Cyberpunk 2077 - PS5 and XSeries versions out now + major patch

[Floshenbarnical]

The Archangel songs almost do it for me, but the vocals/ lyrics let them down. I do unreservedly enjoy Black Dog however

[JoeK]

Well then. A first full run through the game has been done. All the open side-quests and gigs were done, although plenty of different path-ways and outcomes still to be investigated in the future.

 

I think it's a remarkable game on a number of levels, that's for sure. I've definitely become a fan of it, after the early month of release being bitterly disappointed with the thing. 

 

I do think there are some weird quirks in the pacing of the game - mainly due to allowing the player to take on the main tasks in any order they choose. This does lead to some slightly odd conversations with people who one minute you're all palsy with one moment, to having huge arguments with the next. But, it is what it is. 

 

Ended well, although quite honestly not exactly the ending I probably should have gone with but..

 

Spoiler

I love my boy Takemura. 

 

Also -it would have been grand had you been able to properly carry on in the game-world after the end-creds and not just a save before the whole world ends - obviously would have been dependant on your end choices I guess, but that would have been fantastic and allowed for a few extra little epilogue missions to crop up?

 

Ah well.

 

I look forward to the DLC now, and an obvious excuse to replay and this time not piss off Panam so catastrophically.

[fattakin]

Finished this morning , just  shy of 60 hours on the clock. I think its a fantastic game and one of the best narrative FPS games I've played in ages. It has a lot of complex systems that you can learn and exploit or you can just shoot things in the face with a variety of guns.  The story is intriguing throughout, very rarely cheesy or generic. The world is alive and lived in, Night City is awesome. I'll miss cruising around. The best time was the 20-40 hours, were you have got to grips with the mechanics and are out doing side hustles to make money for upgrades and exploring the city. I went into a random restaurant for a nosy and sat at the counter.. 3 dudes came in for a stick up and I talked them down, it was just a nice touch. Then in the last 20 hours, a bit more tooled up I was able to really let rip and go buck mental.  The Main story missions were all well scripted and fun to play and I'm happy with my ending. Well slightly disappointed my cock ruled over rock n roll 🤣 🫣.  I'm probably going to play out the other endings before parking it up and waiting for DLC later this year, I'll be day one.  Any bugs i had were purely environmental, the odd car or person in a weird place - no story bugs at all.   I missed out playing W3 when it was around so glad I didn't miss out on this. The monowires are so OP, im glad I didn't start using them until after 50 hours in as with them the game did start to be too easy. 

[JoeK]

Some of the vids out there with fully spec'd out Vs are absolutely awesome to watch. Amazing moves and skillets going on.

 

My V is a little less dainty, although he quite likes busting people in the head with his gorilla arms.

[glb]

Yeah, my V… she’s a tryer. Usually spreads contagion, then wields a Burya with the accuracy of a drunk stormtrooper.

[Uzi]

 

No RT Overdrive which I suspect will hit with phantom liberty but still good news

[stir fry]

I tried it out, could not tell any difference in image quality at 4k quality (which is good), yet it hit up to around 120fps in the city. Average 100fps driving around. This is with a 7700x & 4090.

 

Literally started a Nomad NG on this last night to test the new 4090 out so that's serendipitous timing 

[JoeK]

I ran a few benchmarks:

 

 

There is a definite drop in image quality from DLSS2 to DLSS3 - it's mitigated a little bit by upping the sharpness levels, but it is there. Nothing much, but after spending so many hours with the thing so recently you do notice it. 

 

However, I'd imagine that it will be needed as and when RT Overdrive comes along and I'll be happy enough to pay the price

[NecroMorrius]

Frame generation is hit and miss in most games but it's a big hit here. I've got everything on max including RT and AO set to psycho and I'm getting 100+fps. It's unreal. I can turn DLSS off altogether while leaving frame generation on, and I'm still over 60-80fps. I've been holding off on playing this for ages now, I played a bunch on Xbox Series X at launch which wasn't too bad at first but the cracks started showing before long. Since I got my 4090 I've been holding off for the DLSS3 update. Hoo boy this is gonna be fun. Or at least pretty.

[stir fry]

Just been playing the opening missions. I hate that I'm turning into another annoying 4090 shill, but wow frame-gen is just superb. It's unbelievably immersive exploring night city at this level of detail with this degree of smoothness. The seedy market alleys just feel full of depth and realism

 

I still reckon after about 15 hours I'll shelve the game again cause it's just full of RPG bits and bobs but devoid of depth or any interesting simulated systems. But holy shit does it look good.

[HarryBizzle]

I’ve just gone back to this, having put about 8-9 hours in after patch 1.5 launched and am pleased to learn it now supports FSR 2.1 on Series consoles as of 1.61.

 

Looks mostly great to my eyes. I’m still just playing it as an FPS and don’t really understand the levelling system but that doesn’t seem to be causing me any issues. 

[Kryptonian]

9 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

as of 1.61.

 

Thought this was meant to be a date and was very confused

[stir fry]

I'm a decent way in now, well I got past the title drop anyway. Playing on v hard mode. Going with body and intelligence, I'm not sure how much leeway I have to level other stats. But the build involves a lot of run and gun with a shotgun, slowmo with sliding on the ground and dodges and lots of blunt weapon trauma (which is useful for some pacifist approaches with the cyberpsychos). Last time I played this game I went way too hackery (tho I still have hacker options on this character, I just haven't gotten past the 'common' quickhacks just yet) so I want something a bit more active and close range, a bit more dangerous. My plan is to get some skills which lessen fall damage and get the legs which let you charge jump, see if I can come up with a really janky character that can really move

 

This game is impossible to play on a controller I feel, just feels nasty. So I'm on the 1440p gsync monitor (rather than 4k tv) with M&K, which actually feels really responsive. Like a completely different game. DLSS off but frame gen on, frankly I could leave frame gen off I think (it has weird jank going in and out of menus I find, seems to be a Ryzen bug unfortunately). 

 

I'm going to take my time and do lots of gigs I think.

[HarryBizzle]

The dialogue options in this game often don’t really match up with what V says. 
 

Also I want to be able to tell Panam that my V is saving himself for marriage but there doesn’t seem to be an option for that. 
 

It looks great on Series X now, but I’d definitely like to play it with full whizz bang RT on PC for a bit just to see what it’s like. 

[HarryBizzle]

Does anyone know anything about a bug where if you hit B on a terminal the terminal screen goes completely black? Stepping away and coming back to it doesn’t help - the terminal is just dead from there on. 

[JoeK]

2 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

Does anyone know anything about a bug where if you hit B on a terminal the terminal screen goes completely black? Stepping away and coming back to it doesn’t help - the terminal is just dead from there on. 

Yup, happened fairly regularly to me during my last playthrough. Usually a re-load sorted it out.

[HarryBizzle]

Thanks. This game remains an oddity. One minute I’m dazzled by it and the next, Panam is walking everywhere with an invisible sniper rifle and riding an invisible motorbike. 

[stir fry]

This whole segment with Panam in the desert reminds me of the Catalina section in the woods in San Andreas.

 

Destroy optics seems a bit of a fucked up hack to get so easily. I wonder if the hacking would be more interesting if I limited myself from using it. Right now I'm trying to get a bunch of the 'cold blood' stacks. So atm I move faster and my defense and damage gets a boost when I kill someone, and I also heal faster. I think if I just keep unlocking those perks I can turn my V into an unstoppable vampire.

 

I still think the way the different stories interweave and progress is done really well, and integrates the city pretty well also. The actual RPG aspects of it, the abundance of repetitive loot, I still have problems with these parts. I don't get why every single drink in the game has the exact same effect. I wish crafting and customisation was implemented in a better way, and hacking felt less like techno mage. But I actually think the gorilla mode run and gun shit for brains approach is done well in this, and is maybe an underrated way to play the game instead

 

Time for screenshots. The game is hard carried by its atmosphere, its luxurious attention to detail. Which makes some of the shortcuts disappointing (the repeated adverts everywhere). But the areas where you can tell an artist took their time, these areas really stand out, as do the character stories

Spoiler

 

 

 

 

 

 

I guess the RT overdrive stuff will be out when the Idris Elba DLC comes out.

[Isaac]

This is absolutely incredible on the 4090, particularly with DLSS 3, but I want to save a new play through until RT overdrive is out.

[HarryBizzle]

1 hour ago, Isaac said:

This is absolutely incredible on the 4090, particularly with DLSS 3, but I want to save a new play through until RT overdrive is out.

I thought DLSS was basically to reconstruct lower res images. Is the 4090 not able to run this at native 4K, i.e. no need for DLSS?

[JoeK]

2 minutes ago, HarryBizzle said:

I thought DLSS was basically to reconstruct lower res images. Is the 4090 not able to run this at native 4K, i.e. no need for DLSS?

 

Nope. Not with raytracing on. It's playable, but definitely not ideal.

 

Having said that, DLSS looks better than native resolution most of the time, so it's not a problem!

[Isaac]

1 minute ago, HarryBizzle said:

I thought DLSS was basically to reconstruct lower res images. Is the 4090 not able to run this at native 4K, i.e. no need for DLSS?

 

DLSS 3 is frame insertion, so that the AI adds an additional frame every other frame. On max settings for this on the 4090 it boosts it from about 50fps to 90-100fps.

 

[Uzi]

2 hours ago, Isaac said:

This is absolutely incredible on the 4090, particularly with DLSS 3, but I want to save a new play through until RT overdrive is out.

Same. I'm guessing the DLC will be the moment so I'm going to have to make do with meh games like Res Evil 4, FFXVI, TOTK  until then. Ugh.

[DC]

Picked this up for £16 from Tesco in their sell off of physical games.

[HarryBizzle]

I seem to recall a lot of people criticising the writing in this but I have to say I’ve been reasonably impressed with some of it. I find some of the references to Portal 2 and Death Stranding a bit cringey and distracting but I’ve really liked River’s side quests and Delamain’s as well. Panam feels very one note. 
 

I’m also surprised at how buggy it remains. Surely they must be able to sort out the fact that you get called like 5 times in the middle of a mission, or that you’re getting so many calls that they seem to be bugging out? 
 

I think in the mission where you search Randy’s trailer, I picked up the “antique key” from his shelf about 10 times and it made the sound to say you’ve picked it up, and sometimes disappeared, before returning to the shelf. In the end it was still on the shelf but I couldn’t interact with it. 

[ZOK]

I’ve never had any of the issues you described on Stadia - perhaps they are now introducing bugs?

 

Also, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone criticise the writing in this…it would be an odd criticism as from that perspective it’s obviously one of the best there’s ever been, bar the occasional translation hiccup.

[Uzi]

12 minutes ago, ZOK said:

I’ve never had any of the issues you described on Stadia - perhaps they are now introducing bugs?

 

Also, I don’t think I’ve seen anyone criticise the writing in this…it would be an odd criticism as from that perspective it’s obviously one of the best there’s ever been, bar the occasional translation hiccup.

The console versions still from their legacy seem to be significantly more buggy than the PC build (which the stadia one was based on)

 

And yes, the writing is the one thing CDPR typically nails. Even those generic copy paste NCPD missions I love finding the datapads explaining what shit went down.

[stir fry]

Interesting that the console versions are more buggy. I never really had that much issues with bugs on PC, either at launch or right now.

 

The writing is very good, imo the integration of first person story telling and action sequences is best in class. The stuff that isn't great imo are those datapads which after a point have the same repetitive blurbs of text of 'chooms' getting busted on drug deals or smuggling or whatever.

 

One or two things are making me feel disappointed again playing through this. I really wish that enemies had some sort of 'firewall' defense for quickhacks, so that if you don't fully use breach protocol at the start they could hack you back or fuck you up if you mess a hack up or something. Something which would integrate the fiction in gameplay terms a bit better.

 

I also wish there was consequences to visiting the ripperdoc, maybe certain installments could not be easily removed or would impact your stats in such a way that the decision to carve yourself up was a harder one to make

[ZOK]

23 minutes ago, stir fry said:

The writing is very good, imo the integration of first person story telling and action sequences is best in class. The stuff that isn't great imo are those datapads which after a point have the same repetitive blurbs of text of 'chooms' getting busted on drug deals or smuggling or whatever.

I think there is a real variance in quality of these, they are definitely more varied than you suggest but there are so many of them (and I group them in with the emails and shards you can read as a format) that it’s almost inevitable to see that variance.

 

What’s amazing to me is that so many of them are genuinely worth reading. I think this is the only game I’ve ever played where I have obsessively read every single thing I’ve come across, because I don’t want to miss out on anything. 

[K]

Every single NCPD scanner hustle has a unique setup and a backstory. Obviously there are a lot of similarities - there are loads of them, and there are only so many variations on drug deal goes wrong / gang members hunt down and kill squealer / warehouse robbery - but they all have named characters and are set up like little death vignettes. Some of them even link to others and set up a bigger story, although you would probably need a pretty exceptional memory to really link them together.