Category Archives: Cyberpunk

"#The Witcher" series has become such a huge franchise that it will be pretty hard to follow it up and introduce another IP. That's exactly what #CD Projekt RED is doing, with its upcoming sci-fi RPG called "#Cyberpunk 2077." It is quite difficult to get information about the studio's next game, as they are pretty mum about it themselves, but here is everything we know about the highly anticipated game so far.

CD Projekt Red had once said that "Cyberpunk 2077" is a huge project for the studio and the title will certainly benefit from their experience with "The Witcher 3." According to visual effects artist Jose Teixeira, during his interview with MCV in 2015, the game is far bigger than anything else that the gaming studio has done before.

Studio Head Adam Badowski also said during CD Projekt's 2015 financial results that the game will be "even better, even bigger, even more revolutionary." With the way the studio had described the development of the game, gamers should pretty much expect a really ambitious game once it's released.

A huge hint pointing to possible vehicles in "Cyberpunk 2077" was seen on CD Projekt Red's jobs page. According to one of their job openings on the site, the Polish studio is looking for a vehicle gameplay programmer who will "create the whole architecture of vehicle-related code, and the physics of driving and flying in those vehicles" with the rest of the members of the gameplay and level design teams.

The game will give the players an option to take advantage of the driving and flying vehicles traversing the world.

There was a released animated GIF claiming to be part of the project although it was not confirmed whether it is official or not.

CD Projekt Red has remained quiet about the launch date of "Cyberpunk 2077," but a release date window may have just been hinted based on the developer's government funding application.

Information on CD Projekt's site, which was spotted by Neogaf forumer Boskee, mentioned that the timeline will run from January 2016 and January 2017 until June 2019. Based on this, fans should expect the highly anticipated game by the first half of 2019. The forumer noted, however, that this could still be a tentative release date window, as CD Projekt Red can still apply for an extension of the deadline.

The rest is here:

'Cyberpunk 2077' release Date: The game is far bigger than 'The Witcher 3' - Blasting News

Xbox One version due next month.

By Jeffrey Matulef Published 19/06/2017

Acclaimed cyberpunk point-and-click adventure Read Only Memories will be coming to Switch in early 2018.

2064: Read Only Memories is set in a world where Duck Game is still relevant in 57 years.

2064: Read Only Memories tells the tale of a journalist tracking down their kidnapped friend Turing, who just so happens to be the world's first sapient machine.

Unlike most oldschool point-and-click adventures, 2064: Read Only Memories will contain multiple solutions to its puzzles and the way you choose to handle problems will reflect how the story progresses.

The game was originally released on PC in 2015 as Read Only Memories, but it since did that Raiders of the Lost Ark thing where its creators renamed its title after the fact. The 2064 bit is now canon, like Indiana Jones' name in his debut feature.

2064: Read Only Memories has since come to PS4, Vita, Mac and Linux. An Xbox One version is also in development, and based on the game's official Twitter name 2064@XboxOne July!, I would wager that it's coming in July.

If that first voice sounds familiar that's because its Clementine in The Walking Dead actor Melissa Hutchinson.

You can play a free demo of Read on Memories on Steam.

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Cyberpunk adventure 2064: Read Only Memories is coming to Switch - Eurogamer.net

Announced at E3 by Swedish developer Lionbite Games, Rain of Reflections is a cyberpunk adventure with an morale-based strategic confrontations.

It increasingly seems that cyberpunk is making a strong comeback across media, and joining this campaign is Rain of Reflections, an adventure game with turn-based strategic confrontations and a very heavy emphasis on narrative and choice-and-consequence. The game is also quite the looker, and has an almost-AAA finish despite coming from an independent developer.

The games debut trailer below shows its three protagonists: Wilona, Dwennon and Imra. Wilona is a scientist following in her fathers footsteps and involved in experimentation on human children; Dwennon is a private investigator with a shadowy past, because you cant really have a cyberpunk or noir game without one of those floating around; and finally, Imra is a resistance fighter with an eyepatch. Does that make her a cyberpunk pirate? Well have to reach out to the devs for that burning question.

Rain of Reflections is all about narrative choices, and it emphasises that there is no retrying or undoing to be done. Every choice you make is permanent, and you will have to live with the consequences of your actions. The devs stress that theyre also cutting out all the filler content and repetitive gameplay to focus on whats relevant and engaging without ever wasting the players time.

While there dont seem to be any direct action mechanics in the game, there will be dialogues, exploration, puzzles and the aforementioned strategic confrontations that are based on morale. Heres how the devs describe it:

To make the more action-oriented confrontations a part of the narrative and not mere changes of pace, they are constructed around battle motivation a literal tug of war where we offer lots of ways to outsmart enemies without directly resorting to lethal violence.

This fits with the consequence-driven narrative, as we want the player to reflect on that taking a life any life is a tough choice that has consequences on the story going forward.

Rain of Reflections is being developed in the Unity engine at Stockholm, Sweden by Lionbite Games. This is their first game.

Rain of Reflections is scheduled to release sometime in 2018 for PC. Other platforms will be carefully considered after the initial PC release.

Independent DevelopmentIndie GamesIndiesLionbite GamesRain of Reflections

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Rain of Reflections is a cyberpunk game where every choice is permanent - IND13

Satoshi Yoshioka's art from Sdatcher

Snatcher is a cult classic that should be experienced by both science fiction and Metal Gear fans. Even though it appears to "snatch" many of its influences and throw them together into a science fiction cornucopia, it actually explores the issues of humanity and existence in its own distinctive style.

Snatcher was the brainchild of Hideo Kojima and originally came out in 1988 for the MSX console, a computer format that was popular in Japan and Europe in the 80s. It was ported for the PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in America) before reaching American audiences on the Sega CD in 1994, with upgraded graphics and an additional third act. Set in 2047, you play as Gillian Seed, an amnesiac Junker (Japanese Undercover Neuro Kinetic Elimination Ranger) who hunts down Snatchers in the hopes that it will help him to remember his past. The eponymous Snatchers are artificial life forms, or bioroids, designed to blend in with humans. The game takes place in the metropolis of Neo-Kobe, a vibrant melting pot with a whole lot of history and lore. Snatcher uses a text interface similar to the old PC point-and-click adventure games, but it streamlines controls to the point where it's considered one of the earliest precursors of the visual novel.

Former Konami artist Satoshi Yoshioka, who designed many of Snatcher's characters and worked at Konami for nine years on titles like Batman and Robin and Policenauts, told me in an email: "I got a lot of inspiration from classic movies like Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Alien. I made the graphics used in the game with a great deal of respect to [these films]. I was especially interested in the Hollywood SFX [special effects] at that time, and I tried to honour their spirit."

This spirit is felt in many of Snatcher's designs, though their combination creates an atmosphere that has its own unique charm. Players get to know Snatcher's characters through complex dialogue branches with a surprising variety of options. Small comic book panels appear below the main visual window and give personality to each of the characters. The characters also react with appropriate facial expressions that help convey the game's somber themes. Unlike the protagonists in many noirish cyberpunk books and films, Gillian Seed is expressive rather than following the trope of being stoic and subdued. His strong personality goes from melancholy amnesiac to driven investigator and even womanizer (though he gets almost universally rejected). He's a likable character, even with his flaws. He's visually inspired in part by Rick Deckard from Blade Runner, but also the more humorous Lupin the Third from the eponymous animated series.

Yoshioka, who "created all the face graphics for the conversation parts," said that drawing "the expressions of Gillian surprise, delight, and so on were the most challenging to me because of the complexity of the character. Gillian had an interesting mix of humour and seriousness. Kojima wanted to convey Gillian's witty and charming nature, even in some of the more intense moments, so that it would make him seem more 'human' in contrast to the robotic Snatchers." Designing the characters using Konami's custom drawing application, Yoshioka says he was always guided by "Kojima and was mindful of making the graphics as 'cinematic' as possible."

The high quality of the visuals emphasise the cinematic aspect by showcasing graphics that were closer to films than most gamers had seen before on a console. In the combat sequences against the Snatchers, especially one where a fellow Junker named Mika gets captured, the whole battle is framed as an interactive cutscene where you have to kill a villain who uses Mika as a human shield. In another sequence, Gillian's Turbocycle gets sabotaged and spins out of control. The film cuts play out like an action movie, with tense music pounding in the background.

Snatcher's themes of changing technology were present in the development of the game itself. While it'd be easy to say the advanced graphics were due to the increased power of the Sega CD, Yoshioka pointed out that part of what made the development of Snatcher and all its various ports so cohesive is that "Snatcher was developed by a small number of people. In comparison, it might be about half of the average number for a NES game development team at that time. So the developers in different roles could work in close proximity to each other. It enabled us to respond directly and quickly to any developing tasks."

He explained, "Kinoshita (Tomiharu Kinoshita, the original MSX designer) created the original character design. I took part in drawing the characters as a team member of the port for PC Engine CD-ROM (which in turn would be ported with only minor changes to the Sega CD). I could redesign the supporting roles like Chin Shu Oh relatively freely. So I designed them to suit my preference. I heard that in the earlier stage of the development, Kojima had directed the designer to make the game character a bit like Katsuhiro Otomo (the director of Akira)."

This small team had flexibility, but it also meant this small group at Konami had to figure out how development worked when it came to simple things like burning CDs. "When we wrote the data [for Snatcher], we used CD-R writers. It was the first time for us to use the devices. We couldn't inhibit some of the unidentified noises showing up in the game itself. The accident disturbed not only Kojima, but all the other members of the developer team. I was not well acquainted with the CD-R writers. I puzzled over the problem, and suggested not to shake it or to make noises when we used it, hahaha. We finally found that the disturbing noises were due to faulty wiring. Of course, we had amused smiles after we discovered the error was our own fault."

This also brought the team together, a spirit that infuses the game. There's one story Yoshioka shared that perfectly symbolized the unusual development of Snatcher: "I cannot forget that Kojima made strange lyrics for the song in the game, 'Creeping Silence.'" It's a track that effectively creates a creepy atmosphere, but the lyrics don't appear in the game. "He [Kojima] sang it quite often, so the other members remembered the lyrics. 'Spinner, spinner heeey,' and we'd iterate on that. We often sang it all together."

Ouch...

Technology can lead to moments of human bonding, but it's a double-edged sword that can also wreak destruction. The real life Terminator Conundrum a genuine issue debated by the Pentagon about how much autonomy AIs should be granted to kill seems straight out of Snatcher. One of the more shocking moments early in the game is when Gillian comes across the body of Junker Jean-Jack Gibson, whose head has been viciously cut off and lies between his legs. The violence punctuates the threat of the Snatchers and, as Yoshioka points out, "is the first murdered corpse that the players face. So the staff working on the scenes wanted to evoke a dramatic impact and decided to use the most brutal image." Snatcher doesn't shy away from its robotic violence, including a maggot-infested corpse and an animal whose entrails have been ripped out.

The game doesn't delve into Blade Runner's ethical ambivalence when it comes to the existence of Snatchers. They're a threat to be eliminated, not beings on the verge of self-awareness. The terror of that moment highlights the theme of humanity's fear of being replaced by technology as represented by the Snatchers themselves. The irony is that humanity's own self-destructive behaviour created a vacuum for the Snatchers to supplant them in the first place; the game's villain is motivated by his disgust with human behaviour. When I asked Yoshioka about the relationship between technology, art, and humanity, he stated: "In order to know the things of the present, I believe it's essential to know the things of the past. This is also true of arts. We tend to take for granted present technology and the arts. But all of these forms are based on past inventions, innovations, and discoveries."

This theme is also explored more humanely. Metal Gear Mk. II, based on the mechanical nemesis of the original Metal Gear, is Gillian's robot companion. It's been imprinted with a personality programmed by Harry, the engineer for the Junkers. In the game's big twist, you learn that Harry is actually Gillian's son. The reason Gillian and his wife suffered amnesia is that they were part of a secret effort fifty years ago to develop the Snatcher program and replace all the world's leaders. They were put into artificial sleep after the Lucifer-Alpha biological weapon went off. Harry lived on, oblivious to his parents' fate. So the whole game, you're interacting with him, asking about your equipment, and you don't even know who he really is until he dies. That makes your relationship to Metal Gear Mk. II all the more poignant, since he is in essence Harry's creation, your son by mechanical proxy. Metal Gear Mk. II is willing to sacrifice its life to save Gillian, and the implication is that there may come a day when humanity destroys itself and our legacy will only carry on through the technology we birth.

Yoshioka has considered the implications of Snatcher and the movies that inspired it: "There have been many SF movies and comics filled with fearful feelings about the progress of AI. I've got lots of inspirations from these kind of works. Of course, I fear watching and reading about them. But I've also loved AI robots since I was a child. In 1970, when I was just three years old, I saw several robots playing instruments in the Japan World Exposition at Osaka. I still clearly remember that scene and my feeling of wonder which still resonates. So I'm on the side of Metal Gear Mk. II-like robots being able to reach out and communicate with us. I'd prefer to believe in the dream of the emergence of robots that will be partners with humanity, instead of the kind of stories that portend destruction in the wake of AI progression."

Will the advancement of AI and biotechnology reach a point in 2047 where humanity can be replaced by something akin to a Snatcher? Or will the progress made possible by new tech save people from themselves in the face of a catastrophic disease or environmental disaster? It's the fact that there are no easy answers that makes Snatcher so compelling, reminding us that the investigation into human nature never ends. Yoshioka told me, "Though I regard myself to be a has-been, I'm trying to create some brand new impressions by remixing my works, which is my past. I hope the younger generation today realise they need to be aware of the classic and premier works and arts if they want to create something new."

Satoshi Yoshioka's interview was translated by Yoshihiro Tanigawa.

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Of all the things I expected out of E3 2017, Atari announcing a new console was last on the list. Heck, it wasn't even on the list, more scratched in chalk on the tip of my shoe. But it is happening -- CEO Fred Chesnais confirmed with VentureBeat's Dean Takahashi the company's plans to get "back [into] the hardware business".

Nice work gz - Friday's ScribbleTaku was Age of Empires. The original one, incidentally. I had the game on my mind after the remaster for AOE 1 was announced during the PC Gaming Showcase. It's been an awful long time since I busted out the CD for that game (since you can't buy it digitally these days). But a new week means a new game. Let's see how you all go.

Original post:

Snatcher Is Cyberpunk Noir At Its Best - Kotaku Australia

Satoshi Yoshiokas art from Sdatcher

Snatcher is a cult classic that should be experienced by both science fiction and Metal Gear fans. Even though it appears to snatch many of its influences and throw them together into a science fiction cornucopia, it actually explores the issues of humanity and existence in its own distinctive style.

Snatcher was the brainchild of Hideo Kojima and originally came out in 1988 for the MSX console, a computer format that was popular in Japan and Europe in the 80s. It was ported for the PC Engine (known as the TurboGrafx-16 in America) before reaching American audiences on the Sega CD in 1994, with upgraded graphics and an additional third act. Set in 2047, you play as Gillian Seed, an amnesiac Junker (Japanese Undercover Neuro Kinetic Elimination Ranger) who hunts down Snatchers in the hopes that it will help him to remember his past. The eponymous Snatchers are artificial life forms, or bioroids, designed to blend in with humans. The game takes place in the metropolis of Neo-Kobe, a vibrant melting pot with a whole lot of history and lore. Snatcher uses a text interface similar to the old PC point-and-click adventure games, but it streamlines controls to the point where its considered one of the earliest precursors of the visual novel.

Former Konami artist Satoshi Yoshioka, who designed many of Snatchers characters and worked at Konami for nine years on titles like Batman and Robin and Policenauts, told me in an email: I got a lot of inspiration from classic movies like Blade Runner, The Terminator, and Alien. I made the graphics used in the game with a great deal of respect to [these films]. I was especially interested in the Hollywood SFX [special effects] at that time, and I tried to honor their spirit.

This spirit is felt in many of Snatchers designs, though their combination creates an atmosphere that has its own unique charm. Players get to know Snatchers characters through complex dialogue branches with a surprising variety of options. Small comic book panels appear below the main visual window and give personality to each of the characters. The characters also react with appropriate facial expressions that help convey the games somber themes. Unlike the protagonists in many noirish cyberpunk books and films, Gillian Seed is expressive rather than following the trope of being stoic and subdued. His strong personality goes from melancholy amnesiac to driven investigator and even womanizer (though he gets almost universally rejected). Hes a likable character, even with his flaws. Hes visually inspired in part by Rick Deckard from Blade Runner, but also the more humorous Lupin the Third from the eponymous animated series.

Yoshioka, who created all the face graphics for the conversation parts, said that drawing the expressions of Gilliansurprise, delight, and so onwere the most challenging to me because of the complexity of the character. Gillian had an interesting mix of humor and seriousness. Kojima wanted to convey Gillians witty and charming nature, even in some of the more intense moments, so that it would make him seem more human in contrast to the robotic Snatchers. Designing the characters using Konamis custom drawing application, Yoshioka says he was always guided by Kojima and was mindful of making the graphics as cinematic as possible.

The high quality of the visuals emphasize the cinematic aspect by showcasing graphics that were closer to films than most gamers had seen before on a console. In the combat sequences against the Snatchers, especially one where a fellow Junker named Mika gets captured, the whole battle is framed as an interactive cutscene where you have to kill a villain who uses Mika as a human shield. In another sequence, Gillians Turbocycle gets sabotaged and spins out of control. The film cuts play out like an action movie, with tense music pounding in the background.

Snatchers themes of changing technology were present in the development of the game itself. While itd be easy to say the advanced graphics were due to the increased power of the Sega CD, Yoshioka pointed out that part of what made the development of Snatcher and all its various ports so cohesive is that Snatcher was developed by a small number of people. In comparison, it might be about half of the average number for a NES game development team at that time. So the developers in different roles could work in close proximity to each other. It enabled us to respond directly and quickly to any developing tasks.

He explained, Kinoshita (Tomiharu Kinoshita, the original MSX designer) created the original character design. I took part in drawing the characters as a team member of the port for PC Engine CD-ROM (which in turn would be ported with only minor changes to the Sega CD). I could redesign the supporting roles like Chin Shu Oh relatively freely. So I designed them to suit my preference. I heard that in the earlier stage of the development, Kojima had directed the designer to make the game character a bit like Katsuhiro Otomo (the director of Akira).

This small team had flexibility, but it also meant this small group at Konami had to figure out how development worked when it came to simple things like burning CDs. When we wrote the data [for Snatcher], we used CD-R writers. It was the first time for us to use the devices. We couldnt inhibit some of the unidentified noises showing up in the game itself. The accident disturbed not only Kojima, but all the other members of the developer team. I was not well acquainted with the CD-R writers. I puzzled over the problem, and suggested not to shake it or to make noises when we used it, hahaha. We finally found that the disturbing noises were due to faulty wiring. Of course, we had amused smiles after we discovered the error was our own fault.

This also brought the team together, a spirit that infuses the game. Theres one story Yoshioka shared that perfectly symbolized the unusual development of Snatcher: I cannot forget that Kojima made strange lyrics for the song in the game, Creeping Silence. Its a track that effectively creates a creepy atmosphere, but the lyrics dont appear in the game. He [Kojima] sang it quite often, so the other members remembered the lyrics. Spinner, spinner heeey, and wed iterate on that. We often sang it all together.

Technology can lead to moments of human bonding, but its a double-edged sword that can also wreak destruction. The real life Terminator Conundruma genuine issue debated by the Pentagon about how much autonomy AIs should be granted to killseems straight out of Snatcher. One of the more shocking moments early in the game is when Gillian comes across the body of Junker Jean-Jack Gibson, whose head has been viciously cut off and lies between his legs. The violence punctuates the threat of the Snatchers and, as Yoshioka points out, is the first murdered corpse that the players face. So the staff working on the scenes wanted to evoke a dramatic impact and decided to use the most brutal image. Snatcher doesnt shy away from its robotic violence, including a maggot-infested corpse and an animal whose entrails have been ripped out.

The game doesnt delve into Blade Runners ethical ambivalence when it comes to the existence of Snatchers. Theyre a threat to be eliminated, not beings on the verge of self-awareness. The terror of that moment highlights the theme of humanitys fear of being replaced by technology as represented by the Snatchers themselves. The irony is that humanitys own self-destructive behavior created a vacuum for the Snatchers to supplant them in the first place; the games villain is motivated by his disgust with human behavior. When I asked Yoshioka about the relationship between technology, art, and humanity, he stated: In order to know the things of the present, I believe its essential to know the things of the past. This is also true of arts. We tend to take for granted present technology and the arts. But all of these forms are based on past inventions, innovations, and discoveries.

This theme is also explored more humanely. Metal Gear Mk. II, based on the mechanical nemesis of the original Metal Gear, is Gillians robot companion. Its been imprinted with a personality programmed by Harry, the engineer for the Junkers. In the games big twist, you learn that Harry is actually Gillians son. The reason Gillian and his wife suffered amnesia is that they were part of a secret effort fifty years ago to develop the Snatcher program and replace all the worlds leaders. They were put into artificial sleep after the Lucifer-Alpha biological weapon went off. Harry lived on, oblivious to his parents fate. So the whole game, youre interacting with him, asking about your equipment, and you dont even know who he really is until he dies. That makes your relationship to Metal Gear Mk. II all the more poignant, since he is in essence Harrys creation, your son by mechanical proxy. Metal Gear Mk. II is willing to sacrifice its life to save Gillian, and the implication is that there may come a day when humanity destroys itself and our legacy will only carry on through the technology we birth.

Yoshioka has considered the implications of Snatcher and the movies that inspired it: There have been many SF movies and comics filled with fearful feelings about the progress of AI. Ive got lots of inspirations from these kind of works. Of course, I fear watching and reading about them. But Ive also loved AI robots since I was a child. In 1970, when I was just three years old, I saw several robots playing instruments in the Japan World Exposition at Osaka. I still clearly remember that scene and my feeling of wonder which still resonates. So Im on the side of Metal Gear Mk. II-like robots being able to reach out and communicate with us. Id prefer to believe in the dream of the emergence of robots thatll be partners with humanity, instead of the kind of stories that portend destruction in the wake of AI progression.

Will the advancement of AI and biotechnology reach a point in 2047 where humanity can be replaced by something akin to a Snatcher? Or will the progress made possible by new tech save people from themselves in the face of a catastrophic disease or environmental disaster? Its the fact that there are no easy answers that makes Snatcher so compelling, reminding us that the investigation into human nature never ends. Yoshioka told me, Though I regard myself to be a has-been, Im trying to create some brand new impressions by remixing my works, which is my past. I hope the younger generation today realize they need to be aware of the classic and premier works and arts if they want to create something new.

Satoshi Yoshiokas interview was translated by Yoshihiro Tanigawa.

See the original post here:

Snatcher Is Cyberpunk Noir At Its Best - Kotaku

Its rare that a game becomes one of the biggest wins and the biggest losses of E3 at the same time, but The Last Night a cyberpunk side-scroller made by indie studio Odd Tales may have done it. The Last Nights stylish, neon-drenched trailer was a highlight of Microsofts annual press conference, overshadowing much bigger games from much larger teams. But not long after the show, a series of controversial tweets surfaced from co-creator Tim Soret, suggesting that the game would reflect the worldview of the anti-feminist Gamergate movement. Within a few hours, The Last Night went from universally appealing to bitterly divisive.

Based on what Ive now seen of The Last Night, the final game wont be either of those things. This game is one of the most beautiful things at E3, and also one of the most nebulous. The Last Night is a cinematic platformer that may have almost no platforming, with a cyberpunk plot and setting that the developers insist is not cyberpunk, based on a view of the world that seems less reactionary than naive. Its a game whose creators appear determined to make socially relevant, but in a way that may ultimately hurt The Last Night as a piece of art.

The Last Night wasnt playable at E3, but Odd Tales appeared at the show with a series of animated environments: a bustling neon-lit street, a subway station, a harbor at night. Each one is composed of flat pixel art layered in a three-dimensional space, which is then lit like an ordinary 3D scene. The world is magnetic, with a warmth and depth that brings its buildings and inhabitants to life.

Its less clear what form that life will take. The game is set in a future of ubiquitous computing, where labor has been rendered obsolete by artificial intelligence. Its about a man who is medically unable to get the implanted computing devices that other people in the world depend on, drifting around the edges of society until hes drawn into a life-or-death plot.

A cinematic platformer where you dont jump

Odd Tales calls The Last Night a cinematic platformer in the vein of Another World, whose developer Soret cites as an inspiration. But he describes gameplay that sounds more like a complex interactive drama based on talking to people and exploring the environment, with a cast of characters whose reactions will change based on what you say and do. Despite the platformer label, the game supposedly wont include a jump mechanic Soret jokes that you dont see people leaping around the streets in real-world cities.

These kinds of branching narratives are hard to pull off, and we dont know how good Odd Tales is at writing them, since we havent seen the game in action. And Odd Tales seems to be grappling with what kind of future it wants to make which is exactly what got it into trouble at E3. In 2014, Soret wrote that The Last Night takes place in a cyberpunk world where modern feminism won instead of egalitarianism, appending the Gamergate hashtag. Around the same time, he claimed the game would show the dangers of extreme progressivism, and inquired about the possibility of using Gamergate mascot Vivian James in the game.

Soret has disavowed the tweets and the sentiment, and when I met with him, he reiterated that they were mistakes that dont reflect his current worldview or plans for The Last Night. He cast some of his earlier statements in a more neutral light: where his old tweets seemed to condemn artificial wombs as a kind of extreme feminism meant to let women smoke and drink during pregnancy, he now describes them simply as something that could change womens role in his future, possibly for the better. Its neither utopian nor dystopian, he says.

Soret still seems dubious of modern feminism and social justice, but expresses it in vague terms of seeing the movement as divisive, and theres no sign this will translate into the game itself. Nothing about The Last Nights world sounds preachy if anything, its social commentary sounds remarkably mild, covering ubiquitous future-shock anxieties like gamification, automation, and consumerism. The danger is that nothing seems particularly well-considered, either. Would a post-work future really look so much like Blade Runner or Neuromancer, both of which were full of hustlers looking for their next score? Will the developers engage with feminism enough to address its future with any depth, the way that recent games like VA-11 HALL-A have done?

There's little sense of context or self-awareness around The Last Night

Odd Tales expresses a confusingly bellicose conviction that its turning the science fiction world on its head, without offering much justification for why. The Last Night began as an entry in the 2014 Cyberpunk Game Jam, but Odd Tales later rejected the label in an online manifesto, declaring that the cyberpunk vision established by Blade Runner and William Gibson is just too normal and deriding every cyberpunk-adjacent game of the past decade as trope comfort food.

Every time Odd Tales tries to explain why The Last Night isnt cyberpunk, though, it ends up describing something that could come straight out of Blade Runner when I asked Soret whether The Last Night took the genres aesthetic in a new direction, he mentioned drawing influence from a trip to Hong Kong. (Even William Gibson himself retweeted a joke about the games straightforward visual homage.) Theres a common thread here with the Gamergate controversy, which is that theres very little sense of context or self-awareness around The Last Night. Its seemingly post-cyberpunk the way that people who dont know much about feminism identify as post-feminist, advancing past an unrecognizable strawman of the genre.

And ironically, insisting that The Last Night is unprecedented makes it a lot less likable. It suggests that the studio doesnt understand why people enjoyed its trailer so much: not because it offered something totally new, but because it handled a familiar formula with fantastic competence. The project is in such an early state that I cant say whether Odd Tales will be able to deliver a finished game by 2018, the current release date. But if it does, The Last Night could be the best cyberpunk comfort food of the year. I dearly hope thats where it goes.

Read more:

The Last Night was one of E3's most dazzling games and also its most frustrating - The Verge

GameZone

E3 2017: The Last Night revealed, shows off an incredibly stylized Cyberpunk world GameZone With all of the big game announcements that were made at Microsoft's E3 2017 presser, a little game called The Last Night debuted in what is perhaps the most stylish trailer of all. The Last Night is described as a post-cyberpunk cinematic platformer ...

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E3 2017: The Last Night revealed, shows off an incredibly stylized Cyberpunk world - GameZone

A designer on The Last Night, one of the buzziest indie titles shown during Microsofts E3 2017 press conference yesterday, has become the subject of an escalating backlash on social media, as Twitter users dig into some of his more political past tweets.

Tim Soret is founder of Odd Tales, which is working on the cyberpunk action game. Following The Last Nights debut trailer during the Microsoft presser, those familiar with his social media presence resurfaced several of his tweets dating from 2014 to April of this year. These posts included references to anti-feminist ideals and identity politics; most notably, Soret expressed sympathies for the hate-mongering GamerGate movement during its height in 2014.

The Gamergate people are for journalistc integrity, honest debate, transparency, inclusiveness, & egalitarianism [sic], Soret wrote in September 2014, in one of the tweets that prompted the most discussion.

Im against feminism, because its getting more and more skewed, he tweeted just before that, in July 2014. I am for egalitariasm [sic]. I dont care, boy, girl, alien.

In response to celebrity scientist Bill Nyes new Netflix show, Soret said this past April that injecting identity politics under the cover of science, it's not gonna end well.

As screenshots of Sorets tweets circulated across Twitter, some whod been excited about The Last Night began to express serious reservations. The games premise, as described on its Steam page, further stoked their ire.

Stabilised by universal income, people struggle to find their calling or identity, and define themselves by what they consume, rather than what they create, it reads. Players assume the role of a man named Charlie, who finds himself disaffected in this technological, socialist dystopia.

In response to the growing discontent, Soret posted a series of messages saying that hed changed his stance.

Controversy time, he wrote in the first of three tweets. That's fine. Let's talk about it, because it's important. I completely stand for equality & inclusiveness.

In no way is The Last Night a game against feminism or any form of equality, he continued. A lot of things changed for me these last years. The fictional setting of the game does challenge techno-social progress as a whole but certainly not trying to promote regressive ideas.

We reached out to The Last Nights publisher, Raw Fury Games, Sunday night about Sorets tweets. The company responded with a lengthy statement later that evening:

We at Raw Fury believe in equality, believe in feminism, and believe everyone has a right and chance at the equal pursuit of happiness. We would not be working with Tim Soret / Odd Tales at all if we believed they were against these principles in any aspect.

The comments Tim made in 2014 are certainly surprising and dont fit the person we know, and we hope that everyone reading this who knows us at Raw Fury on a personal and professional level knows that we wouldnt tolerate working with someone who portrays the caricature of Tim going around the internet right now.

The wording of his statements toward feminism in 2014 was poor, and his buying into GamerGate as a movement on the notion that it represented gamers against journalists was naive, but in the same year he also cheered the rise of women in gaming. In a similar situation as the one happening now, folks on the IdleThumbs forums found questionable tweets and Tim took it upon himself to address them. What came from that was a dialogue where different viewpoints were considered and debated in a purposeful way.

Here is a link to everything including his tweets, his response, and the response of the forum; we hope youll take the time to read through it.

Side note: Debating Anita Sarkeesians efforts toward highlighting sexism in the games industry is touchy, and though Tims post back then was naive we felt that he wasnt being malicious like so many others have been to Anita in the past, so we share all of this with the hope people can see that first hand. We understand that no matter what there will be people who will not look at Tim the same again and we respect that, too.

A lot can change in three years, including viewpoints, and Tim has assured us that The Last Night does not spout a message steeped in regressive stances. We trust Tim and know that he is an advocate for progression both in and outside of our industry, and we hope that this will be apparent moving forward.

A representative for Odd Tales also told Polygon that the studios relationship with Raw Fury Games and Microsoft has not been affected by the outrage.

Weve contacted Microsoft about Sorets tweets and the backlash, and will update when we hear back.

The Last Night is set for a 2018 release on Windows PC and Xbox One.

Update: Soret apologized for his past tweets while talking about The Last Night onstage at the PC Gaming Show.

I want to apologize for those [tweets], Soret said. They dont in any way represent where I am today or what The Last Night will be about.

A Microsoft spokesperson told Polygon, We dont support comments that fail to reflect our commitment to diversity and inclusion, which are part of our everyday business and core values.

The rest is here:

Designer of cyberpunk indie The Last Night speaks out as Twitter history causes stir - Polygon

By Ms. Smith, Network World | Jun 11, 2017 7:50 AM PT

Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues.

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With E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo) starting this week, we can expect a flood of gaming news. It remains to be seen if the person or people trying to extort Polish game developer CD Projekt Red will choose this week to leak stolen Cyberpunk 2077 game files.

Instead of staying quiet about an extortion attempt, CD Projekt Red, the developers behind The Witcher 3, got out ahead of any potential leak by tweeting:

An unidentified individual or individuals have just informed us they are in possession of a few internal files belonging to CD PROJEKT RED. Among them are documents connected to early designs for the upcoming game, Cyberpunk 2077.

A demand for ransom has been made, saying that should we not comply, the files will be released to the general public. We will not be giving in to the demands of the individual or individuals that have contacted us, which might eventually lead to the files being published online. The appropriate legal authorities will be informed about the situation.

The documents are old and largely unrepresentative of the current vision for the game. Still, if youre looking forward to playing Cyberpunk 2077, it would be best for you to avoid any information not coming directly from CD PROJEKT RED.

When the time is right, you will hear about Cyberpunk 2077 from us officially.

The developers posted the same notice on its Cyberpunk 2077 forum.

Cyberpunk 2077, which has been in the works for years, was first announced in 2012. Its supposed to be an RPG set in the open world of Night City. The game is based on the cyberpunk role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020. CD Projekt Red said it was working closely with Mike Pondsmith who wrote the original pen-and-paper game. In 2013, a teaser video was released.

But since then, CD Projekt Red released The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. The wildly popular 2015 release is a fantastic game and it apparently changed everything for developers.

When you release a game like The Witcher and create the expansions, the perception is not the pre-Witcher 3 expectation, CD Projekt Red co-founder Marcin Iwinski told Eurogamer. The bar is higher and its externally and internally as well.

I cannot talk about plans but we have to adjust to it and also adjust our own ambitions, Iwinski added. If CD Projekt Red releases a new game and it is not better than Witcher 3, people [will say], Hmm, wow, why is it not better? Witcher 3 set a certain bar and we definitely cannot go lower. Its always about improving and making new, pretty stuff, [and] storytelling games and mechanics and what not.

With that in mind, its not entirely impossible that the stolen internal documents about Cyberpunk 2077 would have little to do with the direction CD Projekt Red took the game after the Witcher 3 release. The documents may indeed be old and largely unrepresentative of the current vision for the game as the developer claimed.

The developers did not say what the blackmail amount was, when or how the game material was stolen. Earlier this year, The Witcher fans received breach notifications after the CD Projekt Red forum was compromised. About 1.9 million CD Projekt Red accounts were exposed; the developers said the accounts came from an old database which was compromised in March 2016.

One of my first thoughts was wondering if The Dark Overlord hacking group was involved; the hackers who were responsible for leaking 10 new Orange Is the New Black episodes after Netflix refused to be extorted. But after releasing unaired episodes of ABCs Steve Harveys Funderdome, most of the groups tweets revolve around A Business A Day which has so far involved dumping records from doctors and dentists unwilling to be blackmailed. So far, theres no mention of CD Projekt Red.

It remains to be seen if whomever is responsible does follow through and leak info related to Cyberpunk 2077 and if that will happen amidst all the gaming news which pour out this week from E3.

Ms. Smith (not her real name) is a freelance writer and programmer with a special and somewhat personal interest in IT privacy and security issues.

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Witcher 3 developers won't bow to extortion for stolen Cyberpunk 2077 files - Network World

Now Playing: GS News Update: Cyberpunk 2077 Design Documents Are Being Held For Ransom

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Documents related to the development of Cyberpunk 2077, the upcoming game from The Witcher developer CD Projekt Red, have somehow found their way out of the studio. Now, they're being held for ransom, with someone (or some group) threatening to release them if CD Projekt doesn't pay up.

The developer revealed this news in a message posted on Twitter today. It describes the documents as "a few internal files belonging to CD Projekt Red. Among them are documents connected to early designs for the upcoming game, Cyberpunk 2077."

"A demand for ransom has been made, saying that should we not comply, the files will be released to the general public," CD Projekt's message continued. It said it has contacted the authorities and does not intend to pay the ransom, which it acknowledges might result in the files making their way online. It did not say what the ransom entails.

"The documents are old and largely unrepresentative of the current vision of the game," it said. "Still, if you're looking forward to playing Cyberpunk 2077, it would be best for you to avoid any information not coming directly from CD Projekt Red."

It's a somewhat bizarre situation, as it's not often that leaks manifest themselves in this way. One of the more famous leaks in the industry involves Half-Life 2, which saw its source code leaked following a Steam hack prior to the game's release. This also led to the public release of a playable version of the game. Valve would later attempt to lure the hacker into being arrested by the FBI under the guise of a job interview, though he was first arrested in Germany.

Little has been shared about Cyberpunk 2077 since its announcement; you can see a 2013 teaser trailer above. The RPG is slated for release on PC, PS4, and Xbox One at some point in the future. CD Projekt Red's message concludes, "When the time is right, you will hear about Cyberpunk 2077 from us--officially."

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Cyberpunk 2077 Design Documents Being Held For Ransom, CD ...