What Are You Playing 8 (2023 Reboot)

[Errorname]

It's on par with the Mass Effect 3 fourth ending they added with Shepard shooting the Catalyst. It feels very much like a "Fine, you get what you asked for but the writers don't like it."

At least here the original endings are all built around something that's thematically coherent. If you build your game around grappling with an uncurable condition that's going to kill you, I can see why you wouldn't want to offer "you cure your condition" as an ending

[GloatingSwine]

Going from 1080 to 4k is a big leap. You need to be able to throw power at the problem and if you want raytracing as well use DLSS/FSR.

That said, if you do have the power Cyberpunk can look eye manglingly good. Ray reconstruction is super sharp even at distance.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

At least here the original endings are all built around something that's thematically coherent. If you build your game around grappling with an uncurable condition that's going to kill you, I can see why you wouldn't want to offer "you cure your condition" as an ending

No issue with offering that as an ending. It's more the thinly-veiled vitriol around the consequences of it.

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You get cured! However, everyone you knew either hates you, forgets you, or dies; and your now-extended life is doomed to being a mediocre second-class citizen for the rest of it.

The game does spell this out early on, though. There's a whole spiel in Dex's car about how you either die a legend or live as a nobody.

[Anonymouswizard]

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Isn't there already a 'cure' ending where V becomes an engram, figuratively selling their soul for their life?

[warty goblin]

I haven't finished Cyberpunk yet, and don't really know how it ends, but I gotta say, I don't know how you could experience more than like 10 minutes of it and expect anything that looks like a standard happy ending. The only acceptable option thematically is some kind of probably futile but definitely stylish death. Living is selling out, it has to be the bad ending, because you are just too cool to survive.

Morally questionable? Sure, but it's mega-stylish retro-future dystopia. It goddamn well should be, it ain't your life coach or daddy or therapist, it's about whether to have terrifying mechanical scythes implanted in your arms is cool enough. If it isn't morally questionable it's sold out to the miserable idea that good art is about good people being rewarded for doing the right thing.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

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Isn't there already a 'cure' ending where V becomes an engram, figuratively selling their soul for their life?

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That's a weird topic because I'm not sure what V becomes is actually V.

Near the end of the game, when you're talking to AI!Alt, you can ask if it's really her and the AI responds that it isn't. That it was based on Alt Cunningham, but is its own consciousness. By that measure, at the end of the game when Soulkiller hits V, turns them into an engram, and places it back into their brain; V is already dead. You spend the finale of the game controlling a new AI birthed from V's memories.

The "Return to Your Body" ending ignores all that, though, so I'm not sure if the writer for AI!Alt's dialogue was on the same page.

[Eldan]

Oh. Well, that doesn't actually sound that bad.

Cyberpunk spoilers:

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No, I'm fine with the "cure" permanently ****inng up V's life to a colossal extent. What I was worried about was there being an actual happy ending.

Also, what Warty Goblin said.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

Assuming the only two options are "dismal misery" and "everything perfectly happy" is a false dichotomy.

Most of the vanilla Cyberpunk endings at least trended into the idea of a bad outcome with a silver lining. The new ending strikes me as overly cynical with basically no positive side.

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Usually when fiction does a bit where the protagonist needs to give up their special status, the fallback is that they still have other things to live for besides being The Main Character. Love, friendship, a satisfying career, or so on. The new ending goes out of its way to ruin V's life in a cruel monkey's paw fashion - they lose any relationship they had, all their friends are gone (and are implied to have their own Bad Endings), and they're stuck in the mire of Night City's normal citizenry even if they were flush with cash and property beforehand.

[Rynjin]

Assuming the only two options are "dismal misery" and "everything perfectly happy" is a false dichotomy.

Most of the vanilla Cyberpunk endings at least trended into the idea of a bad outcome with a silver lining. The new ending strikes me as overly cynical with basically no positive side.

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Usually when fiction does a bit where the protagonist needs to give up their special status, the fallback is that they still have other things to live for besides being The Main Character. Love, friendship, a satisfying career, or so on. The new ending goes out of its way to ruin V's life in a cruel monkey's paw fashion - they lose any relationship they had, all their friends are gone (and are implied to have their own Bad Endings), and they're stuck in the mire of Night City's normal citizenry even if they were flush with cash and property beforehand.

Yeah. Honestly the ending as described could have been way more effective if it had played up the melancholy.

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Just like...end the game with V in their high rise apartment, surrounded by luxury, and just looking out a window at Night City...completely lifelessly. They're alive, cured, and may even retain whoever their love interest is, but they've become highly depressed. What does an adrenaline junkie and clout addict do when they can no longer do what they love or be who they are?

That, to me, is MORE depressing than what was described, but fits way better with the themes of the game.

[WritersBlock]

Spoiler: Spoiler ending thoughts

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Well, there is the huge issue of how this ending exposes all of your so called "allies" as a bunch of fair weather friends and makes them completely unlikable and made me hate and not care about them any more even the slightest bit. When I did my playthrough I chose Panaam as my love interest, now I feel dirty, seeing how awful this ending makes her and the nomads look"

On a more positive note, I finally got around to installing Muse Dash a few days ago after getting the just as planned dlc on sale (Since if you have that it gives you access to all future dlc for free, unlike the muse plus they are replacing it in a couple of days) Really fun grinding out songs and illustrations. (Pretty sure I unlocked all the music so far) The Djmax and touhou songs are standouts for me (among a few others).

Edit: Yeah, what Rynjin said. FAR less alienating of an ending and far more poignant.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

Yeah, I like what Rynjin proposed, too. Feels way more in tune with the themes of the game.

[PhoenixPhyre]

Honestly, I've never been interested in Cyberpunk. Because I have enough depressing dystopian around me all the time anyway. One thing I actually appreciate about Starfield (which I'm not super enthralled by, to be clear) is that compared to a lot of other RPGs...there's hope. Most of the people are relatively happy. And the whole thing isn't a total crapsack. I abandoned the Fallout franchise because there were exactly zero people who weren't awful and the whole situation sucked. People were basically either obnoxious, evil, or insane. Or just non-entities living a precarious existence, doomed to die horribly to the next set of raiders or whoever came along. And I just can't take that any more. Give me either the chance to explore something new or the chance to be a real hero. Grey-on-grey (or worse, black-on-black) holds zero pull for me. Negative pull, even.

[ArmyOfOptimists]

Honestly, I've never been interested in Cyberpunk. Because I have enough depressing dystopian around me all the time anyway. One thing I actually appreciate about Starfield (which I'm not super enthralled by, to be clear) is that compared to a lot of other RPGs...there's hope. Most of the people are relatively happy. And the whole thing isn't a total crapsack. I abandoned the Fallout franchise because there were exactly zero people who weren't awful and the whole situation sucked. People were basically either obnoxious, evil, or insane. Or just non-entities living a precarious existence, doomed to die horribly to the next set of raiders or whoever came along. And I just can't take that any more. Give me either the chance to explore something new or the chance to be a real hero. Grey-on-grey (or worse, black-on-black) holds zero pull for me. Negative pull, even.

This is actually why I liked the Shadowrun games way more than Cyberpunk. It's still a dirty, crapsack world, but they stress the idea that there is hope and it's in finding family and friends. Rejecting the greed and desire to be on top, instead making a community and supporting each other.

Y'know, actual punk ideas instead of assuming cruel hypercapitalism is inevitably going to crush the humanity out of life.

[PhoenixPhyre]

This is actually why I liked the Shadowrun games way more than Cyberpunk. It's still a dirty, crapsack world, but they stress the idea that there is hope and it's in finding family and friends. Rejecting the greed and desire to be on top, instead making a community and supporting each other.

Y'know, actual punk ideas instead of assuming cruel hypercapitalism is inevitably going to crush the humanity out of life.

Name checks out

[Eldan]

WELL MAYBE I LIKE BEING DEPRESSED, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Anyway, yeah, sounds like that ending could have been better.

[Anonymouswizard]

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That's a weird topic because I'm not sure what V becomes is actually V.

Near the end of the game, when you're talking to AI!Alt, you can ask if it's really her and the AI responds that it isn't. That it was based on Alt Cunningham, but is its own consciousness. By that measure, at the end of the game when Soulkiller hits V, turns them into an engram, and places it back into their brain; V is already dead. You spend the finale of the game controlling a new AI birthed from V's memories.

The "Return to Your Body" ending ignores all that, though, so I'm not sure if the writer for AI!Alt's dialogue was on the same page.

[spoiler]Hence putting cure in quotation marks. At least I intended to, not sure if I actually did.[/QUOTE]

From what I'm hearing it's not quite as bad as ME3's ending, at least it doesn't imply

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V's survival

is the 'beat' ending, but it's far below Shadowrun Returns, let alone Dragonfall or Hong Kong's Ng.


Anyway, been replaying a lot of BG3 Act 1 and I think I've finally got a character I can finish the darn game with. Although honestly Act 1 kind of works as a full RPG in its own right and I wouldn't mind DLC campaigns of a similar length.

[warty goblin]

WELL MAYBE I LIKE BEING DEPRESSED, THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

Preach it, I love me a good downer ending. It's a surefire way to get me to go through all of them. What, Far Cry 2 lets me choose between dropping a mountain on myself or just sticking a pistol in my mouth? Hell yes. And let's not even start on the masterpiece of misery that caps off Spec Ops the Line.

[Erloas]

How about What are you playing 9, the trilogy of trilogies. Could even go 3x3 instead of 9.

[Anonymouswizard]

What Are You Playing 9: Ascension

What Are You Playing: Numerals Aren't Trendy

What Are You Playing 9: Revelations

[WritersBlock]

What are you playing 9: The Mighty Number

[Cygnia]

What Are You Playing 2023: Revolution 9

[Psyren]

What are you playing 9: The Mighty Number

I want to vote for this, but you reminded me of Mighty No. 9's existence so now I have to seethe in the corner instead

[Anonymouswizard]

I want to vote for this, but you reminded me of Mighty No. 9's existence so now I have to seethe in the corner instead

'What Are You Playing 9: Like An Anime Fan On Prom Night'?

[Psyren]

'What Are You Playing 9: Like An Anime Fan On Prom Night'?

Add "No." or "#" in front of the 9 and I'm on board!

[warty goblin]

If we're going for terrible ad copy, it's gotta be What are you playing 9: your mom will hate this thread

[Rynjin]

If we're going for terrible ad copy, it's gotta be What are you playing 9: your mom will hate this thread

If we want to stick with the Dragon Age theme from earlier, we could go with "What Are You Playing 9: Marilyn Manson Says Gaming is Cool!" (or perhaps just "This Is The New Thread").

But "Your Mom Hates This Thread" is petty funny too.

[LibraryOgre]

If we want to stick with the Dragon Age theme from earlier, we could go with "What Are You Playing 9: Marilyn Manson Says Gaming is Cool!" (or perhaps just "This Is The New Thread").

But "Your Mom Hates This Thread" is petty funny too.

Given that I'd lay good odds we're gonna have one or more moms on this thread (I mean, I'm a dad), I'm not gonna do that.

[LibraryOgre]

The Mod Ogre: The new thread is cooler.

[Triaxx]

What are you playing 9: End of the Trilogy.