#cyberpunk rpg update

[themorningnewsinformer]

Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.3 Confirmed: New Patch Drops June 26

CD Projekt Red isn’t done with Cyberpunk 2077 just yet. Despite its launch on the Nintendo Switch 2 earlier this week, the game is getting another update. The developer confirmed during a recent livestream that Update 2.3 will roll out on June 26, 2025. We’re Not Done Yet: CDPR Keeps Cyberpunk Alive During the REDstreams livestream held to celebrate the launch of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Nintendo…

[tdoth]

OUR NEW DEMO IS TIGHTER. LOUDER. FASTER. DEADLIER. FUNKIER.

Reach for the skies, Omens. The newest version of our anarchist's playbook is here with more teeth than you can swing your boot at. Our airwaves have been heavy with calls and prayers, begging us to drop the new funk that is TITANOMACHY: Dreams of the Hue DEMO 2000. Lo and behold, we answer prayers here.

Our newest version has been augmented with the latest in TTRPG Tech prime for playing. We've got: - New Art! - System Updates! - New Layout! - New and different aspects! (check your local Omens for changes) - Typo Fixes! (we heard you) - A Brand New Past: The Retired Gridiron Player. A cybernetically augmented master of the most dangerous and beloved sport in The Hue. Link your mind with fellow players and rocket the pigskin into enemy fire. - A Brand New Hustle: The Witch Propagandist. A corporate-sponsored folk priest who taps into the last technology of the Old Old World to work borderline-impossible "magic". Commune with ancient satellites and drain adversaries of their precious lifeblood. - A Brand New Specialty: The Ostrakon. A mover in dreams, pruning the sleeping world of its poisons. Reanimate fresh corpses for your bidding and plant secrets in sleeping minds. - And Some Secret Waking Codes ;)

And what is a game without a fresh soundtrack. Beats to bash fash heads in to are all that have been missing thus far and we aim to remedy. Peep the new sonic heat, the DnB harbinger of an album full of flavor by the incomparable Button Maker. Drop into our Dream_Sequence with more on the way.

Whether this is your first drop into the Hue or your final Strike, there is no better time to break ankles than now. Check out our new and improved DEMO 2000 version of TITANOMACHY: Dreams of the Hue! Join our Discord for exclusive classes and playtests!

[crossxworlds]

The Pocket Rift story started out in my head as a 3-act short story. Or a series of 3 short stories, maybe. It's clear now that I can't tell the story I wanted in that short of space, especially since Davin wrote himself into the second act. I'm on track to hit novella length at this point (40k - 45k words).

I'm publishing it here at first draft level of development, but it's sure to change in the revision process before the final for-publishing version is complete. I'm also planning to do some illustration for the final version. I plan to share sketches for the illustrations, but those will also be developmental. The final rewrite, with the illustrations, will likely be available as a free ebook for players of the CrossXworlds RPG that I'm co-developing, as backstory to the RPG.

The Pocket Rift story is pivotal to the history and setting of both the CrossXworlds RPG (set about 50 years later) and the CrossXworlds novel (set about 75 years later, currently untitled), both currently in development.

[hexonthepeach]

NO DONT LEAVE US HANGING LIKE THAT THIS IS CRITICALLY PAINFUL ME TO STOP THERE IM GONNACR I

im so so sorry buddy but we're gonna revisit this sentiment after the next chapter drop 🥲

[brutalgamer]

Gamescom 23: CD Projekt Red's new look at Phantom Liberty showcases a host of Cyberpunk 2077 improvements

A whole new game? Well, almost honestly, as Cyberpunk 2077 is about to get both a massive expansion and a gigantic update.

[rpgchoices]

do you have any recs for rpgs with lesbian romance options? i've played the big ones already (mass effect, dragon age, bg3, pathfinder) and was hoping you knew of some others

YES!! I have a list to update here and a steam group for any queer romance here, but here are the WLW ones I know (in bold: I have played them) and I added some I know and I have not played yet in italics. My favorites are in pink!

RPG: isometric

Rogue Trader: it has two wlw romances, Jae and the new DLC with Kibella. I also found Rogue Trader easier than Pathfinder (as gameplay and lore) and no need to know anything about Warhammer.

Divinity: Original Sin 2: Lohse and Sebille (and you can romance them together as it is exactly like BG3 so you can play one or the other). Great characters and story, much more humorous than BG3.

Expeditions: Rome: I have not played this one! But Deianeira can be romanced.

Expeditions: Viking: Another historical isometric rpg. I remember little of the story, but I enjoyed the characters and Roskva can be romanced by a female player character too.

Pendula Swing: This is more of a rpg adventure, no combat. You play as a female character who used to be a big hero and is now retired and is mourning her wife. You will start living again when someone steals your legendary weapon and in the game you can date different characters (the romance side is not too big).

Pillars of Eternity Deadfire: Sequel of the first game, amazing rpg and two of the female companions (Xoti and Maia) can be romanced.

Knight Bewitched: This is a JRPG inspired game, pixel game too. You play as a female knight and there is only one romance story (with the witch).

RPG: Action

Enderal: ENDERAL!! It has two romance options and one is Calia (f). An amazing free rpg, it is a mod of Skyrim (so you need pc) but it has its own story, lore and combat. One of my favorite videogames, and Calia has the most interesting story in game.

Jade Empire: Silk Fox! This is an old Bioware game which in my opinion still holds up very well. The story is wild, with a lot of unexpected twists and turns, and Silk Fox is probably the most interesting companion.

Cyberpunk 2077: I have not played this but heard good things

Greedfall: Siora. Although I really hated this game and never finished.

Starfield: I have not played it but I know there are two romancable female characters (out of four total) and they are not gender locked.

Visual novel: non dating sim/rpg with or without combat

I was a teenage exocolonist: mix of visual novel and isometric rpg, this is an AMAZING GAME. Do not let the title trick you, it blew my mind and made me actually cry. You can play as nb, male or female, and there are multiple romance options (m, f and nb). The female characters who can be romanced are (SPOILERS), Tang, Marz or Nem.

Loren the Amazon princess: This is more of a classic old style game, I would say the quality is nothing like "I was a teenage exocolonist" but still fun. It is a mix of visual novel, dating sim and combat (jrpg turn based). As a female wlw protagonist you can romance Loren, Chambara or Karen.

Cursed Lands: Same universe as "Loren the Amazon Princess", but I found this one kind of tedious. Still, multiple romances. As a female character you can romance these female characters: Sylrissa, Nuala or Leena.

Tales of Aravorn: This is a sequel of "Loren the Amazon Princess", I am currently playing it. You won't be able to carry over any wlw romance (or mlm romance), but you can romance a new female characters.

These last three games are from WinterWolves company which usually adds wlw and mlm romance in all their games. They also recently published a wlw only game.

Stray Gods: This is a full on visual novel, kind of detective story, with music. You play as a Muse (Greek mythology) and there are two female characters you can romance.

Visual novel: dating sim

Salting the Earth: Okay, I usually don't play dating sims but this is worth it! Lesbian orcs daring sim! There are three romance options.

[chipped-chimera]

Hey gamers/modders, I been thinking about something and wondered what people's opinions are.

As someone who qualifies as 'old' by internet standards (over 30) and recently just read this article about Square Enix having to implement a 'customer harassment policy' - and I mean harassment from players/customers towards Squex staff, it got me thinking.

I have been gaming a while. A long while. And I really feel like about a decade ago, this shit would be considered 'rare' enough that it was uncommon. Now gamedev and even modders are facing harassment from players on a daily basis to the point policies like THIS are having to become a thing, like ....? Like I can point to SEVERAL cases of this in recent years, like how a lot of the BG3 devs and even VA's have been treated and harassed by fans with the expectation of somehow 'continuing' a closed-story-rpg-game indefinitely. The Sims 4 modding community is riddled with drama that I have not seen in any other modding space - at least to that level. Like I know incidents of prominent modders being fucking doxxed because they weren't IMMEDIATELY available to patch for a Sims 4 update (and the Sims 4 is honestly kind of notorious for frequent updating).

Like not to be a 'kids these days' person, but idk, there's only one group entering the wider gaming scene over those 10 years and that's Gen Z. I mean yeah, there's a decent argument towards the growing dominance of web 2.0 (basically your social media sites) that could have fostered an environment for 'anonymous harassment' but I find that hard to believe.

Growing up with games and discovering mods for the first time, I definitely learned to appreciate the hard work modders put in, out of their own time, to make a mod and share it with people for free! We also had to live through a lot of game releases where 'day one patch' was NEVER a thing, and gamedev delays were acceptable because of this - you wanted that game to work on release because you weren't going to GET a patch in most cases. Internet couldn't handle it. Now instead, we have games releasing in early, busted states with a day one patch because you've got some people sending death threats to developers if they mention another delay (Cyberpunk 2077 is a good case for this one).

I dunno. Is it just because I'm old and my priorities are different? I don't have the energy to burn on harassing devs? Because I grew up with games in a different manner than the current gen in gaming?

Thoughts?

[klysanderelias]

Whose john waters /legit question

No worries! So John Waters is a pretty well known USAmerican writer, director, poet, etc who is a gay man. He's known for a lot of movies such as Cecil B Demented and Hairspray, but he also made a lot of cult classic movies. You might have seen some of his quotes go around tumblr-

I don't want to over-valorize him but basically he's a big name in the queer community in the US partially because he has been a prominent activist for gay rights. But also, crucially, he is known for having a very thin mustache-

And there is an NPC in Cyberpunk 2077 who looks like this.

This character hits basically every single 'gay' stereotype from 'mesh shirt and hot pants' to 'red acrylic nails' to 'single earring and collar' to the voice direction, and of course is clearly directly designed to look like John Waters. He is also a doctor who abuses his female patients in basically every sense of the word, specifically targets burnt-out sex workers to experiment on, and he is implied to sell patients in critical condition to snuff-filmmakers. He's also apparently 'Cyberpunk 2077's most hated NPC' and it is extremely common for players to hit him in cutscenes or kill him once they regain full control of their characters.

So, y'know, that's the context - they took a well-known gay man known both for his art and his activism, and made him into an extremely hateful stereotype and the worst possible person such that the player could enjoy killing him.

Oh yeah and he's also known as Dr Fingers, because he sexually assaults his patients.

[meggannn]

big-budget game companies have been pissing me off lately (no female mc in persona 3 portable, assassin's creed china being a mobile game, bioware gutting tons of longtime staff) so here are some indie recs, mostly rpgs

backbone (apparently renamed as tails noir???)—detective/scifi rpg where you play as a raccoon in a world of animals with gorgeous pixel-art style

phoenotopia awakening—a truly magical pixel zelda-like where you play as gail, a young girl who gets caught up in saving the world after all the adults in her village are mysteriously abducted

the red strings club—a cyberpunk rpg where you play as a bartender, a hacker, and an android investigating a corporate mystery in a cyberpunk world. also your choices actually matter

toem—a photography game with adorable landscapes and biome settings

heaven's vault—a mystery/anthropological rpg where you're hunting down a missing person across the galaxy with a robot companion while deciphering an ancient language

donut county—literally the best game ever please play it

also a suggestion to follow Best Indie Games on youtube if you're into the indie sphere because they have introduced me to so many new games. they are so on top of indie game updates and releases, post videos several times a week, and every video is full of 10+ games i've never heard of and they rarely overlap. the amount of stuff out there is truly amazing and my wishlist/backlog is so long thanks to them

[gl1tt3rf4ng]

I finally made a pinned post for myself!!

Haiiiii!!!!! X3 I am Noelle/Mae/Gl1tterF4ng/Still trailing Names. My pronouns include She/It, also trailing those. Very Multifandom Blog, I reblog more than I post myself, I guess ill start tagging my personal posts with #my post if I remember :3 My Interests include: Video Games (There's a lot of these but the main ones will be below) Writing (Making a Scifi-Horror-Cyberpunk novel about furries against capitalism inspired by the likes of Ultrakill, MGR:R, and Project Moon's Lobotomy Corperation) Drawing!! Gonna draw characters a day for as long as I can! (psstttt, I take requests, as long as they are reasonable in my skillset, give this post a heart and send an ask and I will try to get around to your request!!) Coding I know 8 programming languages and soon to know more! Physical hobbies include swimming, running, and long ass walks!

I am un-diagnosed officially but my therapist tells me I have ADHD/OCD, so I procrastinate a lot and perfectionism is a huge problem

I am Trans!! This blog I hope is a safe space for everyone!!

Send me asks, I like reading them, as long as they are not asking me to donate to stuff, I am hella broke TTwTT

Games include: ULTRAKILL Undertale/UTY/Deltarune Lobotomy Corperation Oneshot Celeste Super Lesbian Animal RPG Payday 2 Neon White Noita MGR:R Lethal Company Pseudoregalia Hollow Knight Night in the Woods

// If you need to see more of my games than check my BSKY my pinned post is a hugeeee list :3

Avid :3 User

I have a Bluesky! Check me out! https://bsky.app/profile/noellecat.bsky.social

This page probably needs an update but I'm lazy :3 https://en.pronouns.page/@thelunarpheoni

If you made it this far, thank you!! *Mwah*

[itamikuro]

updated the list of games/movies/tv series/books that have inspired me for a long time and left an incredible mark on my life.

of course, it is not much different from the past, but at least it is constant.

games:

kingdom come: deliverance

darkest dungeon

graveyard shift at freddy's

cyberpunk 2077

final fantasy xv

bayonetta

blasphemous

dead space

the coma

movie's and tv/series:

kill your darlings

trainspotting

monster: the jeffrey dahmer story

miracle workers

guns akimbo

american psycho

zoolander

life

books:

howard phillips lovecraft - storybook the call of cthulhu

brian evenson - dead space: martyr

mark z. danielewski - house of leaves

pelle nilsoon - mork borg: board rpg.

[themorningnewsinformer]

Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.3 Delayed: CD Projekt Red Confirms Bigger Patch

Introduction CD Projekt Red has announced a delay for Cyberpunk 2077 Update 2.3. Originally scheduled for release on June 26, 2025, the patch now lacks a confirmed release date. The studio says it needs additional time to ensure the update meets quality expectations, promising a scope similar to the well-received Update 2.2. Why Update 2.3 Is Delayed CD Projekt Red confirmed the delay in a…

[kiokodoodles]

Cyperus (Cyberpunk AU Papyrus) Info (will update at times!)

He's the brother of an upper city council member and of a resistance group leader. In his citizen life, he's a gamer and artist and at night, he's a hacker and a field agent for said brother's resistance group. He loves to leave the call cards of the group, having designed them himself. Cyper recognizes the injustice occurring in the upper and lower city of New Ebott, as he was born and raised in the lower city. He and his brother want to rectify this, to gain support from both of the city's general public to make changes to help better the livelihoods of each city.

Cyper is quiet, but he can get sassy and witty should the opportunity arise. He's calculative and cautious, ensuring the steps they take will raise the least amount of alarms and take less missteps. He's not a fan of processed food and prefers home-cooked meals either from his brother or from the restaurant downstairs from them (it counts as home-cooked if it's been cooked in the same building as the one he lives in). His favorite kinds of games are strategy, rogue-like and rpgs. He also has a prosthetic leg.

[foibles-fables]

Hey, hope you’re doing well and feeling good in these weird times. I was just curious if you’d ever played Cyberpunk 2077? Especially the Phantom Liberty expansion (I know Songbird and V would be your kind of catnip..) I feel like the story might surprise you if you haven’t; I was certainly taken aback by the depth when I first had the pleasure of playing it! There’s a new update on the 26th of June so it will be an even better playing experience. I played it near enough to release and it was atrocious but the developers have really dug in and given the game a new life

It's truly one I wish I could play!!! I'm totally sure I'd be SO into it, but alas, I just can't get along with first-person perspective in games (and I play on console, so no mods). If I can ever snag it for super cheap, though--maybe a used physical copy or something--I'll give it a shot.

I've played the RPG for a couple oneshots and the worldbuilding is AWESOME, as are all the fan creations I see. I can imagine it's truly excellent despite the disaster at release.

[knifemare-writing]

That's the Deal, Loser Rec List

A lot of people mentioned not being able to find other stuff like ttdl in their (super wonderful and appreciated) comments, so I asked if people would want a list of the stuff that inspired it. Enough people said yes for me to put in the work. I might come back and add more later if I'm reminded of other stuff, especially manga and comics I'm not as good at saving the ones I really like as I am with written stuff. If you come across this randomly, these are primarily bully x victim fics, heavy noncon warning for almost all of them. I mostly haven't bothered warning specifically about other things under the assumption that they'll be tagged on the fic itself but I haven't double checked the tags for every single fic so, keep yourself safe.

This first bullet point is a memorial to pivotal piece of inspiration that I learned was sadly deleted while making this list. Bathroom Stall, I won't shout out your author since I assume they no longer want to be associated with you, but this story wouldn't exist without you.

The Bully Wins - Multi chapter, porn and plot. one of the biggest inspirations, bully takes a depressed kid and makes him his pet + complicated friendship dynamics and social drama. sadly likely to remain unfinished given how long its been since the last update, but worth reading whats there anyway imo. Only written work on this list not on Ao3

The Bully - Two single chapter works, 9k and 4k respectively, first one porn and plot second one just plot. Well, okay actually basically no plot, but a lot of character stuff. Technically it's an x reader fic, but as someone who has a hard time grasping the core appeal of trying to project myself onto a character written by someone who doesn't even know me, it works totally fine as a second-person POV story about a character who's not the reader also lmao.

My Bully Boyfriend - Two works, one 3k single chapter and one 22k multi-chapter, first one mostly porn second one porn then a lot of plot, though still updating regularly enough I believe in their promise of more smut upcoming. One of the only M/F bully stories I've read where I actually like the core dynamic and characters lmao. Also one of very few pieces of porn with a trans girl in it I've found that didn't feel like the fact she was trans was intended as pure fetish. Or, not very few, but they're enough of a minority that I always feel like I'm gambling when I see the trans girl tag on a story and this one felt like winning big, Sophie is delightful.

Lurks' Bullying Tales: Episode 1 - Single chapter, 11k, porn and plot. This ones got a lot of stuff going on but the core dynamic of the bully who finds their fave loser in a tough situation and forcibly adopts/fucks them is a very strong point of inspiration for ttdl. This is clearly a world and characters that author knows a lot about, and in my opinion it does a pretty decent job showing enough about it to get the audience immersed without just info dumping. But if you're not into magical cyberpunk furries then it might not be for you. Also while TTDL is about teens, I don't ever give explicit ages, and this one does start to creep lower than I'm generally comfortable with, so if the fact that its all with people around the same age and has a very cartoony tone isn't enough to edge it into acceptability for you the way it is for me then that's extremely fair.

Degrees of Lewdity - Video game. Mostly text-based RPG with some visual aspects such as character creation/dress up stuff. Sandboxy open world game that mostly isn't that similar, but I felt the need to include it because the character Whitney, who's one of the love interests before and arguably after you start dating them. Gender, sexuality, etc. are all up to the player. One of the things that originally got me to come up with Jamie and Alex is I was thinking of scenarios between Whitney and my player character and was like 'this is getting out of character, I should make some new guys that fit this dynamic even though it's not actually that much different'. This mentality is probably why I have like five sets of bully/victim ocs fucking around in my head lmao.

New Friends - One chapter, 5k, mix of plot and porn. A fanfic of the above game between Whitney and one of the other love interests, Kylar. A good showcase of all of Whitney's worst traits (like, none of this is out of character but he also has some more positive traits lmao), and Kylar is very Alex-coded in this fic. Also sort of in the game but the fact that they're a yandere obsessed with the player character is so non-Alex-coded that its more obscured.

incompatibility - M/F, not quite a bully/victim fic but has a lot of the same dynamics as established relationships formed from a bully/victim pairing tend to have. While there are sex scenes, and some of them are quite hot, calling this erotica doesn't feel quite right. Should note that this is more realistic than a lot of these in a number of ways, and the catharsis feels more like a drama or a tragedy than a fantasy that gets dark sometimes. Like Wren, the equivalent to the bullying victim in most of these, straight up does not enjoy sex.

Mike & Erik - Killer Boyfriends - Two insanely long multi-chapter fics the first of which is completed and the second of which is ongoing. So this one's about serial killers. Not like 'they do some murders but they're all justified', Mike and Erik are genuinely really fucked up people. I love them and I want them to be happy lmao. The dynamics not quite the same, honestly its closer to like if Jamie wasn't popular and he and Desmond ended up hooking up. A comparison I feel bad for making even though Erik is literally a serial killer but I have yet to give Desmond a single redeeming quality lmao. Has the same type of large cast with complex social dynamics that I've been doing with TTDL though, and honestly I just feel like the vibes are similar lol.

fucked.exe - Multi-chapter ongoing, mix of porn and plot. Almost didn't include this one because it's by me but also if you like the other story I wrote you'll probably like this one too because it's by me lmao. The dynamic is flipped in that the dom is the nerd and the sub is the bully, but there's a lot of parallels that are embarrassing to me because I feel like I'm telling on myself but are probably fine. So like quiet grumpy sub x loud rambly dom, huge size, bully head over heels down so bad for the victim and the victim being confused and disbelieving and making fun of the bully for it, etc.

Emetophiliac - This ones gross! I like it but def not for everyone as I think you can guess just from the name lmao. Mostly smut. More of a one-off encounter than a relationship (though one can imagine it turning into more if like me you're kind of fucked up and insane) but what reminds me of TTDL in it is the way the bully is so into this thing about the victim that he finds really gross and upsetting and shameful, and how weird and out of nowhere his advances feel to the victim.

A Sadistic Bully and his Favourite Toy - Another gross one lol. Unfinished and likely to remain so given the last update time. It's pretty fun because the victim is into being bullied and humiliated right from the start and is mostly scared that about the bully finding out about that. But then it turns out the bully is also into it in a sex way and it becomes like a roleplay that they're carrying out publicly and actively hiding the fact that its consensual which I've always thought was a fun concept.

Magic & Boys - I'm gonna be really honest and kind of mean this one's straight up not that well written, plus its barely started and unlikely to ever be finished, plus the age gap is way bigger than I usually prefer with younger characters. But the bully character is really really hot to me, so I keep re-reading it anyways lmao.

The Werewolf's Bitch - Single chapter porn, x reader but detailed enough to read as a second person story about a character who isn't you like with The Bully. The victim does not come around within the course of this fic, they're basically just minding their own business then they get kidnapped by their bully from high school who doesn't bother explaining anything and is a werewolf now. The line "I'm your boyfriend and you're my property" or something like that is said and it's very hot to me especially because he doesn't bother to explain anything before then about why he's kidnapping them and the victim up until that point has no idea they're at all interested in them.

What Could Be Worse Than a Punch? - This is mostly your pretty classic 'sexual assault as a form of bullying' rather than the more complex dubcon stuff happening in TTDL, but the thing that really does it for me is that afterwards the victim asks "Why would you even do that?" and for the first time in the whole thing the bully is like caught off guard and is just kind of awkwardly like "I don't know, I just felt like it" and that's the shit I go insane for, I would read like eighty chapters of these two based mostly on that last little bit at the end.

okay i got all the like plot-centric ones with character dynamics and parallels I wanted to explain done already and I don't want to write more blurbs for the remaining smutty things that already have ao3 descriptions so i'm just gonna link the rest without comment. this isn't necessarily a sign that they're in anyway more or less important than the other mostly porn pieces I'm just tired and I've been procrastinating on finishing this for awhile lmao

Full-Body Workout

Damen & Jon

Locker Room Bully

What's Done is Done

[smokeybrandreviews]

Chef's Kiss

I’ll be picking up Clair Obscur this Wednesday for a weekend sojourn through the France set, JRPG inspired, time sump. The game looks gorgeous and the actual gameplay reminds me of the classics. I’m talking late Nineties – early Aughts type of style. For a guy like me who relishes narrative, the RPG is my bread and butter! I love these f*cking things, particular the turn-based systems. Those PS One FF titles are counted among my all-time list, mostly VII and IX but VIII is up there, too. Begrudgingly. Like, I’m all about the FF Remake run but I immediately took to Ever Crisis because it was EXACTLY what I wanted a remake to be. Turned based, chibi models, updated battle visuals, and a ton of extra bits to go with it. I love that sh*t so much! I fell ass backwards into Persona with its third entry and have since acquired every version of that game to date! Persona 5 is a whole as masterpiece and Reloaded is even better than that. I’m not as big a fan of P4 as the entire world but whenever they release that remake, I’m there with bells on. More than that, P3 opened me up to an entire world of MegaTen titles that have kept my wallet hostage ever since. Nocturne, DDS, Devil Summoner; I have them all. Well, my chick does. I bought the last two for her as gifts and played when she completed them. This list is long and storied, man. Fire Emblem, Dragon Quest, Dragon Age, Mass Effect kind of, Disgaea, Star Ocean, several Tales games, Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher; I stan the RPG genre hard, which is why seeing Obscur getting such shine, coming off the equally excellent Baldur’s Gate III, does my heart so much good. Especially because it’s proving the entire gaming industry wrong.

I love a AAA title. Again, FF and Mass Effect. But what the f*ck is going on with these studios, man? Billion-dollar budgets for a single game? Decade long development cycles? A slave-like devotion to micro-transactions and live services? This weird ass obsession with the need for such large budgets because the shareholders demand quality? OR whatever the f*ck EA is saying right now. Like, no. None of that is true. BG III proved that sh*t wasn’t true. Larian came through, crowd funded their game, and delivered a whole ass masterpiece with so much replayability, it’s sick. They’ve supported the thing for years and then, when their contract with WotC turned sour, they installed a native mod builder so the community could continue creating for the game. I bought my copy a year into its release and immediately fell in love with it. The world, the character work, the sheer brilliance of everything, all within a medium budget and a reasonable six-year development cycle. It didn’t drop half-baked; it wasn’t in an alpha state with more to come. BG III was ready to play out the gate and just got better as time went on. No DLC, sadly, but patches for days! We got new endings, new classes, updated spells, and so many more goodies, all for the initial price of the game. None of this sh*t was extra or ruined the overall gaming experience. No live services or extra transaction to tax your pockets after the facts and it still sold gangbusters, winning just SO many games of the year awards. BGIII clocked in at a hundred-million-dollar budget and has made that back hand-over-fist by using every dollar of that investment to deliver something spectacular. Clair Obscur reportedly had a fifth of that and gave us a AAA quality game for forty dollars. Obviously, there are two other addition which add up to the general retail of eighty but the base game, without the extras which doesn’t necessarily affect gameplay, is just fifty goddamn dollars! Why the f*ck is it necessary to spend a billion dollars, then? If we’re getting quality like this, where the f*ck all that extra money going?

Once upon a time, games had reasonable budgets and expectations. That is until the Corpos realized there’s money in them thar hills. The first Mass Effect cost around what Clair cost to produce. I can’t find hard numbers but that sh*t was brilliant. The second and third cost about forty million. Reasonable and well within conceivable margins for a return profit. The thing is, much like BGIII and Obscur, it printed money. And then ME II dropped and it proved to be even more profitable going cross platform and that’s when the sharks got a sniff of that blood. EA dug their hooks in and f*cked everything up. Andromeda cost one hundred million dollars to make, and was scrapped halfway through initial development. That one game cost as much as its previous trilogy combined. To recoup some of that lost money, sh*t was launched broken and the team moved over to the live service title, Anthem. Which also tanked. Because it was a soulless cashgrab specifically designed to make all of the money on the back end. No focus on narrative, character work, or world building. Gameplay was pedestrian at best. Nothing in there but a skin casino and iron ma suits whose novelty wore off after three hours of playing. Titanfall was better at Anthem than Anthem was and the sales proved that. Nintendo is about to start dropping games for eighty goddamn dollars on the Switch II, a system that is still technologically inferior to the PlayStation and Xbox, like f*cking Donkey Kong is worth that sh*t and you got Ubisoft over here taking the stance that the fans will pay that ridiculous price of they are true fans. My dude, wat. We’ve seen Destiny die a slow death once the Sony Corpos got into Bungie while 2K has a stranglehold on the only licensed NBA title available and f*cking Grand Theft Auto. GTA VI is rumored to have a two-BILLION-dollar budget! How the f*ck are you supposed to turn a profit on something that goddamn astronomical?? What suit thought that was a good idea? And don’t even get me started on whatever the f*ck EA is doing with the Star Wars license. Says a lot that the bestselling game under that Galaxy Far, far, Away banner was a single player experience with no live services or micro transactions.

The Games Industry is dying because corporations are greedy. Cats think that the money is going to flow forever and that’s just not the case. Way back when the industry was built on the back of nerds, crunching in a garage off coffee and passion, we saw brilliance. They had to solve problems in order to stay within the cash on hand. Clair did. BG III crowd funded when Wizard of the Coast reneged on their cost projections. I don’t mind paying a little extra for the game to be dope but if you’re charging me premium price for a f*cking alpha build, you’re crazy. It should take a two gig day one patch for my game to work. I shouldn’t have to buy extra DLC for the game to make sense. There’s no way that, if you spend over a hundred million of a title, it shouldn’t be released in a pristine, ready-to-play, polished state. BG III did that sh*t. Mass Effect did that sh*t over the course of three separate titles, AND with a ton of EA interference in the third. Obscur JUST did that sh*t for a fifth of the price! Guillaume Broche. The cat who founded Sandfall Studios and created the game, used to work for Ubisoft. He pitched them this title and they passed. Couldn’t see the money in it. Dude was bored creating the same, iterated, bullsh*t year in and year out. Straight up Assassin’s Creed, over and over again. Same formula, nothing new. He quit and made Clair for a fraction of those AS budgets, and then sold better than the newest game in the series. AC:S cost a quarter billion to develop. Obscur cost a fraction of that and the latter sold better than the former! More money was made, in the pocket, with Obscur than Creed and that is the point. Why the f*ck is there so much bloat in that budget? Why did they pass on an obvious hit? Of course there’s a market for Obscur. Of course, people are going to buy AC. Why not scale back the budget, get a team of passionate artists in there to innovate the series? I mean, you let Broche walk and it bit you in the ass. Wizards of the Coast tried to incorporate Larian and Sven told them to f*ck off. Now your franchise, which was rejuvenated by a brilliant game and pretty fun film, is once again rudderless. These corpos keep chasing the big score, ruining the very spirit of gaming and development. This sh*t is art, my dude, not product. We’ve seen what happens when you let the chefs cook. Maybe keep the suits out the kitchen going forward.