It's frustrating that the first chance to play Cyberpunk 2077 is not in the flesh but remotely, streamed from somebody else's PC. But there's a pandemic so a press event can't happen, and this is what we've got. And you know what? The tech's not bad. The video image is compressed but it's still a stunning game, and while there's a bit of input lag, it's negligible. It's surprisingly playable, and so I play for four hours from the very beginning of the game.
You've seen some of what I play in the gameplay video already released, but I also do things and meet characters you haven't seen. More importantly, I get a chance to just be in the world and feel what it's like to be there. I nose around, talking to people. I look through my inventory and pore over my character development screens, fantasising about the kind of Cyberpunk hero I'll be. I get a sense of what it's going to be like spending hours and hours here.
And I tell you this: there's a lot more going on in Cyberpunk 2077 than The Witcher 3. Night City is an overwhelming place. There are no quaint little villages like White Orchard with gentle rolling hills on the horizon to ease you in. There's one big city stuffed with huge buildings, and the labyrinthine alleyways and the dirty streets beneath them.