Cyberpunk

Wuthering Waves is a free-to-play action RPG. It looks like they'll be adding Lucy and Rebecca (from Cyberpunk: Edgerunners) as playable characters. This mod/DLC/expansion/whatever will be available June 8. So, Monday.

I've never played this game before and I don't know anything about it, but if it's free... maybe I should give it a shot.

Not a joke, just a movie quote and words of advice from J-Bone (Johnny Mnemonic). Also, I like the idea of this image popping up as you scroll mindlessly through posts.

I actually found this image as a sticker if that interests you.

I think there's some debate over whether Escape From New York is cyberpunk or just post-apocalyptic but I think it's close enough that I wanted to share this news.

Long sonic stimulation for all netrunners here who need to focus

Unix nerd dissects a blink-and-you-miss-it shot from Tron: Legacy. And I'm here for it.

I like how he explains which commands are valid and which ones are invalid (or at least questionable) without ranting about these stupid hollywood types. He knows it's a movie, he just wanted to dissect what you see on screen.

Most of the explanation is within collapsible sections, so make sure you expand everything to read it.

It was recently announced that 'The Girl Who Was Plugged In' is going to be turned into a movie. I'd never heard of it before but the synopsis sounded pretty cyberpunk and since it's just a short story, I decided to give it a try.

It's crazy to me that this story was written in 1974. It's about an ugly girl who gets hired by a megacorp to remotely control the body of a beautiful celebrity in order to sell products in a world where advertising is banned. It's literally about a social media influencer in a cyberpunk world and was written in 1974. Also, while the author is listed as James Tiptree Jr, that's actually the pen name of Alice Sheldon. She used a male pen name in order to get published in the 1970s. The wikipedia page has an entire section about the role of gender in the story and the author.

The story is only about 30 pages long so it's a quick read and I highly recommend it. The author even has what I would consider a "cyberpunk voice" where the narrator is constantly yelling at the reader. The narrator calls you a "zombie" and a "dummy" and it just feels more aggressive than I'm used to reading in a story from 1974. It very much feels like a precursor to cyberpunk writing.

As always, being a short story, it should be pretty easy to find online. Here's a text version of the story but I'm sure you can find a pdf if that's what you prefer.

I'll admit I don't have an account at cyberspace.online so this is mostly just a post to bring it to other people's attention who might be interested.

Cyberspace.online is a social network that intentionally attempts to re-create the feel of the "old" internet. It basically behaves like Twitter except It doesn't support video and only allows for monochrome images. Instead of those fancy bells and whistles, it has an interface you can run in a terminal. It also has a Commodore 64 theme and a VT320 theme. So that's the audience they're shooting for. This is an anti-AI, anti-algorithm social network from the past. They also have a chat room feature that mimics IRC.

Given the restrictions they're imposing on themselves, I think it's obvious what type of audience they're trying to attract; the Gen X and elder Millennials who remember this version of the internet. And yet, they're also working on an interactive 3d world called The Grid, which is entirely made up of wireframes. So they aren't just trying to mimic the internet of the 90s, they're trying to mimic a cyberpunk internet of the 90s.

Overall, I think this is an interesting concept. It has been online for 7 months and so far has attracted 11,000 users. For a social network, that's incredibly small. But for a hobby project, this seems like a massive success. And I'm curious to see what The Grid looks like when they're done.

With all that said, this feels like Mastodon but with fewer features. It isn't open source, it isn't federated, it isn't encrypted. If you want a cyberpunk version of Mastodon, you could just go with a cyberpunk-themed instance like https://corteximplant.com/ and keep all its modern features and larger user-base. Of course, this project is for the people who actively don't want that, and I figured there might be some Lemmy users here who agree.

https://cyberspace.online/

https://greasygoat.substack.com/p/arc-review-midwest-chrome-by-michael

The review is perhaps a little dramatic but I'm still looking forward to the book. My favorite cyberpunk scenes and stories take place in rural areas (Turner's brother's place in Count Zero, basically all of The Peripheral and some of the later scenes in Virtual Light). so I'm interested to see what they do with the setting here:

I feel like the review didn't say much about what the story was about so here's the description from the publisher :

A burned-out detective trapped in a cold case finds a curious lead—the severed head of an android who cries for help in the voice of his dead wife. It has her memories. It has her personality. But is it…Elsie?

Welcome to the frayed-wire-and-spare-parts autopsy of a near-future Nebraska, lit bright by neon promises and smoldering with broken dreams. Society is high on body augmentations and self-interest and low on moral reckonings.

Harlan's cold case takes center stage in the novella Our Bird Trills Mechanical, but desperate people willing to do whatever it takes fill the pages: people like Lucian Lucky, an augment-addicted prizefighter who must decide if the cost of winning is worth the size of the purse; or Javier, a love-struck henchman who’s fallen for the niece of his violent boss.

Freaks, fighters, fixers and f&%k-ups: fortune favors the corrupt in MIDWESTERN CHROME.

When I first watched this trailer, I assumed it was made by the same people as Katana Zero or was maybe a sequel. But nope, I'm pretty sure this game is unrelated to Katana Zero. Looks like fun though.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2685100/NOIR_BLOOM/

I honestly thought I had already posted this here but I guess not. If anyone ever wanted to play the point-and-click Neuromancer video game from 1988, you can play it for free right in your web browser.

The Internet Archive has quite a few games you can play for free in your web browser. I also found Bloodnet, the cyberpunk/vampire point-and-click adventure game. They actually have an entire category for cyberpunk games but I couldn't figure out the controls for most of them. At least point-and-click adventure games are easy to play in a web browser.

To procrastinate a 3D printed cyberpunk artifact/cyberdeck project called Skulljack, I’ve started working on a gonzo cyberpunk web comic also called Skulljack. I’ve finished the first issue.

We finally have an official release date of July 7, this year. I also found an article that says "The series will stream on Prime Video." And I hope that's accurate.

cross-posted from: https://quokk.au/c/sigh_fi/p/884218/comply

Yesterday's post about Psycho-Pass got me wondering if I'm current with all the Psycho-Pass movies and shows so I found this watch guide that lists everything so far. I figured I should share it here as well.

I didn't create this image so I can't explain why Sinners of the System is counted so strangely. Maybe someone more knowledgeable about Psycho-Pass can explain why those would be counted as 4.1, 4.2, and 4.3 in this image.

I haven't found the topic about the series and the movies and i consider it groundbreaking cyberpunk body of work. I watched it all and I could again. I'm sure there are fans here. What are some of your favourite moments?

"

In the near future, it's possible to measure each person's potential for violence. Inspector Akane Tsunemori, as part of a special unit, chases down these prospective criminals."

I'm a big fan of the original Ruiner so I'm very excited for this sequel. And yet, is it possible they've added too much to this new game? Now you can swap characters, swap gear within those characters, level up with a giant skill tree, explore an open world of dungeons, and co-op was added? I enjoyed the simplicity of the first Ruiner and this seems like they might be taking too big of a swing. I'm still excited for the game but it might be closer to "cautiously optimistic" after watching this new trailer...

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2936810/RUINER_2/

cross-posted from: https://sopuli.xyz/post/44057464

Artist: Tokunaga Akimasa | fediverse | pixiv | twitter | danbooru

Full quality: .png 1 MB (990 × 1400)

I thoroughly enjoyed the first Huntdown so I'm really excited for this. Honestly, it just looks like "Huntdown, but more" which I'm totally ok with. More weapons, more levels, more enemies. Also, making this new game a roguelike makes a lot of sense. There wasn't exactly any narrative structure to the levels in the first game so turning it into a roguelike feels like a natural fit.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2473350/HUNTDOWN_OVERTIME/

Daniel Deluxe is a big name in the DarkSynth genre and this is his first full album since the soundtrack to Ghostrunner.

Also, here's a Spotify link if you don't do bandcamp.

Source

I always appreciate the art that leans more into the punk side of cyberpunk rather than just the high-tech side. Also, this guy seems to have a lot of art with that aesthetic.

Credit: https://www.artstation.com/artwork/qAngLn

Ghost in the Shell x Serial Experiments Lain mash-up

According to the reddit post where I saw this image, it was originally posted to a tumblr account which has since been deleted. So now this image just floats through the internet, untethered (much like Lain).

This looks more and more like the original manga's artstyle. I'm curious if the story will follow the manga too or if it'll be an original story, I don't think I've heard any rumors about the plot.