Trusted Media

Years ago, when I was young and we ride horses to go to the market, I remember the yearly mainstream TV article about videogames. It started showing it has this strange new thing the parents may have heard about, and how the parents should be wary and not let the kids indulge in it too much. Common topics were violence, low school grades, and lack of exercise. The article always ended with a «specialist» telling parents to limit the screen time to 1 hour a day.
Now videogames are the biggest entertainment industry out there I see mainstream articles talking about how games are good for your brain and a good option for those who stay inside. It helps lots of kids grew up with games and it's hard to sell the panic narrative to someone who know the subject but the companies fat checks surely helped mellowing out any dissenting voice, even if gambling and addictive mechanics are being inserted left and right.

Origin: Snowflake

Dungeons and Dragons are rolling a new set of optional rules which allow you to ignore all your racial perks in exchange for an ability score of your choice and one free perk. Want your Orc to have +2 to intelligence and be Fey Touched? Go for it!
On one side, I can see players having the freedom to make their hobbit fighter without being bogged down by a negative strength score being a positive thing, on another side, when everybody is unique and special nobody is.
It's from a different media but imagine if one of the hobbits of Lord of the Ring was a brave and skilled warrior who fought shoulder to knee with Legolas. This would detract from hobbits being a jolly race without much in the way of fighting but with the new «origins» in Dungeons and Dragons, you can just say you have been raised by barbarians and be as good as any orc in smashing skulls.
I prefer the old ways but I'm old and bitter and what I know? Now get out of my dungeon!

Angry

I see lots of angry Hearthstone players and I just want to point there are lots of fish in the sea.
If the game is giving you a bad experience but you feel you need to play it it's either addiction or sunken cost kicking in, and both are bad.
Personally, I believe the game is balanced in a way it's purposely unfun to play if you don't buy many packs to have many cards. You can be F2P but it's not really the best of the experiences and I'm not even talking about the handicap which is not having all the cards you need for a meta deck.
I remember when I started playing you could just buy Naxx, craft 2 Savannah Highmanes and you had a legend-viable Hunter deck. Times were simpler and definitely cheaper.
Perhaps I'm just too stingy but I feel the game subtly pressured me to spend more money and I didn't like that and perhaps you don't too.

Apple Pie 2077

I'm hyped, but mostly because I'm fairly sure the game will deliver a specific kind of experience. I may, of course, be wrong but given CD Projekt's track record and the fact I'm pretty much expecting Witcher 1 in terms of narrative I'm confident the game will deliver.
But again, I may be wrong. The game may be full of bugs, suffer from feature creep or just have a bad story but again, this can happen with any project.
And sometimes it's nice to be a bit hyped, as long as you are not expecting to ascend into nirvana when Keany Reeves pop on the screen.

Change

Sleeeepy, may rant later.
Cyberpunk in 4 days, need to get ready.
At least I'm close of finishing Witcher 3.

Gotta Go Fast

«Twas The Day Before Cyberpunk»
I am hyped. Of course, I could do the «adult» thing and be cynical and jaded about how everything is transitory and futile, yadda, yadda.
Sometimes is good to be excited about a game and have high hopes for it. In the right doses that extra goodwill helps you enjoy things more.
And if I don't like it its more material for a good comic down the line so it's a win for me any way.
Onwards, to Night City!
p.s. I had to delete TF2 after all this years to make room for Cyberpunk. :(

Passing The Torch

I don't want to talk much about 2077 because anything I say may be spoilers so let people experience it a bit before I sink my teeth on it.
I can say, however, there were bugs, which mostly seen gone after I updated my drivers but I may just been relatively lucky compared to others. A friend of mine had his game crash while we were talking for example.
If you are on the fence, what I can say the game is like Witcher 3, if Witcher 3 happened on a GTA city. How much you'll enjoy it depends on how much you like this concept.
p.s. Braindance is my favorite part of the game tho and could be a game on itself.

Design Flaw

I believe now the reason they made Cyberpunk 1st person is to avoid the comparison with GTA, and it would be a fair comparison.
My biggest complaint is your interaction with the world is not better than what you had on Witcher 3. I don't care about playing on arcade machines or being able to open drawers, this is the kind of stuff you do once and move on. However, I wish the population reacted better to who I am. Maybe if I am handsome they would flirt, or if I am a nasty gang member people would get out of my way. I'd take a game 1/5 smaller, but with a more elaborate simulation.
This, however, is my opinion Quantity is quality on itself and I'm sure some people enjoy the big-ass Night City. If anything is a good marketing tool. It's easier to sell a big city than interactive NPC interactions.
Honestly, since the game is so big I am already picking my fights. If I find some kind of event boring (like random gangs attacking people) I just skip it. It's like trying to eat everything on a buffet when you can just pick your favorite meals.
Oh, also the game had its fair share of bugs (mostly graphical on my end) at day 1 but I fully expected it and I kinda wanted to check this experience since I usually wait a lot to play a game. Honestly, this is a habit I plan to keep in the future.
To close, I am not disappointed, but I had low expectations to start. The only caveat is I think they oversold how interactive the world would be. It's Witcher 3 on a GTA city and feels that way.

Implants

There was a 24h power outage in a good part of my city and I am waaay behind schedule on stuff so I'll rant about Cyberpunk next time.
For now, enjoy!

Cyber Potion

Like many, I have my fair share of critics to Cyberpunk 2077 but instead of writing an essay, I'll just post ONE thing I dislike per post and keep doing that until I run out of Cyberpunk content to draw.
Above all, my number zero critic is the life path thing. The game sold the idea you can pick a life path (Corpo, Nomad, Street Kid) and this will affect your gameplay. In reality, you behave like a Street Kid no matter what. Yes, you can have a Nomad or Corpo origin but the way you talk and act it's 90% Street Kid with the odd dialogue choice where your life path changes a dialogue. Even when I pick Corpo options it still feels like a Street Kid who was an intern at Arasaki once.
More pressing, the game so far did not offer me a chance to play the life path I choose. There is no option to align me with some corporation and do hit jobs on their enemies until I get enough favors and leverage to put the suit again. Yes, it would be pretty much an «evil» route but it should be an option.