Earlier this morning at about 9:00a PST, a handful of devs from CDPR joined a live stream together on Twitch to discuss CP2077. Many were wondering what exactly this stream would entail considering that no new DLC content has been announced before now, despite CDPR promising doing so before the end of the year (sure, we still have three and a half months left but they are really pushing it).
Adding to this is that the proposed large 1.3 CP2077 patch has been confirmed but not given a release date, which again, some were reasonably expecting that to be the focus of the stream. However, in an incredibly awkward fashion, the devs barely touched on it and delivered nothing noteworthy which left many wondering just what the point of this stream was.
they have improved
cat AI
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) August 17, 2021
Unfortunately, anyone expecting anything major to be revealed or discussed will undoubtedly have left the stream disappointed but given CDPR’s track record since launching Cyberpunk, that is kind of on us. I mean, should we really have been surprised? Honestly, I’m not, not even a little bit.
CDPR did touch base on a few free DLC content drops but you need to understand that this isn’t like, storyline content or anything major. These are more specifically cosmetics, something they heavily emphasized to ensure expectations are met. You know, something they should have done several months, perhaps years before the game being released.
the first free DLC is a pair of new jackets from Vic…that do not appear to have mod slots
they really, really want to emphasize these are small DLCs pic.twitter.com/Y7PzQ1AC2F
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) August 17, 2021
jacket 2: pic.twitter.com/p1hj0kxsdU
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) August 17, 2021
As the stream went on, things got even more awkward. Almost a half-hour in and the only thing of note were the two jackets shown above. The devs were fairly dodgy in terms of making sure they avoided any hot topics or hot takes of their game, which couldn’t help but remind me of how Bioware handled their lackluster and unprofessional-looking Anthem live streams. During both Bioware’s Anthem stream and today’s stream of CP2077 from CDPR, the devs were met with harsh and justifiable criticism from the chat which eventually turned into hilarious and immature roasting. And again, in both streams, the devs avoided it all and didn’t answer any prevalent questions. However, we did get this gem of a quote from one of the CDPR devs:
“People don’t understand how difficult it is to create patches for a game that is already launched…
it’s open heart surgery.”
This… this is just ridiculous. No one said it was easy but come on, this is pathetic. In no way are these two concepts even remotely similar and in no way should anyone feel bad for CDPR after hyping up their game and stripping it of the most desired featured (such as story, for example). Now, to be fair, we know that the devs aren’t necessarily responsible for how the game turned out or how the higher-ups in CDPR handled everything. And yet, we can’t help but feel as if, I don’t know, maybe during a live stream don’t say stupid shit like this when people still feel ripped off and lied to? Even in its current state, pre-patch 1.3, the game still feels overwhelmingly sloppily put together and unfinished. This is on you as a company for letting this happen and it’s on you for defending it.
Another gem of a quote was when one of the devs during the stream referenced a color of a car as one they did not like but… you can’t change the color of your vehicle so… I don’t know, maybe don’t point something like this out and leave yourself open to more harsh criticism?
As the stream hit around the 40m mark, we wondered just why there was a stream at all to discuss a couple of jackets while ignoring glaring issues that remain in the game that fans wanted more insight on. It was about at this point that the final reveal was shown which was… an alternate appearance for Johnny Silverhand. I just… I can’t even understand why this was a thing. This is exactly like when Bioware snapped at the chat during one of their disastrous Anthem live streams for asking about loot drops and other issues when all they wanted to do was talk about level design. Oh boy…
The devs then added that Johnny has an alternate set of dialogue at the end of the game depending on what responses you have to a conversation with him which didn’t amount to much. The devs expressed wanting to make sure that there were no spoilers but then went in-depth on how to unlock it so players could experience this for themselves. Yep, that was all. That was the live stream. So, with all that info above, let us recap, yeah?
- Improved AI! For the cat in your apartment.
- Two new free DLC Updates! As non-legendary jackets.
- Craft in bulk is coming.
- Resetting skill points through respec costs less.
- Perk fixes. Many are hot garbage.
- Minimap is zoomed out (thank god).
- Devs complaining about how difficult their jobs are to get sympathy from players.
- Expressing dislike for a color of a vehicle when you can’t change it or customize it.
- Chat roasting the stream as devs ignore the chat and don’t answer any questions.
- Devs stated that they are working on the big DLC expansion but provided no further details on that.
- No mention of next-gen console updates for the game.
- No date on release for patch 1.3 but this is apparently the biggest patch to date.
not gonna lie I did not have high expectations but that was incredibly rough on every level
— Paul Tassi (@PaulTassi) August 17, 2021
If you had any sort of expectations for this stream, then that is on you. CDPR continues to shit the bed, time and time again and henceforth, that should be the only thing you expect from them. That being said, some of us made the mistake of pre-ordering the game and spending more than a couple of hours in the settings to try and get it to work and therefore, crossed the time limit into not being able to return the game. Now we are stuck with it and forced to write about every shitting thing CDPR does, which is pretty much everything since launch day.
