Every glimpse I got of this game just reinforced what I already knew: it's all down to marketing. Turn down the volume and just watch the presentation itself without any commentary and ask yourself: "Is this groundbreaking?" The answer is invariably "no". Marketing is the most expensive part of most ventures these days, especially entertainment. Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 cost 50 million to develop and 200 million to market... let that sink in. Imagine how good the game could have been if those budgets were reversed. Or how much cheaper games would be if marketing wasn't such a racket. Especially when you consider that marketing firms pretty much use you to push a social agenda rather than market your product. It gives me mob vibes.

Cyberpunk just looked like a generic shooter that may be good or may be bad. I'll play it eventually, but never hop on the hype train. I do the same thing with every shooter: Ignore it, wait 5 years, and play it fully patched and bug-free with a texture mod on a system that doesn't even break a sweat. I did this with pretty much every shooter since Fallout 3. Not only do I feel like slightly less of a herd animal, it's kind of fun in a retro way. This isn't so much of a plan as a natural thing. I generally avoid things that are hyped. Eventually curiosity gets the better of me and I'll check it out in peace and quiet. Some of the games I finally got around to playing to completion in the past 2 years: Crysis, BioShock Remastered, Metro 2033. Let me tell you it felt surreal playing through Crysis for the first time in 2019, it having been a part of the culture for so long. I liked the first half, but the rest just felt tacked on. Metro was alright but a bit Blockbuster-ish for my liking, I much prefer STALKER. BioShock was excellent though!