FIRST IMPRESSION

I have to admit, Cyberpunk 2077 is far less RPG than I expected. All in all, it’s more Skyrim- and Fallout 4-esque, i.e. open world action adventure with RPG elements and after Act 1, the map is throwing countless symbols at you. You got five skill trees from which you can max out 3 and you got a few points left to invest a little bit in the other 2. Stealth simply doesn’t work as it should be, hacking skills are nice to have, but they won’t clear entire enemy bases for you, so it’s an agony of choice. Maxing out body, reflexes and technical ability. Body and reflexes are must have at this point, the third one can be chosen, doesn’t really matter.

Choices do not matter as much as I was hoping for. I’m aware there are different endings, but as it stands so far, it all depends on how you decide at the end of the game which invalidates previous choices pretty much. It’s all basically very streamlined.

For now, I will shelve the game, because it can’t satisfy my thirst for role-playing games, but I will come back to it at some point.

Edit: the 2.0 update added level scaling, so I put the rating down by a full star, from 3.5 stars to 2.5 stars

It is ridiculous how a game this calm, slow paced and silent can create such opposing contrasts in perception. Up from moments of awe, love and appreciation for the amazing design choices the studio made down to frustration hell like I've never experienced it before.

I can generally accept a game demanding me to be patient, especially when it comes to letting an AI driven NPC find its way through the world. But there are so many times when actions just don't work, are misinterpreted and in few cases even buggy to a point where I had to reload the save file, that it sometimes feels more like being a beta tester to go through all the hurdles so the edges can be smoothed out. But they aren't and its a constant try, try, fail, repeat to a point where I just have my smartphone ready to play something whenever Trico again decided to go into a completely opposite direction of where I need to go. I mean the latter would still be explainable that this game isn't as straight forward accessible as a Super Mario or even Soulslike game where every input matters. But so often it feels less like having to guide a pet or a child even and really just like failing at trying to make that NPC-AI progress through the game. Trico is such an amazing virtual creation of a believable lifeform, that it sometimes feels sort of on purpose, when he (or she?) wouldn't go where you want just to state the fact that this NPC isn't like others. In many cases this indeed creates some nice scenes where Trico actually behaves like its following its own agenda, a concept that Team Ico already mastered in their previous games. Like Agro, the horse in Shadow of the Colossus, already stood out of other horses or even mounts, as he wouldn't just steer with a 1:1 transation of your inputs, but often feel like he would really just carry you and agree to the direction you want him to go. Back then, this workd perfectly fine. Here it often just doesn't.

And still I can only subtract one star as the brave decision to create something so unique over such a long development time that must have been pretty nasty, looking at how often this felt like being in dev-limbo and got delayed, can only be praised with huge respect. I am sure it is way harder to create something outstanding today than it was 20 years ago, at least on an AAA level but that's exactly what Fumida Ueda managed to pull off here.

I played this game halfway through and at some point it got me so unnerved, I had to stop it for a while, not knowing if I'd ever pick it up again. But at some point when playing through the Horizon Zero Dawns and God of Wars of this world, you just want to experience something that stands out so I'm glad I just let go and stopped fighting against that natural gravitation that would drag me back into this great world and its great story.Once you stop caring too much whether you progress or not, it becomes less frustrating. I wouldn't say that this is the message I want a game to have, but at least in this case it definitely helps and rewards you with an amazing journey like nothing that came before or after it that will definitely find a more durable place inside any gamer's heart than the next Assassin's Creed or Call of Duty game.

I don't really think you can manage to convince me this game was made by real people. It feels like an AI-generated Megaman X game that sometimes manages to come together in a coherent state of "Yeah, this is okay I guess." But so much of this game is flat-out odd; the absolutely chaotic level design that throws enemies and hazards at you placed with all the care of a bad Super Mario Maker level (oh my god Gate's Laboratory), the messy visuals compared to both X4 and X5, the blatant duct tape and glue holding this game together where you have moments such as obliterating a boss in five seconds using Zero's Guard Shell, and just some of the completely stupid game design choices it makes such as literally making you unable to progress if you do not have the right gear.

X6 sure as hell served as a source for a lot of frustration, but.. this game's certainly interesting. I certainly wasn't bored to tears, which is more than I can say about X7. Plus there's a couple of levels in here that are better than others.

And at least the soundtrack is boss.

Overwatch 1.1

really just an update given they discontinued OW1 for this



and also good luck with the servers, they’re quite possibly the worst official servers in any competitive shooter, and that’s saying a lot considering what you’re competing with. at least other games will let me play the fucking game. you could learn mandarin chinese, graduate college, get married, have kids, and still be in queue to play overwatch 1.1