I haven’t played Cyberpunk 2077 but it’s my favorite game of the year

Like many non-gamers, I have experienced Cyberpunk 2077 primarily through news articles and Twitter posts. And I have to say that this is possibly the best way to experience it.

I mean, look, I’ve heard about this game for years, because a lot of my co-workers and friends are gamers. Everyone was excited! I had to delay the end of the year package that I was managing the project to adapt it.

But almost immediately after launch, there was drama: Sony pulled the game out of its store and started offering refunds! Microsoft also offers refunds! So are Best Buy and Game Stop! The employees of the game creator, CD Projekt Red, are disgusting! If your file gets too big it will get corrupted and useless. An epilepsy warning! DMCA strikes!

If there are two things I love, it’s drama and chaos, and boy, Cyberpunk 2077 offers both. There’s also this, which I thought was a joke, but then when I read the replies to the tweet, I realized it was not a joke at all.

One of my friends bought it the day it came out and basically went to a bunker to play it for a few days. He called it “a wonderful mess” but also said the weakest part is combat and “the AI ​​is dumb as bricks.” Another can’t finish her Johnny side mission and is very angry about it. Like, not ironically angry: she desperately wants meet Nancy at the goth club, but the NPC she’s supposed to talk to isn’t there. (Also, as a condition of using his story, he asked me to mention that Judy is his wife.)

Part of the drama surrounding Cyberpunk is objectively not funny at all: Overworked developers and stereotypes about trans people. Our sister site Polygon has gone so far as to post a standard disclaimer in every post about the game just because there are so much happening here.

Before the launch of Cyberpunk 2077CD Projekt Red faced scrutiny from reporters for its labor practices, particularly with regard to the “crisis,” a term that refers to long overtime hours lasting weeks or months. Despite previous promises to the contrary, the company imposed a mandatory restriction on some employees. Cyberpunk 2077 It also faced criticism for its marketing, in particular the use of a sexualized trans model in a promotional poster, as well as the frivolous tone used in much of the game’s advertising and social media.

This is a fucking fiasco! My main conclusion is that the people who will enjoy this game the most are the people who know and love many players, but who are not players themselves. And for us, the best part of the game is the glitches.

We’ve been collecting some of our favorite fallas in a group chat and now I’m going to share them with you. Fair warning: some of these are not safe for work.

(A note: When I shared the following clip in our group chat, one of my friends responded: He lied: “I know EXACTLY the intersection.” Apparently, cars always blow up there?

I love this game. Please never correct the mistakes. Also, link to your favorite faults in the comments.