Cyberpunk 2077

You can go up to the Point of No Return in the base game and then do PL if you wanted. I don't know how explicit PL's Point of No Return is.

Without spoilers, PL's point of no return is after finishing the quest line going with a certain route, then you have a quest to call a certain character. As long as you don't call said character, you can still run around Night City and do whatever. Once you make said call, however, that's what starts the unique ending for PL and you're stuck in it.

Some characters from side-gigs cameo in PL and react different if you did their quest beforehand.

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting an "Ultimate Edition" release, which includes both the main game and the Phantom Liberty expansion, set to release on December 5th, nearly 3 years after the game's original release. The game will also receive a free update in the form of Patch 2.1 to coincide with the Ultimate Edition release.

Wish I bought this instead of the standard edition.

Old news but the 2.1 update is live.

It includes..

• A functional metro
• Lots of roleplaying additions — repeatable hangouts with your romantic partner, can sit at bars and interact with vendors and other kiosks, can listen to radio on foot
• More car chases and combat — repeatable races, gangs will chase you if provoked, missions/gigs can turn into car chases
• Can now do wheelies/endos/spins on bikes, added new car and 5 new bikes, added new highway
• Improved the final boss fight

• Lots of improvements to movement/dashing/sprinting/dodging
• Bunch of other minor tweaks (e.g. fixed metallic skin on PC raytracing, fixed cyberware capacity shard drop rate, sound overhauls, etc. etc.)

Don't know if it's already been discussed but...how does everyone think CDPR will approach the sequel (Cyberpunk 2079 or whatever it ends up being called) re: player character? Because I can't imagine the narrative and developmental finagling necessary to bring V back. Unless of course they just decide to make one of the endings canon, which I don't think many would be into? If you're playing as a new PC, it would seem easier to me to do what Dragon Age did and port in your previous PC's decisions or something, rather than having to justify V still kicking around after Temperance or the Tower or whatever.

Not sure if they'd want to move to another locale - Cyberpunk's setting has nearly always revolved around Night City. But in terms of V and his associates? I think Phantom Liberty's Tower ending is probably the one that gives the most clues in the direction things are going: Arasaka Corp in bad shape, Militech on the offensive and trying to "Make America Great Again," everybody that doesn't have significant attachments to Night City eventually leaving (and probably better off for it), and all of the older faces such as Rogue, the Fixers, etc still sticking around.

No idea how they're gonna handle V though, especially since the endings are so different from one another and also how much influence they had over the city. It's probably gonna be the usual conflicting stories deal that most RPGS take when dealing with characters... though it would be super-cool if they took the Mass Effect route and made your decisions carry over in the sequel. Seriously, why haven't more games done that since?

I agree with you. I can't see them giving up Night City as a setting after investing so much into it. Especially seeing as how as you also pointed out, the NUSA/Myers is looking to incorporate Night City back into the greater fold in the Tower ending. That's plenty of fodder for a sequel while the inevitable AI war thing brews in the background. I can't see fans being exactly enthused with the series suddenly moving to a cyberpunk Pittsburg or something.

Funny you bring up Mass Effect. Because while the first two games definitely had a variety of choices for Shep that carried over, none of them really factored into fundamentally altering the endings of them. That was more the third one. Cyberpunk's gone for ME 3 style incredibly mutually-exclusive endings right off the bat!

Bioware had no choice, they had to make sure the sequels had some form of continuity. Make the games veer off too radically and you've just given both the writers and game designers and impossible task.

Edited by SgtRicko on Jan 31st 2024 at 6:31:33 AM

I'm just hoping in the sequel one can play as the greatest role in the TTRPG - Rockerboy. I may or may not be biased because that's what my character in our TTRPG campaign is. Although at this point it's more accurate to call her a full-on Solo that just happens to front a heavy metal band, lol.

I'm hoping we learn of what happened to Morgan Blackhand.

Oh, I agree. My point was that Cyberpunk's endings seemingly aren't structured that way. It'd be relatively easy to incorporate how V dealt with a sidequest in a sequel, but how do you write around them for instance losing the ability to use cyberware in the Tower? or killing themselves in the Reaper ending? I mean, you could with a lot of BS-ing but you'd undermine the point of those endings by resuming play as V in a sequel. It's why I think CDPR will most likely go with a new playable character.

One of the more popular theories floating around is that Morgan Blackhand is actually Mr. Blue Eyes who may or may not be working for/enslaved by the Blackwall A.I.s.

I published the Morgan Blackhand theory, though there's really been nothing since. I never connected it to the Blackwall A.I.s, however.

As for the sequel, I think the simplest and smartest move is to pick a few compatible endings and expand from there. My pitch for a sequel, even before the DLC leaned that way, was for NUSA to re-invade Night City due to Arasaka's seeming demise and canibalization from other corps.

With that in mind, I find Sun/Star/Temperance to be the most likely candidates for sequels. Devil resets the entire game basically and makes a far worse world than we started with. Reaper effectively anti-climaxes the entire game and resolves nothing. The DLC endings throw a bit of a wrench into the gears here, but I also have tended to find video games mostly ignore DL Cs in their sequels. Considering CDPR's already iffy track record of continuity between their games, I would imagine Phantom Liberty will get paid some lip service with a cameo or mention, but that'd be it.

My thinking re: Blackhand + A.I.s is down to Mr. Blue Eyes showing up in plotlines relating to the Blackwall (the Tower ending path where he's visible at the spaceport) and AI's mind-controlling people, plus related dialogue from Alt and Gary the Prophet.

I could see jumping off from something like the Star and the Sun (and by extension Don't Fear the Reaper), but how would Temperance work? Like Johnny switches back with V in the prologue or something?

Edited by ThreeFacedMan on Jan 30th 2024 at 1:37:55 AM

I don't think Mr. Blue Eyes is Blackhand; after all Blackhand's motto was always "meat over metal" and working with A.I.s doesn't seem his style. Too much chrome. Also doesn't make sense with his character; working with A.I.s.

Also fun fact, Word of God, Blackhand was based on Robert Mc Call of The Equalizer (1985).

I think it's less that he's working with them, and more that he's a victim of the body-snatching plot they're cooking up to eventually use on people en masse as described by Alt. That or Mr. Blue Eyes is completely separate from Blackhand, either a new character or some other legacy one, like Richard Night.

Edited by ThreeFacedMan on Jan 30th 2024 at 3:35:35 AM

PATCH 2.12 Notes

Nothing big in this patch, just mostly bug fixes and key binding improvements.

I'm doing a Netrunner playthrough right now and despite trying Netrunner in the past, I'm having a blast.

Mostly because of sneaky hacking and such, I'm going balls to the walls with smart guns and the Monowire.

Probably the next playthrough I'm gonna do a pure pistol build and speedrun the main quests to get to Chippin' In to get the SAMURAI tanktop and the 3516 and try as best I can to make my TTRPG rockergirl.

I really enjoyed this game after my first playthrough, right before 2.0. The writing like Witcher 3 is still heads and tails above basically all other RPG studios I can think of at this point (having not played BG3 yet) if you can stomach the 80s future slang, which is setting accurate and also not in the original Polish. At it's best it evoked the best and most immersive portions of VtmB: Bloodlines and Deus Ex and considering both of those series are on ice or... not looking good, this is the closest we're gonna get.

The one thing preventing me from playing a second time though (other than a bit of 2.0 dabbling), and what the second game really needs, is a gang faction system a fraction as interesting as New Vegas or even the New Reno section of Fallout 2. The game's main problem imo is that half the time you feel more like a police vigilante or some sort of scavenger biting other criminals like a coward. I guess you could never accept a single police or random encounter quest but that's a lot of content to miss out on.

My first playthrough I did have all sorts of romantic ideas like working my way to the head of maybe Tiger Claws and then betraying them (never got Wakako's tattoo because I knew it would be a trap and was completely correct apparently) in ways that are just not supported by the game mechanics. Compare to New Reno above where you can become a Made Man in four different crime families, betray and kill their leaders in ways both subtle and loud, and eventually completely seize control of it through your illegitimate son... feels like a lot of roleplaying potential lost.

Imagine, through systems similar to New Vegas, being able to worm your way into a gang, start controlling its resource flow, begin infiltrating your own storehouses in disguise, and then, once you seize control of the fledgling organization, completely betraying it and seizing it's resources for your own like the Kingpin or something. I think a mechanic even a fraction that intensive, to make the character actually feel like a criminal, would elevate the next game to straight up on the best RPGs ever.

Edited by PolarSniper on Mar 30th 2024 at 7:11:19 PM

No no nah, forget Fallout New Vegas.

I gave this game no quarter. Have a PS 4 copy gathering dust for 3-4 years and finally got a ps 5 so I figured I'd give it a whirl. More curiosity than anything because I'd heard they patches out the bugs.

Whoof.

God-damn this

This-

Why didn't anybody tell me that Keanu Reeves was more than just shallow celebrity advertisement, an actual f-cking Bad Ass rocker mercenary cyborg dude and the game panned around him as you conspire with underworld forces.

I love these type of conflicts/powerful character influencing another type narratives. Even the side missions are interesting to follow.

Not only did I get addicted to the first Act and Jackie (q_q) but everything leading up to Silverhand was just

Just

It's so beautiful

I've been giving myself carpal tunnel making Elder Scrolls Oblivion playable and fun on PC. Got bored of Fallout 4 and New Vegas. Can't enjoy Fallout 3 on Steam since it's broken on install and they're never going to fix it for me.

These Immersive Sim-type games genre beginning to bore me, and I thought Deus Ex would be my last stop before I just gave up on the genre since they were all blending togerher, but this...

This game oozes so much f-cking style

I'm lucky I was able to enjoy Patch 2.0.

Such an amazing game. What a freaking 360 from worst game ever.

Edited by FOFD on Mar 31st 2024 at 5:55:06 AM

Think you mean 180. 360 means you are right back where you started.

Or you turn 360 degrees and moonwalk away, like in the ancient meme about the Xbox 360.

(2) I'll spellcheck once I get over how freaking preem this game is.

Should I keep Dying Night the whole game?

Are there consequences for lifting Sarubou's gun and knife off his corpse?

Is there gonna be a "side with Johnny/side with Takemura" thing later on?

Edited by FOFD on Mar 31st 2024 at 5:57:31 AM

In order:

1. You totally could if you want to. You can upgrade iconic weapons via the crafting system to keep them viable as the game goes on.

2. Nope. Feel free to take them if you want them.

3. Sort of. There's an ending where you side with Arasaka, but Takemura can potentially die in an earlier mission if you don't save him. Johnny technically has two endings to himself, one of which you can potentially lock yourself out of through dialogue options in various missions, but the secret one is a major endurance test and the epilogue is mostly the same as his non-secret ending. There are more endings than just the Johnny/'Saka binary, though, and the big decision is behind a clearly-marked and autosaved Point of No Return, so don't worry too much. Apart from that, vocally agreeing with Takemura about stuff is a good way to get some snarky lectures out of Johnny.

Edited by TrashJack on Mar 31st 2024 at 6:54:58 AM

For the sake of ensuring that you have the maximum amount of options available in terms of endings, I've advise looking up an up-to-date guide on how to keep a strong relationship with Silverhand. There's a couple of points where you'll need to choose specific dialogue options, the biggest being at the end of the Chippin' In mission in the oil fields.

EDIT: Just in case if you're wondering if they made it easier to unlock, I can say from personal experience they didn't. Tried playing the ending section after Phantom Liberty was released a couple of months back, and no matter which dialogue options I chose nor how long I waited on the rooftop, Johnny wouldn't give me the additional choice regarding Arasaka Tower. So yeah, make sure you've got a high relationship with him, or else Youtube's gonna be your only option to see that ending.

Edited by SgtRicko on Apr 3rd 2024 at 4:13:53 AM