Don’t let your old PC or underpowered console stop you from entering Night City.
I’ve played the first few hours of Cyberpunk 2077 on the Xbox Series S, and so far it’s…fine! Night City, the sun-drenched and acid-bleached futuristic metropolis, looks gorgeously dystopian on my 4K TV. I’ve only noticed one performance dip, one animation bug, and one instance of missing textures. Of course, things could get much worse the longer I play; the game is buggy, after all. Still, I don’t feel the need to wait for next year’s next-gen optimization. Surprised? I am. Although technically a next-gen console, the Xbox Series S is so relatively weak that it officially doesn’t offer any boost to Xbox One games besides speedy, SSD-powered load times. On Series X, you can play Cyberpunk 2077 at 60 frames per second. On Series S, you’re stuck with 30fps action and what looks like dynamic resolution. Of course, playing Cyberpunk 2077 on any console is a compromise compared to what’s possible on a gaming PC. Still, I’m having a good time playing this version of Cyberpunk 2077. If you don’t have the latest hardware, you should still be able to play whatever games you can without an ounce of regret. Buyer Beware? Sometimes, you can’t play whatever games you want on the hardware you own. I found Cyberpunk’s positive performance on Series S particularly shocking after seeing reports of poor, last-generation performance. The video clips show a game far worse than what I’ve played; they show a game that’s absolutely broken. If you can’t enjoy the game you bought, you’re right to be mad. You’re also right to be mad if the game, without warning, triggers your epilepsy! However, despite what some gamers insist, the solution shouldn’t be “buy better hardware.” CD Projekt Red instead needs to fix the versions that it’s already selling on weaker hardware. The developer wasn’t wrong to release the game on last-gen systems. The millions and millions of people who only have those machines appreciate the chance to play one of the year’s most anticipated games, a game announced a year before the PS4 and Xbox One were available for purchase.
