Will you be jumping into Cyberpunk 2077's with the next gen update out?

As a liker of Cyberpunk from the jump yeah most likely, I probably won't do a full playthrough but I'll check it out cause I have a free upgrade.

These patch notes are pretty extensive... including adding character recustomization after all this goddamn time.

I'm gonna wait to see the inevitable Digital Foundry post.

It sounds pretty good actually!

I played it on PC at launch and had a pretty good time, but I am tempted to try the demo on Series X just to see how it looks.

So, I spent 4.5 of my 5 free hours with the game this afternoon. It went pretty breezily. Keep in mind that everything I'm about to say is in comparison to having spent 22 hours with this game on a base PS4 and no HDR/4K, whereas I'm now on a PS5 with the fancy TV to match.

First off, the most impressive aspect of this release is definitely the Performance Mode. I never wound up saving any video from my time with Cyberpunk on PS4, but man was I conflicted. On the one hand, as a non-PC gamer seeing a game run that poorly was so alien to me it also became the main attraction as I'd stare slackjawed at its perpetual 10-20 frames per second rendering and oil-painting like smears of grey and neon. It was hilariously, spectacularly ugly - unfortunately, it also crashed and wiped progress all the time, which is a raw no go for me. The PS5 Performance Mode is essentially a locked 60fps, only wavering during some mission transitions where you can tell the game is seeding a designed instance into its otherwise open space. To see this game run like that had me thinking the CDPR team actually are wizards, if incredibly excitable and prone to shooting their shot with way too much time left on the clock.

That said, I preferred to spend my time in Graphics Mode because there is something incredibly artificial about Night City and the Badlands that extends beyond the themes of the game and into that uncanny, Far Cry 4 sort of feel where the gunplay's a little bit odd (especially with all the smart bullets and auto-headshot weapons I had at my disposal) and imprecise while the game world is this bizarre mixture of incredibly detailed world building and exceptionally hollow civilian A.I. The motion blur, film grain, enhanced HDR and of course ray traced lighting all combine to hide some of that under a sleek combination of grime and beauty that makes for a truly gorgeous game if you catch it from the right angles.

That said, there's still plenty of ugliness. Enemy A.I. is dumber than a bag of rocks and the game often seems confused by your entering a mission. Three separate occasions I had civilian cars lose their drivers and ghost ride along whatever path they'd been on just because they were near me as I entered a mission. I saw multiple examples of explosions clipping enemies into or all the way through walls and other bits of environment - on one occasion, the guard I'd nearly killed actually just gained the ability to walk through walls on his own accord. Anything to survive, I guess - who can't relate? Likewise, it's not uncommon to be staring in a direction for several seconds only to suddenly realize you had your face in the side of a shipping container, the game had just forgotten to show it to you.

But that's all, in its own way, the charming brand of Eurojank some might say was missing from The Witcher 3 and might be glad for its glorious return. What's truly important is that the game runs, point blank, and it runs exceptionally well in both graphics modes, offering either brand of user exactly what they'll be looking for out of the game. I didn't have any run-ins with the cops or whatever but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if they'd been completely removed from the game other than scripted sequences and market fodder NPCs. I'm still impressed by the fluidity of the conversation system and the seemingly large number of options you have to proceed through this story, no matter if they do ultimately funnel into a few distinct resolutions it feels good to roleplay in this game, even if you picked the male voice way back in December of 2020 because you wanted to experience that juxtaposition with a female avatar and had no idea how bland it was compared to the female.

All the other wackiness is still there, too - particularly the inundating with text messages and voice calls about mundane and plain pointless points of interest while you're in the middle of a life and death conversation about your brain slowly rotting away. But the guns are so silly and your player character so comically invincible within a gorgeous world full of intriguing - and stunningly annoying - world building and conversation trees as well as great music and sound design...oh, the sound design! Wielding Jackie's old motorcycle on the highway or rolling a Buick-esque luxury sedan through the downtown feel and sound so wonderfully different! Hell, a sports car takes speed bumps with a different shudder than a van does, and the vibrations even seem to roll through the control at the rate your vehicle rolls over the new/altered terrain. I don't know why I was so surprised by this, but CDPR really went out of their way to take the lead in "what's the haps with the DualSense's haptics" conversations.

In other words...yea, I'm hovering over that $25 buy button, knowing full well this game'll get shelved for about a month while I play Horizon Forbidden West, and I've still got Demon's Souls, Yakuza 5 and the secret third ending of Returnal swirling around on my hard drive with MLB The Show 22 just over a month away. I don't need this game, but at $25 it might just be the best b-game of all-time.

@noboners: This is where I am at as well.

@nodima: I am also conflicted like this. Elden Ring and Horizon are out soon, so I wouldn't even be able to play it properly for months. But the $25 is tempting.

I'm a no, but it's because I had so recently done a playthrough in November. I did load it up to look at the apartments and some of the tweaks but I probably wont really play it again until story DLC comes out. Which theoretically can now?

I've said it a few places but I'll say it again. It's a good game with good story and good characters that is gorgeous to look at, but it's also dirt easy gunplay (just armor up and rush with a shotgun) just ok stealth, some stupidly obnoxious jokes on their billboards, and a total shit skill system and inventory. It's great, I liked it a lot and I would recommend it, but mostly for the spectacle, not for the gameplay.

I've started the game and quit after a few hours like five times already, so sure. Might as well give it another try.

I will wait for some major DLC to be out.

The Xbox Series S version is locked at 1440p 30fps. Couldn't be more disappointed.

I'll be hopping in soon-ish. In the middle of some other games right now, but Cyberpunk's next. I cracked the sealed PS4 version that's been gathering dust on my shelf since launch and grabbed the PS5 update. Cautiously optimistic. Boy, they really should have just waited to launch this thing now, huh?

I'm at least reinstalling it to see how the benchmark runs. Whether I actually play it is another story.

I can finally change my hair without using mods. This game is finally out of Early Access as far as I'm concerned.

...But, I've grown fond of a mod that changes Judy's clothes to a more punk rock look, so I'll go back in when certain mods get updated.

I've been enjoying this game a heck of a lot! I can't wait to see what they've patched in; I fooled around with it a little bit this morning but need to get back in there and respec all my talents. Seems like an excellent game overall.

It's weird to load up the character creator and it not be a weird blurry mess.

Even when I played it at relatively nice settings on PC that creator always looked mad fucked up. Mirror lighting is still complete shit though so balance in all things.

Bad timing for me. I played through the game in November-December. Really liked it, but not enough to do a second playthrough.

Although making an Intelligence build could be fun...

Maaan, this looks and plays real nice on PS5 and I don't have time for this at all.

Had an okay time with it first time around, playing on PC. Nothing about the story, or the world even, really grabbed me so much that I'd be hankering for a second playthrough though. Who knows if my mind will change in the future, but right now at least I don't have any interest *and* Forbidden West is just around the corner.

Welp, it still runs like the same inconsistent garbage a year and change later on my 2070 Super/i9 9900k. Hard swings from 80+ to sub-30 throughout the benchmark on high settings with DLSS and no raytracing on. I definitely was not having a good enough time in the first dozen hours I struggled through back at launch to justify playing this on low settings when my main draw for pushing forward was the world looking pretty. Are there any secret system-killer graphics settings I should be aware of?

Might be worth having a look at Digital Foundry's optimized settings video.

I might actually skip buying Horizon: Forbidden West for now and focus on playing this instead. During the initial launch over a year ago I put roughly 10 hours into Cyberpunk but decided to return it after I started hitting some really bad game-breaking bugs. I picked up a copy of the game for 15 euros a couple of months ago in anticipation for this current-gen upgrade, so I might as well jump back into it.

@frytup: Thanks!

That sounds like good news. I thought the Series S is supposed to be a 1080 machine. If it's the full next-gen version at 1440p and a solid 30fps, that sounds great.

Yeah, that is impressive, given that is how the Series X (mostly) ran the game at launch. Like you, I expected 1080p/30fps for the Series S.

I started playing again yesterday on the Series X. Graphically, I think it looks better, but I am not sure about the improved vehicle handling. I started a Nomad playthrough and the little econbox-type car you get in the beginning still seamed floaty.

Yep, bought it at launch but never played. I loved The Witcher 3, but it initially ran into the teen frame rates sometimes on consoles. Once reviews hit I decided to wait til it got better. Then they announced next-gen patches, so I waited some more. And here we are.

Just in time for Elden Ring month.

I played the first 90 minutes of the 5 hour trial last night, I had mostly not touched the game at all because of the bad press. It ran well on my Series X. If I picked it up it would be on PC, but that won't be for a while (if ever) since it seems like more changes are coming and I don't see myself playing multiple times.

I think the goal of the trial (get people to realize the game isn't a trash fire anymore) seems to be working.

Whenever I find a next gen system I might do a new run, try something different. I was pleased enough with it’s performance on my Ps4 Pro, wouldn’t say no to a prettier version. I really like the world and gameplay, but I am also leaning maybe waiting until there’s some DLC (on top of console) as I more or less scraped the world bare of things to do save for buying all the vehicles.

I've been waiting for the ps5 version with the ps4 disk version since launch day. So far I haven't been able to get past the character creator. Penis physics required videos to friends and then I got distracted. Power of next gen

@kyary: I largely agree but I would say it's a lot more to convince people on console that it's "safe" to buy now. On PC the game was always just different shades of buggy. Once they release some story DLC I'll gladly hop in to see some of the cool safehouses and stuff. I really liked the world and it was one of those games where each day I'd hop in and just do side missions and generally have fun being in the game. If they had all this cosmetic stuff you could actually pour your money into I would have probably kept playing twice as long because I'm a sucker for decorating your hideout.

The gameplay and dialogue I've seen in videos haven't really been interesting so not really. Might give the demo a look.

Doubtful. I enjoyed 2077 at launch on PC, the city and art design is incredible, but almost everything else is rather forgettable. I still think they could've greatly reduced the open world, focused on a semi-open world like TLOU2 or Deus Ex, then really work on the missions and gameplay/story choices. I'm still not motivated to return to night city because I think I'd experience déjà vu, and waiting will only improve things (assuming larger content updates are on the way). Right now, 2077 is kind of a mesh of Borderlands, Deus Ex, and GTA, but it doesn't really do anything unique in-itself (besides maybe the art design).

Having said that, when I go back, I plan to do the Nomad life path and use several mods to really change how I play.

Hmm, so the PS5 version is running great on the whole but I’ve had now a couple of hard freezes while in the Ray Tracing mode. Not the sort that locks up the whole console or anything but requires a relaunch of the app so keep your saves frequent I guess.

I was excited to download the next gen updated and give the game another try after liking my experience with it a few months ago (I had to stop playing as the game was making my vision blurry for some reason)

Downloaded the next gen updated - didnt really notice any changes at all visually. Driving was a little bit smoother, emphasis on a little, and pretty bummed to say that my relatively bug free experience prior is now rendered horribly defunct with tons of visual anomalies present whenever I go across a bridge (Assuming its related to some hidden loading mechanic the bridges segment?)

Went through a number of saves trying to find one I could safely resume from but havent been able too. After a few hours of messing around my eyes started to feel strained again so I turned it off.

Went to another game and felt fine.

Maybe next time Cyberpunk.. maybe next time..

I played it on PC at launch and enjoyed it but not to the point where i'll be playing it again any time soon, it doesn't do anything remarkable it was just ok, the characters and the story was the worst part.

I was enjoying my time with the PC version before the bugs became to much to handle. If CDPR were finally able to at least fix most of those problems, then I'll give it another go.

If I could get hold of a PS5 or a new graphics card for my PC I would. But alas I will have to continue waiting.

Downloaded the demo and played a bit last night. I didn't have any prior experience with what the game was like before, so I can't comment on the relative level of bugginess. I thought it was . . . fine. It looks nice and I do dig a good cyber-dystopia. That said, I think the menus are a complete mess and it took me a long time, way longer than it should, to tweak the movement options to even feel even kind of acceptable. The whole having your turns accelerate wildly as you push the stick thing is super obnoxious and whoever designed it that way should feel ashamed. It made driving basically impossible until I turned it all the way off.

I've got other things coming up like Elden Ring and then Horizon will be in my back log after that. I might pick it up before the end of the month just to take advantage of the discounted price, but I probably won't play it for awhile.

After having bought the game at launch, gotten a refund, then picked it up later on deep discount, I'm having an okay enough time with it on PS5 so far. Had a couple of crashes, and it gets janky every now and again about prompts showing up, but I only play maybe one of these "giant map full of mission barf" open-world games a year, and this will probably be the one I play this year. I'm also not dying to play any of the big upcoming releases, so this will hold me over until something more interesting comes my way.

I was gifted this game on PC at launch and have been waiting for it to get to a good state before diving in. This might finally do it but if they’re gonna release a bunch of free DLC I might just have to keep waiting. I’ve waited this long already and I don’t see myself revisiting it after they add more stuff. Plus that patch size is really gonna hurt my Comcast data cap.

I played it at launch on my PS5 and while I had fun with it, I shelved it after about 15 hours or so to wait for the prospective "next gen update." Now that's it's FINALLY here, I actually really do want to do a full playthrough but it's just come out at such a bad time. I'm still making my way through Dying Light 2, and Elden Ring is out next week. It will probably be some months before I get to Cyberpunk, which kinda sucks since I've been waiting so long to play it. It's at the top of my backlog though. Sounds like they've made a ton of improvements over the last year.

I got it really cheap on PC recently and unfortunately I installed a ton of mods that are probably broken with the update, so I'm not sure if I should reinstall and try 1.5 or continue my playthrough on the old version. The mods were trying to fix a lot of what 1.5 added, so I'm leaning towards starting it over but it does suck as I was pretty far in!

I understand (and mostly agree) with all the criticism this game got at launch, but I love this game. I stopped playing because I built a new PC, but was (and still am) unable to get a new GPU. I promised myself I would wait until I get at least a 3000 series. I have been itching to play it again though, I really enjoyed it at launch even with all the issues.