This sucks. It really fucking does.
I’ve been anxiously awaiting this game’s arrival for over two years now, ever since that first trailer dropped at E3 2018. It checked all the boxes of being a legit Game of the Year contender without ever playing the game. AAA studio with a (then) flawless track record? Check. Interesting premise? Check. Customizable genitalia and multiple hi-res boning scenes? Nut…I mean, check.
I knew the second the April release date was announced at E3 2019 that my base model Xbox One probably wouldn’t be able to handle it considering that next-gen consoles were right around the corner and Control (2019) ran horribly on it a few months later. So I took a little money out of my 401k in February, consulted multiple PC builders, and built a gaming PC specifically designed to rival the rumored next-gen hardware.
And then it got delayed. Three times.
Usually, I see game delays as a giant red flag but considering the whole Covid pandemic and CD Project Red’s track record with The Witcher franchise, I didn’t even think twice about it.
And I was wrong. Oh boy was I wrong.
This game absolutely should have been delayed again. I’ve personally only played the game for about 10 hours and I’ve had a mixed experience. On one hand, the game is filled with bugs and glitches like the ones you’ve seen above that, while hilarious, really ruin the immersion. But on the other hand, if you can look past them and focus solely on what CDPR intends this game to be in its final state, it’s really fucking good.
Night City is one of the most beautiful worlds in gaming. The neon-lit bars, the pop-up markets filled with a wide variety of NPCs, the concrete wastelands on the outskirts of the map; everything is full of life and detail. It feels like you can walk into every building and explore, which is remarkable considering the map is slightly larger than GTA V‘s map. And if there’s one thing that CDPR carried over from The Witcher series, it’s the quality of the side quests. The Witcher 3 had some of the best side quests I’d ever experienced in an open-world RPG, even over GTA V and Skyrim, and Cyberpunk belongs among those games as well.
Unfortunately, this is not the game most people are experiencing.
The fact that I am agreeing with IGN on anything goes to show just how bad this game is performing on anything less than a mid-to-high-end PC. I have no fucking clue how CDPR thought they were going to release this in April on Xbox One/PS4. Like seriously, what was the plan back then? To scam everyone as they did 8 months later?
If you haven’t read this year, the tl;dr is they knew this game was going to be bad on consoles. They knowingly released this game in a nearly unplayable state on consoles, manipulated their reviewer embargos so that only PC people could release their reviews prior to launch day, and profited off all the people who bought the game on Xbox One and PS4. Hell, even the Xbox One X, PS4 Pro, and next-gen users have reported issues. This is a giant clusterfuck by CDPR that will forever damage their previously stellar reputation.
As a blogger/shit poster, I should be thrilled that I get to write about how a bunch of corporate idiots made a moronic decision that just came back and bit them in the face. You better believe if this was EA I would have already had like 12 blogs, 2 videos, and a plethora of memes destroying them on Twitter. But instead, I’m kinda sad about it all tbh.
So many people were excited to play this incredible game just to have their high expectations absolutely destroyed. So many devs worked their asses off all year to make this game what it is; devs that had no say in the shady business decisions made by their higher-ups. And it really sucks that once all the bugs and stuff are removed from the game that it actually is an incredible RPG. Maybe not as dark and gritty as I personally wanted, but great all the same.
Unfortunately, many will never play it because of some dumbasses in suits. Fuck suits. They ruin literally everything.
