Video Game Thread v. Series Xbox One X Series Switch S 5

[Herrick]

Cramx3 which difficulty are you playing on?

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I'm pretty hooked on Cyberpunk, it's alot to take in when you start though.

I'm still waiting for the pretty hooked part.  The game is starting out really slow for me.  I have two weeks off during the Holiday.  The extra time will tell the story.

I don't think the game gets going until you get to Act 2 when the story opens up and you're character is a bit more developed. It starts slow because there is so much to understand with the gameplay.

It's a bit overwhelming in the beginning but once you buildt your character a bit and gets a grip over the gameplay and missions it's alot of fun. I mean I haven't played much of the campaign yet, I'm just running around doing side missions and earning streetcred and cash and explore the world and occasionally a main mission. 

[cramx3]

Cramx3 which difficulty are you playing on?

I'm still on hard.  I've thought about lowering it to normal, but I'm finding it's getting easier.

I'm pretty hooked on Cyberpunk, it's alot to take in when you start though.

I'm still waiting for the pretty hooked part.  The game is starting out really slow for me.  I have two weeks off during the Holiday.  The extra time will tell the story.

I don't think the game gets going until you get to Act 2 when the story opens up and you're character is a bit more developed. It starts slow because there is so much to understand with the gameplay.

It's a bit overwhelming in the beginning but once you buildt your character a bit and gets a grip over the gameplay and missions it's alot of fun. I mean I haven't played much of the campaign yet, I'm just running around doing side missions and earning streetcred and cash and explore the world and occasionally a main mission. 

Yea, I'm doing a lot of the side missions to build attribute and perk points.  Also, I read the main story is fairly short so I'm trying to milk the game more before I finish the main plot.  I'm around 20 hours of gameplay now. 

I highly recommend doing the Delamain side missions as they are pretty easy and you can bang those all out quickly for XP.  Plus the stories of each car having a personality are kind of amusing.

Also bought myself a nice ride which is nice to have a consistent vehicle.  I'm not sure I understand the point in buying all those cars though, I thought the cars would be side missions but it's just a purchase?  meh

[TheOutlawXanadu]

Dialogue options don't seem to have much impact. Maybe I haven't gotten far enough into it yet. I'm in the early area of Act 2.

I hope that's not the case. I was reading about one of the early missions I had just completed yesterday and was surprised to see it can seemingly play out in several different ways - with potential for future differences depending on what I did in that mission. Hope that's quite common in the game, so there's more value in multiple playthroughs, which I don't normally do in games.

Some of the things I've read and seen in the game make it clear they needed way more time to get it to where it should be, though I'm still enjoying it so far. My main issue at the moment is that it's all just so dense, all the different game mechanics, menus, inventory etc. that it's quite overwhelming.

I'm about 15 hours in, and thus far I'd say that the dialog options tied to life path have been fairly plentiful, but are definitely more to add color than anything else. In my opinion, this is fine, but I'm starting to get the sense that if you expect anything more than that, you may be disappointed. I obviously don't know how the game ends though, so we'll see!

[Herrick]

Cramx3 which difficulty are you playing on?

I'm still on hard.  I've thought about lowering it to normal, but I'm finding it's getting easier.

Damn, mang. Any tips on playing at that difficulty level? What kind of weapons are you using?

[cramx3]

Cramx3 which difficulty are you playing on?

I'm still on hard.  I've thought about lowering it to normal, but I'm finding it's getting easier.

Damn, mang. Any tips on playing at that difficulty level? What kind of weapons are you using?

Weapons depend on which ammo I have sufficient enough of.  I've put attribute points towards SMG/Rifle power so I'm usually using a rifle, a pistol (since I seem to always have pistol ammo) and a melee weapon (I got a sweat Katana now, but was using a powerful knife for awhile) and then I keep a shotgun as well.  I typically just sell off all the other weaker weapons I pick up. I also used points to increase my critical damage % and also another point on doing more damage for enemies with 50% or more health.  Aim for the head, use cover, take your time are really the main things for gunfights.  The AI is not very smart so they use cover a lot and only the melee or shotgun enemies really run after you, if you can spread them out, it's easier to take out one enemy at a time.  I run away a lot too.  If my health is getting low, inject and run back for cover until my health gets back up. Rinse and repeat.  Also, be creative.  There's so many different routes to get around and most aren't very obvious.  If something seems too straight forward, back off a bit and look around and there's almost always a different route to take which can lead to stealth kills. 

[Herrick]

Weapons depend on which ammo I have sufficient enough of.  I've put attribute points towards SMG/Rifle power so I'm usually using a rifle, a pistol (since I seem to always have pistol ammo) and a melee weapon (I got a sweat Katana now, but was using a powerful knife for awhile) and then I keep a shotgun as well.  I typically just sell off all the other weaker weapons I pick up. I also used points to increase my critical damage % and also another point on doing more damage for enemies with 50% or more health.  Aim for the head, use cover, take your time are really the main things for gunfights.  The AI is not very smart so they use cover a lot and only the melee or shotgun enemies really run after you, if you can spread them out, it's easier to take out one enemy at a time.  I run away a lot too.  If my health is getting low, inject and run back for cover until my health gets back up. Rinse and repeat.  Also, be creative.  There's so many different routes to get around and most aren't very obvious.  If something seems too straight forward, back off a bit and look around and there's almost always a different route to take which can lead to stealth kills.

Thanks for the tips. I'll keep them in mind.

[cramx3]

NP, game is definitely more difficult than I expected but I think a lot of it is just about building your character and fleshing out the areas you want to be strong at.  Like I see people online complaining about the gunplay, but there's options either with attribute points or weapon attachments that make it a lot easier.  I think it's poor by default until your character gets better at it. 

What's funny though, is I STILL cannot beat the "twink twins" which is the nickname I gave for the double person fist fight you get as one of the first side missions (Beat the Brat - Kabuki).    I must have spent 5k on failed attempts.  But now that I just googled it to get the mission name, it seems it's something a lot of people struggle with.  I think I need gorilla arms, which instead of buying those, I bought the projectile launch system which is pretty cool, but I'm not sure I can use that in the fist fight.

[Herrick]

NP, game is definitely more difficult than I expected but I think a lot of it is just about building your character and fleshing out the areas you want to be strong at.  Like I see people online complaining about the gunplay, but there's options either with attribute points or weapon attachments that make it a lot easier.  I think it's poor by default until your character gets better at it. 

What's funny though, is I STILL cannot beat the "twink twins" which is the nickname I gave for the double person fist fight you get as one of the first side missions (Beat the Brat - Kabuki).    I must have spent 5k on failed attempts.  But now that I just googled it to get the mission name, it seems it's something a lot of people struggle with.  I think I need gorilla arms, which instead of buying those, I bought the projectile launch system which is pretty cool, but I'm not sure I can use that in the fist fight.

I tried that fight a few times and didn't come close even after leveling up and getting a health cyberware mod. I think you're right about needing gorilla arms and probably other perks from the Body attribute.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

NP, game is definitely more difficult than I expected but I think a lot of it is just about building your character and fleshing out the areas you want to be strong at.  Like I see people online complaining about the gunplay, but there's options either with attribute points or weapon attachments that make it a lot easier.  I think it's poor by default until your character gets better at it. 

What's funny though, is I STILL cannot beat the "twink twins" which is the nickname I gave for the double person fist fight you get as one of the first side missions (Beat the Brat - Kabuki).    I must have spent 5k on failed attempts.  But now that I just googled it to get the mission name, it seems it's something a lot of people struggle with.  I think I need gorilla arms, which instead of buying those, I bought the projectile launch system which is pretty cool, but I'm not sure I can use that in the fist fight.

I tried that fight a few times and didn't come close even after leveling up and getting a health cyberware mod. I think you're right about needing gorilla arms and probably other perks from the Body attribute.

Tried and failed that too but that was early on, I figured I just needed to buff V up. Thought I would revisit that later.

[krands85]

I still haven't crafted anything... but I did finally start adding attachments to my guns which really helps  I don't know why this took me so long but I chalk it up to the game having so many elements that I didn't even realize all the attachments I was collecting and NOT applying to my guns. 

I noticed the weapon attachments, but it did take me a while to realise clothing can have mod slots 

[cramx3]

NP, game is definitely more difficult than I expected but I think a lot of it is just about building your character and fleshing out the areas you want to be strong at.  Like I see people online complaining about the gunplay, but there's options either with attribute points or weapon attachments that make it a lot easier.  I think it's poor by default until your character gets better at it. 

What's funny though, is I STILL cannot beat the "twink twins" which is the nickname I gave for the double person fist fight you get as one of the first side missions (Beat the Brat - Kabuki).    I must have spent 5k on failed attempts.  But now that I just googled it to get the mission name, it seems it's something a lot of people struggle with.  I think I need gorilla arms, which instead of buying those, I bought the projectile launch system which is pretty cool, but I'm not sure I can use that in the fist fight.

I tried that fight a few times and didn't come close even after leveling up and getting a health cyberware mod. I think you're right about needing gorilla arms and probably other perks from the Body attribute.

Tried and failed that too but that was early on, I figured I just needed to buff V up. Thought I would revisit that later.

I've revisited a couple times and no luck still  What sucks, is that's I think the first of a string of side missions where it's fist fights so I don't think those get any easier.  After losing so much money on attempts, I think I'm just not going to bother until I'm closer to finishing the game or if I get Gorilla arms so I can at least see if that makes a difference.

I still haven't crafted anything... but I did finally start adding attachments to my guns which really helps  I don't know why this took me so long but I chalk it up to the game having so many elements that I didn't even realize all the attachments I was collecting and NOT applying to my guns. 

I noticed the weapon attachments, but it did take me a while to realise clothing can have mod slots 

Yea that too! Just so many options and menus, it's easy to get lost in it all.

[Herrick]

I still haven't crafted anything... but I did finally start adding attachments to my guns which really helps  I don't know why this took me so long but I chalk it up to the game having so many elements that I didn't even realize all the attachments I was collecting and NOT applying to my guns. 

I noticed the weapon attachments, but it did take me a while to realise clothing can have mod slots 

Ha! I didn't know clothes have mod slots. I'll have to look into that.

One of the things I don't like about the clothes is...the better the stats the sillier the clothes look. It's like if I want better armor rating, I have to look like a fucking clown. I wish this game had the feature in AC Odyssey that allowed us to change to style of all armor & weapons while keeping the stats.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

Ritual FM is pretty sweet! 

[Herrick]

Ritual FM is pretty sweet! 

Hmm...I did not know about that station. I'll have to check it out.

[Phoenix87x]

I've been digging Night FM and Pacific Dreams

[cramx3]

I had to turn on the streamer mode for the music so I feel like I'm probably missing a good amount of the copyrighted music in the game, but even without that, I find the soundtrack to be AWESOME.  Not just the music on the radio, but the way the music works during missions is really well done.  I don't recall offhand what station I mostly been listening to, but it sounds like energetic pop music that I really enjoy.  It even feels futuristic too.  There's also the Night City song that gets stuck in my head. 

[Herrick]

I just realized you can hack enemies after taking control of a security camera. Damn.

[cramx3]

I think they showed that in one of the intro to hacking parts of an early mission... but I've never even tried.  I think that's kind of the secret to being stealthy with hacks though. 

New Call of Duty update today.  Season 1 of Cold War begins and they integrated all the Cold War weapons into Warzone mixed with the Modern Warfare weapons.  I have no idea how this will work out, but the integration, on the surface, actually sounds like a really cool idea. Also with the new season comes a new smaller Warzone map.  Sadly, looks like no major changes to the original main map which kind of sucks.  New gulag, but I'd rather see some new updates to the main map and a continuation of the story they were delivering with it before (Where is the nuke?!)

[TheOutlawXanadu]

I had to turn on the streamer mode for the music so I feel like I'm probably missing a good amount of the copyrighted music in the game, but even without that, I find the soundtrack to be AWESOME.  Not just the music on the radio, but the way the music works during missions is really well done.  I don't recall offhand what station I mostly been listening to, but it sounds like energetic pop music that I really enjoy.  It even feels futuristic too.  There's also the Night City song that gets stuck in my head. 

The score in The Witcher 3 is among the best video game scores ever. There's like three or four hours of absolutely brilliant music there. I'm assuming the same guy did the score for Cyberpunk, which is also really good.

[Phoenix87x]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/17/22188007/sony-cyberpunk-2077-removed-playstation-store-full-refunds-policy

"Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds"

Wow 

[Herrick]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/17/22188007/sony-cyberpunk-2077-removed-playstation-store-full-refunds-policy

"Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds"

Wow 

What a fucking clusterfuck. Even No Man's Sky didn't reach that level.

[ariich]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/17/22188007/sony-cyberpunk-2077-removed-playstation-store-full-refunds-policy

"Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds"

Wow 

What a fucking clusterfuck. Even No Man's Sky didn't reach that level.

Different issues though. No Man's Sky wasn't that buggy, it just (at launch) wasn't the game that they had promised. That's actually worse IMO because the devs can't make quick patches to fix the issues, and because it's not a technical fault you can't get refunds if you've downloaded it, as it's not faulty. Wheras on PC and next-gen, Cyberpunk is the game that was promised (and by most accounts it sounds fantastic, a bit buggy but no worse than other big releases like Witcher, Bethesda games, etc.), it just doesn't run properly at all on last-gen consoles and they haven't been able to fix it yet.

In terms of why Sony's pulling it entirely from the PS Store for now, I'm guessing it's to get round their usual refunds policy which is really strict and only allows refunds for digital purchases if you haven't downloaded it AT ALL, unless it's faulty. Although I don't see how this doesn't count as faulty, so I feel like Sony could have exerted some judgement, but maybe it's just easier for them to pull it entirely until there's a fix. Does suck for those who have a PS5 though, where it seems to play pretty much fine.

[Herrick]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/17/22188007/sony-cyberpunk-2077-removed-playstation-store-full-refunds-policy

"Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds"

Wow 

What a fucking clusterfuck. Even No Man's Sky didn't reach that level.

Different issues though. No Man's Sky wasn't that buggy, it just (at launch) wasn't the game that they had promised. That's actually worse IMO because the devs can't make quick patches to fix the issues, and because it's not a technical fault you can't get refunds if you've downloaded it, as it's not faulty. Wheras on PC and next-gen, Cyberpunk is the game that was promised (and by most accounts it sounds fantastic, a bit buggy but no worse than other big releases like Witcher, Bethesda games, etc.), it just doesn't run properly at all on last-gen consoles and they haven't been able to fix it yet.

In terms of why Sony's pulling it entirely from the PS Store for now, I'm guessing it's to get round their usual refunds policy which is really strict and only allows refunds for digital purchases if you haven't downloaded it AT ALL, unless it's faulty. Although I don't see how this doesn't count as faulty, so I feel like Sony could have exerted some judgement, but maybe it's just easier for them to pull it entirely until there's a fix. Does suck for those who have a PS5 though, where it seems to play pretty much fine.

Nevertheless...this is a huge clusterfuck and may eclipse No Man's Sky's launch debacle. Sony pulled a highly anticipated AAA game from their online store. It's unprecedented.

[ErHaO]

This seems like a big decision. The Witcher 3 sold 11 million copies on the PS4, so at this point there is a big CDprojekt fanbase on the platform. Usually 50% or more of the sales is digital these days (probably more in a lockdown ridden world) and Cyberpunk was top seller on PSN. Right before Christmas too.

My bet is that the amount of refund requests and pressure on Sony's customers services has been unprecedented.



But yeah, this release has been a cluster fuck. A friend of mine has it on the Xbox One (base) and I refuse to believe that version was actually playtested before release. I know it is a severely underpowered platform for this game, but that is entirely the point. Don't release a product if it isn't going to work.

[MrBoom_shack-a-lack]

I wonder if they got kinda forced to release on the last gen consoles or they weren't suppose to release on last gen but made a desicion to do it and rushed it and that's the reason for the delays? I mean they had to have known about the issues so why even bother releasing it on last gen after all these years? It dosen't make any sense to me.

[Polarbear]

I wonder if they got kinda forced to release on the last gen consoles or they weren't suppose to release on last gen but made a desicion to do it and rushed it and that's the reason for the delays? I mean they had to have known about the issues so why even bother releasing it on last gen after all these years? It dosen't make any sense to me.

I think it all comes down to money!

Vast majority of Xbox and PS players are still playing on last gen, and if the did decide to release only on next gen consoles, they would miss out on huge portion of projected sales.

It's kinda scary how CDPR managed to erase all of the goodwill they have received from gamers, almost overnight. I do hope they get back on right track. They are still the makers of The Witcher 3, which is one of my absolute favorite games of all time. I was looking forward on playing CP2077, since I'm a huge fan of the Cyberpunk genre. I'll wait and see if they manage to get the game into a presentable condition!

[ariich]

This seems like a big decision. The Witcher 3 sold 11 million copies on the PS4, so at this point there is a big CDprojekt fanbase on the platform. Usually 50% or more of the sales is digital these days (probably more in a lockdown ridden world) and Cyberpunk was top seller on PSN. Right before Christmas too.

It won't be permanent. Once it's patched and stable on PS4, it'll be back.

[ErHaO]

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/17/22188007/sony-cyberpunk-2077-removed-playstation-store-full-refunds-policy

"Sony is pulling Cyberpunk 2077 from the PlayStation Store and offering full refunds"

Wow 

What a fucking clusterfuck. Even No Man's Sky didn't reach that level.

Different issues though. No Man's Sky wasn't that buggy, it just (at launch) wasn't the game that they had promised. That's actually worse IMO because the devs can't make quick patches to fix the issues, and because it's not a technical fault you can't get refunds if you've downloaded it, as it's not faulty. Wheras on PC and next-gen, Cyberpunk is the game that was promised (and by most accounts it sounds fantastic, a bit buggy but no worse than other big releases like Witcher, Bethesda games, etc.), it just doesn't run properly at all on last-gen consoles and they haven't been able to fix it yet.

In terms of why Sony's pulling it entirely from the PS Store for now, I'm guessing it's to get round their usual refunds policy which is really strict and only allows refunds for digital purchases if you haven't downloaded it AT ALL, unless it's faulty. Although I don't see how this doesn't count as faulty, so I feel like Sony could have exerted some judgement, but maybe it's just easier for them to pull it entirely until there's a fix. Does suck for those who have a PS5 though, where it seems to play pretty much fine.

In the end it is only Sony that truly knows the scope of problems and refund requests (and CD projekt through communication). Cyberpunk on PSN was very likely a multiple million seller and Sony gets 30% of those sales. For Sony to make a unique refund page and policy for this games, things must have been very bad, because that will potentially cost them much money as well. And doing it before Christmas also prevent a lot of revenue. I think people underestimate to the scope and degree of problems people are having. Sure, for many big open world games we get compilations of messy bugs and low framerates and "it's broken" memes, but if a publisher steps in like this, it likely is a problem very large in scope.

This seems like a big decision. The Witcher 3 sold 11 million copies on the PS4, so at this point there is a big CDprojekt fanbase on the platform. Usually 50% or more of the sales is digital these days (probably more in a lockdown ridden world) and Cyberpunk was top seller on PSN. Right before Christmas too.

It won't be permanent. Once it's patched and stable on PS4, it'll be back.

Offcourse I understand that, but that does not seem like a simple matter. They already delayed the game for like a month right before release to get these versions running and look at the results. The version will be put back up again when Sony considers it acceptable, what that entails remains to be seen.

[ariich]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong it's been a complete failure on the last-gen consoles and they clearly should not have released it on them. I can only guess that maybe they did some brief testing on PS4 Pro and XBox One X and figured that would be enough.

EDIT: I should add that they've not lost any goodwill with me at all though. They clearly didn't realise it was so bad on the base last-gen consoles, so it was a massive cock-up. But people make mistakes and I don't judge people/companies for the mistakes, I judge them for how they react and address the mistakes. So far their reaction has not given me any reason to be upset with them.

[ErHaO]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong it's been a complete failure on the last-gen consoles and they clearly should not have released it on them. I can only guess that maybe they did some brief testing on PS4 Pro and XBox One X and figured that would be enough.

EDIT: I should add that they've not lost any goodwill with me at all though. They clearly didn't realise it was so bad on the base last-gen consoles, so it was a massive cock-up. But people make mistakes and I don't judge people/companies for the mistakes, I judge them for how they react and address the mistakes. So far their reaction has not given me any reason to be upset with them.

I am a huge fan of The Witcher 2, 3, and the singleplayer Gwent title. And I love GOG. And I am 100% certain I will have a good time or better with Cyberpunk when it releases on next gen consoles. So I for sure don't dislike CD Projekt, but I also think that they did a lot more "wrong" recently than only releasing two subpar versions. Selecting reviewers and only allowing high end PC footage provided by them prior to release is an example.  And their working environment does not sound good for the actual talent that provides us these amazing experiences. So I think the shitstorm is completely warranted, but I am also convinced they will turn it into a success story, as this for sure is a wake up call.

[ariich]

One silly thing that occurs to be is that the reason it needs to be pulled from the entire PS Store is that the only version released is PS4. If they had released a PS5 version as well (which I understand they'll be doing next year sometime), the PS5 version could have stayed on the store. But because the only available version is the PS4 one but you can only play it properly on PS5 (and maybe adequately on PS4 Pro), it clearly had to go for now.

I guess PS5 (and PS4 Pro) owners can still buy the physical discs if they want. But still.

[Nekov]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong it's been a complete failure on the last-gen consoles and they clearly should not have released it on them. I can only guess that maybe they did some brief testing on PS4 Pro and XBox One X and figured that would be enough.

EDIT: I should add that they've not lost any goodwill with me at all though. They clearly didn't realise it was so bad on the base last-gen consoles, so it was a massive cock-up. But people make mistakes and I don't judge people/companies for the mistakes, I judge them for how they react and address the mistakes. So far their reaction has not given me any reason to be upset with them.

Actually, they knew exactly what they were doing. I read that they only sent the PC version out for content producers and critics to try out. They mistakenly sent out some PS4 and Xbox one versions and they asked twitch and youtube to remove the content were the buggy versions were being shown. They bent to the executives pressure to release on the scheduled date and this is what they ended up with. This is Bethesda's level of fuck-up.

[ariich]

Oh yeah, don't get me wrong it's been a complete failure on the last-gen consoles and they clearly should not have released it on them. I can only guess that maybe they did some brief testing on PS4 Pro and XBox One X and figured that would be enough.

EDIT: I should add that they've not lost any goodwill with me at all though. They clearly didn't realise it was so bad on the base last-gen consoles, so it was a massive cock-up. But people make mistakes and I don't judge people/companies for the mistakes, I judge them for how they react and address the mistakes. So far their reaction has not given me any reason to be upset with them.

Actually, they knew exactly what they were doing. I read that they only sent the PC version out for content producers and critics to try out. They mistakenly sent out some PS4 and Xbox one versions and they asked twitch and youtube to remove the content were the buggy versions were being shown. They bent to the executives pressure to release on the scheduled date and this is what they ended up with. This is Bethesda's level of fuck-up.

They've admitted both to being over-optimistic about fixing the last-gen console versions in time for launch, and as you say to not being transparent about the state of the game in the run up. So yes they knew it had problems, I guess I should rather have said that they didn't realise how bad it would be at launch.

[ReaperKK]

A few additional things that probably went into the decision of removing it from the store was that CDPR probably didn't fulfill the certificate wavier to get the game approved in the first place. When Sony signed off on the game CDPR most likely told Sony that the bugs will be fixed. Then they told people who were happy with the purchase of CP77 to ask for a refund and getting a refund from the Sony store with any playtime is a difficult process so Sony thought it was best to just pull it.