Now that Prey 2 has been delayed, and its development is supposedly going through a lot of trouble, it looks like CD Projekt has taken up the cyberpunk genre reigns. Massive cyberpunk-esque cities are alarmingly absent in gaming, despite being completely awesome as a setting. Can't wait to see what CDPR can do with that idea. After Witcher 2, they can do no wrong in my eyes, so this is already one of my most anticipated games right now.
Here's the video of Marcin Iwinski (CD Projekt's CEO) announcing it this morning at their summer conference:
The fact that he referenced "noir" and "Blade Runner" multiple times here just makes me even more excited.
I've never been a huge fan of Cyberpunk, but anything from CDPR is a day one buy for me. They make fantastic games and they treat their customers better than anyone else in this industry right now.
Witcher 2 certainly delivered a mature, non-linear story in a rich, well-realized world - I see this being no different in that regard. Looking forward to their artists shifting from dark fantasy to the Blade Runner cityscape aesthetic. Let's hope for some Vangelis inspired music to top it off. That's good to know their diligence has paid off and allowed them to work on multiple projects at once (still can't wait to continue Geralt's adventures).
@N7: While there are some similarities in the tech, Ghost in the Shell was always more about political maneuverings and the philosophical implications of new technology on society, and lacks Cyberpunk 2020's dystopian view of a wold falling apart under decadence and unchecked corporate greed. Also due to cyberpsychosis, most of the GitS cast would be complete nutjobs under the Cyberpunk rules.
In terms of anime franchises, Cyberpunk is probably much closer to the original Bubblegum Crisis/AD Police Files OVAs:
Cyberpunk absent in gaming? Weren't there like 4 cyberpunk setting games released this year already?
You're not wrong as far as Cyberpunk in general, but I meant more specifically that urban, noir influenced cyberpunk ala Blade Runner (which was a huge influence on Cyberpunk 2020). Prey 2 looked spot on going by what they showed last E3, but who knows how that'll turn out at this point.
CD Projekt RED is truly a highly talented and a PASSIONATE game studio. I don't say this much, because it loses its meaning when you say it about every game with some potential, but when it comes to this IP: This could be amazing.
I still need to pick up Witcher 2 since that's on 360 now, but judging from how much of a sucker I am for cyberpunk/future shit and for the sort of RPG those dudes make, I'm totally in.
As much as I'd like it to launch on all platforms simultaneously, Witcher 2 ended up being a better game techinacally because it was built for PC's first, and ported to console later. I'd be fine with that approach again if it meant I got an even better product a year later.
man....they sure like that typeface over at CDProjekt. I know I didn't like the witcher but I am more than willing to give this game a shot because I could see how passionate and invested these polaks are when it comes to their games.
I really hope this game comes out for 360. I am loving the playing the Witcher 2 at the moment. I hope their descion to go to consoles has been rewarded in sales and they can now do this for all upcoming games.
I appreciate PC people might disagree.
EDIT: I think the way they chose to develop games from already established fiction really helps them to create believable and rich worlds. I am really excited for this but I imagine it is a long way off if they are only showing concept art.
I love Cyberpunk and the Witcher guys making it will be awesome. I love how the concept art had dudes in stupid mohawks walking around, thats perfect. Just need to carry around a big clacky keyboard and floppy discs and we will be all set.
CDPR could release practically anything at this point and I would buy it, its been a long time since a developer has gained my loyalty as much as they have. Mainly thanks to the continued support for released games, free dlc and no invasive DRM. The fact its cyberpunk? I about fell off my chair I came so hard...god yes
@LegendaryChopChop: Shadowrun Returns will hopefully be out next year! Looks fantastic.
@leebmx said:
I really hope this game comes out for 360. I am loving the playing the Witcher 2 at the moment. I hope their descion to go to consoles has been rewarded in sales and they can now do this for all upcoming games.
I appreciate PC people might disagree.
EDIT: I think the way they chose to develop games from already established fiction really helps them to create believable and rich worlds. I am really excited for this but I imagine it is a long way off if they are only showing concept art.
After Witcher 2, CDPR said hat they had "two multiplatform projects in the works". That was before this announcement, so I'd imagine they were talking about this and possibly Witcher 3. I'd actually be surprised if this didn't hit consoles.
The question is which generation of consoles that'll be, since I have a feeling this is is still pretty early in development.
Really, because I was under the impression they were going for this - the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. Blade Runner was an influence on it, to be sure, but hardly the only one. I mean, I don't remember any netrunners in BR. Or cybered up solos with smartlinked weapons. Or rockerboys in flamboyant 80s-style fahsion rebelling against the corporate hegemony... etc. Unless you've got some inside info that they're abandoning significant parts of the Cyberpunk setting, which would contradict what they said during the launch press conference, I dare say that Bubblegum Crisis is an equally, if not more so, correct indication of what to expect.
Sounds like an interesting RPG... too bad it's only for PC :[
I doubt this won't be on consoles at some point. Maybe a little later like Witcher 2 but well ... thats what PC gamers have to endure with most games these days ;) ...
When it comes to Cyberpunk ... I would have prefered Shadowrun since I have a deep personal connection to that setting, but there will be the SR kickstarter game. So I get the best of both worlds. Anything from CD Project will be a day one buy anyways.
Really, because I was under the impression they were going for this - the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. Blade Runner was an influence on it, to be sure, but hardly the only one. I mean, I don't remember any netrunners in BR. Or cybered up solos with smartlinked weapons. Or rockerboys in flamboyant 80s-style fahsion rebelling against the corporate hegemony... etc. Unless you've got some inside info that they're abandoning significant parts of the Cyberpunk setting, which would contradict what they said during the launch press conference, I dare say that Bubblegum Crisis is an equally, if not more so, correct indication of what to expect.
Yeah, Blade Runner set the visual style for many Cyberpunk works, and shares several themes with them, but Blade Runner came out before the term was coined, and having been released in 1981 (and probably shot one or two years prior to that) it was made before home computers and networking started getting widespread. While the very core themes of Cyberpunk can be distilled down to Man vs Machine and High tech vs Low life, where Blade Runner would fit in (as would a few other dystopian sci-fi movies from the 70's, like Demon Seed, Collosus: the Forbin Project and of course the 1920's classic Metropolis), I think it took until a year or two after Blade Runner before the rise of Internet style networks, hacking, virtual reality, transhumanism and cybernetics that really defined William Gibson's and most later Cyberpunk writer's works and which really distinguishes later Cyberpunk from Philip K Dick's, Ray Bradbury's, Harlan Ellison's and many other pre-cyberpunk author's works.
Sounds like an interesting RPG... too bad it's only for PC :[
CDPR has said before that they have been working on two multiplatform projects. This is presumably one of those, along with Witcher 3, so I don't see this being a PC exclusive. At least not permanently.
@BlackLagoon said:
@Doctorchimp said:
@BlackLagoon: @N7:
Not even close guys...
They're gonna go for this....
Really, because I was under the impression they were going for this - the Cyberpunk 2020 RPG. Blade Runner was an influence on it, to be sure, but hardly the only one. I mean, I don't remember any netrunners in BR. Or cybered up solos with smartlinked weapons. Or rockerboys in flamboyant 80s-style fahsion rebelling against the corporate hegemony... etc. Unless you've got some inside info that they're abandoning significant parts of the Cyberpunk setting, which would contradict what they said during the launch press conference, I dare say that Bubblegum Crisis is an equally, if not more so, correct indication of what to expect.
To be fair, both CDPR's CEO and Pondsmith talk about Blade Runner as a reference point for the game and the original P&P RPG, as well as being their favourite movie. Though that may just be an easy name to drop at a press conference for media. I've never actually played Cyberpunk 2020, so you probably know a lot more than me as far as the similarities between the two.
I do see some parallels at least visually between Blade Runner's Los Angeles and Cyberpunk's "Night City", with the advertising blimp, the neon, the Asian influence, etc.
But again, I haven't played the original RPG, so that art might not speak much to the actual content within.
I'm too lazy to try and find out, but have they said how long they have been working on this? Did they start after Witcher 2 or were these games developed in parallel? I have big hopes for anything CDRP does at this point, but if this is ways off I have to keep the hype down.
After the devotion they have shown to the PC and improving their own game with the Witcher 1 and 2 I will gladly buy another game they make. Witcher 2 was in my opinion the best game released last year behind Dark Souls.
To be fair, both CDPR's CEO and Pondsmith talk about Blade Runner as a reference point for the game and the original P&P RPG, as well as being their favourite movie. Though that may just be an easy name to drop at a press conference for media. I've never actually played Cyberpunk 2020, so you probably know a lot more than me as far as the similarities between the two.
I do see some parallels at least visually between Blade Runner's Los Angeles and Cyberpunk's "Night City", with the advertising blimp, the neon, the Asian influence, etc.
But again, I haven't played the original RPG, so that art might not speak much to the actual content within.
Much more subtlety to things. Everything's generally terrible, but 50's style suburbia (maintained by patrolling gunships and military strength barriers) exist, and not ALL places look so stereotypical. As an aside, normal people can still be pretty, even healthy, unlike in Blade Runner where only the Replicants were attractive (well. other than Deckard, but...well you know). Amusing you put that specific image up.
Night City in Cyberpunk is a planned city in Northern California a bit south of San Jose on the Coast and is the base setting of the universe hence why it of ALL the cities will look stereotypical. They mention in that splat book that say Denver and San Francisco are clean and well run (one by a motivated oligarchy the other by a weird autocratic democracy), and Chicago and Detroit are WORSE than Deckard's LA. Japan and most of Europe is pretty alright, but god help the Mideast and SE Asia. In the blurb about the Mallplex of Night City they mention a little shop run by two old Tech geezers that are pretty clearly Jobs and Woz. I posited THAT was the departure point for our universes.
Then you get stuff like Cyberpunk: Night's Edge....about Vampires, Werewolves, and psychics throwing down against chrome, hot lead, and Netrunners.
CD Projekt RED is truly a highly talented and a PASSIONATE game studio. I don't say this much, because it loses its meaning when you say it about every game with some potential, but when it comes to this IP: This could be amazing.
They definitely have a mentality where they are concerned with the quality of the product as a whole and not just the game that has been absent since the 90's. I remember as a kid finding my dad's old Ultima games that came with all sorts of stuff; highly detailed instruction manuals, cloth maps, little trinkets etc. Those games were trying to sell a a much more all encompassing experience rather than a dash to the end of the story. CD Projeckt seems to have that same attitude and I really appreciate that about them as an old school PC gamer
I could be missing it, but the only game in recent memory that I can think of that I would say had a cyberpunk setting is Deus Ex.
Though even Deus Ex had a sleek, modern look to it. Classic cyberpunk, including the RPG, is very rooted in the 80s,with loud and garish colors, big and clunky technology, wires everywhere, etc. I can't really think of any recent games that fully committed to that style.
I'm too lazy to try and find out, but have they said how long they have been working on this? Did they start after Witcher 2 or were these games developed in parallel? I have big hopes for anything CDRP does at this point, but if this is ways off I have to keep the hype down
Hard to say, but it's possible that they've been working on this since before Witcher 2 came out since this isn't the Witcher dev team. There are some core CDPR veterans that have come over to Cyberpunk, but on the whole it's a different team than The Witcher games.
Though the fact that we've only gotten two pieces of concept art could also mean that they've barely started working on it. Who knows right now. I do hope it's sooner rather than later.
@huser said:
Much more subtlety to things. Everything's generally terrible, but 50's style suburbia (maintained by patrolling gunships and military strength barriers) exist, and not ALL places look so stereotypical. As an aside, normal people can still be pretty, even healthy, unlike in Blade Runner where only the Replicants were attractive (well. other than Deckard, but...well you know). Amusing you put that specific image up.
Night City in Cyberpunk is a planned city in Northern California a bit south of San Jose on the Coast and is the base setting of the universe hence why it of ALL the cities will look stereotypical. They mention in that splat book that say Denver and San Francisco are clean and well run (one by a motivated oligarchy the other by a weird autocratic democracy), and Chicago and Detroit are WORSE than Deckard's LA. Japan and most of Europe is pretty alright, but god help the Mideast and SE Asia. In the blurb about the Mallplex of Night City they mention a little shop run by two old Tech geezers that are pretty clearly Jobs and Woz. I posited THAT was the departure point for our universes.
Then you get stuff like Cyberpunk: Night's Edge....about Vampires, Werewolves, and psychics throwing down against chrome, hot lead, and Netrunners.
Interesting. Thanks for the insight. Sounds like a fascinating setting. I wonder there this game is going to take place then. Night City would be awesome, but seeing Detroit or Chicago could also be pretty cool.
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