The Gamers Arms

The city opened up and its really damn overwhelming. Just crusing on a bike on the motorway weaving through the gaps in traffic into the Corpo Plaza, seeing the massive megatowers come into view and then right up close under them is jaw dropping!

I do like those NPC drives to a objective though, Panam's drive to camp & obejctive site was really calming after the crazy stuff in the city.

Sly Boots wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 13, 2020 9:14 pm

Solitaire wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 13, 2020 8:51 pm

I'm not sure who Walker is, Sly, I've met so many people I can't possibly keep track anymore

Glad you're enjoying it too Soli

John Walker is the journalist who wrote the article Hatredsheart posted above and Dj responded to.

Oh, duh. I somehow equated him to an NPC in the game

Uhhhhh I have put in 21 hours into the game and only now i've discovered the smart link system with the Ashura single shot sniper rifle I picked up near the beginning of the game.
Moving targets at speed in a car? No problem - line it up near their head and...

Sly Boots wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 13, 2020 5:28 pm

I've played pretty much the entire day and about 5% of that was advancing the story

I've had a lovely time just cruising the quadrant of the city I can currently access, taking on side gigs and tackling street crimes. It sounds like this is still the prologue judging by what others have said (I'm still yet to complete the main mission for Dex)... Gog says I've played for 13 hours, I could easily put in another dozen or so doing what I'm doing before needing to take that on.

Favourite one so far was just wandering down a street and coming across a monk who needed help freeing his brother from a local gang... the stipulation being that I had to do it without killing anyone, which turned into quite a fun cat-and-mouse stealth infiltration.

Bugs have been limited to to the odd texture pop-in. I think this is great.

I think some of those quests might be bugged as I know people who have been asked to carry out a mission stealthily and have just killed everyone and it hasn't mattered. Same goes for the psychos that you are asked to pacify and you can just shoot until they are "dead" and get the mission complete screen.

I'd advise everyone to get Act 1 finished, it's a bit like White Orchard in Witcher 3 and you can go back to all the stuff that was available, the game really opens up once you finish the first act.

Bugged or not, I think I'd prefer still to role-play and do quests in the manner in which they're given, more fun that way.

I'm happy to just take my time and soak everything in, I've not even been to all parts of Watson yet. Meanwhile I'm getting better at the game mechanics... I still barely know how to make use of scans and quick-hacks in combat situations, so trying to get more proficient in that.

Same here, Sly. The quickhacking thing on mouse/kb at least is kinda ridiculous. I did recall that 'C' is crouch toggle, though, so that helped - here I am, holding down TAB, LCTRL, tapping Z to switch between hacks and target data, and trying to hit F key at the same time lol. They really need to fix the keybinding issues, as well.

That being said, the quickhacks are getting more fun now that I upgraded my headspace and can do more than one thing per fight. It is cool to hack into security cameras then cause some havoc from afar. Also, quick tip: when the fight is over, don't forget to go around to all the cameras and unplug them - you'll get some bonus EXP every time.

I've decided, here in Act II, that I'm starting at the far north end of the map and working my way down, getting all the random fights and looting gear, and completing whatever side missions are closest. I love the motorcycles, too. Most of the cars are floaty and weird, but I stole a truck from some recently dead dudes, the one with the four tires on the back, and it drives like a solid tank. I'm not sure that the crafting stuff is very well thought out, unfortunately. I'm putting lots of points into it all, but it just seems so wasteful. I'll upgrade something then find a better shirt ten minutes later, that has twice the armor. I think I'm going to focus on DPS and just wear stuff that looks good

Regarding John Walker, his heart is in the right place and he can write well (except for that awkward turd in swimming pool analogy - I got what he meant but the wording was clumsy). Problem is, he also comes across as a bit of a preachy wanker, all "listen to me now, you need to be educated". He is right in what he says, but misses out on the opportunity to reflect that it isn't just in game journalism that these minorities exist but everywhere online.

Regarding Cyberpunk, it has me down as 16 hours played and I keep going back, but I don't think it has hooked me. It's good fun, no doubt, but I have not really gelled with it in the same OMFG way as some other games - RDR2, Witcher 3 (eventually), Planetside 2 and a very select group of other titles.

20 hours in and I still haven't met Keanu

I've done all the side gigs in Watson, though, reached level 12 and upgraded my legs and arms so I can double-jump and go hog-wild on perps with mantis blades.

I'm back on the story mission now, though. There are still street crimes in the prologue area, but those are more copy-paste so I don't feel a need to tick all those off the list before moving on.

This game is a hot mess on my PC

Ol' faithful (i5 4690K) has finally given up the ghost. I have 16GB RAM and an RTX 2060 Super. The CPU must be the bottleneck because it runs exactly the same whether I'm playing with potato settings at 1080p, or fancypants settings at 1440p - terribly.

It's a good game otherwise, if somewhat confusing for my now addled old-man mind. I'm having to dip in and out for 20 minutes here, 30 there, etc.

Fortunately a mate of mine has offered me his i7 7700K, so I'll see how it goes on that.

I still can't get over these Steam forum posts about "finished it twice, here's my thoughts" - I mean, come on... I'm at 48+ hours of play time and I've not hardly touched the main area of Watson, yet. I can see spending hundreds of hours in this game, just like in Skyrim/etc, due to the sheer size and scope of the landscape. There's little things and big things happening everywhere. Blazing through the main campaign seems like the equivalent of buying a five course meal and just eating the appetizer.

Solitaire wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 15, 2020 7:02 pm

I still can't get over these Steam forum posts about "finished it twice, here's my thoughts" - I mean, come on... I'm at 48+ hours of play time and I've not hardly touched the main area of Watson, yet. I can see spending hundreds of hours in this game, just like in Skyrim/etc, due to the sheer size and scope of the landscape. There's little things and big things happening everywhere. Blazing through the main campaign seems like the equivalent of buying a five course meal and just eating the appetizer.

You can mainline the story pretty quickly, can be done in 15-20 hours.

That's Soli's point though... sure you can rush through it in a couple of dozen hours, but with a game like this, why would you do that? Seems like a waste.

As of tonight I've played 24 hours and just got to the point in Act 2 where you're let out into the city proper. I can easily imagine getting close to 100 hours out of this.

I have to say, with all the published articles going on about bugs and performance, it's great to see some actual positive feedback here about the game itself. Can't wait to play it at Christmas.

Sly Boots wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 15, 2020 11:27 pm

That's Soli's point though... sure you can rush through it in a couple of dozen hours, but with a game like this, why would you do that? Seems like a waste.

As of tonight I've played 24 hours and just got to the point in Act 2 where you're let out into the city proper. I can easily imagine getting close to 100 hours out of this.

I think it could be less people rushing through the game and more that the game doesn't do a great job of pointing out the important stuff, the only side stuff that gets brought to your attention are the gigs which are pretty bog standard one and done things. You have to find the proper side quests yourself which is quite difficult when the map screen is filled with yellow exclamation marks and there is no way of knowing which are proper side quests and which are just gigs. So I don't think it would be a surprise if people have missed a lot of the side content and just played the main story quests.