The long-awaited release of Cyberpunk 2077 brings to an end years of feverish anticipation for those who have been itching to roam the streets of Night City, but it's only the latest example of gaming's fixation with the trappings of the cyberpunk genre.

It's perhaps inevitable that gaming and cyberpunk are so closely entwined, given that both were birthed in the technological boom of the 1950s and gained mainstream pop culture presence around the same time in the late 70s and early 80s. The hard part is working out how to separate the games that cherry-picked aspects of the cyberpunk aesthetic - of which there are literally hundreds - from those that are, or at least attempted to be, genuine examples of cyberpunk fiction. For that, we need to nail down the genre's key tropes; namely a dystopian outlook on the near-future, an interest in alternate digital realities, drug or technology assisted human modification, and a cultural milieu in which corporate interests have long since outranked the quaint notion of elected government.

Things got started pretty early, with adaptations of 1980s cyberpunk movies for 8-bit home computers like the ZX Spectrum. The Blade Runner game, rather cunningly, was licensed from the eerie synth score by Vangelis rather than the more costly movie despite asking you to fly your "Spinner" craft over Los Angeles, locating errant replicants then chasing them down in simple foot chases. An amusing distraction, but one that failed to grapple with the themes of cyberpunk in any meaningful way.

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It's easy to understand why brutalism has been such a potent source of architectural inspiration for games. The raw forms - solid, legible and with clear lineation - are the perfect material for level designers to craft their worlds with. Simultaneously, these same structures are able to ignite imaginations and gesture outwards, their dramatic shapes and monumental dimensions shocking and attention-seizing.

Brutalism is a branch of architecture that spans roughly 30 years (1950s-1970s). It was borne out of the devastation of two world wars, when there was a need to rebuild. In this aftermath brutalism became a vital global phenomenon. If you live in a city, you've no doubt passed by a hulking example.

The term derives from a French invention: b ton brut, meaning raw concrete. This is the structure's most prominent feature - sheer concrete surface, often left rough, exposed or unfinished. Significant in the emergence of brutalism was the architect Le Corbusier and his Unit d'Habitation. Built from reinforced concrete, the housing unit was an attempt to create what Le Corbusier called "a machine for living" - a place that met our every need. It was a thoroughly modern, progressive and even utopian conception of architecture. Regardless of the visual force of brutalism, it's impossible to divorce it from this socio-historical background.

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Deus Ex has risen from the dead - in a Final Fantasy mobile game.

The cyberpunk series lies dormant after Mankind Divided flopped back in 2016, and while it doesn't look like Square Enix is ready to return to the series in a meaningful way any time soon, it has launched a crossover with mobile game Final Fantasy Brave Exvius. Yay?

Deus Ex star Adam Jensen and "other augmented heroes" are in the game now until 5th September. You can join Task Force 29 and fight the Mechanical Ogre raid boss. Villain Viktor Marchenko is in there alongside neuroplastic surgeon Vaclav Koller and hacker Frank Pritchard via a featured summon.

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If you're looking for an expert on immersive sims, speak to Randy Smith.

The 43-year-old American game designer, who lives in Austin, Texas, cut his teeth on the Thief series while working at both Looking Glass and Ion Storm, the two studios considered to have birthed the genre.

After Thief, Smith collaborated with Half-Life 2 art director Viktor Antonov at Arkane, developer of the recent Dishonored and Prey immersive sims, on projects that never came out. Meanwhile, in 2008 Smith, alongside fellow designer David Kalina, founded a new studio called Tiger Style, and designed indie games Spider: The Secret of Bryce Manor (2009) and Waking Mars (2012), before a Spider sequel, subtitled Rite of the Shrouded Moon, hit Steam in 2015. But unlike the first Spider game and Waking Mars, Rite of the Shrouded Moon flopped.

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Square Enix CEO Yosuke Matsuda has spoken out on the future of Deus Ex - the first time the company has discussed the status of its long-running sci-fi series since reports emerged more than ten months ago that it had been placed on hiatus.

Back in January, Eurogamer revealed that Square Enix had put Deus Ex on hiatus after the well-regarded Deus Ex: Mankind Divided failed to generate the level of sales needed to grow the series into a mainstream franchise.

Prior to its release, Square had talked bullishly about its plans to create an "ongoing, expanding and connected game world built across a generation of core [Deus Ex] games", including a third, concluding entry for the narrative arc started in 2011's Deus Ex: Human Revolution. This did not come to pass. Following Mankind Divided's underwhelming sales, Square Enix became tight-lipped regarding Deus Ex's future prospects.

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