I wonder how likely the words “cyberpunk is the best video game I’ve ever played” will be coming out of anyone on staffs mouth come GOTY 2020.

I wonder if we'll find out?

None of them are really ever that prone to hyperbole (even Dan) so that phrase I'm fairly confident will come out of no one's mouth.

@sethmode: Several of the staff, including and especially Dan (at times) are incredibly prone to hyperbole...it just sways in a negative direction. Though Jeff usually seems to be poking the bear with his comments. Jeff doesn't give a fuck.

I wonder if the game will be any good.

@shiftygism: Sure, but this person was asking about any of them saying "best game I've ever played" which none of them really ever do. We get "one of" at most.

Either way, I suspect no one will say it is the worst game they've ever played either. Unless the game is a massive hit and Jeff doesn't really care for it, then he will say it is the worst just to make angry CDPR fans mad.

EDIT: and yeah, probably anyone familiar with the site is equally familiar with Dan's affinity for brash, declarative statements the bother staff and community alike.

Put it this way: the game has to be released and very good first. It could still go either way.

Yes, CD Projekt RED put out a great Witcher 3, which is arguably leagues ahead of the previous games. But it took them two iterations before they got a stunning, yet quite buggy, game out the door. And now they're going to make a first attempt at sprawling and massive FPS. Itself becoming what I'd say is one of the most anticipated games in recent years.

It will be the best game next year that everyone falls off 40 hours into and Vinny decides to finally finish 3 years later on a Playdate.

They will just ”bounce right off it”.

I think the Sci-fi setting and it being a FPS gives it a better chance than most RPGs. But I think most of them are fairly impatient players as well as not being too open to new experiences. It might depend on how much the game asks of the player early on. I feel like GB's a game site that doesn't make room for RPG coverage and the games often get blamed even tho they're not making the time to give them a fair shake.

I think I'd have a better idea of what they might think if I know how I felt about it. Anyways, seems like the type of game that'll end up getting pushed to 2021 or late 2020 at the very least.

@sethmode: uhhh what? Dan is king of hyperbole. "I will play this game forever!" Him arguing for Mario Maker. "This will be one of my GOTYs." Him leading up to RDR 2. Literally every time he talks about something he did "every day" as a kid.

I think the LAOU 2 has a better chance since Naughty Dog knows how to make a fun game and actually write dialogue and compelling characters.

@sloppydetective: Look, I'm just answering what the OP asked. I don't think Dan usually uses "This is the best game ever" style hyperbole. Even the suggestions that you gave aren't that hyperbolic.

Having said that...who cares? My goal was not to pinpoint the exact level and circumstance of their hyperbole. Was just talking about this game that we know very little about.

EDIT: Did he say that about Mario Party or Mario Maker? One he has basically played forever in some capacity, and the other I have no idea how often he still plays.

If everybody else loves the game, then some of them will bounce off of it, just because.

I mean, I think the only way Witcher 3 isn’t my Game of the Generation is if Cyberpunk outdoes it (which would be a nice surprise).

Witcher 3 did make it on Giant Bomb’s top 10 in 2015 (at #10), but aside from Vinny liking the DLC, I don’t hear a lot of positive takes from the crew.

If I had to make a wager, I’d guess that Doom eclipses Cyberpunk in the Giant Bomb offices...

Too busy wondering if I'll like it.

I'm guessing it will probably be discussed and then quickly forgotten by the crew. They really don't have anyone other than maybe Vinny who goes in for the presumably super-long stat-heavy narrative driven RPGs.

My money is also on Jeff grumping about either the shooting or movement nebulously not feeling "good" because it isn't as fast as Titanfall or Call of Duty.

As someone who doesn't own or have the patience or know-how to build a high-end PC, I'm also kind of wondering as to whether I should just wait until there is the inevitable re-release on the next-gen consoles. I kind of get the feeling this game might tax current-gen systems beyond their capability, so I'm anxious about the performance.

Hey, let's get angry about the staff's reaction to a game four months before they can react to it?

No, thanks.

They don't like RPGs but some of them like vent crawlers/immersive sim type stuff this game seems to be hitting. I will not be surprised if like Witcher 3 it is hardly talked about but also won't be surprised if it hits for some of them.

@teddie: makes two of us.

This, especially when the disappointment stems from them not thinking it's the best game they've ever played.

It sounds like people have already decided it's the greatest game ever and it's not even out.

@nutter: I agree with you, Witcher 3 is my Game or the decade but cyberpunk has a chance to surpass it if it lives up to the hype. This question was inspired from me listening to GOTY 2015 again and had forgotten how much a lot of the staff was pretty negative on the story outside of the bloody baron storyline and hated the controls. I wonder if I’m in the minority of people who played Witcher 2 and 3 entirely with mouse and keyboard and thought the controls were great. Basically I’m expecting it to be a game with a grander scope than Witcher 3, in a FPS cyberpunk world, and if that’s the case, I don’t see how it’ll be anything short of a masterpiece. Hopefully it lives up to our hype.

In hindsight, I should have phrased the question as “one of the best games of all time.” I was wrong to say THE definitively, because you guys are right. Nobody on staff really makes those sort of definitive statements like that

I'm looking at a game tracking spreadsheet that I maintain, and 2020 is a very crazy looking year. Cyberpunk has its work cut out for it. I see the crew leaning all sorts of directions in 2020...

Obviously this is all speculative, but assuming these are all decent games then there are a number of games I can see the crew enjoying more based on their past preferences and opinions.

I can see any one of these games being favored by the crew over Cyberpunk:

• Animal Crossing
• Dying Light 2
• DOOM Eternal
• Ori & Will-o-the-Wisps
• Last Of Us 2

@jsmith79327: I’m a console guy.

I played Witcher on PC and thought it controlled fine as a more action/timing based take on Diablo combat.

Witcher 2 and 3 were both console games for me. I’m down for animation priority. I want my characters and their weapons to have heft. So both Witcher 2 and 3 played GREAT for me.

I get that feeling like a gun attached to a camera can feel freeing, especially with a mouse and high framerate, but I like feeling like my characters are a part of the world. I don’t mind being committed to inertia or momentum.

@jsmith79327: I’m a console guy.

I played Witcher on PC and thought it controlled fine as a more action/timing based take on Diablo combat.

Witcher 2 and 3 were both console games for me. I’m down for animation priority. I want my characters and their weapons to have heft. So both Witcher 2 and 3 played GREAT for me.

I get that feeling like a gun attached to a camera can feel freeing, especially with a mouse and high framerate, but I like feeling like my characters are a part of the world. I don’t mind being committed to inertia or momentum.

And yeah, it feels like they got their ya-yas out with the Bloody Baron. I think if they had played more, they’d have dug the entire story in the game. My guess is that 1) it’s a lot of game 2) it’s not their favorite, and 3) they got their fill.

I remember the staff coming out an E3 demo last year feeling like the game might very well live up to the hype. It'll almost be 2 years later when the game is released, so things could have changed by then, but I guess they'll be excited to at least play it. In that it already has one up over Witcher 3.

This game is massively ambitious, and

so I'm still in "wait and see" mode. Nothing against CDPR, they've proven themselves, it's just that games like this are VERY difficult to get right. And especially being their first shooter, you just never know.

@nutter: I totally hear you on that, I remember I discovered the Witcher series through a Witcher 2 sale on steam a couple years before 3 came out and for some reason I didn’t even think to plug in a controller and those games just became Keyboard and mouse games for me lol generally I would play 3rd person action games like that with a controller. I agree that not seeing that game through was probably why they didn’t love the story as much. I felt like skellige was the best part of that game, and I could see not seeing some of those incredible side stories on those islands might leave you to feel the games story hit its peak in velen. Plus jacking that game up to death march and actually having to read then bestiaries and making potions and oils for each specific monster fight was such a cool experience.

@shagge: definitely agree on that, I feel like the biggest wildcard factor with this game is how it plays as a shooter since they’ve never made one of these before. So happy that we don’t have to wait much longer to find out!

@big_denim: yup next year is absolutely stacked and I can already see animal crossing being the front runner for GB GOTY if it pushes that series forward in noteworthy and fun ways, while still retaining what everybody loves so much about that series. Im still crossing my fingers that Ubisoft is getting ready to announce steep 2. I thought the first game was plagued with bad, confusing menus and it was so stupidly hard to navigate that mountain, but the game felt incredible to play, with fun goals and an incredible world. Plus people still play the first game and they are updating it, so I could totally see them doing another one here very soon and I could see a good one of those being very popular among the GB staff

@jsmith79327: Ha, I have had similar thoughts. Though I am also of the opinion (and an unpopular one, I suspect) that Steep 2 should be a VR game. I'd love to cruise down those mountain tops with a headset strapped to my noggin'.

@big_denim: I would totally be interested if the game supported VR and regular standard controls. The half life Alyx release has me tempted to finally crack and buy into VR and I agree, steep 2 in VR would be awesome to see

@sethmode: Mario Maker (mistakenly typed Party) is the game he used the "I will play this forever" argument and then stopped playing it completely after a few months past that GOTY. I didn't mean to dog pile on you, I saw there were already a few responses after I already wrote my comment. I just think Dan is generally very hyperbolic and doesn't realize it at all or when he does it months after the fact after causing multiple arguments over the statements. It's one of the more frustrating aspects of his personality to me.

@sloppydetective: I didn't think you were piling on and of course Dan is hyperbolic as shit, especially negatively. And I agree. I don't like it either. As I said in another post, it seems to both upset staff and community alike.

@jsmith79327: I'm going to try and be even handed here and just say that if the game turns out to be a thirty to forty hour game or longer I can see only one of them even trying to play through it. I love the crew east and west but they tend to peel off of long games these days. Alex tends to be the one that can stand to make an attempt and he's made it clear that an extended length of almost any game can be to it's detriment.

Depends on how good and how long it is

@merxworx01: I agree, I remember Alex saying he was never able to stay engaged with a lot of the long games like the fallouts and elder scrolls. I know for me personally, I have to be in a specific mood to be interested in long games. Witcher 3 and fallout 4 are the only 2 Single player games in the past couple years that I’ve dumped 70+ hours in at once. Cyberpunk will probably be the next one for me

Educated guess: Crew played before the controls were "fixed" with the update. The controls and even the management etc. all the stuff they were negative on got updates later when they as a site for game coverage, had no time or interest in revisiting. Even a short revisit didn't do the game justice since the milk was already sowered by the first impression. I think cyberpunk reminds me a lot of the most recent Deus Ex if that game was bigger in scope of the world and had more branching narratives. That said even jeff liked Deus ex fine so a bigger version of that will be good for him. my hypothesis is most crew will bounce off of it but like the first few hours. The issue will be the constant cursing and in your face nudity. Cyber punk is also not known for being a super easy genre to get into with all the techno jargon so i see most purchasers bouncing off as well. I see a 95% on metacritic with negatives being glitches and profanity/story and average shooting. Users will give it a bunch of 10s and 0s as usual. I cant see the game being bad enough for the crew to hate but they will judge it with a super critical lense. Unlike games like control etc where the crew was interested at the start, this game only has their interest cause the creators not the concept. CDP also seems ambitious but has trouble crafting gameplay as strong as other games that focus on one thing. There more of a jack of all trades and thats easy for someone in the crew to lose interest with.

I can't speak to everything you've mentioned there, but the biggest naysayers were Jeff and Brad, who both still hated the controls even after the update (Jeff especially) and Dan, who got lost in some sort of fog around the Dandelion plot point and was never seen again...and being Dan this meant he went full Dan at times to troll people and basically treat it like a terrible game that he liked parts of.

Yeah. Funny. Back in the day long games would be a great thing but games are expensive while also being cheaper than ever with gamepass etc and long games are or should soon fade out if devs know everyone will try out their 3 hour game for subscription and enjoy it for how it takes chances or doesnt add filler.) Its the age old idea that when your young you have all the time but no money for fun stuff (games) older you have money but no time to spend the money (play the games).

@big_denim: @big_denim:Naw. Cant see crew liking DBZ game. Its bodaki or xenverse like and they didnt like DBZ cause those games. They liked DBZ going back to the routes and old school streetfighter/marvel like fighting. You know...good games. Ori will be a passing enjoyment. FF7 will be a huge pass. I think the game will be good but the overall story behind the game's development and it just being a long rpg they know the story to already will nock it. Plus fights are very ff15 or kingdom hearts like which they do not enjoy. Half life will never keep any attention besides being a disappointment. Hype is too high as said by crew several times over half life 3. No game will impress them for half life although they said their best bet was VR. Doom DEFINITELY WILL OUTSHINE CYBER. Animal - no Marvel maybe but crew doesnt really like marvel much. most havent even seen endgame movie. Last of us 2 will probably be too much as in they will look fonder on the less gritty LOU 1. Dying light 2 - no, Monsters no, legion maybe but the repetitive gameplay may show after a while like in prior games. Rainbow - maybe. Overall i think Cyber has a chance but DOOM wins all interest.

I predict it'll be recieved in a similar way that gta5 was, that's to say Jeff will like it most as it'll resonate with his personal life.

Tough to tell at this stage, obviously Jeffrey has a soft spot for cyberpunk stuff though. I keep meaning to go and give Witcher III a fair shake, but I've never been a huge fantasy person. The super decked out edition goes on sale like twice a month though, which has put me in this moron cycle of going "Oh, this is ten bucks now. Ah, I'll get it next time it's ten bucks."