Welp, that's an entire week so I think I'm allowed to mentioned this game's name again. Cyberpunk, whew, that was ride wasn't it folks? For a second there the entire gaming world was bracing for record breaking sales and chart-topping numbers, but unfortunately after the refunds and technical issues the game only managed to sell- 13 million copies? And that's apparently accounting for refunds too? I guess hype is more important than actually putting out a functioning product... but be that as it may, Cyberpunk 2077 still managed to not quite live up to it's promise in a great many number of ways, with the most important failure coming from that first promise; that it'd be out when it was ready. As a result the pain of being deceived has been salved somewhat from the absolute plethora of glitch videos that have flooded the Internet and I just wanted to go over this first month of fixing because New Year means new positivity?
So firstly the team over at CDPR have managed to get out 6 patches before the end of 2020, not counting the day 0 patch which they put out for PC reviewers. (Which shouldn't count anyway because it was before the release date and was apparently just a compilation of more necessary portions from the Day One patch.) Now as responsive as this does make CDPR look, I can't help but note that this does break their promise of putting out nothing until 2021, which makes me think that some folk have had their Christmas breaks cancelled even after the year of grind they had to stomach to put this game out in the first place. Of course, Cyberpunk was a total mess in heavy need of patches, (as well as actual fixes to stripped features that I don't even know if they're capable of making) but it shouldn't be at the expense of the workforce; they've endured enough from the mandatory overtime, heavy pressure and weeks of ridicule; have they not?
As for what these patches have contained, most of it has been a laundry list of fixes that are a lot more specific then I would have expected. As in, rather than fixing sweeping issues like the way that cars tend to brutally murder the laws of physics at all times, how traffic AI seems broken in some instances or the strangely bad ragdoll on bodies, we've seen a lot of fixes for NPCs not being in the right places at key points in certain missions. This may seem like a small thing to point out, but if it's indicative of the wider game issues then I think we're going to be in a for a long fixing period. The way they make it seem this doesn't appear to be an issue of a few loose threads unravelling and sending everything haywire, each problem is unique and requiring of unique solutions, meaning that identifying each and every bug is now going to be the job of the unpaid interns that are traditionally called 'customers'. (In fact, a lot of us actually paid to be extra QA spotters. Didn't know that Cyberpunk's dystopian job market would come to fruition so soon, did ya?)
Though for all the fun and games and endless meme videos of bugs, (Which I find much more palatable than the spoiler-titled videos. The game has been out for less than a month, guys, have some common curtesy!) there has been one much more malicious issue that struck a cord amidst gamers, and it was one that is honestly rather bizarre when you think about it, how did no one see this would be a problem? Essentially, Cyberpunk 2077 was launched with a limit on save files so that an individual save could only reach up to 8mb, so far so normal, but the consequence of surpassing that limit would mean that the file would corrupt, making that save unplayable. Now I've heard about this sort of thing before, but save file size limits aren't generally a problem because most developers know how to ensure all the game's content could be completed within the limit. In an ideal world you shouldn't even know that there is a limit.
However for Cyberpunk we did find out, and that's a bit concerning, no? As far as I'm aware this likely came about due to a duplication glitch which allowed for file sizes to balloon due to the way that the game handles item IDs, but people were reporting running against this wall just from playing entirely normal for around 40 or so hours, and if you take them at their word then you have a serious question to ask; how in god's name did no one know about this issue? The reports that have been made imply that folk haven't actually gotten around to completing everything the game has to offer, but the limit started corrupting saves before the end thus forcing runs to be cut short. To be clear, this isn't the sort of issue that can be easily sidestepped. Once you hit that cap you're done unless you completely change up the way you play the game. (And start scrapping that huge inventory you're hanging onto.)
What makes this baffling is that there was a comment made by a developer, which I remember reading at the time, claiming that this man had spent over a hundred hours playing the game in one save without finishing anything. Now obvious marketing rhetoric aside; how could that be possible without running into an issue that was apparently universal? Is this perhaps another example of the truth getting stretched, or downright fabricated? Or are we perhaps hearing of the world's single most frugal RPG player who never maintained an inventory he just couldn't bare to part with. (If you're curious, I am certainly one of those hoarder types and my save files would be totally screwed if I were in his position.)
Now as of today the problem has been fixed with Hotfix 6, but the notes merely claimed that the limit had been 'removed' which makes me wonder, once more, if facts are being smudged a little bit. I'm not exactly an expert with game development but I have pushed a title to it's limits before, and that's how I learnt how Skyrim had a similar save file limit. (Of course, which a much more generous threshold to corruption territory) Mods that created and ran scripts piled onto that file size and generous modders (like myself) had to jump through hoops to get around it, (I think there was some program which changed the configuration of the file, I forget) yet even with that limit removed it didn't prevent problems. As the file grew larger the game would become more unstable as the engine was being forced to run more things simultaneously until crashes were a common occurrence, at the end of the day the limit was there for a reason; because the game wasn't designed to handle bigger save files. Though I cannot say for certain, I can't help but wonder if something similar might be true for Cyberpunk, and maybe the road to 100% completion will end up being a treacherous road where the game's engine itself becomes stretched beyond it's means. (Just like travelling to the far-lands in Minecraft, in a way)
Although in absence of any actual evidence, I'll have to conclude that one of biggest bosses in Cyberpunk buginess has been felled and that's deserving of tentative celebrations all round. (I really hope that applause sticks around) As of the rate of things now, it seems that the team will soon be able to focus on actually making the Xbox and Playstation versions of this game look good, (Or as much as that is possible) and maybe even earn their way back onto the PlayStation store while they're at it. Although personally I don't think even the act of getting this game to a stable state is going to be enough to make it the shining gem that every wants it to be. (Afterall, The PC version is mostly playable and folk still aren't satisfied) I worry a little that, just like with the hype process, expectations are a little too lofty for what CDPR can do. I've seen some folk suggest that the anaemic police system could be buffed in this patching process, and that doesn't make any sense. That there is a flaw in game design and I'm not really sure what anyone can do about it. The game's already out there, unless this becomes a retroactive Live-service I think the game is stuck with it's milk-toast openworld mechanics, for better or for worse.
Irregardless, (And yes, Jamie Lee Curtis, I don't care if the word is redundant, I like to use it) Cyberpunk is still, by most accounts, a worthwhile game that'll surely become a must play in the future. Heck, maybe once all this unpleasantness is out the way the memory of the launch will fade and this game will come to be remembered as the classic it seemed destined to become. (I refuse to make any promises anymore) I just know that as far as I'm concerned, I'm going to leave the game on the backburner, maybe to come around once I get a better computer rig in the future. (God knows I don't want to see what sort of concessions the console versions are going to need to make in order to run it.) Despite everything I seem to have faith in CDPR in their journey of image rehabilitation, because the last thing I want is to lose one of the only well-meaning studios left in the industry. I just won't be buying any of their games on launch day anymore- can't really afford that sort of buyers remorse, ya know?
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