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Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

arstechnica.com

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Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#51

Post by TeMPOraL »

gazarsgo wrote: post #46
crooked-v wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Of course, the standout thing about cryptocoin by comparison is that there's no real useful work resulting from all the absurd amounts of electricity being used to mine it.

I'm reasonably skeptical of cryptocoin but I think it's absurd to judge utility of a work product so soon.

They have some utility, if you're willing to ignore the majority use case (get-rich-quick schemes), but ultimately, they're like decorating by hanging pictures on quadcopters instead of nailing them to the wall. The pictures are technically hanged, but it's kind of a dumb use of energy.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#52

Post by AdeptusAquinas »

stevenwoo wrote: post #28
dismal2 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is this really a criticisms though? I would buy that in a heartbeat, heh

Deus Ex was there in 2000, no big, open spaces and vehicles like modern open world games but political intrigue over and beyond Neuromancer and the hacking and body modification were integral parts of gameplay, System Shock 2 had those hacking/body mod gameplay features as well in 1999 but in space, so there are some great ones out there if you don't mind older games and if they run on a system you have.

Deux Ex runs on modern PCs without issue using the GoG or Steam version. I play it without visual mods, and it still holds up.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#53

Post by devonkim »

_asummers wrote: post #21
BadassFractal wrote: post #14

The Witcher 3 and its expansions are probably my favorite game of all times, and I've been gaming voraciously since the late 80s. The story, the connection to the characters, the feeling of immersion into the world, and the character of Geralt himself are not something I've seen in many other titles. Somewhat reminiscent of Final Fantasy 7 in terms of its impact on me as a participant to the experience. The pressure…

Its NPCs having real backstories that didn't feel like fetch quests provided a very nice level of depth, and made you care about what happened to them. I got the bad ending, and my jaw was legitimately agape for a few minutes as I processed what just happened, after playing through for as many hours as I did.

If it makes you feel any better, the more canon ending would likely be that brutal and painful given how the books were supposed to end the story of Geralt and Yennefer. Even the full trilogy ending seems to mock the player for being desperate for a completely “happy” ending - even that one can’t possibly be the happiest thing for Geralt if you ask me because we have lost so many good friends / colleagues probably to get there. The fact that the writers don’t even dwell on these losses too much actually makes the losses more brutal - you aren’t told how you should feel telegraphed in any way. Part of what makes the series so engaging is very similar to what made the Sopranos on TV so good - it is actually following the ups and downs and successes and failures of an active, dynamic life. I believe this was described by Kurt Vonnegut as such anyway.

It’s unfortunate a lot of people that hate on games won’t be able to sink their teeth into the really fantastic writing that went into that game and its expansions.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#55

Post by bmurphy1976 »

ggregoire wrote: post #33

I'm so sad they chose a first-person view. I can't play in first-person view more than 20min without feeling nauseous. I'll have to skip the game just because of my condition… :/

I used to play FPS shooters relentlessly and competitively. Somewhere around Quake 2/Quake 3/Halo I started to get severe motion sickness playing games and had to stop. For years I thought I would never be able to really enjoy FPS shooters again. I stuck mostly to RPGs as they weren't as intense.

These days, if I know I'll have a couple rare hours to myself where I can play video games I'll pop a Dramamine. I've also found that ginseng pills, sea bands, colder air, lots of water, lots of rest, good food, fresh air, and playing frequently enough to build up a tolerance but not so often that I'm over doing it help. This may be just be the placebo affect, but it seems to work.

I still get motion sickness occasionally, and I stop playing when I do, but it's far less severe.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#56

Post by squarefoot »

mancerayder wrote: post #2

Another first-person shooter. :-( They spend all that money and time creating worlds, it'd be nice to have another Skyrim or two some day. Set in a cyberpunk world. There aren't enough RPGs made anymore.

It all boils down on the ratio between shooting and interacting with other characters, exploring the world etc. I wouldn't mind being 1 hour cowboy if I could also live 5 hours as explorer. For instance, I loved Mass Effect 1 and 2 for having just the right balance between action and the rest.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#57

Post by mjfl »

dismal2 wrote: post #17
dwc wrote: post #13

"The trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 strikes me as GTA skinned-over with a generic 80s retro-future, but hey, that's just me." --William Gibson[1] It's mentioned (and little more) in the article at the end, but it still seems odd to invoke Gibson's name and not talk about this more. 1. https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/1005958197654351872

Is this really a criticisms though? I would buy that in a heartbeat, heh

It's not a strong one. You could say that about any two games in the same genre - "Starcraft is just a re-skin of Warcraft". I would still buy Starcraft.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#58

Post by byproxy »

DragonBourne wrote: post #37
frockington wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before blockchain revolutions? I don't see how the blockchain would impact 2020/2077 in any way

No sci-fi writer predicted bitcoin mining. The rulebook vaguely stated that a cyberpunk knows a few unlawful ways to get money, so should a game such as Cyberpunk 2077 include a subplot based on simply publishing images bugged with Monero-generating code (to use just one recent example)? Also, a friend of mine has an idea that the first true unkillable AI will run inside a blockchain, and it would be economically inf…

Maybe blockchain technologies go the way of the car phone. That is, they were novel and useful for a time but other advancements rendered them obsolete. Or, maybe future fiction doesn't need to account for every possible future technology and instead will feature fictional things/ideas the author simply thinks is cool/interesting to play with.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#59

Post by Hedja »

ggregoire wrote: post #33

I'm so sad they chose a first-person view. I can't play in first-person view more than 20min without feeling nauseous. I'll have to skip the game just because of my condition… :/

I have similar issues, but only on low FOVs, framerates and motion blur. A lot of console games have a ridiculously low FOV that fails to match reality when you turn the camera; causing nausea. But on PC playing on 90+ at 60FPS+ with no motion blur is fine. For me the sweet spot is around 110 FOV.

Re: Cyberpunk 2077 world premiere: 50 minutes of William Gibson-level insanity

#60

Post by mandelbulb »

dismal2 wrote: post #17
dwc wrote: post #13

"The trailer for Cyberpunk 2077 strikes me as GTA skinned-over with a generic 80s retro-future, but hey, that's just me." --William Gibson[1] It's mentioned (and little more) in the article at the end, but it still seems odd to invoke Gibson's name and not talk about this more. 1. https://twitter.com/GreatDismal/status/1005958197654351872

Is this really a criticisms though? I would buy that in a heartbeat, heh

It is an evaluation. He is not impressed so he doesn't look further into it.

Unfortunately, the over-hyped cyberpunk community is on a bandwagoning trip of dismissing all criticism as gating or ignorance, even elevating the remarks of a handful people on the internet as the main criticism against the game, e.g., cyberpunk on a day is not cyberpunk.

Personally, I find the direction the developers are taking refreshing, but that doesn't mean they haven't missed opportunities or made no mistakes.

The main argument of those happy with the trailer's cyberpunk style is that the later is not a mix of cyber with outrun or vaporwave, but as the term states cyber and punk. Hence it is not limited to the dusky, rainy scenes of Blade Runner.

They forget, however, that ironically cyberpunk is also more than the sum of its parts. Even if you wish to progress this very visually demanding genre into a new direction, we still have to able to experience the feeling of low life, high tech that is so essential to cyberpunk.

So to claim that you can't do cyberpunk on a day does indeed make no sense. But to imply it is of no concern how you present your day scenes and the color pallette doesn't matter, that is even worse.

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