Cyberpunk Hype

I'm still blithely plugging along with my Mass Effect: Andromeda playthrough, but as the release date for Cyberpunk 2077's first (and apparently only) DLC creeps closer I've been seeing more Phantom Liberty news.  I've been feeling a hankering for a re-play of Cyberpunk but it's looking like it's better to wait for a little while.  There has been some good news--especially if you're like me and not intending to pounce on Phantom Liberty immediately (it releases on September 26th).

According to this PC Gamer article, the 2.0 update to the core game will make a new playthrough completely worthwhile.  The highlights for me--a total rework of the talent system!  Let's be real, the talent system was pretty blah--it's hard to get excited for abilities that are like "increase x ability by 3%," but the new system sounds like it adds in some legitimate skills to make V feel like a cyberware sporting badass.

This is an outfit with the best stats that my V sported for awhile.
Would you be scared of this person?

Other highlights include the fact that armor is no longer tied to clothing and instead is part of cyberware stats.  Personally, this is a change I'm stoked for.  All too often my V wound up looking like a goober because the gear with the best stats (which were mostly tied to armor) wasn't the best looking.  Although it's purely cosmetic, it'll be nice to let V look cool.  Also, they added in the ability to pet cats!  Definite plus there.

The 2.0 update is scheduled to release on September 21st, so it's not long until we'll get to see all these changes in action.  One thing I'm a little bit worried about is the fact that they've said that they're dropping HDD support.  My PC is getting a little bit long in the tooth and when I built it (almost 5 years ago), I decided to go with a larger, cheaper HDD as my game storage drive, and that's starting to look like it might be a problem.  Starfield released with a SSD requirement and the HDD is going the way of the dodo.  SSD's are now much cheaper than they were 5 years ago, so adding another wouldn't be too much of a budget crunch.  Another worry is the fact that they bumped the specs up a bit for Phantom Liberty (but in the core game too).  My PC still falls the range of requirements, but it's more toward the minimum side now.  We'll see how it goes.

If you haven't seen it, a new cinematic trailer for Phantom Liberty dropped a couple of days ago.  It's pretty intense and definitely makes me curious about the story and characters.  Take a gander if you haven't already:

I'm looking forward to checking out all the 2.0 changes to the core game.  I'm probably going to sit on Phantom Liberty for awhile and see how it shapes up (and if it'll actually work with my HDD).  Happy gaming!