This is a bit of a review of the game and the show, I really tackle the show first, so I must warn THERE ARE SPOILERS AHEAD! DO NOT READ MORE IF YOU HAVE NOT WATCHED THE SHOW OR PLAYED THE GAME!!!

I am currently playing through Phantom Liberty, but after putting a couple hours into it, taking in all the changes the 2.0 brought, I can safely say that I am enjoying the DLC! The story feels dense and well told so far. The facial accuracy is really good at all times in game with the main cast. So far, I personally feel like my $30 for the DLC was well spent and definitely recommend it if you have played and enjoyed the base game at any time. I will update this when I finish the DLC.

I got a playable copy of the game and only had some random t-posing. Game ran fine. 4K, Ray-tracing, max settings, 60fps. Literally no crashes. I have 427 hours (at the time of the review) and am in the middle of a modded 100% play-through… I adore the game. So when I heard the anime was on the way, with Trigger at the helm, I was through the roof. Even with those insane expectations, the anime did not disappoint. I found a scary amount of my habits and interests aligned with David’s. I was heartbroken watching him lose his humanity for the sake of the dreams of his friends and family. He literally lived and died trying to make the people important to him proud or happy. Side note the songs and the lyrics in them fit the characters perfectly, more so than really anything I’ve ever watched in the past. Each character was someone I felt for and cared about which also surprised me as I am a notoriously picky person when it comes to anime and characters in anime. The voice acting in dub was genuinely more fun than sub, another surprise to me as I usually prefer sub in anime. It was fantastic! And Gioncarlo being in it was the cherry on top! Lucy was such a good complex character and I appreciate the unapologetic sadness to her arc. Her regret after getting David involved in the crew and making his existence known to the corpos, silently trying to single-handedly take on the task of keeping them away while pretending everything is fine. All for the man she loves, but he just sees her growing distant. Rebecca was awesome to read about after the show. I already loved her character, but when I heard that she was the only character that Trigger was allowed in the show… CDPR was not interested in Trigger making any of the character, but when they heard their pitch for Rebecca despite knowing that, and couldn’t help but approve. And I’m so glad they did. It was amazing seeing how true to the game the show was after finishing it. The fact that I can see the same things on the same streets, the same views, was all the reason I needed to open the game again. First time in 4 months. I am happy the DLC is on the way, I’m excited for its release! I know I sound like the craziest fanboy, but I have never liked a CDPR game this much. I have about 20 hours in the Witcher 3 and have never beat the main story. I thought both seasons of the show (so far) were only alright, with a couple standout episodes. I believe the game was right up my alley (unlike most games in the past 4-5 years) and am so thankful of that. The AI was admittedly dumb and the police system sucked when the game came out, but it was easy to look past with so much else about the game meeting or exceeding trailers or previously seen gameplay. No offense to the male V actor, but female V stood out and truly deserved her awards for the role. Johnny ironically was the worst of the character voice acting, disappointing more than I’d like to admit as a huge Keanu fan. But as the game progresses, depending on your choices, he opens up to V and becomes a character that you can appreciate a lot more and the voice acting for his character does get better. That being said, also depending on your choices, he can be your enemy and really cause some problem with ill timed “attacks” that give enemies free shots. Or he can become a friend before you both meet your fates, obviously those fates still largely depend on your choices. This leads me to another first, I usually feel like my choices mean very little in games that have a system like this. Same can be said for your Cred level. It really makes a difference in little interactions like scaring some punk kids away from a Cook’s bike simply because one ends up recognizing you as someone that is a growing legend in the city, whereas if you interact with them earlier in the story, they brush you off as a wanna-be. V as a character was nuts, especially having picked many of the options through my play-throughs now. I have completed every achievement in the game and done every ending. I’m not going to get into any of the options because there really are a ton, and there are some really good combos that make for awesome arcs in game. The relationships with Panam, Judy, Claire, hell even Delamain if you managed to get through that quest-line without blowing a car up out of frustration. Admittedly there are sections of the game that aren’t perfect, even with a copy of the game that had no issues, but the upsides of the game even before mods, for me at least, made up for it and then some. Power-scaling, if we can call it that, is nuts now that the show is out. David was special, but not as special as Smasher and not even close to as powerful as V can get if you make a crazy build. I am excited as hell for the new police system that’s coming in the next major update. I’m hearing crazy things about Max-Tech coming in like they depicted in the show, and that they will be a lot scarier no matter the difficulty, level, or build. That would be nuts! CDPR is making a lot of changes to help improve the game and looks to continue with that trend. I hope this is just the beginning of something amazing for this game, that world, that city. It is still one of the only games that I load into and find myself just admiring the density and detail of the city. It's just such a beautiful game!