With so many complaining about issues, I thought I should post my positive experience with installing and playing on patch 2.31a.

I haven't had a single issue or crash yet. Offline installed version 2.3 adjacent to a couple of existing installs (1.63 and 2.1), and patched that to 2.31a.

Then I installed Phantom Liberty (freshly downloaded from the GoG Games page), deleted the created shortcut (because screw the Red Launcher!) and made one leading directly to the main .exe. No Red Launcher, no GoG Galaxy, and no problem. Just - in the words of the old Nvidia slogan - "the way it's meant to be played".

Started the game, made a new character, and began playing from the start of the main game. Not a single problem in the ~5 hours I have been playing so far, even with the CET console installed (which also works just fine btw.).

Only unexplained issue so far is the game increasingly stutter more and more over time. Can't say I remember it ever doing that before. But I only began noticing it after about 2+ hours of playing, and restarting the game fixed it.

AutoDrive still got its issues though. "Collision detected" was no surprise when my car suddenly rammed full speed into the car in front. And I didn't expect "out of bounds" when the car drove itself onto the sidewalk - when all it had to do was continue to drive straight. And that was the first 2 times I tried the system.

Other than that, I still can't say I like the new skill system. It feels way too much "all over the place". Though I have to admit it is better than the old one, as Technical Ability was a hard requirement if I wanted to get the best equipment. But I'm still missing the 2 Million damage Nekomata...

Of things I don't like in the current system is the cyberware limit. Given we even have a whole quest line regarding cyberpsykosis, I would really like an option to disable all cyberware limits, and take the risk of cyberware failing randomly as a result (the more over the limit, the more frequent and more severe the issues).

Subjectively, I also don't like the "street cred" limit on buying cars, especially as we aren't told what the restriction is. But objectively, I have to agree with it - given how our very character is a nobody climbing the charts, it's obvious others should let us know when they think we are worthy.

I am still missing more freedom though. Like what is the point of Wilson, if he can only fix a single, scripted pistol. That was a perfect and missed opportunity when the game sets him up at the beginning as "the best" gun tweaker, and then he turns out to be completely ignored.

Having the guns modded or upgraded for cash instead of just using components and technically doing it ourselves is mind boggling to me (which is why I am fine with cheating to do it). It's like the game sets us up as the only capable person in the entire city.

For all the talk of "eddies, eddies, eddies" (cue ABBA), cash plays a surprisingly unimportant role. I was surprised when I saw I suddenly had 70.000+ and haven't even visited Konpeki Plaza yet. And yet I cannot have a ripperdoc or gun vendor sell me what I want at a wildly inflated price, because...smuggling, anyone...? No? Must be another game then.

Also missing more gambling and prostitution. The event at Clouds is a scripted event, and cannot be visited whenever we feel like it. JigJig street doesn't count, because the "street workers" there are only present to fix any bugs with the game (and that's not even a joke - can't use the Interact-key? Go get laid, that will fix it).

Traffic is also still a joke, but when I recently saw a comparison between overall driving skills in Europe and...a certain other continent / country / colony or whatever you call it, I saw several similarities. So maybe CDPR took inspiration from that. The self-driving feature is anyway what Tesla would call a Level 5, but is in reality only level 2 - so let go of the steering wheel, relax, listen to some music and BE READY TO HIT THE BRAKES AT ANY TIME!!!