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Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty/2.0 Update I think the highest compliment I can pay to this expansion is that it got me to sink another 100+ hours into this game that, as it turned out, I mostly remembered pretty well. Which was kinda surprising because if you were to ask me about plot specifics for any given game 6 months after I played it, I feel like I wouldn't really remember it all that well. I guess Cyberpunk was just really memorable for me. Like, I don't just mean the main quest line. Even random small gigs, I'd go to the map marker, enter whatever area it led me to and go "Oh right, this one!". I can seriously count on one hand the amount of quests I didn't remember and I'm pretty sure those were ones that I just didn't encounter in my first playthrough for some reason. Early on in this playthrough I realized that Cyberpunk might be my new favorite game of all time and over 100 hours later at the end of this run I think I still feel that way. I'm actually looking forward to doing another playthrough at some point in the future to try a melee/Sandevistan build. Anyway, people keep saying that Cyberpunk is good now but as far as I'm concerned it was always good. At least on PC. It's just way more polished now. I'm really glad that the big rework I had been expecting for the past 3 years finally came and ended up solving most of the game's big issues. And that it was accompanied by an incredible expansion was just the cherry on top. I do have some complaints about Phantom Liberty but most of them amount to minor nitpicks. Mostly about how isolated it feels from the rest of the game. The main quest in Phantom Liberty is really good. Arguably even better than the base game's. They did a pretty good job of justifying V going on this long, spy-themed tangent but it still felt detached from the rest of the game in a way that kinda bugged me a little. I guess I was hoping for something that would expand the base game's main quest and correct some of its flaws rather than just attach an extra limb to it. That being said, I never would've thought that an expansion to Cyberpunk would be able to top "Oh also Keanu Reeves is in the game!" but having Idris Elba play Solomon Reed was basically as close as you can get to doing exactly that. He was pretty damn great as Solomon Reed. I did the new ending and man, what a bummer lol. I mean, none of the endings for the base game were particularly happy or satisfying but this one just hit differently. Especially since there's no mission or anything, you just make the call and then it's just a bunch of dialogue until the credits roll. So thanks, Cyberpunk, for starting my 2024 on a downer lol. I'm also definitely bummed out that we'll only be getting a single expansion for the game but I imagine it ended up being bigger than either of the two would've been. I'm really curious to know what the original plan was, though... I'm also really looking forward to finding out more about the sequel. Will it still be set in Night City? Is it going to be a completely new thing or will it still involve V and Johnny somehow? I just need to know! I don't expect we'll hear anything for a long while, though, since I think there's like two Witcher games that have to come out first... Oh yeah and I finally got those damn two achievements I missed out on in my first playthrough! The one for maxing out a skill is kind of annoying since they go up to 60 now but I was already most of the way there with Headhunter. So I just had to grind a little bit. So V turned into a complete psychopath in her last few days in Night City and starting murdering every street gang she ran into and leaving nothing but corpses whenever she took a job to retrieve a laptop or some shit because she needed the experience points.

Game of the Year: Alan Wake 2 This game is so perfectly weird, and creepy, and atmospheric. I love how they converted it into an actual horror game, as compared to the original's vaguely-horror-themed-action. The game is gorgeous, the world is intriguing, the characters are bizarre and wonderful. It's just great. Runner-Up: Hi-Fi Rush This game was such a surprise and delight. I'm not usually a big fan of character action games, but this one hooked me. The explicit tying of everything to the beat really helps get the rhythm of the combat. The characters are a delight, and the game has real heart, managing to pull off a lot of things that could so easily have been cringey. I think the shadow drop was a mistake, the lack of lead-up to it means it's not as firmly embedded in people's minds and it doesn't get the attention it deserves. Honorable Mention: Sea of Stars This game was totally not on my radar, and I'm not the biggest old-school JRPG fan to begin with, but it really got me. It's beautiful and sweet and fun.

Got Starfield in there as a combo-breaker on your Nintendo streak.