Cyberpunk 2077 Launch Impression Thread

[Hermione Granger]

This launch didn't go smoothly, horrible console performance and all the bugs revealed even with the patch released.

I was going to play this game quite a bit yesterday, but I might wait for another patch before playing for a prolonged play through.

Do you think the game should have been delayed again or cancelled for the PlayStation and Xbox last gen consoles?

 

[pkmin3033]

I have this coming for Xbox One and I am low-key dreading it because I will not be getting a Series X and I am definitely not buying it again on PS4/PS5 until it's like £15 at the most, so if it never gets fixed for last gen consoles - and it absolutely should be, there's no excuse for it not to - I am going to be stuck with a game that doesn't work as intended. I highly doubt I'll even touch it before all the issues are patched, and that could take months. I won't be able to return it either because it's a Christmas present >.>

Anyways. I know it's common practice these days to release a game in a half-finished state, but...well, CDPR aren't Bethesda. The joke was old before Fallout 76, and we definitely didn't need another Fallout 76 situation from a different developer. I'm not so sure another delay would have helped really, as the 21 day delay the game had right before release clearly didn't, and neither did the one before that. Whilst I don't think it should have breen released in the state it is in, I feel sorry for the devs, because this is a shining example of why crunch culture doesn't work. I would hope that with the game released, they can take their time and work on fixing it so it works in the state it was supposed to, because the money is going to come rolling in regardless of whether they hurry or not. It's a major AAA release with all the hype, biased media reviews, and general lack of objectivity that implies - it prints money. Past that, the people at the top don't care, so why should they care how long it takes for it to get fixed? At least in theory. In practice I doubt it.

I do get the feeling that they will sacrifice last gen performance in favour of next gen optimisation - because next gen will be where all the money is when Sony and Microsoft finally take their fingers out and start supplying consoles again - but they shouldn't. If they were going to do that then they SHOULD have cancelled the games on last gen consoles. It wouldn't be the first time something like that has happened. But they started on last gen, so they should finish on last gen. But they should be allowed to take the time to finish it.

But this game looks to be a let-down in multiple departments - the customisation options are also severely lacking from what I've seen.

 

[Hermione Granger]

I do think the games performance will get better overtime on the base x1 and ps4 alongside the pro and one x, but I know it will not be perfect. I'm at least happy that I will not have to purchase the game again when I finally get a ps5.

It probably should have been delayed longer than three weeks. I know they released a patch yesterday to fix some major issues, but I want to see some patches for performance before Christmas if they can.

 

[Janp]

So far I've been having fun. I stayed away from majority of trailers, spoilers and hype, so I might not have 100% knowledge of what was promised and what was delivered. I also didn't mind delays at all. It's not like there aren't hundreds of other games to play.

I'm playing on mid-end PC and only encountered minor bugs. Some texture clipping, dead NPC talking and stuff like that. Nothing gamebreaking. I think there were games with smaller scale, but with more bugs in the past. Would it be great if there were no bugs? Of course. But under all those bugs is well-crafted game. Night City is breathtaking. Side quests are so much better than in Witcher 3, gunplay and characters are fine. It really reminds me of more colorful version of modern Deus Ex games.

But I also agree with everything Dawn said.

 

[pkmin3033]

It's going to be interesting to see where they go with the game now that it's been released - they've made the money back on it with preorders alone(!) but their stock has tanked by thirty percent since the game launched because of the state it's in. So I suppose there will probably be a rush on to fix it as quickly as possible.

I do generally agree that there will be fixes for all versions, but at the same time I can't see it ever being up to par on the base versions of last gen consoles. It feels very much like they overreached and it is going to take a very long time for it to be the game it should be, if it ever even gets there...I'm reminded of Square Enix and the FFXV debacle. I suppose CDPR aren't the same company they were back when they made the first Witcher, but I still expected better of them than this. They've garnered a lot of goodwill over the years - and with damn good reason - so I suppose that's what makes the state Cyberpunk is in especially painful.

Meanwhile, the memes come pouring in.

 

[Janp]

Yeah, I'm also looking forward to see what will CDPR do. The Witcher 3 was also buggy mess when it was released and became one of the best games of the last decade for average mainstream gamer. Their reaction can either save them or make them into yet another greedy company.

But I don't think comparing Cyberpunk with Fallout 76 is good comparison. There is good game under all those bugs in Cyberpunk. Fallout 76 is barebone game full of MTX. I think comparing Cyberpunk to Batman: Arkham Knight or Kingdom Come: Deliverence is better. Both were buggy mess singleplayer games that eventually became playable and were good.

 

[Hermione Granger]

I wouldn't have compared this game to fallout 76 myself. Fallout 76 also never really looked like a compelling game even after all the updates.

I do think people will be more hesitant on purchasing future titles on day one from CDPR in the future. I do hope that their next full game is more polished than this at the launch of that game.

 

[pkmin3033]

Will people really be more hesitant in future, though? All it really takes is one game for a developer to put itself on the map, and CDPR have done that with Witcher III. Long-term I don't think this is going to change anything - the initial reception is a short-term, knee jerk reaction that people aren't going to remember in the future, especially if their next game is Witcher related. All it's going to take to null this is some well-timed press releases for the next game with some flashy trailers of gameplay footage and the promise that it'll launch in a better state...not even that probaly. They'll get away with this. Lord knows other AAA developers get away with much, much worse.

 

[Nah]

I wouldn't really expect people to be hesitant in buying games from the company after this. Bethesda has been putting out buggy ass games for eons and that by itself has never really stopped their games from doing well afaik. What I'd hope for at the least would be that most or all of the bugs will be fixed sooner rather than later, and that in the future they take the time to make sure that their products aren't bug filled messes....but me and hope don't really go together these days.

 

[Hermione Granger]

CDPR plans on releasing another patch sometime this week. Atm they have also said they plan on releasing a major patch in both January and February.

I wouldn't be surprised if this weeks patch is bigger than the hotfix patch they released.

 

[machomuu]

So despite all the issues people are having or people loving it or whatever, my gripe with the game so far is the character creation.

Like, ignoring that they tie pronouns to voice which is a major yikes, I was expecting it to have more versatility. And I don't mean more options necessarily but like...for instance, there are no sliders whatsoever, even for color. So if you want a hair color with a gradient for instance, you have to choose between on of 3 or 4 options. The sizes of things usually trend between big, medium, and small, there's no heterochromia.

There's no heterochromia.

In a Cyberpunk game, a world where people literally augment their body parts just for aesthetic, something you'll notice even when you're choosing your pupils, and they don't allow you to have different designs for each especially in a world where people also use them for actual enhancements or replacements and I'm like...look I know mods'll change that in the future but I feel like in a game where they put so much emphasis on seeing your character in social situations and cutscenes, and an RPG no less, you'd be able to do these fairly standard things. idk. People memed about changing every single minute detail of their genitalia before release and even though it was a joke with the way they were talking about CC you kinda would've expected it to be like that, but all we had to take for it was their word.

 

[Hermione Granger]

Sony pulled the game from psn and plans on refunding the people who purchased the title.

I wonder if Microsoft will pull the game as well.

 

[Nikita Dracovish]

I don't doubt it, but I wonder if MS is taking a 'wait-and-see' approach.

 

[Janp]

Kinda surprised Sony did that, after their initial reaction of not refunding anyone.

 

[Hermione Granger]

Now CDPR are facing a lawsuit, boy how things have gone from bad to worse.

 

[pkmin3033]

I'm not so sure CDPR deserve our adoration and respect anymore - between the crunch culture and releasing a half-baked product, it's pretty clear that times have changed there. I'm not so sure they deserve to be smacked in the face with a lawsuit on top of everything else either, but if it's harmed their investors to such a large extent, then perhaps so. Although at least the executives are the ones taking responsibility - as they ought to! - and refunds are being offered, so it's not a complete disaster...or at least, not as much as it could have been.

Thankfully my mother saw the news and returned the copy she had bought me, and I'm getting Control Ultimate Edition on PS4 instead now. xD

 

[Hermione Granger]

I'm giving them a chance to fix the game, since there is a good game underneath all the issues.

Though I would recommend waiting to get the game until the issues are dealt with. I also think some people if not most might wait for a sale on the game even after the issues are fixed and I think that is acceptable.

 

[pkmin3033]

I think they may very well drop the price of the game once it's fixed as an act of goodwill - they've certainly got a lot to regain after the debacle this has been.

I was watching Jim Sterling's latest video on the topic earlier and, his overdramatised vindictiveness aside for the moment (although that song did make me laugh) I have to wonder if he has a point - maybe CDPR really are just a one-hit wonder. They gave us something great with Witcher III, and a lot of empty consumer-friendly PR statements, but maybe that's all they're good for. It certainly wouldn't be the first time a company that appeared to be great has turned out to be corrupt, and it certainly wouldn't be the first time a company has rested on its laurels and relied upon its reputation to sell its second rate products...Game Freak have made a living off of that for over two decades.

 

[Fleurdelis]

I was very skeptical about this game, everyone was praising it saying it will be great, CDPR's marketing strategy "baiting" people into pre-ordering the game, etc.

Something felt wrong with me ever since the delays came. And then another delay came, and another one, thats when I knew something would not go as planned.

Then they said it would be released for real this time and I still believed it would end up in yet *another* delay, even joked about it with friends. Alas it released and it released in a very poor state. At this point CDPR's rep has gone down the shitter and all they can hope for is to pull something like No Man's Sky has done, except i dont think that will be enough considering this grave is dug deeper than NMS to be quite honest.

I watched a friend play it since I did not buy it, still on the fence about it cause if you look aside the glaringly obvious bugs, it still looks like a fun game to play. Although for consoles.... yeaaah that's a massive yikes right there :/
Though some bugs made me spit out my drink in laugter, watching the car drive to you through a building of all things.

 

[Hermione Granger]

I was very skeptical about this game, everyone was praising it saying it will be great, CDPR's marketing strategy "baiting" people into pre-ordering the game, etc.

Something felt wrong with me ever since the delays came. And then another delay came, and another one, thats when I knew something would not go as planned.

Then they said it would be released for real this time and I still believed it would end up in yet *another* delay, even joked about it with friends. Alas it released and it released in a very poor state. At this point CDPR's rep has gone down the ****ter and all they can hope for is to pull something like No Man's Sky has done, except i dont think that will be enough considering this grave is dug deeper than NMS to be quite honest.

I watched a friend play it since I did not buy it, still on the fence about it cause if you look aside the glaringly obvious bugs, it still looks like a fun game to play. Although for consoles.... yeaaah that's a massive yikes right there :/
Though some bugs made me spit out my drink in laugter, watching the car drive to you through a building of all things.

I believe the next 2 major patches are supposed to be focused on performance, so if they can get the console versions up to a stable 30 fps for the ps4 and x1 consoles I think people might be willing to buy the console versions if that is the only thing they have for gaming, even if they wait for a price cut.