenith represents a step towards the fully immersive VR MMORPG popular in fiction.To explore the ideas, influences and future plans for Zenith: The Last City, Upload VR spoke to Andy Tsen, CEO and co-founder of Ramen VR.

Ramen VR itself is a small business for an ambitious project like Zenith: The Last City, employing only 15 people. Tsen was frank about the challenges the developer faces and meeting peoples expectations: When we launched Zenith, there were a lot of people who expected Sword Art Online or World of Warcraft. Were more like Ultima Online, a few guys trying to create something were passionate about.

Comparisons to media about VR MMOs such as Sword Art Online or .Hack is inevitable, and Tsen said that anime and Japanese culture did indeed have a significant influence. The inspiration for the game comes from every game that Ive played, he says. Anime was a large part of my formative years, so we took ideas from Final Fantasy XIV, World of Warcraft and even Nier. We wanted to create a world inspired by anime and JRPGS. You can see it in the open world, such as the Plains area, we reference a lot of Miyazaki and a lot of Nier.

Speaking about the tone and genre of the game, Tsen had this to say: If you look at the city we have a solarpunk going on, while the starting area was inspired by Midgar of Final Fantasy VII and a lot of other cyberpunk media. There are sci-fi elements to it, but its very fantasy inspired, but its going to be more solarpunk themed and styled than cyberpunk. He also indicated that in storyline terms, it wont be so black and white as the bright happy place is good, the dark spooky place is evil. There will be nuance and subtleties for players to discover as the game world is expanded and refined. There is also a tendency for Solarpunk media to be more optimistic in tone than the more grungy and bleak Cyberpunk media.

A common criticism of many modern MMOs is that intuitive, fun gameplay can be lost amidst a sea of complex systems, rewards and currencies such that it becomes more akin to a job than a game played for fun. I think a lot of the immersion has been lost in modern MMOs, Tsen commented on that topic. Our goal was to create an immersive world where people could reach their full potential, without worrying about whats going on in the real world. Its a gaming-focused new reality. We want to focus on making fun experiences for people.

Asked about how that feeds into accessibility for players, Tsen said that the team ensured it was possible to play Zenith from a seated position, then added: A lot of times accessibility is just good game design. You dont lose anything by making a game more accessible. He indicated that this is just a starting point for Ramen VR, and that they are keen to integrate accessibility into the game during the Early Access phase, saying for just one example: We had to work with some of our team who get very simulation-sick, so we came up with things like our out-of-body locomotion to mitigate that.

Tsen also said this focus on accessibility extends into online safety and comfort within the game, emphasizing the tools given to players. You can block people, or you can deafen. For us safety is incredibly important. We have GMs who can invisibly wander the world and make sure everythings okay, he said, adding that bots have limited effectiveness when protecting a community. Theres only so much you can do with automation, so you always need human judgment involved.

Tsen also stated Final Fantasy XIV as a worthy example to follow, because Square Enix implemented positive reinforcement systems that allow players to issue a commendation to fellow players who impressed them during a Duty, Dungeon or Raid. This works as a counterpoint to blocking and reporting systems to help foster community, something that Ramen VR also hopes to develop for Zenith.

Ramen VR has already promised to add hundreds of hours of new content in its next major update patch, and Tsen spoke enthusiastically about what Zenith players can expect in the future, Theres a lack of end-game content at the moment. We need to do a lot more. In our next major content update our goal is to address that, and expand it so theres things for casual players to do, things for hardcore players or those who want to just grind for cosmetics.

Indeed, Andy also indicated during GDC that there were plans to add more exploration and environmental puzzles, but thats not the only thing the development team has planned: Were excited about player housing, crafting, even PvP thats a little down the line though. Whats currently available for Zenith is only about 10% of what we want to provide for our players.Considering that Zenith has already met with a solid response from the Upload VR review in its current Early Access state, what the 90% of additional content could provide is worth considering. Creating an MMO is not an easy task, and plenty of developers have failed to clear the hurdles involved with growing a small company in a sustainable way.

Tsen hopes they can continue to grow and meet the challenges implicit in creating and maintaining an expansive MMORPG. We have great investors, were cash-flow positive, but the next big question is how to scale it while keeping the culture thats got us this far.

Zenith: The Last City is available on Quest, Steam and PlayStation Store.

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Zenith Dev Talks Solarpunk And Anime Influences - UploadVR

Can love bloom even on a cyberpunk battlefield? Anno Mutationem says yes.Image: ThinkingStars

I was immediately smitten with Anno: Mutationems sleek, side-scrolling pixel art and bombastic, beat em up-inspired action sequences. However, even these notable highlights pale in comparison to its wonderful portrayal of Ayane, one of the games side characters, who ascends from mere NPC into being the emotional throughline of the entire game.

You play as Ann Flores, a cyber-combat specialist searching for her kidnapped brother. Although shes more than capable of holding her own in a fight, she doesnt work alone. By her side (via digital projection) is the chatty super-genius hacker Ayane Misuno. While Anns relationship with Ayane is hinted at even in the demo, in the full game the hackers adoration for Ann bubbles over in side missions and boss battles alike. To my surprise, Ann and Ayanes bond is an essential part of Mutationems story, and arguably its most captivating facet.

Their story begins when Ayane mails Ann a communication droid to mark their second friendiversary, as you do. While the droids gameplay purpose allows Ann to call up Ayane for her hacker know-how, Ayane drops all pretenses, telling Ann that her fancy mail-order droid serves as her way of being closer. Be still my beating heart. Whether in the heat of combat or in the middle of a shower, Ayane has Anns back! And occasionally boundary issues.

Read More: Friendship Ended With Cyberpunk, Now Anno: Mutationem Is New Best Friend

Because Ann is a kuudere protagonist, meaning shes the strong-and-silent type, it falls on Ayane to not only inject life into the game with off-hand remarks about the bizarre world they inhabit, but to also crack open Anns stoic shell, making her a more appealing protagonist in the process. This is epitomized through the pairs cute animations and the stellar vocal performances from their English voice actors. Whenever Ann and Ayane scenes graced my screen, my eyes sent my brain a piping-hot shot of dopamine. Their funny/cute dynamic, at times reminiscent of classic comedy duos, could generate enough energy to fuel a small town.

I would like to take a moment to pat myself on the back for calling out the ship between these two from the moment I first saw them interact in the demo. While I was only half-kidding when I muttered Oh they gay, I didnt think ThinkingStars would actually hint at them being canon in the actual game. Im gonna have to check my house for hidden microphones

The pairs dialogue lays it on thick. Ayane rarely calls Ann by her name, instead opting for darling, usually accompanied by hearts floating above her head. Ann caves to the pet name when Ayane asks if shed rather be called Baby, Honey, or Lover, proving that she does have a preference.

Ayane, paragon that she is, goes beyond being your woman in the chair. She also doubles as Anns emotional support sidekick. Whenever a quest-giving NPC asks a favor of Ann, Ayane takes on the frustrated voice of the gamer. While Ann begrudgingly accepts missions, Ayane goes to bat for her, calling out NPCs distractingly selfish requests. If Ann didnt want pickles on her burger, you best believe Ayane would raise hell. Whenever the going got tough in Mutationem, Ayane swooped in like a cool summer breeze and provided the game with moments of welcome levity.

Harold, theyre lesbians. Screenshot: ThinkingStars / Kotaku

No matter how many times Mutationem kicked my ass, I kept coming back. This dedication wasnt solely based on my journalistic duty to finish the game, or even on account of my wounded pride. No, I soldiered on just to hear Ayanes celebratory banter. When conquests in Mutationem stopped feeling rewarding, Ayanes words of encouragement jump-started my tired gamer bones and made the pain of replaying exceedingly frustrating boss fights more bearable

Ayane doesnt just shine during Mutationems main story: Her charisma is so powerful that it spilled over into side-quests, prompting me to take interest in characters I wouldnt otherwise care about. Case in point, I pumped the brakes on mainlining Anns quest to save her kidnapped brother the moment we walked by a street concert and Ayane mentioned that shed love to know the secret identity of a virtual singing idol.

I know this makes me sound heartless, but hear me out. All I know of Anns brother comes from a smattering of random, archived codexes and voice recordings. Ayane, on the other hand, has gone to war by my side. Shes made my journey through Anno: Mutationems cyberpunk dystopia a continual delight, simply through force of charisma. No hard feelings to Anns brother, but Ayanes built different, and when Im on the mean streets of Anno: Mutationem, her needs come first. Try the game yourself, and youll understand where Im coming from.

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This Cyberpunk Game's Simmering Lesbian Romance Has Me Hook, Line, And Sinker - Kotaku

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to read someones mind? In the world of visual novel Read Only Memories: Neurodiver, its a little more boring than youd think in a good way.

Indeed, the preview that was shared for Neurodiver follows protagonist ES88 as she heads into her workplace campus for the morning, where her day job using her skills as a Neurodiver awaits. On slow days, ES88 admits to a friend, shes prone to poking around her co-workers collective noggins, sifting through memories of raccoons and forest walks.

On busier days like the one she finds herself in for this preview its a tad more exciting, though perhaps not by much. An important password has gone missing, and Minerva the organisation that employs ES88 cant access any of its top-secret information without it.

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver. Credit: MidBoss.

And so, ES88 finds herself working as a life-sized Forgot your password? pop-up, diving into the memories of hapless office worker Harold to see where his passwords gone.

Once youre in, its up to you to poke around Harolds brain and try to work out what the password could be. Visually, youre still at Harolds desk, but there are a few differences a houseplant thats alive in the real-world slumps pitifully bare in its jar. A gloopy, half-formed monster is screaming out of his PC, and is seemingly the culprit to his sudden brain fog.

From there, a point-and-click adventure style sequence has ES88 searching for clues that will help unlock the right memory and retrieve Harolds password. The main objective of the memory is to find the right combination of clues important memories that fuelled Harolds password creation to return his password intact. Its part intuition you have to get a sense of what genuinely matters to Harold with each item you investigate and part puzzle, as certain obstacles in the memory require using other clues to get rid of them. In one entertaining case, ES88 refuses to touch Harolds secret pet a twitchy mechanical spider and uses a skeletal hand from Harolds Halloween decoration to retrieve a vital clue.

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver. Credit: MidBoss.

As the preview ends, ES88 is told to prepare for a meeting with Minervas CEO presumably for a mission involving more important uses for telepathy, such as the frantic murder-mystery advertised by one of Neurodivers trailers. Its an exciting moment for the preview to close on, but what makes Neurodiver so incredibly promising is that it makes the mundane workplace chats, password recovery so delightful.

Every brief chat and minute interaction feels distinctly lovely, and developer MidBoss has packed every pixel with charm cutesy portraits and animated facial expressions bring each character to life, and the studios writers have done a fantastic job at making dialogue feel natural, funny, and engaging. If Neurodiver can make ES88 and her world feel so alive in an office, theres no telling how much it can deliver outside of Minervas walls.

Read Only Memories: Neurodiver launches later this year for PC, Nintendo Switch, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PS5, and PS4. We previewed the game on PC.

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'Read Only Memories: Neurodiver' preview: a cyberpunk visual novel bursting with charm - NME

Cyberpunk 2077's latest patch is, after February's absolute whopper that made a truckload of improvements in every area, more of a maintenance job on bugs and glitches. The fun thing with these is finding out what players have been running into without it ever quite coming to wider attention: for example, some players found when they were driving fast that "wrecked cars or multiple Nomad cars" would start spawning around them, which must rather cramp your style.

In addition to tweaks like this, the patch has fixed some in-game triggers for stuff that could be accessed too early, open world events that weren't spawning at the right time for some, andmy favourite of all, relating to a mission called Automatic Love"Walking into a wall in the elevator in Megabuilding H8 will no longer cause instant death."

But wait: there are more. One fix refers to this in-game occurrence, which is that you'll occasionally see NPCs jump to their deaths from corporate offices:

Not shown: apparently some of them would just... get up after that. Now "Suicidal Corpos in Corpo Plaza will no longer stand up after the fall."

Then there's the bug that could apparently see the character River "drive out of the market area erratically" during the I Fought the Law mission "and push V out of world bounds." What a way to go.

Various other quest progression bugs have been nixed, spawning glitches stamped on, and there's some small UI fixes and one change: rewards will now have a quest tag showing where you got them from when you first see them in your stash and when opening menus. There's finally a very Stadia-specific note, because apparently that version of the game was a hippie wonderland until now: but CDPR has "enabled aggressive crowds."

The full patch notes can be found here.

This is a minor update but it arrives in the context of much bigger news for the studio. Yesterday CDPR teased the next game in the Witcher series and part of this announcement was that it is being developed using Unreal Engine 5. That is a major move for CD Projekt as a whole which has used its own in-house REDEngine to build almost all of its games: Cyberpunk 2077 was built on REDEngine 4, which was a ground-up rebuild of the tech.

Part of the Witcher news was that, while the flagship series is going UE5, Cyberpunk 2077 and "its upcoming expansion" will remain on REDEngine: I mean, of course it will. Why did CDPR clarify this? Probably because internally it feels a bit bad about the fact, whatever the economic realities, it is definitively leaving its own tech behind: and make no mistake, the modern CD Projekt was built on the REDEngine.

Cyberpunk 2077's story is far from finished, but in all likelihood it will be the last major game developer by the studio using its own in-house tech. Arguably, it is also the game that made CD Projekt Red switch to a thirdparty engine: the game clearly came in hot, the launch was a commercial success but an unmitigated reputational disaster, and some element of that surely comes down to the choice of tools. Otherwise why switch. Either way, it's a sad coda for Night CIty.

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Cyberpunk 2077's latest patch is a bug-squisher, including one wall that instakilled V - PC Gamer

Designer: metod kular

In terms of aesthetic, cyberpunk truly mixes contrasting elements. On the one hand, its a distant future filled with technologies we can only dream of. On the other hand, human civilization seems to have also taken a step back and left its indelible marks everywhere, from dilapidated and abandoned metal surfaces to sometimes incomplete mechanical parts.

This inhaler concept shows clear signs of such a design style. The form itself is unconventional and the transparent parts of the shell reveal the inner workings of medical device. At the same time, the worn-down metal surfaces of the canister suggests it has seen better days, like it has traveled through rough roads to get to the person who needs its life-saving medicine.

The small light at the end of the tunnel is that the design equally works for a utopian version of an inhaler. Idealized visions of the future often utilize white or bright motifs, a tremendous use of plastic-like materials, and clean, unmarred surfaces. There is nothing that says bright future better than pure white materials.

This futuristic medical tool could also be at home in that kind of future, just swapping out dark colors and metal for white plastic. Hopefully, that future would have solved our current plastic problem and will be able to easily manufacture environment-friendly materials that just look plastic to our 21st century eyes. Then again, such an ideal future should have probably removed to need for an inhaler in the first place.

Cyberpunk worlds have always carried a sense of irony with them. It is a future filled with technological marvel but fraught with human flaws. Instead of having finally solved the most basic health problems, such a future would still have medical problems that would require using an inhaler like this.

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This inhaler concept shows how you might be able to survive a cyberpunk future - Yanko Design

Dark Horse will continue to show fans more of Night City through comics with Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout releasing this year. The four-issue series comes from writer Bartosz Sztybor, artist Robert Ricci, colorist Fabiana Mascolo, and letterer Frank Cvetkovic as they aim to show you the darkest parts of Night City.

This is sure to be a great read for fans of Cyberpunk 2077 which is gaining a bit more popularity after the 1.5 update really fixed a lot of the games problems and made the game available on next-gen consoles.

It hurts. Night City hurts. The suffering runs deep and the deeper one falls, the longer the self-prescribed dreams play. Fortune, hope, love all made possible by DMS technology. But not everyone desires a happy ending. A braindance repairman discovers that the answer to pain . . . comes in a blackout.

You can read Cyberpunk 2077: Blackout #1 on June 1.

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Explore the Darkest Parts of Night City in CYBERPUNK 2077: BLACKOUT This Summer GeekTyrant - GeekTyrant

10 years ago, when all that existed of VR as we know it today was the idea to use cheap phone components for VR headsets, the story of vorpX began. VR at least for gaming back in the day was real life cyberpunk if you want.

What better way to celebrate 10 years of vorpX development than a little bit of Cyberpunk in VR.

Enjoy our free Cyberpunk VR mod!

Cyberpunk VR download

vorpX Anniversary Sale

2022/02/17 Version alpha 6 is now available.

This update adds compatibility with Cyberpunk 2077 1.5 and contains various smaller (mostly gesture related) fixes and improvements.

2022/02/12 Version alpha 5 is now available.

This is a major update that mainly adds a brand new feature: several common game actions can now be triggered with natural motion controller gestures, adding a whole new level of gameplay. Try it!

Full Changelog:

2022/01/10 Version alpha 4 is now available with the following changes:

2022/01/08: Version alpha 3 is now available with the following changes:

22/01/02: Version alpha 2 is now available with the following changes:

21/12/25: The first update is now available, addressing the following issues:

Please uninstall any prior version before installing this update. Otherwise you might still experience the uninstall issue mentioned above later.

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Cyberpunk VR Download - vorpX - VR 3D-Driver for Oculus ...

The creator of the Cyberpunk franchise confirms that there are plans to make tabletop gaming products based on the characters and world seen in the Cyberpunk 2077 game. Speaking in an interview with Dicebreaker earlier this week, Cyberpunk creator Mike Pondsmith confirmed that there are plans to make sourcebooks based on Cyberpunk 2077. "There will be," Pondsmith told Dicebreaker when asked about whether there would be any Cyberpunk 2077 sourcebooks. "I can't say much more than that. I am sworn to secrecy by a bunch of very tall, quiet Polish men."

Pondsmith originally published Cyberpunk back in 1988 and has since updated the game three times, updating the world and jumping forward in the timeline via new editions. Pondsmith's R Talesorian Games currently publishes Cyberpunk Red, which is set approximately 22 years prior to Cyberpunk 2077 but uses the same continuity. In the interview, Pondsmith noted that his company is in charge of maintaining the Cyberpunk timeline up to the the in-universe year of 2060, with CD Projekt Red in charge of events afterwords. However, Pondsmith did serve as a consultant for Cyberpunk 2077 and collaborates with CD Projekt Rd on making future DLC for the popular video game.

While R Talesorian Games is continuing to publish Cyberpunk Red material, the company's focus is on filling the gap between that game and Cyberpunk 2077."It's not like we can just put out [Cyberpunk Red] and then say 'now we're going to do [Cyberpunk 2077],'" Pondsmith told Dicebreaker. "There's a lot of stuff needed to go in between to make a 2077 book make sense."

Cyberpunk 2077 was considered one of 2020's most anticipated games, but had a disastrous release due to incredibly buggy console versions. The game was de-listed from Sony's Playstation store for six months due to the number of bugs. Over the past year, CD Projekt Red has released several patches to improve performance. Despite the issues, Cyberpunk 2077 was a strong seller, with estimated sales of 25 million over a 12 month period.

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Cyberpunk 2077 TTRPG Products Are On the Way - ComicBook.com

Look, I will be honest here. I have been on Cyberpunk 2077s side since the beginning. Yes, the game was rushed by investors. Yes, the game had a lot of missing elements that it promised. And YES, the game was effectively broken for many people. But man, when it DID work, it was so much fun. The story was something special and Keanu Reeveshes even beautiful when hes animated. Many players have been waiting for a version of Cyberpunk 2077 to come out that was even a fraction of what CD PROJEKT RED promised and I think we finally got just that.

Cyberpunk 2077 released in November of 2020. By that point we were all on the precipice of madness from lockdown (and some of us are STILL there). We needed an out, we needed a cathartic release. We needed hot and sexy characters making their flashy ways through the streets of a futuristic yet grimy city. What we got were character models with their hanging ding-danglers, community clambakes and mommy milkers sticking out of their clothing. Granted, that did cheer all of us up in the middle of a catastrophic year, but in terms of releasing a game to the masses, you dont want your bangers and mash out for the world to see. Or maybe you do. I dont judge.

The release of Cyberpunk 2077 became a running joke in the game community and that broke my heart because I played it on release and even though it did have some insane bugs and random crashes, the foundation was REALLY GOOD. The story had good bones and the world CD PROJEKT RED created was colorful and expansive, yet trashy and full of corruption. I loved it and I spent hours exploring and driving around doing side quests. I wanted to see all parts of the city and I romanced EVERYONE. I mean, I went around the block and back in that game. My reason? The same reason that people climbed Mt. Everestbecause they were there.

I tend to feel a bit more comfortable with games on the Playstation more than the Xbox (dont come at me, its how I was raised) but I played on Xbox One at release because I knew my XBO could handle the game a bit better than the PS4 based on what people were saying. Now that the game has been released with a PS5 upgrade, I knew that it was time. It was time I jumped back into Night City one more time and I am damn glad I did.

For those of you that have never played Cyberpunk 2077, you play as V. There are three paths that V can start on: Street Kid, Corpo or Nomad. Each path will start a little differently and give you different dialogue options but the paths all converge the same. You end up in Night City and are hired to steal a secretive biochip called The Relic from the super powerful Arasaka Corporation. The job could set V and her best bud, Jackie, up for life. Unfortunately, things go awry and V ends up with the biochip wedged right into her head port.

Also unfortunately, it isnt your run-of-the-mill bio-chipnay nay. On that chip is the consciousness of musician turned terrorist Johnny Silverhand. He was put on that chip after being captured Arasaka while trying to bomb their headquarters. Triple unfortunate for V, Silverhands consciousness will eventually replace her own and removing the chip the regular way will kill them both. V must scour her connections in Night City to remove the chip and get Johnny Silverhand out of her head, quite literally.

Lest we not forget in this whole thing that the man, the myth, the beautiful legend, Keanu Reeves plays Johnny Silverhand. Am I going to say that I bought Cyberpunk 2077 JUST for him? No. Did I? Maybe, but I wont say it.

So, what has changed? Most notably, cars finally wont fall out of the sky with no warning. Police wont spawn in the walls. Both positive changes. Theres improved ray-tracing, haptic feedback improvements on the PS5 and it runs (mostly) at 60fps.

One of the most notable changes is the driving mechanic. Driving in Night City can be dangerous in first person and I will forever suggest that if you are driving, please do so in third person. Even though the current gen update makes driving feel so much smoother, you will still thank me for the change in perspective.

After the update, I never had any issues with game crashes. Sure, sometimes the frame rate will drop if there is a lot going on during a fight but for the most part everything just feels so much more smooth. CDPR added in some DLC content sprinkled in. You also have the ability to buy apartments in different parts of the City which doesnt seem like something important but, just like with the ability to buy cars, the variety is nice.

Speaking of variety, you can now change your appearance mid-game! I cant tell you how relieved I was about that. I remember making my very first character. I made her into a cool, spacey, cyber chick. She was what I imagined Zenon, girl of the twenty first century would look like as a criminal. I went to look in the mirror and it scared the hell out of me. She looked terrifying. The models have improved significantly, thank god.

Even though Cyberpunk 2077 isnt completely the game that was promised to players, after a year of work, it is finally the game we wished it was at launch. The gameplay feels smoother, the combat mechanics feel a little better (although throwing grenades still feel a bit goofy), driving is a better experience and it just feels good to dive back into Night City. Theres something about getting in a car at night under the neon ads featuring sex toys and butt shots to sell energy drinks, turning on some music and riding through the city.

I will forever and always recommend this game and now its even better. Get it! Do it now! Experience the grime, the crime and the life of Night City. Catch you later, choom.

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Now is the time to play Cyberpunk 2077 on console - App Trigger