Technology

Some Assassin’s Creed Odyssey console players encountered in-game pop-up ads for Ubisoft’s Black Friday Sale while playing the game. As per a Reddit video posted by u/triddell24, they stumbled upon an advertisement when toggling open the world map, filling the screen with a dismissible banner for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, currently available at a 20 percent discount. Clicking the ‘Buy Now’ button would presumably redirect to the store page for Mirage. Players online have understandable expressed their disappointment over the in-game advertisement that interferes with gameplay. Publisher Ubisoft has since apologised for the pop-up, in addition to stating it was a ‘technical error.’

“We have been made aware that some players encountered a pop-up message in-game while playing certain Assassin’s Creed titles yesterday. This was the result of a technical error that has now been fixed,” Ubisoft addressed in a tweet. The company has denied claims that it was an intentional means to sell more Assassin’s Creed copies, adding that it was supposed to be displayed on in-game menus across the franchise. However, the error caused the promotion to show up in-game and disrupt the flow, causing many to compare it to mobile game ads that constantly urge players to engage with microtransactions. That said, a Community Note attached at the bottom of the tweet shows a similar instance from four years ago where an Assassin’s Creed Odyssey player was hit with a pop-in ad when trying to open the map. In-game advertisements are met with the same, if not worse, outrage as microtransactions, which solely exist as a way to extract more money from customers.

Both video game publishers and movie production companies have experimented with ways to include pop-up ads over the years, despite inventing ways to consume ad-free content. Netflix has been dabbling with cheaper ad-supported alternatives in the US, which could be something live service games implement into their core model — it wouldn’t feel far-fetched considering the second you open a menu on something like Overwatch 2, you’re urged to interact with battle passes and purchase new cosmetics. Even Microsoft has started incorporating fullscreen pop–up ads for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 upon booting up the Xbox console, regardless of whether someone already owned the game. There are crafty ways for a developer to promote its own games — Remedy Entertainment being a great example, where it would include posters and screenshots for its other titles via in-world banners, posters, and computer screens.

Earlier this month, Ubisoft confirmed that it was working on two new modes for Assassin’s Creed Mirage, available as a free update in December. While not explicitly mentioned, the New Game+ mode should allow players to plunge back into ninth-century Baghdad in an overpowered state, carrying over any skill upgrades and weapon unlocks. I mentioned in my review how every upgrade in Mirage made an already straightforward game easier, and to that effect, Ubisoft is adding a permadeath mode, accessible across all difficulty levels. The game is a throwback to the old-school Assassin’s Creed games focused on a contained story and stealthy killings before the series took a detour into the open-world RPG format with AC Origins, Odyssey, and Valhalla.

Both Assassin’s Creed Mirage and Odyssey are available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth features the biggest map in the Yakuza franchise. Marking the series’ first venture outside of Japan, the upcoming title will transport players to the tourist hotspot of Hawaii — Honolulu City, to be exact. Developer Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio claims that the vast new stage is more than three times the size of Yakuza: Like a Dragon’s Isezaki Ijincho, the suburb where the afro-haired Kasuga Ichiban was introduced. That means, the Hawaii map is nearly nine times the size of the Kamurocho district, the series’ primary Japanese setting punctuated by shops, restaurants, and nightclubs, where we dabbled in action-packed illicit acts through the eyes of Kazuma Kiryu, the series’ main protagonist who keeps getting pulled back into the life of crime.

As part of the announcement, RGG Studio revealed some key locations worth visiting in Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth, starting with Aloha Beach, the lively sun-baked shoreline where players can even head out swimming. Then there’s the Anaconda Shopping Center for Yakuza fans to fulfil their arcade gaming needs and grab a quick snack, followed by the bustling Chinatown area that’s lush with steaming food stalls, markets, and the Nirvana Bank Hotel, where only the wealthiest folk dwell. As a revered tourist location, the Waiki Town area is the place to go to buy souvenirs, District 5 to engage with the local mafia, and Little Japan is the spot for delectable sushi for when our heroes feel homesick. Yep, we’ve got two protagonists this time, as Ichiban Kasuga is sent to Hawaii under the promise of reuniting with his mother, only to meet with Kazuma Kiryu, who challenges him to a ‘final battle.’

A story trailer from September revealed that Kiryu had been battling cancer, in addition to dealing with the complexities of old age. In a way, it seems like RGG Studio is retiring Kiryu from the lead role, which also explains why the new age of Yakuza games were rebranded as ‘Like a Dragon’ in the West. As such, the gameplay also witnessed a huge transition, going from the overexaggerated real-time action combat to a turn-based affair, akin to the Persona series of games. As usual, anything goes in these battles, so feel free to use environmental objects as your weapon, such as a car battery to electrocute foes, summon muscley Poundmates to pummel enemies, blast them with a car crash, and even pull off cinematic tag-team moves. And of course, food items grant temporary stat bonuses for when you’re in a pickle.

Hoverbikes to traverse the streets, pizza delivery minigames, and Karaoke sessions are also part of Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth. RGG Studio head Masayoshi Yokoyama described the title as a ‘monster class’ of a game, adding that if one were to play it continuously, they’d get sick. “This means that a lot of people are going to hesitate to play the game or will end up having it wait on their shelves. I found the possibility of that kind of outcome sad, so I thought, we have to get everyone hyped up enough to play it,” he said in an interview. To combat that, the studio opted for a festival-like atmosphere, which he believes would urge players to finish it within a week to a month, ‘even at the cost of their health.’

Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth is out January 25 on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series S/X.

Amazon.com on Tuesday announced a new artificial intelligence chip for its cloud computing service as competition with Microsoft to dominate the market for artificial intelligence heats up.

At a conference in Las Vegas, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Chief Executive Adam Selipsky announced Trainium2, the second generation of chip designed for training AI systems. Selipsky said the new version is four times as fast as its predecessor while being twice as energy efficient.

The AWS move comes weeks after Microsoft announced its own AI chip called Maia. The Trainium2 chip will also compete against AI chips from Alphabet’s Google, which has offered its Tensor Processing Unit (TPU) to its cloud computing customers since 2018.

Selipsky said that AWS will start offering the new training chips next year. The proliferation of custom chips comes amid a scramble to find the computing power to develop technologies such as large language models that form the basis of services similar to ChatGPT.

The cloud computing firms are offering their chips as a complement to Nvidia, the market leader in AI chips whose products have been in short supply for the past year. AWS also on Tuesday said that it will offer Nvidia’s newest chips on its cloud service.

Selipsky on Tuesday also announced Graviton4, the cloud firm’s fourth custom central processor chip, which it said is 30 percent faster than its predecessor. The news comes weeks after Microsoft announced its own custom chip called Cobalt designed to compete with Amazon’s Graviton series.

Both AWS and Microsoft are using technology from Arm in their chips, part of an ongoing trend away from chips made by Intel and Advanced Micro Devices in cloud computing. Oracle is using chips from startup Ampere Computing for its cloud service.

© Thomson Reuters 2023

ChatGPT — the popular chatbot from OpenAI — was launched by the company in preview form a year ago and has grown in complexity and capabilities since its initial release. The company has since launched a premium subscription service that allows paying users to access a more powerful version of the chatbot along with early access to upcoming features and reduced downtime. OpenAI’s technology is also used to power Microsoft’s Bing Chat, and the company’s own chatbot has been updated with support for plugins, while the company also unveiled a much more powerful version earlier this month.

From its arrival in November 2022 in the form of a free AI chatbot to the release of the powerful new GPT-4 Turbo for paying subscribers earlier this month, there’s how ChatGPT has evolved over the course of a year, gaining new features and functionality along the way.  

OpenAI launches ChatGPT powered by GPT 3.5

While OpenAI began working on its generative AI technology that powers ChatGPT in 2016, the company only introduced the tool as part of a free research preview on November 30, 2022. At the time, ChatGPT was powered by OpenAI’s Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3.5 (GPT-3.5) models, but the tool was only trained on information up to September 2021.

ChatGPT Plus and GPT-powered Bing announced

Earlier this year, OpenAI rolled out an optional subscription plan for “ChatGPT Plus” that would provide premium access to the company’s chatbot. While users could — and still can — access the chatbot for free, paying customers would get access to new features, early access to unreleased features, and less downtime. Days after OpenAI’s announcement, Microsoft unveiled a new version of Bing that was powered by OpenAI’s GPT models. Bing Chat was rolled out to users on smartphones and via the Microsoft Edge web browser.

OpenAI launches ChatGPT API, unveils plugins and GPT-4 models

ChatGPT users were previously limited to accessing the chatbot via OpenAI’s service, but the arrival of the ChatGPT API allowed app developers and web designers to quickly integrate support for ChatGPT — leading to a surge in apps and web services powered by AI chatbots. In March, the service was banned in Italy over collection of personal data and a lack of age verification tools — the ban was lifted a month later.

The firm quickly followed up with the release of GPT-4, a powerful update over the preceding model, that was integrated in ChatGPT and Bing Chat — you can use GPT-4 on the latter for free, and it has picked up several new improvements and enhancements over the past few months. It also added support for plugins on ChatGPT, which allow the chatbot to browse the web and understand code. 

ChatGPT comes to iOS and Android, gets powerful new features

OpenAI’s chatbot made its way to a smartphone via a dedicated iOS app in May and the company allowed users to access a version of the app powered by GPT-3.5 for free, while paying subscribers could access GPT-4 for better answers and more detailed information. The app was released for Android users in July.

ChatGPT gained new capabilities in September when OpenAI revealed that paying subscribers would be able to upload images, or use the ChatGPT mobile app to ask queries with their voice — this feature was later rolled out to all users. The chatbot was also upgraded with support for the image generation model DALL-E 3, for ChatGPT Plus and ChatGPT Enterprise customers.

OpenAI unveils GPT4 Turbo with advanced capabilities

Earlier this month, the AI firm announced GPT-4 Turbo, an enhanced version of OpenAI’s GPT-4 model. It was also the first time since GPT-3.5 was released last year that the company increased the amount of information the chatbot was trained on — while GPT 4 and older models can access data up to September 2021, GPT-4 Turbo can view information up to April 2023. Its context window is now 128k, which means that it can now process up to 300 pages of a book when it is responding to a user’s query.

Redmi Book 16 2024 and Redmi Book 14 2024 have been updated for 2024. The updated laptops were launched in China on Wednesday alongside the Redmi K70 series of smartphones, the Redmi Watch 4, and the Buds 5 Pro. The 2024 Redmi Book models are powered by 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13500H chipsets paired with Intel Iris Xe graphics. They get up to 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM and up to 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. The laptops also come pre-installed with Windows 11 and support Dolby Vision and Dolby Atmos.

Redmi Book 16 2024, Redmi Book 14 2024 price, availability

The 16GB RAM + 512GB storage variant of the Redmi Book 14 2024 is priced at CNY 4,199 (roughly Rs. 49,200), while the 16GB + 1TB option is listed at CNY 4,499 (roughly Rs. 52,700). The Redmi Book 16 2024, on the other hand, is marked at CNY 4,399 (roughly Rs. 51,500) and CNY 4,699 (roughly Rs. 55,000) for 16GB + 512GB and 16GB + 1TB variants, respectively.

Offered in a Starlight Silver colour option, the Redmi Book 14 2024 is on sale in China via the official Xiaomi website. The Redmi Book 16 2024 is available in a Star Grey shade and will go on sale starting December 1.

Redmi Book 16 2024, Redmi Book 14 2024 specifications, features

The Redmi Book 14 2024 model sports a 14-inch 2.8K (2,880 x 1,800 pixels) display with a peak brightness level of 300 nits. On the other hand, the Redmi Book 16 has a 16-inch 2.5K (2,560 x 1,600 pixels) screen with a refresh rate of 120Hz and a peak brightness level of 400 nits. The display on both laptops has an aspect ratio of 16:10 and supports Dolby Vision.

Redmi’s updated laptops now come with powered by 13th Gen Intel Core i5-13500H chipsets paired with Intel Iris Xe graphics, 16GB of LPDDR5 RAM, and up to 1TB of PCIe 4.0 SSD storage. The Redmi Book 2024 models also come pre-installed with Windows 11.

The Redmi Book 2024 laptops are equipped with backlit keyboards and a power button that doubles as a fingerprint recognition sensor. The laptops carry 1080p webcams and have a 3.5mm headphone jack each. They also have a quad microphone setup and dual 2W speakers with Dolby Atmos support. Supporting Bluetooth 5.2, the Redmi Book 2024 models also support Wi-Fi 802.11 and NFC connectivity.

Redmi Book 14 2024 carries a 56Wh battery, while the 16-inch variant packs a 72Wh with both offering 100W GaN fast charging support. The 14-inch model weighs 1.37 kilograms and measures 312.24mm x 220.15mm x 15.9mm in size. Meanwhile, the larger Redmi Book 16 weighs 1.68 kilograms and measures 355.2mm x 248.5mm x 15.9mm in size.

Xbox Game Pass is adding 12 new titles to its December catalogue, including two day-one releases. The standout here has to be the Remnant franchise — both From the Ashes and its newly launched sequel Remnant II, celebrated for its souls-like shooter experience that pits players against tough-as-nails fantastical monsters, across procedurally-generated levels. Its challenges can also be tackled in co-op, so it’s best advised that you check out the sequel because it will have a larger active player base. Another major addition this month is Far Cry 6, setting you against the vibrant tropical island of Yara to topple its ruthless dictator Antón Castillo (Giancarlo Esposito), who is hellbent on using the Viviro, an unstable form of cancer treatment, to restore his land to former glory. It arrives December 14 on Xbox Game Pass.

The December lineup feels too good to be true, but makes sense given the Christmas season, as a means for Xbox to get more people to subscribe to Game Pass. Rise of the Tomb Raider is another major entry, putting you in the shoes of lone adventurer Lara Croft, who is thrust into a sprawling mystery surrounding The Order of Trinity looking to acquire ancient artefacts that would grant them the power to change the fate of humanity. Taking players to the Lost City of Kitezh in Siberia, this is the second story in a three-part reboot trilogy from Crystal Dynamics, borrowing a range of mechanics from Naughty Dogs Uncharted games in terms of ammo pick-up and a robust close-quarters combat system. Rise of the Tomb Raider will be out December 5 across PC, console, and the cloud.

Let your creativity run wild as you construct a mining town punctuated by cutesy little roads and settlements, with enough power water, and resources to ensure your steampunk civilians are well-equipped to excavate long-lost space technology — the kind that might help save the barren, dying planet. SteamWorld Build is a day-one launch on Xbox Game Pass and is now available to download for free on PC and console. Experience the life of a village blacksmith in While the Iron’s Hot, a pixelated RPG set on the enigmatic island of Ellian, which drew countless craftsmen together in order to perfect their craft. Explore every tunnel, forge new machinery to get past puzzles, and interact with its colourful cast to unveil the mystery surrounding a recent disaster. The game is now available on cloud, console, and PC.

Or you could engage in some co-op zombie-killing action in World War Z: Aftermath, as thousands of undead hordes leap across rooftops to deliver high-tension challenges, as you stock up on ammunition and makeshift weapons to blast skulls, all the while being granted the responsibility of escorting civilians to safety. While it is based on the Brad Pitt-led Paramount Pictures film, the game was well-received at launch and promises to be a jolly good time when it comes to Game Pass on December 5. After all that gory beatdown, one might need to relax a little. So why not turn into an annoying farm animal, and wreak havoc on a sandbox town in Goat Simulator 3, as you headbutt, lick, and triple-jump your way through?

December 1 (now available)

Remnant: From the Ashes — PC, cloud, and console

Remnant II — PC, cloud, and Xbox Series S/X

Spirit of the North — PC, cloud, and console

SteamWorld Build — PC, cloud, and console

December 5

Clone Drone in the Danger Zone — PC, cloud, and console

Rise of the Tomb Raider — PC, cloud, and console

While the Iron’s Hot — PC, cloud, and console

World War Z: Aftermath — PC, cloud, and console

December 7

Goat Simulator 3 — PC, cloud, and Xbox Series S/X

December 8

Against the Storm — PC

December 12

Tin Hearts — PC, cloud, and console

December 14

Far Cry 6 — PC, cloud, and console

Additionally, Microsoft has confirmed some titles to be leaving the service. On December 15, you can say goodbye to Chained Echoes, Opus Magnum, Potion Craft: Alchemist Simulator, and Rubber Bandits.

And as usual, before they disappear from the service, you can choose to buy them at a 20 percent discount.

Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer release date is finally upon us, as confirmed by Rockstar Games via a tweet. The first footage from the highly-anticipated crime odyssey sequel will be out on Tuesday, December 5, at 7:30pm IST in India/ 9am ET in the US, with the publisher only posting an image of a sunset and palm tree silhouettes — confirming previous claims that it’s set in a fictionalised version of Miami, which franchise veterans might recognise as a return to Vice City. With that, it is clear that Geoff Keighley won’t be presenting the trailer at The Game Awards 2023, though a teaser or some screenshot drops are always possible.

Not much was known about GTA 6 since a massive data leak from mid-2022, which revealed in-development gameplay of our lead crime couple — allegedly Jason and Lucia — robbing a diner in broad daylight. Yep, this would mark the first female protagonist in the franchise’s controversial history, which has, for the most part, portrayed women as sex objects or nagging moms/wives. It is also worth mentioning that Rockstar hasn’t revealed an official title for the game yet, merely referring to it as the ‘next Grand Theft Auto,’ so it could very well be a spin-off with some outlandish subtitle. The sequel has been a long time coming, with a May earnings call at Rockstar parent Take-Two Interactive hinting that the GTA 6 launch window could be set for the fiscal year 2025 (opens in April 2024 in Rockstar’s case).

Earlier this month, the studio also scrapped the ‘Social Club’ branding from the website, referring to its online multiplayer service as ‘Rockstar Games platform,’ in addition to getting rid of the yellow block in its logo — hinting at some big changes to usher in the new era. At the time of writing, the studio has deleted all previous posts from its Instagram account, maintaining only the aforementioned trailer release date banner. As anticipation for GTA 6 grew, GTA Online served as the decade-long cash cow for Rockstar, delivering near-endless multiplayer content that easily rivalled the average AAA live service game. For now, it’s unclear whether the existing Social Club members will simply be updated to cater to the new entry or if players will be forced to migrate their data to a new account.

As of October, the 2013-released Grand Theft Auto V has sold 190 million copies worldwide, with minor graphical and performance upgrades to adjust to two whole console generations. Just yesterday, Rockstar confirmed that its remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy will be available to play on Netflix from December 14 onwards — accessible to subscribers of all tiers and playable exclusively on Android, iOS, and the Netflix phone app.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will probably release on the current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series S/X first, before heading to PC — as seen with previous Rockstar entries.

Just a day away from getting our first look at Grand Theft Auto 6, a leak has surfaced that claims to show footage from the upcoming game. As per GTABase.com on Twitter, TikTok account ‘azzarossi’ posted a video showing a quick panoramic view and scale of the alleged location GTA 6 is based in — a fictionalised version of Miami aka Vice City. The video also shows a Pißwasser billboard, an in-game beer brand that’s been ever-present in GTA games. While the account has since gone private, there is no way to verify whether the footage is real. The important landmarks, however, match with the massive data leak from last year, which exposed over 90 in-development clips into the wild.

The same TikTok user also posted a picture of himself alongside Aaron Garbut, head of development and co-studio head at Rockstar North, leading to speculation that the leaker could be the Rockstar Games employee’s son. While there’s still no evidence of the publisher taking down videos for copyright infringement, it’s kind of startling how the “my dad works at Rockstar/ Xbox/ PlayStation” meme turned out to be real for once. If true, the leaker has certainly got his father into big trouble at the studio for some online likes, despite having privated their account near-instantaneously. The last time the publisher dealt with leaks, an unnamed 17-year-old was reportedly arrested for hacking and being part of the group that claimed credit for the Uber leaks. Rockstar hasn’t released any statement regarding the leaks and now would also be a good time to block keywords on social media to avoid spoilers.

Meanwhile, the company is prepared to debut the first trailer for the next GTA game on Tuesday, December 5 at 7:30pm IST in India/ 9am ET in the US. While the internet is eagerly waiting for GTA 6, Rockstar has not revealed an official title for the game yet, so it could very well be a spin-off with a subtitle instead of being a numbered sequel. A countdown video is also now live on YouTube. There’s no word on a release window, but a May earnings report from Rockstar’s parent company Take-Two Interactive hints at a window within the 2025 fiscal year, which opens as early as April next year. Ambitions are quite high at the studio, which is said to be introducing its first playable Latina female protagonist and also increasing the number of enterable indoor locations for better immersion. There are reportedly two leads though, a crime couple that has been likened to the real-life Bonnie and Clyde, who went around robbing banks and stores during the Great Depression in America.

People online also tried matching the leaked clip with the real Miami City and found stark similarities between the two. Ahead of the GTA 6 trailer launch, Rockstar has altered its logo and got rid of its ‘Social Club’ branding, though its online multiplayer component still functions the same. Furthermore, the studio is launching its remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy on Netflix on December 14, available to all subscribers and featuring graphical and mechanical upgrades.

Grand Theft Auto 6 will probably launch on the current-gen PS5 and Xbox Series S/X first, before heading to PC — as seen with previous Rockstar entries.

GTA 6 trailer has been officially released. The trailer was initially scheduled to go live on December 5 at 9am ET (7:30pm IST). However, it was released 15 hours ahead of schedule following a leak. Grand Theft Auto 5 was introduced in September 2013. Therefore, the anticipation surrounding the GTA 6 trailer, after 10 years of the game’s last release, was already soaring. The leak and thereby the preponed release of the game’s trailer has sent enthusiasts into a frenzy. The launch timeline and compatible platforms for GTA 6 were also officially announced.

A now-suspended account on X leaked the GTA 6 trailer. Rockstar Games, the developer was quick to respond and uploaded the official trailer on YouTube. In a post on X, Rockstar wrote, “Our trailer has leaked so please watch the real thing on YouTube” and embedded the trailer alongside. Within four hours of its release, the trailer had garnered more than 29 million views on the video sharing platform.

The trailer shows that GTA 6 is set in Vice City, a fictionalised version of Miami. We are then introduced to the female protagonist named Lucia, who we initially see behind bars and later follow around as she goes around the city in Bonnie and Clyde-inspiring adventures. We also catch glimpses of classic GTA elements, like fast cars, guns, money, and more.

In a press release, Rockstar Games confirmed that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be released in 2025 on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X. An exact release date will likely be announced closer to the launch. The company noted in the release that Grand Theft Auto 5 has sold over 190 million units to date.

The GTA 6 trailer launch was preceded by multiple online leaks previously. The map of the location of GTA 6, Vice City was shared online, reportedly by a Rockstar Games employee’s son. The fictionalised version of Miami was shown in a panoramic view and scale in the leak.

Cyberpunk 2077 is getting the last major update before developer CD Projekt Red moves on to the next project. Dubbed ‘Update 2.1,’ the patch finally brings the long-requested metro system, the ability to hang out with romantic partners, radios, and a ton of quality-of-life changes. It drops alongside the Ultimate Edition on December 5 at 4:30pm IST in India/ 12pm CET in Europe. Bear in mind that this is a free downloadable update, so it won’t be included natively in the physical disc versions releasing on the PS5 and Xbox Series S/X. That said, the 2.0 Update released in September will be included across all versions, entirely overhauling the perk system and adding a range of tech augmentations, which weren’t present in the original 2020 version.

Once the update goes live, the protagonist V will be able to access the in-game metro service to travel between 19 destinations, punctuated across five railway lines. The public transit system can be accessed via a special card, and the players themselves can chill out on the seats and soak in the sights of Night City, amongst other NPC passengers busy staring at screens or napping. The feature was originally shown in the Cyberpunk 2077 cinematic trailer and three years later, becomes finally accessible after finishing the Konpeki Plaza sequence. Of course, one can always skip the travelling cutscene and just jump into the next location once the immersion starts getting repetitive. Your pocket will also be filled with a radio system, which lets you scroll through multiple frequencies and listen to the music you like while walking through the streets and in vehicles. The music will turn off during dialogue sequences, though.

Since its launch, Cyberpunk 2077 players have expressed their desire to just hang back and spend quality time with their in-game romantic partners. That’s now possible in Update 2.1, with V having the option to invite back people to ‘any of the apartments’ for an unlimited number of times, as long as the romance path has been completed successfully. Another thing that’s replayable is car races, which can be accessed by visiting red flag icons scattered across the map, to make big eddies. One must complete ‘The Beast in Me’ quest for this section to unlock, with CD Projekt Red claiming that the enemy racers’ AI has been made significantly smarter to make these experiences more thrilling and challenging. Adding to the immersion are sightseeing binoculars that let you observe various scenic vistas in the world of Cyberpunk.

Other major improvements include not-so-clunky bike combat, minor bug fixes, and better boss fights. It’s unclear what the developer means by that, though the patch notes detail that the ruthless Adam Smasher can now activate the Sandevistan perk, letting him blink around the map and get close to you before slashing down. A range of visual and lighting enhancements, weapon balance changes, new bikes to purchase, and vehicular tricks are all available in Update 2.1 — a complete list of which you can browse in the official blog post. Cyberpunk 2077 had a rocky launch in 2020, characterised by low framerates and bugs, forcing the developer to fix the game in the following years through numerous patches and hotfixes. It is in a far better state now, with the Phantom Liberty expansion earning it nominations in The Game Awards 2023.

Both Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition and its Update 2.1 release December 5 across PC, PS5, and Xbox Series S/X.