Cyberpunk

So as you've probably already heard by now, a much-anticipated new video game, Cyberpunk 2077, dropped today.  My darling daughter bought me a copy as an early-season Christmas present (thank you, Britney!), and I cleared my schedule to spend the whole day today with the brand-new game.

For the uninitiated, modern video games can be played on high-end gaming PCs or on consoles, like the Sony PlayStation or the Microsoft Xbox.  The design is somewhat different for each platform, and depending on the game designer, some run great on PlayStation, but not so well on PC or Xbox,. and others on the Xbox, but not so much on the other two platforms.  I've been running Cyberpunk all day today on my PC, and it's running fine - no bugs, terrific graphics, and good frame rates.  I've seen people complain about the game on line, but they all seem to be PlayStation or Xbox users, so it appears that Cyberpunk is a game designed for PC but not so much for consoles.

I won't reveal any spoilers here or say anything specific about the game content, but I will say that so far it seems to be very richly detailed, with lots and lots of activities and side quests and random encounters.  The mind reels thinking of the thousands of man-hours that must have gone into the design.  I just finished the "braindance" sequence (those who've played early parts of the game will know what I'm talking about), and I have to say that it's obvious that a LOT of imagination went into that one scene alone.  There was like a 15-minute tutorial sequence just to prep you for the 30-minute scene.  That bodes well for the rest of the game.

I started playing around 9:30 this morning, took a break for lunch and a few phone calls (I've finally got someone under contract to repair my house!), and then resumed playing until 7:30, when I broke to post this review.  I'll probably be up late tonight playing away.

Cyberpunk 2077 was produced by the studio CD Project Red, who previously produced The Witcher 3, a game that many (myself included) consider to be among the best video games ever. The expectations for this new game were sky-high, and then after literally years of development, CRPR delayed release of the game on multiple occasions, saying that wanted to tweak one feature or another.  Ever the ethical and responsible game developer (a rarity these days), they didn't want to rush out a game that still had bugs or other issues, regardless of how highly the game was anticipated.  The delays, however, only served to heighted the suspense and the anticipation, which only made them want all the more to make sure it was perfect, and on the cycle went all through this virus-begotten year of the plague.  But it finally was released today, and the wait was worth it.

Sleep log:  I didn't go to bed until 12:30 a.m, last night, mostly because I nodded off at around 11:00, and then slept until 3:00.  I got right back to sleep but woke up again at 5:00 a.m., and after a while was able to fall asleep once more until my 7:00 a.m. alarm.  With the interruptions, I'd say I got about 5½ to 6 hours of sleep, which is still pretty darn good for me as of late.