BEST EXPANSION 2023
CYBERPUNK 2077: PHANTOM LIBERTY
Fraser Brown: CDPR will probably never be able to escape the stink of Cyberpunk 2077’s botched launch, but what a way to end things. Phantom Liberty’s new district, Dogtown, and its cast of CIA analogues, militants and ne’er-do-wells allowed the game to go out on a high note, with a gripping yarn balanced between a slow-burning thriller and a balls-to-the-wall action movie. You get to meet the NUSA president, and much more importantly: Idris Elba.
The devs smartly weave this expansion into the base game rather than sticking it on at the end or making it a standalone romp, allowing it to elevate the rest of Cyberpunk 2077, a game that is lightyears ahead of the launch version thanks to the accompanying (and free) 2.0 update. Proper police chases, a progression system that doles out exciting abilities regularly, an overhauled cybernetics system – this is Cyberpunk 2077’s potential realised.
Ted Litchfield: Despite everything, I loved Cyberpunk 2077 right from its legendarily botched launch – it was an engrossing, distinctive RPG with winning characters, more than a few bugs, and some gear and ability design that absolutely stuck in my craw. Even with my firm affection for 2077, I knew it felt incomplete. I found myself dreaming of overhaul updates and a Cyberpunk version of The Witcher 3’s excellent Hearts of Stone. Nearly three years later, we finally have both. Phantom Liberty is one of the best individual stories CDPR has told to date, while the 2.0 update fixed every one of those RPG balance gripes that dogged the game. I no longer have to qualify my recommendation of Cyberpunk 2077 – it’s simply one of the best RPGs out there, and it feels great that the expansion to an initially disastrous RPG managed to stand tall in a legendary year for the genre.
Tyler Colp: Phantom Liberty earns the confidence that Cyberpunk 2077 failed to when it launched. CDPR spent a long time refining how to tell a story in this world and it shows. Phantom Liberty has a firm grasp on the sort of bold storytelling that made the Witcher 3 great, wielding both the technical artistry of the world and the team’s strong writing to centre its broken cast of characters. It’s refreshing and mature in a way I never expected this game to pull off and it has me excited to see more.
BEST ONGOING GAME 2023
WARHAMMER 40,000: DARKTIDE
Robert Jones: Even knowing Fatshark’s heritage in needing to seriously keep developing its games after release, I was still absolutely mad as hell when Warhammer 40,000: Darktide launched. The game was not only so janky and broken that, one time, it took me seven crashes with restarts to finish a single run, but it also shipped with key chunks of the game missing. It wasn’t just me who was spitting with rage, either, with thousands of reviews on Steam at launch leading to the game getting a ‘Mostly Negative’ badge of shame.
Despite this, though, I could see the potential for the game and noted that at the time. When it worked I had a blast. A year later and , while still recognisably the same game, has gone through a vast amount update patches that have brought the game to the level it should of been at launch. And crucially, despite a rocky first year, the game and community still very much feel alive, and now leading to a ‘Very Postitive’ badge of honour.
