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Cyberpunk 2077, The Witcher 3 next-gen upgrades still on track for this year

By Otto Kratky September 1, 2021

With just three months left in 2021, developer CD Projekt Red has some big plans to cap off what has been a difficult year for the company. In its latest financial report, the company revealed that it’s still planning on releasing two games this year, both next-gen updates. According to the report, the previously announced next-gen versions of The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077 are still on track to arrive in “late 2021.”

Details on what players can expect from the new versions of both Cyberpunk 2077 and The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt are sparse. The financial report itself makes no mention of what will be included in the next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077. The Witcher 3: The Wild Hunt‘s next-gen release on the other hand will come with all of the game’s expansions and “visual upgrades,” along with “extra items inspired by the Netflix series.”

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While both games are slated to release later this year, CD Projekt Red has also taken some of its staff away from working on the next-gen version of Cyberpunk 2077. A graph included in the report shows that over half of the company’s development staff was focused on support for the game, as well as development on its next-gen version. However, as of June 30, that number has fallen substantially.

With 2021 nearly finished, CD Projekt Red is quickly running out of time to ship next-gen versions of its two latest — and bestselling — titles. The case is doubly so for Cyberpunk 2077, which is still plagued by bugs and glitches that require massive patches nearly a year out from its original release.

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Otto Kratky is a freelance writer with many homes. You can find his work at Digital Trends, GameSpot, and Gamepur. If he's…

Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty Relic guide

Songbird in a dress in Phantom Liberty.

The first and only expansion for Cyberpunk 2077 has far more than just a new area and missions to fill your time. Phantom Liberty is part of the 2.0 update that almost completely overhauls the systems introduced in the base game to be more in line with the original vision, It also adds new mechanics to flesh out the experience even further. Once you start the expansion, the first thing you will probably notice is the completely revamped skill system, which now includes a brand new tree called the Relic tree. These skills are all brand new, and alone could be reason enough to start a fresh adventure in Night City. But these Relic skills don't function like the other skills where you simply need to level up to unlock and upgrade them. Don't worry, Samurai, we'll transfer all the data you need on how to get Relic skills and what each of them does.
How to get Relic points
The new Relic skill tree is the only new feature in terms of skills that you need to purchase the Phantom Liberty expansion to access. Once you begin the expansion, the tree and a few starting points will be given to you automatically from a new character. To get more Relic points, you have to track down a new feature called Militech Data Terminals rather than simply leveling up. These points will only pop up on your map once you're close to them, so you will need to search them out for the most part.
All Relic skills

The Relic skill tree is broken down into three branches: Jailbreak, Emergency Cloaking, and Vulnerability. Just like any normal skill tree, you need to unlock each skill in order to gain access to the next one, so planning out which branch you want to invest in before spending your precious points is vital, especially since some trees have many more levels to them than others. Here's what each branch gives you:
Jailbreak
Jailbreak: Unlocks new abilities for your Arm Cyberwear, including the Mantis Blades, Gorilla Arms, Projectile Launch System, and Monowire.

Gaming

Cyberpunk 2077: How to start Phantom Liberty DLC

A pyramid from Cyberpunk 2077.

The rehabilitation of Cyberpunk 2077 finally culminates in both the release of the 2.0 update and the substantial DLC expansion called Phantom Liberty. Between these two, plus all the changes made in the years since launch, the once unstable and buggy game is finally living up to its potential. While everything up until this point has been free, including the 2.0 changes, Phantom Liberty is the first and only piece of paid content. Giving players an entirely new area in Dogtown to explore, plus a lengthy main story and tons of new side missions, it's the biggest reason to reinstall this ambitious title. But how exactly can you start the DLC since it is meant to slot into the story of the main game rather than take place before or after? We've hacked in and downloaded all the data you need on how to start the Phantom Liberty DLC.
How to start Phantom Liberty
There are actually a few different ways to get into Phantom Liberty depending on your preference and whether or not you've played the base game. The easiest way to get directly into it is through the main menu. With the DLC installed, you will have an option to jump directly into the expansion, even if you haven't played the main game yet. This sounds great for those who want to see the new stuff right away, but it isn't recommended if you haven't played the base game at all. You will be given a character automatically leveled up and placed at the proper point in the story for the DLC to take place with no context or tutorial on how to play. Note that picking this option doesn't lock you out of any of the base game content.

For new players who want to experience Phantom Liberty more naturally, you will need to play the opening hours of Cyberpunk 2077 until you complete the "Transmission" mission before the quest that starts the DLC will trigger.

Computing

Cyberpunk 2077 might force you to upgrade your CPU

Cyberpunk 2077 running on the Samsung Odyssey OLED G8.

The highly anticipated expansion to Cyberpunk 2077 is just around the corner, and with the release of Phantom Liberty, many gamers might need to start thinking of upgrading their PCs. Now, CD Projekt Red has shed a little more light on the matter. It seems that some people might need to swap to one of the best CPUs, and even those already running modern hardware should still look into their cooling systems because Cyberpunk 2077 is just about to become a lot more CPU-intensive.

Filip Pierściński, who is a leading scene programmer at CD Projekt Red, shared an update regarding the game's CPU utilization going forward. Cyberpunk 2077 is famous for requiring one of the top GPUs, but it historically hasn't made the most out of the CPU. In fact, players had to rely on mods to boost CPU utilization, as the game itself wasn't able to effectively utilize Intel's hyper-threading (HT) and AMD's simultaneous multi-threading (SMT). The good news is that those mods can now be put to rest, but the bad news is that if your hardware is a little outdated, it might struggle to run Cyberpunk 2077 for a whole new reason now.