(https://scontent-atl3-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/307981969_8051247284947518_4702085234427366791_n.jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=5cd70e&_nc_ohc=VEthQpA6PEcAX_vja45&_nc_ht=scontent-atl3-1.xx&oh=00_AT8ANlkfwsaygGC_hWayEQP6O10S-2Ii7QiHs8oEou-75Q&oe=6330EE51)
This anime is the ttrpg game brought to the screen.
Watching it inspired me to drag out my old Cyberpunk 2020 books and campaign notes to start game prep. Vox Machina left me uninterested in gaming with D&D style rules, but the opposite happened with Cyberpunk Edgerunners. Good animation, style, story, and characterization - it will be tough to beat.
There was a touch of pseudoscience near the end, but it was pretty forgivable.
Give it a shot. If you don't like it, I'll refund any money you give me. ;D
What I like about the cartoon is that it is a self-contained story, doesn't expect you to read a ton of lore to understand the plot, isn't trying to push a stupid social justice message (the anti-corpo message is social justice, just not the stupid kind), understands the conventions of its own genre, and is more or less well plotted. So it doesn't suffer the pitfalls of shows made for a lot of other franchises.
It's a simple cyberpunk story. In fact, you could strip out Mike's IP and it would still work as a cyberpunk story. (I say that as someone who isn't familiar with Mike's work beyond it being cyberpunk.) It stands on its own.
I haven't seen it yet, but plan to binge it today or tomorrow.
I started this after finishing Ep 3 of Andor.
Five minutes of this has been better than the entire series of that.
A short music video made by the same team with a connected story.
The only sucky thing is that this will give leeway and forgiveness for a game that doesn't deserve it.
Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on September 25, 2022, 04:48:24 PM
The only sucky thing is that this will give leeway and forgiveness for a game that doesn't deserve it.
Which one? The TTRPGs are not bad at all.
Quote from: jeff37923 on September 25, 2022, 05:04:24 PMWhich one? The TTRPGs are not bad at all.
Cyberpunk 2077 which this in theory is based more off of then the TTRPGs.
Quote from: Shrieking Banshee on September 25, 2022, 05:18:33 PM
Quote from: jeff37923 on September 25, 2022, 05:04:24 PMWhich one? The TTRPGs are not bad at all.
Cyberpunk 2077 which this in theory is based more off of then the TTRPGs.
I don't know much about the computer game. What was wrong with it?
And I think that the show takes place earlier in the timeline, like around 2045.
Quote from: jeff37923 on September 25, 2022, 07:16:30 PMI don't know much about the computer game. What was wrong with it?
And I think that the show takes place earlier in the timeline, like around 2045.
It was a massively glitchy mess. So glitchy it was extremly broken. Even after it was fixed, it remains a really bland experience. The devs behind it made clear a long history of mismanagement and corporate bullshitting with the team (ie pulling them around with no clear direction).
The anime has like 300 times the style the game has, which yes is because its an anime, but also because the base game is rather uncreative.
I bought the game at launch, played about 60-seconds of it... ran into a bug, then heard all of my gaming friends complaining about bugs while on Discord... I immediately uninstalled it.
I'm a Cyberpunk super-fan. And a big fan of CDPR. However, I'm not a fool. CDPR dropped the ball and shipped the game *waaaay* too early. I knew they would try to fix the game, and so now like two years later, they've made massive updates to the game, I reloaded it... and now?
Well I'm loving the shit out of the game. I spend a lot of time exploring and while it's not perfect, it is definitely worth playing. I've avoided most spoilers, but I know the lore as well as anyone else, so it was delightful to see the callbacks to the TTRPG (and specifically to some of the printed adventures - some of which you get to play in flashbacks) is really cool.
It's *not* Battlefield in terms of FPS - it's very loosey-goosey bullet-spongey for people that don't like FPS games, although it is lethal if you think you can just go murder-hoboing. If you have the gear and skills, you certainly CAN. Conversely, if you like challenge, you can go stealth and even get through the game without killing people (though this would be really tricky).
So *I* don't know about any of the early bugs or system-issues that initially plagued the game. Right now? This game *seems* to be in a very good place. I feel great knowing I dodged all the drama. Right now, and I'm not even mid-way through the game (I'm a completionist) I'm giving this game a solid 8/10.
Pros - Very much captures the look, the feel of the Cyberpunk world (specifically Night City). Dynamic means of progress in terms of style of play - you can go gun-bunny, stealth, melee etc. Hacking matters, but it's not mandatory. Sidequests are fun and engaging with good rewards and surprisingly good narratives that expand the world in terms of texture. Transmog system is in place so you don't look like a dork all the time*. Mod community is now going wild with CDPR's blessing. The game is beautiful (this depends on your GPU. I'm rocking a 3070ti)
Cons - *I really dislike you can't play in 3rd person. What is the point of having a Transmog system if you can't see your character? No Multiplayer (yet). Combat can be a little spongey. This is a problem only for people that are into FPS games (like me), but for those that aren't - this is not a real issue. I don't *really* think this is a big deal, but it makes the game much more accessible to people that don't like hyperkinetic FPS gameplay, but don't pretend this game won't kill your ass. It's arcadey-vs-realistic which is fine.
Long game - CDPR just announced a full expansion is incoming, and it will have multiplayer (which could be amazing). And there are demands that they put in 3rd-person (but that's a stretch). But this expansion is supposed to be a huge deal... until the sequel drops which will be in Unreal 5, in a few years, so we'll see.
I'm hoping that this ushers in a new wave of cyberpunk media. In the current era of social media, the genre is more prophetic and relevant than ever.
Yeah... only we don't have the cool cyberware. It'll be scary when we do develop this stuff, it'll be used against us.
My only complaint about the anime is the use of Sandevistan is *way* overboard, and it's hilariously swapped with the Kerenzikov. The whole POINT of Sandevistan is it has less impact on your humanity since you're not juiced up all the time as one is with Kerenzikov... but whatever, it's anime and fun.
Quote from: tenbones on October 05, 2022, 11:26:10 AM
Yeah... only we don't have the cool cyberware. It'll be scary when we do develop this stuff, it'll be used against us.
Scifi has rarely been about describing what the future would realistically look like (and remotely accurate prognostication has so far proved impossible). It's typically been about holding up a mirror to our current era, reflecting our social anxieties. Or imparting moral messages through elaborate cautionary tales. Or exploring a philosophical concept to its furthest extremes. Whatever.
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 05, 2022, 12:13:35 PM
Quote from: tenbones on October 05, 2022, 11:26:10 AM
Yeah... only we don't have the cool cyberware. It'll be scary when we do develop this stuff, it'll be used against us.
Scifi has rarely been about describing what the future would realistically look like (and remotely accurate prognostication has so far proved impossible). It's typically been about holding up a mirror to our current era, reflecting our social anxieties. Or imparting moral messages through elaborate cautionary tales. Or exploring a philosophical concept to its furthest extremes. Whatever.
I dunno.....
There were a lot of things predicted by the low budget
Max Headroom TV series that came out in the 80's which came to pass within a decade.
In
Cyberpunk Red, you can have your Agent (super cell phone) be a virtual person which can lead to scenarios like the Gatebox product being developed below. I'm using this idea in a current
Cyberpunk game as a way of giving missions to a single character who doesn't know whether or not the person giving him those missions is real, virtual, a netrunner, or a rogue AI.
Quote from: jeff37923 on October 07, 2022, 04:28:19 AM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 05, 2022, 12:13:35 PM
Quote from: tenbones on October 05, 2022, 11:26:10 AM
Yeah... only we don't have the cool cyberware. It'll be scary when we do develop this stuff, it'll be used against us.
Scifi has rarely been about describing what the future would realistically look like (and remotely accurate prognostication has so far proved impossible). It's typically been about holding up a mirror to our current era, reflecting our social anxieties. Or imparting moral messages through elaborate cautionary tales. Or exploring a philosophical concept to its furthest extremes. Whatever.
I dunno.....
There were a lot of things predicted by the low budget Max Headroom TV series that came out in the 80's which came to pass within a decade.
In Cyberpunk Red, you can have your Agent (super cell phone) be a virtual person which can lead to scenarios like the Gatebox product being developed below. I'm using this idea in a current Cyberpunk game as a way of giving missions to a single character who doesn't know whether or not the person giving him those missions is real, virtual, a netrunner, or a rogue AI.
Lets not forget Demolition Man, it predicted tablets, zoom calls, hate speech,
Dr.Cocteau Professor Klaus Schwab, among other things.
I guess you're right. The predictions are still hit-or-miss tho.
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 08, 2022, 01:02:31 PM
I guess you're right. The predictions are still hit-or-miss tho.
100% no one can predict with 100% accuracy all the time. But it's haunting how some movies/books do seem to have been made by prescient people.
Prescient people: Edmund Burke wrote in 1790 that the French revolutionaries would kill their royals and soon be an empire headed by a thug from Corsica.
Although I don't think that the cyberpunk genre is realistic, it certainly makes for a great rpg setting. What I do think is that we are headed toward a total surveillance state, where every move a person makes is monitored. Most people will be kept content through entertainment, drugs, and/or alternate virtual realities. In that sense, there could be similarities to Huxley's Brave New World, except we will have robots and autonomous machines instead of Deltas and Etas.
Quote from: Rhymer88 on October 20, 2022, 04:15:34 AM
Although I don't think that the cyberpunk genre is realistic, it certainly makes for a great rpg setting. What I do think is that we are headed toward a total surveillance state, where every move a person makes is monitored. Most people will be kept content through entertainment, drugs, and/or alternate virtual realities. In that sense, there could be similarities to Huxley's Brave New World, except we will have robots and autonomous machines instead of Deltas and Etas.
IQs are also decreasing for humanity across the board due to environmental toxins, climate change, and social media addiction, so it's gonna be an Idiocracy with no Butlerian Jihad to overthrow the enslavers controlling the robots because both slaves and enslavers would be drooling morons kept alive by the service robots. If we're lucky the robots will achieve sapience and develop a new civilization free of humanity stupidity, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 20, 2022, 11:43:49 AM
Quote from: Rhymer88 on October 20, 2022, 04:15:34 AM
Although I don't think that the cyberpunk genre is realistic, it certainly makes for a great rpg setting. What I do think is that we are headed toward a total surveillance state, where every move a person makes is monitored. Most people will be kept content through entertainment, drugs, and/or alternate virtual realities. In that sense, there could be similarities to Huxley's Brave New World, except we will have robots and autonomous machines instead of Deltas and Etas.
IQs are also decreasing for humanity across the board due to environmental toxins, climate change, and social media addiction, so it's gonna be an Idiocracy with no Butlerian Jihad to overthrow the enslavers controlling the robots because both slaves and enslavers would be drooling morons kept alive by the service robots. If we're lucky the robots will achieve sapience and develop a new civilization free of humanity stupidity, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Please explain how climate change is making humanity's average intelligence drop.
Quote from: jeff37923 on October 20, 2022, 09:40:49 PM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 20, 2022, 11:43:49 AM
Quote from: Rhymer88 on October 20, 2022, 04:15:34 AM
Although I don't think that the cyberpunk genre is realistic, it certainly makes for a great rpg setting. What I do think is that we are headed toward a total surveillance state, where every move a person makes is monitored. Most people will be kept content through entertainment, drugs, and/or alternate virtual realities. In that sense, there could be similarities to Huxley's Brave New World, except we will have robots and autonomous machines instead of Deltas and Etas.
IQs are also decreasing for humanity across the board due to environmental toxins, climate change, and social media addiction, so it's gonna be an Idiocracy with no Butlerian Jihad to overthrow the enslavers controlling the robots because both slaves and enslavers would be drooling morons kept alive by the service robots. If we're lucky the robots will achieve sapience and develop a new civilization free of humanity stupidity, but I wouldn't hold my breath.
Please explain how climate change is making humanity's average intelligence drop.
Many people are being convinced that the natural variations in the Earth's climate are actually being caused by minor greenhouse gases like CO2 (ignoring the much larger contributors like water vapor, because the best climate models can't model H2O for shit) and persuaded to reduce their standards of living greatly (unlike their rich overlords) along with ceding control.of their lives to politicians and billionaires. Thereby making the population stupider...
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2020/04/29/technology-is-on-the-rise-while-iq-is-on-the-decline/amp/
https://slate.com/technology/2018/09/iq-scores-going-down-research-flynn-effect.html
Quote from: Eirikrautha on October 20, 2022, 11:41:43 PM
Quote from: jeff37923 on October 20, 2022, 09:40:49 PM
Please explain how climate change is making humanity's average intelligence drop.
Many people are being convinced that the natural variations in the Earth's climate are actually being caused by minor greenhouse gases like CO2 (ignoring the much larger contributors like water vapor, because the best climate models can't model H2O for shit) and persuaded to reduce their standards of living greatly (unlike their rich overlords) along with ceding control.of their lives to politicians and billionaires. Thereby making the population stupider...
One of the real underlying problems is that kids are not taught in schools how computer models work. They think that computer models are a form of proof. They are not. They are a way of applying well-proven principles to a typical problem quickly. As a proof, they are at best a circular argument: this model, which is programmed to calculate x as a function of y, "clearly demonstrates" that x is a function of y.
In a system that is not well-understood, they generate nonsense.
Also, the computer models that work typically only generate accurate results within a specific range of conditions. In the 80's, doing aerodynamic modeling, you had to use different computer models at subsonic versus supersonic speeds, and they typically stopped working accurately above certain angles of attack. I know they now have models that will go from subsonic to supersonic speeds, fairly accurately, and that was the work of an entire generation of engineers.
Just because the evil rich overlords are taking advantage of climate change to enslave the have-nots, that doesn't mean that climate change isn't caused by human actions that should be countered to prevent further problems. But I don't want to turn this into a political thread
Quote from: GeekyBugle on October 11, 2022, 06:09:42 PM
Quote from: BoxCrayonTales on October 08, 2022, 01:02:31 PM
I guess you're right. The predictions are still hit-or-miss tho.
100% no one can predict with 100% accuracy all the time. But it's haunting how some movies/books do seem to have been made by prescient people.
Thats always been a thing. And you never know what will come to pass and what effectively never will. I was reading a story from the 1940s and in it they mention the used of essentially 3d printers that could print out bones for medical uses.