'Cyberpunk 2077' Is a Mess On Every Level - Time

It's time to rethink gaming's pre-ordering culture.

[elazz]

It has been time to rethink pre orders quite some years ago. Especially with certain publishers. For cyberpunk the moment it was clear that reviewers weren't allowed to show their own footage before day 1 and that no console codes were provided cancelling a pre order would seem the right thing to do.

The games I pre order were God of War, Spider-Man, The Last of us 2, Ghosts of Tsushima...and all those game were polished like crazy on day 1. It's clear I can trust Sony to pre order Horizon 2, God of War ragnarok... Because of the track record. But technically it's not really necessary unless there is some physical limited collectors édition.

[gamer7804]

Preordering is always an unknown or a gamble in some capacity. Whether it’s taking a risk with cdpr or naughty dog or an indie dev.

[SegaGamer]

Never used to be. Before the 360/PS3 generation, I could buy a game and never come across game breaking bugs, or any serious bugs at all really. The way games are released on day 1 these days are an absolute joke. Massive day 1 patches with future patches to come should never have been allowed to become the norm.

[VersusDMC]

I only preorder way in advance to get a 30% or 20% discount. And to get digital preorder bonuses you can pre order the game the day before it comes out to get the bonuses...reviews will be in by then.

[1nsomniac]

Yea I no longer pre order games at all. Haven’t done for a few years now. In fact this is the first generation where I haven’t pre-ordered a console either and that looks to have turned out a good decision as well.

[anast]

Never preordered a game, though I almost did with The Last of Us Part II. I bought it three days after release instead.

[Sonyslave3]

I dont pre order games at all and another thing i going back to my ps3 days of buying gamez when they're dirt cheap.

O.o pay 60$ 9 months later it 29$ wtf.

[CaptainHenry916]

More like around 6 months later or less depending on the game and how unsuccessful the sales are will determine that.

[VersusDMC]

Excluding Nintendo first party games.

[Dude Dutch]

If everyone would wait till the game is dirt cheap then it would be at a big cost. In the end developers and publishers would not be willing to invest large budgets. It would cripple creativity. But on the flip side I agree that a game, big or small, should release when it is ready. Not when investors or big wigs want cash flowing in.

[camel_toad]

I feel bad for everyone who got screwed with the last gen versions because I'm loving the game and feel like a lot of people are missing out on a great experience. I also had normal expectations though. Witcher 3 was good but 1 and 2 were just ok with a lot to be desired. Too many people expected the 2nd coming of Christ from a team that has a small resume.

All of that aside though the absolutely deceptive crap they pulled by concealing the ps4 and Xbox versions is just inexcusable.

I really hope it was the higher ups and not the development team leaders that forced it into that situation.

[RgR]

When you don't get reviews on the console you own...you should always wait.
Who knows what performance would be like. Witcher 3 had massive drops in some areas.

Should've done more optimization before release but it's clear pc was their focus.

In my opinion witcher 3 was their worst game. The open world didn't sit to well with me. I preferred their more linear stories. Witcher 1 had so many hidden quests and secrets within the city...it was a great experience learning all the different ways to approach some quests as well as all the hidden dialogue and options. Witcher 2 dialed that back quite a bit but was still an impressive linear story with its own share of very meaningful side quests. Witcher 3 had a lot of filler...the main quest lines were great of course.

CDpr is a great developer. What happened with the base consoles is unfortunate but to be expected when transitioning to a new generation and focusing on so many graphic intensive features. It almost looks like ray tracing was heavily relied on for the look of the game. Obviously the base consoles don't get anywhere close to being able to output that level of fidelity.

They should've just not released on the base consoles and kept them only on the pro versions...but of course Sony and ms probably would not have liked that...or allowed it.

[Nodoze]

Correction: cdpr WAS a great developer. They chose sell out cash instead of quality product. I am sure they will blame Covid, but this game has been in development for 8 YEARS. What they were doing with that time is anyone's guess. It is clear they were not spending it on developing a quality product.

[RgR]

@nodoze

Correction. They are a great developer. Without the bugs it is a very enjoyable and good game. What they created is good. The bugs are retracting from what they did.

Unless of course you think all the game breaking bugs were intentional and put there on purpose.

Development doesn't matter. Many game spend a long time in development. They might have gone back to the drawing board several times. Besides what they do with their time in making their vision for the game a reality is not anyone elses business.
As a consumer it is on you if you decide to blindly buy a product without waiting for any review on performance analysis. They did not force anyone to buy their game. And aside from the base consoles most other platforms are playable and decent.

What they did with witcher 1, 2 and 3 proves that they're a great studio. So much happened to the company since the witcher 3 that likely caused development delays and restructuring.

And the argument of cash is stupid. They are offering refunds to all that were not satisfied. That's not selling out. That's owning up to the mistake of releasing it unfinished...which was likely due to covid, the most pathetic pandemic of all time , but nonetheless the most intrusive in people's lives and most likely intrusive in development especially during the optimization period for the game.

[AndrewM]

You can enjoy it yourself that's fine, doesn't make it a good game, doesn't make it so cdpr didn't burn their reputation like paper to a flame.

Its so sad how much of a hollow shell the world is.

[thorstein]

I am playing on PS5. Performance is fine. Crashing constantly and glitches are not.

These glitches are in every version. The good news for XboxOne and PS4 players is that they don't get to encounter them. The worst for me was the insta kill glitch and the bullet sponge enemies on Normal Difficulty glitch.

But a myriad of other problems that were just down due to lack of taking the time to get them right, which is what the employees were doing. The management had other ideas.

[Aussiesummer]

We'll just forget that they practically promised the second coming. Don't make excuses for the company the bastards that turned.

[sourOG]

I’m not doing it anymore. The only reason I did it was for preorder bonuses but the preorders don’t even work most of the time on ps5. I had to download the PS4 version of mk11, start it up and delete it just to get my dlc working on the ps5 version. When devs become more familiar with the ps5 I might start preordering again. A Sony game I have no problem preordering.

[MadLad]

And this is one of the arguments FOR digital versions.
The only dissatisfied customers right now without recourse are those who bought physical copies.

I mean, MS is doing their own thing, but they have a vested interest so ... business. I'm holding that as a crap move all the same and hope they follow Sony on refunds. Let alone taking it off of their store.

[jBlakeeper]

The only games that I trust to pre-order are Sony exclusives. And that is usually always because there is some sort of pre order bonus that I want or a collectors edition. I got the Last of Us 2 collectors edition on launch day and I think it is worth it for that game.

[Nodoze]

CDPR = SELL OUTS

[XxINFERNUSxX]

Enough with the Cyberpunk articles we know it has major issues can we move on instead of all these stories about it. I swear there must be 10 + stories on the main N4G page. Can you people post something else. It's getting old now.

[MadLad]

Pretty much.

[Artemidorus]

I've been telling you for years pre ordering is no longer a good idea.

They lure you in with limited edition extras or codes then you gain the retail copy and find out the truth.

[Unknown_Gamer5794]

Pre-ordering or buying a game at or around launch these days is more or less just for the pleasure of being able to play it as soon as it releases, and all that entails. There are exceptions, but that's pretty much the long and short of why getting a typical AAA game right away is advantageous. If you're really excited for a game, go for it.

Of course, under normal circumstances, you can enjoy a game for a lot less later on. Moreover, there will be more guides available for it. Most of all though, you're not going to be paying to beta test the bloody game for devs who can't be bothered to complete their testing phase before launch. If you wait for a while, you can usually avoid the initial buggy phase, if indeed there is one (and that seems to be the case far too often these days). Performance issues can be ironed out.

In general, you can often get a better product if you just wait. As a bonus, not only will you have access to any potential post-launch content, but you can also gauge community and critical reception, which can only help in deciding if a game is for you. If it's a big enough title, there may even be articles when improvements are implemented.

I do agree that it would be far more ideal if games were always quality products from the time of launch, and there are always exceptions such as most Sony first party titles, but far too often it seems that's just not how things are done nowadays. It's certainly a common enough issue that I would love it if things were to change. I just don't see that practice going away so long as the consumer can act as unpaid bug testers who actually pay more for the game than those would ultimately benefit from their feedback.

[thorstein]

You know it's a problem when Time Magazine takes an interest.

[Aussiesummer]

This article is some PC bandwagoning bullshit. The game is trash but so is that article.

[Emme]

My goodness, will these so called "articles" from self proclaimed "writers" never end? Neither does the game "look like total garbage" nor is it an "open world shooter". 90% of these articles are pure crap, and so are their writers. Move on,nothing of value here.

[Gatsu]

"On the right hardware, Cyberpunk 2077 is visually stunning—just be prepared to spend thousands of dollars for the best experience."

Bitch please... You dont need to spend thousands of dollars for a good PC.

[MadLad]

The people most affected are console players, so now we have to play another negative spin on PC gaming.

I got this thing running better than current consoles with an old PC, now used as an office PC, using a 970, a 9 year old i5, and 16 gigs of ddr3.

[anast]

Where I live that set up costs about 650 usd, not including monitor, motherboard and etc. Still looking at least 1000 usd where I am, if I bought unused parts, which is way more than what a base PS4 costs. Of course, it runs better.

[OB1Biker]

Very good article.
I'd say it's time to re think the early review culture though. As for pre orders, dont blame the gamers. Blame the hype machine.

[Perez]

Having seen some of the PS4/XBOX issues they are much worse on those systems when compared to PC and the New Gen. Still bugs are present in all versions and that's on CDPR cascade of errors.

Also having given up on reviews a long time ago for just enjoying what I like I have to find the frenzy of hate for anything CDPR at the moment disappointing but not really surprising. Don't get me wrong they seriously messed up, they two faced lied about the quality and they deceptively managed the review process.

Still I enjoy the game, I still expect them to improve on it, should we really accept Day 1 patches? No they are a poor way to manage your game launch because you want to race out the door for whatever launch window you have.

Refunds are available now on last gen and yeah that earlier was a bit of shit show. Do I regret my Pre-order? Nah not really I have fun with the game even with having to mod it for the AVX fix, it will get better I have no doubt not massively fast but I never expected miracles to be honest and while hyped for it I wasn't hyped so far that I couldn't see the log for the trees.

We are not at EA levels of shittery, maybe activision or ubi? I dont know I just will give the Devs the benefit of the doubt right now (its management who need to evaluate their practices)

As of now I would say CP2077 is a 6/7 out of 10 on PC and the New Gen and a 4/5 on last gen. Someone saying it is a good game does not mean it is one but also someone saying it is a bad game also has the same caveat its all on the eyes of the beholder.

[waverider]

When a studio doesnt let the review out before the launch its a huge red flag. I think everybody knows that.

[GordyNYC]

The game is awesome on Ps4Pro. Get it when you can.

[GordyNYC]

The media has it out for the game since they want their narrow narrative to be the only thing we see and experience. Its being unfairly judged far more strictly than any open world before.

[Cockney]

I'd say days gone had it worse, I'm just amazed a bug ridden glitch game can garner 10/10, i think the reviewers need to be held accountable as well as cdpr

[SyntheticForm]

Days Gone was pretty bad at launch, too. Tons of bugs and glitches, and I'd hear one character's audio while their mouth wasn't even moving - just completely out of sync on most cutscenes - really pulled me out of the story.

Other than that it was a fun little romp and the hordes were cool.

[kryteris]

preorder risk should come with a discount, most do this except AAA's.

[AfricanWoolf]

Never pre-order games. Please. If it's good, you'll find out at launch and be able to buy it pretty much immediately. Never. Pre-order. Games.

[ashcroft]

I guess you could say it's about TIME

I'll show myself out.

[Nicknasty]

Oh Comon, these articles are starting to get ridiculous. It’s like become cool and a trend to bash this game. Patches already released and more to come. This is just the day and age we live in.

Games releasing broken are the new norm. Apart from a couple crashes on my PS5 with this game, I’m just not seeing it. Runs great and looks great, so everybody needs to just relax. These articles are getting old.