I played through when it first came out, or a couple defect releases shortly after that - pre-ordered my copy and played on XBX. I know this game got a ton of hate, and it was deserved - the company released an unfinished game on consoles not powerful enough to support it - but I still love this game. I had the Cyberpunk 2020 rulebook in the 90's, the ancient RPG on which it was based. Seeing such a great implementation of that world, and add to that the vast quantities of Keano Reeves and the plot depth of a narcissist having to learn how to be a better person by sharing the head of another human being, and this was always going to be a winner with me, bugs or not.

Having watched the extremely cool Netrunners, I have the itch to return to Night City. See it if you can, but be warned it's brutal. I'll hold off my replay until the DLC is released, then play again from scratch (probably creating the exact same character all over again, and using the exact same guns). I'm hoping other gamers forgive CD Projekt Red for this, because I want, no, I need a proper sequel. Leaving my character stuck in cyberspace with Johnny Silverhand cruising around in my body is no ending (okay, it's a very noir cyberpunk ending, but still). Sure, there's no end of things they could have done better - but there's also so much they did right. Hopefully they learned some lessons so the sequel won't disappoint.

I've been a gamer for most of my life, from arcade machines when I had to stand on a box to play, to a Spectrum 48K in 1981 through my Commodore Amiga and every XBOX, PlayStation, and now top end graphics PCs with VR.

In 2014, a close friend of mine died, and I disappeared into Destiny rather than deal with the grief. It wasn't the only thing that traumatised me - but it was what pushed me beyond my ability to cope. I was playing obsessively - more hours than sleep or work - and my life was falling apart. This would be considered "gaming addiction". The reality though is it was a desperate attempt to escape from my own life. I used games to avoid feelings I could not process, taking the edge off when I couldn't cope.

Since then, I've had a lot of therapy. I'm lucky enough to be able to afford it. I still play a lot of games, but not obsessively. If I didn't have games, I'd find something else for sure. Games never gave me withdrawal. They can be incredibly cheap - 2nd hand consoles and games, humble bundles, using a work computer for steam games could keep you busy on some of the best games ever written. Games don't wreck your health or life like drugs, gambling, sex addiction, self harm or much else I can think of that people do to escape. I'm deeply thankful I got into gaming. I wish I didn't have the traumas that push me to escape from reality, and I'm working very hard to process them, but when I lacked the help and tools, gaming got me through.

Without the escape gaming gave me, I'd have been in much worse shape. If you are comparing what my life is now, with some problems from lack of attention in education and work due to time spent playing games, to some sort of "always on" psychologically healthy person who used all that time to improve themselves and follow a career, you might think games have harmed me. This is deeply stupid. My life without gaming would be like that of many others who failed to cope with trauma. If I'd had no escapes at all, no "addiction", I'd probably not be here at all.

"Gaming Disorder" is treating a symptom rather than treating the problem. Mental health support is dire in most of the world, yet the press obsess over stuff like this that's a distraction at best.

@ezio899: I'm mostly with you - I don't think they could use Merrin as a MC for many reasons and at this point I'm at least a little invested in Cal. I also think it's fair that Merrin had an interesting background, and a whole new set of force-lore not connected to the light/dark duality that defines Jedi and Sith. Cal was I think designed to be an everyman, which makes him hard to hate, but also leaves him feeling a bit bland. I got more emotions from BD-1.

@fursecu: The thing I remember from the first one is that Jedi really really love slides. They won't walk or drive anywhere when they can slide there instead. Any planet with natural slides (ice banks, moss-covered logs, muddy hills and valleys) is like catnip to Jedi and they'll leave all sorts of Jedi artefacts lying around.

If someone invents the skateboard in this universe, the Jedi order will become extinct overnight.

The Little Rocket Man achievement was hard not just for the reasons given, but also because it acted as a catapult if you walk over it. Drop it while running forward while indoors, you die smashing into the ceiling. Drop it while running outdoors, and you are hurled so high, you can see the entire map below you. A little square, that grows big again remarkably quickly before you die smashing into the ground.

Most of the time you want to drop the thing in a hurry and switch to a weapon, you're running forward. Still, only one of these I got. I do like to find achievements with less than 1% completion on XBL; a 10 point 0.003% achievement is worth more to me than a 200 point "complete game on Hard difficulty". I guess I'm a gaming hipster.

@pmanden: I wanted it, bought it, played it and now I'm waiting to see how much better they can make it before I play it through again. All the bugs are real, but I still loved that game. Corpo greed outvoting artistic integrity should be punished, but there's still a great game in there, like Bioware making a GTA title with Keano Reeves. That should be rewarded.

Besides, if you don't all go buy it, my chances of a cool sequel drop. And that's not acceptable.

@zod15god: There's rumours S2 raising of the shield hero is now 2022, so yeah, jobless reincarnation it is. I'm waiting to hear about Bleach, which I think is going to be one of the few remaining gaps in the Crunchyroll lineup.

@Musicsvictim: Came here to say Haikyu, happy to see you have it covered.

It's difficult to recommend stuff (to Mat - not you, Musicsvictim, although I'm sure you have great taste because one-punch and mob) because the article really doesn't give me much of a clue what you're into. Not too horny? Okay, but there's shows with some fan-service that are otherwise strong, and then there's stuff like "Free!" that's not technically sexual, but...

I'd suggest from the following, depending on what sounds interesting to you:
* Aldnoah Zero (top-class mech battle anime, two short series),
* Shadows House (not yet complete, but great concept-show),
* Another (one series, tribute to some great old horror films like The Omen in here).
* Full Metal Alchemist Brotherhood (traditional fantasy quest-style show)

If you're interested in Isekai (e.g. "person from modern world/Japan transplanted into Fantasy world) there's a ton of dross, but if you can bear some fanservice in there
* "That Time I Was Reincarnated As A Slime" is fun, light-hearted but still watchable
* "Re:Zero" has a good grasp of the protagonists psychology, but gets complicated

@kariyanine@kastirCool. As specified, I've not played a Forza before, so the intro/outro were new to me.

But the main question, if they've "sold out" - there's a link "See all 53 player reviews". I wanted to read them, see if other people had any comments on things like the steering sensitivity, or perhaps some things that I haven't reached yet that would make it worth investing more time in the game. But click it, and it shows me two 10/10 reviews only, nothing more. Can you tell me how to view any of the other 51 reviews? Reviews are the main reason I come here, both the featured and community perspectives.

I'm a little worried by the reviews on this. Notably, I don't seem to be able to read anything but the most glowing reviews Gamespot received. There's 7 people rated this 1 star. I'd like to hear what they wrote, but I can't seem to find the link. Is Gamespot taking money for this?

Played it for a while, feeling very Meh. Don't get me wrong, it has plus points. Jez C introductions is a brilliant addition. It is absolutely beautiful to look at, some nice features (I've not played a racing game in a while, since early Gran Tourismo/Project Gotham days, so instant rewind to correct mistakes is new to me) but there's also a lot wrong with it. To be honest, it doesn't feel finished. There are no config options to set controller sensitivity, or anything else for that matter - so if you don't own a steering wheel, you're never going to recover a skid as the wheel turns way too slowly. No way to skip the excessively padded out intros and extros to each race. Yes, I know I scratched up my left side in the race. I do that practically every race. It's not like this is my actual car, though, where I would want to spend a minute and a half looking over the damage and mentally calculating what it'll cost me.

Has Gamespot sold out, do you think? Or am I reading too much into this?