Hello all!

The idea is a colorful action game, suitable for ages 8 - 80. The aim of the game is to stun and capture robots. Yes, like Ghostbusters but without the ghosts. Ghostbusters the game from 2009 was the best example in my opinion, of an action game where the player does not kill anyone. There are also minor influences from the movie "I, Robot" in the game as well.

The story takes place a few decades into the future. Its about a man who invented a device that tames hostile robots and allows him to shut down and repair them without causing any damage in any way to them. Law enforcement on the other hand is armed and trained to destroy hostile robots on site due to an incident in the city where robots malfunctioned and massacred hundreds of civilians. The players device saves money for his clients and allows him to repair robots that have sentimental meaning to some of his clients. Of course something goes wrong, robots go rogue and begin to organize and build armor for themselves that deflect bullets. They raid powerplants and weapons, even taking control of top secret technology, unleashing it against the city. When humans retalizate, the robots attack is so aggressive and unbridled that much of our defenses are neutralized and humanity is left vulnerable to extinction. Enter, our hero! He just happens to have a little gadget that can neutralize the robots and shut them down! The basic story is still under construction but I wanted it to be a foundational story that allows for expansion. Once the main game is done, any idea can be added to the lore over time.

The game is meant to be very simple, colorful, basic, and be a visual treat if at all possible. It took so long to get anything done because I was trying to make a AAA title and use ALL the ideas I had at once. Lesson learned? Work within your limitations. I have no formal skill in anything related to game development aside from playing games so I will start simple and each new game will have improved art and effects.

It will feature several large levels, bosses, upgrades (dont know how to do upgrades, XP or leveling yet so it will be dumb simple for now), a basic checkpoint save system, A.I, optimized to run at 30 frames minimum at all times, menu with volume/music control, soundtrack, custom sounds and it will be free to play, open source and all.

This is a solo project. With the exception of Blender Game Engine, UPBGE and publically available source code, I will build all the art assets. There isnt a website yet, but there IS some simple code ready to build a site. I multi task alot because I really enjoy the entire process of building, learning and creating. I also enjoy long romantic walks on the beach and BBQ.

Progress will be posted here and any youtube videos showing the tech demo features in action. I already learned to build some engine features and will upload them for demonstration of progress and as a tutorial for anyone that wants to know how. The game is exclusively using UPBGE 0.2.1 because it had features turned on that the new Blender had turned off like animated textures. UPBGE is more game friendly and I will likely be sticking with it for the forseeable future as its got it all!

Here are a few early scribbles that will be redrawn and improve later on:Scaled images to 300*300 - is that too large? It seems too large..

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Hunt and contain hostile robots in a cartoonish cyberpunk ...

Cyberpunk 2077 is based on renowned pen-and-paper-RPG designer Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk system and created by CD Projekt (the acclaimed development group behind the hit RPG The Witcher.) Players are thrown into the dark future of the year 2077 and into a world where advanced technologies have become both the salvation and the curse of humanity. A multi-threaded, nonlinear story designed for mature players takes place in the sprawling metropolis of Night City and its surroundings. Along the way, visit places well known from Cyberpunk 2020, including a combat zone completely taken over by gangs, the legendary Afterlife joint and the nostalgic Forlorn Hope.

Freedom of action and diversity in gameplay is delivered thanks to the sandbox nature of the game and mechanics inspired by the Cyberpunk pen-and-paper system, fine tuned to meet the requirements of a modern RPG. Players experience the world through their own unique characters chosen from different classes -- be they blood-thirsty mercenaries or cunning hackers that they will equip with vast selection of cybernetic implants and deadly weapons. Gameplay will pump adrenaline through players' veins and be consistent with the celebrated Cyberpunk spirit -- rebellion, style, edge, uncertainty. And of course, a cyberpunk reality cannot be deprived of murderous steel -- guns, rifles, implants, dozens of gadgets and other varied pieces of equipment needed to survive on the streets of Night City.

NOTE: This game has been officially announced as a title in production and is likely planned for release on the PC platform, but it has not yet been officially announced for any specific system. Please check back for official info.

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Cyberpunk 2077 - IGN

Update: With the announcement that consumer tickets will soon be on sale, the hype for E3 2018 has now started to build. Who will be there? What will they bring? Well, thanks to the scrolling banner of show participants on the official E3 website, we know one developer that definitely will be there CD Projekt Red.

Now, whether or not they'll bring Cyberpunk 2077 to the show is another matter entirely. It could be that the developer is planning to show more of Gwent before its final release this year.

However, the developer took Gwent to several events in 2017, so it could be that 2018 is Cyberpunk's time to shine. That said, showing of one game doesn't necessarily cancel out the chance to feature another. It could very well be that CD Projekt Red takes Gwent to the show floor for fans to try for themselves, while Cyberpunk gets its next highly-anticipated trailer and behind closed doors testing.

Certainly after some recent Twitter activity and a report from GRYOnline, fans are understandably hopeful that Cyberpunk 2077 will appear in some form or another at E3 2018.

Original article continues below

Following on from the wild success of The Witcher 3 isnt going to be easy but with Cyberpunk 2077, we think CD Projekt Red might have a pretty good shot at it. In this new IP theyre moving from the gritty, high fantasy world of the Continent to the gritty, science fiction word of a neon cyberpunk metropolis.

This game looks like its going to offer a significant aesthetic refresh from The Witcher 3, but hopefully without abandoning everything we loved about it in terms of gameplay, themes and tone. Of course, at the moment we dont know all that much about Cyberpunk 2077.

The internet is crawling with news and rumors, though, so weve collected everything that's been said about the game here for your convenience and we'll be constantly updating this page as more details emerge.

After an extremely short title reveal trailer, in 2013 we were treated to a more than two minute long teaser trailer although it didn't reveal much about what will be in the actual game.

It did, however, capture Cyberpunk's futuristic setting incredibly well and let us know that when it comes we can expect something dark, dangerous and visually stunning. At the end it also looks like we get a look at the Braindance technology discussed further down.

In the games official teaser trailer its stated that the game will be coming when its ready. But for now it appears that CD Projekt Red is hoping that will be sometime in early 2019.

In an investor call in early 2016 it was suggested that Cyberpunk 2077 would be released before June 2019. It was also said in this call that CD Projekt Red is planning to release two new triple A RPGs before 2021.

It was later clarified in forums that Cyberpunk 2077 would be the first of these games to arrive and work on the second would not start before Cyberpunk 2077 was finished.

Considering The Witcher 3 took around three and a half years to develop, a 2019 release doesnt seem unmanageable for the studio.

As well as a deadline theyve no doubt set for themselves, the studio also has a deadline from the Polish government.

In December of last year they were given a grant of more than $5 million from the government to research new game techniques related to multiplayer, animation and city creation. The sizable sum came with a project deadline attached and if it does relate to Cyberpunk 2077 itll mean the game really does have to be released in 2019. The government said so, which ironically isnt particularly Cyberpunk.

In a recent financial presentation, CD Projekt Red has revealed that at the moment Cyberpunk 2077 is under "intensive development" and that there are more than 300 developers actively working on it. For context, there are currently 100 developers working across Gwent and the Witcher 3's 4K patch at the moment.

There was no more information on the game's progress during the presentation but the company's President and joint CEO Adam Kiciski said there would be "a moment in time" when he and the developers will be able to show off what they've achieved.

Plans for E3

It's been a while since Cyberpunk 2077 has appeared at a big gaming show. However, recent rumors suggest the game could make an appearance at E3 2018.

After there were stirrings of life on the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account we have to admit we wondered if that was all we were going to get for the year. But hopes are being raised thanks to recent reports from leading Polish games site GRYOnline.

According to GRYOnline, two separate sources have said that Cyberpunk 2077 will have a public trailer at E3 2018 and that there'll also be a playable demo behind closed doors for press.

There is precedent for CD Projekt Red taking this approach; in 2013 the developer showed off a trailer for The Witcher 3 while showing press a demo behind closed doors. The game was then released two years later.

Whether or not these rumors are true has not been confirmed by CD Projekt Red, but GRYOnline is a credible site. At this point we'll just have to wait and see, but the recent stirrings of life on the game's Twitter account are at least another good sign from the developer itself.

At the very least, CD Projekt's Red's presence at E3 2018 has been confirmed by the appearance of its logo in the show's official participant banner. Whether or not it's bringing Cyberpunk 2077 news to the show, however, remains unconfirmed.

Signs of life on Twitter

For a while now it's been all quiet on the Cyberpunk 2077 front. Well, it was until January 10 when the game's official Twitter account made a noise for the first time in more than four years.

What did this momentous tweet say? Well, see for yourself below.

Yes, that's the first tweet since December 2013. So we have no more information, but we do know there are signs of life in that Twitter accounts which suggests this could be the year we find out a little more about this highly anticipated game. Because surely the 2077 in the title isn't actually a release date.

Its going to be bigger than The Witcher 3

It would have been a pretty safe guess to say that Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be a big game, but in an interview with MCV in 2015 visual effects artist Jose Teixeira said its going to be far, far bigger than anything the studio has ever done.

In fact, he said that The Witcher 3 was being treated as a learning experience and that they could do better. To do better, the studio has doubled in size with studio head Adam Badowski saying that after The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 needs to be even better, even bigger, even more revolutionary than what had originally been planned.

Youll be travelling on more advanced tech than boats and horses

So, we know the game map is going to be intimidatingly big. How will we get around it, then? Well fortunately, moving out of the high fantasy realm gives CD Projekt Red a little more freedom when it comes to creating vehicles.

Dont expect horses and basic boats here a job listing for a Senior Vehicle Artist for the studio said theyd be expected to work on incredibly complex vehicles, planes, bikes, robots and mechanics.

Itll have a big single player story

We dont imagine well shock many people when we say this but Cyberpunk 2077 will take place in the year 2077.

Specifically CD Projekt Red has confirmed itll be set in a place called Night City. Night Citys streets will be huge, filthy, and invested with drug problems. As youd expect from the Cyberpunk genre, therell be a huge wealth gap, where the rich and corporations preside over poverty-stricken citizens, many of whom are driven into gangs.

Desperate for escape, many of the poor residents of Night City turn to an addictive escape known as Braindance which for just a few hours allows them to feel physically and mentally like theyre someone (anyone) else.

According to CD Projekt Red theyre digital recordings of a persons experience. The viewer can stream a braindance directly into his neural system via special brain augmentations, called a BD player. Braindances allow the viewer to experience all brain processes registered, including emotions, muscle movements and all stimuli perceived by the recording person.

Braindance experiences that place you in the lives of the rich and glamorous are naturally sold by corporations. However, much darker and illegal Braindances that can turn those using them into bloodthirsty killers are also distributed on the black market.

In this incredibly dark world youll play a young man thats been raised in the lowest section of society but wants to make something of himself and rise out of the gutter. Like most Cyberpunk protagonists we imagine hell be something of an anti-hero and find himself embroiled in the criminal underworld, manipulated and forced into difficult situations. How Braindances will be used by or on the protagonist is unclear.

The game will be an RPG like The Witcher 3 and videogame character progression will fit in well to Cyberpunks world of physical and mental augmentations.

Its based on the Cyberpunk board games, the creator of which, Mike Pondsmith, has been working closely with the development team to ensure it stays true to the source material and doesnt lose the Cyberpunk at its core.

This contrasts with the studio's relationship with the author of the Witcher novels, Andrzej Sapkowski, who has always been ambivalent about the games.

But there will be multiplayer elements

It was confirmed years ago that the game would have multiplayer elements but what exactly theyll be is unclear. It was said, though, that the game would mainly focus on single player.

Considering some of the grant CD Projekt Red received from the Polish government was to go towards creating new techniques that included multiplayer experiences were expecting something exciting and refreshing.

There will be online

As well as multiplayer, CD Projekt's CEO has confirmed that there will also be online elements to the game. In an interview with Polish tech site Strefa Inwestorow Kiciski stated that Online is necessary, or very recommended if you wish to achieve a long-term success. At some point, we have mentioned that there will be a certain online element related to Cyberpunk.

In the same interview the CEO said that the team wanted to experiment in fields that weren't explored in The Witcher and that "were interested in Cyberpunk being commercially even more significant.

Whether or not the online elements will feed into the multiplayer is unclear.

But there won't be microstransactions

Following the above interview for Strefa Inwestorow in which CD Projekt's CEO confirmed there would be online elements in the game fans began to fear that there would be an abundance of microstransactions involved.

The studio has since tweeted to quell these fears, stating that Cyberpunk 2077 will be "nothing less than" the Witcher 3, adding that players will "get what [they] pay for" with "no hidden catch."

It appears that while many studios are feeling the need to move to a service model to ensure their titles make money, CD Projekt is staying committed to the story-driven single player experience with Cyberpunk 2077, one which served them very well with The Witcher.

Combat inspired by the original tabletop RPG

We know that the designer of the tabletop RPG Cybperunk on which Cyberpunk 2077 is based is heavily involved in the creation of the game. We hope his involvement extends to the game's combat because the combat system he created in his own game was fairly revolutionary for the tabletop genre.

Rather than involving drawn out and long turns, it was fast, brutal, gritty and overall perfectly suited to the spirit of Cyberpunk.

A big part of Cyberpunk combat involves upgrading your body with new abilities and robotics which would be perfectly in line with a video game character development system like those created by CD Projekt Red.

In Pondsmith's game bodily enhancement has to be carefully considered it's a balancing act where every benefit has a drawback. When a player makes robotic additions to themselves they reduce their humanity and empathy leading to an uncontrollable state of cyberpsychosis. This has the potential to be a really interesting system if it's adapted for the game and could be used in a similar manner to excessive consumption of combat-enhancing potions in The Witcher.

Keep checking back here for all the latest Cyberpunk 2077 news

from TechRadar All the latest technology news http://ift.tt/2tlTYfW

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Cyberpunk 2077 release date, trailer and news scenz kuch ...

2017 was a year of stories. Every week, it seemed, carried a new political scandal, and 2018 doesnt seem on track to do much better. The 24 hour news cycle can be overbearing at times, to say the least, and 2017 brought that overflow of information to new heights.

If youre faith in humanity was lowered in 2017, dont worry. Were here to make it even worse.

#1: Amazon Stuff

Were not going to be unfair and give Amazon two spots on this listtheyll be getting plenty of coverage here anyway. We do have two main things well talk about here. The first:

#1 Exhibit A: Amazon Founder Jeff Bezos becomes the richest man at the world at $100 billion.

The title says it all. The crazy thing is, in the last few months Amazons stock has surged even moreand now Bezos is valued at closer to $120 billion as of February 2018.

Heres Exhibit B: All the cities racing to the bottom to get Amazons second headquarters.

For those who dont know, basically Amazon announced a little while ago that they are searching for a city to host a second headquarters (the first being in Seattle).

You can dig around for more articles, because a lot of people are talking about it. This opinion piece from Current Affairs explains it pretty well. Here are some excerpts from the Seattle Times list we linked to in heading:

Chicago has offered to let Amazon pocket $1.32 billion in income taxes paid by its own workers. This is truly perverse. Called a personal income-tax diversion, the workers must still pay the full taxes, but instead of the state getting the money to use for schools, roads or whatever, Amazon would get to keep it all instead.

But the most far-reaching offer is from Fresno, California. That city of half a million isnt offering any tax breaks. Instead it has a novel plan to give Amazon special authority over how the companys taxes are spent.

Some updates have happened since 2017 of coursenow theyve narrowed it down to a list of 20 cities (a list that includes our nations capitolwoohoo!).

#2: Erik Prince and his proposals to the white house

Many dont know that Erik Prince, the billionaire founder of Blackwater (which is the largest private army and is now named Academi) is also the brother of our current Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. Think of it this way: she wants to privatize education, and he wants to privatize the military.

His most outlandish proposal though, has been to give Trump a private spy ring to counter deep state enemies.This is absolutely horrifying. Now let me be clearthis deep state stuff isnt a right wing conspiracy. Of course theres a deep state. And yes, elements of them almost certainly do not like Trump, who they see as an outsider to their establishment. That doesnt make the Trump administration good though, and giving this white house a bunch of mercenary spies that operate around the world doesnt sound too great. In fact, this proposal is absolutely terrifyingthe American intelligence apparatus already has so little oversight, and having a mercenary spy network that answers only to the president and Mike Pompeo is practically fascist. This is a step toward cyberpunks corporate fascist future for sure.

#3: Saudi Arabia becoming the first nation to grant a robot citizenship

The actual granting of citizenship to a robot isnt too bad in my opinion. Cyberpunk, futuristic, but not inherently wrong (though I can certainly see the fear some may have).

What makes this dystopic is the fact that Saudi Arabia granted a female robot citizenship. At the same time that half its population are practically sub-citizens, and at the same time that it starves the entire nation of Yemen.

#4: So Paulos Mayors Allimento Program

In October 2017, So Paulos mayor was pushing for a program called Allimentobasically, the idea was to feed the poor recycled food pellets. If it doesnt sound so badlook at it.

Cmon. The dystopian aesthetic is unrealthis is as cyberpunk as it gets. You can watch an official promotional video on YouTube here. It doesnt look much better in motion.

#5: Zuck the Fucks Tour of Puerto Rico

Im sure youve heard of this. Rest assured, there have been plenty of other horrifying cyberpunk stories from 2017, but the stark image of one of our Big Tech overlords touring around a destroyed San Juanvirtuallywas beyond words.

Honorary Mention: Scott Walker agreeing to let Foxconn build a factory in Wisconsin

Once upon a time, we were sad about the de-industrialization of the United States. Fear not, faithful workers! Scott Walker approved a $3 billion deal in September of 2017 to let Foxconn, the manufacturing giant that has anti-suicide nets around its factories in China, open a factory in Wisconsin.

If you dont remember, a few years back some folks were angry about their iPhones being made by sweatshop workers. More specifically, people were alarmed by a series of suicides among the workers. Foxconn has had some bad press lately because some of their ungrateful workers committed suicidehence Foxconns use of nets outside some of their factories in Shenzhen, so if a worker tries to commit suicide, theyll be saved by the company! And you know, once upon a time the Economist said the suicide rate of Foxconn workers was lower than the suicide rates of China or the United Statesso really, its not that bad!

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The 5 Most Cyberpunk Stories of 2017 Present Punk

Update: With the announcement that consumer tickets will soon be on sale, the hype for E3 2018 has now started to build. Who will be there? What will they bring? Well, thanks to the scrolling banner of show participants on the official E3 website, we know one developer that definitely will be there CD Projekt Red.

Now, whether or not they'll bring Cyberpunk 2077 to the show is another matter entirely. It could be that the developer is planning to show more of Gwent before its final release this year.

However, the developer took Gwent to several events in 2017, so it could be that 2018 is Cyberpunk's time to shine. That said, showing of one game doesn't necessarily cancel out the chance to feature another. It could very well be that CD Projekt Red takes Gwent to the show floor for fans to try for themselves, while Cyberpunk gets its next highly-anticipated trailer and behind closed doors testing.

Certainly after some recent Twitter activity and a report from GRYOnline, fans are understandably hopeful that Cyberpunk 2077 will appear in some form or another at E3 2018.

Original article continues below

Following on from the wild success of The Witcher 3 isnt going to be easy but with Cyberpunk 2077, we think CD Projekt Red might have a pretty good shot at it. In this new IP theyre moving from the gritty, high fantasy world of the Continent to the gritty, science fiction word of a neon cyberpunk metropolis.

This game looks like its going to offer a significant aesthetic refresh from The Witcher 3, but hopefully without abandoning everything we loved about it in terms of gameplay, themes and tone. Of course, at the moment we dont know all that much about Cyberpunk 2077.

The internet is crawling with news and rumors, though, so weve collected everything that's been said about the game here for your convenience and we'll be constantly updating this page as more details emerge.

After an extremely short title reveal trailer, in 2013 we were treated to a more than two minute long teaser trailer although it didn't reveal much about what will be in the actual game.

It did, however, capture Cyberpunk's futuristic setting incredibly well and let us know that when it comes we can expect something dark, dangerous and visually stunning. At the end it also looks like we get a look at the Braindance technology discussed further down.

In the games official teaser trailer its stated that the game will be coming when its ready. But for now it appears that CD Projekt Red is hoping that will be sometime in early 2019.

In an investor call in early 2016 it was suggested that Cyberpunk 2077 would be released before June 2019. It was also said in this call that CD Projekt Red is planning to release two new triple A RPGs before 2021.

It was later clarified in forums that Cyberpunk 2077 would be the first of these games to arrive and work on the second would not start before Cyberpunk 2077 was finished.

Considering The Witcher 3 took around three and a half years to develop, a 2019 release doesnt seem unmanageable for the studio.

As well as a deadline theyve no doubt set for themselves, the studio also has a deadline from the Polish government.

In December of last year they were given a grant of more than $5 million from the government to research new game techniques related to multiplayer, animation and city creation. The sizable sum came with a project deadline attached and if it does relate to Cyberpunk 2077 itll mean the game really does have to be released in 2019. The government said so, which ironically isnt particularly Cyberpunk.

In a recent financial presentation, CD Projekt Red has revealed that at the moment Cyberpunk 2077 is under "intensive development" and that there are more than 300 developers actively working on it. For context, there are currently 100 developers working across Gwent and the Witcher 3's 4K patch at the moment.

There was no more information on the game's progress during the presentation but the company's President and joint CEO Adam Kiciski said there would be "a moment in time" when he and the developers will be able to show off what they've achieved.

Plans for E3

It's been a while since Cyberpunk 2077 has appeared at a big gaming show. However, recent rumors suggest the game could make an appearance at E3 2018.

After there were stirrings of life on the official Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account we have to admit we wondered if that was all we were going to get for the year. But hopes are being raised thanks to recent reports from leading Polish games site GRYOnline.

According to GRYOnline, two separate sources have said that Cyberpunk 2077 will have a public trailer at E3 2018 and that there'll also be a playable demo behind closed doors for press.

There is precedent for CD Projekt Red taking this approach; in 2013 the developer showed off a trailer for The Witcher 3 while showing press a demo behind closed doors. The game was then released two years later.

Whether or not these rumors are true has not been confirmed by CD Projekt Red, but GRYOnline is a credible site. At this point we'll just have to wait and see, but the recent stirrings of life on the game's Twitter account are at least another good sign from the developer itself.

At the very least, CD Projekt's Red's presence at E3 2018 has been confirmed by the appearance of its logo in the show's official participant banner. Whether or not it's bringing Cyberpunk 2077 news to the show, however, remains unconfirmed.

Signs of life on Twitter

For a while now it's been all quiet on the Cyberpunk 2077 front. Well, it was until January 10 when the game's official Twitter account made a noise for the first time in more than four years.

What did this momentous tweet say? Well, see for yourself below.

Yes, that's the first tweet since December 2013. So we have no more information, but we do know there are signs of life in that Twitter accounts which suggests this could be the year we find out a little more about this highly anticipated game. Because surely the 2077 in the title isn't actually a release date.

Its going to be bigger than The Witcher 3

It would have been a pretty safe guess to say that Cyberpunk 2077 is going to be a big game, but in an interview with MCV in 2015 visual effects artist Jose Teixeira said its going to be far, far bigger than anything the studio has ever done.

In fact, he said that The Witcher 3 was being treated as a learning experience and that they could do better. To do better, the studio has doubled in size with studio head Adam Badowski saying that after The Witcher 3, Cyberpunk 2077 needs to be even better, even bigger, even more revolutionary than what had originally been planned.

Youll be travelling on more advanced tech than boats and horses

So, we know the game map is going to be intimidatingly big. How will we get around it, then? Well fortunately, moving out of the high fantasy realm gives CD Projekt Red a little more freedom when it comes to creating vehicles.

Dont expect horses and basic boats here a job listing for a Senior Vehicle Artist for the studio said theyd be expected to work on incredibly complex vehicles, planes, bikes, robots and mechanics.

Itll have a big single player story

We dont imagine well shock many people when we say this but Cyberpunk 2077 will take place in the year 2077.

Specifically CD Projekt Red has confirmed itll be set in a place called Night City. Night Citys streets will be huge, filthy, and invested with drug problems. As youd expect from the Cyberpunk genre, therell be a huge wealth gap, where the rich and corporations preside over poverty-stricken citizens, many of whom are driven into gangs.

Desperate for escape, many of the poor residents of Night City turn to an addictive escape known as Braindance which for just a few hours allows them to feel physically and mentally like theyre someone (anyone) else.

According to CD Projekt Red theyre digital recordings of a persons experience. The viewer can stream a braindance directly into his neural system via special brain augmentations, called a BD player. Braindances allow the viewer to experience all brain processes registered, including emotions, muscle movements and all stimuli perceived by the recording person.

Braindance experiences that place you in the lives of the rich and glamorous are naturally sold by corporations. However, much darker and illegal Braindances that can turn those using them into bloodthirsty killers are also distributed on the black market.

In this incredibly dark world youll play a young man thats been raised in the lowest section of society but wants to make something of himself and rise out of the gutter. Like most Cyberpunk protagonists we imagine hell be something of an anti-hero and find himself embroiled in the criminal underworld, manipulated and forced into difficult situations. How Braindances will be used by or on the protagonist is unclear.

The game will be an RPG like The Witcher 3 and videogame character progression will fit in well to Cyberpunks world of physical and mental augmentations.

Its based on the Cyberpunk board games, the creator of which, Mike Pondsmith, has been working closely with the development team to ensure it stays true to the source material and doesnt lose the Cyberpunk at its core.

This contrasts with the studio's relationship with the author of the Witcher novels, Andrzej Sapkowski, who has always been ambivalent about the games.

But there will be multiplayer elements

It was confirmed years ago that the game would have multiplayer elements but what exactly theyll be is unclear. It was said, though, that the game would mainly focus on single player.

Considering some of the grant CD Projekt Red received from the Polish government was to go towards creating new techniques that included multiplayer experiences were expecting something exciting and refreshing.

There will be online

As well as multiplayer, CD Projekt's CEO has confirmed that there will also be online elements to the game. In an interview with Polish tech site Strefa Inwestorow Kiciski stated that Online is necessary, or very recommended if you wish to achieve a long-term success. At some point, we have mentioned that there will be a certain online element related to Cyberpunk.

In the same interview the CEO said that the team wanted to experiment in fields that weren't explored in The Witcher and that "were interested in Cyberpunk being commercially even more significant.

Whether or not the online elements will feed into the multiplayer is unclear.

But there won't be microstransactions

Following the above interview for Strefa Inwestorow in which CD Projekt's CEO confirmed there would be online elements in the game fans began to fear that there would be an abundance of microstransactions involved.

The studio has since tweeted to quell these fears, stating that Cyberpunk 2077 will be "nothing less than" the Witcher 3, adding that players will "get what [they] pay for" with "no hidden catch."

It appears that while many studios are feeling the need to move to a service model to ensure their titles make money, CD Projekt is staying committed to the story-driven single player experience with Cyberpunk 2077, one which served them very well with The Witcher.

Combat inspired by the original tabletop RPG

We know that the designer of the tabletop RPG Cybperunk on which Cyberpunk 2077 is based is heavily involved in the creation of the game. We hope his involvement extends to the game's combat because the combat system he created in his own game was fairly revolutionary for the tabletop genre.

Rather than involving drawn out and long turns, it was fast, brutal, gritty and overall perfectly suited to the spirit of Cyberpunk.

A big part of Cyberpunk combat involves upgrading your body with new abilities and robotics which would be perfectly in line with a video game character development system like those created by CD Projekt Red.

In Pondsmith's game bodily enhancement has to be carefully considered it's a balancing act where every benefit has a drawback. When a player makes robotic additions to themselves they reduce their humanity and empathy leading to an uncontrollable state of cyberpsychosis. This has the potential to be a really interesting system if it's adapted for the game and could be used in a similar manner to excessive consumption of combat-enhancing potions in The Witcher.

Keep checking back here for all the latest Cyberpunk 2077 news

See more here:

Cyberpunk 2077 release date, trailer and news Reader

Here's something I've been working with...but doing it alone without feedback make me feel unsure of direction I'm taking... I am nearly finished with the character, so I feel like this is the right time for asking. I can make last changes necessary before I finalize it I would appreciate you guys' feedback and critiques....So I beg of you...

SHOW ME DE WAY MY BRUDDAS!!!!!!!!

Bios: The Demoness' name is Rosemary Clarke-(Known as Code name Dea to the Government), and was abandoned in human world since she was merely 4 years young. Later captured by the government, and experimented/ grown by the hands of scientists. The government saw huge potential of her magical abilities and started field testing her in actual war. Seeing the actual war, and death of people by her power, she refuses to kill anymore and goes against the military order.After that event, the government and the military decides to put a leash on her to control her, and performed specific procedures to suppress her emotions. However, she manages to escape. With free of her emotions wildly thrashing inside, she cries for hours hiding inside a city sewer. She is now lost, with no mission, no directives, she aimlessly ventures through the city's shadow, hiding from the watchful eyes of the government.As she wanders, she discovers a strange building that seemed out of the place. Made of wood instead of metal, and completely separated from the grid. She decides to take residence there.She soon learns that this is an old church, and meets an old pastor who takes her to his care.With him, she gets to meet and know with many people, some even of her age. She tries to look tough, and unbreakable, but learns how is it like to have a family and friends.But alas, she soon learns that she cannot run away from blood on her hands, as she now has to kill to protect.Name: Rosemary ClarkeAge: 9Height: 130cm Weight: 22kgCharacteristic: Brave, extremely intelligent, and often cold. However every emotional inside, and cares for another deeply.Goal: Help orphans like her, Find her FamilyLike: Animals, Key Chain Dolls, Specifically Strawberry Pop Tarts, Family/ watching other family reunion after a service. Children of her age, Pastor ClarkeHate: Insulting/ reminding her of her orphanage, killingSkills- Magic: Material Manipulation, Atomic Manipulation, Nigh-Omnipotence, Space Manipulation, Energy Manipulation. (but her powers are controlled by the government through a collar on her neck)- Tech: Hacking, Full understanding of contemporary physics/biology/chemistry, Cloaking- Combat: Expert Sniper, Commando, Squad Leader, Expert close combatant, Expert hand to hand combat, flight, extreme weight threshold, extreme stamina, extreme speedEquipment:

Link:

Cyberpunk Demon Girl - blenderartists.org

In-Furi-atingly god.

If there is something that you can say about indie games, is that they take risks. Whilst AAA games tend to follow popular market tendencies, indies aim to niches. Instead of creating a more casual, easy-to-go experience, which can be equally enjoyed by any type of gamer, they often opt for hardcore, soul-crushing gameplay. Fitting perfectly with this description, Furi may not be a game for everyone. It delivers solid non-stop action with an intriguing narrative but only for those who manage to endure its almost unfair difficulty.

Taking place in a cyberpunk phantasy world, portrayed with a pleasant and distinct 3D art style, you control a samurai-like figure that others call Stranger. The narrative starts in a very cryptic way when a man with a rabbit mask releases you from imprisonment and tells you to kill your jailers and claim your freedom. This is all you need to know to engage in combat against many bosses in a mixture of a high-octane hack n slash combat and hard-to-evade bullet-hell barrages.

Like that, Furi takes form as a kind of boss rush intercalated with narrative bits. Fighting moments are presented from a third-person perspective, with unique battles, as bosses dont only have different visuals, but each one of them demands a specific way to deal with its many attack patterns. You can press Y to attack with your sword and the right stick to shoot with your pistol, and every boss is segmented in moments in which theyll have different stances sometimes demanding for close or ranged combat.

On the main difficulty option, bosses have from four to six life-bars, and theyll get progressively more complex and challenging as the fight goes on. Fortunately, youre equally capable of dealing with them, as you have not only a short distance blink (that can be activated by pressing B), but also the option to parry physical attacks with A. Learning the right moment to use these tools from your arsenal is crucial to every single fight, as enemies wont hesitate to crush you at a blink moment. Due to this, Furi has a kind of trial-and-error philosophy, which can lead to some real frustration, especially on more demanding battles, where the difficulty has some annoying spikes.

Between each boss fight, youll experience a narrative portion that, oddly, goes by like a walking simulator. Theres even an option to enable auto-walking, but, even though these sections dont sound like the most compelling thing to play, they work to build tension for the next fight. Youll learn about the lore of your next enemy, how tough he/she may be, and even about the world itself. What helps to make these moments memorable is how Furis astonishingly good soundtrack enhances its atmosphere, raising the tension. Mostly composed of electronic music, theres always a calm but ominous synthesizer that gets more and more full-bodied until it drops the bass, and the fight begins.

Be it due to its pulsating atmosphere, or its unbalanced difficulty, Furi is a game that constantly puts you on edge. It is a beast of its kind, that delivers an experience different from anything else. It was a blast to try again, to get better, and to finally beat what seemed to be an unconquerable challenge. I must admit, though, that it isnt a game for everybody. If you get frustrated easily, there may be better options for you.

Summary

At some times, Furi seems to cross the line of what you consider a fun and fair challenge. Even so, it creates a restless atmosphere with its intriguing narrative, electrified soundtrack and mixture of hack n slash and bullet hell boss-rush gameplay.

Go here to see the original:

Furi Review | Switch Player

Manoush is an actress and singer of French Manouche-Sinti heritage on her mother's side. Her father is German-American

Manoush was born Manoush Nicole Barandaj in May 1971[1] in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer as the third child of a mother of french Manouche Sinti and Albanian Ashkali gypsy origin and a German-American father. She was raised in Haarlem, Noord-Holland, Cologne, Germany and Biel, Switzerland. At the age of 18, Manoush began modelling, but her career stopped short at age 20 after a car accident left scars on her stomach and legs.[1] She immigrated to the United States a couple of years ago[when?].

She pursued film in 1997. In 2000, was offered the role of the nymphomaniac" in Jean-Pierre Jeunets Amlie, which opened many doors in the film and TV industry for Manoush, as well as establishing her as the bad girl in the roles she played.[1] Manoush often gets credit as an action and horror actress or as a professional for roles which can be intense and difficult to play.[2] In 2004 she played fighter Carda in Angel of Death 2, closely followed by films such as Timo Roses The Legend of Moonlight Mountain (2005), Marian Doras Cannibal (2006), Timo Roses Barricade (2007), and Andrey Iskanovs Philosophy of a Knife (2008).[1] She won Best Supporting Actress in 2011 at the PollyGrind Film Festival in Las Vegas for her role as Olga in The Super.

She started out as a cyberpunk singer. Besides her acting and writing career, she worked as a singer of the band Cyanide Savior alongside her husband, Chris Vazquez.

In 2016 and 2017 she recorded 2 tracks with 80ies UK band Bronski Beat and US producer Man Parrish

She married her long-time boyfriend Chris Vasquez in 2006, both live in New York, US.

4. ^http://www.carpazine.com/manoush.html Carpazine interview

5. ^http://severed-cinema.com/marian-dora/beauty-is-the-beast-an-interview-with-manoush

6. ^http://punkglobe.com/manoushinterview1112.php

7. ^http://blogcritics.org/interview-with-actress-and-horror-icon/

9. ^http://www.sinti-roma.at/manoush/

10. ^http://sofahelden.com/index/artikel/Slog-110-Manoush-und-ihre-Rollen/7518

11. ^http://www.filmbizarro.com/manoush.php

Follow this link:

Manoush - Wikipedia

Its now been over three decades since cyberpunk first exploded, and in that time weve seen gorgeous movies, read fascinating books, and seen dozens of offshoots like steampunk (and my new favorite, deco punk) develop. Here are the 21 cyberpunk books you absolutely must read.

This 1956 novel, originally serialized in four parts in Galaxy magazine, predates the cyberpunk movement by more than twenty years, but nonetheless serves as one of its more important ancestors. With its bleak future, cybernetic body modification and evil megacorporations, The Stars My Destination set up a number of themes that became central to later cyberpunk works.

The source material for Blade Runner, which has been inspiring cyberpunk movies and visuals for more than three decades, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep is set in a near future (a near future thats changed, actually, since the books publication: originally 1992, later editions set it in 2021) where bounty hunter Rick Deckard hunts fugitive androids. Although its less cyberpunk than Blade Runner, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? is still an important forerunner.

In this Hugo-award winning 1973 novella, corporations are king and computers allow people to control artificially grown bodies. When deformed seventeen-year-old Philadelphia Burke is chosen to be a Remote, shes given control of a perfect, beautiful fifteen-year-old body named Delphi, and, as Delphi, immediately becomes a celebrity. The Girl Who Was Plugged In is essential reading, both for people interested in cyberpunk and for those interested in discussions about gender and the female body (relevant: James Tiptree, Jr. is the pen name of Alice Sheldon).

The first book in the Ware Tetralogy, this 1982 novel is part of the first wave of the actual cyberpunk movement. Cobb Anderson is a poor, aging, ex-computer scientist who, many years ago, tried to give robots free will. Now theyve offered to give him immortality, but, of course, how robots view immortality is a little different than what we may be used to.

This hugely influential manga is set in post-apocalyptic Neo-Tokyo, where gangs fight for power, terrorists attack the government, and some people possess psychic abilities. Akira was also adapted into a cyberpunky and much beloved animated film version, and a live action version has been percolating in Hollywood for over a decade (the latest news is that Marco J. Ramirez, who will be the co-showrunner of Daredevil season 2, is writing the script.)

Henry Dorsett Case used to be a hacker, before his employer caught him stealing and he was dosed with a drug that made him incapable of accessing the global computer network. Now a mysterious person needs his hacking skills, and promises him a cure in return. The book that defined the sub-genre, this 1984 novel is likely the most essential of the books on this list (it was also the first winner of the science fiction triple crown, taking the Nebula, the Hugo, and the Philip K. Dick Award).

Gibson is, of course, responsible for any number of influential cyberpunk novels, including the rest of the Sprawl Trilogy (of which Neuromancer is the first), the Bridge Trilogy, and the short story collection Burning Chrome.

Also written in 1984, this debut novel from Lewis Shiner is set in a world controlled by corporations, one of which decides to send an expedition to a lost Martian colony to discover and gain ownership of a crucial secret. Corporate control, body augmentation, and other cyberpunk themes blend with golden age elements.

John Shirley is another writer usually grouped with foundational cyberpunk authors like Gibson, Bruce Sterling, Rucker, and Shiner. Eclipse, the first book in the A Song Called Youth trilogy, is set in a dystopian near future, but with an extra-punky twist. After the Third World War, a multinational police force has taken control, leaving only rock classicist Rick Rickenharp and the rebel group New Resistance to fight back.

Following a sprinter who runs computer chips to the black market and becomes the focus of a new religion, The Glass Hammer is perhaps slightly less famous than many of its cyberpunk comrades. Nonetheless, its an early and important work from Jeter, who also includes writing three Blade Runner sequels and coining the phrase Steampunkamong his accomplishments.

Written in 1985, Schismatrix is set amidst a struggle between the Mechanists, a group who believe in cybernetic body modification, and the Shapers, who believe that modifications should be accomplished through genetics and mental training. A classic and important early work from a foundational author.

Another defining work, Mirrorshades (1986) is a collection of short stories from early and influential cyberpunk authors, including Gibson, Pat Cadigan, Rucker, Greg Bear, Shiner, Shirley, and several more.

Recently reissued in a deluxe new edition, this dystopian novel by the author of the Sandman Slim series takes place in late 21st-century Los Angeles, where the rich live in unimaginable luxury and everybody else lives in a wasteland of misery. And a small-time drug dealer discovers a strange new plague, and gets drawn into the secret warfare between huge economic blocs.

First published in 1989, The Ghost in the Shell has spawned a ton of iconic cyberpunk artwork, several films (including a live action version scheduled for release in 2017), television shows and even video games. Set in a near future world where people have cyberbrains that allow them to interface directly with networks, the manga follows Public Security Section 9, a counter-cyberterrorism organization made up of members specializing in cyber warfare.

This book won the Arthur C. Clarke Award and was shortlisted for the Nebula. Cadigan creates a lively, bizarre vision of a world of pervasive brain implantswhere the line between the virtual and the real is thinner than everand populates it with hackers, music-video makers, and rebels. What happens when brain sockets have unexpected consequences?

This delightful and hugely influential 1992 novel manages to combine Sumerian mythology with cyberpunk elements to create something new and incredibly fun. Set in the near future, Hiro Protagonist is a pizza delivery guy (in a world where pizza delivery is under Mafia control), but hes also a hacker and the self-proclaimed greatest swordfighter in the world. When he comes upon a drug, Snow Crash, which is experienced both in the virtual-reality Metaverse and the real world, he decides to investigate and embarks on a truly wild journey.

Trouble is semi-retired from being a hacker, in a dystopian future where the frontier of cyberspace is being civilized by the forces of law and orderuntil someone starts impersonating Trouble online, and she has to take matters into her own hands. This is basically a Wild West thriller, set in cyberspace.

Written in 1997, Diaspora is set in 2975, by which time humanity has diverged into three different groups: the fleshers, who are biological, the gleisner robots, who are software-based individuals located in artificial bodies, and the citizens, software without bodies who comprise most of the population. The book follows Yatima, a newborn citizen who meets a flesher colony and, when disaster strikes, must try to rescue the species.

This awesome cyberpunk comic book series (1997-2002) is set sometime in the 23rd century and follows the infamous gonzo journalist Spider Jerusalem as he fights corruption, exposes politicians and generally gets into trouble in the filthy, hedonistic City. A must read in cyberpunk and transhumanism.

The first in the series of Takeshi Kovacs novels, in which cyberpunks noir tendencies are taken to their most brutal extreme. In the 25th century, the rich never have to diethey just upload their brains to cyberspace and then download them into a new body. But when someone hires Kovacs to solve a murder, except that he winds up uncovering a huge conspiracy.

Most cyberpunk novels feature a nightmarish world of corporate control and extreme wealth disparitiesbut Doctorows groundbreaking book was part of a move to link cyberpunk tropes to a post-scarcity world. So in Doctorows future, theres no more wealth or poverty, and the only scarce resource is social capital, or whuffie. Which doesnt mean you cant still be broke.

This 2005 novel of connected short stories follows three generations of one family as they approach and then pass the technological singularity. Widely praised upon its release, Accelerando won the 2006 Locus (along with the 2010 Estonian SF Award for Best Translated Novel, which I think we can all agree is awesome).

This io9 flashback originally appeared in June 2015.

Read more here:

The Essential Cyberpunk Reading List - io9.gizmodo.com

At first glance it may seem that theres nothing easier than creating a video game based on an existing RPG system like Cyberpunk 2020. After all, we already have all the mechanics prepared and ready to use in the game. As simple as it sounds, theres more to it than meets the eye.

The pen & paper game rules are designed to give players as much flexibility as possible. They are more like a set of guidelines which players are at liberty to bend to their liking. Improvisation, dropping rules or adding new ones is a common practice for pen & paper games. This principle applies not only to gameplay rules, like combat or skill tests, but also to character customization. Players are limited only by common sense, the agreement of the group and their imagination.

Video games, on the other hand, do not have that much flexibility. Every element has to be accounted for and carefully designed. Of course, modern AAA RPG games, like The Witcher 2 or the upcoming Cyberpunk 2077, can give the Player lots of freedom. But the underlying mechanics are adhering to very strict rules and if an action or option wasnt implemented in the code, then the player will not be able to do it. The same principle applies to character customization the player can do only as much as game allows him to. So if game designers decide that it is not possible to play as an ugly midget you will not be able to play one. Sorry Tyrion Lannister fans

This is why adapting pen & paper rules to video game is not as easy as it can appear at first glance. The flexibility of an in-person RPG has to be replaced with a strict set of rules. Every skill, attribute and game mechanic has to have a clear definition and place in the game. For example, the Cyberpunk 2020 Wardrobe & Style skill governs the knowledge about the right clothes to wear, when to wear them and how to look cool even in a spacesuit. As you can see, this skill covers quite a big area of lore and can be interpreted differently, depending on the situation and the players. In Cyberpunk 2077 this skill has to be tied to a specific gameplay mechanic. And all of these mechanics have to be clearly defined so they can work well with other elements of the game and, at the same time, be easy to understand for the player. After all, we dont have a referee or game master to explain or interpret the rules as you go. And, to accommodate your curiosity, yes, we have some really cool ideas on how to present aforementioned skill in the game. Regrettably, were not quite yet ready to spill the beans

For hardcore Cyberpunk 2020 fans out there, twiddling with rules in such a way may seem like blasphemy. But rest assured that we are working very closely with Mike Pondsmith to ensure that the unique feel of the original, paper game is preserved intact. Of course we may need to change some things, add new elements or even drop the ones that simply do not work in a video game (Geology skill anyone?).

Of course, the topic raised today is only the tip of an iceberg and you probably have tons of questions. Unfortunately, we are not ready to reveal more details at the moment. Nevertheless, well be more than happy to read your comments so feel free to drop them below and stay tuned. When were ready, we will surely share more information with you. Be patient and remember: Attitude is Everything!

Read more from the original source:

Implementing Pen & Paper mechanisms into a computer game ...

CD Projekt RED studio released a brand new CG teaser trailer for their upcoming game Cyberpunk 2077.

The trailer shows a woman, who went rampage due to the amount of cybermodifications in her body and the Night City police try to intervene with the help of the elite Psychosquad.

Song from the Trailer by Archive -- "Bullets"

Developer: CD Projekt REDRelease: When it's ReadyGenre: ActionPlatform: PCPublisher: CD Projekt REDWebsite: http://cyberpunk.net/

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Cyberpunk 2077 Teaser Trailer [HD] - YouTube

Details on Cyberpunk 2077 have so far been few and far between, following a cryptic tweet from the developers earlier this month.

Apart from hearing whispers that CD Projekt Red may bring a playable version of its sci-fi RPG to E3 2018, not much is known.

However, some interesting information has surfaced that gives us an idea on the direction of Cyberpunk 2077s soundtrack. According to IMDB listing, Brian Mantia, who has worked as a drummer with the likes of Guns NRoses and Primus is working on the game.

However, hes also spoken about the game publically. In the following article, which appeared on Audified, Brian speaks about his role on Cyberpunk 2077, stating:

Im also working on the soundtrack for theCyberpunk 2077video game. This project in particular has been a little challenging because the developers are looking for music that has never been heard before if that makes any sense They are looking for music that would be made in the year 2077 Im into it because I really love white noise and I figure thats where music is gonna be in 60 years from now (lol) Basically every frequency within the range of human hearing (20 hertz to 20 kHz) Anyways, im really diggin the experimentation on this project!!!

So, it sounds like like the developer will be experimenting with some funky, futuristic sounds!

Its also confirmed that Melissa Reese is also working on the game (as listed in her IMDB portfolio). Shes worked on many video game soundtracks in the past, including Bloodborne (where he was a singer) and InFamous: Second Son.

Stay tuned for more news on Cyberpunk 2077 as it comes in.

Read more:

Cyberpunk 2077 Features Music That Has Never Been Heard ...

GIF

The image above is that of a woman trapped at the moment before her violent death, endlessly repeating the combination to a secret door shell never reach. Its just one small sliver of the sci-fi mind-fuckery that awaits in the Rutger Hauer-voiced cyberpunk horror game Observer.

Developed by Bloober Team, the studio behind Layers of Fear, Observer is a psychological cyber-horror game set in a dark, dystopian vision of 2084 Poland. Between war and the nanophage, a deadly virus that targets the cybernetically-enhanced, humanity is pretty much broken. The survivors have submitted to the rule of a shadowy corporation that controls where and how they live.

Veteran Dutch actor Rutger Hauer plays Daniel Lazarski, a corporate-funded cybernetic Observer, a neural detective with the ability to interface with the minds of others and explore their oft-fractured psyches.

Lazarskis own mind isnt perfect. He suffers from a condition that requires he take frequent doses of a special medicine or risk desynchronization. The more stressed he becomes the lower his medication levels drop, causing glitches in his perception. He may be an elite cop, but he has the same vulnerable, electronically-accessible mind as most of the remaining humans in 2084. He cant even trust himself.

The game opens with Lazarski receiving a call from the son he hasnt seen in years. Adam Lazarski gives his father a warning: You are not in control. Then the call drops. Tracing the call to a run-down apartment building out in the sticks, Lazarski rushes off to find his son. When he arrives he finds a decapitated body that may or may not be Adam. As he investigates the crime scene a nanophage alert sends the entire building into lockdown. Lazarski is trapped inside with a murderer, but also something much worsehumanitys leftovers.

With most of the buildings tenants sealed inside their homes for their own protection, much of Lazarskis interactions with the living involve conversations with small static viewscreens. Hauers voice warbles like hes got a mouthful of moist pebbles, his inflection occasionally shifting erratically, as if glitched. The people he talks with range from the oddly friendly and upbeat to violent and angry. All of them are lost and broken.

While not learning horrible things about horrible people, Lazarski uses his special cybernetic enhancements to try to solve the murder and find his son. A sort of electronic vision allows him to see and interact with wires, bits of technology and electrical components, even those buried deep inside human bodies. His biological vision allows him to scan for DNA and analyze blood.

His greatest tool, however, is the ability to jack into the brains of other people and explore their thoughts, hopes and fears. Mostly fears. In the extended clip below, Lazarski enters the mind of a dying murder victim in order to glean information about his attacker. Its one seriously fucked-up trip.

Developer Bloober Team has earned a reputation for creating creepy horror games. Theyve mastered the use of off-putting sound and visual cues to layer on the fear. The difference in Observer is theyve got multiple realities to play with. Theres the real world, which isnt always real to begin with, and then theres the mindscape, where anything can happen. These digital mental constructs are packed with horrifying imagery, inventive puzzles and the odd deadly creature relentlessly hunting for interlopers. Nowhere is safe. As Adam warns at the beginning of the game, Lazarski is not in control.

Im about five or six hours into Observer, having had to stop playing early this morning because I needed sleep and certainly not because I was frightened. Between the main investigation and the side missions Ive discovered exploring the futures most horrible tenement, Ive got many more hours to go. Im looking forward to it.

Observer is now available on Playstation 4, PC and Xbox One.

Visit link:

Observer Explores the Scary Side Of Cyberpunk - Kotaku - Kotaku

Windows Central

Observer for Xbox One review: Cyberpunk meets horror in a twisted ... Windows Central Observer shows the potential of intense psychological horror when technology meets the minds of the insane. and more »

Follow this link:

Observer for Xbox One review: Cyberpunk meets horror in a twisted ... - Windows Central

The image above is that of a woman trapped at the moment before her violent death, endlessly repeating the combination to a secret door she'll never reach. It's just one small sliver of the sci-fi mind-fuckery that awaits in the Rutger Hauer-voiced cyberpunk horror game Observer.

Developed by Bloober Team, the studio behind Layers of Fear, Observer is a psychological cyber-horror game set in a dark, dystopian vision of 2084 Poland. Between war and the nanophage, a deadly virus that targets the cybernetically-enhanced, humanity is pretty much broken. The survivors have submitted to the rule of a shadowy corporation that controls where and how they live.

Veteran Dutch actor Rutger Hauer plays Daniel Lazarski, a corporate-funded cybernetic Observer, a neural detective with the ability to interface with the minds of others and explore their oft-fractured psyches.

Lazarski's own mind isn't perfect. He suffers from a condition that requires he take frequent doses of a special medicine or risk "desynchronisation". The more stressed he becomes the lower his medication levels drop, causing glitches in his perception. He may be an elite cop, but he has the same vulnerable, electronically-accessible mind as most of the remaining humans in 2084. He can't even trust himself.

The game opens with Lazarski receiving a call from the son he hasn't seen in years. Adam Lazarski gives his father a warning: "You are not in control." Then the call drops. Tracing the call to a run-down apartment building out in the sticks, Lazarski rushes off to find his son. When he arrives he finds a decapitated body that may or may not be Adam. As he investigates the crime scene a nanophage alert sends the entire building into lockdown. Lazarski is trapped inside with a murderer, but also something much worse humanity's leftovers.

With most of the building's tenants sealed inside their homes for their "own protection", much of Lazarski's interactions with the living involve conversations with small static viewscreens. Hauer's voice warbles like he has a mouthful of moist pebbles, his inflection occasionally shifting erratically, as if glitched. The people he talks with range from the oddly friendly and upbeat to violent and angry. All of them are lost and broken.

While not learning horrible things about horrible people, Lazarski uses his special cybernetic enhancements to try to solve the murder and find his son. A sort of electronic vision allows him to see and interact with wires, bits of technology, and electrical components, even those buried deep inside human bodies. His biological vision allows him to scan for DNA and analyse blood.

His greatest tool, however, is the ability to jack into the brains of other people and explore their thoughts, hopes and fears. Mostly fears. In the extended clip below, Lazarski enters the mind of a dying murder victim in order to glean information about his attacker. It's one seriously fucked-up trip.

Developer Bloober Team has earned a reputation for creating creepy horror games. They have mastered the use of off-putting sound and visual cues to layer on the fear. The difference in Observer is they have multiple realities to play with. There's the real world, which isn't always real to begin with, and then there's the mindscape, where anything can happen. These digital mental constructs are packed with horrifying imagery, inventive puzzles, and the odd deadly creature relentlessly hunting for interlopers. Nowhere is safe. As Adam warns at the beginning of the game, Lazarski is not in control.

I'm about five or six hours into Observer, having had to stop playing early this morning because I needed sleep and certainly not because I was frightened. Between the main investigation and the side missions I've discovered exploring the future's most horrible tenement, I have many more hours to go. I'm looking forward to it.

Observer is now available on PC.

Please log in or register to gain access to this feature.

I had this conversation on my Facebook recently and it went absolutely ballistic, so I thought I'd bring it to Kotaku. Best Back-To-Back movies by a single Director. What are your favourites? Top of my list. Ridley Scott with Alien and Blade Runner. Imagine making those two movies back-to-back. Insane.

It's understandable that most people don't finish the story campaign in games that trade more heavily on their multiplayer, like Call of Duty or Battlefield. But you'd expect singleplayer-only games to be different, right?

Read more:

Observer Explores The Scary Side Of Cyberpunk - Kotaku Australia

"At first [Ruiner] started off as a sort of cyberpunk Die Hard adventure, where you hacked your way up a building. Even at this point working on early ideas, we thought, 'Wow, this is like a party'", added Tomkowicz. "We then thought of taking the gameplay direction similar to Hotline and we were still looking for a graphics designer. We found Benedict Szneider and showed him some early graphical references. He simply told us: No. Let's do this in a different way," she added. That's how the Ruiner you see here started.

Tomkowicz jokes that for a lot of cyberpunk fans disagree that this can even be the right term. ("Not enough neon blue and pink!") This isn't cyberpunk, then, but it's certainly inspired by it. As you tear your way through corridors and rooms, the environments wouldn't look out of place in Ghost In The Shell or other near-future anime properties. There's some Matrix-esque touches here and there too, but also a lot of run-down dirtiness. Think Syndicate Wars, think the original Alien movie.

The team says it look a lot of inspiration from Japanese animation -- and that layer of misery and grit you'll see smeared across the screen was another part of that. "The game should feel like you're standing on the edge of a bridge, in the middle of the night," explains Tomkowicz, half smiling.

First impressions might suggest a whole lot of mindless slashing and shooting, screen after screen, but there's an elegance to the combat that's hinted at even during the introductory stages: You can pre-assign your "dash" locations to avoid fire, take out a few enemies and reach cover all in one tidy movement.

Not that I could manage that. Coupled with other augments (shields and furthers methods of destruction) and using both analog sticks to steer and shoot, there's a steep learning curve that kept getting me killed.

Yes, the game isn't easy, but I wouldn't call it unforgiving, either. If your anonymous dot matrix-headed protagonist falls, he's swiftly resurrected to a few screens earlier, and you're back in the thick of it. The addictiveness has its drawbacks though -- it's an exhausting game, and I needed a breather after my short demo at Gamescom. As for the team at Reikon, they're still readying the game for PC and console launch September 26th -- then there's DLC incoming and then? "We need to rest," says Tomkowicz.

Follow all the latest news live from Gamescom here!

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'Ruiner' is not just a cyberpunk 'Hotline Miami' - Engadget - Engadget

Amir is dying in front of me. There's blood all over his apartment and he's barely aware of his surroundings. I ask him who did this and he tries to answer, but only bloody wheezes get past his lips. It's alright though, I've got other ways to get the information I need.

I pull a cable from the dream eater on my right hand, cradle Amir's head, find the port on the back of his neck, and jack into his mind. Our consciousnesses merge and I'm wandering the fragmented, broken nightmares of a dying man. I need to see the moment he was attacked, but to get there, I'll have to navigate his nightmares. The longer I stay, the more my own memories bleed into his. If I'm in his head too long, I'll lose all sense of where Amir ends and I begin.

This scene takes place in the early hours of Observer, a new cyberpunk horror game from Polish developer Bloober Team SAthe indie developers behind Layers of Fear. Observer puts you in the shoes of Dan Lazarski, a corporate detective who specializes in neural interrogation.

He's a leecha person with the tech and the temerity to jack directly into unwilling people's minds and steal information. People in the world of Observer fear leeches because they tend to go crazy after rummaging around in the brains of society's criminals. As players move through the game, they watch Lazarski 's sanity unfurl as he slams corporation-approved mood stabilizers to manage his fragile mental state and keep reality in perspective.

It's not a "walking simulator" and it's not an adventure game. There are jump scares, psychological horror, puzzles, detective work, and dialogue treesbut no combat to speak of, and few consequences beyond Lazarski's slow descent into madness. Players explore their surroundings to move the story forward. The first case puts the detective in a tenement building rooting through the apartment of a dead hacker with a missing head. You scan the body for trauma, look for hidden panels, and open drawers searching for clues.

It's a good game elevated by its amazing sense of place and Rutger Hauer. Cypberpunk icon Hauer is the man who played Roy Batty in Blade Runner and delivered everyone's favorite monologue about tears and rain. In Observer, his likeness and voice lend weight to Lazarski. His noir-style monologues, gritty voice, and subdued performance made me imagine what Blade Runner would have been like with Hauer as Deckard instead of Harrison Ford.

Hauer is great but the main draw to Observer is its story and setting. The game takes place in Krakow, Poland in 2084. After a terrible digital plague called the nanophage wiped out most of the population, East fought West in a massive war that killed most people on Earth. One of the few places left relatively untouched was Poland, where a new "republic" organized around a megacorp and quickly took power.

Lazarski exists in this world as a leechfeeding off the dreams of the destitutebut the sudden reappearance of his missing son humanizes him.

Observer's Krakow is as hellish as you'd imagine a city run by corporation to be. Trash litters the streets, dayglow advertisements assault you at every turn, and tech-junkies addicted to strange drugs quiver in dark alleys. Boomer Team SA nailed the high-tech, low-life atmosphere.

The way Observer tells that story is excellent. As Lazarski works cases, he's also chasing after that missing son. But it's also possible that the detective's son is dead and the leech is just beginning to lose himself. Every stroll through the memories of a suspect teases out bits of his past until his official cases and his personal story blend together and Lazarski and the player are both so disoriented they have trouble telling what's real and what's not.

A stranger's dream is a great place to set a horror game. Dreams are personal and strange and often only make sense to the dreamer. Entering, and even watching, the dreams of another person is an old fiction trope, one science is getting closer to making a reality.

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New Cyberpunk Game Asks Players to Invade People's Nightmares - Motherboard

Observer on PlayStation 4

Right from the off, Observer is textbook cyberpunk. Grim and brooding with atmosphere, its world feels like a digital recreation of a William Gibson novel. Observer uses this unsettling ambiance to tee up a gripping horror narrative, but it also simultaneously weaves in themes of paranoia and espionage classic to the genre. It had me utterly captivated over the course of six hours, soaking up the tension of its eerie environment and locked into unraveling the mystery of its story. So captivated that even persistent technical issues such as frame rate drops and glitches almost werent enough to break my immersion. Unfortunately, though, slowly but surely the sum of these issues began to weigh heavy, culminating in a game-breaking glitch that stopped me dead in my tracks and disappointingly ruined the experience.

Observer is a first-person adventure game. I hesitate to use that popular and reductive term walking sim, but that is essentially what it is. As an Observer an augmented KGB police detective youll wander around a retro-cyberpunk vision of future Poland piecing together an ever thickening plot. Traversing a beaten up apartment complex, gameplay revolves around scanning crime scenes, interrogating residents, reading journals and emails, solving basic puzzles, and going inside the minds of victims to slowly reconstruct the order of events that lead to their death.

Observer is a story-heavy experience that relies on the curiosity of its world to compel players to explore, take their time, and absorb the macabre aura of its environment. It does this very well. You really cant understate the attention to detail packed into the nuances of its aesthetic. Observer is clearly inspiredby eighties science fiction, with flickering CRT monitors, analog computer controls, and film noir detective vibes. There are no clean lines and no bright colors in its palette; void of glamor, its dark and intimidating.

The plot is equally fascinating. Having received a somewhat cryptic phone call from his son, Adam, Daniel Lazarski is shocked to find a headless body in his sons apartment. Is it him, and if not, where is he? The scale of this thriller quickly expands as more lifeless bodies appear in the confines of this crumbling building, and it becomes apparent that Adam is involved in something sinister. Placed on lockdown, residents are unable to leave their rooms, and communication with them is through intercom only. Voice acting is decent for the most part, and conversation not only provides a breadcrumb trail to follow but also fleshes out Observers lore. The everyday struggle is well conveyed by these working class personalities.

Augmentation of the human body is a central theme in the game, playing on the quintessential cyberpunk trope of high tech, low life. A conflict between those who approve of implants versus those who are vehemently opposed to them is alluded to throughout. At the center of this conflict is the Necrophage a cyber plague that affects the augmented. The manufacturer of these robotic implants, Chiron, is the oppressive corporation responsible for blighting society with their benefits. As the story unravels, the Necrophage, Chiron, and Lazarskis sonbecome interwoven in a gripping tale that constantly kept me guessing.

For the most part, the gameplay that translates this story is engaging enough. Scanning crime scenes remind me of Telltales Batman series, linking evidence together using two different view modes organic sensitive, and technology sensitive retinal displays. Youll occasionally have to enter codes into keypads that require you to unearth information hidden in various rooms, but their location is never so obtuse as to frustrate with constant back tracking or head scratching. Overall, the game does a good job of shepherding you between objectives without ever feeling as though its holding your hand.

Developer Bloober Teams previous work includes the psychological horror Layers of Fear, and its lineage is certainly evident in Observer. Jacking into the digital memories of victims via implant is what gives the observer his name, and its during these sequences that some clever but familiar cinematic techniques are implemented. The world becomes confused and surreal, with eerie voices and hallucinations combining for some mind-bending and frightening moments. Later in the game, the technique cleverly expands the scope of the story beyond the zoomed in locale of the apartment to wider themes of corporate surveillance.

Alas, it is during these sequences that Observers technical frailties are exposed. Throughout the game, frame rate dips and stuttering had been notable, though only causing minor irritation and never impacting the ebb and flow of proceedings too greatly. Towards the end of the game, however, Observer finally became well and truly unstuck. Trapped in a room with no way out, only after fifteen minutes did I realize that the this was a room I was never supposed to be flashed into for more than a few seconds. Attempting to reload, though, my progress was blocked. Each time that I spawned from save, I found myself helplessly falling through the map into a black abyss. With no ability to manually save and no chapter select, I had encountered a game-breaking bug that forced me to restart the game.

It was an immensely disappointing turn of events. Nothing spoils the immersion of a narrative-driven ambient adventure game quite like a glitch that completely halts progress. Moreover, up until that point, even frame rate stutters wouldnt have convinced me to dock too many points from Observers final score, so compelling was its story and world building. These issues can and may be fixed via a patch, but at the time of this reviews publishing, its difficult for us to recommend a game with so many technical problems.

Despite the sour taste in the mouth left by upsetting technical shortcomings, Observer is a game that does deserve praise. Its grim, dystopian world is a truly brilliant imagination of cyberpunk, and it works superbly as a thematic setting for a horror game. The story itself invokes curiosity that tempts you to keep playing, compelling you to explore not just for clues about its immediate plot, but also the wider backstory and lore of its world. In that respect, Observer does everything that a good adventure game should do.

While gameplay might not break any new ground, puzzles and crime scenes provide enough interaction to keep you engaged beyond just watching the story unfold. The way in which the Observer uses implants as a means to explore memories is inventive, giving the narrative a grander sense of scale without technically leaving the building. The use of cinematic effects, too, cleverly shifts the games genre between thriller and psychological horror. In its best moments, these sequences play out like a blend of the Matrix and P.T. Yet in its worst instances, the game crashes and breaks, which is something that should never happen in any video game.

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Observer Review - Twinfinite - Twinfinite

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What happens when you take Hotline Miami, Transistor, a splash of cyberpunk, and push it through the working hands of an indie developer? Thats right - you get Ruiner. Its a top-down shooter where youll smash through gangs and The Man to the soft encouragement of a woman whispering in your ear. Youll also be getting it pretty soon: September 26.

For more indie goodness, here's the best indie games to play right now.

To mark the release date announcement, theres a new trailer which you can watch above. It shows off a bunch of the weapons, plus some of the combat - which is where the Hotline Miami and Transistor influences come into play.

Its then coated with a cyberpunk finish, plus some bassy EDM throughout. Despite the fact that weve not seen a huge amount of the gameplay, Im pretty into it - visually, at least, it looks phenomenal.

Theres also a comic on the website in case thats also your jam, plus loads of images and GIFs to feast your eyes on. I dont think theres been a better game to ogle as you wait until its release.

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Ruiner looks like a cyberpunk Hotline Miami, coming out next month - PCGamesN

Remember Me is an interesting, memory hopping cyperpunk adventure crafted by Dontnod, who youll probably know better for Life is Strange. The truly startling thing is that Remember Me is Dontnods debut title, and its definitely one to remember. The game sees you playing as Nilin, a memory hunter working for an underground resistance called the Errorists. Like many cyberpunk works, a megacorporation called Memorize has taken an unhealthy control over the world, and laid claim to peoples memories in a way as well.

Remember Me uses many typical cyberpunk themes, but its more a game about emotion and relationships, and how budding technology like social media can impact those. Across the adventure, Nilin has to recover her own lost memories, and even has the ability to reconstruct and view others. Remember Me does have a few problems, particularly in the gameplay and pacing departments. However, theres an incredibly ambitious story to see here, with a strong female lead that grows and changes throughout the experience. In terms of world building, characterization, soundtrack, and presentation, Remember Me stands tall with the best cyberpunk games, even if the gameplay doesnt match up.

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Top 10 Best Cyberpunk Games of All Time - Twinfinite