RedShell

I pretty much stuck to the same jobs throughout the entire story, so it’s not actually too important. Having said that, there is one useful skill which is tied to a specific job, as mentioned by @martinist here:

It is, yeah. But even so, it’ll still have you grossed out/in tears before the credits roll. I loved the Sujimon thing, so entertaining. And yeah, Dragon Kart is awesome, surprisingly deep too. I reckon you might not be a huge fan of it during the more difficult races though, knowing how much you like rubber banding. The cinema mini-game does have a Catherine vibe to it, yeah. Great music too. BTW, it can be used as a way to level up your bond with party members, I didn’t get to take advantage of that feature on my playthrough though, as I’d already hit max bond with everyone before I really focused on that mini-game. Nothing like what was in previous titles unfortunately. I think the devs realised they could never top the live chat mini-game from Yakuza 6, so didn’t bother. That, or they’re becoming politically correct... There’s some entertaining stuff in the sub stories though.

Oh nice! Great game to end the year with. Hehehe! There’s still the QTE stuff and timing your defensive moves to keep you busy during battles. Timing can be quite an important part of the battle system actually (especially once you have a full party) due to the way characters automatically move around during a fight. If you initiate an attack when there’s something (that’s un-kickable ) in their path to the enemy it can interrupt the attack. Works both ways though, as enemies can occasionally miss attacks like that too. Anyway, really glad to see you playing and enjoying this. Your Yakuza marathon this year has been absolutely incredible!

Not that anyone here will care but a patch has arrived for the save data issue on PC. I spent ages sorting out my items anyway, had so many duplicates from constantly looting and then just chucking everything in storage! The menu system (especially for item management) could definitely do with being streamlined in this, very clumsy/slow as it stands. But yeah, even if improvements are being considered for that, I imagine it’ll be pretty low on the list of priorities for the devs at the moment.

For me it was initially a case of no longer being able to make it on Thursday, but now it’s also that I’ve simply lost interest in MK8DX. The N-E MK League has spanned several MK titles already, but when you take into consideration the Wii U version, MK8/DX has almost certainly had the longest run of the lot. The way I see it, a new MK game is long overdue at this point! You lot will scoff at this but the truth is I get my MK fix from Tour these days. And I actually think it’s a real shame Nintendo didn’t find a way to incorporate the content from that game into MK8DX, as it would’ve massively helped in keeping it fresh. But yeah, unfortunately I’ve just had enough of MK8DX. Whenever MK9 becomes a reality you can guarantee I’ll be very much IN! the N-E League once again.

Not really, no. There is some stuff in the game that links to previous entries, but it’s nothing that will stop you from understanding the story. Well it’s not on the PC Game Pass, but there is often a different selection of games on the console one, so maybe. The Yakuza games do seem to be a popular choice on Game Pass though, so I’m almost certain this will be on there at some point. Hope you get the chance to play it anyway.

I’ll do my best to be there, but put me down as a maybe. Have sent you an item.

I finally did the last story mission over the weekend and completed the game. Then I jumped right back into it and did the same mission again, three more times to be precise! Yep, wanted to see how different choices would change the ending, and my word, do they change it!... ...if someone were to only play one path and then be done with this game, they’d be missing out on quite a bit of content! Even having gone through the conclusion to the Street Kid path several times now it still feels like there could be stuff that I’m yet to see, and I’m also itching to start a new game and check out the other paths to discover how it will modify the flow of the game and the relationships with other characters. In a way it’s good that the main story isn’t overly long (would’ve finished it way sooner if it weren’t for all those damn side jobs! ) as replayability is going to be a big thing with Cyberpunk 2077 I reckon. Can see myself doing at least another three complete playthroughs of it. Anyway, really glad I got to play this game and that I was able to do so on PC. Gutted for those that are stuck with the console version though as that is just no way to experience this magnificent game. I hope the developers will be able to address the many issues on those platforms and soon, but yeah, it still sucks how that situation was ever allowed to happen in the first place. Thanks for the heads up! Mine was under 8MB (around 4MB I think it was) but I have made a backup of it now just in case. Man, this game can’t catch a break!

Awesome, cheers.

It really is weird, yeah. I’ve put around 40 hours into it now, and other than the few minor bugs I mentioned earlier it’s been absolutely fine. To me it feels like people are talking about a completely different game! Nope, got distracted by side jobs yet again. I swear there’s no end to them, new missions seem to be popping up all the time too! Could someone who isn’t interested in the game check if side jobs can still be done after completing the main story for me? I would look into it myself, but don’t want to risk any potential story spoilers.

...being there for even a second is too long ...it’s by far the worst place on the internet ...you’ll lose braincells if you read anything posted there ...etc. Anyway, that was great showcase vid! He does appear to be very powerful but the balancing seems good too with appropriate delay on certain attacks and stuff like the wings being influenced by various factors. Love how you can stab the terrain with his sword for recovery or stylishly avoiding edge guards, that is super cool! Also, lol @ the part with the lineup of Kirbys for showing the sword sweet spot. Reminds me of the apple slice sharpness test on Forged in Fire.* *great show BTW, check it out if you’ve never seen it. The stage looks amazing as well! I have barely any history with the Final Fantasy series (the only FF games I’ve ever owned/played are FFII on SNES and Theatrhythm on 3DS) but even I was getting slightly hyped watching that vid.

I’m starting to think they should’ve just cancelled the last-gen console versions as soon as it became obvious the project had surpassed what was realistically possible on those platforms. Sure, it would’ve meant an initial hit to profits plus some backlash, but I reckon in the long run it would’ve been better for the overall reception of the game, not to mention the reputation of the studio. But yeah, it’s truly bizarre hearing about this kind of stuff while I’m playing through and really enjoying the game with basically no issues at all. Anyway, made some good progress with side jobs yesterday, one of them had a very surprising cameo/Easter egg... ...so I should be taking on the final mission tonight!

Yup. Definitely keeping an eye on that one.

The more of this game I see, the more I love it. And man, when it rains in Night City... This is now without question the most visually stunning videogame I have ever played, it’s absolutely gorgeous. Ray tracing is a total game changer. Having the entire environment appear so realistically in all reflective surfaces (and there are A LOT of them) is a sight to behold. Even subtle details like seeing perfect reflections of your surroundings when looking at a glass surface, while still being able to clearly see everything on the other side, it’s super impressive. Anyway, had another good chuckle when going through some remaining side missions last night... ...Hilarious stuff, but all the smut in Cyberpunk 2077 has got me wondering, did Sony have any of it censored on PlayStation? Even if they didn’t it’s still a bad look for them IMO after all the crap they’ve pulled with other games recently (like Devil May Cry 5), for infinitely less explicit content I might add. So yeah, completely hypocritical if they’re going to pick and choose what’s acceptable like that and not treat all creators equally. But oh well, in the words of Reggie... “not my problem!” anymore. By the way, what’s everyone’s radio station of choice when cruising Night City? At the moment I’m partial to Radio Pebkac as it fits the vibe of the game so well:

I’ve hit the point of no return, but am enjoying the side missions way too much to proceed. Some of them have been absolutely amazing, seriously good stuff for what is essentially optional content. Funny too. I had a right laugh when... The way Johnny and V play off each other has been really entertaining throughout actually. Will be interesting to see it from the perspective of female V, so definitely going to try that on the next playthrough and... *cough* get to know Judy better too. Having said that, Panam was a nice romance option for male V. Not only were those missions really fun but following her around was a great opportunity to take in the sights of the Badlands and... *cough* other things. Gotta love that attention to detail in the character models. As for the bug situation, have actually encountered a few which have impacted gameplay now. The weirdest one had to be when going to interact with something and suddenly getting launched backwards at insane speed! It has only happened on 2 occasions, and just meant that I had to make my way back to the original spot, so a minor inconvenience more than anything. The game still hasn’t frozen or crashed for me at all though, so I’m guessing those more serious issues are only happening on the console versions. Don’t get me wrong, the PC version definitely needs cleaning up, but it’s mainly cosmetic by the looks of things. This is me on every mission! Just replace minutes with seconds. Actually, I have managed to be stealthy on a few rare occasions. Really appreciate how you can influence those aspects of the gameplay via the skill tree though, very helpful for clumsy players like myself. But yeah, it feels great when you do succeed in effectively sneaking around. And on the numerous occasions when it does all go to shit, it’s all good, as the combat gameplay is super solid. I wasn’t too keen on it initially, but it has really grown on me and I love it now. Experimenting with the different weapons has definitely helped, there are so many! OK, time for some more side jobs...

The reflections and shadows really enhance the presentation, but it still looks pretty damn good on low!

Yesterday I found a cat just chilling underwater.

Sorry I didn’t join you guys on Thursday, got way too engrossed in Cyberpunk! Anyway, I’ll be back for the next session, will go with Cloud.

Ok, definitely starting to notice more in the way of buggy stuff now. Thankfully still nothing game-breaking, but quite a bit of clipping, characters skating along the floor, cigarettes duplicating and staying in midair... visual glitches like that. Definitely detracts from the immersion somewhat. Noticed a patch downloading last night after I’d finished playing though, so perhaps some of that stuff has already been tidied up. Took a quick look through the patch notes, and it seems like they have at least addressed the potential issue with lighting effects causing harm during the BD sequences, so that’s good. In its original state it was certainly quite uncomfortable to watch, especially when playing in a dark room. Will be interesting to see exactly how they’ve adjusted the effect.

My “physical” copy arrived yesterday and I managed to get it installed in a couple of hours, no patch or update either by the looks of things (or it was all just done with the initial download ). While there was obviously no game disc inside the box, it was nice to see so much other stuff in there... a soundtrack CD, stickers, a map, postcards, and even what appears to be... a manual?! I suppose those were still a thing back when the development of this game started. Not messed about with the visual settings much yet, but can already tell that some optimisation will definitely be required in order to hit a solid 60 fps on my PC. On the default settings (high/ultra + ray-tracing) it seems to be anywhere between 45-60 fps depending on how much is going on, but to be honest the variability isn’t really distracting at all, and having now also seen how poorly it runs on the base PS4 (where I was originally going to play it) I certainly won’t complain! But yeah, the game looks absolutely incredible, plays great and is clearly packed with content. Haven’t encountered any bugs yet either, well, other than minor stuff like the occasional floating object or iffy animation, but was expecting those kind of things given the magnitude of the game. Also, how the hell they got that montage cutscene to work in real-time I’ll never know! Seriously impressive. Anyway, back to Night City I go...

Well, I’m not mad this time at least. But yeah, still not getting the second fighters pass. Happy for those that are excited by this character though. Only need 1 this time.

Yep, this being revealed at The Game Awards pretty much confirms it’s going to be another safe/popular/rubbish choice. Not hyped at all. OK, reverse psychology engaged... bring on the quirky/unexpected/awesome choice!

Oh right, yeah it might need a pre-completion save to do that trick actually. Not sure if it can still be done in Premium adventure.