- Joined
- Sep 10, 2018
- Messages
- 6,462 (2.97/day)
- Location
- California
System Name | His & Hers |
---|---|
Processor | R7 5800X/ R7 7950X3D Stock |
Motherboard | X670E Aorus Pro X/ROG Crosshair VIII Hero |
Cooling | Corsair h150 elite/ Corsair h115i Platinum |
Memory | Trident Z5 Neo 6000/ 32 GB 3200 CL14 @3800 CL16 Team T Force Nighthawk |
Video Card(s) | Evga FTW 3 Ultra 3080ti/ Gigabyte Gaming OC 4090 |
Storage | lots of SSD. |
Display(s) | A whole bunch OLED, VA, IPS..... |
Case | 011 Dynamic XL/ Phanteks Evolv X |
Audio Device(s) | Arctis Pro + gaming Dac/ Corsair sp 2500/ Logitech G560/Samsung Q990B |
Power Supply | Seasonic Ultra Prime Titanium 1000w/850w |
Mouse | Logitech G502 Lightspeed/ Logitech G Pro Hero. |
Keyboard | Logitech - G915 LIGHTSPEED / Logitech G Pro |
I don't think a working speedometer is going to save cars. I fired it up yesterday, honestly? 3 years post launch, I can't for the life of me understand why people still play this game for either its gameplay OR its 'graphics'. This is the graphics poster child of the current gen... Ouch. Just Ouch. Adding a samey reflective layer over every surface isn't 'great graphics', but that's what it still is. A house of mirrors without the slightest dose of realism or grit to it. There is still a world of difference between the handful of truly nicely designed areas (mostly anything involved in lengthy conversation sequences and main quest) and the rest of town, which looks horribly unfinished with assets more akin to placeholders.
And beyond the graphics... the design. The city is still a strangely populated wasteland that barely makes sense (more often than not, streets are empty, and then you turn a corner and suddenly you're in a crowd?! Same with cars, desolate streets, turn camera 360 and turn the corner and we're in rush hour) the lighting really isn't great at all (turning on RT hardly makes a difference other than boosting reflective surfaces EVEN MORE, GI is pretty terrible either way and the amount of point lights rendered is abysmal, but there are light sources everywhere!); objects in the distance are ultra low res and most surfaces are flatter than flat earthers can imagine. Pedestrian behaviour isn't much different from launch either. Police wanted stars are really the only addition I was really happy with coming from v 1.21. One thing that strikes me as it did on launch is the absence of the good ol'bump map. There is no depth to textures at all, instead you have this mirror sheen over everything adding to the sterility. CDPR can try selling me this as their visual / art direction but I'm not buying that. It looks horrible - and what's striking is that most of the nicer designed areas don't have an overload of reflective surfaces, all of a sudden.
I think I'm definitively in the uncanny valley with this game, and not because it aspires realism so closely, but rather because its so out there with how its perceived and what it really is. Check out a random scene in Darktide against one in Cyberpunk. Only in darkness are the two somewhat similar because lack of lighting hides Cyberpunk's shortcomings, but even thén. Light the place up and Cyberpunk is absolutely hideous to look at. Darktide litters every area with detail and more importantly, they've actually got distinct 'materials' - wood is wood, and not some polished plank. Concrete doesn't reflect light. Most surfaces in Cyberpunk are bare, flat, and sterile - even in the dirtiest places of the city. Every slab of asphalt and concrete reflects light as if its metal. Also, these magical surfaces never accumulate dirt and grime. Its amazingly immersion breaking.
One thing they DID improve with 2.0, which is great to see, is the actual gameplay. But you still need a lot of fantasy to call it a real game, its more a showcase of cool moves and stuff you can do and progress through. This isn't a bad thing to me. But a balanced game there is not, you're mostly just playing with a skillset to kill all the things. I play on hard and there is just no challenge, unless you act stupid. The removal of stat scaling is a good move forward, things have been moved to skillsets more so than scaling, I like the overhaul in that sense. Skill trees are hit/miss. Some shit's just strange but it does enable playstyles. Blades are still OP, because the AI is still pretty weak - movement/mobility is king and mitigation chance made it even better.
I'll dive into PL tonight, still looking forward to a more tightly organized experience. The open world part of this game is still an absolute shitshow though, both as a sandbox and as a themepark. I don't know how some individuals feel the city is alive on a different level... I guess they're hallucinating like those pedestrians walking around or something.
Everything has different expectations for games and that's fine BGIII I find terrible and don't like the characters, gameplay, and find the story extremely cheesy.
Where as this I like.
That's life we aren't going to always like what others do or hate what others do.
Just like too many people love Taylor Swift a little too much but good for them.