along with 2.0, this expansion pushes cyberpunk 2077 into full imsim, and i feel at this point that i can comfortably say this is among my favorite games. also, v is among my favorite characters, particularly as voiced by cherami leigh. the new 'happy' ending crushed and now haunts me, and i just want to find v among the crowd and give her a long hug.

of course, i also went back to an earlier save to choose the arguably more righteous, more courageous path — the one truer to the game's somber exploration of mortality, culminating in imo the best ending from the original game: the 'star' ending, where v faces an uncertain future, one where she may yet die young, though it'll be among friends standing with her all the way. where perhaps saving songbird from a life as the nusa's property is the karmic push v needs to survive after the events of the game, living out there as a nomad. that's what i'd like to think, anyway...

still playing this (got a late start thanks to a tornado knocking out power and internet for a bit, plus i'm still playing bg3 as well)... just wanted to make a few comments, having only tried a handful of past armored core releases, on this game's tone. previously, the one i'd spent the most time with was armored core 5, which i came away from not really liking despite enjoying its aesthetic and the feel of wall-jumping off of buildings and so forth. it was held back by its completely disconnected narrative and its emphasis on multiplayer features that never really felt like they worked due to a low player count in the us.

ac6 has a coldly impersonal feel to it as well, with its interface and narrative interactions all happening on a static hangar screen or in your ac itself, every voice you hear disembodied... but it (as of having only just cleared the first chapter) also seems to have a sort of progression to it, even if only with the dawning realization that you are the corporate dog your opponents say you are, and the sinister pitch of this mindset steadily intensifying. you are (at least at the start) a fucking demon in ac6, seemingly devoid of emotion (perhaps as a result of your augmentation?), not simply destroying your targets but also overwhelming them with despair. you are just too powerful, and you crush their hopes beneath your heel. and not only their hopes of surviving the encounter, but of succeeding on their mission to free their people from endless corporate oppression and murder.

it, uh, feels awesome. i normally don't particularly go for being evil in video games, particularly when they're more personal, and i imagine that there will be some twists with walter and the liberation front and so forth, but my impression as of now is that you're nothing but a mercenary. an extremely adept one, though essentially inhuman. a monster chasing power above all else. and i've leaned into this, crafting the fiercest and most agile and aggressive death machine i can. one that should make its enemies afraid.

on the same token, i look forward to finding out whether there's anything to be awakened within the heart of augmented human 621.

last thing for now: the fucking music. hoshino's best work, maybe. a far cry from the jubilant discordance of evergrace, this will be likened to 'synthwave' by some, but it's so much more than that — droning, buzzing, constantly intensifying its mood of absolute menace.

what a game.