Again…so overblown. Do you seriously think there is a chance of CDP “going down” when the game made back its budget three or four times already?
And sure, it would be nice if every NPC in Night City had detailed schedule and reactivity to player’s actions, but I seriously doubt not implementing this would have any impact on CDP’s future. They already took a reputation hit, they will do their best to rebuild it, but it does not hinge on some feature they “promised” (mentioned) in a vertical slice 3 years ago.
Long term? Perhaps. They are not a huge publisher, despite their sales numbers. Their success is based on their reputation, and make no mistake, their reputation took a hit.
And it wouldn’t nessecarially be felt on this game, it shows up in the next game. And the one after that. You can cash in that reputation and good will on a sub par project, and make a lot of money short term. But it can and will damage the long term brand. History is replete with studios and publishers who did this. Paradox took a hit with Stellaris, but worked hard to build back such that CKIII could be a success. But had they simply dropped Stellaris it had very real possibilities to greatly reduce their other brands. CK III could have been a failure, without regard to the inherent quality, if people had lost faith in PDX. However their long term updates and planning was able to mitigate this, so the long term reputation harm was fairly minimal and limited mostly to the one series.
So, yes, Cyberpunk absolutely has the potential to lay the seeds for CDPRs downfall, should they chose the wrong path. It made them money now, but also puts a risk at their potential future money.
Sure, but I am fairly certain CDP are not completely stupid, and will try to avoid having disastrous launches in the future. It is also quite likely that they will avoid overhyping their games to such insane levels. If their next game is a new Witcher game, well polished, with proper expectations set, few people will remember or care about this Cyberpunk mess.
Of course, it is possible I am wrong and they are completely stupid, in which case they deserve to go bankrupt.
While probably true, there is also a greater number of people who would be cautious and wary about getting their next game, while prior to Cyberpunk they would have been sight unseen.
To be clear we all have developers and artists we go sight unseen for. I am default interested in, and highly probable to buy, anything made by Supergiant Games. But if they released a real clunker, it could have the effect to put me in wait and see mode.
So, yes, a good next release? probably able to limit the damage. A bad next release? Could very well put them in a spiral. But working to fix up this release? That buys them a lot more flexibility and good will. Which just because it is intangible and doesn’t show in a balance sheet directly, doesn’t mean its not real.
I’ll put it this way: I literally don’t even care to hear about any DLC or expansions they have planned until I see significant improvement with this game. And I don’t just mean bug fixes and QoL stuff. If the game we got had been bug free on launch, I’d still say it was a subpar product that generated no excitement within me. I simply do not care to return to Night City unless there’s a substantial reason to do so.
Contrast that with The Witcher 3, where I wanted more right out of the gate.
I mean, if what’s in the game - the city, the quests, the story, characters, gunplay/stealth/hacking/driving/dialogue holds no interest to you, what would they have to add for you to be interested/excited?
Would pedestrians having schedules suddenly make the game fun to you? I don’t get it.
Agreed. And I am sure they are working on it. I just disagree that CDP’s entire future rests on whether they implement NPC schedules or whatever.
I’ll let them get this new patch out, let them fix the stuff it breaks, then I’m jumping in at last! I have to say just driving around in the intro has been amazing. I think I’ve had my money’s worth already.
Maybe? I dunno. I just know that what’s there was just blah for me. Stuff like gang territories meaning something, skills that do more than make hacking the “I win” button, crafting that’s interesting, businesses being more than menu screens you have to find, loot that didn’t feel like boring stat increases, player housing, car modifications, etc. What we got was the bare minimum of an “open world” game in 2020 in my opinion. I don’t even care about driving around to just sightsee due to the driving/minimap being so clunky.
Fair enough, seems like we have very different priorities about what we care about in RPGs, since most of the stuff you mentioned didn’t bother me. The minimap not zooming out was a PITA for sure though.
That was but one example of something they promised and that, in the final game, had an implementation that was way worse than games like GTA or Saint’s Row or even The Witcher 3. Or 2. Or 1. That particular issue is not the problem, just an example of the overall problem with the game - it was supposed to be this transformative next-gen experience and in many ways it’s worse than last gen games on parts that to many people do matter, even if they don’t matter to you.
Again, Oblivion had full schedules and such in a 3d world in 2006. It had shopkeepers that followed you upstairs so you wouldn’t steal their stuff. Bethesda’s ambitions far eclipsed CDPR’s.
And that would be fine, if their marketing materials didn’t make metric shittons of promises they didn’t fulfill. The game we got is pretty, pretty good. I enjoyed the main storyline, some of the sidequests were neat, and it was flat-out gorgeouso.
Console performance was absolutely unacceptable, lying about it even more so. It was buggy as hell. But if they hadn’t broken those promises and buttfucked console gamers it would just be a buggy-ass game that patches would fix, and people wouldn’t be so upset about it.
Entire gameplay systems broken, egregiously compromised, or flat-out missing didn’t bother you? I mean, I understand people thinking Cyberpunk was fun or whatever. But I don’t understand being so blase about the game as designed and delivered.
I didn’t really find gameplay systems to be broken. And I do not care too much about stuff like crafting or housing or car customization. It is nice to have, but I don’t miss it if it’s not there.
I enjoyed Cyberpunk for its atmosphere, characters, quests, gunplay, driving… that kind of stuff.
Guess my expectations were closer to earth. I expected something like Deus Ex MD, but on open world city scale, and that’s what I got.
Oblivion had its extremely hyped “Radiant AI” that was showcased in amazing gameplay videos… completely butchered for release. So not sure if I would use that as a good example of how things should be. Also, it is quite different to have a fantasy game with 200 NPCs in it versus modern city with (potentially) million NPCs. Games can have different design goals.
I do agree Borys should not have been talking about the NPCs in that demo though.
I’m not sure who you’re trying to “u mad bro?” with your post, but what makes you think anyone is “put out”? Or that anyone thought @Paul_cze’s opinion isn’t “ok”?
And while I find it surprising that he claimed not to care about the stuff @telefrog mentioned, I find it even more surprising that he thinks it’s all working as intended. That’s, uh, quite the opinion…
I think it’s fine to like broken games, lots of people do. Heck anyone who likes CK2 and/or CK3 can thank the rest of us from enduring a game that kind of just breaks down on top of itself after awhile. I mean I liked CK1 AND I can admit yeah, it’d be nice if they had actually got around to fixing it.
Not to mention what was promised. I played without any expectations, because I didn’t know anything about what CD Projekt had been talking up. But I would have been far more disappointed if I had followed the pre-release press for this game.
Everyone has their own perspective and expectations. @Paul_cze has one deeply informed by his own, admitted, attachment to any developer that is Slavic/ Eastern European. Because to him that is important, seeing people from cultures and groups more similar to him making games, and he is willing to overlook or ignore many flaws because of that.
Which, hey, fair. I’ve got my own spots like that. For me the first Mass Effect hits a similar place, for very different reasons. It has a tone and pacing that is vastly underrepresented in games, which I absolutely adore. And so I still place it as the ‘best’ of the ME series. Because of that tone I am willing to overlook most flaws or imbalances, because the jank is something I don’t care about compared to the narrative style.
Paul was always going to be willing to ignore many flaws, and prior to release was already heralding it as perhaps the greatest game ever. So flaws that were ranging from very annoying to downright game ruining for others were never going to bother Paul as much. And that’s fine. But it is good to recognize and acknowledge that fact because realistically those whom have deeper issues with CP2077 and Paul are never going to agree on the level of flaws in the game.
