It's curious, isn't it? We're less than a month out from the day that, were it not for present circumstances, would be E3 day and you can just feel the ramping marketing from every single major studio out there today. It's as though despite the fact they've been serendipitously freed from their usual marketing schedule everyone's just willingly shackling themselves back into that cycle, pretending like everything's business as usual. This seems to be true with CDPR who have spent the last few months slowly introducing their twitter followers to the factions of Night City as though there's something special coming soon. (Maybe a trailer in June. Who can say for sure?) As an admiring fan of their work, this means that I too am shackled to the redundant E3 release window as I ramble on about the recent events in the leadup to Cyberpunk 2077 in the hopes of getting appropriately 'in the mood' for the Cyber-fever that I suspect will explode in the very near future.
The first story that I noticed popping up, or at least the first which wasn't a story fed by CDPR themselves, was a leaking of the German ratings board classification for the game. All that we really learnt here was stuff that we'd already been hinted towards, but I suppose a lot of folk still were taken aback to hear how Cyberpunk 2077 literally ticked all of the major boxes. Sex, drugs, violence, it was all there, and for the most part the public applauded CDPR's unwavering dedication to the vision they had originally presented. There was even a sly little comment that one Dev made on Twitter, wherein he affirmed that the team doesn't 'F' around with this sort of stuff, which likely was meant to serve as an alleviation to the sceptical as much as an as it was an aggrandising device. Personally, I'm of the mind that videogames could serve to be a lot more mature and adult in the topics that they cover, so I welcome the confirmedly heavy approach that Cyberpunk is set to take, but this does raise some questions about how some of the more sensitive countries out there would take this sort of news.
Countries like, oh I don't know, Australia? The land down under is renowned for a great many things, and being a haven for edgy/dark content in their games is certainly not one of them. Before 2011 Australia didn't even have an 18+ rating for the video gaming world, meaning that any game which didn't fit within their other age ranges would be Refused Classification and therefore would be forbidden the right to be sold. (With a hefty fine in place for those that shirked such a ruling) Even now, without that particular restriction, they still exert notoriously stringent guidelines should a videogame stray into certain minefield topics for their ratings boards. Such topics include; excessive violence, (Although they have pulled back on this significantly, as evidenced by Doom Eternal getting an uninhibited release there) Drugs (In fact, Fallout 3 was famously edited to feature it's now iconic 'Chems' because of the Australian censorship board) and Sex. (That last one is a big no-no. Australia just can't fathom anything as horrible as adults knowing about Sex; it'd be the death of society as they know it!) Now you may notice something about all of those topics I just mentioned, they are all big parts of Cyberpunk 2077, so Australian fans were bracing for a seemingly inevitable ban hammer for the past few days now.
And yet; surprise! Cyberpunk miraculously ended up getting an Adults only rating and is thus completely cleared for sale! Who could have seen that coming? So perhaps this could be a sign that Australia's ratings boards are slowly starting to come around to the modern age that they've been living in for a quite a while now, or it could just be a response to current events. What I mean is, was Australia really prepared to ban a game that is set to be this year's unmatched unit-moving blockbuster, after a several month long pandemic which has likely cost their government a lot in sales tax? Of course not, they need that export fee. But from a slightly more congratulatory perspective, Australia have been banning less and less games in recent years which could be seen as a trend towards tolerance. And heck, maybe letting through a triple-threat like Cyberpunk 2077 will be the big step that country's rating's board needs to revise their outdated policies. (Although somehow, I doubt it.)
But that's enough talking about policies and censorship, let's talk about the number one issue affecting people today; genitals. That's right; recently it was revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 would allow for character customisation that extends all the way down to the player's genitals and this was news to some people? I mean, they claimed as much in early 2019 but I guess a lot of people must take CD Projekt Red for liars because it was only once a third party confirmed such a feature that the Internet have taken it by storm. Of course, we still have no idea what is exactly meant by customiseable genitals (Are we just talking sliders or is this going to get in depth?) but at the end of the day this is just another outlet through which CDPR wish to convey the core themes of their interpretation of transhumanism.
To be clear, transhumanism has a great many different forms and application that it can materialise as, and one of the key aspects of that philosophy that CDPR have repeatedly expressed interest in is the material. In a world where robotics can amplify the very way that we look it doesn't seem so far out of left field for everyone to adopt an ideal version of themselves on the outside, though such does open up questions about the evolving standards of what is considered beautiful in such a world. Modification of one's genitals to resemble that which they desire is another, if baser, application of this world view and I'd imagine it won't be the most outlandish that player's are exposed to throughout the game. Afterall, something tells me the choice of which deadly implement I'm going to shove into my forearm will have a few more gameplay applications. (Unless I've completely misjudged what kind of game this is going to be...)
After it's all said and done, however, this reveal does highlight a certain concern I have regarding this game; will there actually be extensive customisation? In all the highlights we've seen there has been but the bare minimum of customisation available, it's been all 'pick and choose from these pre-built faces' and when you think about it, that limited customisation approach makes total sense. The gameplay will take place almost entirely in first person so what real need is there to be any indepth character sculpting system? But in a world where personification is so key, I'd feel a little let down if I couldn't create a digital avatar that didn't at least slightly resemble myself. That was a disappointment that I'd come to terms with, however, until I heard about this news. "Oh, ya'll gonna let mess around with the size of our dongs but won't give us a nose slider, CDPR?" All I'm, asking for is sliders. (A lot of sliders, mind you, but nothing that's going to break the budget.)
So there it all is, not a great deal to go on but for a title this big it's enough to get the ol' chatter train rolling, which is exactly what CDPR want right now. And personally, with all of this negativity running around after the TLOU Part 2 leaks, I welcome something to get everyone back into being excited for upcoming games once again. This coupled with the surprise announcement of Robocop showing up in Mortal Kombat 11 is all I need to get my cyberpunk juices flowing, of course that doesn't mean I don't want that final gameplay reveal next month. (I'm counting on you CDPR, don't let us down!)
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