Your early December gaming roundup [5th Dec 2023]

A little GTA, a little Lethal Company, a little Cyberpunk, a few upcoming releases and one tired gamer.

A leaky leak leads to an early GTA 6 trailer

Which is honestly disappointing - I can’t imagine how frustrating it must be to have spent months leading up to the reveal of one of the most hotly anticipated games of the decade, just to have the moment ruined by leaks and previews ahead of the official drop. The leak first appeared on Twitter/X, a few copium addicts assumed it had to be a ‘Fake CGI’ trailer, but the twitter account was suspended and Rockstar shortly after posted a tweet confirming the leak and pointing people to the newly uploaded official source on their YouTube.

Leaks fucking suck, let’s be honest here. They benefit nobody other than potentially the first person to access the information and post it for clout, but even then the data/media is downloaded and uploaded so quickly by other accounts these days that any clout gained there is minimal at best unless you’re somehow able to leak things frequently, and even then your account on any large social media site where you could capitalise on said clout is more than likely to be suspended. So I can only assume the true benefit is in the anarchistic ‘fuck you’ middle finger to the gaming industry that leaking something like this gives. It isn’t much really, but it’s enough to satisfy some people with a grudge (and there is plenty to begrudge the gaming industry for, plenty of greed and terrible profit motivated decision making) but it truly harms those on the ground floor who are passionate and excited about their work. And I hate to see that.

Anyway, the trailer itself, while only a snippet of what we can expect from a full reveal, is enough to whet the appetite that’s for sure. A pink-y yellow ombre of sunset promises, the trailer really does evoke those feelings of eternal youth on a summer night where the air is warm, the cicadas are chirping, you’ve got nothing to lose and all you want to do is find yourself. Even if that involves some light robbery.

Not speaking from experience, of course.

Hopefully we see something close to gameplay soon, and I’ve already waxed lyrical about this previously, but if the sheer detail in RDR2 is anything to go by, this game will be an excellent distraction just for walking around and looking at everything. I remember playing GTA V for the first time and just being enthralled by the NPC lines as I walked down a road, the interactions between myself and the environment, all of that kept me coming back. It’s an art, creating an environment that immersive. Maybe we’ll see on Thursday! Maybe we’ll be kept waiting, and possibly for a long time, since it isn’t due to release until… 2025. Well, we’ve waited ten years, whats another couple?

I tried Lethal Company!

It elicited from me a scream I’d be proud to put in my voice reel.

Let’s rewind though, since it’s a brand new offering that you might not have heard of yet, despite the way it has flown to the top of the download charts. It’s a 4 player co-operative survival horror, sort of rogue-lite in the way you’re sent out on missions to retrieve tech and goods from mysteriously large factory warehouses situated on different planets. The catch is of course that you aren’t alone, most of these factories are host to all manner of bizzare creatures and not all of them are out to get you! It feels very SCP-Phasmophobia crossover, in a good way. All the jank of early phasmophobia, put together in a coherent way with the ‘huuuuuh???’ of SCP weirdness, and surprisingly the game is SUPER easy to mod. Like I’m fairly mod-resistant because I’m lazy and happy to settle with whatever the game gives me, but this was just a case of downloading a few files and dragging them into a folder, voila, done, suddenly you can boost the lobby size from the default 4 up to 40 if you want, plus a few other additions and changes. The mods worked seamlessly too, no faffing around trying to join up with friends and get into a lobby to play together, something even unmodded multiplayer games seem to struggle with often.

It was a good laugh, I can’t see it being a mainstay game by any means, nor can I see it having quite the longevity of say, Among Us, but for the price (£8.50) it’s worth a gander if you have some pals and don’t mind annoying your neighbours with screams of terror.

The Game Awards!

They haven’t happened yet, just a reminder they will be happening this Thursday, 7th December over on The Game Awards Twitch channel. I’ll also be co-streaming and reacting to the awards and trailers so feel free to hop on by my channel and order a pizza for the night as we watch Geoff Keighley’s yearly roundup.

Final update for Cyberpunk is revealed

CD Projekt have revealed to IGN that the next Cyberpunk update, 2.1, will be the final major update for the game as resources are diverted to two major projects in the pipeline; Cybperunk’s sequel, and a brand new Witcher title.

Cyberpunk had a troubled release a few years back, the game didn’t quite hit the scale fans had been lead to expect, and many details and mechanics had seemingly been left by the wayside despite the games double delay from the initial planned release date. Not only that, the game struggled to operate to its full potential on even the most recent consoles, and PC players had significant trouble playing even with fairly modern rigs. If you could actually play the game without significant issues, there were reportedly many bugs that made the whole thing feel like a hassle, missions wouldn’t start or finish, graphics wouldn’t load etc etc. I say this with a third person perspective because frankly, I played Cyberpunk 2077 on release and I had only one bug that caused me grief, other than that my experience was pretty damn smooth and I thoroughly enjoyed the game and the world building, even if it was supposedly a shadow of what it was touted to be.

The Phantom Liberty DLC (a title has officially made its way into my book of ‘combinations of words that lose all nuanced meaning and just become ‘A Title’’) really turned things around. It wasn’t just a DLC, it changed the entire base game and made the whole thing much more in line with how people had hoped it would be on initial release.

The 2.1 patch will release today, December 5th, and will come with a number of pretty huge additions, like an actually functioning metro system, which sounds pretty sweet.

There was a full live-stream on the CD PROJEKT RED twitch channel showcasing the update, you can find the VOD here: https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1992109701

Upcoming releases:

Haven’t done this in a while, so here’s a list of some games that are due to release this month:

AVATAR: FRONTIERS OF PANDORA | 7th Dec | PS5/Xbox/PC |

Described on Google to be simultaneously an ‘Action-Adventure’, ‘Shooter’ AND ‘Walking simulator’, who knows. Developed by Ubisoft, you can see the trailer here and it certainly looks pretty.

WARHAMMER 40K: Rogue Trader | 7th Dec | PS5/Xbox/PC/Mac |

Another offering in the WH40k franchise (my god WH fans you are eating well), this one is another tactical turn based RPG.

THE OUTER WILDS: ARCHEOLOGIST EDITION | 7th Dec | Switch |

Look, I know I didn’t finish this game and that’s criminal, but if you haven’t played it yet, here’s a good chance! It’s a perfect Switch game if you like mysteries, exploration and most importantly, spaaaaaaaaaaaaaaace. The archeologist edition includes the DLC.

RESIDENT EVIL 4: VR MODE | 8th Dec |

For if you’re a masochist, I suppose.

BALDURS GATE 3 | ??? | Xbox |

Supposedly the inevitable GOTY award-sweeper will be coming to Xbox at some point this month, though no date has been definitively set.

And finally! I’m terrible about reading comments until the week after I’ve posted a substack, but I shall try and respond in a timely manner this week. Hit me with your thoughts and feelings. If you’ve enjoyed reading please feel free to subscribe, I do these little roundups weekly!