Transcript

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello and welcome back to the Gaming Backlog Book Club. We are here to chat about the third segment of the Phantom Liberty expansion in Cyberpunk 2077. Up through the quest Birds with broken wings and still not starting Nocturne up 5 5N1.

Also, please join us on our Discord server, which you can find in our podcast description and episode notes and on our website, thegamingbacklogbookclub.com always happy to have new people in the conversation.

Now reminder, we do go into spoilers, so if you want to avoid that, start in a previous episode.

Alex, did you listen to any radio at all this time? I don’t know if you were in the car at all.

[00:00:39] Speaker B: No, I. I’ve.

[00:00:41] Speaker A: There’s a lot of running in. There’s a lot of running in Fandom Liberty because it’s just so compact and the streets are pretty muddled up. But there’s that one kind of ridgeline that’s up on a hill that I kind of summon the motorcycle for every once in a while. But I go motorcycle most of the time anyway.

[00:00:58] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, no, I mainly am just running, running, dashing and air dashing. Jumping and air dashing to get around quickly and sprint.

[00:01:06] Speaker A: Sprinting and sliding occasionally.

[00:01:08] Speaker B: Yeah, sprinting, sliding.

[00:01:09] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, that makes sense. Have you made any appearance changes?

[00:01:19] Speaker B: Not since the last time. And actually I need to. I still need to post that photo. So. No, I haven’t since the last episode we did. So Gotcha. I think that’s probably the appearance I’ll keep for the majority of the rest since I just got it towards the end of that episode like play section.

[00:01:36] Speaker A: So yeah, I’m still messing. I mean, I’ve been messing around pretty much every time I went to either the Mirror or Ripperdoc. I was just changing it up just for fun in all kinds of wild configurations. But I. For this one I switched back to a pretty normal hair color and a sort of slicked back haircut.

You know, knowing we were going to this high profile, high society party.

[00:02:02] Speaker B: Very nice.

[00:02:03] Speaker A: But yes, listeners, we also want to see on Discord what your V looks like now. Have you made any major body modifications since last time?

Anyway, so before we actually get started, after taking your tip from last time and visiting Anthony Anderson for some cyberware upgrades, I kind of swapped things out. I didn’t get the major discount that you were talking about cause I still had to pay for pretty much anything in there.

[00:02:29] Speaker B: Did you?

[00:02:29] Speaker A: Okay, maybe you just lucked out, I don’t know. Or maybe you paid for it and just didn’t realize.

[00:02:34] Speaker B: Have you done. But you did the. Yeah. So you did the.

[00:02:37] Speaker A: Yeah, I did the quest.

You know, free them out and all that. And even the priest said that, you know, maybe he’d give me a discount or something. But I guess.

[00:02:48] Speaker B: Okay, I’m gonna have to. I gotta. Like, now I’ve got more components. I get. I was actually gonna. I didn’t have time in this episode, but for the next section, I’m gonna go back to upgrade some stuff, so I’ll see. But, like, I was watching my money, like, when I left, and it just didn’t.

[00:03:02] Speaker A: Huh.

[00:03:02] Speaker B: I don’t know. Maybe it was a glitch.

[00:03:03] Speaker A: Maybe you got a lucky bug.

[00:03:04] Speaker B: Yeah, a very lucky bug. Yeah.

[00:03:08] Speaker A: All right, well, you know, after doing that, I. Did you do any side quests before or did you kind of just jump into it?

[00:03:16] Speaker B: No, I didn’t really do any side quests. This one. This was a kind of main mission focused session.

[00:03:23] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:03:23] Speaker B: So it wasn’t. I did a couple extra things other than side missions. Like, they weren’t side missions. They were.

[00:03:31] Speaker A: Yeah, you were mentioning that offline you found some, like, bases or something.

[00:03:38] Speaker B: Yeah, I found.

Yeah, I guess they’re.

They’re like hideouts or bases, like the gang hideouts or bases for.

There’s three.

[00:03:48] Speaker A: Like, Like a stronghold. And like.

[00:03:50] Speaker B: Yeah, like.

Yeah, that’s a good. Yeah. Stronghold.

Where on the map, it shows up as, like, three skulls.

And I have cleared them. If you. You go through and you can clear them out, like, of all the people.

And at the end, there’s usually like a.

Like a boss, you know, with, like, the meter. With, like, how much life they have left or whatever the percentage of damage they take and you get. Like, if you beat them, like a. Like a card to. Or access to their cash.

To. As in cash. As in like a weapons cache. And there’s also cash cache.

[00:04:28] Speaker A: So you mentioned Eddie’s cache. Yeah, yeah, you mentioned this. And I have no idea what you’re talking about because I have not seen any triple skull icon on my map. And it’s probably just because I haven’t gotten close enough to one and just didn’t realize it existed.

[00:04:45] Speaker B: So one was the first one I did, which again, there’s. I just did one for the Voodoo Boys. One for.

There’s one for the Voodoo Boys. There’s one for.

I’m assuming, Bar Grace. Barghest. Barghest.

[00:05:00] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:05:01] Speaker B: And then I don’t remember who the third was. I don’t know if they’re called the scavengers or the rats or I forgot what.

But one was like right as we exited the safe house originally, like in the.

A couple episodes ago, it was to like the right. I ran to the right and I saw like a whole.

There was a whole bunch of people like standing around and then it kind of told me that this is like a high.

Whatever.

Yeah. High presence area. And then when you look at the map, it was like one of those strongholds and I went through it and took one out.

[00:05:38] Speaker A: It was like. Wait, was it a skyscraper of some sort?

[00:05:40] Speaker B: No, it wasn’t a skyscraper. No, this one went underground and there was like a couple tunnels I went through.

[00:05:46] Speaker A: I am clueless in what you’re saying, so I’m going to go look for those.

[00:05:49] Speaker B: So I think there’s three of them total.

But yeah, I’ve done two of them.

[00:05:55] Speaker A: Major rewards to be found. So that’s.

[00:05:57] Speaker B: Yeah, there, there are. You can get a lot of components out of them because obviously other than just in the.

[00:06:01] Speaker A: The cash, there’s a. Components. You need components to upgrade everything.

[00:06:05] Speaker B: Yeah, there’s. I mean a whole bunch of boxes and other stuff around and then you can collect off all the people and everything. So. Yeah, I just.

And I can’t remember if they all have just like a high tier 5 plus weapon or I can’t remember if they’re iconic like as well in the Cat in like their weapons cache that they have.

I don’t think so. But yeah, it was. It’s. It’s worth doing because you can get a lot of components off of it and. Right. Yeah.

All right.

[00:06:37] Speaker A: All right, I’m going to check it out. Thanks for the tip.

[00:06:39] Speaker B: Yeah, no, definitely. Yeah.

[00:06:41] Speaker A: So, yeah, I guess it kind of going into the actual meat of this thing.

You go and start Heist V2 by diving through the flooded tunnels, which was cool looking but very uneventful and didn’t really have great gameplay, if I’m honest.

It was really just push forward, angle the joystick occasionally and disarm a mine occasionally.

Yes, that’s like, you know, it’s almost.

It’s a slightly more active version of the hey, go through this slight crack in the wall so you can. We can load up the next screen.

Obviously this isn’t disguising so much as all of those screens are, but in other games, but it’s still really just push forward.

But the scuba suit is awesome and makes you feel like a covert operative for sure. So I’ll deal with the boring gameplay in exchange for it.

[00:07:36] Speaker B: Yeah, no, yeah, the scuba suit was really cool. Yeah, I’d enjoy it. I mean they try and make it a little more.

I don’t know what.

Not hot, not hard, but like a little, A little more stealthy. As in like you have like the minds there that you can.

[00:07:51] Speaker A: Yeah.

[00:07:52] Speaker B: Like. Or put in a friendly mode or disarm or.

[00:07:55] Speaker A: Right.

[00:07:55] Speaker B: Like more obstacles for you.

[00:07:57] Speaker A: They put some obstacles in there. It’s still like somewhat like it fits the lore of the moment that you’re playing through.

[00:08:05] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:08:06] Speaker A: And it, it’s better to. It’s okay. I guess it’s. It’s better to go through that sequence and like be immersed in that sense because this is an rpg. Again, you know, you’re role playing as someone that’s doing this heist and you scuba dive through. So I can accept that. And it’s better to do that than have them, you know, cut to a loading screen and oh, now you’re inside the location.

[00:08:30] Speaker B: Yes, true.

[00:08:31] Speaker A: I’ll take that.

[00:08:32] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:08:32] Speaker A: But it’s still kind of lazy in the actual gameplay.

But again in such a high paced, fast paced gameplay structure as cyberpunk, you know, occasional slow moment of non combat is fine.

But yeah, I will say as you enter into kind of the. Whatever back rooms of this area are using Alex’s Her Majesty silenced pistol was fun. You know, a very high powered one at that.

Definitely just the trick for this kind of secret agent infiltration mission.

[00:09:08] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s now my new pistol.

[00:09:10] Speaker A: Yeah, I really like it and I’ve been trying. You know what the thing is, I’ve really been trying just for immersion I guess immersion or role playing perspective to be a katana and revolver character.

And then they give you all these really cool pistols. Sometimes almost immediately after I find a cool revolver. So yeah, Her Majesty is. Is great.

[00:09:32] Speaker B: Yeah. I’ve put a scope on it that I like. So have I. Yeah, I like, I like that pistol. Not everybody. You can. The majority. The good amount of enemies you can. One shot.

[00:09:43] Speaker A: Yeah. I think that that probably depends largely on your perks and on the.

[00:09:47] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:09:48] Speaker A: What points you have and all that stuff. But it is powerful.

[00:09:51] Speaker B: Yeah. It’s fun.

[00:09:52] Speaker A: And I. Silent doesn’t hurt with.

[00:09:54] Speaker B: Yeah. And with me also I have a. Is it quick draw draw or whatever. So when I aim down sight it slows time.

[00:10:01] Speaker A: What?

[00:10:01] Speaker B: Oh, it’s one of the perks in. I think.

[00:10:04] Speaker A: Is it on. Is it on a left side branch of tree of cool?

[00:10:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:10:09] Speaker A: Okay. You know what? See that’s the thing I had put so Many points into reflexes, blades. And then into the cool throwing knives. And I think the middle tier of cool as well, which I don’t remember what that does. That I didn’t ever go into the left side because I was more blade focused than pistol focused. But now I think that you mentioned that I need to go in that left side as well.

[00:10:32] Speaker B: Yeah. So I have that. So, like, I can, like, jump. I’ll, like, jump up in the air and I’ll, like, aim down. It’ll slow down the zoom on an enemy, and I can just. While I’m moving them. It’s actually really fun. That’s pretty sweet. All right.

[00:10:44] Speaker A: There’s just so many various ways to approach things. I love it. They, you know, and nothing’s been said about that.

[00:10:55] Speaker B: Oh, yeah.

[00:10:57] Speaker A: And then. So you get through, like, a handful of rooms. Right. And then you get to play this segment where you take out a sniper with his sick tech sniper rifle and then man his post so that you can alert and defend Reed as he makes his way across a long stretch corridor across the way from you.

And it feels a lot to me like a level out of Hitman or. I think you’ve played one of these, but I haven’t from the Sniper Elite series.

[00:11:24] Speaker B: But yeah. Yeah, those games are. Yeah, those games are fun.

[00:11:27] Speaker A: So it’s like, sort of similar to that. You, you’re providing kind of overwatch for, For Reed as he makes his way across.

I don’t know about you, but for me, he got about halfway across the hallway, and then even though he was behind cover, he was spotted by the guards coming out of an elevator.

[00:11:43] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, Same with me.

[00:11:45] Speaker A: I, I, I, you know, it’s like, I don’t know if that’s a bug.

[00:11:50] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:11:50] Speaker A: Or what. But he seemed to be behind cover, if you asked me. And I alerted them, too. And, and, but I didn’t feel like retrying it again to just be stealthy the whole way because it wasn’t even my fault. So I just sniped them all the same.

[00:12:03] Speaker B: That the exact same thing happened to me.

[00:12:06] Speaker A: Yeah. Yeah. Kind of annoying. You’re, you’re.

[00:12:09] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:12:09] Speaker A: And you get scolded for it, too. But hey, whatever.

[00:12:12] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:12:12] Speaker A: If you can’t keep your prosthetics. If you can.

[00:12:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Basically like it didn’t go to plan or. Yeah, you can’t.

[00:12:17] Speaker A: If you can’t hold your side of the bargain, Reed, I’m not going to bail you out.

[00:12:20] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:12:22] Speaker A: And then you get to change into a snazzy suit and walk into the party?

[00:12:25] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:12:26] Speaker A: I was in a suit, actually. What were your.

[00:12:28] Speaker B: I was in a. I was in a very nice dress.

[00:12:31] Speaker A: Okay.

[00:12:31] Speaker B: All right.

[00:12:35] Speaker A: I don’t. Did you go explore this party at all?

[00:12:38] Speaker B: Yes, I did. I’m. Yeah, well, that’s. Yeah, that’s just my thing on any of these games.

[00:12:43] Speaker A: I just.

[00:12:44] Speaker B: Someone’s like, come find me. It’s like, okay, well, give me.

[00:12:46] Speaker A: Like, I’m gonna do everything I can, except for. Until that’s the only option.

[00:12:51] Speaker B: I’ll find you soon.

Yeah.

[00:12:53] Speaker A: Yeah. Well, so, you know, listening in on all those random conversations gets you kind of the lay of the land of who’s who and what they’re doing there. And, you know, Kurt Hansen looks like a creep over in the corner that’s heavily guarded.

[00:13:07] Speaker B: Yeah, Kurt Hansen looks like a villain out of, like, a Guy Ritchie film.

[00:13:10] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, totally. Like a lock stock or the classics. Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

[00:13:20] Speaker B: Just wouldn’t have been great if he had, like that, like, Ray Winston, like, English.

That would be awesome.

[00:13:29] Speaker A: I also ran into Michael, who was sitting on a bench there with two guards in front of her who would not say a word to me. Like, she didn’t even look, didn’t anything.

That must be because I knocked her out in the. You know, that mission with Judy.

[00:13:45] Speaker B: Oh, I don’t remember if I ran into her. Did I run into her? I ran into the mayor.

[00:13:51] Speaker A: Well, I don’t think I talked to the mayor. I talked to a newscaster who was very flirty.

[00:13:59] Speaker B: I talked to the mayor. I talked to. There was one guy upstairs who, like, I was able to talk to who I. Well, a couple people upstairs. The first one I talked to, I didn’t even know who he was. But my character says, like, hey. And I was like, I don’t know who he was. I couldn’t remember, but maybe someone off the TV or whatever. It’s in there. And then. Yeah, then there was a newscaster, and there was like a. I think a newscaster and another guy who were talking. And you could talk to them and

[00:14:27] Speaker A: you can get a drink at the bar.

And then there’s also the waitresses walking around with glasses of champagne.

Yeah, one of them is, like, fully full skin, gold plating, which, you know, reminds you of Goldfinger a little bit.

[00:14:45] Speaker B: Oh, I found Hands.

[00:14:48] Speaker A: Oh, Mr. Hands was there. I didn’t see that.

[00:14:50] Speaker B: Mr. Hands was upstairs on a table.

On the table was a gun and a whole bunch of cash. And he was talking, and he’s basically like, we shouldn’t be talking to each other.

[00:14:59] Speaker A: I Was like, okay, okay, smart. Yeah, he knows what’s up.

[00:15:04] Speaker B: And then at the end of it, I saw Lizzy Wizzy.

[00:15:07] Speaker A: Yeah. After the bit with the twins, I ran into Lizzy Wizzy who was not

[00:15:12] Speaker B: very happy with me.

[00:15:13] Speaker A: Really? Why not?

[00:15:15] Speaker B: Because of the mission I had done for her.

[00:15:17] Speaker A: Oh, I have not done the mission for her. Is that. Oh, is that in Phantom Liberty or in the base game?

[00:15:22] Speaker B: No, it’s in the base game.

[00:15:25] Speaker A: Well, you’ll have to fill me in on that. She wasn’t happy with you, huh?

[00:15:28] Speaker B: Well, yeah, she wasn’t happy with how there’s multiple ways to end that. So how I ended it.

[00:15:34] Speaker A: All right. Was that a quest that you’d say is worth doing?

[00:15:37] Speaker B: Yeah, it was pretty fun. Yeah, it was. Yeah.

[00:15:39] Speaker A: Okay, I’ll look out for that one. Yeah, she. I think she just didn’t know who I was like.

[00:15:43] Speaker B: I think it randomly popped for me because it was just like a text message, random or something she sent or called me.

[00:15:49] Speaker A: Okay, all right, cool.

And then, you know, when you finally walk up to read at the bar, he’s dressed to the nines too. You just chit chat for a sec. Not really much to talk about.

There were a few options of what to do though, but I chose I’ll look for Songbird.

Not sure which of his text options there were for you, but basically within seconds.

[00:16:15] Speaker B: Go ahead. I think I did. I’ll look for Songbird as well.

[00:16:19] Speaker A: I’m assuming all the options end up with the same result at some point, but within seconds for me. She sent me a text to find her on the mezzanine level.

[00:16:27] Speaker B: Yep.

[00:16:27] Speaker A: And, you know, there she is in the flesh and kind of very much trying to catch attention because she’s got this kind of dazzling, literal bird inspired dress with very bright colors.

You know, I’ll be honest, even though I had to assume this wasn’t the case since she worked with Reid and Alice and the President already, I did start to wonder before if she was actually a real person or just a construct from behind the black wall who was influencing everyone.

[00:16:57] Speaker B: Same.

[00:16:57] Speaker A: You know, in hindsight, it doesn’t make much sense because she did supposedly work with them, but maybe everyone was just lying to me.

But no, she’s real. She’s there.

But anyway, she was certainly one of the most flashy people in this party, except for the chromed out people. She also is pretty chromed out, at least on her back. Shoulder blades and back of her head are just machinery.

[00:17:23] Speaker B: Yes, I did notice that.

[00:17:24] Speaker A: Yeah, that was a little odd.

Not Unheard of around here. But, you know, she didn’t go full maelstrom or anything because she’s a netrunner. Yeah, probably not. Yeah, yeah, that makes sense.

And then the conversation took a turn when Reid shows up.

She then tells you she’s dying and can’t leave, revealing that she’s hiding things like everyone in this almost noir style suspense thriller of a movie we’re living out.

And then the man Hansen himself shows up, acting like only a person. Like he can, with suffocating arrogance and superiority. What a tool.

[00:18:08] Speaker B: Yeah. Yes, he is.

[00:18:10] Speaker A: You know, there are some hints at it, but I hope we get to take him out or ruin him with embarrassment or something at the end of this thing, because I hope so.

Despicable.

So MI then tasks us with personally hijacking two netrunners and meeting with Hanson in disguise, all to allow the clipping of what will supposedly help both ourself and now Songbird to survive our ordeals.

You know, gotta hope she’s being honest about that. But it sounds like this kind of, what’s it called, Neural matrix is going to help out.

[00:18:46] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:18:47] Speaker A: After this conversation, it just. They walk away and you get to stand there on the balcony. Did you watch the Lizzy Wizzy concert?

[00:18:53] Speaker B: Yes, I did. Oh, that was Lizzy Wizzy. Okay, I. So I saw a photo you sent. I watched it from there on the balcony.

[00:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah, I watched it. Looks like you went.

[00:19:03] Speaker B: Oh, I thought you went down low.

[00:19:04] Speaker A: Okay, I. I did. And then I was like, this might be even cooler up close until I walked down. So.

[00:19:09] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, no, I watched it from the.

[00:19:12] Speaker A: You know, the wing intro was cool and there was like a weird nebula thing.

[00:19:16] Speaker B: That makes sense now why Lizzy Wizzy is in there after. Okay.

[00:19:19] Speaker A: Yes. Right.

[00:19:20] Speaker B: Okay.

[00:19:22] Speaker A: And you know. Yeah, she’s like that weird, chromed out celebrity electronic music singer. Even though she’s kind of looks like that and not a leathery alien opera singer. The moment gave me some light comparison points to the opera on Floss in Paradise in the Fifth Element.

So there’s some parallel there, intentional or not.

Yeah, but she was surprisingly friendly to me when I talked to her. I just kind of approached it like I was a fan or something.

Well, yeah, let’s see what happens. We’ll see what happens.

After this conversation. You talk with Reid again. He instantly clocked Songbird and realized she was responsible for the Space Force One crash and is trying to toe the line between all parties to get what she needs instead of choosing Elaine.

He did say he wasn’t sure what his long term goal was quite yet, until he has more info. But he did at least confirm for me that we should get her out of there so we can break things down further and make the correct, more educated decision.

Which is a sentiment I had already kind of decided on myself, and I felt it was a good enough plan. Why not?

Also, I don’t think we have much choice because it seems to be where the story is taking us.

[00:20:32] Speaker B: Yes.

Yeah.

[00:20:36] Speaker A: At this point, the Heist 2.0 turns into casino Royale.

[00:20:40] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:20:41] Speaker A: Which is amazing.

Hopefully there’s something. I mean, probably not, but hopefully there’s something similar to that in 007 first light.

But we’ll see. We’ll see.

As you approach the twin netrunners playing roulette, pretending we didn’t know Solomon, just like Bond and Felix didn’t know each other, and just kind of scanning and studying them while playing a few rounds. Like, I was sure hoping that Le Chiffre didn’t come for us though.

But you know, considering he’s a friend of Kojima and Kojima is in this game, you never know.

Yeah, it didn’t happen.

Maybe later.

From this point, Solomon goes MIA Just when you need him to help scan the twins, Auror and Emerick, who do this kind of weird good cop, bad cop kind of thing with their very opposite personalities.

Did you win the final all in bet?

[00:21:43] Speaker B: I did.

[00:21:44] Speaker A: Are you lucky? Did you get to keep the money?

[00:21:47] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. So I. Yeah, because was it you have to take out like 80,000 or something?

So I think I took out 80 or 90 and I ended up winning like 120, 130 in total because I want a few hands before that as well.

[00:22:01] Speaker A: Geez, yeah, maybe I should have reloaded a save just for the money.

[00:22:06] Speaker B: I was like, oh man, this helps.

[00:22:08] Speaker A: Because. Yeah, no, I lost. I basically, I was really trying to hone in on my conversation. So I just chose black, literally every bet.

And it served me pretty well until that point. And then I lost the final one, so.

[00:22:19] Speaker B: So I chose black on the final one and then they chose red and they’re like, yes, we would choose red. Like our hair. Like our luxurious hair.

[00:22:28] Speaker A: That was the comment. Yeah, they’re very cocky, but.

But kind of, you know, eccentric and, you know.

Yeah, that’s. That’s the personality.

Of course. Hanson shows up to rain on your parade and he has a bit of a proposition for you which boils down to, you gotta live, but let the President know Songbird’s on my team now and it’s by Choice. So just a double slab of betrayal there.

And in the conversation with Alex, while going to find Reed, neither option seemed to be a good one.

Um, but President Myers either needs to take the fall for breaking international laws on cyberspace governance, as she said, or be the catalyst for another war, which, yeah, isn’t great for anyone else.

You know, the greater good. The greater good likely says you gotta sacrifice the President’s reputation, but I don’t know if we have a choice in that. I think we’re really just on our own little small mission here.

[00:23:34] Speaker B: Yeah, I think so.

[00:23:36] Speaker A: And then, yeah, you kind of, you. You go and get. Reed has been smacked around a little bit. Everyone hates you because, you know, we killed all of their guards on the way in. If you full stealth your way in, I. Maybe they don’t threaten you as much, but I’m curious if they’re gonna come first at some point.

[00:23:51] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. Did you? Yeah. Cause on the way out, there’s, there’s like a thing.

You get into that conversation or confrontation with that guy, and I don’t know if it can escalate to you like, then having to fight.

[00:24:01] Speaker A: But I was able to fight your way out in that moment. No, I was like, I’m surro.

Um, so it’s probably not the best idea.

[00:24:09] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:24:09] Speaker A: To fight another day.

[00:24:10] Speaker B: I think it gave me for a second an option to draw a weapon and I was like, no, I’ll just do the talking rail.

[00:24:15] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, smart.

And then you go, you. You walk out, you leave, you go through the. The doors and you’re home free. And then our favorite thing ever happens.

Another 24 hour wait time.

[00:24:32] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:24:32] Speaker A: Wait for me, for Reid and Alex to figure out the next move. Lovely.

Now, mind you, I do appreciate that the devs are giving you a breather and a moment to go and explore, do side quests or just meander around town. But it isn’t ideal when we’re on a schedule for this podcast.

[00:24:49] Speaker B: No, no, I know.

[00:24:50] Speaker A: If I was. If we were playing it on our own time. This is perfect because you go do as many side quests as you want. Exactly. Until you get it.

[00:24:56] Speaker B: But I do, I do appreciate that they do have that feature of being able to skip time.

[00:25:00] Speaker A: Yes. Right. So if it was a requirement to do side quests, that’s one thing, but sometimes you just want keep moving through the story.

[00:25:05] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:25:06] Speaker A: So skip time is valuable.

Fun fact is, since you haven’t played the Witcher 3, the skip time function in that is just called meditate.

So you get down on your knees in whatever field or swamp or whatever the hell you are and you just pass time like that.

[00:25:24] Speaker B: I didn’t meditate for hours.

[00:25:26] Speaker A: Pretty much just, you know, it could be a biting, freezing wasteland and you’re just meditating there and somehow don’t die. Okay, good for Geralt.

[00:25:35] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:25:37] Speaker A: But yes, you have the option to skip time. Did you do anything in particular to fill that time or did you just skip time in this moment?

[00:25:43] Speaker B: I think I, I think I just honestly, I don’t think I did any, I’m trying to think. I don’t honestly don’t think I did any side quests or gigs.

I think I was just running around, I ran around Dogtown a little bit. Oh, you know what I did? I did do, I did a car one just randomly for one of the Moon El Capitan. So I did one of the cars. I dropped that off. And then since I was outside Phantom Liberty or outside Dogtown.

[00:26:16] Speaker A: Oh yeah, I was just very quickly,

[00:26:19] Speaker B: I was literally by actually the last cyberpsycho that I had to kill.

[00:26:22] Speaker A: Wait, you finished all the Cyber Psychos?

[00:26:25] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn’t realize I was.

[00:26:26] Speaker A: That’s one of the things that I really want to finish off for sure. Cuz those have been fun, but I, I, I’m maybe got like six left.

[00:26:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I didn’t realize I only have one. I thought I still had like three left or whatever, but. And so, and this one was literally like not far at all. Like 100 meter less from where I dropped off the car.

So I just went to it and then it was really interesting and really cool. I will say this was probably one of the more interesting cyberpsychos.

[00:26:54] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, cool.

[00:26:56] Speaker B: And then I did that and then Regina called me and said, and I got like the trophy popped up on PlayStation for completing the cyberpsychos. And then Regina called and now she wants to talk, which I haven’t done that. But yeah, that was all. Then I just like went back into Dogtown.

[00:27:11] Speaker A: Oh, all right.

[00:27:12] Speaker B: Yeah, so. And then forwarded time until.

[00:27:16] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, okay, so you did, you did something with it. It wasn’t just a total. I, I have had a, in the past had a couple moments where I had to skip time just to make sure we could get everything done. But in this case, I played a quest called Dazed and Confused, which is a fantastic Led Zeppelin song and reminded me how long it had been since I had listened to them. So I rectified that mistake after that play session. Did you play this quest?

[00:27:43] Speaker B: Tell a Little bit about it.

[00:27:45] Speaker A: You have to go rescue someone named Lina Molina.

[00:27:48] Speaker B: Yes. Okay, I have done that one. I didn’t do that. Yes, I think I have done that.

[00:27:52] Speaker A: But yeah, she’s an aspiring braindance artist.

[00:27:56] Speaker B: Maybe I did do this one. This playthrough. I thought it was the last, but yeah, okay, I have done this one.

[00:27:59] Speaker A: Who’s been kidnapped. And then when you go to the spot, it’s actually someone that works at a BD cafe who’s brain was fried into thinking he was Lena.

[00:28:07] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah, yeah.

[00:28:08] Speaker A: And then you go and find Lena herself to give her the proposition of acting and what could possibly be her big break, because she’s aspiring. Right. She walks the walk and talks the talk, but doesn’t.

Doesn’t necessarily have it. What a quirky, weird side quest.

[00:28:25] Speaker B: It was. It was weird. It was pretty.

[00:28:28] Speaker A: What did you. How did you. How did you approach the.

The. What’s it called? I don’t know, the whole process. Like, once you’re. Once you find out that it’s not her, there’s a handful of options because there’s a note that. That you can find in the room next to Tool that. That basically, what’s it called says it. Basically, he’s just really depressed. And so living as Lena is a better experience for him, which is why he’s always in her, um, bds. But you can also go and talk to Lena herself.

[00:29:03] Speaker B: Yeah, I went and talked to Lena. I was able. I, like, said I was like an agent or whatever. Convinced her that we’re doing a TV show.

[00:29:10] Speaker A: Right.

[00:29:11] Speaker B: For her to come over and do it.

[00:29:13] Speaker A: Same.

[00:29:13] Speaker B: She came over. She. Yeah, I forgot how the conversation went about it. She agreed to do it.

Oh, I think. Cause it was like, oh, 20% of the profit. And like, you don’t get paid. Like, there’s no upfront payment, but you get 20%.

[00:29:26] Speaker A: Really? Okay. I gave her. I think it was like 10k almost to get her to go in there, and she’s like, oh, you really mean it? Okay, let’s go.

[00:29:35] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, I still got. I got her to come over and then the line, she said, oh, what’s my line? And I told her the thing that was written on that tool had written.

[00:29:46] Speaker A: Oh, yes, yes. Okay.

[00:29:47] Speaker B: The little note. So she read that out to him and then it kind of. All his, like, brain came back.

[00:29:54] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.

[00:29:56] Speaker B: Yeah, his brain came back. And like, she gets all angry, like, what is this? This is so amateur. And she, like, walks out.

[00:30:02] Speaker A: Oh, damn. Okay.

[00:30:03] Speaker B: Tool. Tool. At the end, it’s like why am I in women’s clothes? Why am I wearing this to his friend.

[00:30:12] Speaker A: I forgot.

[00:30:12] Speaker B: What was his friend’s name? Oh, man.

[00:30:13] Speaker A: I don’t know. It’s something. You know, I don’t. It’s not. It’s. Oh, I think it’s called. I think his name is Shank. But honestly, the perfect name for that kind of character is, for me, is Larry.

[00:30:23] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:30:24] Speaker A: It just seems like a Larry.

There’s also that game from a long time ago called Leisure Suit Larry, which was like, a very sketchy thing that I never played that, but I had seen videos about it, and it seems like that’s literally the sleazy I get.

[00:30:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that makes sense.

[00:30:45] Speaker A: But, yes, I think his name was Shank. So. Okay. Did you get the baseball bat?

I guess not if she was pissed at you.

[00:30:54] Speaker B: No. Oh, I don’t.

[00:30:55] Speaker A: Okay. So you took the route of having her read out the note.

I just said, let’s make this brain dance, and said, pretend that you’re sisters, your long lost sisters.

[00:31:07] Speaker B: Interesting. Okay.

[00:31:08] Speaker A: And then so she acts it out, and then he kind of sideways snaps into that being his story now that they’re sisters.

And then they make this supposedly good brain dance. And then from then on, they’re now, like, after the quest is over, they’re now just shooting Braindances together as a duo and getting more popular. So right after the original recording, she left on the bar there of the cafe an iconic baseball bat, which I’m not going to use because I’m not using blunt weapons, but it was cool.

And then, like, two or three days later, she texted me and said, I left you something else at the Brainporium, and it is her motorcycle.

Wow.

[00:31:55] Speaker B: Okay, so you guys.

[00:31:56] Speaker A: So it’s very cool. It has, like, a oni mask on the front of it, and it’s, like, bright purple. And so I’ve been riding that around Dogtown, even though there’s not really much room to go.

Yeah, interesting quest, for sure.

[00:32:09] Speaker B: Yeah. She calls it amateur production. Walks out, and then you can actually walk out after her, but it doesn’t give. You can’t talk to her anything. And then she stops at a thing and just starts taking photos and selfies of herself.

[00:32:20] Speaker A: Oh, all right.

[00:32:21] Speaker B: Well, but there isn’t, like, it doesn’t give you a talk prompt or anything.

Okay.

[00:32:29] Speaker A: So then in Birds with Broken Wings, you hear out Reid and Alex’s plan to retrieve Songbird, which means you got to go back and track the French twins. Luxury car rental, snatch them and replace them using that Shapeshifter tech that we saw Alex using before.

And then we’re going to go meet with Hanson, and supposedly Alex is going to distract him and maybe kill him while you go get the cure with Songbird from that neural matrix filled with an AI from beyond the blackwall, nothing could possibly go wrong.

Did you take up Songbird’s message to go meter before moving on?

[00:33:07] Speaker B: So I did it a different way. So I did the transmitters. Right. Yeah.

First, then I went and met Songbird.

[00:33:16] Speaker A: Oh, okay. I did it. I did the relic relics.

Okay.

So I wonder if anything different happened for me.

Songbird gives you a relic upgrade? I mean, I guess she did when she first texts you, which, as far as I can tell, was just three extra points to use, which is cool enough. I’ll take it.

[00:33:36] Speaker B: But, yeah, I did get that. Yeah, that was nice.

[00:33:38] Speaker A: And then you. You meet her, and at least for me, she admits to downing the flight that Myers was on that kicked off this whole Dogtown thing.

She was working with Hanson, and now allegedly wants to redeem herself and get the hell out of town and out of Dogtown altogether, I guess.

But that was kind of the gist of the conversation. Was that similar to what she told you?

[00:34:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it was very. Yes, very interesting.

[00:34:02] Speaker A: So you can just do it in any order? Basically, yeah.

Then, you know, you go and jack into the transceivers. The first one doesn’t work, or you need more encryption. Yeah.

[00:34:12] Speaker B: For her conversation, like at the end or something, you basically just ask me, like, if you fully trust her or don’t trust her or.

[00:34:19] Speaker A: Yeah, I said there was some. But I’ll do this.

[00:34:21] Speaker B: There was some mid answer that was just yes. So I pressed yes, and it just said, like, yes to both. As in, I trust and don’t trust.

[00:34:31] Speaker A: Yeah, okay.

[00:34:32] Speaker B: And she was like, okay, I get that.

[00:34:35] Speaker A: So, yeah. I don’t know how, like, her admitting this is supposed to make us trust her fully all of a sudden. I seemed to think that was going to do the trick. And it’s like, you really underestimate people, don’t you?

But she gets herself into a lot of trouble. So I guess that’s. That’s part of the problem when you’re. Yeah. So you track into the receiver transceivers.

This was just a classic go here, do that mission design.

[00:35:01] Speaker B: Yeah.

[00:35:02] Speaker A: Can’t say I love it, because the two little kind of enemy groups that you have to go through were nothing special.

But the little girl guarding her beaded out mom was funny. When the transceiver gave an Error. And basically gave the it crowd. Have you tried turning it off and on again? Yeah, wine. Um, that’s funny.

But yeah, you just kind of move through those things and you meet up with Solomon’s Ripper Duck, Farida, who is very to the point and she just full on replaces your face complete with lots of squelchy noises.

[00:35:40] Speaker B: I didn’t realize that was like happening. And then when it’s like, what’s.

When you’re in the chair and you can see her like and hear her like pulling up skin, I was like, oh my God. This is Face Off.

[00:35:51] Speaker A: Gross.

[00:35:52] Speaker B: What is this?

[00:35:52] Speaker A: Yeah, you know, it’s.

It does. You know, there is some gore in this game, which is all well and good, but I glad you don’t see a third person perspective of any of your Ripper Duck stuff.

No, gross. Gross.

But yes, after completing Birds with Broken Wings in that moment and then getting Ready for Heist 3.0 or. Or I guess this is 2.5 since it’s the next step in 2.0, I did one more side job which was to help this guy named Aaron.

He’s an ex Animals gang boxer. Okay, you did this?

[00:36:30] Speaker B: Started. No, I didn’t do this. I started it. As in I. I’m. This is a.

[00:36:33] Speaker A: You think?

[00:36:35] Speaker B: Yeah, I had him and I haven’t continued after that.

[00:36:39] Speaker A: So I have to meet him again somewhere. He has to throw his fights to pay back the gang for their investment in his chrome, but he wants out.

And I won’t spoil it too much for you, but you basically bust into a scav guarded building where the specific ripperdoc works. Who put the inhibitor chip in him in the first place?

But yes. You know, after even just that first interaction of seeing him do that little boxing match out in the open, it got me thinking, hey, this might finally be the right application for installing the final arm cyberware that I haven’t tried yet.

The gorilla arms.

[00:37:15] Speaker B: Oh.

[00:37:16] Speaker A: And I must say, I tried it out and I went and did one of those boxing matches from that beat on the Brat Quest that we unlocked. Basically the first ever side quest we unlocked.

And it worked like a charm. So if I mean specifically, I have very low body skill. I think I’m at a five still.

So I have almost no health and almost no armor. So I wasn’t able to get through anything beyond that twin fight.

[00:37:47] Speaker B: I’m on the final fight.

[00:37:49] Speaker A: Okay. So you. Okay, you’re probably more in better shape than. But the gorilla arms work like a charm.

[00:37:55] Speaker B: Okay. I might have to install those for the final.

[00:37:58] Speaker A: And really just for that, because we know we’re not blunt instrument players. Builds. Builds.

[00:38:03] Speaker B: Yeah, exactly.

[00:38:05] Speaker A: But yeah, overall, this turned into a very chill session of Cyberpunk 2077.

[00:38:10] Speaker B: Yes.

[00:38:11] Speaker A: Marked by film noir intrigue, oozing atmosphere and some inventive moments, but honestly, not that action packed, which is kind of strange.

[00:38:19] Speaker B: Yeah, no, not too action packed. A lot of talking.

[00:38:23] Speaker A: A lot of talking.

[00:38:24] Speaker B: A lot of conversations.

[00:38:25] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Good stuff. Oh, actually I did do one more request which was going to this training facility.

A sports training facility. Have you done that?

[00:38:37] Speaker B: Mm.

[00:38:37] Speaker A: Mm. Okay. Oh, it’s not a. It’s not a. I think it’s a gig. It’s a Mr. Hands gig. I will wait for you to do that to talk about it because it’s a doozy.

[00:38:46] Speaker B: Do you remember what it’s called?

[00:38:49] Speaker A: I don’t.

Let me find. It might. It might actually be called training something.

[00:38:56] Speaker B: Okay,

[00:39:04] Speaker A: Let me just look it up really quick because this will actually, you

[00:39:06] Speaker B: know, I found a. Is it called Talent Academy?

[00:39:08] Speaker A: That’s the one. Yeah.

[00:39:09] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, no, I haven’t done that one. Okay.

[00:39:11] Speaker A: I just found a list of the gigs. I highly suggest it. It is very.

It’s one of those really kind of nuanced quests. Well, really, it’s not.

I won’t talk about it anymore. Play it. We’ll talk about it next time.

[00:39:23] Speaker B: Yeah, I will.

[00:39:25] Speaker A: And lastly, despite not even realizing Cyberpunk Edgerunners 2 was scheduled to release during our book club season here when we made the plan originally to start playing it in Sept.

Boy, are we lucky that we did because A, the season of the show has been great so far, which I’ve seen six episodes of by now, but B, and even better, it brings a bunch of new things into Cyberpunk 2077 with Game Update 2.5, which launched yesterday, including two new side quests which we’ll be sure to play through and discuss in our side quest focused penultimate episode of the season in a couple weeks. There’s a new radio station arm, Cyberware color customization.

So yes, Zenity from Discord. My cyber fashion is going to be even wackier next week and what I expect to be my favorite of all the updates. Dual wielding.

[00:40:13] Speaker B: Yeah, So I actually looked at this last night while finishing up the play and my next perk point is going to go. So you can only dual wield pistols. I noticed.

[00:40:25] Speaker A: That was what I was going to say when they announced it without much detail a few days ago.

I read that dual wielding and hope they Went all out and I was going to be able to create the dual wheel, double katanas or katana and knife build of my dreams.

Or somebody could do a crazy double LMG type of thing. But no, it’s just reserved for power class pistols and revolvers. Unfortunately, not even smart or tech pistols make the cut.

[00:40:52] Speaker B: Yeah. So my next perk point’s gonna go into that because I’m curious on like, is it.

Is it like you’d use two different pistols or do they give you like say to Her Majesties? Because that would be awesome.

[00:41:05] Speaker A: I think you probably have to equip two pistols. I don’t think it just like, that’s

[00:41:09] Speaker B: what I was thinking.

[00:41:09] Speaker A: Copies over one.

[00:41:10] Speaker B: Yeah, that’s what I was thinking. But it’d be cool if it did copy that.

[00:41:14] Speaker A: It would. But now you’re. I mean, I know we’re at a very kind of weird sci fi tech culture in this game, but I don’t know that, you know, magic cloning exists.

Maybe with a mod you can do that. Which they also introduced actually, is mod support on console.

[00:41:32] Speaker B: Oh, okay, Very cool.

[00:41:34] Speaker A: But I probably won’t give that a go until a future playthrough, if ever. Exactly.

[00:41:37] Speaker B: Yeah, that’ll be future.

[00:41:38] Speaker A: But I’m still definitely going to try this dual wielding with double revolvers or pistol and revolver maybe, since just dual wielding. Dual wielding is a cool category perk and I’ve already maxed out at 20.

[00:41:50] Speaker B: Cool.

[00:41:50] Speaker A: So I’m just gonna next time I play, immediately respec into that and use it.

So we will both report back next time on how much fun it is.

[00:41:59] Speaker B: Definitely.

[00:41:59] Speaker A: I assume a lot.

[00:42:01] Speaker B: Yeah, same.

[00:42:03] Speaker A: All right, this next session, the goal is to fully finish the Phantom Liberty story and if you want to, the gigs and side jobs in Dogtown, if you feel like cleaning them up here first. So save and quit after the credits roll for Phantom Liberty, where you’ll be dropped back into the main game with new gear and a new perspective on the world.

[00:42:21] Speaker B: Yep, definitely looking forward to finishing off Phantom Liberty and finishing and doing Heist 2.5 as we’re calling it. So yeah, I’m looking forward to seeing what you guys think of it as well. So thanks again for listening and have a good one.

If you want to follow along and discuss our playthrough of native games on the Gaming Backlog Book Club podcast, please give us a follow on your podcast platform of choice. Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeartRadio, Pandora, Amazon Music or Pocketcasts, as well as our Discord and Instagram account under the same name. Thanks.