Panam is my BFF

A thought occurred to me as I was playing my way through the story missions in Cyberpunk 2077--Panam is actually a good friend, maybe even more so than the other "relationship" options.  As a character, she has grown on me through my multiple playthroughs.  Sure, Kerry, River, and Judy all have their own fun qualities, but when it comes down to who would be an actual good friend, I'd go with Panam--here's why.

1.) Panam seems to be genuinely concerned about V after the biochip issues become apparent.  The other "friend/relationship" characters do too, but none as much as Panam.  She immediately wants to help find a solution and expresses a lot of worry.  The other characters all feel like they have a very surface reaction to V's distressing state of being.

2.) At first I found Panam to be a bit needy.  She texts V about her personal problems (her tenuous status with her clan) and it can feel whiny.  However, after helping Panam and the nomads, they are genuinely accepting of V--I mean they are even willing to take the risk of launching an all out assault against Arasaka.  They freely welcome V into the fold.  The nomads just seem like a cool group of people.

Iconic weapons have new, unique abilities.

Other than deep thoughts about Panam, I've also noticed that most (if not all) iconic weapons now have a special ability.  For example, Jackie's pistol now features an increased chance of burn damage and a temporary crit chance increase for each headshot.  You also receive bonus ammo the next time you use the weapon that is equal to the number of headshots.  I've been using it as my "in case of emergency" weapon for when my sad stealthing skills result in the need to pop a fool in the melon.  I slapped a silencer on it and I've got to say that the increased crit chance is very nice.

My Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 adventures are slowly, but surely progressing.  Thus far, I feel like they oversold some of the "major improvements" that were part of the 2.0 hype.  I wish that they had added in a few new missions that actually utilize things like vehicle combat or conflicts with the NCPD, because so far neither have figured into my current playthrough.  A couple of times the police weren't happy with getting run over (it happens) but speeding off in a different direction easily solved that problem.  Some Witcher 3 style free stuff could've made that possible!

In a way, I'm kind of happy that Cyberpunk has been having a bit of a redemption arc.  I'm just not completely sure that the changes to the game have been as drastic as they were made out to be.  I've yet to try out Phantom Liberty, so maybe it'll offer a vastly improved experience.