If you've ever wondered what Cyberpunk 2077 would look like if it came out in 1995 instead of 2020, you've now got your answer. Bearly Regal, who creates remakes and demakes for his YouTube channel, has posted a 'mini tour' of Cyberpunk 2077's Night City reimagined as a PS1 game. Check out the teaser above and stick around to see how it was made. 

Bearly Regal creates his remakes and demakes using Minecraft, Lego Worlds and, more recently, Dreams. The latter is where he built Cyberpunk 2077. It's a shame it's a PS4 exclusive, as I've seen some really impressive games coming out of it and imagine PC modders and creative types would have a field day. 

The teaser is brief, but you'll spot a lot more cool details during Bearly Regal's walkthrough of the demo. It looks both surprisingly true to Cyberpunk 2077's E3 2018 demo and a PS1 game, though Bearly Regal says it's still early days. 

At the 12:40 mark, you can see more of the work-in-progress Night City, including hover cars, but it's clearly in a much earlier state than the first section. The streets are pretty quiet, though Keanu is already there, hanging around. 

It looks great and I clearly need to get Dreams. 

We've already explained why Keanu Reeves makes the perfect Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077. Apparently CD Projekt RED felt the same way, and not just because Reeves is a cultural lightning rod who stars in both big screen films and internet memes. 

In an interview with Xbox: The Official Magazine (thanks, WCCFTech), story director Marcin Blacha says that "When we thought of an actor for this role, we didn’t approach it on a ‘who’s the biggest celebrity now’ basis—the actor had to have a connection with the character." 

Given Silverhand's backstory as a military deserter with a tragically lost lover, Keanu's sad man energy was exactly what CDPR was looking for to bring the cyberpunk rocker to life. "A good actor, and Keanu is a great actor, will always infuse their character with a bit of their own special thing," Blacha says of Reeves. 

Despite how Keanu stole the stage when he appeared at E3 to tell us Cyberpunk 2077's release date, CDPR seems determined that he won't do the same in the game. "Johnny is an icon and a very powerful character," Blacha says. "But—in their own way—so is V. Both will often butt heads, but I think they will also learn something from each other." We know that Johnny lives on in 2077 as a digital implant in V's head. That may well make for some interesting conflicts in opinion. 

We'll get to see Keanu's cyber ghost performance in full when Cyberpunk 2077 releases on April 16, 2020.

Cyberpunk 2077 comes in a few different flavours, including a collector's edition and a preorder edition, both containing lots of extras. None of them, however, give you anything you can use when you start wandering around Night City. When asked about it on Twitter, CD Projekt Red explained that in-game bonuses were specifically committed.

"No, we don't do that," the Cyberpunk 2077 Twitter account said. "Every person that buys the game gets exactly the same in-game content, no matter if they buy it in preorders, on release date or 2 years later." The exchange was posted on Reddit. 

Slapping down some cash before it launches won't net you a sweet new jacket for V, then, but it also suggests that there won't be special editions that throw in extra gear or missions down the line. We know that there will be DLC and possibly expansions, however, though expect the former to be free. 

CD Projekt Red took a similar approach with The Witcher 3, releasing lots of DLC, complete with new missions, for all players. Only the meaty expansions were sold, which could be bought separately, with the expansion pass and, later, bundled together in the Game of the Year Edition. 

Preorder bonuses are pretty par for the course and never really worth the risk of buying a game before it's out, but at least this time you can wait and not worry about missing out on a mission or a cool skin for your gun. 

I've reached out to CD Projekt Red to confirm if this is the developer's official stance, and what that means for possible future editions. 

Cheers, Twisted Voxel.

The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt had adjustable difficulty levels ranging from "Just the Story" to "Death March," which I think are sufficiently self-explanatory that I won't bother getting into the details. (The previous Witcher games had variable difficulties too, but their descriptions weren't quite so evocative.) So too will Cyberpunk 2077, which will actually have a "Hardcore" mode that disables the user interface completely.

"The most fun one I think will be the Hardcore setting where we turn off the UI ... And that will be a real challenge for a lot of players," Cyberpunk 2077 UI coordinator Alvin Liu told WCCFtech. "Also, at the same time, if you want to play more casually for the story and maybe you’re not experienced with shooters, which was a real big concern for us. We want to tell a story and maybe you’re a big fan of The Witcher and you’re not comfortable playing a shooter, we have settings available for that."

"We even have weapons for that. If you recall from last year’s demo, we had a weapon called the smart gun, which helps you aim. The bullets were much slower and usually a bit weaker. But if your aiming isn’t your forte, you can always pick up the smart gun."

Ideally there will be an option to disable the UI independent of difficulty: Playing without a visible interface can make for a much more immersive experience, but I have zero interest in getting owned by every two-bit chump with a heater while Johnny Mnemonic screams in my ear about how much I suck. I'm all for a challenge, but I'll take a hard pass on straight-up masochism, thanks.

Liu also put to rest the rumor that Lady Gaga would appear, Keanu-like, in a supporting cyber-role. "She’s pretty cyberpunk, so she could fit in!" he said. "But um, yeah, no Lady Gaga."

Cyberpunk 2077 comes out on April 16, 2020.

Thanks, Gameranx.

Where do you go after Keanu Reeves? Well, assuming that rumor about Lady Gaga playing an in-game pop star isn't true, you think about casting recipient of 21 Oscar nominations Meryl Streep.

Cyberpunk 2077 quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz was being interviewed by GAME in the UK when he was asked, if he could pick any other star to appear in the game, who it would be. His response? "Oh my god, this is difficult. Ah, there’s so many great actors I love… Like, I love Meryl Streep, for example. I love Devil Wears Prada, and it would be great to have her as one of the characters in the game."

Elaborating on what kind of role Streep would play in Night City, he went on to say, "She could be totally one of the big corporate characters in the game. I can picture this."

In other, slightly more concrete Cyberpunk 2077 news, we recently learned some more about its roleplaying options and lifepath system, as well as that it would receive a hardcover lore book next year.

But, you know, a Meryl Streep cameo would be nice too.

We finally got a release date for Cyberpunk 2077 at E3 this year (April 16, 2020, in case you forgot) and now we have a release date for something we didn't already know about: an official lore book for Cyberpunk 2077. Dark Horse Books and CD Projekt RED have collaborated on The World of Cyberpunk 2077, an exploration of Night City in 2077 which will be available on April 21, 2020, just a few days after we can experience the game world proper. 

The year 2077 doesn't sound very pleasant based on its Amazon listing: "Delve into incisive lore to discover how the economic decline of the United States created a crippling dependence on devious corporations and birthed the Free State of California." You may not learn absolutely everything about Night City just by playing the game for 200 hours, which is where this 200 page book lore tome comes in.

If you decide to pre-order The World of Cyberpunk 2077, you can put this warning about corporate control and rampant consumerism on your coffee table right next to the hardcover art book that comes with the collector's edition of the game. 

Cyberpunk 2077 is first and foremost a roleplaying game, and you can't have an RPG without skills, stats, and specializations, right? Quest director Mateusz Tomaszkiewicz emphasized the importance of those attributes, and the way players shape them throughout the game, in a new video update in which he also touched on the impact of "lifepaths" chosen by players.

"We have a big variety of different skills that the players can modify as they develop their character throughout the game. And in turn, they can use these skills to discover different paths through the levels, to discover different options in quests," Tomaszkiewicz said.

"On top of that, we also have this thing called the 'lifepaths,' which are the origins of our character that we choose at the beginning of the game, when we create the character. So for example, you might imagine that if you're a street kid you'll have an easier time talking to different gangs, or if you're a corporate, you might have an advantage over people from the corporations, since you know how they think and how they operate."

CD Projekt said in follow up tweets that there will be three lifepaths to choose from—Street Kid, Corpo, and Nomad—which should significantly enhance Cyberpunk 2077's replayability: Tomaszkiewicz said in an interview with USgamer in June that players will have to play through the game at least three times in order to fully experience each lifepath.

Tomaszkiewicz also offered reassurances to a follower who said he's "slightly worried" about a change in the game's description on Twitter from "the role-playing game of the dark future" to "an open-world, action-adventure story":

Cyberpunk 2077's Night City is full of people for you to beat up, including gang members, cops and corporate douchebags—there are limits, though, so you won't be brawling with everyone. Children, for instance, will be protected from your murderous rages, along with story-important NPCs. 

Reddit user masoncool4566 asked CD Projekt Red about what sort of violent shenanigans V can get up to and posted the response, below.  

"You won't be able to attack children or NPCs connected with the plot," reads the reply, "but other than that you can be aggressive towards most people you meet."

CDPR confirmed that this is the case in an email, telling me that there will also be areas where aggressive behaviour will come with additional consequences. If you try to start shit in gang or police-controlled territory, they'll come down on you. 

It makes sense, though I'm also a fan of the Morrowind method, where everyone was fair game, even if it meant you'd sabotaged your chances of finishing your adventure by killing off someone you'll need to interact with later. But then Bethesda didn't have to worry about players slaughtering infants—that wasn't a problem until Skyrim, which had invincible kids who were unfortunately rendered mortal by modders. 

Luckily for Night City's kids, Cyberpunk 2077 won't have modding support at launch, so they're safe for now. 

The human-shaped supernova that is Keanu Reeves is becoming a familiar face in games. John Wick cropped up in Fortnite and is getting a tactics adaptation in the form of John Wick Hex, and of course there's his upcoming stint as Johnny Silverhand in Cyberpunk 2077. Thanks to modder JinMar, we can now add Metal Gear Solid 5: The Phantom Pain to the list. 

The work-in-progress mod lets you play as either John Wick or Johhny Silverhand while you're leaping out of helicopters and knocking out Soviet soldiers. Conveniently, MGS 5 already gives us a robo-arm to play with, so Silverhand fans get the best doppelganger, but they both look great. 

You can download the mod and find installation instructions here.

Cheers, DSOGaming.

A third of Cyberpunk 2077's digital preorders on PC have been made on GOG, according to developer and platform owner CD Projekt Red. An exact figure hasn't been given, but the reception to the recent release date announcement and Keanu's E3 cameo almost certainly ensures that the numbers are pretty big. 

"Thank you for your support—it's breathtaking," CD Projekt Red said on Twitter, repeating a phrase that will absolutely follow the John Wick star around for at least another year. I really wouldn't be surprised to see Johnny Silverhand, his character in Cyberpunk, referred to as breathtaking as a nod one of E3's most memorable moments. 

In February, we heard that GOG was facing financial difficulties and had laid off several staff. A statement from the company called it "rearranging" but a former employee said it was "dangerously close to being in the red" and potentially under pressure from the Epic Games Store, which had just launched and was offering more attractive terms to developers. But lately, things have been looking rosier. 

GOG Galaxy 2.0, for instance, seems very promising and could be a solution for people tired of juggling multiple launchers. It aims to merge all the platforms into one super platform and is currently in beta. 

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney congratulated GOG in a tweet, adding that it proved the multi-store future had arrived and that GOG Galaxy will unite the PC gaming community instead of fracturing it. Whatever your feelings are about the Epic Games Store, it's an unusual way to frame the news. GOG has been around for over a decade, and while Steam has dominated that entire period it's had to share customers with a multitude of stores and platforms. The Epic Games Store has also been accused of fragmenting PC gaming, which people in the tweet's replies were quick to point out. 

Cyberpunk 2077 is due out on April 16, 2020, but while the demos have been impressive, don't buy a game nine months before it comes out.