last week’s comics this week, 2023w42-43

in

  • DAREDEVIL 02: big improvement over last issue. Intrigued by where it goes next. In, still.

  • NIGHTWING 107 / TITANS 04: love Taylor, et al's work with these characters. Still very in; along with Ryan North's FF, TITANS is the rare team book that I enjoy.

  • CATWOMAN 158: waiting for Gotham War to end so we can get on with the new status quo. Will decide with the next issue if I continue, as I do love Selina and how Howard writes her.

  • BENEATH THE TREES WHERE NO ONE CAN SEE 01: dark, disturbing, and utterly brilliant. So very, very in; my favorite release of the week.

  • CYBERPUNK 2077: XOXO 01: trend of amazing transmedia CP deepenings continues. Love / in.

  • SUBGENRE 01: I'm a sucker for over-sized genre playtime. In.

CYBERPUNK EDGERUNNERS (2022)

in

Bar none, the finest world expansion and exploration in recent memory.

Added an emotional depth to the world of Night City that was lacking in my playthrough – maybe I was going too fast? – through a deeply-felt exploration of the pain and agony of cyberpsychosis (a mini-game within the game itself) and the lengths one will go to to save a found family.

When I load up and replay 2077 for the 2.0 upgrade and PHANTOM LIBERTY expansion, I'll – thanks to these ten episodes, to these characters, to their story – be playing a wholly different game. Powerful, powerful stuff; recommended even if you haven't played the game.

in

Every time I play a game (in this case, GHOSTRUNNER – for me, a far more interesting cyberpunk gameworld than 2077 – or MWII) and the start screen says PRESS A TO START I get the urge to release another one so I take that to be a good sign. On the other hand, I can also tell I'm getting older because my video game reflexes aren't what they used to be – see item one – which also explains why I suck so hard at any game involving parrying and timing of swords (see ELDEN RING, SEKIRO: SHADOWS DIE TWICE, etc etc); this is, I think, the defining manifestation of advancing years for aging cuspers like myself.

CYBERPUNK 2077 (CD Projekt Red, 2020)

in

Two months, a few tears, an unwavering belief in the awesomeness of Keanu Reeves (Silverhand is nothing if not the ur-rockstar), and a deeper immersion in its augmented RipperDoc world via playing it on more than a few occasions whilst plugged into a power cable myself to charge the H.E.R.B.I.E. the insulin pump, I've reached the end of my first playthrough (female Nomad V, Judy romance) in what felt, to me, to be the most narratively complete and satisfying ending for that character.

Before I get to my overarching gripe, I want to lay out that I

  • a.) Enjoyed the game quite a bit – enough to spend two months immersed in its world without a single thought of throwing in the towel.

  • b.) Found the story to be more or less engaging and populated with intriguing characters. Damn it, Jackie.

  • c.) Didn't encounter any bugs other than the occasional person walking through a car, the customization screen not taking my customizations, or crash which was always fixable by restarting without "quick resume."

  • d.) While the combat system is more than a little dodgy, I only got annoyed at the controls after I had the blade arms: that I couldn't cycle back through weapons but only forwards was a pain in the ass and led to my flatlining more than once.

  • e.) OK, other time I got pissed at the controls: I crashed more times than I care to count while driving a car but was ok on the motorcycle (I mostly drove Jackie's motorcycle) even though I was floored by its occasional superpower of running into cars and send the car flying (see item c?)

OK, the big gripe – and this could be applied across multiple current gaming trends which, I suspect has more to do with the need for everything to be an online multiplayer experience at some point in its existence than the narrative needs of a lowly single player (though CYBERPUNK will, thankfully, remain a single-player one): while Night City and its surrounding environs are beautiful – at times, jaw-droppingly so – I do long for a more contained gaming experience to bowl me over with more deeply drawn levels (though I do understand that the appeal of the CYBERPUNK IP from its tabletop gaming roots *is* that expansive world and putting yourself in it): ARKHAM ASYLUM remains my favorite of the ARKHAM games because it was so claustrophobic while CONTROL is, as far as I can recall, of a similar milieux. I can only imagine what CYBERPUNK would have been had it been similarly contained, if they used all of the imagination let loose in massive worldbuilding and applied it to a deeper level design; if they took a more DEUS EX-style cyberpunk gaming vision and built from that as opposed to a WITCHER/GTA-style sprawl: I fail to see what it is about character/narrative choice and infinite customization that requires an overwhelmingly massive and, at times, onerous and superficial open world playground itself lacking in character: for me, there's a bigger appeal - maddening though it may be – of WANTING to know what's outside the narrative walls of a world and being held back than being given free reign to drive down endless highways winding through neon-teeming cityscapes.

Like I said, though – above bitchiness aside – I did enjoy the game, far more than I thought I would and do recommend that you play it. Will give it some time (and watch the apparently-excellent EDGERUNNERS anime on Netflix) and return to Night City as a male V and see where that takes me; perhaps another dive will change my opinion (I will write another Postscript on it and link back to this one). Parting note of minor personal fascination: I find myself more often than not using the phrase "go back inside" when discussing that impending replay with myself.