Cyberpunk 2077 has been one of the most hotly-anticipated titles in recent memory. Expectations were so high for this title that it’s quite possible that CD Projekt Red could never live up to them. After numerous delays, however, Cyberpunk 2077 launched on December 10 to a mix of high praise and mild disappointment from many reviewers. The game is so massive, however, that we elected to take our time to really soak it in before tackling this review.
For those who are new to the franchise, Cyberpunk 2077 is based on the Cyberpunk tabletop role-playing game franchise. The second and fourth editions of Cyberpunk, known as Cyberpunk 2020 and Cyberpunk Red, are probably the most popular variants of the game. The tabletop game was published for the first time in 1988, and the intervening 30-some years have not changed the game world all that much. As a result, Cyberpunk 2077 looks somewhat retro-futuristic, as this is how people in the 1980s imagined what the future would look like. They’re probably a little disappointed by how pedestrian actual 2020 looks by comparison.
Immediately, Cyberpunk 2077 was a hit. CD Projekt made back all of its development and marketing costs on the strength of pre-sales alone. As a result, the studio softened the requirements for employee bonus payouts. Despite being available DRM-free from CD Projekt’s own GOG game shop, Steam’s player counts showed that a million gamers were playing Cyberpunkat the same time almost immediate after its release.
While Cyberpunk 2077 is a hotly anticipated game, it’s also a showcase title for NVIDIA’s GeForce RTX graphics cards. CDPR applied DirectX Ray Tracing technology liberally to Night City to provide realistic lighting, reflections, and atmosphere. All of the screenshots we’re showing in this article have DXR enabled to its highest potential, unless otherwise indicated. As you’ll see throughout our review here, the game is a beauty. Eventually all of this eye candy will make its way to AMD’s Radeon RX 6000 family of GPUs, but that day is not today. We expect it to happen around the same time as the RDNA2 Xbox Series X and PlayStation 5 get their ports.
About Cyberpunk 2077
In Cyberpunk 2077, you are V, a mercenary on a clock who has three difference, complex and varied backgrounds. Street Kid V was a gang member who grew up on the streets of Night City, that knows who the kingpins are, and has complicated histories with some of them. The Nomads are outsiders from the badlands, and the Nomad version of V is looking to make a fresh start in Night City. Lastly, Corpo V had a pretty intense corporate job who runs afoul of the very company that employs him (or her) when a hit job goes horribly wrong. We selected Corpo V for our play-through. Beyond playing through the origin story, picking a specific origin gives background-specific conversation options in the game, and can lead to making specific missions easier or more difficult.
The character creation process is Cyberpunk is pretty barebones. For years, other RPG developers have allowed players to really recreate exactly what they wanted. This is accomplished by sliders and two-dimensional grids that adjust facial features with a great degree of freedom. In Cyberpunk 2077, CDPR only gives a list of pre-determined models that reflect different facial features, and there’s no fine-tuning at all. This is pretty shallow and not a great start for a role-playing game, as pickier players will have a harder time finding exactly what they want. There are only two voice options, too. This is way behind the 10-year-old Dragon Age: Origins, for example.
Regardless of which origin story you start with, V falls out of favor with their faction and winds up befriending another mercenary named Jackie Welles. Welles and V are part of a team to find a biometric enhancement through a “runner” (a middle manager that introduced mercs to potential clients) named Dex. Jackie and V’s heist starts out smoothly enough, but eventually things happen that cause the job to go awry. At the end, V has a biometric implant with a virus with the ghost of Keanu Reeves, and everyone V knew from the first couple hours of the game is dead. This is where the game opens up.
V is now on the clock. The virus contains the personality of dead terrorist Johnny Silverhand, played by the aforementioned Keanu Reeves, and is racing to erase V’s personality, using his or her body as a shell for the computerized Johnny. As a result, Johnny goes everywhere with V, and V’s internal dialog is replaced with actual dialog with Johnny. Silverhand taunts V at every turn, but figured out early on that it’s bad news for him if V dies. The computerized essence of Johnny and V start out working together to figure out how to remove the implant from V’s head.
The first time we meet Johnny Silverhand, played by internet favorite Keanu Reeves
Johnny is the biggest narcissistic jerk you can imagine, but his lines as delivered by Keanu come across a little bored. I suppose we’d be a little bored if we’d been trapped as a personality construct on a glorified SD card for the last 50+ years too. We think this is intentional, since Johnny can be seeing leaning against the wall more than he takes any other pose, and he’s just too “cool” to care what anybody thinks. Early on he just wants V dead so he can take over the body, but quickly changes his tune when he realizes the controversy and importance of everything that happened early in the story.
The rest of the cast does a great job, and we couldn’t help getting emotionally attached to V’s crew and acquaintances. It helps that the story is engaging and the writing is extremely well done. Even though so many characters die early on, each one is a gut punch. We liked these people, and thought they’d be with us for the long haul. And when the next batch of people insert themselves into V’s life, we get to know and appreciate them just as much.
That’s actually a pretty stark contrast to another science-fiction hacker thriller game that launched this fall, Watch Dogs: Legion. Perhaps it’s because there were so many playable characters in Watch Dogs, but each one felt stiff and we had a hard time connecting. The writing wasn’t as good and the story wasn’t as engaging either. Everything about Cyberpunk‘s story has been bigger, deeper, and stronger than anything in Watch Dogs Legion. WDL was a fun game, but Cyberpunk went above and beyond with the writing.
The only ding we can make against the story of Cyberpunk is how little our own decisions impact the overall flow of the story. When Johnny first appears, it’s apparent that V only has a limited time in Night City before he gives up the ghost, but we can spend all our time running side missions and collecting cars, and he’ll never die due to the implant. The closest we get to affecting the story is how we approached the gameplay. Skipping all the optional parts of a story mission makes it harder because we may not have stealth or surprise on our side, but going in guns blazing is just as effective as stealth. We’re playing a pretty linear story, albeit an incredibly entertaining one.
Cyberpunk 2077 Missions And Structure
As a story-driven role playing game, we don’t want to give away much more than that. There’s quite a bit more to do in Night City, though. Along with the main storyline, Cyberpunk 2077 has tons of side quests to accomplish from runners all over Night City, quests that stem off the main story missions, and even fetch quests for an AI-run taxi company, Delamain.
Just about everywhere we went had one or more side missions available, which ranged from finding a specific person to interrogate or kill, steal technology, sneak around to gather intel, and a lot more. The side quests themselves do start to get a little repetitive after a while, but each quest giver feels like a real person with their own distinct personality, motives, and desires. The attention of detail in the writing is top-notch, and the side quests reflect it.
Getting around Night City has a diverse set of travel methods. V can drive a car, walk to fast-travel kiosks that allow going anywhere right away, or ride in a Delamain taxi. Walking is also on the table, although it’ll take a while. Driving is a little strange, however. When we drove ourselves around, we could switch between a first-person camera, which provides very limited visibility, and a third-person camera where we still had to move the camera with the mouse as we drove. Neither option was very attractive, and we found ourselves fast-traveling an awful lot. Night City is pretty open from the start, and we could fast-travel to areas we’d never visited previously.
Both being open-world games, we feel compelled to draw more comparisons to Watch Dogs Legion. London wasn’t nearly as big as Night City, nor as detailed. Cyberpunk‘s world scales vertically as well as horizontally, as overhead bridges, skywalks, and buildings all tower overhead. It’s also very densely populated. The NPCs and vehicles that roam the streets are varied and interesting. At night, the city lives up to its name, as Night City is very dark, wet, and neon.
Cyberpunk 2077 Combat In Night City
Cyberpunk 2077 is mostly a first-person game. Combat is full of gunplay and swordplay, and most of the standard first-person shooter tropes apply. That includes looting ammo and weapons off the fresh corpses of our fallen enemies, right-clicking to look down the sights of a gun, and WASD + mouse navigation. Many of the weapons we found felt very satisfying. Pulling the trigger on a shotgun when we were up-close and personal with an enemy rightly left them completely incapacitated.
Another method of combat is in close quarters with fists, knives, or swords. Because Cyberpunk 2077 happens in a city where the Emperor of Japan rules the land, there are some hints of Samurai, and getting a sword is a blast. In one mission, we were stuck deep inside a building when an alarm went off, and the first person we dropped had a katana. And then we had a katana, which feels overpowered until we realized that if someone cut our arm off with a sword, we’d be pretty non-responsive. Perhaps the melee weapons are appropriately weighted in that light. When we could be stealthy, it was tons of fun to hack into our enemies. V has a stamina meter, so just wildly swinging the sword is not advised, but it’s super sharp and does a load of damage, so it felt wonderfully freeing in our hands.
Speaking of hacking, all electronics in Cyberpunk 2077 are hackable. Want to blind an enemy? Hack their optics. Want to distract them instead? Make the TV behind them change channels. Want to kill the surveillance system? Hack a computer and turn it off. There’s some bad news with this, however: your electronics are hackable, too. It’s kind of annoying to see an enemy hacker overheat your implants and cause your skin to burn. Whenever we saw that V was being hacked, whoever was infiltrating had to become top priority to prevent some horrible status ailment from derailing the rest of the fight. Can we spend a few Eddies on a Patch Tuesday upgrade, please?
The only aspect of Cyberpunk‘s combat that isn’t particularly fun in a first-person perspective is the camera system. The game is completely first-person, outside of driving a car. There’s no “vanity camera” in Cyberpunk 2077 at all. Once we customized V and got dressed, that was the last we’d see of the clothes, hairstyle, face, and tattoos unless we happened to wander into a bathroom and checked ourselves out in the mirror. Maybe that’s a good thing, considering the limited customization options.
Cyberpunk 2077 Glitches Remain
Despite multiple delays, Cyberpunk 2077 still feels a little bit rushed. CDPR pushed out the version 1.04 hot fix right after launch, and that version fixed a lot of game-breaking and mission-ending bugs, but still some issues remain. One of the most comical happens right outside of V’s apartment. There are some barricades along the street, and the path is so thin that every car passing V’s apartment on that side of the street sideswipes the barricades. Those drivers get angry and yell at V like it’s somehow our fault that they don’t know how to drive.
More troubling are the magical appearing pedestrians and vehicles. Cyberpunk 2077 was something of a chore to benchmark because the game world is randomized every time we load, and people and cars appear out of thin air. On multiple occasions, we’d look both ways before crossing the street and then suddenly get mashed by a car that appeared right on top of us. As we turn corners, people warp in right before our eyes like they’re Protoss Stalkers from StarCraft, and because they’re solid objects we suddenly can’t walk where we had a clear path a moment earlier.
Texture pop-in is rampant, but a fast SSD will at least minimize the time it takes them to load.
Those issues are the most aggravating, but others remain. The internet had a field day making fun of the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One versions of Cyberpunk for their low-resolution placeholder textures that eventually get replaced with more details, but the same thing happens on a pretty powerful PC. Texture pop-in is pretty jarring at high resolutions and detail levels, and on our test system with 32 GB of system memory, it’s a shame that it happens at all.
Lastly, it seems that Cyberpunk 2077 doesn’t make the best use of AMD’s CPUs with symmetric multi-threading, including every generation of Ryzen up through Zen 3. One Redditor put together an unofficial binary patch that seems to correct the issue. Because we were testing on AMD CPUs, a Ryzen 7 3700X and Ryzen 9 3900X, we made the decision to enable it. We’ll talk more about our testing methods on the next page, but it does make a big difference when Ray Tracing is enabled and the GPU isn’t the limiting factor…
The federal government is ordering the dissolution of TikTok’s Canadian business after a national security review of the Chinese company behind the social media platform, but stopped short of ordering people to stay off the app.
Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne announced the government’s “wind up” demand Wednesday, saying it is meant to address “risks” related to ByteDance Ltd.’s establishment of TikTok Technology Canada Inc.
“The decision was based on the information and evidence collected over the course of the review and on the advice of Canada’s security and intelligence community and other government partners,” he said in a statement.
The announcement added that the government is not blocking Canadians’ access to the TikTok application or their ability to create content.
However, it urged people to “adopt good cybersecurity practices and assess the possible risks of using social media platforms and applications, including how their information is likely to be protected, managed, used and shared by foreign actors, as well as to be aware of which country’s laws apply.”
Champagne’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment seeking details about what evidence led to the government’s dissolution demand, how long ByteDance has to comply and why the app is not being banned.
A TikTok spokesperson said in a statement that the shutdown of its Canadian offices will mean the loss of hundreds of well-paying local jobs.
“We will challenge this order in court,” the spokesperson said.
“The TikTok platform will remain available for creators to find an audience, explore new interests and for businesses to thrive.”
The federal Liberals ordered a national security review of TikTok in September 2023, but it was not public knowledge until The Canadian Press reported in March that it was investigating the company.
At the time, it said the review was based on the expansion of a business, which it said constituted the establishment of a new Canadian entity. It declined to provide any further details about what expansion it was reviewing.
A government database showed a notification of new business from TikTok in June 2023. It said Network Sense Ventures Ltd. in Toronto and Vancouver would engage in “marketing, advertising, and content/creator development activities in relation to the use of the TikTok app in Canada.”
Even before the review, ByteDance and TikTok were lightning rod for privacy and safety concerns because Chinese national security laws compel organizations in the country to assist with intelligence gathering.
Such concerns led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass a bill in March designed to ban TikTok unless its China-based owner sells its stake in the business.
Champagne’s office has maintained Canada’s review was not related to the U.S. bill, which has yet to pass.
Canada’s review was carried out through the Investment Canada Act, which allows the government to investigate any foreign investment with potential to might harm national security.
While cabinet can make investors sell parts of the business or shares, Champagne has said the act doesn’t allow him to disclose details of the review.
Wednesday’s dissolution order was made in accordance with the act.
The federal government banned TikTok from its mobile devices in February 2023 following the launch of an investigation into the company by federal and provincial privacy commissioners.
— With files from Anja Karadeglija in Ottawa
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 6, 2024.
LONDON (AP) — Most people have accumulated a pile of data — selfies, emails, videos and more — on their social media and digital accounts over their lifetimes. What happens to it when we die?
It’s wise to draft a will spelling out who inherits your physical assets after you’re gone, but don’t forget to take care of your digital estate too. Friends and family might treasure files and posts you’ve left behind, but they could get lost in digital purgatory after you pass away unless you take some simple steps.
Here’s how you can prepare your digital life for your survivors:
Apple
The iPhone maker lets you nominate a “ legacy contact ” who can access your Apple account’s data after you die. The company says it’s a secure way to give trusted people access to photos, files and messages. To set it up you’ll need an Apple device with a fairly recent operating system — iPhones and iPads need iOS or iPadOS 15.2 and MacBooks needs macOS Monterey 12.1.
For iPhones, go to settings, tap Sign-in & Security and then Legacy Contact. You can name one or more people, and they don’t need an Apple ID or device.
You’ll have to share an access key with your contact. It can be a digital version sent electronically, or you can print a copy or save it as a screenshot or PDF.
Take note that there are some types of files you won’t be able to pass on — including digital rights-protected music, movies and passwords stored in Apple’s password manager. Legacy contacts can only access a deceased user’s account for three years before Apple deletes the account.
Google
Google takes a different approach with its Inactive Account Manager, which allows you to share your data with someone if it notices that you’ve stopped using your account.
When setting it up, you need to decide how long Google should wait — from three to 18 months — before considering your account inactive. Once that time is up, Google can notify up to 10 people.
You can write a message informing them you’ve stopped using the account, and, optionally, include a link to download your data. You can choose what types of data they can access — including emails, photos, calendar entries and YouTube videos.
There’s also an option to automatically delete your account after three months of inactivity, so your contacts will have to download any data before that deadline.
Facebook and Instagram
Some social media platforms can preserve accounts for people who have died so that friends and family can honor their memories.
When users of Facebook or Instagram die, parent company Meta says it can memorialize the account if it gets a “valid request” from a friend or family member. Requests can be submitted through an online form.
The social media company strongly recommends Facebook users add a legacy contact to look after their memorial accounts. Legacy contacts can do things like respond to new friend requests and update pinned posts, but they can’t read private messages or remove or alter previous posts. You can only choose one person, who also has to have a Facebook account.
You can also ask Facebook or Instagram to delete a deceased user’s account if you’re a close family member or an executor. You’ll need to send in documents like a death certificate.
TikTok
The video-sharing platform says that if a user has died, people can submit a request to memorialize the account through the settings menu. Go to the Report a Problem section, then Account and profile, then Manage account, where you can report a deceased user.
Once an account has been memorialized, it will be labeled “Remembering.” No one will be able to log into the account, which prevents anyone from editing the profile or using the account to post new content or send messages.
X
It’s not possible to nominate a legacy contact on Elon Musk’s social media site. But family members or an authorized person can submit a request to deactivate a deceased user’s account.
Passwords
Besides the major online services, you’ll probably have dozens if not hundreds of other digital accounts that your survivors might need to access. You could just write all your login credentials down in a notebook and put it somewhere safe. But making a physical copy presents its own vulnerabilities. What if you lose track of it? What if someone finds it?
Instead, consider a password manager that has an emergency access feature. Password managers are digital vaults that you can use to store all your credentials. Some, like Keeper,Bitwarden and NordPass, allow users to nominate one or more trusted contacts who can access their keys in case of an emergency such as a death.
But there are a few catches: Those contacts also need to use the same password manager and you might have to pay for the service.
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Is there a tech challenge you need help figuring out? Write to us at onetechtip@ap.org with your questions.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s competition watchdog said Thursday it’s opening a formal investigation into Google’s partnership with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic.
The Competition and Markets Authority said it has “sufficient information” to launch an initial probe after it sought input earlier this year on whether the deal would stifle competition.
The CMA has until Dec. 19 to decide whether to approve the deal or escalate its investigation.
“Google is committed to building the most open and innovative AI ecosystem in the world,” the company said. “Anthropic is free to use multiple cloud providers and does, and we don’t demand exclusive tech rights.”
San Francisco-based Anthropic was founded in 2021 by siblings Dario and Daniela Amodei, who previously worked at ChatGPT maker OpenAI. The company has focused on increasing the safety and reliability of AI models. Google reportedly agreed last year to make a multibillion-dollar investment in Anthropic, which has a popular chatbot named Claude.
Anthropic said it’s cooperating with the regulator and will provide “the complete picture about Google’s investment and our commercial collaboration.”
“We are an independent company and none of our strategic partnerships or investor relationships diminish the independence of our corporate governance or our freedom to partner with others,” it said in a statement.
The U.K. regulator has been scrutinizing a raft of AI deals as investment money floods into the industry to capitalize on the artificial intelligence boom. Last month it cleared Anthropic’s $4 billion deal with Amazon and it has also signed off on Microsoft’s deals with two other AI startups, Inflection and Mistral.
