Cyberpunk 2077 (No Spoilers) Discussion Thread

Well with Microsoft holding the rights to publishing Shadowrun video games, I doubt they would have been too keen on having a multi-platform release. Hopefully, the pending success of Cyberpunk 2077 will show them that there is a genuine interest in games like this and we will one day get a Shadowrun AAA RPG game, whether from Microsoft themselves, or them licensing the franchise to someone who knows what they're doing.   


As far as the similarities go between the two settings go, I would agree that both Shadowrun and Cyberpunk are nearly identical, save for one specific theme that I feels colors the respective universes in two completely different lights. Namely the concept of transhumanism. In Shadowrun, there is the underlying bias (IMO) that changing one's self too much, either through technology or magic, is inherently wrong or evil. Lose too much essence? You become a cyber zombie. Want to permentally upload your consciousness into an interchangeable robot shell? You become an E-Ghost or a snack for an 'alien' AI. Cavort with spirits and entities too far removed from meta-human norms? You are just asking to be possessed.  Etc. On the other hand, Cyberpunk approches transhumanism in a way that says if you are strong/smart/determined enough you can become something more, and that such an action is completely amoral. Sure you might have a person succumb to cyber-psychosis, but that's more an individual failing as opposed to a universal rejection of wanting to give up one's "humanity". 

Just my two cents, I love both settings and am eagerly looking forward to any and all electronic media representation.

The only article I saw this year referred to a "young man" protagonist, and I have not seen any primary source mentioning character customization, only derivative quotes from 2013 interview. So, I really hope for a confirmation from a primary source that it's still the plan.

Well, fingers crossed.

I would love for there to be a Mobile Suit Gundam RPG. 

In multiple interviews, including that one, they have talked about how the protagonist will be customizable and how that will affect different aspects of the game, from physical appearance to mechanically(like skills and how the game will react) and etc. 

Okay, that's the confirmation I was looking for. Ty!

I have played SR:HK and I thoroughly enjoyed those characters. And I'm not necessarily saying that it's impossible to role play as characters like that in the table top version of the game; after all my runner Glitch was literally just a brain and vital organs in a jar, tucked within a robotic shell. I just don't like the pervading negative connotation associated with concepts like that in-universe and from the various writers' own slants; biases that I began to notice over the years playing in and reading about the setting. Not to say that I view Cyberpunk as inherently better, in fact I would say Shadowrun is probably my favorite of the two, but with the latter setting there is no arbitrary, moral guidelines that say striving to be or even exploring the notion of the 'other' is somehow wrong. 

Things like free spirits, AI, extremely low essence individuals, and even some of the more esoteric races of the Sixth World, they all have this wariness about then, with a deference to assuming they are nightmarish monsters. Which, in-world fits to a certain extent, what with things like Bug City and the Crash 2.0, but at the same time the setting seems rather adamant that anything striving too far from meta-humanity is somehow only interesting in killing everyone and/or taking over the world. 

I guess you could say Cyberpunk is inherently about an amoral universe and the individuals in it, while Shadowrun clearly has dividing lines of good and evil.



Anyways, aside from that conversation, I think Cyberpunk was a better fit, or experiment, as a AAA RPG game over Shadowrun (ignoring the licensing requirements and copyrights) because it's, in a sense, "easier" to do. You only have to worry about the 'mundane' stuff with Cyberpunk, Shadowrun has all of that plus magic, and dragons. If anything, I would view Cyberpunk as the game that can potentially lay the foundation for a more realized take on Shadowrun in the future. 

Just rumor mill stuff, but closest I've seen to new info in a while.

Well, Glass Door was right about Bioware, after all. However I do agree, CDPR past is impeccable, and all their games have been extremely well done and received.

The thing is, when we look at a videogame company, we see the big offices, the huge windows, the nice layout and cool equipment. What we don't see is people working their asses until late night for months, possibly years, because they have a budget and a timeline to follow, always at the edge. It doesn't matter how cool the place is, everyone will grow tired of that sooner or later.

Who doesn't though? I can complain all day about how my students do not know how to write a college level essay.

Id rather spend the time finishing the grading so I can go back to playing Dragon Age or Tyranny.

I won't be surprised if it is at least partially true. Cyberpunk is by far more complex conceptually than Witcher, and switching gears after a decade of doing essentially the same thing is not easy. Well, we'll if they ever manage to finish it.