If you’d like to stop Steam from automatically updating a game, select “Only update this game when I launch it” from the game’s Library page > Properties > Updates.

So I think in addition to disabling auto-updates you have to play in offline mode once an update happens, or launch outside of Steam. at least, with Skyrim the script extender directly launched the exe so Steam’s “update on launch” wouldn’t happen, and I’m not quite sure what the correct way to do that for Cyberpunk is. 🤔

First off, don’t be like me - either use a mod manager (Vortex with the cyberpunk extension), or be sure to disable automatic game updating - otherwise you’ll come back to your game after steam auto-updates it and wonder where all your mods went. 😅

Anyway, back to the list of mods I was running - no guarantee that they’re all 100% compatible with the latest update, but the vast majority of them should be. You also can’t go wrong checking out the Top of All Time list on Nexus - I’m sure there’s some larger overhauls there that are great, but not something I used.

• Vehicle Customizer
  • lets you swap skins on player owned vehicles, so you can finally own those not-purchasable cool car colors that you find in the world.
• Pocket Radio
  • lets you listen to the radio while on foot!!
• Sensible Stamina and Athletics
  • I was playing a melee character and even so, didn’t get super high in athletics with this mod. I’d be scared to see how rough it is to level up athletics vanilla
• Immersive First Person
• Enhanced Weather
• Ragdoll Physics Overhaul
• Subdermal Armor Scaled Up
• Black Durable Synthetic Biker Coat

UI / Quality of Life mods:

• Limited HUD
  • this gives you much more granular control over what appears, and also lets you configure UI elements based on game state (ie, show during combat or not during combat); combine with Muted Markers for even more customization.
• Minimal Markers
• Quest Untracker
  • for untracking that “meet hanako at embers” quest without going into the menus
• No Camera Auto-Centering
  • the camera re-centering after like 2 seconds when driving always bugged me, and this mod fixes it.
• Filter Saves by Lifepath and Type
• Smaller Item Arrows

Performance-increasing / bug fix / visual mods:

• Optimized Crowd & Traffic Density
• Optical Camo Bug Fixes
• Vanilla Billboard LODs Improved
• Misty Appearance Mod
  • b/c honestly she should look way more goth than the vanilla game

Mods around increasing immersion, depending on your taste:

• Restrict Crafting/Upgrading to Inside Apartments
  • what it says on the tin! I was trying to go back to my apartments pretty frequently to shower / sleep / etc so this was another way of nudging me back
• Street Vendors
  • most of the street vendors will now trade with you!

Diaries of a Spaceport Janitor is one of my favorite indie games of all time. The city design really captures the feeling of wandering around an unfamiliar, large, bustling place. The diary mechanic at the end of the day is a great way to get in character, and I like that you can decorate the apartment. I did some light data-mining (mostly item info and dialogue strings), and I even have fridge magnets of some of the pixel art!

Depanneur Nocturne is also a great evening’s worth of exploration and vibes, but I mention it because I has a reference to Spaceport Janitor and it made me SO happy when I realized that. :)

Yeah, this is the distinction I usually make - beating the game is rolling the credits, finishing the story, what have you. Completing the game is doing all the side quests / koroks / enemy camps / content in the game.

In my household beating the game has the same meaning as “rolling credits” - largely based on Backloggery’s distinction between beaten and completed games. I’ve started focusing on actually beating games/rolling credits in the past ~3 years and while there’s still a few games I’ve started and put down unfinished for various reasons, I beat 25 games in 2022 and 14 so far in 2023.

I’d be interested to know what the difference in language means for you - would “beat” apply only to games that don’t have post-credits gameplay?

Hah, if where I work is any indication, I’d guess the interview was filmed ~3 days before the event, there was a late night push to get this edit completed, it didn’t get fine-tooth-combed before release, and was handed off hours before the event. Shit happens when creative teams don’t get enough time to do their job!

The story felt much more impactful to me than BotW. I was so glad they did give us a bit of linear story at the beginning, rather than starting us in the sky with none of the lead-up. I also made sure to watch the memory cutscenes in order, and basically binged the last 3 in a row because I was too excited to space them out more. And, the final battle + ending was exciting and cinematic.

There’s definitely critiques that can be made after the fact, but in the moment I was emotionally invested in a way that BotW never reached for me.

having subscribed to multiple games communities, the issue then becomes content duplication; the same trailer or article will get posted in three different communities, and I don’t actually want to see it three times in my feed. I’m not sure there’s a good way to solve that, though.

(I’m subscribed to multiple communities b/c I’m not sure which one will have the largest comments sections, and those are what I’m really interested in.)

Building your own musical instrument sounds like a daunting project at the beginning but one with very satisfying results. :)

Not knowing much about marimbas or woodworking, I’m super curious about the actual hand-tuning process! Is it carefully trimming the boards down? And how much do the tubes (?) at the bottom affect the tuning vs the wood pieces on top?