Get Played - We Play, You Play: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty with Shaun Diston

Episode Date: October 30, 2023

Shaun Diston returns to the show to discuss Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty with Nick and Matt! They talk a little bit about Spider-Man 2, NBA 2K24, Super Mario Bros. Wonder and then dive into the Cyperpunk DLC as well as the 2.0 update. Follow us on Twitter and Instagram @getplayedpod. Check out our Anime watch along podcast Get Anime'd only on patreon.com/getplayed. Join us on our Discord server here: https://discord.gg/getplayed Wanna leave us a voicemail? Call 616-2-PLAYED (616-275-2933) or write us an email at [e-mail] Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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I'm really excited to talk today with Sean about Cyberpunk. Yeah, I'm ready. I'm amped up. Are you... You seem a little... You seem a little different, Nick. You see it, don't you? You can tell, can't you? You can tell, can't you?

Something I think is a little off with you today. You seem a little, just a little bit more, a little extra. Matt, I've gone cyber psycho. I guess. I did it. I went Cyber Psycho. I mean, did you though? Because

you kind of just seem cheeky, but you don't seem like you've gone full like... You're chromed up. I maxed out my Kiroshi Stalker optics. I got new bionic joints and dense marrow. I got these gorilla arms. I got titanium bones. I got new bionic joints and dense marrow. I got these gorilla arms. I got titanium bones. I got a micro generator and a shock absorber.

I got, you know, I got this adrenaline converter to amp up my movement speed. I feel like a million bucks. No. Yeah. And that's all that's evident visually. But I guess I mean, in terms of your demeanor, you seem kind of the same otherwise. Check this out. That's the stabber.

I got the stabber. Okay, yeah, no, keep that away from me. That's interesting, but I don't know. I mean, I guess if you're Cyberpsycho right now, have you been Cyberpsycho for as long as I have known you? Because you're kind of just like this. What does that mean? What? I'm just saying, like, you don't seem that different.

I've completely replaced every human part about me with some sort of biomechanical computerized piece of hardware. I'm more machine than man. Yeah, no, yeah, you're more computer than flesh. I understand that, but it just seems like you're just kind of being a little, like, the way you said this to me, you're being a little shit. Like, you're just, what? I'm Cyberpsycho is all. Yeah, but it's just like.

I'm a Cyberpsycho. I can't help it. I guess maybe it's possible that Cyberpsycho isn't a one-size-fits-all label. Maybe it doesn't make you go absolutely bananas, as it were. But you just kind of seem normal except your eyes are glowing red and you're chromed the fuck up. Yeah, I know. I honestly have never felt this good in all my life. You know I've got a second heart?

I've got two hearts. I was fucking breaking records on the Peloton earlier. That's, I mean, there's no need. There's simply no need for something like that. What, now you're going to tell me there's no need for my carapace either, right? I couldn't even tell you what that is. It's some armor, so when I crouch, I can take more damage.

My armor is way more effective when I'm attacked from the back. Well, I guess if you've gone Cyber Psycho, I guess I better go Cyber Psycho too.

Matt, it's the best thing I've ever done for myself. You got to do this. You got to go Cyber Psycho. Okay, two hearts, huh? I'm going to go, I guess, three hearts. Don't try to one-up me in heart count. No, no, no. I'll go three hearts.

Maybe a second carapace. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A word I just learned. All right, Matt. I'm going to turn on Berserk mode if you start talking about getting more than two hearts. Oh, you're going to turn on Berserk mode? I'm going to turn on Berserk mode. I'd love to see you in Berserk mode right now. All right, I'm Berserk. I'm going to turn on berserk mode if you start talking about getting more than two hearts. Oh, you're going to turn on berserk mode? I'm going to turn on berserk mode.

I'd love to see you in berserk mode right now. All right, I'm berserk. I'm berserk. I'm a berserk cyber psycho. This is actually scarier than a normal cyber psycho. What? I'm a berserk cyber psycho is all. We salvage the president's spacecraft and steal the identity of a French twin as we play You Play Cyberpunk 2077 Liberty. This week on Get Played. Thank you. Welcome to Get Played, your one-stop show for good games, bad games, and every game in between.

It's time to get played. I'm Nick Weiger, along with Matt Apodaca. Hello, everyone. Hello, everyone. Hello, Night City. Wow, well done. Heather is out again this week. She'll hopefully be returning to the show real, real soon. But we have a fantastic guest in her stead.

Welcome back to the show, Sean Diston. Hi, Sean. Edge. I just had to get it in. I think if it's not going to be Nick's catchphrase, it will be my catchphrase. The birth of Edge, the genesis of Edge, dates back to your appearance in our old format when we played through the game Catherine, and Catherine

implores the player to edge as you are doing some platforming, some puzzle platforming. And that's when I started saying it. And then there reached a certain point where you suggested to me to say it. Yeah, I said say it. And then I think, you know, you get about a year in and you're like, all right, so new fans are hearing me say edge.

What's going on? What is happening? But I'm fine to take it up as my own cash phrase. I love it. I say it all the time now, you know, edge. I had an incident where I was, this is unrelated, but I was in an Uber and I just talked to everybody. Like I was just talking to the Uber driver as I tend to do. I tend to strike up conversations with strangers.

And she was telling me about like, she was like, you know, she asked me if I had kids. I was like, no. I asked her about her kids. And she was like, you know, she asked me if I had kids. I was like, no, she's, I asked her about her kids and she was like, oh, my, my daughter's doing very well. She's about to graduate from college. And she's like, my son, he dropped out and he just like, he just plays video games all day and he's yelling. And so I asked her, I was like, oh, so is he like, does he like stream on Twitch? She's like, yes, Twitch. Yes. And then she like, but she didn't know what Twitch was. And so I like explained it to her. I was like, yes, Twitch. Yes. And then she like, but she didn't know what Twitch was. And so I like explained it to her. I was like, oh, well, it's like a thing where you get on and

it's like, you know, you you talk to people and they are, you know, that you're playing video games and you're also like have people who are watching you live. And she's like, oh, starting to process it a little bit. She's like, so I thought he was like very like like talented and funny. I was like, well, you know what? A lot of people who are talented and funny, that's what they're doing now. Did you talk this person into being proud of their son? I talked her into supporting her Twitch streaming son. You're like, you know, you can actually make some money on there. There are people who make their whole career there.

Unfortunately, her son was Dr. Disrespect. Oh, that's tough. He's doing great. But I had a whole thing where I felt like by the end of it, I'd finished a quest. I'd got this mom to reconcile with her Twitch streamings on. That's so funny. That does feel like a great side quest.

And Nick, don't hold on to stories like that anymore. We need that stuff around here, even when Sean's not here. That's right. I know that you brought it up because Sean loves stories, he thought. But that's a good one just for any app. That's so good. That's so funny. Well, that happened since our last record.

It happened since our, oh, so you didn't have it in the chamber. It's a new story. No, this is a new one. Okay, I'll tell you something. I loved hearing it. I can't imagine how many parents have no idea what Twitch is and are worried. Like, why are there like, is it weird to have like yourself on camera live for like three hours a night as a parent? Like, how do you how do you think parents feel?

I mean, my mom doesn't really understand what this is. Yeah. So I don't even know. I can't I couldn't even explain to her what Twitch is, probably. There's something about the live aspect of Twitch that I'm just a little bit like, if I were a parent and had no idea, I bet I'd be like, I don't know.

I don't love that. I don't love that. Some creep can come on and watch my son play video games. I'd feel probably, you know, if I was of that generation, was not familiar with it. I'm trying to extrapolate into the future what an equivalent would be, you know, if I was of that generation, was not familiar with it. I'm trying to extrapolate into the future what an equivalent would be, you know. Oh, right. Yeah.

Like someone like, I guess something that I would feel would be invasive is if like my kid was live streaming us like having a family dinner. But that's probably like in the future, right? That already is happening. That probably already exists. Maybe your child is a brain dance star. Yeah, I think the equivalent would be if they're live streaming their dreams or something. Right, right, right. You don't want everyone to see your subconscious.

No, that's interesting. Yeah. But yeah, that's, you know, Twitch is. Don't stream our silent dinners. How was work, honey? I don't want to talk about it. Oh, shit. That's actually a pretty good dad watch.

That is fun. Distin, we're going to be talking about cyberpunk in a bit. Yes. And I'm excited to dig in on this. But you, like me, the writer's strike kind of was a bit of a disruption and it sounded like that has led to you gaming more. Yes. My gaming

habits are, I go years without playing them and then I get into one game and then it opens this pathway to six or seven games. And then I sort of run out of steam somewhere. If I don't have another game to hop to and then it goes away for a few years and the pandemic was a big uptick in gaming because obviously what the fuck else was i gonna do but the writer's strike in particular

was so i don't know what it was there were just a few games that came out where i was like all right well now i'm'm nonstop gaming. And we'll talk about those when we get to the next section. But, like, yeah, I've been gaming so much more. And it's not good. It's really fun, but I'm finding myself like, oh, no, when I get back to work, am I going to be totally fucked? I would say that I'm very aware when you're gaming because our communications spike, go to an all-time high. Not that we don't talk in general.

I'll just text you, just got to this part, it's crazy. Don't want to spoil it. That's like most of our communications are you playing a game or a Marvel movie is out and we're like two ships in the night. Talking about it. I think one of the things about gaming

that I maybe am not great about is I don't foster the community around gaming like you guys have. Like, I don't do much online gaming with friends, which I really want to do more. I don't even know what games I would do it in, but the idea of it's fun, but I just don't do that at all. So I often feel like I'm playing this game and have no one to talk to about it. If Heather was here, she would be telling you to hop on Fortnite. I, I,

I, you know, if I'm afraid because Fortnite is one of, and we'll talk about these styles of games, but it's a never ending game. Right. And something that doesn't have an ending to me is really, I struggle with because I,

I can really sink some hours into it. Yeah. So I, I am, my tastes are, are similar to yours in terms of preferring single-player gaming. I don't do a lot of online gaming,

but I will say that Fortnite did get its hooks in me pretty quick, to my surprise, because I was also scared of it. I think it's like cigarettes, where it's developed to hook into you very quickly, and you get addicted to it, but that just means it's good. Just like cigarettes. Yeah. Just like cigarettes.

Yeah, cigarettes are back. Cigarettes are back. This is a pro-cigarettes podcast. Yeah, I get what you're saying because there is an element of you want someone to talk to. And I don't even have the largest circle of, like, gamer friends, but it's nice to have people you can check in with who are playing the same thing at the same time. And that's partly why I get into playing a game like Phantom Liberty or Zelda earlier this year. Because it's like in the Zeitgeist. It's like in the Zeitgeist, and I know I'm paying a premium to play it right now, and I know I have other games that have been out for years that I've never played that I could play instead,

but I kind of want to be a part of this moment because that has its own fun to it. Totally. And I know I have other games that have been out for years that I've never played that I could play instead. But I kind of want to be a part of this moment because that has its own fun. Totally. Like Last of Us. Yeah. You know, even the most recent Star Wars game.

Like I like to be like night they drop, put a couple hours in and start to get into whatever the spoilers are. But, you know, I'm not opposed to playing with other people. And we can talk about a game I'm currently playing in the next section.

But I am getting into it. Like, I'm not a hater. And I am bad at games is the problem. Like, I'm not bad, but I'm mediocre. And I feel like once you start playing with other people, your level needs to be so high. And I worry that I just can't compete in some of these games, you know. Well, look, we've edged enough here.

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That's code getplayed50 at factormeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. That's code getplayed50 at factormeals.com slash getplayed50 to get 50% off. Let's get to it. The question is, what are you playing? Yes, yes. All right, well, I'll get to it. Yeah, let's talk to it. The question is, what are you playing? Yes, yes. All right, well, I'll get to it. Yeah, let's talk about it. We've been sort of teasing it. So, obviously, Spider-Man 2 dropped, the Insomniac game. Yeah.

And I don't know if you guys have picked it up yet, but I have rolled credits on the game. Wow. I've played 31 hours of Spider-Man and finished it. You finished it? 100% of it, Matt. Wow. Since the last time we talked, I've collected all the stupid collectibles. I was wondering why I hadn't heard about it from you in a couple days.

You're done. I'm absolutely done. Wow. It's just, it's a really easy game. And like, I don't know, it's really story driven. So it's like I binged it, I guess. Sure. Yeah.

And I stayed up late a bunch of nights and just really finished the fuck out of that game. And yeah, I liked it it I thought it was great I haven't ripped it open yet I haven't started it yet because I wanted to be just amply prepared for this episode but I'm very excited to do it

how did it stack up? you obviously played the first one I played the first one and I realized I must must have missed two DLCs on the first one. Okay, yeah. But I played Miles Morales, and I 100%ed those as well. I think it's great. It's thoroughly enjoyable. You're not going to be disappointed.

I don't have any complaints. I don't want to get too much into spoilers because it's a very spoilery game. There's a lot of crazy shit that happens in it and I really enjoyed it but it's the type of game where I get it's over I'm finishing it in like three weeks and that's it. Here's a question

and I think I can keep it spoiler light here but gameplay wise how does it iterate on the first game in a Miles Morales because it's got both playable characters. I think these are non-spoilery things but it obviously has the sort of grand theft auto thing where you can switch between characters and they have different side quests and i just think that it opens up the game in a fun way sure um and i think the like gameplay mechanics obviously very similar but they've added some quality of life stuff that i just think is great like they've

added obviously none of these are spoilers because they're in a lot of the trailers and people have talked about them already but they've added a fast travel system that's just like i think you used to have to get on the subway right yeah or something and there's an animation point on the map you literally pick any point on the map you click on on it, there's no load screen. It zooms into the map and you swing into the picture. It's insane. And there's some new abilities that are really cool. And yeah, it just does a good job. I also think like one of my complaints in the old game is the repetitive like bases kind of nature.

And I think they do a great job of varying those up. Okay, cool. So it's, I can't wait to hear you guys talk about it. There's so much to talk about in it. It's almost overstuffed with stuff. Yeah.

But I enjoyed it. It was fucking great. Where do you put it versus like, where do you rank it versus the other games? You mean in this franchise? Yeah, yeah.

Oh, I think it's, God, it's hard to say. I think Miles Morales is like the story and the tightness of that game I really liked, but it's just a hard to say I think Miles Morales is like the story and the tightness of that game I really liked but it's just a little shorter you know it's probably like 19 hours or

something I think this must just got to be the best Wow I there the nitpicky complaints I have you would have for the other two as well sure so it's only something that's getting better and I don't know if this is spoiler either but like I think

there's gonna be another game yeah and I think i'll just say not a spoiler yeah not a spoiler make another spider-man game but i mean like in this story and within tommy and i do think like as a writer i think that they have built up to a third game that could be the best video like the best superhero game of all time wow I think that this one is in contention I don't know what games are better in the superhero genre those Batman Arkham games are all really good I love those

Batman games but these feel like that even more refined 100% and you also get to be I like Spider-Man more than I like Batman if Gotham Knights was good it would probably be as good as this Spider-Man. Sure. But Gotham Knights wasn't great. Yeah. And so

I need another Batman to come out on like PS5 for me to compare it to. Yeah. Yeah, it's up there. It's really fun. What you were just mentioning about, it's like the fast travel and that fast loading, that's the thing, and other people have made this point, but that's the thing that feels the most next-gen about the PlayStation 5. It's the zero load. it's just like and and they did that same trick and rift apart

it's just like you were never really at a loading screen there you're just hopping in and out of stuff so quick and they do some i without getting into spoilers they do some other really cool transitions like that where you're like god damn how the fuck do they do that like you go from being in the city to in a mission in some very interesting ways and i think there's a lot of spider-man's a good game for me because it has a fun story but it has a lot of like work to do and i just like fucking clearing those tasks yeah and it satisfies both ends really well but the transition between the two i think is what makes this game really great. And, I mean, it sounds like it was, like, an easy platinum. Like, you, like, went and did it all.

Well, I didn't platinum it because there are trophies I didn't get. Oh, I see. But I 100%ed, like, when I go in and it says 100% because I've done every task. Okay, sure. There are some things I think, like, I can fast travel from, you know. There's Queens and Brooklyn in this game. Like that's crazy.

And there's three of the five boroughs are represented. Yeah. Which ones are missing? Let's see. Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens are there, which means you don't have the Bronx or Staten Island. Right. Okay. So which is okay.

Sure. Yeah. But there's a, there's I think a trophy where it's like fast travel from the financial district to a story. Yeah. And there's a way to do it. I'm just not. That's not the type of thing that I feel.

I don't give a shit about the trophies, but I like collecting everything. Maybe the DLC will have the other bird. Yeah. And maybe the king of Staten Island will be in the game as well. Exactly. I think that there's set up for. I'll say this. When you're playing the game and you look into like New Jersey, it looks like there's something there.

Okay. And you start swinging there and it's it looks like there's something there. Okay. And you start swinging there and it's like, you can't go there. Yeah. And he's like, don't woke up this morning. Jesus fucking Christ, Chrissy. I think I see Spider-Man. Matt, that's really good. I, so it's, yeah, it's a great game and I recommend it.

I think the DLCs, I think there'll probably be a DLC before the new game. They just set up a lot of stuff, and I'd be happy to do any of the DLCs. And so, I mean, this is maybe a spoilery question. Feel free to not answer this. Okay. Is it more of a, because it's both Spider-Man are in it. Would you say they're on equal footing in this game, or does it sort of lean...

Like, it's more of a Peter Parker story than it is a Miles Morales story? Do you mean power level, or do you... Oh, you mean story-wise. I guess story-wise, yeah. I think they... It's just good storytelling in that both characters have stories and arcs.

I think the main story is maybe a little bit through Peter a little bit more, but that's just because of circumstances I won't get into. But Miles has as important a role in the story as Peter, if not more. It's arguable. And I think power level, they're equal. And it's just really fun to play with both. And they've got some great costumes in there.

Shout out to Zig. They've got the Spider-Punk costume and it's honestly the only one I played in. I'm taking back the shout out to Zig. He doesn't... He doesn't want it. He doesn't deserve that. Okay, well just shout out...

He'll deserve the gas. Shout out to the artist of Spider-Punk because the costume's in there and it's, I think, one of Peter's best costumes. Because I have... I mean, this is like not maybe a new take, but I do think in the next maybe five to ten years, Miles is the main Spider-Man. I agree. Like, you mean like in the MCU or just in general?

I just think in Spider-Man, in comics. I think we're sort of starting to see uh that Miles is a little more interesting and uh that we've just we had it we've had enough time with Peter that we could say goodbye yeah I mean there's definitely been times where I feel like Peter takes a sort of backseat I mean Peter was dead I mean there's a lot of yeah so I do think the movies were good like look the new across the spider-verse movie is incredible. I'd love to see a live-action Miles Morales in the MCU. But at the same time, like, Martin

Scorsese says that, like, these movies ruined all of cinema. And I just sent him an email about it. I know that he recently started reading emails. Oh, he did. Yeah, and they're tough for him. But, yeah, I don't know. I think Miles is super interesting. I love his story. And he has a great, like, Puerto Rican know. I think Miles is super interesting. I love his story.

And he has a great, like, Puerto Rican flag, like, suit, which is great. I also read that they accidentally put a Cuban flag in the game. Yeah, which is a huge mistake. Huge. I'm like, for a game to be so fucking meticulous, for that to be a mistake, that's crazy. But, yeah. Wow. I can't wait to potentially maybe even start it this evening.

Yeah. I'll say this. It's not a glitch-free game. Ooh, okay. I found there were a couple crashes, and there were a couple, like, things I had to start over because it just kind of glitched a little, but not in any way game-bending.

You forgive it because of how well everything else works. Do you think maybe it was that because you were playing as Miles that he was in the wrong universe and he was starting to sort of... I'll be honest, similar to the game we're going to talk about today, I could live with that. I can have that sort of headcanon of like, oh, that glitch was just the fucking cyber relic or whatever. Right. The other thing I want to talk about that i'm playing is and you guys don't talk about these games a lot is i'm currently playing nba 2k24 okay wow and i got into it maybe nba 2k23 some time last year and i've always kind of side played these games

like the you know one player thing and it was a little boring. And one day I thought, what if I played against someone online? Oh. And they rocked my ass so hard. Like the fact that I continued playing and got anywhere decent at it is crazy because they're so good on that. And yeah, I've been doing a little bit of the sort of 2K playing

and the problems with it are it's just built to extract money from you. Yes, that's kind of what put me bit of the sort of 2k playing and the problems with it are just built to extract money from you yes that's kind of what put me off of the series because i used to play the nba 2ks and i like you i'm a basketball fan and i just kind of like reached a point where yeah it feels first off i don't give a shit about any sort of my career thing i don't care about a cut scene where mike connelly tells me like you got the goods kid like I just don't care at all I used to put up with that and then I because I was like a stat kind of I liked figuring out my

stats of the season but it got so fucking annoying where it's like you got to go down to the record store and do a fucking record opening I'm like this sucks so I didn't want to do that yeah yeah then Dr. Dre shows up you got the goods kid it's like alright I've got the goods it's like, all right, I've got the goods.

It's like, yeah, that shit annoys me. But the bigger thing is, yeah, you've got all these like to unlock like all these upgrades and different outfits and additional content. It's all stuff to put real money in. It feels like a mobile game. And it's just like, that's not what I want these games for. The thing is, the problem is, it's like they're so financially successful with that. They're never gonna stop yeah i think i read somewhere that like ea's most successful product is their fifa mode that just like you know where people pay for extra content and use and pay for in-game currency

and it's just like well if it's so financially lucrative why would they not do that but it's so frustrating it's crazy because i've only kind of been in the world like in the because i've played them a lot like like just the seasons. And you don't have to put any money into that. Yeah. But now that I'm playing online a little bit, you can play these like five on five scrimmages where you are playing with like nine other people online. And I found that to be kind of fun. And I can see why Fortnite and all these things are fun.

It's just a kind of controlled version of it. And you have to be able to play with these people like you have to buy boost. why fortnite and all these things are fun it's just a kind of controlled version of it and you have to like to be able to play with these people like you have to buy boost you have to buy fucking this you have to go to the gym and do all this shit and ultimately like i was playing 2k23 i can't even imagine how much money i put into it then they upgraded the game to 2k24 and the change between years and seeing the way that they've been like, oh yeah, you used to have to work really hard to level up. Now you can just pay to level up.

Right. So there are people who are just paying like 80 bucks and like, it's so much money every season, which is like six weeks. You got to pay 20 bucks to even participate. It's like a lot of money. And the problem is I can talk about it and i can hate it but then i go home and i'm like well i gotta put two games in like it's just yeah the work of it is so fun and and it's also really funny because in like the regular season you'll play and i'll be like oh yeah i'm

averaging a triple double i have 50 points a game i'm the best player that's ever existed in the league then i'll play on these five on fives and I'm averaging about nine points a game, four rebounds. And I'm, I'm playing like the most role player position every game, but I love it somehow. I don't know. It's, it's a real problem. I need to stop. I mean, if you're having fun. No, I, I'm not having fun. And then at the end of the day, I'm losing most of the time. I'm not as good as anyone else. These people are so good. And then when you like go online, you're like, how do you get better?

You see that there's a whole YouTube community of people who just make these fucking videos that are like, there's just so many videos of like how to build your player better, how to play better, how to do this. And these people are making money. So I'm like, man, this is really a cash cow of a game i remember because you know when i and i don't play real-time strategy games at all anymore but there was a time was like i you know i had some friends who were into them it's like i'll try to to figure out how to play starcraft or whatever and yeah just like the the amount of like work that goes into like achieving like any sort of competency in online modes because it's all like getting all your key bindings down, memorizing build orders. Like there's so many things that you just have to like kind of get into your muscle memory.

And it's like this is like learning a skill. In 2K, you have to go to the gym every week. Right. And you have to do gym exercises. And the fact that I do that more consistently than I actually go to the gym is a problem. It's like you go to the gym. In order to be good at shooting at all, you have to do like hundreds of shooting drills

like outside of the game. So it's like, it's really tough. But I'm enjoying it if, you know, find me online and beat the fuck out of me. I'm sure anyone listening to this that plays is so much better than me. But like, but it's so satisfying because I play like 50 games

and then if one game I have like 35 points, I'm like, this is so satisfying. Did you ever play NBA Street? Oh my God. NBA and NFL Street. Okay, yeah. I played the fuck out of those games. Yeah, I love NBA Street.

NBA Street was really fun. And that was, I guess what maybe I could go back to is the sort of like couch competition game. Like I loved playing against my friends in college, NBA Street. They sadly, like they're fewer and far between these days. But I loved NBA Street. Just so fun. Like obviously a different type of thing.

2K is more simulator. But then the Street series is more just like arcade. I bet if they had NBA Street on PS5, it would be like the professor from N1 would be like, hey, kids, you got the goods. It'd be like the exact same shit. You'd be paying money for new street wear and shit. It's just such...

The microtransaction thing is fucking really tough. But upload this tick tock to increase. Yeah, that's what I'm playing. I love it. Matt, what are you playing? Well, OK, so I haven't touched Spider-Man 2 yet. That's on the docket for me. But.

On the same day that Spider-Man 2 was released you remember maybe a couple months ago Barbie and Oppenheimer came out on the same day Spider-Man Spider-Mario? that's the portmanteau

you landed on, Spider-Mario? the two words put together there could be a space in there it sounds like Mario got bit by a radioactive spider Spider Mario? Just the two words put together. There could be a space in there. It sounds like Mario got bit by a radioactive spider. Spider Mario. This is Mario with the new voice. And what's this one called?

Super Mario Brothers Wonder. I've also been playing this. And in fact, I was playing some on my commute over here today. I was playing on the bus. And I really am enjoying this game. I do think it's like it's the it's the Nintendo thing of just it's got that dazzling visual presentation, like as as dated as the Switch hardware is, they still just have such great art direction and know how to exploit the, you know, every every bit of horsepower out of that hardware, that it looks great. The palette is really rich and beautiful.

And I think the physics are really good of just like running around and platforming. Like I've enjoyed that a lot. I kind of like just how though, how slight it is. And that for me is like, I've been, I feel like it immersed generally in like very like heavy media, video games included. And cyberpunk, which we'll talk about included of just like it's like like stuff that's really like dark and depressing and

like time consuming and just sort of like doesn't make me feel good and this is just like i don't know it's it's just it's just pure fun it's a sense of wonder if yeah it doesn't start with a side mission where you have to bury Luigi. And go to his grave and click through a bunch of dialogue. Yeah, the first thing you do is sign divorce papers given to you from Princess Peach. I mean, that's the reason I don't have a Switch, and I do always go like, maybe the darkness I'm feeling sometimes could be alleviated with some light, colorful Switch games. Yeah, there's, boy, it's like the Switch is such a frustrating piece of hardware because it is really cool, but it's just like they've never updated it.

Maybe the Switch 2 will fix it. But I mean, it's just like it really feels old at this point. And I even have the OLED Switch, so like, you know, it looks as good as it can. But that said, the like two first party Nintendo games that come out a year make it are pretty much make it worth it. This is one of them. Yeah. And can I just say Elephant Mario is one thing where it's like my expectations were too high. He's fun.

Yeah. I do like Elephant Mario. He is cool. He looks cute. But I was expecting a little bit more than waggling the trunk around and then being able to barrel through barricades. But you can have water. Yeah, you can have water. I mean, it's fine.

Even still, it's not quite what I expected. Yeah, I think he's fine, too. I do think it sort of made an interesting choice because in previous Mario games where there are multiple characters, each character has a sort of move set, right? Like Princess Peach has the umbrella or whatever. Yeah, it's not always the case. This one, they're just like different skins, basically. They're all the same. I just go straight up Mario.

I'm playing Mario as well. I do know one spoiler about the game from Elephant Mario in that at the end, travels a thousand miles to die in his family set of bones. Yeah. And it's really sad. That's the one sad thing about it. Yeah. You have to sort of hit a couple of like specific

story beats to get that ending. But it is. It's really really sad. It's a drawn out really sad walk. And then like some rich guy comes and poses in front of it like he killed it yeah baby bowser yeah yeah yeah uh but i i'm really enjoying it so far like i've been able to sink a little bit of time into this versus spider-man 2 because i don't have to eject the cyberpunk disc to play uh mario hey underrated factor not having to take a game out to play another game like just just like

that switch hey you know what pick up a different piece of hardware and so i so i've been doing that Hey, underrated factor. Not having to take a game out to play another game. Like, just, like, the Switch. Hey, you know what? Pick up a different piece of hardware. And so I've been doing that, and I've been playing it at night. And I don't know, like, I didn't love Super Mario Bros. U or whatever it's called. New Super Mario Bros. U? Yeah, I didn't love that one. I liked it.

I liked it okay. Yeah, you know what? I agree with you. I didn't love it. Yeah, it's fine. It's exactly, it's fine. Yeah, I agree with you. I didn't love it.

Yeah, it's fine. It's exactly, it's fine. Because the benchmark for those games is like Mario 3, Super Mario World, right? Well, yeah. But I think like, yes, absolutely. But I think like we're talking about kind of, this feels like it's fitting in that new Super Mario Bros. canon, even though it's not a new Super Mario Bros. game.

It's like all these 3D, 2D, 3D as 2D, you know, platformers that have existed since the Wii or whatever. Every, like, I don't know. I don't know if it's just that. This obviously just could be recency bias. Every second of this game is a complete surprise to me. Like, I'm just like, I'm going through it. And I'm just like, there's like a very specific thing that happens in one of the levels that i was like shocked by because there was no precedent for it before uh and i i shocked sounds negative tell me off bod because

i don't i'm curious i was delighted by it um i'll say it right now uh just in and i'll cut it out if it's too spoilery um but it's just you get get one of those sort of things that sort of changes the world, and all the piranha plants start singing. Right, there's these flower... I know exactly what you're talking about. There's like these flower things, and the flower power-ups actually don't even know exactly what they are, and it's always a little ambiguous as to what's going to happen.

But you collect them at a certain point, and yes, the physical layout of the world changes in some way. Yeah. And it's always like, you know, sometimes it's just like the geometry moves around, but other times something kind of like, you know, mystical happens. And yeah, this is one where the piranha plants all come to life. They start singing like a kind of a really like jaunty tune, but you can still kill them. Yeah.

So it's just like, wait, so I'm just going around, are they good guys now? What's going on? Because I was just lobbing fireballs at these joyously singing this chorus of piranhas. I love that. That type of stuff, that type of discovery in a Mario game is so fun to me.

And then also, I love the little flower, the talking flower guy. So you love those guys. The little guy that's like, how'd you get up here? Yeah, I think they're fun. The voice got to be a little bit much to me because I think it's like it was just kind of like a like a mental. It was like a distraction from what I was doing. Yeah.

And so I went and toggled off the voice and just have text only. Wow. Matt is. I'm always looking forward to what he's about to say. Matt is pissed. I think he's so cute and so funny. Like everything he says, I'm like, I can't wait to hear what he's about to say. And it's usually like something like, that was close.

Or like, oh, water made it good or something like that. It's never anything that interesting, but I always have to hear what he's about to say. I mean, it's great that you can toggle the voice off. Like, that's the kind of sort of quality of life stuff that I'm sure Nintendo's really good at. They're like, we'll know that some people will think this is annoying. We want this game to everybody to like this.

I want to be careful here, because I'm not necessarily saying it's annoying. I'm just saying it was like a distraction from the platforming. Are you playing with online on or off? I am. Okay, you're on. Yeah, me too. I'm just saying it was like a distraction from the platforming. Are you playing with online on or off? I am. Okay, you're on. Yeah.

Me too. I'm on also. And this is new to this game, Sean. So in this game, you can turn on an online mode and you can see other people in the world playing the game. Yeah, you see ghosts of them. Is this kind of like Elden Ring kind of? It's kind of like Death Stranding. Yeah, Death Stranding.

That's what it is. It is like Elden Ring kind of? It's kind of like Death Stranding. Yeah, Death Stranding. That's what it is. It is like Elden Ring 2, though. But, like, yeah, it's that sort of approach of, like, there's some signposting. Like, people will, like, leave a little bit, a little marker to have some sort of vague indication. It's so funny that Death Stranding truly, that might be something that we see in a bunch of games later on.

It's really interesting because there are things, in Mario games, there are things that are hidden on the screen or on the map that you can't necessarily find. But if you see somebody online in an area and you're like, there's nothing there, and you go over it, you're like, oh, there is something here. Somebody was finding this. Or there's like a standee there that someone left.

You're like, okay, what's this indicating? It's Death Stranding, but it also goes back to Dark Souls. It's like that whole thing of just like, we're getting an indication of some sort of presence here, but we're not seeing exactly what it is. Tri-fingers-butthole,

yeah. Exactly right. Yeah, the, this game sounds fun. I, yeah, I don't know.

Do I wait to buy the new Nintendo thing? At this point, I think you do. I would not necessarily if you haven't got, it's, I mean, this thing came out in 2017.. I would not necessarily if you haven't got... I mean, this came out in 2017. It's been six years. I haven't played either Zelda, and I'm

like, I'm sure there'll be backwards compatibility if they... Oh, I wouldn't put that past Nintendo. No, yeah. But I would expect them to re-release them at full price. So, you know, some up-res version. Oh, speaking of re-release, by the way, I did buy and just downloaded

the Metal Gear Solid Ultimate Edition. Okay, yes. And it's fascinating. I went back and I'm like, let me try playing one. Can't play it too hard. And I was like, oh, let me try two. And I'm like getting into it.

I'm like, God, I just hate the camera. I've only played two and three. I've never really played one. I've seen one played a lot I want to get it on the switch but the switch version of it I don't know if this is something that I care about or not and Nick maybe you'll have a thought about this I guess

they're capped at 30 frames per second on the switch and that's not something I ever really pay attention to at all but I also know that like on the physical. Oh, uh, and that's not something I ever really pay attention to at all. Um, but I also know that like on the physical cartridge, none of the games are on it except for, uh,

the ones for the computer, uh, not the metal gear, solid games, or none of them are on the cartridge. So buying the physical, uh, copy of it is moot.

Cause if, in, when the server goes down, if you don't have it saved on yeah you can't uh you can't you won't be able to play it yeah it's like i love i remember playing the original like top down one when i was really young i was like i don't know what the fuck this is um and then i played three metal gear i played three and or no i played two and now i'm realizing i'm like i don't know if i finished or even played three because I just started three and I was like okay this

is not familiar to me but the games are really hard to control like I literally like finished Spider-Man I was like let me throw up a fucking Metal Gear and it was just like I'm not ready to figure out these controls again three is the star of the show I think I think two is like obviously great in like a very prescient video

game even today still but three i think is like is the best of the bunch that's so good it's a well you also you played five so here i wanted to say yes i i'm still i can't believe you guys haven't played five i know i've never because because it's not the storytelling is not the star of five to me the gameplay like i think if i were to predict heather playing this game i think that heather would love five okay because you can almost do anything like you can almost go into a camp and like do whatever the fuck you want there's so many creative ways to do missions and i don't know i

just i've had a great i've played five maybe three times full wow and it's just really fun for me but yeah i wanted to go back because i'm like yeah i should just go back and see what three is all about i'll probably try to finish three but i don't think i'm gonna play two or one but it's not like a full this is a it's not like a full remaster it's just like these are these games that are just like now available they're just available you can play the japanese version there are some like video there's some video cuts you can just watch like a video thing of all the cut scenes i know that hideo kojima is removed from the credits in this in this first yeah yeah yeah gosh i think he's in the credit but but maybe yeah maybe he is it kind of sucks yeah kind of thing konami would do yeah uh the yeah we we we revisited three and i had played it and i i feel

like it was you did you feel its age a little bit, but I found it in two both pretty playable, but also having the, you know, memory of having played it back in the day, it's like, it's a little bit of a, but I will say that, that feeling of going back to an older game, especially the older 3D games,

those like when they were still figuring out how things controlled. We experienced this with Shadow of the Colossus when we did that episode recently of like, of like, oh man, this is still a great game. This is still an all-timer, but man, the camera and the, you know, just some of the way the character actually moves around, it's just like, it feels so clunky.

Yeah, were you ever able to get used to it, like in play? Yeah, you get used to it, but you're always fighting it a little bit. And the camera's never good in that game, you know? It's just, it's always an obstacle. I feel like with 2 and 3, I need, like, probably, like, five hours of getting back into it

before I can control it the way I want to. But, yeah, you know, I just love watching all the, like, 15 minutes of cut scenes you have to watch before the game starts. And it's just every, I'm like, the voice is so funny. So I'm like, I'm back in.

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Right now, let's talk about Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty. This is the DLC for Cyberpunk 2077. It is both an expansion, but also kind of its own self-contained game. Totally. And it's pretty meaty. And Matt and I were talking before we recorded of just like kind of surprised by how extensive this expansion is. Like it felt like,

it feels very much like a, I don't know, full game length campaign. Yeah, I think it's 15 hours. I think as its own release, it's like a 15-hour campaign. It feels like the Miles Morales to the original Spider-Man game, where Miles Morales is a little shorter, but it has a complete story, and it's just like playing off of the fun. Also, with the 2.0 update, I know you guys have talked about it a little bit.

Yeah. The whole thing felt new to me. 100%, because you played it back in the 2.0 update, I know you guys have talked about it a little bit. Yeah. The whole thing felt new to me. 100%. Because you played it back in the day. Yeah. I put over 100 hours. Wow. Okay.

Back then. And that was over the pandemic, maybe? So, yeah. It was easy to do. Yeah. Sounds right. So, I... But then when the 2.0 came out, I just started from the beginning.

Because there's an option when you start to just start Phantom Liberty. Right. And I was like, well, if it's going to be a part of the other game, I might as well do it. Because I also wanted to see if it factored into a different ending. Sure. Which we can talk about. But, yeah, it's really meaty. It's a chunky, chunky-ass game, and I really enjoyed it.

Yeah. Okay, I also really enjoyed it. game and I really enjoyed it. Okay, I also really enjoyed it. And just to be clear, we're not going to get into story spoilers or at least late game story spoilers just yet. We will have a clearly demarcated spoiler country point

we'll get to when we'll talk about the late game a little bit. But we've all finished Phantom Liberty, yes? Yes. And I have not yet, I finished the campaign the cyberpunk campaign on my original save back when it released. I have not yet finished I finished the campaign, the cyberpunk campaign, on my original save back when it released. I have not yet finished it on this playthrough. I started a new V, but I have finished Phantom Liberty.

Matt, where are you at in the game? I started a new V as well, and I am in... I'm on the roof with Johnny. I'm at the end. I'm waiting for a specific thing to trigger. I'm trying to do the secret ending. It is not triggering, so I might just have to pick

one of the endings available to me. In my original playthrough, I did the Nomad ending with Pan Am. And so I think I might just try one of the other ones available to me. Well, now are we in spoiler country? I mean, you just talked about... Well, that's the old game.

That's the old game. But yeah, we can say that there's a about... Well, that's the old game. That's the old game. All right. I guess it's okay. We can say that there's a nomad ending. There's multiple endings in the Cyberpunk game. We can say there's a nomad ending

and you don't know what it is. Okay. But yeah, I did that ending too the first time. Me too. It felt like the logical one to do because I was like,

I'm horny. I don't know. I'm horny. Yeah, of course. Because three horn dogs aren't going to pick that horny ending? Yeah, Judy wouldn't have sex with me. But it's I

started a new game and then when you get the call to start Phantom Liberty, I went right into it and I have finished both and I put 111 hours in this playthrough. In this playthrough. That's wild because I've crested 40 plus hours into my

current playthrough. Yeah. And you know over 100 hours across two playthroughs but you've put like 250 hours into this game. That's wild. I hate that you've put it into those numbers. But yes I have I mean it just felt like such a different

game to be honest. 100% does. The skill trees it just felt like such a different game, to be honest. 100% does. The skill trees. Yes. And honestly, like, you can play this game a bunch of times and have different builds. And I always end up in the same areas. Like, mine's slightly different than the one before. But I really even think I could play the game again and do a totally different build. Let's talk builds real quick.

Because what I did is I was determined to use blades because I used guns last time. I was just like, I just want to do something different. So I went with the, I put a bunch of points into reflexes and all the katana skills. And then in Phantom Liberty, when you get to that section of the game,

there is a new skill tree that opens up. There's like a, you know, that involves, it enhances some existing abilities that are in the game and kind of, I feel like it's kind of a way to rebalance some of that stuff a little bit. And this is like the lightest of spoilers because it happens

immediately when you start. As soon as you start that, yeah. So, you know, like for instance, there's the all the arm cyberware, like the gorilla arms or the mantis blades, which is what I use. They all get like, you can boost those in its own skill tree now, which you couldn't do in the past. And it also gets benefits from a lot of the blade stuff. So I ended up switching when I got to Phantom of Liberty to the mantis blades, which is very fun because it feels very cyberpunk-y.

Yeah, totally. You know, size coming out of your forearms. Yeah. And so I did that. And the other thing I did is I went like really hard into cool. I just put 20 points into cool. I just maxed out cool. I did that last time, yeah.

And it was really fun because I think the stealth is pretty rudimentary, especially compared to like, you know, whatever, a stealth-focused game like Metal Gear. But it is just a lot of like Kona vision, looking at the mini-map, you know. But it is still pretty fun, and also it feels like within this world, there are missions where you should be stealthing through it, so I enjoy doing that.

Yeah, I did, I think just because we've been watching the anime as well, I respect and did like a Sandevistan build. Wow. And this is the thing, this is the cyberware that slows down time so your character can move faster. Yeah, so I'm just like that, Mantis Blades, and guns. So like I put, I have, I think I'm like level 40 or something right now where I'm at at and I have fully

upgraded technical ability and God, what's the one on top? And reflexes. Reflexes and upgrading is really fun. We've talked about this before on the podcast but you can just zoom around the map. You can just move really quick.

It's so great for traversal. Double jumping. i've been jumping i've been really in oh god once i got to double the double jump yeah you guys use the double jump see i use the charge up jump like where you hold how's that charge up so you hold down x yeah and let it go and you do a big jump as opposed to needing to time the second jump i gotta get a big jump tells you that the double jump is like two points better but i had more fun with the the charge up jump for whatever reason but yeah like again that's what's so cool about this game is like i didn't play with the double jump at all so it's like yeah a whole other build could have that and it could be fun i'll say this my build is a guy with a big ass

sword i cut people's heads off non-stop and then I also found the handguns really good in this game and I got really good at so basically I would have a handgun I would have a sword and then I didn't use the

mantis blades but I used the gorilla arms so I would just go into rooms and like punch people across the room. It was so fucking fun. And the reason I put so much time into this is because I was like, I'm not going to finish the game until I've fully maxed out this character. So I'm like fully maxed out street cred, fully maxed out all cyberware, everything. And so I'm really it feels balanced, but I'm ultimately the only thing I do is net running. Like I walk in somewhere and I make people sick

and I make them kill themselves. Okay, yeah. And then I go in and clean up with the sword and the gun and it's really fucking fun. Yeah, you can kind of, there are enough points to go around where you don't have to be super specialized, which I like because like, you know, like yeah, I'm primarily blades and I'm stealthing but also you know i got

a sniper rifle and i got some points into some of those skills and so the situationally there's sometimes when that's really handy uh even though i generally don't like sniping in games it's like it's fun in this game and um yeah i i don't know i i like that you get to you don't have to go exactly you don't have to commit fully down one path. If you do all the side missions, I think by the end of the game, I was at 24 for four of the trees. Like 20 in technical ability, 20 in reflexes, 20 in strength, and then like 12 and 12 or something.

So you can really max out like at least three of these things and maxing them out is just so much fun like the cyberware thing where i could like click down my triggers and i could just put do as many like like net running like hacks on people and it would just take my power like i could go way on people. And it would just take my power. Like I could go way over my RAM. It would just take power away from me. I'm talking, I would go into places. Yeah, so basically the RAM is basically your mana. And then this is a special ability

which drains your health. And you just have unlimited. So I would just go into places and make like four of the people cyber psychos and just watch them kill each other. That's so funny. It was so good. And then I would just go in and be like,

all right, who's left? Your head's cut off. I'm going to shoot you in the head. So, and you know, the other sort of fun thing to track is like, you have this thing where you get like Shinobi points or net runner points and

you start to see like naturally what you do. And my net runner thing was maxed out so early that I was like, well, I guess that's what I do. So I tried to do other things, but yeah, the games, the gameplay this time around, was maxed out so early that I was like, well, I guess that's what I do. So I tried to do other things, but yeah, the games, the gameplay this time around,

I found so much more streamlined. And I think this 2.0 thing, it was incredible. Like sucks. They didn't release it this way originally. Yeah. It's, it's,

it's great. The, the, so like what you were talking about, those are, that's like a separate kind of a pool of, of skill points that you will get from just like actively doing things kind of like Skyrim style in the world. So like I had like a shitload of Shinobi points because I'm just like running around, like vaulting over every chain link fence. I like jumping off of balconies because it's just fun to run around.

Yeah. Shinobi points are fun. Yeah. So. So, yes, all that. I think the combat complete the complete rework of the combat and the skill tree, like all that stuff is great. But one thing I, like, I think this,

the Phantom Liberty specifically does well and that ties in on that is there are all these high level skill checks and dialogue depending on like, you know, various abilities. Like for instance, like level 20, like maxed cool like checks that are happening in conversation. And when I hit those, I found it very satisfying. Because you're like, yeah, I would not have seen this if I

didn't have it. And yeah, towards the end of the game or the end of Phantom Liberty, there's a few of those. And I had a few like, oh, you're level 20 technical ability. So, you know, this specific thing about hacking and it is satisfying. It's super satisfying. And it's oftentimes something unique. Like there there's one instance where I think it was like a maxed out reflexes or something i was able to like take someone's gun from some them and that was from them in a situation like that was the only way to do it and it's like oh this feels like i mean i'm just using it the other the recent thing that's in my head this feels like a balder's gate thing this feels like something that would you know this this really feels like an rpg which sometimes in the base game, it kind of gets away from. Yeah, I really had fun with it. Let's talk about the story a little bit.

So it's basically Escape from New York. It's like the president is lost in this decrepit city, this apocalyptic city, and your job is to do an escort mission and rescue them. It's the kind of thing where, like, I kind of love how I mean this affectionately, like how dumb it is. Yeah. Cause it's like space force one, the president's space shuttle has crashed in dog town, this neighborhood of a,

of night city. And then you have to escort president Myers who herself is like an action hero. Like she, she like picks up guns and starts like fucking murking people. All that stuff is great i think the game my criticism of the game is i wish i cared more about the story yes so this is this is the i think actually the the story of the base game is better because this

one is a little bit part of it it's it's a little bit hard difficult to follow like i like solomon reed as a character um i like uh a little bit hard difficult to follow like i like solomon reed as a character um i like uh alex who's another character gets introduced later like they're interesting but songbird i was still always and songbird is like the hacker who's like uh you know working with the president who recruits you for this mission and you end up like kind of being trying to find her for most of this of the game yeah i i found her still just kind of ambiguous even by the end i was still like a little unclear as to like yeah what what her what exactly was going on with her you know it just must be so hard to write like what just having played spider-man

i'm like this is like such a down-the-middle story where i understand what's happening a lot of cyberpunk is like people are talking and it's like, all right, so I have to select something now. I don't even know what that guy just said, basically. Yeah. And you make these choices.

And like, if I were to talk to someone about this game, I don't think I'd be talking about the story. Like I like, I think cyber, I think phantom Liberty does a better job, but cause it's more contained maybe. And then by the end of the original game,

I kind of understand what's happening, but there's so much in the middle where I'm like, what the fuck am I even doing right now? Yeah, I don't know. I kind of found the base game a little bit easier to track, maybe because I'm experiencing it for the second time. That could be part of it. With Phantom Liberty,

there's a lot of like really inscrutable stuff about like the NUSA and like their politics and like what's going on with this new this organization, the FIA and everything. It's like all these like acronyms are thrown at me and I don't really understand the geopolitical situation in this world at large, as opposed to what's going on between the differently, you know, street gangs and Night City. So it all. But that said, I don't mind all that sort of dense stuff. I love science fiction. I'm fine to just get a bunch of information,

but I sometimes had trouble parsing it. That just reminded me of something stupid from the game that's like not part of this discussion. But so earlier in the game

when you meet the Voodoo Boys and they're like, we don't call ourselves that. They call us that. Yeah. But there's like Voodoo Boys graffiti everywhere. It's on the back of your jacket what's going on

it is the kind of thing where like it's all really fun and wet like well good world building but it's thought out like 85 and i think it's like it has to be that if there's going to be so many decision points and stuff it's so funny funny, but I digress. I will say the thing that this part of the game does really well is just opening up this new part of the map. I found Dogtown, right? Dogtown, yeah. I found Dogtown to be a super interesting add to the map. It rocks.

It's incredible. It's such a great way to do it, to be like, here is a contained neighborhood within this city. So they've explained it in a way where it makes sense. This is kind of like this walled off. You know, it's got its own its own government. We just no one goes. The police don't go there. They've they've justified it enough.

And then it just being like because the problem with the base game is it's so sprawling and a lot of it feels kind of empty. And here it's just like it's so dense. You know, it's like a, it's like a Yakuza game or it's just like, just everything is in walking distance. It's really, really compact. There's so many quests. There's so many NPCs. The vibe is super alive.

Yeah. It's like a little bit more post-apocalyptic where it's like kind of crumbling a little bit. And there's like a bunch of like unhoused people on the street. And I found that to be a really fun play i wish there were honestly more side missions there because i did all the side missions there and i like them a lot i would have liked to have lived in that world just a little bit longer uh what i one thing i like is there's a there's a thing that will happen

where you'll get like there'll be some sort of drop point there'll be like red smoke coming from it some sort of beacon and that will be like a place where a combat encounter happens and like those i don't know those encounters i found really engaging and also just like the way they crop up it's like oh shit there's something some shit going down a firefight's already in progress and i can just kind of go join it and and fuck shit up do you so i i think I play this game a little differently. Okay. Because there are obvious, like, you can kill anybody. Yeah.

You could. Like, Grand Theft Auto in that way, or any sort of type of game like this. Certain people they protect story-wise, but yeah, you can kill anyone. But then there are people on the world map that have, like, sort of, like, little yellow indicators on them that like these guys are like kind of bad it kind of doesn't matter you can get collectibles from them

and they maybe are affiliated with a gang so those those people in like the different gangs yeah I didn't unless I was in a mission

I didn't start shit with anybody you don't have to and I didn't have to clean and I didn't feel like cleaning up after cause I'm like well okay who am I helping't feel like cleaning up after because I'm like, well, okay,

who am I helping? I'm helping the cops. I'm not that interested in doing that. But I just kind of left everybody alone and when people would sort of spot me,

I would just run away. I'm out of here. But that's the thing, you can do that and partly I think the game on the base difficulty is such where you don't have

to grind for a bunch of, you'll get enough experience through just doing the quests and stuff where you don't have to worry about that. I think they basically exist as just, like, the equivalent of, like, you know, just random mobs in a world map. It's just, like, you could go up and fight these guys if you want to, but you can completely ignore them. They'd be maybe a little more interesting to engage with

if, like, they, as a gang gang stayed mad at you right like if like in in uh like i feel like this was even in like san andreas or whatever like like there'd be certain gangs that you're like oh that's one of them i better stay away from them and they would like try to get you or something or like in the in the um in the in the lord of the rings mordor games there's this like nemesis system where like if you lose to a bad guy they like get stronger and then have more guys and it's like I wish that was like something that was

in this game. I feel like there could be some sort of DLC that's like gang warfare and get more into that I think those people for me ended up just being like because I really was trying to level up all my cyberware. So like each cyberware piece, which I liked had different attributes and you could like craft and upgrade

them. And I think at the end you want all of them to be five plus plus. So I was like having to do that. So I just basically, if I saw someone with a yellow top or whatever, I was killing them just to get their stuff. There would be people like dancing around a car hanging out and I'll just throw a grenade in there and kill everybody.

Like it became, I guess it wasn't fun because there weren't consequences. It just became like a way to get like harvest materials and stuff. Yeah, because there is a lot of like upgrading that needs to be done and disassembling other, disassembling gear from enemies is the fastest way to get crafting materials. What I will say is just like, we should talk about the jank of this game a little bit because it is still...

I mean, look, I do really love it and I do really recommend it, but it's got some stuff that still feels very rough around the edges. But one thing is like the UX is much better than it was originally. But it's still, like, okay, here's the thing. I don't even know if this is a glitch or if this is by design, but, like, I would get clothes I know I'm not going to wear,

and I'd be like, okay, I'm not going to wear this weird, you know, whatever, this weird helmet with ear flaps because I just like that just doesn't fit my style of my character. So I disassemble it and get, you know, get upgrade materials. But then it would still be in my wardrobe when I went to dress my character. And so I was like, wait, so if any item of clothing you get once, does it just automatically get added to your wardrobe? Or was that a glitch I was encountering?

I feel like that might be a glitch. Yeah, you shouldn't have that anymore. Yeah, but there's always shit like that just kind of popping up in the game. And so like some of the other glitches, I talked about these with Matt with you earlier, but like I got one where a cigarette was just stuck on my

character's hand. Yeah. And you see your hands a lot. It's a part of your character you see the most. So it'd be like in a cut scene, it would be like some you know some moment where something emotional was happening and they just have a cigarette grafted to their index finger. And this was like four hours of gameplay until I finally just

binged to see how the fuck do I get rid of this? And some of the people were like, yeah, no, it's just stuck there. You're just like, it's not going away. Did you search it and then the first thing said cigarettes are back? That was the issue, yeah. It's search it? And then the first thing said cigarettes are back. That was the issue. Yeah.

This is a moral world branded thing. This game has glitches that feel like part of the game. And I'll say this, like. I had a thing where before Phantom Liberty came out, there's a mission where you're dealing with Johnny and you start to cyberware glitch. I mentioned this in the podcast because you experienced the same thing I did. But keep going. I'm talking about it happened. And I was like, oh, so when is this going to stop?

Yeah. It didn't stop. I was playing the game for days. Oh, you played it for days. I played for like an hour. No, no, no, no. I played it for days. Wow.

Being like, this is kind of hard to play but i'm gonna keep doing it and it's like the thing where the map is glitching and then i'm like something is wrong because you're not supposed to be doing this so then i start looking it up and i don't know how did you end up solving it i had i just had to reload a save from before there's a much crazier thing. And this is the way I fixed it. Because if I didn't fix it, I don't think I would have even played Phantom Liberty. Because it was like game ending for me.

I was like, this is too hard. The way I fixed it was there's one mission you have to do. And it's the mission where you talk to the fucking, the little like vending machine. Oh, wow. to the fucking the the the little like uh vending machine oh wow and i read like oh yeah like the only way to fix it is to do finish the vending machine quest and it's this quest where you're like dealing with this ai who's like alive and then has a girlfriend by the end and so i did it and then you like look up and then the glitch was gone and i was like that is a glitch but it feels like i had to help this computer to help me and it was it was like really satisfying when it when it went away

that's so funny so if anyone and and i think because i had played like three hours i was like i'm not gonna start over like i have to fix it and then somewhere on reddit i read that that's how you fix it and it blew my mind so and then there's other game endings like breaking stuff where i couldn't do the pandam ending this playthrough because and i wouldn't have but i couldn't because one of the side quests i must have run up on too fast and when i ran up on the side quests like it didn't materialize so it's just there as undone and i can never do it oh interesting and i just kept playing and i i would have to go back way far to fix it and then

i did another side quest where i like shot someone and he fell backwards onto the like thing i had to collect and i just couldn't collect it so it's like sometimes i'm like, that's just the gate. That's cyber. That's fucking Night City, baby. I saw an NPC walk into a campfire and he wasn't supposed to. And everybody ran away startled. And I was like, I know this isn't part of it. But it feels like, I don't know. It was a little annoying. A little while ago, Nick, you were saying that you didn't really connect with Songbird.

Yeah. I went all in on Songbird. No, I mean, look, we'll get to it in a second. Because you get some choices in terms of what characters you're going to align with. That also reminds me of something. So, choices. I felt like the choices in the Phantom Liberty felt more difficult to make and more impactful than some of the choices in the base game.

I agree with that. Yeah. It's, yeah, it's, it's, it's, you really feel like you're going to go with one side or the other. You're not really quite sure what the right decision is. And I'll say. That's fun. Not getting into spoilers. I did watch other endings for Cyber.

Yeah. For Phantom Liberty. And I was really surprised at how different they are. I have to go do that because I only did my one. They're surprisingly different and one of those great things about it where it's like maybe it's worth replaying.

There's one ending and then I don't know if you guys know this but there is an ending that changes the actual ending of the game. I did read this and I didn't watch it yet. I kind of watched it and I was like that's fascinating. That's kind of what I wanted. I didn't end up getting it because of the game. I did read this and I didn't watch it yet. And I kind of watched it and I was like, that's fascinating.

Like, that's kind of what I wanted. I didn't end up getting it because of the choices that I made in Phantom Liberty, but I did want it to kind of affect the ending. And it does in a really interesting way.

There's the, I'll also talk this way, talk around spoilers here, but like in the, towards the ending, in the ending I did pick, like towards the end of that section there's

that this falls in the glitch territory there is a moment where a character like says goodbye to you and it's like kind of like it's kind of like a profound moment and then they're like in a car and they like so they like give a goodbye and I don't know the path I was messed up but they

just drove directly into a parked car yeah it's just it's like kind of I don't know the path it was messed up, but they just drove directly into a parked car. Yeah. It's just, it's like kind of, we're going to look back at Cyberpunk as this like really fun game. Yeah. But there is this magic to it being broken. Yes. It's like, because if that happened, if like your dad dropping off at the airport was like, hey, you know, I'm proud of you, son.

Take care. I'll see you around. And then he immediately drove into a fucking FedEx truck. That'd be the only thing you would remember from that experience. It sounds like I think you should leave, Sketch. It sounds like Tim Robinson is like, no! This game is either one of the best, worst games, or one of the best games that sucks. It's got that.

I don't even really mean that because it is good. It has really great bones and the improvements to the game have made it really sing. I think it's so, so great. But stuff like that, you just can't help but be like, why isn't this, why is this in this? Well, I think it just goes back to like the original sin of them trying to build their own engine from scratch, which is just, you know, it's hubristic and so difficult. And I think they've done a lot with it, this, you know, refining things as much as possible.

But yeah, kind of the foundation is kind of built on sand. Finding things as much as possible. But yeah, kind of the foundation is kind of built on sand. And I think that would explain why they've decided to pivot to Unreal Engine for their other games moving forward. So is that the case? Yeah, they built an engine called CD Projekt Red built the Red Engine, which they were intending to use for all things moving forward. They ended up pretty much just using it for this game. I don't know if that's the main reason there are all these technical issues. I don't know enough about it. But like, I don't know if that's the main reason there are all these technical issues. I don't know enough about it.

But, like, I don't know. I read in between the lines, that's what it kind of feels like. They're kind of trying to work within those restrictions, but it's kind of a self-imposed problem. I'll say this. I don't know what the future is

for Cyberpunk in particular, but I would, if they opened up another section of this world and said we have another dlc i would absolutely play it oh me too oh for sure i found myself this time being like all right now i'm gonna go to the this is why i have 111 hours it's like now i go to the edge of every corner of the map and i'm like driving and i'm like all right what could be out there they turn you around very often but there's like one point where like you're driving down this

highway and there's this big guarded gate and like if you can kill enough people, you can get pretty far but it's just almost impossible, which I kind of love those things sometimes where it's like, you can't go this way so they throw a million bad guys at you but I could see a DLC where like

you all of a sudden have to go this direction. And I would be back in. I'd totally play it. Oh, I want to talk about some of the missions here. Were we going to say something? I was going to say, I don't think we've mentioned. I mean, we mentioned Reed a little bit. Yeah.

It's Idris Elba. It's fucking Idris Elba. It's Idris Elba, isn't it? It's cool. What do you guys think about the performance? I think it's, you know what? It's kind of like Keanu's performance and that there are points where it maybe,

look, both great actors, both movie stars, both people I'm huge fans of. I think there may be moments where I think the challenge of this kind of acting is like you're in a vacuum and maybe you're recording things in isolation, not always playing off of the actor you're going to be off of in the game. Because there are I think it's I think it's a strong performance, but there are a few moments that feel oddly like just off or, you know, it's not hard for an actor to read like, all right, you're going to say these corpos came down. It's like I played the game I experienced it

and I barely know what happened so I can't imagine an actor being given 12 scenarios with all this shit understanding anything so in that case I'm like this is a pretty good performance from Idris I'd say there are some I think it is good and also there's a moment where

like the cause you get these hollow calls and like he's like so he's, like, so he's looking, like, directly at you. And he's, like, disappointed in me. And I felt so ashamed. Oh, my God. That handsome's mad at me. He's Black Superman. No, I do think it's good.

And I do think it's, like, there's strengths of the, it's a strong decision to like hey here's Keanu he's a fucking movie star here's Idris here's a fucking movie star and they're going to be like the they're going to be stewarding you

through this game I think those are strong decisions that really you know help anchor you in these realities did you guys think that you could maybe

fuck Idris Elba I was hoping I was hoping there was going to be some sort of thing but they never give they don't give it to you there's no romance

and there's some moments where it feels like it's being teased, like with Idris and other characters are kind of walking up to that line. Things are getting a little flirtatious, but there's no, like, you know... That's confirmed. Like, there's no...

I thought maybe Alex, there was a way... That's what it felt like, too. Alex in particular, there's a moment, and no, from what I've read, there's no romanceable NPCs. I thought I was, early on, I was like, I think this president wants to fuck. How great would it be if you could fuck the president? Why not let you fuck the president?

Could you imagine the end game where it's like, I'm about to go die, but I did fuck the president. I guess I'm the first lady now. Yeah, that's one. I guess that's a little bit of a disappointment. There's also a side mission with like a pop star where I thought, oh, there must be some sort of thing. Lizzy Wizzy, right? Yeah, Lizzy Wizzy. Yeah, there's that.

All that said, I overall like the NPCs. I love Kurt Hansen, who's the bad guy. He's just such a great like, especially for this moment. It feels like the right kind of piece of shit. Right. Like especially for this moment, it feels like the right kind of piece of shit. Like who you'd view ruling a totalitarian ruling as a as a as a despot in a neighborhood is like this type of guy. The fastest kill I've ever done. I was like, I can't wait to fucking kill this guy. He rocks. He's so he's such a piece of shit. I can't wait to kill him. Yeah. He's like this tatted up like, you know, fucking buff dude.

Can't wait to kill him. Yeah. He's like this tatted up, like, you know, fucking buff dude. This like Blue Lives Matter type guy. Yeah. Tap out t-shirt type guy. And he's such a great piece of shit. And it makes sense as to why he's like ruling this area. And I also think the missions in this are a real strength,

which are a thing with, I think there's pretty good narrative design. There's some really strong narrative design in the base game. But here there's like the main missions that you're going down. For instance, there's a boss fight that's pretty early on, which is with the Chimera, who's like a tank. And the way that is like kind of built up where it starts off. And, you know, first off, there's this thing, this gigantic thing that's just covered with a sheet. And you're like, OK, this is going to be something. And then that gets hacked

and taken over to work on your side, and you're seeing this gigantic spider tank mowing down your enemies. Super fun. And then it turns on you, and you have to fight it, and it's a really fun boss fight. It's the best boss fight in the whole game. It's got some mechanical things. It has

a laser sweep that you have to either jump over or duck underneath, which is very video game- gamey but it's the thing that a lot of the boss fights in this game are were largely missing yeah where they were just like pump a bunch of rounds into this fucking dude yeah um and uh and i found that super duper fun uh and and then there's a i'll talk spoiler light about this this is not the game, but this is later in this game. There's an infiltration into a party that is so Metal Gear and so satisfying because you have to put on a

diving suit and swim through the sewers and then you have to change your clothes and do a party outfit. You have to do the sniper assist while Idris is doing a stealth mission and you're watching from the other side. And all that shit is just so, so fun. Because it's so linear, Idris is doing like a stealth mission and you're like watching from the other side. And, and, and all that shit is just like,

so, so fun. And because it's so linear and, and, and, and just, just thoroughly thought out, it creates some really great moments.

I loved, I loved those missions, like in, in the missions like that in this part of the game in particular, because they felt so different than the other, like the base game missions because i felt like in a lot of those scenarios you could just go in and shoot everything yeah but then these ones you really like have to do what the thing is that you're trying to do for the most

part yeah the way i was describing spider-man the first one being a little bit of like okay i can kind of see the seams of this and the second one has this like fluidity and like adds all this new stuff i do feel it's the same with the original game and phantom liberty and it makes me like i maybe they're going to the unreal engine or whatever but it makes me i'm upset like if they were to take like five years and do a cyberpunk sequel in this world with these mechanics i bet they could make a fucking incredible game. It just starts to make me think like, God, it's so annoying that they stopped short where they did because

where they end up is great. Yeah, like stuff is cool. No, I think there's a future masterpiece in the cyberpunk 2077 world. I think they're going to make another one and they're going to maybe build it from scratch and it's going to be rad and it's going to come out in five years.

Uh, but I, all, all that said, I think this is a, this is a really, really strong like expansion and kind of standalone game in its own right. Um,

um, should we, do we have any other thoughts before we get into spoiler country? Let's, let's, no, let's do it. Let's let her rip.

Let's do it. All right, let's saddle up. Uh, and, let's, uh, secure your hats and glasses. Uh, yeehaw. Let's get in. Let's let her rip. Let's do it. All right, let's saddle up and let's secure your hats and glasses. Yeehaw, let's get in the spoiler country. So we're going to talk about the... Yeehaw!

Thank you, Sean. Thank you. So you've heard the yeehaw. So if you don't want to hear spoilers for the end game for Phantom Liberty and you hear them now, that's your own fault. You have time to press pause or exit out to a different podcast. But don't do that. I'd actually stay all the way through.

Keep listening. Just mute your volume and listen to the end. Let it play. Okay. So basically there's a really clear moment in the end game or in the late game where you are given a choice. And it's either betray Reed, Idris Elba's character or betray Songbird who is the hacker who you've been working with. And throughout Songbird is saying I have

a cure. There's a cure that if we go together we can get this cure. And we can get Johnny in the same way that you have like this engram in your head. You have the malfunctioning relic that's going to kill you. I can cure you and cure myself. Which is you know in the original game you Which is, you know, in the original game,

you're like, okay, you know that all the endings kind of end in darkness. Like there isn't a cure ending, I don't think, in the original game. So to have that as a prospect, I thought was a really fun thing to have. And then also like Idris Elba's character is just so shady from the beginning.

Like you obviously know something's up with him. So it's, yeah, that decision point is beginning. Like you obviously know something's up with him. So it's, yeah, that, that decision point is really interesting. What did you guys end up picking? I show up. I felt bad doing it.

Cause I, cause I liked him, but I chose to betray Reed because it felt like, it felt like the, like the, what was, if there was like a good or an evil path it felt like the good path was kind of falling with songbird and I was like I feel like I kind of just want to see what

happens there and play yeah I did this I did the same thing because I just was like yeah like she I sort of knew from the beginning that she was gonna fuck me over because right that's how it works but like he,

I don't know. He like, I couldn't, I couldn't support putting her back in that cycle that, that, that she's been trying to break out of. And also like he works for the president. This guy's a fucking,

like that's a huge part of this guy's eventually, essentially works for the FBI or the CIA or something like that. This is not a good guy. This is not a good organization. No. I was like, so, sorry, Reed. They hint multiple times that, like, Reed has done some fucked up things in the past. And he just doesn't have an arc that feels like there's rehab.

Like, it doesn't feel like he's going on an arc. It feels like he's going down a dark path. Yeah. And I do think in reading, like, I think the good ending is taking Songbird's side. Yeah. And also as a writer, it's hard for me to, like, do the bad choice. Because I'm like, well, if I'm writing this as a story, it clearly helps Songbird. Yeah.

Yeah, it's tough. There is a good, though, but from a writing perspective, there's a good thing they do just before or like a little bit before that moment which is that again awesome mission you have to overtake the identities of french twins yes i love that it's so great so funny it's so more of that i wanted yeah i love that shit i love because you know it feels like metal gear or mission impossible it feels like you're really doing all the fucking espionage espionage sort of shit that you don't aren't always doing in cyberpunk but but like so you steal their identities you the you drop you like knock them out

and then he takes them out of the car and then he just executes them in cold blood yeah and that happens like you know about a half hour in real time before you have to make decision in terms of you to portray that felt like a real tell of like,

hey, this is the bad guy here. I think I agree. I think that must have been the thing that was still in my head. I was like, I can't trust this fucking guy. He killed the fun French guy. So you do that. So did you also align the songbird?

Okay, so we all did the songbird ending. Then you kind of like have a pretty extended like additional mission. Because I was like, you meet her up later and you smuggle her to a spaceport to try to launch her to the moon. Very edge runners. Yes. And I was like, okay, well, we're just going to sneak through the spaceport and we're going to be good to go. But no, there's like a whole bunch of combat you go through there.

There's some stealthing that you have to do. And then there is an ultimately a moment you have with Reed where you encounter him again. I like when you show up to the spaceship and Reed walks out. I'm like, this is classic video game shit. Yeah. Really felt like, oh, fuck, I betrayed Reed. And now he's here and he's mad at me. He's right behind me.

I do think that, look, this is the thing. You got to, at a certain point, you either have to hand her over to him or you got to fucking shoot Idris Elba. Yeah. Like it's the fucking wire. Yeah, it's crazy. Like your brother Mazzone. And it's like I chose to shoot him. Yeah.

It is the kind of, like the, it's a video game-y kind of thing. it's a video gamey kind of thing. I'm, I'm, I'm, this is nitpicky, but like they put a revolver in your character's hand so you can do this moment. And it's a revolver.

My character has never used up to this point. And it's the kind of things like, ah, is there a better way to do this? Yeah. Yeah. Cause it, cause it's just sort of like magically appears and you have other weapons.

It's like, I wouldn't have used this wolf one revolver i'm not sure what is important i would have used my mantis blades and cut his head off exactly it just kind of breaks the immersion a little bit and i go whatever but but it's the kind of thing where i feel like that a game that's where a game is trying to be a movie and they're like okay well we want to have this moment where they're pointing guns at each other and someone pulls the trigger first yeah but i don't know. It just kind of took me out of it at kind of the climactic moment.

Can I tell you that I got the timing wrong twice and he killed me twice? You mean the easiest thing in the game where they slow it down? Well, it's so funny. Like I sometimes I wondered, I was like, what happens if I let him shoot me? You know, I know that the game might have some sort of ending, but it doesn't seem that way in this. No, you can fail this quest early on if you, like, leave or, like, when you initially when you when the president crashes, like the very beginning of the Phantom Liberty, you could fail it. And then Songbird is like, you really fucked us on this and then leaves

and then you're just locked out of it. Oh, wow. That's wild. I didn't know that. That's really funny. I had a moment where I died in that section

because it's like the point where the president and Idris Elba, they landed on the roof and then you're like sneaking in the tunnels but eavesdropping their conversation.

Yeah. But I didn't realize I was supposed to wait for Songbird at certain points. I just kind of kept going. And then I guess I got spotted and they like threw a grenade

at me or something like that. But I was like, it was one of those things where it's like, oh, this is this is super linear. I just kind of have to follow get to these scripted points. And I loved being

that sequence in particular. It is cool. Yeah. Yeah. The sequences that I think the opening sequence, especially with all the fucking shit going down

and the explosions and like that opening sequence of Phantom Liberty is incredible. So fun. It's so great. Yeah. Did you guys shoot Idris Elba? Yeah, I did. Yeah. Yeah.

It's so funny because I do think the game gives you a pretty clear path to go down and to make to go outside of it feels like just such a specific choice I can never make. Yeah. But then when I read about what happens, I'm like, oh, it kind of sounds like it sucks. Yeah. So apparently if you do hand over Songbird to Idris here, this is where you get another ending to the game where, spoiler country, yeehaw. Do you know what the ending is? Should I tell you guys? Yeah, tell us.

You can tell us, yeah. So you do get cured oh wow you go you get picked up by Idris Elba they take you in a helicopter I think you text all your friends and then they cure you

I'm getting cured today yeah but the really fucked up and I think cool cyberpunk ending is that you wake up

two years later oh you've been in a coma for two years and you lose all your friends because they all thought you abandoned them so you have no friends and you also lose all your cyberware because something happened where like you're tainted forever you can never use cyberware so you become like just a fucking plebe and you basically like get mugged and can't defend yourself um and then you meet misty again oh wow and misty is there and she basically like get mugged and can't defend yourself um and then you meet misty again

oh wow and misty is there and she's like her shop is closed and misty's like more cyberpunk than ever like she's one of the characters i felt like felt a little outside the world of the game but in this ending she's like totally the same and she's like i'm going and this is a cool spoiler country cool eas Easter egg for Witcher. We're three levels deep. She says she's going to move to, I guess, someplace in Europe and become a Witcher. Wow. So there is a connection to Witcher.

But basically, yeah, you are V and you can make a bunch of choices there. And I believe the choices are you could be really pissed about what happened or you could be kind of cool with it. And I think you end up being a fixer or something oh wow so it's a cool ending where it is kind of sad but it also like I don't know it feels like a really hopeful ending where it's like you're not a

merc anymore and you can kind of make your life however you want it's interesting when I was watching I was like oh this is fun yeah I gotta watch all these yeah and um so I didn't do that. And yeah, I guess some of the other we didn't. So we all did the same mission. We all. That's so funny that we all did the same way.

But to your point, it does sort of feel like they lead you that way. Yeah. There's multiple endings. But I think it's like the Pan Am thing. I think we're just all horny. Yeah. Maybe Songbird. Yeah, maybe for Songbird.

Yeah. Yeah. It's really tough because yeah maybe we'll get the cheeks I will say when I ended the game with Pan Am

the first time and I like end up looking up and I was like this is most of the ending that everyone picks because I felt kind of dumb I was like you know

and this time no I feel dumb now this time the Pan Am no I feel like a fucking idiot the Pan Am ending was locked out for me because I couldn't do that one side mission

in the Badlands, so I had to do a different one, and I chose... All the horniest ones were available to me. Well, I chose the one where you let Johnny take over and storm the thing with, and I love that ending, too. I thought that was a really cool ending

that I was glad to have experienced. Did you get the... There's a mission, so after the mission where you, you go to the party and you like, you infiltrate it, then you escape. There's like, you'll just be walking around the stadium and there's a couple of random mercs who like, like get your attention. And there's a mission, there's a side mission there where you go in and you play as Kurt

Hansen a little bit. Yes. Johnny Silverhand style. Oh, I didn't do that. That mission's rad. It's so cool. I think you're locked out of it once you finish Phantom Liberty, but I'm glad that I experienced it. Because it is kind of like, it's like this dude, he's like a new recruit and he's talking about how he joined up.

And he's like, and then they're like, Kurt Hansen beat the shit out of me. Oh, I did do that one. Yeah, and then you flash back into him and you like beat up this guy as Kurt Hansen and you have this whole mission you play as him that one was cool it was really cool I did that one really early on I think because I was just obsessed with doing the side missions and powering up did you guys do the one where you get

to be like the Colombian or the Cuban crime lord no so there's one is that that's in Phantom Liberty yeah where you get to go. I think it might be post. If I remember correctly, it's post-Phantom Liberty, actually, because there's a couple of loose ends that you have to wrap up.

And then so you, in the same way that you can assume the role of the French twins, you get this data shard that makes you look like this Cuban crime Lord. I can't remember what her name is, but she fucking, she rocks. Wow. And you go to, there's two new people that are vying for the Kurt Hansen spot. And you,

as the Cuban crime Lord outsider get to influence who actually gets to run. I did do it. Oh my God. I forgot do it. Oh my God, I forgot about that. Well, because I finished Spider-Man in between. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I totally did that one.

Yeah, it is the way you get to decide. You're probably picturing Hammerhead or something. Yeah, I'm trying to decide who I even picked to be in charge. I don't remember.

There's like this shrimpy guy. Dr. Octopus? Yeah, I guess it was the lizard. Yeah, it was between Mysterio, Dr. Octopus and the lizard. And then he Mysterio Doctor Octopus and the lizard

and then he actually went with Madam Web yeah but the there's like a shrimpy guy and then there's like another big guy and then you

Mr. Hands sends you to which by the way I think Mr. Hands is like they like recast Mr. Hands I think

in this like for the base game too oh interesting I think so I think it's a new voice actor. He is really prominent in this. He's like the NPC who's kind of pulling all the strings. And he's got story implications inside of it.

Yeah, he does. Phantom Liberty. And Mr. Hands, call him Mr. Face. This guy's handsome. They do show his face. He's pretty hot. He's got a cool mustache. So, yeah, Mr. Hands actually sends you on this quest.

And because he wants you to keep it copacetic. Yeah, I remember that. That's the last Mr. Hands thing. Yeah. I did do that. And it's like in this weird like candle lit thing. Or like you go to his, you see Kurt Hansen's open casket. Yeah.

And you're like, huh, interesting. Like I think we like shot him to hell. I guess we did that. Yeah, and you're like, huh, interesting. Like, I think we, like, shot him to hell. I guess we did that. Yeah. You know, oh, speaking of the, like, fixers, there's another fixer. I think it's the guy

who makes you do all the car quests. Yes. Yeah. He sounds like Robert Smigel doing Triumph, the insult comic book. He's like, hey, Choom,

I got a thing. It's like, for me to poop on. Yeah, exactly. I'll say another thing I dislike about this game is I hate the driving. I don't think the driving is fixed in this version. Yeah, exactly. I'll say another thing I dislike about this game is I hate the driving. I don't think the driving

is fixed in this version. You're insane. I hate it. It's a little better, but I'm mostly with this. I fucking hate it. I'm a motorcycle fan. The thing that I,

I use the motorcycle, but the thing that I hated were those missions that randomly popped up where you had to steal a car and then drive them to a garage. Yes. I read that they randomly

assign the amount of time, or not the amount of time but they randomly assign the end point there's multiple places you can go so there are some that you just physically cannot do you are too far away and people were saying like if you want to do them you should just quit out or like save before and then save your last checkpoint and it'll be a place that's much closer that's interesting and it made me a place that's much closer. That's interesting. And it made me mad because those are almost impossible to do. Like the ones where it's like, don't take any damage or get there before this time.

It just couldn't be done. I got locked out of a couple of those because yeah, it was too far, but I didn't realize that. Also, I kind of wish that the, and this is just like a base game complaint, but I wish that the Delamain missions where you have to go reconnect the lost cars with the hub, Delamain would, like, I would be in a mission, and it would pop up, and then that dialogue would sort of play over the other dialogue

that I was talking through. That's from the previous one too. They gotta make it so that outside dialogue, outside missions can't start while you're in a mission. I also was really mad that that quest did not end with me getting Delamain to fast travel me around the city. I thought

it was gonna end with now I have an automated car to get in and I can, that would be really good. I really wanted that. And it just, I don't know, but yeah, I played that the first time I played,

I did that whole quest line. The first time I played through the game and this time when the first one popped, I was like not doing any of these, not doing any of the deli. I did. I didn't do one doing any of the car thefts either. Cause it was just like,

it's just dull to me. I did do one recently or today, earlier today. And, um, i stopped a car from killing itself yeah and i was like this is funny i actually i did it again i did them again and i thought you know what i i like the variants of these where it's like all right ones you have to fight one you have to chase one that's like beep beep motherfucker yeah i thought That's funny. Yeah, I thought that was funny. And the thing about the driving, it's like, I don't think it's fixed, but I like that there's bad guys driving around shooting at each other or you. I thought that's cool. And then I don't know if you could do this before,

but now you can have the katana out while you're on your motorcycle. That is pretty sick, yeah. I mean, it's the best. I mean, I loved it. I am intending to go home and finish it before I start Spider-Man 2. But I think this game is so much better than it was at launch. And I liked it at launch. We all finished it. I finished it.

I don't like the phrase warts and all, partly because I think w all finished it. I finished it. Yeah. Yeah. I, I, it's like, I don't like the phrase warts and all partly because I think warts are gross, but it is useful here. This is like a, this is a very much a warts and all experience. It was, there were a lot more warts when you're,

when it came out at launch and you had to forgive a lot more here. You had to forgive just like a little bit of like bugs and jank and some, some, some parkiness, but it's so good. It's so fun. It's so perfectly in the world though. Yes. Bugs and jank and some parkiness, but it's so good. It's so perfectly in the world though. Bugs and janks. Like when I saw someone T-posing this time around,

I was like, dude, cyberware is malfunctioning. I can in my head make all of it make sense. And that's kind of the magic of the game. Like honestly, me playing the game for three hours with the relic thing going on, like that, I wouldn't do that in another game. But this game, something about it, it's hypnotically perfect, even with all its flaws.

I think it's great. Yeah, I'm playing on PC, and every time I exit out of the game, it crashes. It's such a crash report. It's like, this feels fake. You're like, yeah, the relic. What can I do? Fuck you, Johnny. That's so funny.

Any other thoughts? No. I love it. I can't wait for more Cyberpunk in the future. I'm just having a blast. And, you know, the autumn of Cyberpunk is coming to a close. But, you know, before it does come to a close, it's time for the You Play of our We Play You Play.

It's your review crew on Cyberpunk Phantom Liberty. It's the Ryu crew. Hadouken! Ryu crew. Ryu Crew. Hadouken! And these are sourced from our Discord. Discord.gg slash getplayed. Get in on the fun over there. Justin, you a Discord guy?

You know, I've got the discord for comedy bang bang world but I'm not on other discords but I have heard it's where I can find it video game friends oh yeah yeah why do you mean specifically our discord?

I meant just a discord well I pop into one discord every once in a while not too much discord? distin? that's some great synergy shit dude

alright I gotta have my own discord it's just me talking to myself you heard one thing That's some great synergy. Shit, dude. All right. I got to have my own Discord. It's just me talking to myself. You heard one thing and you're like, I got to do it. I got to do it. Too clean. Welcome to the Sean Discord. Yeah.

Welcome to the Sean Distin Discord. The Sean-score. The Sean-score. I guess we're talking. Yeah. All things Sean. That's funny. This one's from,

in some of the people in our Discord have spooky names right now because it's Halloween. Great. This one is from Six Wires from Ghost Ship. As someone who bought it at launch and fizzled quickly, 2.0 slash Phantom Liberty has brought me back. And the more time I spend with the game,

the more I love it. Absolutely phenomenal resurrection. I agree yeah they did a great job they did a great job we've belabored it by the way let me ask you guys this

so we've definitely like we can look at the things they improved and we're like those are great if they were to do another full game

what would be things that you'd be like you gotta get better at this specifically the game should work. Well, yeah. I mean, working aside, like glitches aside, like is there quality of life stuff

or is there story stuff you'd want to change or just more of the same kind of? It's a great question. And I don't know enough about the cyberpunk war, the existing war to know what other, you know, possible biomes are. But I'd want it to be in a different city. I feel like I've seen enough Night City.

Really? And I really like the, we're talking about the density and the compactness of Phantom Liberty. I really would be interested in like, some of the stuff they have in Edge Runners where we're probably just getting into me liking public transit,

but like Edge Runners, they've got like the train that you go around and it's like, it feels like a much more alive city. Is Edge Runner a different city? No, it's also set in Night City, but it's like, so've got, like, the train that you go around, and it's like a—it feels like a much more alive city. Is Edgerunners a different city? No, it's also set in Night City, but it's like— Feels a little different. Maybe the Edgerunners version of Night City is one way to go,

but just, like, having the neighborhoods feel a little bit more compact and there's a little bit more alive, there's more stuff going on. For me, just a taste-wise sort of thing, I kind of would like to see a little bit less, like— I feel like there's some GTA kind of edgelord comedy in this. And I just like that to me is a little bit of a turnoff. I need to see a billboard for the ass eating restaurant. There's a lot of it.

And I do think the, but I do think the writing is generally pretty strong. So I feel like it kind of just doesn't need that stuff. And there's, there are ways to make the world seem like crass and heartless and you know dystopian without just playing that card all the time I would want

a like you were mentioning like a fast travel option that isn't locked to one of those portals that you have to go to because sometimes like I like driving around Night City fine but sometimes if it's like

if it's above a thousand or I'm not doing it it's annoying and having just played Spider-Man with the like instant fast travel it's like it can be done but to that point too though I'd be interested to see how often I do do the fast travel

in Spider-man because the traversal in that game is most of the fun yeah just swinging around New York City is a blast yeah I guess yeah I just needed to finish this thing like I was really breezing through it but there's a lot of traversal in missions and stuff I think if I wanted to fix cyber or not fix but the things I would want is I don't want another i don't want to see v again i think it needs to be like an anthology like new story new setup for sure you could do a new city i guess night city is like la i don't know like there are a lot of allusions to la i think i could do new york more dense more packed vertical city um but yeah, I mean, I think just for me, it would just be a new story

and maybe a bunch of smaller new stories, like a Phantom Liberty style as opposed to a big giant convoluted game could be interesting. Yeah, boy, they really, I think just following up some of the threads that are established in Phantom Liberty in terms of just like, yeah, the mission structure

and just like the, there's some of that stuff.'s some some cool infiltration that you're doing in the base game of cyber which is like more of that stuff more of those like more elaborate multi-stage missions where it's not all combat and you know what else i would like and this is this is partly balder's gate 3 stuff but like i just like more ways to get out through scenarios without combat right dialogue your way yeah well yeah exactly, exactly. That's fun to me. And there are times when it feels a little bit restrictive in terms of what your options are. I thought the cool, I mean, when you are maxed out in cool,

you can talk your way out of some things. You can a few things, but there's also times where it's just like, you know what, there's just going to be a bunch of waves of enemies and you just got to stand here and kill them all. I wouldn't mind a third-person patch. Yeah. You don't have to do it. I will say that in this playthrough, I was more like this game would be so different if it wasn't this first person.

And I was starting to enjoy the storytelling of like your own perspective. Yeah. But there are definitely times like when you get on the motorcycle and you're like, he's there. I could just, why not just do this all the time? Yeah. It is cool to see your character on the motorcycle. I'm torn on the first person, third person.

Me too. I can't tell if it would break the game or not. Maybe it'd have to just be a whole new game if you're going to do third person. And just give me the world of Cyberpunk again. I don't know. This next one is from Boo Nagi Roll. Boo Nagi Roll. Very clever.

I like it. Cyberpunk is finally a complete game and it fucking rips yeah everyone's just like this is good yeah yeah i mean i don't know if you could really complain about if you liked at all the original yeah if you played at 20 hours of the original this is so much better uh yeah it's, it's good. That's interesting because a lot of times when they make huge changes to something there will still be somebody who's like they ruined it. And I don't feel like I've heard

any of that about this game. I feel like it's been universally positive. This next one's from Mr. Jones. Hi, Mr. Jones. Spooky. Spooky. I was going to read it. I was so scared. Oh my god, Mr. Jones without me? Or though Mrs. Jones is. Move over, Z-Boys.

There's a new Lord of Dogtown, and their name is V. Wow. Referencing the Dogtown and Z-Boys skateboarding documentary and later feature film and reference the Dogtown neighborhood. I wonder if there are Easter eggs. I wonder if there's a little skate park or something in there, or an empty pool or something. There were parts of the map this time around that I straight up did not go to

like I just like I was just kind of following story around and I wasn't I was fast traveling a lot so I wasn't seeing as much of the city so like even on my way to the final mission it was like saying new area like this very basic place wait in dog town oh not in dog town because like I don't count small enough but like in in all of night city I was like I'm still finding new area like this very basic place wait in Dogtown oh not in Dogtown cause like Dogtown's small enough but like in all of Night City I was like I'm still finding new areas you can skip out on huge parts and like I like clearing all the like

police like report stuff and I think maybe in the old game it automatically came up but you have to be near it now for it to pop up so there's some that I just am not gonna search for yes right but yeah the gigs are weird too the gigs are weird too have to be near it now for it to pop up. So there's some that I just am not going to search for. Yes, right. But yeah. The gigs are weird too. This is a, the gigs are weird too,

because it's just like you have to be in the right place and then you get like a text or a phone call about a mission that's happening right there. But it feels like there are times I was like, wait, but I thought I could go to the person who assigns me the gigs and they could tell me where to go, but it's not like that.

It's more trying to encourage you to explore the map. Yeah, a little weird. Something has happened in our Discord where i guess people in the discord have been sharing um photo mode photos of uh their v's standing next to trash and hashtagging them derelict like from zoolander so that's very funny so a there's a lot of screenshots in here with, I'll say, to put some of you on blast, essay-length comments. A little too long. Yeah, a little too long to be read here in the time that we have. This next one is from Erwin Plays Bass Hi Erwin

sounds like Erwin plays the bass that'd be my assumption still buggy as hell but oh my god it's so much fun everyone's sort of just like this is good nobody's really saying anything that's like I don't like it I was trying to think of something

like a game with bugs in them like insects I couldn't like it. I was trying to think of something, like a game with bugs in them, like insects. I couldn't think of one. A Bug's Life. Yeah, it's still buggy as hell, but a lot of fun. Sounds like whatever this is. Bug Snacks? Yeah, Bug's Life on the phone.

What is this, Bug Snacks? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Something like that. Something. We'll work it out. This one's from Playing Card Fiend. Hi, Playing Card Fiend. And they write, I'm not saying that there's better games in Fiend. Hi, Playing Card Fiend. And they write,

I'm not saying that there's better games in the cyberpunk genre, but Ghostrunner 2 comes out soon. If y'all haven't played Ghostrunner, you're missing out. People love Ghostrunner. My understanding is it's like much more of a platformer. I couldn't get into it. You couldn't get into it. I got it thinking, oh, this must be a DLC for, you know, cyberpunk. I'll play it.

And I understand what it's trying to do, but a first-person platformer is really frustrating to me. Yeah, Mirror's Edge did it well back in the day. It felt very Mirror's Edge, for sure. I don't know. I'm curious. I might give it a go. Did you just play Part 2 specifically?

No, I think Part 2 is coming out soon. Is that what they said? Yeah, it's coming out shortly. Yeah, I haven't. I didn't even play a few hours of the original. I couldn't get into it. But I do think I should watch the anime. There is a side mission in the real game now

where you just find a, like, visor and you put it on and it plays a long scene from the anime. Did you guys get to that? Oh, wow, no. Yeah, it's just some random side mission in regular Night City where you just pick it up and it's like, check this out. Basically saying, go watch the anime. And it's pretty cool.

But Ghostrunner is its own thing. Ghostrunner is the game. Edgerunner is a cyberpunk. Edgerunner is the anime. Yeah, anime. And then Jerry Bell Dude writes, awesome DLC. Sure, even with new update, cyberpunk is still rough around the edges, but I was happy to revisit Night City. The end credit song at the end of Phantom Liberty was an absolute banger.

We didn't really talk about the song. Yeah, I think when the titles drop on Phantom Liberty, you're like, damn, that was a good sort of fun ending, good song. Love that they roll credits on the DLC. I think it's great. And there are people who probably just play that now, and I think it would be just as satisfying are people who probably just play that now and i think it would be just as satisfying to just be in dog town and finish the game that way i think

it'd be fun uh and then finally this one's from obi wan kenobi what's up obi wan um i emphasize that because one is spelled not wan exactly juan got Love it. Really fun. I'm someone who got the full version of the game for the first time because of the DLC. Are there other games that have made you purchase them because of DLC? This is a good question. I know a lot of people got into Witcher 3 when their big DLC came out.

Yeah, another CD Projekt Red game. I mean, like, yeah, that's a good example. I mean, I'm trying to think of the... You know what? Honestly, like the Diablo 3, even though I had Diablo 3 and I played it as,

you know, in its original state, it's when they had the DLC and when they, like, especially when they figured out how to make it control while on console, they added controller support and...

I can't remember if they added controller support. I'm forgetting the sequence of events, whether that was the first release for console, was the DLC, was the expansion, or if they added, they at minimum added like the role, the dodge that you could do on the controller in Diablo 3 that made it much more playable

and a lot more fun. And I ended up putting way, way more hours into it post-DLC for Diablo 3 that made it much more playable and a lot more fun. And I ended up putting way, way more hours into it post-DLC for Diablo 3. So that's one that comes to mind. But you got to look up what the sequence was. Yeah, it feels a little unprecedented for, I mean, it's the combination of the DLC and the 2.0 patch. Like those two things make it kind of feel like a new world, but I don't know if I've seen a game that's...

And there's just so much messaging about the game being fixed right like i don't know if i'm going into a game that i didn't love being like what's the dlc like it's like right so it's yeah yeah reaper of souls was the diablo 3 expansion um i couldn't couldn't pull the name uh the the i was i was read that they spent something some ungodly amount of money on on the combination of 2.0 and fandom liberty i had something like 170 million million budget or something like that. I mean, did they make that money back? I'm sure they did. I'm sure they did, yeah.

I'm sure they will. Yeah, because you don't pay for 2.0, but you pay for Phantom Liberty, right? So, yeah, maybe they made that money back. But I think they're encountering both people who are, you know, like the game and are buying Fandom Liberty, but then also what we just experienced with people playing this game for the first time. Yeah, I'm trying to think of any other examples. There have definitely been some civilizations that didn't

pick up until they had some DLC. No, it's tough. It's just because a DLC basically is like, if you like this, here's more. There just isn't versions of here's more that got me to like something that I didn't like, if you like this, here's more. There just isn't versions of here's more that got me to like something that I didn't like. Yeah. You know?

And that's it for this week's Ryu crew and that brings us to the end of this week's Get Played, eh, Nick? Wow. Can I put something out to the Discord? Sean, I said we're done. No, no, no. I gotta put something out to the Discord. I have mentioned to you, Matt, that I've wanted to come on the pod and talk about Machinima. Oh, yes. and basically this is like people using the like grand theft auto

engine to make short movies and stuff right and i've not really i like i every time i go down this rabbit hole i want to do it i want to get a gaming pc so i can both play phantom pain like created levels that people created on their own I gotta do that but I want to get into Machinima I want to be able to make like a GTA 5 short film so I want the people on your discord

to contact me and tell me what computer to buy tell me all the information I need hey if you want to send me the computer just do it. Oh, okay. Maybe you have an old one that you are not using anymore and you want to send to me. And I will make a really funny short.

So the call to action is contact Sean and send him a computer. Send me your parts or maybe you just have, sound card or something you're not using. Send it to me. And I want, I want to get into this. I think it's something that, I'm surprised Heather's not into this already. It feels like a thing that Heather would pick up and be incredibly good at. I mean, it's definitely something that we should talk to you about at length for another episode. Because it's very interesting.

And your specific fandom of it is fascinating. I've watched some of the craziest bullshit online like there's a guy who's made an entire like justice league level series of movies where he's created like six superheroes in grand theft auto and then there's like a team-up movie and i've watched all of it just being fascinated by how it's made and there's now a whole like just website based on machinima and they like fund these movies by directors and they look incredible

like there's some good fucking movies in there and I just have such access to talent like I have all these voice actors that I could use so I want to get good at it so if you have a computer hey maybe you're a rich benefactor and you want to buy me a gaming computer

and send it to me. That's second. If you're rich and you listen to this show, you need to give us money. Okay, that's got to be step one. I'm mostly kidding, but I do want to get into it. So I'm like kind of reminding myself.

I'm kidding too. But yeah. Sean, anything else you want to plug? No, you know, I just kind of hasn't seen with Scott Ackerman. We watch movies. We talk about him. You guys have been on the show. We talked about Super Mario Brothers movie.

And yeah, it's really fun. We're having a lot of fun over there. What did you think of the new Ninja Turtles movie? I enjoyed it, but I didn't love, love it. Like I thought it was good. I just think it wasn't made for me. Cause you are a TMNT. I'd say super fan.

I'm a big, big fan, but then the truth of it. And I think a lot of people, this is true for a lot of people in star Wars. It's like, you can be a big fan of something, but like,

do how much of it do you actually like? And the, the, like the, it's probably like 25% that i love a lot of it is bullshit yeah so i'm a fan but i also know ninja turtles has hit or miss but i thought the good the new movie's good and i think younger people than me will really love it but yeah i don't think it was for me did you guys see it i did i did see it and i liked i i laughed i laughed out

loud a lot yeah i laughed but i guess i'm not going to a Ninja Turtles movie necessarily to laugh. I guess, yeah. And that's what I discovered watching this. I'm like, okay. But it has your favorite joke in comedy in... Does it? Not this one, but in previous Ninja Turtles. I guess my favorite joke is when they say, they go, oh, it's a little empty.

A little too empty. Oh, that was easy. A little too easy. And they go, that's Raph. A little too Raph. Yeah. That's one of the best little too empty. Yeah. Oh, that was easy. A little too easy. And they go, that's Raph. A little too Raph. Yeah. It's good. That's one of the best jokes ever written.

Well, and then this week on Get Animated, we will be discussing the final two episodes of Cyberpunk Edgerunners. That's right. That's a nice bit of synergy that kind of worked out for us. The Cyberpunk Edgerunners, we're wrapping up over on GetAnimated, patreon.com slash getplayed.

So check that out. Also, thanks to our engineer, Alex Gonzalez, DeadAirAlexG on Twitter and Instagram. And Sean. Don't. Wait, wait, wait. No, come on. Choom.

Choom. I'm just about to delta. Don't. Don't do it. You got played, Sean. I'm just about to delta. Don't. Don't do it. You got played, Sean. I'm T-posing. I'm T-posing.