The perfect side story for an excellent game. Fleshes out the character in an exciting way and gives more of what made Infamous Second Son so great. This is one of few expanded universe media I've seen that actually makes me like the character in the original even more. Fetch's neon abilities make her feel just like the light-speed sniper you met in the original game, and at times make her feel more powerful than Delsin. Super impressed with this, just a little burst of content that complements the main game super well.

My interest in playing Elden Ring was almost exactly negatively correlated with how long I had played it. When I started, I was incredibly excited to see what this game had to offer. I was exploring every nook and cranny, fighting everything I could find, going to every space on the map. I was shocked by the scale of this world that FromSoft has given us. But the more I played Elden Ring the more I realized why people said that the game might be too big. I loved so many parts of this game, especially combat and finding new areas to explore, but by the time I reached Atlas, I felt so much less excited about reaching it than I had for areas like Liurnia or Caelid. It feels like Elden Ring asks a whole lot of you, but doesn't offer a whole lot in return. There are so many mini-dungeons or secret paths to explore, but it felt demoralizing to reach the ends of those areas only to find something completely irrelevant to my build. I feel like I spent most of my time playing Elden Ring waiting for that big reward or big new thing, only to realize that the game basically doesn't change in any significant way from when you walk out into Limgrave. Most games have something change over the course of the game, but Elden Ring basically gives you everything at once when you start. Many people love that aspect of the game, but for me, it just eventually felt dull and draining. The continuous increasing investment required to continue playing didn't match what I was getting out of the game. That being said, I still think that Elden Ring is a great game, and I will likely revisit it. I love how diverse people's experiences are with the game, and how playing a different build can essentially mean playing a different game entirely. I especially loved the opening few hours I spent with the game, and how little the game holds your hand and lets you find your own adventure, although I would have appreciated at least a way to track which quests I had initiated. It's certainly not the best looking game on the PS5, but I appreciate its aesthetic and how it distinguishes itself. I love how combat feels, but I just eventually got tired of it. I think the best thing I can do for myself in regard to this game is to stop playing, and revisit it at a later time, hopefully with my energy to play it restored.

Love this game to bits in many ways but so many things hold it back in such a major way. Combat is exciting at first, and fusing new personas or seeing new party members was always a refreshing burst of new content, but because of the nature of randomly generated dungeons, I was typically watching something in the background to keep myself from being bored to death by the 3rd dungeon. When I thought that the game was over, literally the day before you leave Inaba, only to discover that there's ANOTHER dungeon, I nearly didn't play it, the game ground me down so much on its poor encounter design. Combat against tough opponents was cool, but by the end, most enemies had just become health sponges that soak up your attacks like nothing, so defeating them isn't actually all that difficult, just time-consuming.

On the other end of the spectrum, I think the story here is phenomenal, with some good twists that actually kept me engaged all throughout. Towards the end, it throws in some stuff that I think I could have lived without (this game "ends" literally 3 times.) but overall I appreciate that the game kept me in the dark about its biggest secrets, so that I found out with the investigation team, instead of them playing catchup like some moments in Persona 5. The voice acting is also hit or miss with some real winners and other characters whom I dreaded in almost every scene. The social links are all pretty good, I enjoy the overall theme of finding your true self and coming to terms with the parts of your subconscious that you may not like, is really good and can be touching. I like some of the social links a lot (Kou, Fox, Kanji, Hisano, Nanako, Dojima) whereas I think some are poorly paced or miss the mark in some other way (Sayako, Rise, Eri, Chie, Shu.) There are also a lot of scenes that stand out as being particularly homophobic and transphobic, or that sexualize these teenagers a little too much which is likely a product of the times but still leaves a sour taste in one's mouth.

Overall an enjoyable experience, but due to lackluster dungeons and some questionable character choices, I don't see myself revisiting this one soon.

A lot to say about this game. First, I played this game when it came out on PS4 and was completely turned off by the bugs and abysmal performance. But after a year of dedicated fixes, patches, and new content, I came back for the free trial for new-gen consoles, and the difference was night and day.

The first thing I noticed that was remarkably different than the PS4 version was just how stellar this game looks on the PS5. I played on the performance mode and still, the game looks incredible. The aesthetics of bright neon lights and shiny chrome let the lighting tech shine and everything blends together to put this game up there with Horizon: Zero Dawn in terms of the best-looking games of this generation. I also absolutely adore the design of Night City, the setting of the entire game. Night City is a contender for best open-world environment ever. The city is layered and deep, with high roofs and low undergrounds. Pieces of the city are built on top of other parts, it has an impressive sense of verticality where other open-world cities feel flat and one-dimensional. Different regions of the city feel aesthetically distinct, and traveling between them felt like going to a new city entirely. Gangs that control the local area make their presence known with graffiti and random encounters with the police. Night City feels like a city where things happen with or without you interfering. At times random explosions or gunfire would go off in the distance, creating an atmosphere of disorganized chaos. Even the Badlands, the space outside the city, is made visually distinct with solar panels, wind turbines, and other things that populate the wide desert space. I love the design of all the characters and enemies, with varying levels of cyberware creeping into their design. Weapons have this incredible futuristic yet retro feel, where they feel like futuristic weapons designed by people in the 80s. Cars look amazing, and I love that all of them have a modeled interior, it adds a lot to the game. Cyberpunk's aesthetic is what sets it apart, and by far its strongest aspect.

Combat feels great, I never got bored in over 30 hours of playtime. All of the guns sound amazing, each having their own powerful punch. Power weapons are similar to guns you'd have in any other game, with the ability to ricochet that makes them feel interesting to use. However, the weapons I had the most fun with were tech and smart weapons, with environment piercing and tracking bullets respectively. The gun pool here is great, with each weapon feeling distinct and powerful in its own right. Melee weapons also feel great, with a good selection of perks that allow you to run around chopping people's heads off with a katana as a completely viable option, or picking people off with throwing knives. Another great aspect is quickhacks, which if properly invested in, can allow you to clear an area without even drawing your weapon. Quickhacks offer some cool options like detonating a grenade in someone's pocket or forcing them to commit suicide by hacking the cyberware in their body. The breach protocol hacking minigame is also cool, allowing you to get some quick cash or debuff your enemies. Stealth also felt pretty good, with a good selection of options to dispatch enemies quietly, although its best paired with quickhacks and silent weapons. Coming up behind an enemy and dispatching them with the same exact animation every time can get stale. Driving also feels pretty good, I like that the cars feel weighty and difficult to control if you're not careful, but it did make me more prone to using fast travel.

The writing of this game is much better than I expected. The main story kept me engaged with some really good beats and a fantastic ending. I really appreciate that there isn't a "best" ending, each ending is really just different and can make you feel differently depending on what you value as a character, but each have you leave Night City, but not before it takes a piece of you with it. Each ending is dissatisfying in a different way, cementing this theme that Night City takes and takes and doesn't give back. I think the characters are all really well written, they all feel like real people just trying to make it in a city that doesn't cut anyone any slack. I especially like the dynamic you develop with Johnny Silverhand over the course of the story. He never stops being bitter and cold, but its because of all that he's been through, and by the end he develops a soft spot for V, the main protagonist. I also loved of the other characters, specifically Takemura, Panam, and Judy. I think this game strikes a good balance of keeping one singular story thread that you can go down, while still allowing for lots of choice in how you go down that path. There are certain missions that everyone has to complete, but their outcomes can be different depending on how you completed the mission. It feels less like a traditional open world game and more like a real tabletop RPG, where you're on a predetermined campaign, but how the stories smaller moments end up and how the campaign ends are up to you. Cyberpunk is not afraid to cut you off from content entirely if you don't select the right dialogue choices in some key places. I would have appreciated more integration of skill checks, they provide for some really good flavor text and role playing capability, but I only came across a few instances where a skill that I had changed the outcome of a quest. Those few instances are really cool tho, and I would have loved to have seen more.The quest design and writing for all the smaller side jobs is also excellent, each feels distinct and feels like a real job you'd get as a mercenary in this kind of city. There were some quests that really impacted me and made me think about what the best option would really be, and what option my character really would pick. Even gigs, smaller offshoot quests that are supposed to be smaller opportunities to get some quick money, have interesting backstories and oppurtunies to change the outcome through dialogue.

Cyberpunk 2077 is finally the game it should have been at release, and for those who were interested in it before, should give it another shot. I am throughouly impressed with the game CDPR managed to put out, and even more impressed that they've been able to fix it in such little time. I'm excited for the new content they have coming, and I encourage anyone who's been holding off on this game to give it another shot.