No new Windows 10 updates pending, including optional updates, all drivers up to date, Java, BIOS, SSD drivers, Corsair iCUE, every single piece of software on my system's up to date and latest. A mountain of problems starting to occur, from a zero, ever since I'd upgrade to RX 6000-series, from an old quarter of an almost-dGPU GTX 1050 Ti, from NVIDIA to AMD . . . a clean driver installation after using DDU in Safe Mode, before installing new drivers for a new vendor's hardware, but even that apparently isn't enough for developers to ensure that their product runs flawlessly as it should, on AMD hardware too.
CD Projekt Red has lost all of my trust and respect, but worse yet, they've lost vision and themselves. I don't know what happened over there at CDPR's, and frankly, for the prideful statements they've made and expressed in the game's design . . . I don't care, they've made themselves just another greedy and incompetent triple-A studio that's not worth much if any consideration anymore in this time and age of "modern gaming" industry. What's the point of ray-tracing? Waste of development resources. What's the point of DLSS that is exclusive to "RTX" grossly overpriced hardware, and equally nonsense ray-tracing enabled hardware whilst the vast majority of people, who actually matter, their hardware being; RX 570/580s, GTX 1050 Tis, GTX 1060s and lastly RTX 2060s? No one asked, perhaps FSR, since it works even on Intel's oldest integrated graphics, being an open-source upscaling technology, making it the only sensible and worthwhile technology regarding upscaling, until Intel makes XeSS equally effective on non-Intel hardware too. Remove the graphics, which are irrelevant, and focus entirely on the actual gameplay and Cyberpunk's shallow world . . . you'll get a Cyberpunk-themed first-person shooter, looter and with some twists. It's not story rich, it has "a" story, choices are few and matter only in the literal sense, multiple endings do not make it a better game either, and are quite simple and predictable. Again . . . a colossal let-down, it had a few emotional and powerful moments, however, they were an expection, not the rule nor meet in the middle between the two for the best results. It's apparent throughout and the longer you play, as opposed to deeper immersing yourself as you play, the developers lost vision and their touch. Just another offensively overpriced triple-A pump-and-dumb title with a dim if any soul in it, starts out well, powerful . . . then it's all over the place, falling apart, a themed first-person looter shooter afterwards.
It's far too complex for its own good. Maybe ten minutes or so in the character creator alone, a mountain's worth of information thrown at you off the bat, sophistacted system . . . that's too sophisticated, dialed up to eleven as opposed to being balance between user-friendly and in-depth, it instead is at the extreme end. It's not a game for me, it's unacceptable, for me, to have to go to such lengths, probably even do research off-game for higher difficulties or "endings" by the feel of it in the first few minutes of actual gameplay and combat. I buy the game, download, play and enjoy the game, that's how it's supposed to happen i.e. without any delays, distractions or far too complex a system being that's there disrupting immersion and punishing insufficient time or otherwise lack of dedication in studying its systems/mechanics. I can't quite put into words, it's like when you're in a ranked match, playing League of Legends, you know at minute seven or eight that you're not going to win, and that it's just a waste of time and nerves at this point, and I know that it'd not be a good time for me playing the game . . . back to waiting for Divintiy III and Elden Ring's team to release an expansion, or something . . . this game isn't it.
A ray-traced RTS with a filler-quality uninspiring narrative for the campaign and its "story", not one surprise in the game or anything exceptional, just another RTS that won't be remembered or held in high regard. All that it can claim, or claimed rather, was being first to support Intel's XeSS, which it doesn't, all it supports is FSR, worse yet however, still FSR 1.0 despite a vastly superior iteration of the technology being available for a long time now. Mediocre gameplay and gameplay loop, mediocre user experience overall, again, mediocre and unexceptional, another RTS with another twist and theme. Wasted development time, resources and money on ray-tracing and graphics, at the dire cost of actual gameplay, depth and polish. Just... disappointing, and the trend of releasing woefully unfinished games with finished game's price tag, continues. Hoping that it gets better, and we get a better, finished and polished game, eventually, continues.
It's clutching at straws, two straws in fact you could say, but it's a good sign, there's little if anything outstanding to complain about regarding the game's design and user experience. I enjoy and like playing the game, immersing myself in the world and story of Divinity Original Sin II all the same, it's an RPG done right, but not quite a masterpiece, close, but not quite. My "issues" with the game, two major and most relevant ones at least are; - There are no clear or seamless, certainly not intuitive way of handling the player's progression level-wise, e.g. one area brings a new challenge, and challenging in the right way, a step-up bringing new rewards and experience, but then the next group you come across, venturing deeper, suddenly you're faced with an enemy that wipes the soil with you and your companions or outright "one-shots" you the instant you enter combat. - Questlines sometimes far too vague and too troublesome for most to bother undertaking or even feel compelled to pursue, sometimes failing to offer enough a reward, lore-wise or loot-wise. Stories and progression, quest progression, that is can be most immersive, but personally I don't feel compelled to pursue a vast majority of those Quests, and they feel like an anime "filler" episode, which isn't in of itself "bad", but when you're spending that much time just running around back and forth, time you could've enjoyed with a dialgue, combat or story development . . . suffice to say, time you spend pursuing a Quest and unveiling a mystery, there's too much running involving for my liking, but again, it's subjective.
