Category Archives: Cyberpunk

Polish studio Bloober Team are working on a promising new game titled simply Observer. The game starsRutger Hauer, whose name will be instantly familiar to any fans of the original Blade Runner. We actually wrote about the game last year, however the new reveal today is Hauer leading the experience.

While Hauer starred as the leader of a band of murderous replicants in Blade Runner, hes kind of jumping to the other side of the equation with his role as an the eponymous Observer a neural detective that hacks into the minds of people in search of clues behind crime cases.

Featured above, you can view the games latest trailer, which showcases Hauers velvety chords as Detective Daniel Lazarski.

The cyberpunk horror story begins when you get a strange message from your estranged son, a high-level engineer for the powerfulChiron Corporation. Sound familiar?

Set in the year 2084, most of humanity has been wiped out and those who survived live in a disgusting, near-uninhabitable world that sees most people living out their days in drugs, or virtual reality. Each mind hack brings with it horror-like experiences how far will you go in search of the truth?

Here are the games key features:

Observer is launching on August 15th across PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One.

Big Papa Overlord at Niche Gamer. Italian. Dad. Outlaw fighting for a better game industry. I also write about music, food, & beer. Also an IT guy.

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Rutger Hauer Stars as a Neural-Detective in New Cyberpunk Horror-Thriller Game Observer - Niche Gamer

(Last Updated On: July 27, 2017)

Cyberpunk 2077 is a sci-fi RPG currently in development and has no gameplay footage for the public to see just yet, but the game has a lot of anticipation surrounding it. As of now, CD Projekt Red seems to be making progress on the game in that the team recently posted up its development team is expanding, revealing that the game will have photorealistic graphics.

CD Projekt Red recently posted up a new batch of job listings via Twitter for its upcoming sci-fi RPG entitled Cyberpunk 2077. The game has a lot of people looking forward to its video game adaptation, as well as the upcoming tabletop game that is set to release around the same time as the video game version.

Looking to step things up a notch from the Witcher 3 to Cyberpunk 2077, the devs behind both titles upgraded the third iteration of RedEngine (the companys game engine) to RedEgnine 4. The step in upgrading the game engine will obviously give the devs behind the upcoming cyberpunk title more room to add better features, like what one of the new job listings reveal which is photorealistic original textures. Additionally, games like Battlefield 1 and Star Wars: Battlefront EA uses a similar photorealistic system that produces graphics that will hold up well in the years to come thanks to the Frostbite.

In addition to the above, the job of the Senior Environment Artist is set to produce such quality graphics for Cyberpunk 2077 and is followed by more job listings:

Moreover, my being a gamer and a crazy fanatic of all things cyberpunk, Cyberpunk 2077 has my attention and many others, and seeing that the game is slated to come out somewhere around 2019 or 2020 means that a lot could go into this game thanks to the game engine receiving an update. This means that the game could potentially be unlike any other cyberpunk title on the gaming market.

Lastly, given Cyberpunk 2077 is using photorealistic graphics in an open world with destructible environments, it could be likely that the game will not debut for PS4 and Xbox One, but the generation of consoles afterward given that the devs want to release it for the latest consoles and for PC when it is complete.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Dev Team Expansion Reveals Graphics To Be ... - One Angry Gamer (blog)

CD Projekt Red is hard at work at the upcoming sci-fi action RPG, Cyberpunk 2077, however, not much is known about the game and the devs themselves have been very quiet on that front. The studio expects the game to be much more successful than The Witcher 3 and now it seems that Cyberpunk 2077 will feature destructible environments.

The hint that Cyberpunk 2077 will feature destructible environments comes from the studios job listing for an Environmental Artist which reveals that the devs are looking for a talented Environmental Artists who will work with the studio and create destruction models for objects.

CD PROJEKT RED is currently looking for talented artists to join our environment art team in Warsaw to work on Cyberpunk 2077. The Environment Artist will create a wide range of photorealistic environments in futuristic settings, covering also physicalized objects and destruction models.

While Cyberpunk 2077 will not launch this year but the next game to be released by CD Projekt Red is GWENT The Witcher Card Game. There is no doubt that GWENT has been extremely popular among The Witcher 3 fans, but the developersdid not anticipate that this mini game would be so popularamong the players.

We wanted to make a fun mini-game that players would enjoy in between saving the world in The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt. That was the plan when we were creating GWENT. And then it turned out players were actually spending a whole lot of time playing GWENT, much more than we anticipated.

GWENT will release for PC and current gen console and will not only feature a multiplayer mode but devs are putting in a single player campaign as well.

Furthermore, the studio has revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 will feature different classes, however, these classes will be unconventional.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a Sci-fi action RPG in development at CD Projekt Red for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Might Feature Destructible Environments - SegmentNext

Neuromancer is a 1984 science fiction novel by American-Canadian writer William Gibson. It is one of the best-known works in the cyberpunk genre and the first novel to win the Nebula Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the Hugo Award.[1] It was Gibson's debut novel and the beginning of the Sprawl trilogy. The novel tells the story of a washed-up computer hacker hired by a mysterious employer to pull off the ultimate hack.

Before Neuromancer, Gibson had written several short stories for American science fiction periodicalsmostly noir countercultural narratives concerning low-life protagonists in near-future encounters with cyberspace. The themes he developed in this early short fiction, the Sprawl setting of "Burning Chrome" (1982), and the character of Molly Millions from "Johnny Mnemonic" (1981) laid the foundations for the novel.[2]John Carpenter's Escape from New York (1981) influenced the novel;[3] Gibson was "intrigued by the exchange in one of the opening scenes where the Warden says to Snake 'You flew the Gullfire over Leningrad, didn't you?' [sic] It turns out to be just a throwaway line, but for a moment it worked like the best SF, where a casual reference can imply a lot."[1] The novel's street and computer slang dialogue derives from the vocabulary of subcultures, particularly "1969 Toronto dope dealer's slang, or biker talk". Gibson heard the term "flatlining" in a bar around twenty years before writing Neuromancer and it stuck with him.[1] Author Robert Stone, a "master of a certain kind of paranoid fiction", was a primary influence on the novel.[1] The term "Screaming Fist" was taken from the song of the same name by Toronto punk rock band The Viletones.[4]

Neuromancer was commissioned by Terry Carr for the second series of Ace Science Fiction Specials, which was intended to feature debut novels exclusively. Given a year to complete the work,[5] Gibson undertook the actual writing out of "blind animal panic" at the obligation to write an entire novela feat which he felt he was "four or five years away from".[1] After viewing the first 20 minutes of landmark cyberpunk film Blade Runner (1982), which was released when Gibson had written a third of the novel, he "figured [Neuromancer] was sunk, done for. Everyone would assume Id copied my visual texture from this astonishingly fine-looking film."[6] He re-wrote the first two-thirds of the book 12 times, feared losing the reader's attention and was convinced that he would be "permanently shamed" following its publication; yet what resulted was seen as a major imaginative leap forward for a first-time novelist.[1] He added the final sentence of the novel, "He never saw Molly again", at the last minute in a deliberate attempt to prevent himself from ever writing a sequel, but ended up doing precisely that with Count Zero (1986), a character-focused work set in the Sprawl alluded to in its predecessor.[7]

Henry Dorsett Case is a low-level hustler in the dystopian underworld of Chiba City, Japan. Once a talented computer hacker, Case was caught stealing from his employer. As punishment for his theft, Case's central nervous system was damaged with a mycotoxin, leaving him unable to access the global computer network in cyberspace, a virtual reality dataspace called the "matrix". Case is unemployable, suicidal, and apparently at the top of the hit list of a drug lord named Wage. Case is saved by Molly Millions, an augmented "street samurai" and mercenary for a shadowy ex-military officer named Armitage, who offers to cure Case in exchange for his services as a hacker. Case jumps at the chance to regain his life as a "console cowboy," but neither Case nor Molly knows what Armitage is really planning. Case's nervous system is repaired using new technology that Armitage offers the clinic as payment, but he soon learns from Armitage that sacs of the poison that first crippled him have been placed in his blood vessels as well. Armitage promises Case that if he completes his work in time, the sacs will be removed; otherwise they will dissolve, disabling him again. He also has Case's pancreas replaced and new tissue grafted into his liver, leaving Case incapable of metabolizing cocaine or amphetamines and apparently ending his drug addiction.

Case develops a close personal relationship with Molly, who suggests that he begin looking into Armitage's background. Meanwhile, Armitage assigns them their first job: they must steal a ROM module that contains the saved consciousness of one of Case's mentors, legendary cyber-cowboy McCoy Pauley, nicknamed "Dixie Flatline." Armitage needs Pauley's hacking expertise, and the ROM construct is stored in the corporate headquarters of media conglomerate Sense/Net. A street gang named the "Panther Moderns" is hired to create a simulated terrorist attack on Sense/Net. The diversion allows Molly to penetrate the building and steal Dixie's ROM with Case unlocking the computer safeguards on the way in and out from within the matrix.

Case and Molly continue to investigate Armitage, discovering his former identity of Colonel Willis Corto. Corto was a member of "Operation Screaming Fist," which planned on infiltrating and disrupting Soviet computer systems from ultralight aircraft dropped over Russia. The Russian military had learned of the idea and installed defenses to render the attack impossible, but the military went ahead with Screaming Fist, with a new secret purpose of testing these Russian defenses. As the Operation team attacked a Soviet computer center, EMP weapons shut down their computers and flight systems, and Corto and his men were targeted by Soviet laser defenses. He and a few survivors commandeered a Soviet military helicopter and escaped over the heavily guarded Finnish border. Everyone was killed except Corto, who was seriously wounded and heavily mutilated by Finnish defense forces attacking the helicopter as it landed. After some months in the hospital, Corto was visited by a Government military official and then medically rebuilt to be able to provide what he came to realize was fake testimony, designed to mislead the public and protect the military officers who had covered up knowledge of the EMP weapons. After the trials, Corto snapped, killing the Government official who had contacted him and then disappearing into the criminal underworld.

In Istanbul, the team recruits Peter Riviera, an artist, thief, and drug addict who is able to project detailed holographic illusions with the aid of sophisticated cybernetic implants. Although Riviera is a sociopath, Armitage coerces him into joining the team. The trail leads Case and Molly to Wintermute, a powerful artificial intelligence created by the Tessier-Ashpool family. The Tessier-Ashpools spend most of their inactive time in cryonic preservation in a labyrinthine mansion known as Villa Straylight, located at one end of Freeside, a cylindrical space habitat at L5, which functions primarily as a Las Vegas-style space resort for the wealthy.

Wintermute's nature is finally revealedit is one-half of a super-AI entity planned by the family, although its exact purpose is unknown. The Turing Law Code governing AIs bans the construction of such entities; to get around this, it had to be built as two separate AIs. Wintermute (housed in a computer mainframe in Berne, Switzerland) was programmed by the Tessier-Ashpools with a need to merge with its other half, Neuromancer (whose physical mainframe is installed in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil). Unable to achieve this merger on its own, Wintermute recruited Armitage and his team to help complete the goal. Case is tasked with entering cyberspace to pierce the Turing-imposed software barriers using a powerful icebreaker program. At the same time, Riviera is to obtain the password to the Turing lock from Lady 3Jane Marie-France Tessier-Ashpool, an unfrozen daughter clone and the current CEO of the family's corporation, Tessier-Ashpool SA. Wintermute believes Riviera will pose an irresistible temptation to her, and that she will give him the password. The password must be spoken into an ornate computer terminal located in Villa Straylight, and entered simultaneously as Case pierces the software barriers in cyberspaceotherwise the Turing lock will remain intact.

Armitage's team attracts the attention of the Turing Police, whose job is to prevent AIs from exceeding their built-in limitations. As Molly and Riviera gain entrance to Villa Straylight, three officers arrest Case and take him into custody; Wintermute manipulates the orbital casino's security and maintenance systems and kills the officers, allowing Case to escape. The Armitage personality starts to disintegrate and revert to the Corto personality as he relives Screaming Fist. It is revealed that in the past, Wintermute had originally contacted Corto through a bedside computer during his convalescence, eventually convincing Corto that he was Armitage. Wintermute used him to persuade Case and Molly to help it merge with its twin AI, Neuromancer. Finally, Armitage becomes the shattered Corto again, but his newfound personality is short-lived, as he is killed when Wintermute ejects him through an airlock into space.

Inside Villa Straylight, Riviera meets Lady 3Jane and tries to stop the mission, helping Lady 3Jane and Hideo, her ninja bodyguard, to capture Molly. Worried about Molly and operating under orders from Wintermute, Case tracks her down with help from Maelcum, his Rastafarian pilot. Neuromancer attempts to trap Case within a cyber-construct where he finds the consciousness of Linda Lee, his girlfriend from Chiba City, who was murdered by one of Case's underworld contacts. Case manages to escape after Maelcum gives him an overdose of a drug that can bypass his augmented liver and pancreas. Then, with Wintermute guiding them, Case goes with Maelcum to confront Lady 3Jane, Riviera, and Hideo. Riviera tries to kill Case, but Lady 3Jane is sympathetic towards Case and Molly, and Hideo protects him. Riviera blinds Hideo with a concentrated laser pulse from his projector implant, but flees when he learns that the ninja is just as adept without his sight. Molly then explains to Case that Riviera is doomed anyway, as he has been fatally poisoned by his drugs, which she had spiked. With Lady 3Jane in possession of the password, the team makes it to the computer terminal. Case enters cyberspace to guide the icebreaker to penetrate its target; Lady 3Jane is induced to give up her password, and the lock is opened. Wintermute unites with Neuromancer, fusing into a superconsciousness. The poison in Case's bloodstream is washed out, and he and Molly are profusely paid for their efforts, while Pauley's ROM construct is apparently erased, at his own request.

In the epilogue, Molly leaves Case. Case finds a new girlfriend, resumes his hacking work, and spends his earnings from the mission replacing his internal organs so that he can continue his previous drug use. Wintermute/Neuromancer contacts him, saying that it has become "the sum total of the works, the whole show," and has begun looking for other AIs like itself. Scanning old recorded transmissions from the 1970s, the super-AI finds an AI transmitting from the Alpha Centauri star system. In the matrix, Case hears inhuman laughter, a trait associated with Pauley during Case's work with his ROM construct, thus suggesting that Pauley was not erased after all, but instead worked out a side deal with Wintermute/Neuromancer to be freed from the construct so he could exist in the matrix.

In the end, while logged into the matrix, Case catches a glimpse of himself, his dead girlfriend Linda Lee, and Neuromancer. The implication of the sighting is that Neuromancer created a copy of Case's consciousness when it previously tried to trap him. The copy of Case's consciousness now exists with that of Linda's, in the matrix, where they are together forever.

Neuromancer's release was not greeted with fanfare, but it hit a cultural nerve,[10] quickly becoming an underground word-of-mouth hit.[2] It became the first novel to win the Nebula, the Hugo, and Philip K. Dick Award for paperback original,[11] an unprecedented achievement described by the Mail & Guardian as "the sci-fi writer's version of winning the Goncourt, Booker and Pulitzer prizes in the same year".[12] The novel thereby legitimized cyberpunk as a mainstream branch of science fiction literature. It is among the most-honored works of science fiction in recent history, and appeared on Time magazine's list of 100 best English-language novels written since 1923.[13] The novel was also nominated for a British Science Fiction Award in 1984.[14]

Neuromancer is considered "the archetypal cyberpunk work".[15] and outside science fiction, it gained unprecedented critical and popular attention,[1] as an "evocation of life in the late 1980s",[16] although The Observer noted that "it took the New York Times 10 years" to mention the novel.[17] By 2007 it had sold more than 6.5million copies worldwide.[11]

The novel has had significant linguistic influence, popularizing such terms as cyberspace and ICE (Intrusion Countermeasures Electronics). Gibson himself coined the term "cyberspace" in his novelette "Burning Chrome", published in 1982 by Omni magazine.[18] It was only through its use in Neuromancer that the term Cyberspace gained enough recognition to become the de facto term for the World Wide Web during the 1990s.[19][20] The portion of Neuromancer usually cited in this respect is:

The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games. Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts. A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding.[21]

The 1999 cyberpunk science fiction film The Matrix particularly draws from Neuromancer both eponym and usage of the term "matrix".[22] "After watching The Matrix, Gibson commented that the way that the film's creators had drawn from existing cyberpunk works was 'exactly the kind of creative cultural osmosis" he had relied upon in his own writing.'"[23]

In his afterword to the 2000 re-issue of Neuromancer, fellow author Jack Womack goes as far as to suggest that Gibson's vision of cyberspace may have inspired the way in which the Internet developed (particularly the World Wide Web), after the publication of Neuromancer in 1984. He asks "[w]hat if the act of writing it down, in fact, brought it about?" (269).

Norman Spinrad, in his 1986 essay "The Neuromantics" which appears in his non-fiction collection Science Fiction in the Real World, saw the book's title as a triple pun: "neuro" referring to the nervous system; "necromancer"; and "new romancer". The cyberpunk genre, the authors of which he suggested be called "neuromantics", was "a fusion of the romantic impulse with science and technology", according to Spinrad.

Writing in F&SF in 2005, Charles de Lint noted that while Gibson's technological extrapolations had proved imperfect (in particular, his failure to anticipate the cellular telephone), "Imagining story, the inner workings of his characters' minds, and the world in which it all takes place are all more important.[24]

Lawrence Person in his "Notes Toward a Postcyberpunk Manifesto" (1998) identified Neuromancer as "the archetypal cyberpunk work",[15] and in 2005, Time included it in their list of the 100 best English-language novels written since 1923, opining that "[t]here is no way to overstate how radical [Neuromancer] was when it first appeared."[13] Literary critic Larry McCaffery described the concept of the matrix in Neuromancer as a place where "data dance with human consciousness... human memory is literalized and mechanized... multi-national information systems mutate and breed into startling new structures whose beauty and complexity are unimaginable, mystical, and above all nonhuman."[1] Gibson later commented on himself as an author circa Neuromancer that "I'd buy him a drink, but I don't know if I'd loan him any money," and referred to the novel as "an adolescent's book".[25] The success of Neuromancer was to effect the 35-year-old Gibson's emergence from obscurity.[26]

In 1989, Epic Comics published a 48-page graphic novel version by Tom de Haven and Bruce Jensen.[27][28] It only covers the first two chapters, "Chiba City Blues" and "The Shopping Expedition", and was never continued.[29]

In the 1990s a version of Neuromancer was published as one of the Voyager Company's Expanded Books series of hypertext-annotated HyperCard stacks for the Apple Macintosh (specifically the PowerBook).[30]

A video game adaptation of the novelalso titled Neuromancerwas published in 1988 by Interplay. Designed by Bruce J. Balfour, Brian Fargo, Troy A. Miles, and Michael A. Stackpole, the game had many of the same locations and themes as the novel, but a different protagonist and plot. It was available for a variety of platforms, including the Amiga, the Apple II, the Commodore 64, and for DOS-based computers. It featured, as a soundtrack, a computer adaptation of the Devo song "Some Things Never Change."

According to an episode of the American version of Beyond 2000, the original plans for the game included a dynamic soundtrack composed by Devo and a real-time 3d rendered movie of the events the player went through.[citation needed] Psychologist and futurist Dr. Timothy Leary was involved, but very little documentation seems to exist about this proposed second game, which was perhaps too grand a vision for 1988 home computing.

The BBC World Service Drama production of Neuromancer aired in two one-hour parts, on 8 and 15 September 2002. Dramatised by Mike Walker, and directed by Andy Jordan, it starred Owen McCarthy as Case, Nicola Walker as Molly, James Laurenson as Armitage, John Shrapnel as Wintermute, Colin Stinton as Dixie, David Webber as Maelcum, David Holt as Riviera, Peter Marinker as Ashpool, and Andrew Scott as The Finn. It can no longer be heard on The BBC World Service Archive. [1]

In Finland, Yle Radioteatteri produced a 4-part radio play of Neuromancer.

Gibson read an abridged version of his novel Neuromancer on four audio cassettes for Time Warner Audio Books (1994). An unabridged version of this book was read by Arthur Addison and made available from Books on Tape (1997). In 2011, Penguin Audiobooks produced a new unabridged recording of the book, read by Robertson Dean.

Neuromancer the Opera is an adaptation written by Jayne Wenger and Marc Lowenstein (libretto) and Richard Marriott of the Club Foot Orchestra (music). A production was scheduled to open on March 3, 1995 at the Julia Morgan Theater (now the Julia Morgan Center for the Arts) in Berkeley, California, featuring Club Foot Orchestra in the pit and extensive computer graphics imagery created by a world-wide network of volunteers. Unfortunately this premiere did not take place and the work has yet to be performed in full.[31]

There have been several proposed film adaptations of Neuromancer, with drafts of scripts written by British director Chris Cunningham and Chuck Russell. The box packaging for the video game adaptation had even carried the promotional mention for a major motion picture to come from "Cabana Boy Productions." None of these projects have come to fruition, though Gibson had stated his belief that Cunningham is the only director with a chance of doing the film correctly.[32]

In May 2007, reports emerged that a film was in the works, with Joseph Kahn (director of Torque) in line to direct and Milla Jovovich in the lead role.[33] In May 2010 this story was supplanted with news that Vincenzo Natali, director of Cube and Splice, had taken over directing duties and would rewrite the screenplay.[34] In March 2011, with the news that Seven Arts and GFM Films would be merging their distribution operations, it was announced that the joint venture would be purchasing the rights to Neuromancer under Vincenzo Natali's direction.[35] In August, 2012, GFM Films announced that it had begun casting for the film (with offers made to Liam Neeson and Mark Wahlberg), but no cast members have been confirmed yet.[36] In November 2013, Natali shed some light on the production situation; announcing that the script had been completed for 'years', and had been written with assistance from Gibson himself.[37]

In May 2015, it was reported that movie got new funding from Chinese company C2M, but Natali is no longer available for directing the movie.[38]

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Neuromancer - Wikipedia

Our latest news coverage forCyberpunk 2077 comes directly from a CD Projekt Red job posting. In their twitter feed, the developer revealed their purpose behind recruiting.In sum, it looks like their highly anticipated sci-fi title will have realistic physics and destruction.

Among the things we know by now is that CD Projekt Redis skilled at implementing photorealistic environments and physics. As we saw inThe Witcher 3, small details such as trees swaying in the wind, Geralts hair, and reactionary AI proved that,ironically, realism was part of the fantasy experience.

So how will CDPR render their environment inCyberpunk 2077? Well, when we pay particular attention to their Environment Artist job listing, heres what the developer asks for:

CD PROJEKT RED is currently looking for talented artists to join our environment art team in Warsaw to work on Cyberpunk 2077. The Environment Artist will create a wide range of photorealistic environments in futuristic settings, covering also physicalized objects and destruction models.

Paying particular attention to the last sentence, we note physicalized objects and destruction models. From this, we determine thatCyberpunk 2077 will have an advanced game engine that utilizes physics. Essentially, it will allow for an interactive environment that facilitates real-time destruction and interesting visual affects. For example,gun shots could lead to lasting bullet holes. Explosions can leave char marks and incinerate cover, and so on.

Additionally, we must remember that the game is set in the future, with cities, which is very different from anything the developer has attempted before. Seeing as this is a much larger team than any of their previous projects, we can expect a much larger and more immersivesetting. Also, a very refined realism factor.

The name of CD Projekt Reds engine forCyberpunk 2077 is REDengine 4,developed exclusively for their RPG titles. With all the strides theyre making, expect more interesting news coming out of the Warsaw-based studio. Until then,

Happy gaming.

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Cyberpunk 2077 to Have Destructible Environments & Reactive Physics - COGconnected

By Joel Couture . July 22, 2017 . 11:00am

Neon City Ridersis a cyberpunk action/adventure game, one where players must explore a ruined cityscape and track down the four superpowered gang leaders whove forced the citys people to fight in their gangs.

Neon City Riders lets players take their masked hero wherever they like in the city, following their own leads and desires in whatever direction they choose. While moving through the burnt-out buildings, players will find new powers and weapons, useful items, and making their way through bases that will test their reflexes with traps and their minds with puzzles. Even though the people have been forced into gangs, players will still have to beat them up in top-down melee combat.

Despite trying to break up the gangs, players can start their own by recruiting some of the people they help, or other fighters they meet in the city. These members will stick around the players own hideout, giving them new options, items, and other handy features that will make freeing the city that much easier.

Players will need whatever help they can get against the games superpowered gang leaders. From possessing psychic abilities, mutated strength, electrical powers, and mechanical endurance, players will want to have an array of allies and abilities to use against them.

Neon City Riders is raising funding on Kickstarter, and a demo is available through the campaign as well.

Video game stories from other sites on the web. These links leave Siliconera.

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Fight Or Recruit Superpowered Street Gangs In Cyberpunk Action/Adventure Game Neon City Riders - Siliconera

A mysterious man in a long overcoat, neon light-lined facemask and hat with rabbit ears stands ominously against a wall lined with a mixture of English and Chinese words. A woman in heavy gold makeup rushes over to me and asks if I saw the accident.

"If someone's hurt, dial 995, OK?" she pleads, before walking away through the haze-filled room.

Behind me is the crash site, a downed hover car (known as a "spinner"), with yellow police tape wrapped around it.

This is not the Los Angeles I know.

After lifting our VR headsets, we were greeted with this scene.

Indeed, this is the Los Angeles of the "Blade Runner" universe, a cyberpunk future that's the setting of the upcoming film "Blade Runner 2049." I'm actually in San Diego for the opening night of Comic-Con. The "Blade Runner 2049 Experience," just a block away from the convention center, mixes virtual reality with an immaculately crafted set and committed actors to bring you into its dystopian world.

Comic-Con, which has grown over the years into a mecca for entertainment -- particularly of the geek and blockbuster film variety -- is all about immersing you in different worlds. The "Blade Runner 2049 Experience" goes above and beyond in creating a small, but fully fleshed slice of its universe. It's the perfect way to tease the upcoming film, a sequel to the 1982 sci-fi classic, that brings back actor Harrison Ford and pairs him with Ryan Gosling.

"It looked legit," said Kevin Bussey, a food and beverage manager based in San Diego, after going through the experience. "The whole ambience was awesome."

The film opens on Oct. 6, and the cast will be holding a panel later this week at Comic-Con.

I first walk through a long hallway. It's lined with concept art from the movie as a tease of what's to come. After rounding the corner, I see several rows of what look like racing bucket seats.

The experience began with a VR video that was synced with our seats.

Once in my seat, I put on a Gear VR headset and headphones, which transport me to a digital recreation of the driver's seat of a spinner. The bucket seat is specifically tuned to move in way that convinces me the hover car is actually taking off just as it does in the virtual world.

As I cruise around the cityscape of 2049, I see giant ads for Coca-Cola and Atari, as well as Johnnie Walker (a sponsor of this event). Another digital ad features a tennis racket that whacks a giant digital tennis ball through my head.

The action heats up when I identify another spinner with a replicant -- an android that the in-universe blade runners are supposed to track down. From there, I'm in hot pursuit, ultimately crashing into the replicant's spinner and forcing it to the ground.

As far as VR experiences go, this one sold me on the world thanks to the perfect marriage of the seat and the imagery, much like an updated version of those old motion simulator rides. Take away the special seats, and the graphics are likely to sustain that immersive quality.

The VR experience, as it turns out, was just the beginning. As we lifted our headsets, the wall in front of us rose and we confronted the downed spinner. Actors in 2049-style garb walked around, asking if we'd seen anything.

20

Exploring the Blade Runner 2049 Experience at SDCC 2017

At one point, a flood of water rained down from part of the ceiling. I narrowly avoid getting soaked.

This mysterious character stood ominously against the wall.

In the next section, Bibi's Bar, I saw people order drinks from the bar at the White Dragon (you can see a clip on Twitter here). In the middle of the room was a busted-up (but futuristic-looking) taxi.

Breaking the illusion a bit was a table with spring rolls and pork buns, but my stomach didn't mind the brief return to reality.

A policeman suspiciously asked what I was doing as I filmed him for an Instagram post. A nearby guard had me stand in front of a scanner, which shone a light across my face to determine if I was a replicant. You'll be relieved to know that it confirmed that I am, indeed, human.

Props from the film lined the wall on one side of the room, while mannequins adorned with futuristic clothing lined window displays on the opposite end. All of this work has been put in to get the thousands of convention-goers who'll flock through the exhibit jazzed about the film.

Cosplayers, or costume players, aren't a unique sight at a comic book convention. But I have to admire the dedication of these actors.

Two women, one in a zebra-like fur coat and another sporting a large and fuzzy purple hat, approached my colleague Tania Gonzalez and me to strike up a conversation. They were so committed to staying in character that Tania wasn't entirely sure whether one was legitimately flirting with her.

But having women ignore me in favor of the cooler, more interesting person to my side? Some things don't change no matter what universe I'm in.

Crowd Control:A crowdsourced science fiction novel written by CNET readers.

CNET Magazine:Check out a sampling of the stories you'll find in CNET's newsstand edition.

The rest is here:

'Blade Runner 2049' brings cyberpunk LA to San Diego Comic-Con - CNET

Poland-based developer Bloober Team who you may recognize from 2016sLayers of Fear and publisher Aspyr Media have announced that the formers upcoming cyberpunk horror game is set to launch on PS4, Xbox One, PC, Mac, and Linux on August 15th.

Additionally, the pair have revealed that the legendary actor, Rutger Hauer who you may know from films such asBlade Runner, Flesh+Blood, Sin City, Batman Begins, The Hitcher, Blind Fury,and more stars as Detective Lazarski, the character you play as.

Lastly, new key art for the game has also been released alongside a few new images and a new 2084 trailer that explores the aforementioned Daniels role as an Observer.

Observeris set in a 2084 dystopian future ruled by oppressive corporations. Further, the game isnt your traditional take on cyberpunk, but notably is an Eastern European take on the iconic sub-genre, which is to say in the game youll find architecture, historical and political references, and pop-culture that would be found in Eastern Europe.

As mentioned above, in the game you play as Dan, a member of a special corporate-funded police unit called Observers. Following cryptic messages from his estranged son, dan quickly founds himself trekking through the seedy underbelly of the city where horror, madness, andpsychological experiences bordering on the psychedelic await.

Observers are essentially detectives equipped with special augmentations that allow them to hack into minds of anyone and see the things in an altered perception, which in turn allows for them to gather information or interrogate in unique ways. Every time they go in someones mind they will see what they saw and live what they lived, and while the process can and will take a toll on the Observer, it will allow them to find clues otherwise hidden.

As you play the game you will be presented with many choices and options to approach the world as you want, which in turn shapes the narrative and leads to multiple endings.

Observeris set to release for PC, PS4, and Xbox One at an unknown price-point. If you havent already, be sure to check out our interview with Brand Manager at Bloober Team,Rafa Basaj, where we talk aboutObserver,including its inspirations, story, themes, approach to horror, and more.

Observeris currently playable for the public at Lionsgates booth atSan Diego Comic-Con until July 22nd.

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Layers of Fear Dev's Cyberpunk Horror Game Observer Launches ... - DualShockers

After the success of "The Witcher 3," it will not be easy for "#Cyberpunk 2077" to surpass that popularity. However, it looks that #CD Projekt RED is going to get a pretty good shot with the sci-fi #Role Playing Game "Cyberpunk 2077." Even if CD Projekt Red is highly secretive about the details of the game, here is everything that you need to know about this highly anticipated game.

During an interview, CD Projekt Red mentioned that "Cyberpunk 2077" is going to be a huge project for the studio. According to the studio's visual effect artist, Jose Teixeira, the game is going to be bigger than anything else that the studio has created.

The head of the studio, Adam Badowski, also stated that the game would be even bigger, even better, and more revolutionary. Basing on the way the gaming studio was describing the development of "Cyberpunk 2077," gamers should expect an ambitious and big game once "Cyberpunk 2077" is released.

Mike Pondsmith, the creator of "Cyberpunk 2020" shared some details about the game's classes during an interview with Game Reactors last June. We can expect that the character classes from the original game will be carried over in "Cyberpunk 2077." These classes will not be limited to Cop, Rockerboys (rockers), Nomads, Netrunner (hackers), Corporate, Fixer (information brokers), Media (reporters and journalists), Solo (bodyguards and assassins), Med-Tech (doctors), and Techie.

Whether all of these character classes will be included in the game, that is remain to be seen. However, according to Pondsmith, a lot of these, if not all of them, will be in the game. With the vast character classes it will have, this sci-fi role playing game will work great with multiplayer features.

CD Projekt Red's jobs page showed a huge hint about what to expect in the game: Flying vehicles. According to the job opening on their website, the gaming studio is looking for a vehicle game programmer who can create a vehicle-related code and knows the physics of flying and driving those vehicles. There was even a released animated GIF that is claiming to be part of the highly anticipated project. Although it is legitimate or not remains to be confirmed.

Although CD Projekt Red remains quiet about "Cyberpunk 2077's" exact launching date, the game will be scheduled to release by 2019. The game will be available for PC, Xbox One, and PS4.

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'Cyberpunk 2077' Update: Different playable character classes - Blasting News

Cyberpunk horror game Observer will be releasing on August 15 for PC, Xbox One and PlayStation 4 and a new gameplay trailer has been released.

Created by Layers of Fear developer Blooper Team, Observer holds the same pacing of Layers Of Fear, and uses modern themes to illustrate a society where hacking peoples nightmares is a reality. You can check out the new gameplay trailer alongside a set of screenshots below:

How would it feel if your fears could be weaponized against you? Det. Daniel Lazarski is an Observer; part of a corporate-funded, specialized police unit with full legal clearance to tap directly into a targets mind via neural implant. A cryptic message from your estranged son sets you on a journey to the drug-ridden Class C slums of Krakow, Poland. As you hack into the minds of criminals and victims alike to uncover the truth of the mysterious communique, you are forced into a surreal landscape of the residents darkest fears.

Key Features

If you played our first game, Layers of Fear, you know that we make a different kind of horror, Blooper Team said last month. Something a bit more cerebral, emotional, and psychological; We like to call it hidden horror. We think of hidden horror as a subgenre. There are a million different types of action games out there, but you dont see that kind of diversity in horror games. Most horror games are designed completely around survival.

For those wondering the character displayed in the main image above is indeed Cyberpunk legend Rutger Hauer from Bladerunner as Detective Dan Lazarski.

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Cyberpunk 'Hidden Horror' Game Observer Releasing on August 15 for PC/XO/PS4 - Wccftech