I didn’t, though the only Pynchon book I’ve read–er, finished–is The Crying of Lot 49. The links between Pynchon and cyberpunk (the genre, or aesthetic) seem somewhat indirect, though maybe a handful of references should be expected. I don’t recall any drop points labelled W.A.S.T.E. or seeing any trumpet-like graffiti.
Maybe I should give Gravity’s Rainbow another try.
Somebody made a guide on how to keep Johnny happy:
https://segmentnext.com/2021/01/04/cyberpunk-2077-johnnys-relationship/
…skin radiant with the bloom of some new plastic; both eyes glass but now containing photoelectric cells, connected by silver electrodes to optic nerves of purest copper wire and leading to a brain exquisitely wrought as a diode matrix could ever be. Solenoid relays would be her ganglia; servo-actuators move her flawless nylon limbs, hydraulic fluid be sent by a platinum heart-pump through butyrate veins and arteries… Hysterical girl, tattered velvet. Riot was her element, as surely as this dark room, almost creeping with amassed objects. The street and the hothouse; in V. were resolved by some magic, the two extremes. She frightened him.
Ok, I finished everything I could. There was one side job that I assume is bugged that wouldn’t complete even though I did everything. I got four main ending branches and tried them all out. I really enjoyed how dark most of them were. I like it when stories leave me with a bad feeling.
Total time was about 120ish hrs.
I’ll definitely try it again in a few months after more patches, but really I didn’t have very many issues playing it on a potato xbox1.
I wasn’t privy to the hype beforehand, nor did I pay money for it, so I’m definitely biased. But I don’t see why the headlines are calling this a disaster at all. I was pleasantly entertained.
People were super-complaining about Xbox One and the PS4(base). Did it really work well for you on your Xbox One? Was there a major fix?
I have a coworker playing on ps4 pro and he hasn’t complained at all. It isn’t a ps4 base, mind you, but I think a lot of the complaints are overblown.
There was a lot of texture pop in when driving, but not near as bad as subnautica. It crashed every few hours, but not as bad as fallout 4. Sometimes cars got stuck half clipped inside walls or barriers, but not near as bad as State of Decay 2. And absolutely nothing game breaking that a simple exit and reload wouldn’t fix. The game definitely could use some polish, but it’s certainly playable and enjoyable.
What the hell kind of bizarre mission was Sinnerman? I know it’s just a side mission, but it was bizarre, V didn’t have much motivation to complete it, and even when I completed it I just shrugged my shoulders thinking, “What the hell was that all about?” And you don’t even get a lot of eddies.
For how long it was, it felt unfinished. Like I was half waiting for the mother or daughter or studio person or someone to follow up with another mission later but nothing came of it (yes, the studio person tends you a text but that’s it). Plus it felt long to have that little control over the outcome. Maybe they just intended it to be a weird slice-of-life in Night City episode but I agree it had a healthy dose of “What the hell was that?” and I don’t think the pay-off was really there.
Hehe, I tended to see the “payoff” of nearly all the side missions/gigs to be the removal of that icon off the map. Eddies and other loot came second. Some sort of emotional sub-story satisfaction 3rd or lower.
Fair enough, if that’s how you played the game. But it was still a long ride to just clear an icon in comparison with most icon clearing.
I was exploring roofs and alleys and I happened upon a dead guy on a roof. Not too uncommon. What was strange was that there was a crashed motorcycle with him. There was a shard that explains the guy is supposed to make bank recording a BD of this incredible stunt. Too bad the motorcycle was not usable.
That was it. I still have not been able to find where the jump originated but maybe we aren’t supposed to.
Keep playing, there’s another side mission that continues this storyline
The problem with that mission is, if you actually complete it like a pro and do what you are paid to do instead of screwing around, I’m not sure it continues with insane side missions like if you don’t.
A mission I have been wondering about is the one with the street prophet who hears voices in his head. Eventually you witness some shady corp business involving a mysterious chip which you can grab, and he (naturally) gets bagged by Arasaka. Then what? What was the mysterious deal all about?
There are all sorts of bodies/wrecks with shards saying people were playing chicken, doing stunts, and other ridiculous stuff in the oddest of places.
Yeah, that stuff is cool. I came across a bunker out in the desert with a couple corpses in it and a shard detailing how the guy had brought the girl in here to escape some war/disaster and she wanted out and he was going to make her understand, etc. Tragic but interesting. Plus I got a sweet purple tier Samurai cap out of it.
Sinnerman just struck me as “unfinished” because it was so long between the car ride and conversations and restaurant and BD part, etc without a ton of pay-off in my opinion. Or it felt like it raised interesting issues and could have had all sorts of branches but it was completely out of your hands to influence them except in very superficial ways. I didn’t come away from it angry or anything, more just “Huh, so that’s that then” and went back to shooting Tyger Claws but, since the mission was brought up, might as well opine on it.
A number of patches are forthcoming across all platforms but primarily focused on the last-gen console experience. First one is expected in ten days. Free DLC is also on the way but is delayed for the patches/fixes to get the game up to speed. The actual next-gen console version won’t be ready until the second half of this year.
Not sure if this is a mistake, but if you read the shards it explicitly states that the Animals avoid cybernetic co-processors that can be remotely hacked. However, while not every enemy in the game is susceptible to hacking [Cyberpsychosis is always fun, not to mention Detonate Grenade], it seems most Animals still are. An oversight, or is the temptation of bionic limbs simply too strong to resist even for Animals?
Bloomberg article on the game’s development
Apparently the demo they made of the game a few years back was pretty much fake and they wasted months of dev time faking it instead of making the game better. That’s super unwholesome.
I really hate how bad the gaming industry is to its workers. They exploit the fact that a lot of young kids right out of school really want to work on video games, then they use them up, and when those guys reach their breaking point and quit, they grab the next generation of kids right out of college. I don’t like that one of my main hobbies is so sleazy.