Category Archives: Cyberpunk

(Last Updated On: June 3, 2017)

Some rumors have surfaced regarding Cyberpunk 2077 that just might hint at something far bigger than what gamers were expecting. The information also coincides with recent information released by CD Projekt Red. This info that sits on the rumor side comes from various forum boards that relates to E3 and Mike Pondsmith himself.

I should note that all of this information may or may not be valid about the much anticipated game Cyberpunk 2077 by CD Projekt Red, but there is a high chance, if true, that this info regarding the game hints at something far bigger, given that it comes from Mike Pondsmith.

Firstly, on the Cyberpunk 2077 Reddit page, a user by the name of Xenolith234 caught a comment that Mike Pondsmith posted, who goes by the screen name of Therealmaxmike, and noted that

Mike Pondsmith commented last night on a thread and said that CDPR is pulling out all the stops. Curious.

If you dont know what that means, the devs are planning to go all out with whatever information there is about Cyberpunk 2077, meaning that it will be grander when news drops.

In addition to the above, this information links into what CD Projekt Reds CEO of the studio, Marcin Kicinski, announced during an investor call as noted below.

The promotional campaign (for Cyberpunk 2077) is already planned. Its main element is the surprise, so I cannot even say when it will begin. Simply because it has to come as a surprise.

Now I know what you are thinking, E3 is right around the corner, arent they going to show the game off there? Although it seems likely, but Im not ruling it out, according to E3s Exhibitors page (by Alpha), the devs dont appear to be showing up at the event. The information about CDPR not showing up can be seen below.

The above links into CDPRs 2016 financial results that contained the information about how 2017 is the year of GWENT. Again, Im not saying that the team may not do a secret appearance, but dont be shocked if nothing Cyberpunk 2077 related appears at this years E3.

Looking past the semi-heart breaking news and on to some heart warming news about Cyberpunk 2077. A certain user on the Cyberpunk 2077 forum board, Darthraver8686, noted something rather interesting. The comment lies below.

Yo im trying to keep my composure but something is def going on. Theyve hired marketing managers now and people to change the website.not too mention that on the subreddit cyberpunkgame mike pondsmith himself posts alot and in his last comment from the other day he said its his last comment on the boards for a while cuz hes going radio silent. He said that some projects are ramping up and life is getting busy. Not sure if hes talking about cp2077 but it sure sounded like it. I think somethings gonna happen soon. N im not saying E3 but wouldnt that be crazy if that was the surprise?

I already know what youre thinking, Thats not real. Well, youre wrong, because it is real. Upon doing research regarding Darthraver8686s findings lead me to a Reddit user named Zirfeld, who had asked a question recently and Mike Pondsmith himself actually answered the user. Zirfelds comment sits below for those interested:

Roleplaying games have become a very popuplar content on the web lately on twitch, youtube and other services. I am talking about channels like Geek & Sundry with Titanquest, Critical Role, Foreververse (and the occiasional game on Tabletop) or HarmonTown HarmonQuest on the more comical side of it. Shows with a relatively high prodcution value and recognizable players. Im not saying not so recognizable players cant be fun, too. But having a bunch of entertainment professionals sure helps the flow of the game (that and editing of course).

Is there any chance we are going to see something like this with Cyberpunk 2020? Maybe even the creator of the game as GM? I think a show like this would fit perfectly in the phase before the real marketing campaign starts to gain some momentum, and I sure would watch it.

Mike, I hope you find the time to answer, seeing that you have been very active here lately.

And here are all Pondsmiths replies to said user, which is rather surprising to me that he actually answered an everyday persons random comment.

Nothing planned that I know of (RTG media overlord Kirin handles that part of my life), but we will be doing Cyberpunk games at GenCon. I just got back from doing a live broadcast CP game onstage at Pyrkon in Poland and it was pretty awesome, so Im definitely up for a streamcast. Will let you all know if Kirin comes up with something.

Also, Ill probably be going dark on reddit for a bit, as Production is ramping up on several projects and life is getting busy.

Notice how he capitalizes the p in production when talking about these several projects ramping up. Its likely that hes talking about the Cyberpunk 2020 board game here, which is set to release exactly around the same time as the video game that CD Projekt Red is currently developing. Also, notice in the post that he mentions his appearance over in Poland, this information links into the most recent talk about the game in that he went to said country and was pleased with CDPRs progress on Cyberpunk.

So what does this all mean? Well, it means that when the game appears the devs will go all out and show everything there is to show in a surprising and breathtaking way or better put pulling out all the stops. This also means that the game may not show up to this years E3, but will more than likely appear during next years lineup of big game conventions in a flashy way. And lastly, it also means that Pondsmith is heavily involved with the board/video game and that both will be close to his envision of the original work.

You can learn more about Cyberpunk 2077 by hitting up cyberpunk.net.

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Here's The Latest Rumors Regarding Cyberpunk 2077 And Its E3 Appearance - One Angry Gamer (blog)

Back in 1993, 26-year-old author Yukito Kishiro could have scarcely imagined the success that his first long-form manga series would achieve in his home country, let alone on an international scale. Initially published as a serial in the manga anthology Business Jump before being quickly adapted into English, Spanish and Italian, Battle Angel Alita (or Gunnm, as its known in Japan) was Kishiros breakout and quickly earned him his status as one of mangas rising talents. Speaking in an interview with Animerica, Kushiro expressed reservations and doubt over Gunnms viability as an overseas success. [Its a very] introspective story [...] when I was first approached about allowing it to be published in foreign-language editions, I wasnt sure it was a good idea. It was an experimental work for me and I didnt think it could be popular, especially not in the United States. To me, its a never-ending wonder that my work is being translated and read by all sorts of different people.

22 years following the series conclusion, Battle Angel Alitas popularity has only grown, with a persistent legacy among fans and a new live-action adaptation slated for release next year from director Robert Rodriguez. In the lead-up to its release, publisher Kodansha will reissue the series in a collection of deluxe hardcovers this fall, following a now-available digital release of the first three volumes on comiXology that restores the manga to its pre-Americanized glory. Set in a dystopian metropolis dubbed the Scrapyard in some dark, undetermined future, Battle Angel Alita follows the series namesake, a mysterious cyborg woman whose chassis is discovered half-buried in a massive landfill by a benevolent surgeon named Ido. Ido adopts the memory-less mech woman, names her Alita (Gally in the Japanese original) and sets about finding pieces to restore her body. Through the course of their daily adventures, Alita discovers that her mind possesses a long-buried aptitude for the Panzer Kunst, a legendary cyborg fighting style thought to be one of the strongest martial art forms in the known world. Armed with a new body, Alita and Ido team up as bounty hunters to protect the Scrapyards denizens from a rogues gallery of serial killers, organ harvesters and psychopathic cyborgs.

Battle Angel Alita Vol. 1 Interior Art by Yukito Kishiro

Even in its earliest chapters, Kishiros aptitude for choreography and dynamic perspective layouts is unmistakable; a time-capsule of a young storyteller whose nascent talents, impressive as they were, only hint at the mastery of kineticism and detail he would later go on to exhibit. Though fledgling, his grasp for dialogue, foreshadowing and pacing, not to mention his sensibility for intellectually and visually mature subject matter, was already on full display from Battle Angel Alitas outset, flirting with the astuteness the series would later grow into.

Alita poses the question, What good is happiness if its only given to you? Thats no life Moments like these elevate the series above its contemporaries and solidify Battle Angel Alitas enduring appeal to this day. In a similar vein to Ghost in the Shells Masamune Shirow, Kishio is well-known for his exhaustive footnotes that add to the speculative heft and reality of his characters universe, freewheeling capably between biochemistry, neuroscience and even western folklore and philosophy. Moreover, the characters, in particular Alita, are full-fledged personalities who escape the rigidity of early anime tropes, and instead grow and fumble as flawed, yet deeply aspirational, human beings.

Battle Angel Alita Vol. 1 Interior Art by Yukito Kishiro

This is a summary of what long-time admirers of the manga have already come to expect from Kishiro since Battle Angel Alitas early publication. The real draw of this particular edition is how its both translated and preserved. Gone are the unnecessary exposition bubbles and clunky sound effects of the series initial english editions; Kodansha has restored the manga to its intended right-to-left panel format and Japanese katakana, making this new edition an essential read for purists. Full-page color splashes that were previously reduced to crude monochromatic scans are now fully restored to their original glory. Worthy of note is this editions handling of translations, renaming the floating city of Tiphares back to its original title, Zalem, while retaining the main characters name as Alita out of respect for the series popular presence in the West.

Succinctly, Battle Angel Alita is a major accomplishment not only as a Japanese comic, but for its erudite contributions to the cyberpunk genre as a whole. For those who have grown to love the adventures of Alita and her dogged quest for meaning in a world of apocalyptic nihilism, these new editions are a more than ample excuse to jump back into this world and experience it anew from the start. For those new to the series, you couldnt ask for a better time or means to get to know this character and discover for yourselves what all the fuss is about.

Battle Angel Alita Vol. 1 Interior Art by Yukito Kishiro

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New Digital Editions Reintroduce Battle Angel Alita's Cyberpunk Iconoclasm - Paste Magazine

Early on in Tokyo 42, I found myself being chased through a busy thoroughfare by gun-wielding thugs. Civilians rushed off in every direction as bullets whizzed past, and flickering electronic billboards only added to the visual madness. I managed to blend in for a brief period using a holographic projector to change my appearance, but I knew it wouldnt last for long. I had to get away. I jumped over a large concrete staircase and was surprised when I landed with a soft thud on some picturesque green grass. Amid the games futuristic urban sprawl, I found myself in a quaint zen garden.

Its definitely cyberpunk with its dystopic premise, Maciek Strychalski, one half of developer Smac Games, says of the game, but aesthetically its slightly off.

Rather than wallow in seedy alleys and overcrowded streets, Tokyo 42 opts to lighten things up. The isometric game features a zoomed-out perspective, providing wide view of near-future Tokyo. The action is set on the citys surprisingly bustling rooftops against its beautiful, cloudy sky. There are still plenty of flying cars and electronic billboards, and Tokyo 42 takes on plenty of gritty sci-fi subject matter. But its also bright, colorful, and charming, with a toy-like sense of style a cross between Ghost in the Shell and Monument Valley.

Tokyo 42 follows a man framed for a crime he didnt commit. He sets about clearing his name by taking on murder-for-hire jobs in order to delve deeper into the citys criminal underbelly, and find the actual responsible party. Its typical genre stuff, loaded with corporate intrigue and violent criminal organizations. The real standout is the city itself, and how its experienced through the top-down isometric perspective.

Tokyo 42s version of the Japanese capital looks like an immaculately detailed model. Because the camera is so far from the action, everything looks tiny from the minuscule citizens milling about, to the Lego-like stacks of modular apartment buildings. You explore the twee city as you take on different jobs, which mostly revolve around the not-so-twee act of killing people. Sometimes youll need to find an ideal spot to plant a sniper rifle and take out a mark from afar. Other times youll need to wield a blade and silently infiltrate a criminal stronghold.

We wanted to get that feeling of being able to stand on top of a building and look out at the city.

The isometric perspective has its roots in much older games it was originally used in games as a way to fake 3D graphics but in Tokyo 42 it feels fresh and modern. You can rotate the camera around to view the urban landscape from multiple angles, and the city itself is almost like a diminutive take on the open-world genre. Though its not especially massive, its surprisingly open, offering the freedom to try different routes and tactics to complete missions.

The place is simply a joy to walk around. In addition to seedy hideouts and busy transportation hubs, the rooftop city is home to relaxing zen gardens and serene urban waterfalls. Tokyo 42 is primarily a game about murder, yet the experience is often peaceful and playful. The perspective makes it feel more detached than more visceral 3D shooters, so I never felt especially guilty when Id accidentally lob a grenade into a busy crowd or take out an innocent bystander with an errant sword swing. And so the city feels more like a playground. There are plenty of areas to hide from pursuing enemies or sneak up on a target, and the games floaty, exaggerated jump adds a touch of urban parkour as you find new ways to get about.

Strychalski and his brother Sean Wright originally decided with Tokyo 42 to make a game together inspired by the titles they grew up playing, in particular the original Grand Theft Auto and Syndicate. One of the goals was to take the ideas in those games namely the idea of a large isometric world and expand on them. There was the kind of promise of this open city, which [Rockstar] fulfilled with the later games in three dimensions, but they never did it from the god-view, top-down, explains Strychalski. I personally wanted to take that idea: What if GTA III wasnt a third-person thing, but it kept the same perspective as the original ones?

The world of Tokyo 42 is larger and offers more freedom than its inspirations. Its also noticeably more vertical: instead of moving through city streets, youre constantly shifting up and down the rooftops of buildings, navigating twisting staircases and perilous drops. This had a practical benefit, as it allowed the two-man team to create a plausibly small slice of a huge metropolis. We didnt want to have invisible walls, says Wright. Our solution to that was to put it all on rooftops you can believe theres a whole ground level as well. But it also helped them create a very specific kind of moment, one inspired in part by Assassins Creed. We wanted to get that feeling of being able to stand on top of a building and look out at the city, Strychalski says.

I cant think of any other place that it could be.

For all of its new features and ideas, Tokyo 42s influences are clear when you play. And thats not something the developers were trying to avoid. In the process of making our own thing, its so comforting to be able to look at games like that and draw on one of their mechanics and just be like Well I know that works because I loved using it there, says Wright.

The end result is a game that blurs multiple lines, both in how it plays and the themes it explores. Playing Tokyo 42 is like experiencing a modern open-world shooter in the body of an old-school isometric game. Meanwhile, its take on cyberpunk calls to mind classics like Akira or Neuromancer, but with a distinct, much lighter tone and feel. That said, while Tokyo 42 plays with the themes of cyberpunk in a number of ways, there was one area where the team was sure it didnt want to change things up.

It has to be Tokyo, says Strychalski. Theres no other place for us I cant think of any other place that it could be.

Tokyo 42 launches today on PC and Xbox One. A PS4 version is coming later on.

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Inside the stylish, cyberpunk future of Tokyo 42 - The Verge

Cyberpunk 2077 was a much-anticipated game long before The Witcher 3s rampant success. Following the worldwide love-in for CD Projekt Reds masterpiece, however, the hype levels for what the Polish developers could do with their next big project have gone through the roof.

As is customary for the developer, they have flatly refused to talk about the game until theyre good and ready, so any news has usually come from internet trawlers and detectives. We dont know exactly what kind of game it will end up looking like, but that hasnt stopped everyone from putting Cyberpunk 2077 on a pedestal as arguably the most exciting game still to come.

Heres what we know so far.

What is Cyberpunk 2077s release date? Coming: when its ready.

The closing line from the games teaser trailer shows that they wont be rushed into releasing Cyberpunk 2077, but rumours abound that we might find out more at E3 2017.

However, an interesting point to note is that the game was given millions in Polish government funding to work towards a 2019 release.

Where can I play Cyberpunk 2077? Nothing confirmed, but you can bet your house that it will come to all modern consoles and PC. It worked wonders for them for TW3, so expect the confirmation alongside its release date.

What genre does Cyberpunk 2077 belong to? Now thats a question.

Its going to be an RPG in the same way Geralts last hurrah was, but as for exactly how it will play, your guess is as good as ours.

It can, however, be played either in first or third-person, and will feature multiplayer elements.

Strap in, CDPR went into a lot of detail:

In Cyberpunk 2077, the player will be thrown into a dark future. The metropolis of Night City is a stage set to tell the tale of one individual, raised on the streets, who tries to lift himself up from the gutter and find a way to survive amongst boostergangs and megacorporations in a city of filth and sin. Drugs, violence, poverty and exclusion havent disappeared by 2077, as people stayed they were for centuries greedy, closed-minded and weak. But not only ghosts of the past trouble mankind, but new issues have appeared. Psychos go on rampages and the streets are filled with junkies addicted to a new form of entertainment the braindance, a cheap way to experience the emotions and stimuli of someone else, someone living a more exciting life.

Braindances are 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.

The range of themes of these recordings varies from simple braindances made by mega-corporations, which e.g. allow the viewer to feel the full experience of an explorer with all its thrills, sweats, smells, views, sounds and the real feeling of curiosity that pushes men to go beyond the horizon against fear and physical weakness. But there are also more controversial sides of braindance, because some recordings are created illegally in the underground. Entering the mind of a serial killer means not only seeing the monstrosity he performs, but also living his lust to kill and fulfillment.

You havent experienced the latest New Hollywood recording? Youre nobody! The streets live with braindances, everyone just got crazy and wants to be a part of this new entertainment fad. Some people push it even too far and they cannot stop living other peoples lives. If youre not linked to a braindance right now, you are probably discussing what happened to you during your last session. Of course, just like every great new cultural movement, BDs have people who criticize them.

The development was granted $7million from the Polish government in December 2016. The song in its teaser trailer is Bullets by British band Archive. It will be built on RedEngine4. Sandboxes will feature, as a job listing by CDPR confirms. This means that it will be open-world. It will feature Seamless Multiplayer, which might be Ubisoft-style multiplayer or that it just works smoothly. Humans will be augmented. Cyberpunk 2077 will be far bigger than anything the developers have done before. Its based on the role-playing game Cyberpunk 2020 by Mike Pondsmith, who will also act as a consultant for 2077. Marcin Przybyowicz returns from TW3 to take charge of the music. Cyberpunk 2077 will take place in Night City, a futuristic city that looks dangerous close to being dystopic.

Of course. Thats a silly question.

CDPR have a mighty high mountain of hype to climb over and are probably going to disappoint plenty of people when it isnt the exact game they imagined it would be, but its a safe bet to say that its going to be better than most stuff out there.

As long as we get blade arms, were cool.

Sometimes I think I only started this site so I could make up important sounding positions for myself.

Email: jim@culturedvultures.com

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Cyberpunk 2077 Release Date, Trailers And Latest News - Cultured Vultures

The year is 2042. You blink on your heads-up display that appears everywhere you go, and turn your eyes toward a news video that keeps annoyingly popping up in the corner. It's apparently a huge political gaffe caught on tape. But before you can angrily respond, you feel a cooling sensation on the back of your neck. It's your Anti AI AI, warning you that this videoas real as it lookswasn't taken from an actual event. It's a simulation, created using super-advanced AI that can mimic a human's voice and facial movements.

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"FAKE," you blink out into the comments section.

This future may seems improbable right now, but some of the technology that would allow such simulacra of life already exists. Neural networks are capable of creating convincing sounding replicas of human speech, like this robot Barack Obama.

Combine this with real-time motion capture that makes famous faces look like they're saying different words, and you have all the needed ingredients for spreading misinformation.

To combat this future confusion, DT R&D, a research and development arm of the Australian creative technology agency DT, created a device they call Anti AI AI, a wearable that sits on your ear like a Bluetooth device and contains a neural network trained to tell the difference between human speech and robot speech. The wearable, hooked up to a small thermoelectric plate, cools the back of your neck when it senses a robotic voice. Ironically, the device uses its own AI to foil the robots it encounters in the wild. The wearable is hooked up to an iOS app that uses a Tensorflow neural network that's been trained with thousands of samples of real voices versus robotic voices. The war between the good AIs and bad AIs is already beginning.

"One improvement would be to continually improve the network based on new input it receives 'in the wild', but that was a little beyond our five-day timeframe," the creators wrote in a blog post.

The Anti AI AI is just a prototype, but as we journey farther into the future of fake news, tools like this are going to be necessary to sift through the increasingly untrustworthy world.

Source: DT R&D

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An Anti-AI Wearable for Our Dystopian Cyberpunk Future - Popular Mechanics

(Last Updated On: May 27, 2017)

If you like Cyberpunk and RPG games youll know that there is a shortage of 3rd/1st-person titles set in that genre. However, CD Projekt Red seeks to change that with Cyberpunk 2077, and it seems in a recent financial report that CD Projekt REDs CEO, Marcin Kicinski, published there will be a surprise when the game receives promotional treatment.

Theres no doubt that CD Projekt Red is getting ready to pump promotional content sometime in the future, if not the far future, regarding Cyberpunk 2077, especially with the recent job listing of an Event Manager. The job listing that was under Cyberpunk 2077 and now recently changed to PR & Marketing | Warsaw sees the person of interest attending events like E3, GamesCom, GDC and Promised Land:

Were looking for an exceptional talent, who will use his/her experience, knowledge and creativity to organize the best events in the industry. International fairs, extraordinary media shows, great events for players, limited only by our imagination? E3, Gamescom, GDC, Promised Land? Its our reality and soon can be yours too.

This links into the latest information that sees CD Projekt Red now finished with its promotional campaign plans for Cyberpunk 2077. So does this mean that we will see a tiny tease maybe at Gamescom, GDC or Promised Land? Well, we dont know, but what is known is that 2017 is the year of Gwent according to the teams 2016 financial results conference.

Furthermore, the recent Q1 2017 financial results presentation brought forth news that CD Projekt Red was able to earn a net profit of 43.7 million Polish Zloty (or around $11.7) during the first quarter of 2017, which was a 35% increase from the teams performance during the first quarter of 2016. This later lead to the CEO of the studio, Marcin Kicinski, to say that

The promotional campaign (for Cyberpunk 2077) is already planned. Its main element is the surprise, so I cannot even say when it will begin. Simply because it has to come as a surprise.

So we know that the game is coming along nicely as of 2017 given that Mike Pondsmith is very impressed with CD Projekt Reds adaption of his Cyberpunk world, which comes after the upgrade of the old engine to the new REDengine 4; meaning that the transition is going rather well.

Its good to hear that CD Projekt Red is still working on the only real Cyberpunk game that is based on a brutal, unforgiving, selfish world wrapped in a dark machinists dream, because we dont get that many 3rd-person/1st-person RPG shooters like the above.

Anyway, the game is set to release when it is ready. More information pertaining to Cyberpunk 2077 can be found by hitting up cyberpunk.net.

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Cyberpunk 2077 Promotional Campaign Is Already Underway, Will ... - One Angry Gamer (blog)

CD Projekt REDs President and Joint CEO, ADAM KICISKI, has stated that Cyberpunk 2077 promotional campaign is ready and the games reveal is going to be a major surprise for the community. They are going to play with the element of surprise for this one.

This may spark speculations that CD Projekt RED may be at E3 2017 with its new game. However, that is unlikely to be the case. Recently, CD Projekt Red hosted its financial results conference for 2016 in which the developer revealed that the development progress on Cyberpunk 2077 is quite advanced and the studio needs more time before it is ready.

Furthermore, the company revealed that the studio considers 2017 as the year of GWENT: The Witcher Card Game and will not reveal anything major about Cyberpunk 2077 this year.

According to CD Projekt RED CEO, the promotional campaign is planned and they are waiting for the right moment. He made the statement during a recent conference call.

Rumor has it that the pre-production before 2016 was scrapped which slowed down the development process, however, that report has never been confirmed.

The game has been in development for a long time and will release sometime between 2017-2021. There is another AAA RPG in development alongside Cyberpunk 2077 which puts extra pressure on the development team.

Cyberpunk 2077 tidbits might be shared this year but expect nothing major from the developers any time soon.Cyberpunk 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 Promotional Campaign is Ready, Announcement to be a Surprise - SegmentNext

Over four years and 10 million YouTube views later, Cyberpunk 2077's Teaser Trailer remains the only glimpse into CD Projekt RED's mysterious RPG that is said to be "really, really, really f**king badass." Given that there is three whole "really's" in that statement, it must be good, right?

As we continue to wait out the game's inevitable reveal, CD Projekt RED Joint CEOMarcin Kicinski stated during the studio's Q1 2017 financial results presentation that plans for Cyberpunk 2077's marketing campaign are complete and that its central element is "surprise."

He said:

The promotional campaign (for Cyberpunk 2077) is already planned. Its main element is the surprise, so I cannot even say when it will begin. Simply because it has to come as a surprise.

Obviously, the main question is when we can expect to see it, and while many were probably hoping for an E3 2017 presence, they may want to hold off on that excitement. CD Projekt RED has already stated that 2017 "belongs to Gwent" and given that the game has just hit Public Beta, it's more likely that we will see more of Gwent in LA this year.

Also, if "surprise" is key to the marketing element, it's not out of the question to presume that the announcement will come at a downtime when not many big AAA games are nabbing headlines. This could mean either a December/January window when the gaming calendar is wrapping up or just getting underway or perhaps during the middle of the summer, which is traditionally known as a dry season for game releases.

Regardless, it would appear as though our wait continues.

Source: [CD Projekt RED via NeoGAF]

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CD Projekt RED CEO: Cyberpunk 2077's promo campaign is ready, reveal will come as a "surprise" - GameZone

(Last Updated On: May 18, 2017)

Theres a lot of excitement behind CD Projekt Reds Cyberpunk 2077. Some of the best information about the upcoming project has been from various job listings, which has revealed potential features that could wind up in the game and future events regarding the sci-fi RPG.

Notice: All of the information below should be taken with a grain of salt and may or may not turn up in Cyberpunk 2077. This information comes from CD Projekt Reds job listings, Glixel and a Totalcon 2017 attendee that met Mike Pondsmith, who is behind the upcoming sci-fi RPG.

Job Listings

Firstly, lets take a look at the job listings for Cyberpunk 2077. These listings can offer up quite a bit of information prior to major announcements and/or smaller events. However, they do not ensure that a specific feature or more will make it into a game, but we will look over the most plausible content featured in the job listings, which includes: Environment Artist, Senior Engine Programmer and Senior Animation Programmer.

Starting with the former, the Environment Artist job post highlights physicalized objects and destruction models. This means that a form of destructible environments and movable objects are more than likely to appear around Night City, but the real question is how much will be destructive and how many physics based items will players be able to interact with? While we ponder on that you can read the job listing below.

CD PROJEKT RED in Krakow is looking for an Environment Artist to work on Cyberpunk 2077. The Environment Artist will take responsibility for creating wide range of photorealistic environments in futuristic settings, covering also physicalized objects and destruction models.

Next up comes the Senior Engine Programmer. This position sees optimization as an importance. In other words this means that the REDengine 4 will be tested thoroughly on different PC setups, and platforms like PS4 and Xbox One to see how well Cyberpunk runs. You can read the job listing below.

As a Senior Engine Programmer you will be responsible for designing, implementing, optimizing and maintaining parts of our in-house engine both for the PC and the new generation of consoles (PS4, Xbox One). Person on this position will be cooperating with other engine programmers and Director Game Programming in order to create technical solutions meeting desired requirements.

I should note that this next part is not official, but seeing how the game is scheduled to come out either late 2018 through 2021, the game could technically bypass the PS4 and Xbox One and instead focus on their more high-end iterations like the PS4 Pro and Xbox Scorpio. For example, Bungie did this later into the lifespan of Destiny with the Rise of Iron expansion, which is only for PS4 and Xbox One and not for PS3 and Xbox 360.

The next job listing is just me being a rude boy here, but I thought it was rather funny that CDPR put this in, however the Senior Animation Programmer sees said position focusing on character facial animations, movement and combat, as well as cut-scenes. Hmm didnt a certain AAA game that came out March of 2017 suffer from poor animations that were done by unqualified participants? You know what, I cant remember so instead you can read the listing for the Senior AP:

DAILY RESPONSIBILITIES IN A NUTSHELL. Focusing especially on the characters: theirfacial animations, movement, locomotion, combat, etc. as well as cutscenes, camera and the like.

Gangs and Daft Cyberpunks

It wouldnt quite be a cyberpunk title if it didnt feature punks in a cyber world, eh? Well, the original tabletop game and universe featured a list of gang members, one of the gangs that make an appearance quite often are the Boostergangs more information on them and others can be found on the official wikia. We just might see the ruthless, territorial daft-minded cyberpunks in the game, and if other gangs follow suit reputation points may be a thing like in other Sci-Fi games like Destiny and Warframe with syndicate groups.

Combat Zones

This is just speculation, but Combat Zones in the Cyberpunk realm are lawless No Go areas of the Urban Sprawl. The law is non-existent in this region and sees very little sane people traversing through aside from gangs looking to stir up pure chaos. This heavily controlled gang area that is not recommended to lurk around could be where the seamless multiplayer could step in. The Combat Zones could also stand as a hub for PvP or just unsafe areas around the Urban Sprawl in the single-player mode. Of course, this is all just speculation based on the Cyberpunk lore, so take with some salt.

Totalcon 2018

Over on the official Cyberpunk 2077 forum board, a certain user who killed one of the PCs neo-NAZI rockerboy characters on a train at the Totalcon 2017 event, named The Cybersmily, witnessed Mike Pondsmith do a Q&A and noted that

I wasnt able to get into any games that Mike was running. His son Cody was running Witcher there as well which I wasnt able to get in either. Not much of a report so far I know. Mike did a 30 minute Q&A which turned into more of a discuss of how cyberpunk real life has turned into. He talk a little bit about working with CD Projekt Red team. Gave absolutely no details about what they are doing, where the game is, whats been done so far. He only commented about how impressed he was with what he was seeing.

You are probably thinking thats not anything useful!? Actually thats very good information right there. Pondsmith is very specific when it comes to others handling the Cyberpunk realm that he created. He told Glixel that a lot of people want to do a game adaptation but change it way too much, as noted below.

Pondsmith says that since its release, Cyberpunk has been under option almost constantly for a video game adaptation. The closest we got was a mobile game, he says, but they wanted to change it way, way, way too much. CDPR are the first to see it through.

So to see him happy as of 2017 of CDPRs progress means a lot and that it is exactly or near his imagination of the Cyberpunk world that he made. This now leads to Totalcon 2018, which is set to kick off on February 22-25th, 2018. Pondsmith has showed up three times to said event and could possibly show up for a fourth time and speak of Cyberpunk 2077 again. Sadly, only time will tell if he will do so.

Cyberpunk 2077 is set to come out with the new tabletop game; both are set to debut when they are ready. For more information on Totalcon 2018 you can hit up totalcon.com.

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Here's The Latest Information And Rumors Regarding Cyberpunk 2077 - One Angry Gamer (blog)

A number of cyberpunk derivatives have become recognized as distinct subgenres in speculative fiction.[1] These derivatives, though they do not share cyberpunk's computers-focused setting, may display other qualities drawn from or analogous to cyberpunk: a world built on one particular technology that is extrapolated to a highly sophisticated level (this may even be a fantastical or anachronistic technology, akin to retro-futurism), a gritty transreal urban style, or a particular approach to social themes.

The most successful[citation needed] of these subgenres, Steampunk, has been defined as a "kind of technological fantasy",[1] and others in this category sometimes also incorporate aspects of science fantasy and historical fantasy.[2] Scholars have written of these subgenres' stylistic place in postmodern literature, and also their ambiguous interaction with the historical perspective of postcolonialism.[3]

American author Bruce Bethke coined the term "cyberpunk" in his 1980 short story of the same name, proposing it as a label for a new generation of punk teenagers inspired by the perceptions inherent to the Information Age.[4] The term was quickly appropriated as a label to be applied to the works of William Gibson, Bruce Sterling, John Shirley, Rudy Rucker, Michael Swanwick, Pat Cadigan, Lewis Shiner, Richard Kadrey, and others. Science fiction author Lawrence Person, in defining postcyberpunk, summarized the characteristics of cyberpunk thus:

Classic cyberpunk characters were marginalized, alienated loners who lived on the edge of society in generally dystopic futures where daily life was impacted by rapid technological change, an ubiquitous datasphere of computerized information, and invasive modification of the human body.[5]

The relevance of cyberpunk as a genre to punk subculture is debatable and further hampered by the lack of a defined cyberpunk subculture; where the small cyber movement shares themes with cyberpunk fiction and draws inspiration from punk and goth alike, cyberculture is much more popular though much less defined, encompassing virtual communities and cyberspace in general and typically embracing optimistic anticipations about the future. Cyberpunk is nonetheless regarded as a successful genre, as it ensnared many new readers and provided the sort of movement that postmodern literary critics found alluring. Furthermore, author David Brin argues, cyberpunk made science fiction more attractive and profitable for mainstream media and the visual arts in general.[6]

Biopunk emerged during the 1990s and focuses on the near-future unintended consequences of the biotechnology revolution following the discovery of recombinant DNA. Biopunk fiction typically describes the struggles of individuals or groups, often the product of human experimentation, against a backdrop of totalitarian governments or megacorporations which misuse biotechnologies as means of social control or profiteering. Unlike cyberpunk, it builds not on information technology but on biorobotics and synthetic biology. As in postcyberpunk however, individuals are usually modified and enhanced not with cyberware, but by genetic manipulation of their chromosomes.

Nanopunk refers to an emerging subgenre of speculative science fiction still very much in its infancy in comparison to other genres like that of cyberpunk.[7] The genre is similar to biopunk, but describes a world in which the use of biotechnology is limited or prohibited, and only nanites and nanotechnology is in wide use (while in biopunk bio- and nanotechnologies often coexist). Currently the genre is more concerned with the artistic and physiological impact of nanotechnology, than of aspects of the technology itself. Still, one of the most prominent examples of nanopunk is Crysis video game series. And much lesser famous examples is Generator Rex and Transcendence.[8]

As new writers and artists began to experiment with cyberpunk ideas, new varieties of fiction emerged, sometimes addressing the criticisms leveled at the original cyberpunk stories. Lawrence Person wrote in an essay he posted to the Internet forum Slashdot in 1998:

The best of cyberpunk conveyed huge cognitive loads about the future by depicting (in best "show, don't tell" fashion) the interaction of its characters with the quotidian minutia of their environment. In the way they interacted with their clothes, their furniture, their decks and spex, cyberpunk characters told you more about the society they lived in than "classic" SF stories did through their interaction with robots and rocketships. Postcyberpunk uses the same immersive world-building technique, but features different characters, settings, and, most importantly, makes fundamentally different assumptions about the future. Far from being alienated loners, postcyberpunk characters are frequently integral members of society (i.e., they have jobs). They live in futures that are not necessarily dystopic (indeed, they are often suffused with an optimism that ranges from cautious to exuberant), but their everyday lives are still impacted by rapid technological change and an omnipresent computerized infrastructure.[5]

and advocates using the term "postcyberpunk" for this strain of science fiction. In this view, typical postcyberpunk stories explore themes related to a "world of accelerating technological innovation and ever-increasing complexity in ways relevant to our everyday lives" with a continued focus on social aspects within a post-third industrial-era society, such as of ubiquitous dataspheres and cybernetic augmentation of the human body. Unlike cyberpunk its works may portray a utopia or to blend elements of both extremes into a more mature (to cyberpunk) societal vision. Rafael Miranda Huereca states:

In this fictional world, the unison in the hive becomes a power mechanism which is executed in its capillary form, not from above the social body but from within. This mechanism as Foucault remarks is a form of power, which "reaches into the very grain of individuals, touches their bodies and inserts itself into their actions and attitudes, their discourses, learning processes and everyday lives." In postcyberpunk unitopia 'the capillary mechanism' that Foucault describes is literalized. Power touches the body through the genes, injects viruses to the veins, takes the forms of pills and constantly penetrates the body through its surveillance systems; collects samples of body substance, reads finger prints, even reads the prints that are not visible, the ones which are coded in the genes. The body responds back to power, communicates with it; supplies the information that power requires and also receives its future conduct as a part of its daily routine. More importantly, power does not only control the body, but also designs, (re)produces, (re)creates it according to its own objectives. Thus, human body is re-formed as a result of the transformations of the relations between communication and power.[9]

The Daemon novels by Daniel Suarez could be considered postcyberpunk in that sense. In addition to themes of its ancestral genre postcyberpunk might also combine elements of nanopunk and biopunk.[10] Often named examples of postcyberpunk novels are Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age and Bruce Sterling's Holy Fire. In television, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex has been called "the most interesting, sustained postcyberpunk media work in existence".[11] In 2007, SF writers James Patrick Kelly and John Kessel published Rewired: The Post-Cyberpunk Anthology. Like all categories discerned within science fiction, the boundaries of postcyberpunk are likely to be fluid or ill defined.[12]

As a wider variety of writers began to work with cyberpunk concepts, new subgenres of science fiction emerged, playing off the cyberpunk label, and focusing on technology and its social effects in different ways. Many derivatives of cyberpunk are retro-futuristic, based either on the futuristic visions of past eras, especially from the first and second industrial revolution technological-eras, or more recent extrapolations or exaggerations of the actual technology of those eras.

The word "steampunk" was invented in 1987 as a jocular reference to some of the novels of Tim Powers, James P. Blaylock, and K. W. Jeter. When Gibson and Sterling entered the subgenre with their 1990 collaborative novel The Difference Engine the term was being used earnestly as well.[13]Alan Moore's and Kevin O'Neill's 1999 The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen historical fantasy comic book series (and the subsequent 2003 film adaption) popularized the steampunk genre and helped propel it into mainstream fiction.[14]

The most immediate form of steampunk subculture is the community of fans surrounding the genre. Others move beyond this, attempting to adopt a "steampunk" aesthetic through fashion, home decor and even music. This movement may also be (perhaps more accurately) described as "Neo-Victorianism", which is the amalgamation of Victorian aesthetic principles with modern sensibilities and technologies. This characteristic is particularly evident in steampunk fashion which tends to synthesize punk, goth and rivet styles as filtered through the Victorian era. As an object style, however, steampunk adopts more distinct characteristics with various craftspersons modding modern-day devices into a pseudo-Victorian mechanical "steampunk" style.[15] The goal of such redesigns is to employ appropriate materials (such as polished brass, iron, and wood) with design elements and craftsmanship consistent with the Victorian era.[16]

Dieselpunk is a genre and art style based on the aesthetics popular between World War I and the end of World War II. The style combines the artistic and genre influences of the period (including pulp magazines, serial films, film noir, art deco, and wartime pin-ups) with retro-futuristic technology[17][18] and postmodern sensibilities.[19] First coined in 2001 as a marketing term by game designer Lewis Pollak to describe his role-playing game Children of the Sun,[18][20] dieselpunk has grown to describe a distinct style of visual art, music, motion pictures, fiction, and engineering. Examples include the movies Iron Sky, Rocketeer, K-20: Legend of the Mask, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow and Dark City, and the games Crimson Skies, Greed Corp, Gatling Gears, BioShock and its sequel BioShock 2, The Legend of Korra and Skullgirls.[21]

There have been a handful of divergent terms based on the general concepts of steampunk. These are typically considered unofficial and are often invented by readers, or by authors referring to their own works, often humorously.

A large number of terms have been used by the GURPS roleplaying game Steampunk to describe anachronistic technologies and settings, including stonepunk, bronzepunk, sandalpunk, candlepunk, and transistorpunk. These terms have seen very little use outside GURPS.[22]

Stonepunk refers to works set roughly during the Stone Age in which the characters utilize Neolithic Revolutionera technology constructed from materials more or less consistent with the time period, but possessing anachronistic complexity and function. The Flintstones franchise and its various spin offs, Roland Emmerich's 10,000 BC, and the flashback scenes in Cro fall under this category. Literary examples include Edgar Rice Burrough's Back to the Stone Age and The Land that Time Forgot, and Jean M. Auel's "Earths Children" series, starting with The Clan of the Cave Bear.[23]

Clockpunk portrays Renaissance-era science and technology based on pre-modern designs, in the vein of Mainspring by Jay Lake,[24] and Whitechapel Gods by S. M. Peters.[25] Examples of clockpunk include Astro-Knights Island in the nonlinear game Poptropica, the 2011 film version of The Three Musketeers, the game Thief: The Dark Project, and the game Syberia.

The term was coined by the GURPS role playing system.[22]

Nowpunk is a term invented by Bruce Sterling, which he applied to contemporary fiction set in the time period in which the fiction is being published, i.e. all contemporary fiction. Sterling used the term to describe his book The Zenith Angle, which follows the story of a hacker whose life is changed by the September 11, 2001 attacks.[26]

Elfpunk is subgenre of urban fantasy in which traditional mythological creatures such as faeries and elves are transplanted from rural folklore into modern urban settings and has been seen in books since the 1980s including works such as War of the Oaks by Emma Bull, Gossamer Axe by Gael Baudino, and The Iron Dragons' Daughter by Michael Swanwick. During the awards ceremony for the 2007 National Book Awards, judge Elizabeth Partridge expounded on the distinction between elfpunk and urban fantasy, citing fellow judge Scott Westerfeld's thoughts on the works of Holly Black who is considered "classic elfpunkthere's enough creatures already, and she's using them. Urban fantasy, though, can have some totally made-up f*cked-up [sic] creatures".[27]

Catherynne M. Valente uses the term "mythpunk" to describe a subgenre of mythic fiction which starts in folklore and myth and adds elements of postmodern literary techniques. As the -punk appendage implies,[28] mythpunk is subversive. In particular, it uses aspects of folklore to subvert or question dominant societal norms, often bringing in a feminist and/or multicultural approach. It confronts, instead of conforms, to societal norms.[29] Valente describes mythpunk as breaking "mythologies that defined a universe where women, queer folk, people of color, people who deviate from the norm were invisible or never existed" and then "piecing it back together to make something strange and different and wild".[28]

Typically, mythpunk narratives focus on transforming folkloric source material rather than retelling it, often through postmodern literary techniques such as non-linear storytelling, worldbuilding, confessional poetry, as well as modern linguistic and literary devices. The use of folklore is especially important because folklore is "often a battleground between subversive and conservative forces" and a medium for constructing new societal norms. Through postmodern literary techniques, mythpunk authors change the structures and traditions of folklore, "negotiatingand validatingdifferent norms".[29]

Most works of mythpunk have been published by small presses, such as Strange Horizons,[30] because "anything playing out on the edge is going to have truck with the small presses at some point, because small presses take big risks".[28] Writers whose works would fall under the mythpunk label include Ekaterina Sedia, Theodora Goss, Neil Gaiman, Sonya Taaffe, Adam Christopher, and the anonymous author behind the pen name "B.L.A. and G.B. Gabbler". Valente's novel Deathless is a good example of mythpunk, drawing from classic Russian folklore to tell the tale of Koshchei the Deathless from a female perspective.[31]

"Dreampunk" is a fledgling genre of post-modern, dystopian fiction that concentrates on the alchemical power of dreams and the exploration of countercultures. Dreampunk is influenced by other punk genres such as steampunk and cyberpunk but also from more classical literary genres, mythology, process-oriented psychology, Jungian archetypes and shamanic traditions. Dreampunk, as the name suggests, is inspired by dreams, and thus uses "dream logic" or fairy tales to convey themes and meaning. A complex and nuanced genre of fiction, dreampunk narratives are layered and can be interpreted on many levels, with superficial narrative elements suitable for all audiences as well as deep and chilling archetypal references that are more intriguing for readers interested in alchemy, psychoanalysis or the occult. Works cited as dreampunk include many of the works of filmmaker David Lynch and Lewis Carroll's Alice series.[32][bettersourceneeded]

Works concerned specifically with dreampunk themes include the works of EC Steiner,[33] an Atlanta-based artist, designer and sometimes storyteller, and Yelena Calavera,[34] a writer, journalist and multimedia storyteller from Johannesburg, South Africa. Calavera's extensive writing[35] actively aims to flesh out the dreampunk genre and publish literary titles that best articulate the main themes of the genre.

Decopunk is a recent subset of Dieselpunk, centered around the art deco and Streamline Moderne art styles, and based around the period between the 1920s and 1950s. In an interview[36] at CoyoteCon, steampunk author Sara M. Harvey made the distinctions "shinier than dieselpunk, more like decopunk", and "Dieselpunk is a gritty version of steampunk set in the 1920s1950s. The big war eras, specifically. Decopunk is the sleek, shiny very art deco version; same time period, but everything is chrome!" Its fandom arose around 2008.[citation needed] Possibly the most notable examples of this are the first two BioShock games, and the cartoon Batman: The Animated Series which included neo-noir elements along with modern elements such as the use of VHS cassettes.

Atompunk (sometimes called "atomicpunk") relates to the pre-digital short twentieth century, specifically the period of 19451965, including mid-century Modernism, the Atomic Age, Jet Age and Space Age, Communism and concern about it exaggerated as paranoia in the USA along with Neo-Soviet styling, underground cinema, Googie architecture, Sputnik and the Space Race, superhero fiction and comic books, the rise of the US military/industrial powers and the fall-out of Chernobyl.[37][38] Its aesthetic tends toward Populuxe and Raygun Gothic, which describe a retro-futuristic vision of the world.[37] Among the most notable examples is the Fallout video game series and the film Fido.

Cyberprep is a term with a very similar meaning to postcyberpunk. The word is an amalgam of the prefix "cyber-", referring to cybernetics and "preppy", reflecting its divergence from the punk elements of cyberpunk. A cyberprep world assumes that all the technological advancements of cyberpunk speculation have taken place but life is utopian rather than gritty and dangerous.[39] Since society is largely leisure-driven, uploading is more of an art form or a medium of entertainment[citation needed] while advanced body modifications are used for sports, pleasure and self-improvement. An example would be Scott Westerfeld's Uglies series.

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Cyberpunk derivatives - Wikipedia