Latest news with #PhantomLiberty
Digital Trends
28-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Digital Trends
I never thought I'd say this, but I like gaming on a Mac just as much as my PS5
As widespread and ubiquitous as gaming is in 2025, most of the conversations still revolve around the current console leaders: PS5, Xbox Series X, Switch 2, and powerful gaming PCs. While those are big names, it excludes other viable platforms like mobile and Mac from the discourse. I figure this is just a holdover from initial impressions of these platforms as being the home of cheap and casual games. Or, in the case of Mac, simply not having games at all. I admit that I fell victim to that thought process myself for many years. Only in the last three or four years have I completely changed my views on the mobile market and see it as one of the most creative markets for games. Now, I finally gave Mac gaming that same opportunity to change my opinion by playing Cyberpunk 2077 on a MacBook Pro. Not only did it not disappoint, but it might offer the best aspects of consoles and PC. Chrome up, choom My initial impressions of Cyberpunk 2077 weren't as bad as they could've been since I at least played the launch version on PS5 and not PS4, but it was far from good. I put the game down until reviewing the Phantom Liberty DLC that launched with the 2.0 update and had a substantially better time revisiting Night City. It is impossible for a game to make a second first impression, but this reworked, revamped, and improved version of the game was enough to draw me back into the dark and dystopian cyberscape that is Cyberpunk 2077. Recommended Videos I'm no pixel counter or frame rate snob, but my base PS5 ran Cyberpunk 2077 great in performance mode after the 2.0 update. I could spot a few FPS dips here and there when things got intense, but it felt like a mostly solid 60 as I soaked in the atmosphere and took on a gig here and there. I turned on the RTX mode to test that out, and while the city really comes alive visually in this mode, the massive hit to the FPS made it something I only flipped on if I wanted to snap a picture. Seeing the neon lights accurately bounce off the puddles in the street never ceases to amaze, but not at the cost of a smooth gameplay experience. I am aware that a high-end PC can achieve both of these benchmarks with no compromises, but I have neither the time nor the money to invest in getting a rig capable of doing that up and running. Whether it is a pro or a con, one of the main selling points of a Mac is its ease of use. They cost a pretty penny, no doubt, but they have always struck me as the consoles of the PC world — you can trust it will do what you need it to without any tinkering. That's what keeps me firmly planted as a console gamer, and why I was interested in seeing if that same level of convenience applied to gaming on a Mac. And what better game to test my theory on than the newly launched Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition on the Mac App Store? Again, I'm no technical wizard, so I can't say how the specs of this Mac compare to other gaming PCs or the PS5, but I did do all my testing on a MacBook Pro M4 Max using my DualSense controller and wearing AirPods to test out the head tracking spatial audio for the first time (this is available on other platforms as well, but I didn't have the proper headphones to take advantage of it). Right off the bat, I jumped into the settings to find the game had defaulted to the new 'For this Mac' graphical presets. I understand that many people — especially hardcore PC gamers — love tinkering with all these toggles and sliders to find that perfect balance of visual fidelity and performance for their rig, but that just isn't me. The For this Mac preset feels tailor-made for console-gaming converts who just want to boot up the game and play. That said, nothing is stopping you from messing with all the available settings to prioritize whatever type of performance you want. With this preset, the benchmark ran at a nearly locked 60FPS with visuals that, to my eye, looked at least on par with what my PS5 was pushing on my OLED. It was only when the benchmark got up close and personal with a puddle that I spotted anything that looked a little off, but that's to be expected since RTX is off in this preset by default. I opted to skip ahead to where the Phantom Liberty DLC becomes available rather than begin a fresh file to more quickly return to the open world. Even though I got a tease of the visuals in the benchmark, Night City still took my breath away all over again. Smoke wafted in the air, taillights streaked red across the streets, and vibrant billboards cast a pale, depressing light over the citizens. Hopping on Jackie's bike to race over to Afterlife, the world looked even better in motion. Arriving at the bar, I was given a stern reminder of how far ahead CD Projekt Red was in its character models and animations. The head tracking spatial audio wasn't as transformative as I was expecting, but I think my expectations were a little high. It works, don't get me wrong, and does add a nice layer of immersion while walking down the street or passing by NPCs chatting at the bar, but the illusion breaks a bit when I deliberately turn and twist my head. Namely, when V was on a call with someone and turning my head meant that V's voice suddenly moved to one side, which was a strange disconnect between myself and my player character. Once I stopped messing around and played naturally — keeping my head lined up with V's — it all clicked. It isn't a reason to play the entire game all over again, but is a feature I found myself missing in other games after putting Cyberpunk down. As of now, the For this Mac preset is only available for Cyberpunk 2077. The library of Mac games is already stacked with big titles like Assassin's Creed: Shadows and Death Stranding, but I almost feel like this new preset is a bigger selling point for people like me. With portable gaming being on the rise — especially in terms of cost — Macs offering a gaming experience on par with the PS5 in terms of performance and ease of use on a range of laptop models could fill a hole in the market. At the very least, it helped open my eyes to Mac as a viable gaming platform in 2025.
Forbes
18-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Forbes
‘Cyberpunk 2077' Update 2.3 Easter Eggs Hint At Casino Addition
Cyberpunk 2077 While I'm not really convinced to reinstall Cyberpunk 2077 just to mess around with a few new cars and photo mode features after Update 2.3, there are some curious things that players have found hidden and changed with the launch of the new patch. We see this pretty often, stealth, fun things added to the game like say, a secret Balatro quest. But this? This is something else, and it feels like it at least could be teasing something big. It appears that Update 2.3 added a dozen and a half new ads that are promoting a casino in Pacifica, the region where Phantom Liberty takes place. There was, of course, a casino that was part of a mission in that campaign, and there is also a defunct casino on the map, the North Oak Casino and Resort, that lies dormant and was not used. New billboard The idea here is that a future plan for Cyberpunk may be to open up that casino in a future patch, which would be actual new content rather than just adding new car and photo and cosmetic things. FEATURED | Frase ByForbes™ Unscramble The Anagram To Reveal The Phrase Pinpoint By Linkedin Guess The Category Queens By Linkedin Crown Each Region Crossclimb By Linkedin Unlock A Trivia Ladder A few weird things have happened with this find, with some of the initial posters deleting their claims but I mean, you can see some of the banners. And in the files, there are actually 18 new banners you can find: Cyberpunk 2077 It would seem that this is about a Pacifica casino, not one of the other ones, but if this is planned for the future, yet again, I warn people to manage expectations. I can see them adding in the Phantom Liberty mission-based casino area and then unlocking something like say, a number of gambling minigames that you can spend your hard earned cash on. Roulette, Poker, Blackjack, Slots, whatever. I do not think this would be say, some giant mission chain involving a casino robbery or whatever high expectations people may have for it. Adding a way to gamble (and a new place to take photos!) seems more along the lines of something a patch 2.4 might offer. Though opening up a whole new area like this would be significant in and of itself. There is a good amount of space between these updates, but at this point it's pretty clear that we should never believe that CDPR is done adding things to Cyberpunk 2077. And they are also pretty clear about teasing future content (a new car in this patch was teased in a Cyberpunk comic, for instance). I do expect something to come of this. Follow me on Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. Pick up my sci-fi novels the Herokiller series and The Earthborn Trilogy.
Economic Times
16-07-2025
- Economic Times
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is coming to Macs with Apple Silicon. It's official
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion, Phantom Liberty, will be available on the Mac App Store starting July 17. This marks the first time the game will run natively on macOS, with full support for Apple Silicon and Metal, Apple 's graphics API. The Mac version includes all previously released updates and content. It supports hardware-specific graphic presets that adapt based on the Apple silicon chip in use, offering a tailored experience across different Mac models. Performance and visuals are tuned to take advantage of Apple's M-series chips, from M1 to the latest M3 and M4 will find support for MetalFX and AMD FSR upscaling, as well as frame generation optimised for Apple GPUs. The game includes features like Spatial Audio with head tracking for AirPods, dynamically calibrated HDR for Apple's XDR displays, and compatibility with controllers, Magic Mouse, and Trackpad. Cross-progression is also available across 2077: Ultimate Edition is not limited to the Mac App Store; it will also be available via Steam, and the Epic Games game uses native Metal API integration and Apple's Tile-Based Deferred Rendering architecture to optimise performance. By reducing memory traffic and minimizing CPU overhead, the rendering pipeline is tailored to Apple's GPU design. Native and converted Metal shaders work together to balance quality and efficiency, with MetalFX upscaling integrated to maintain frame this year, a future update will add support for new Metal 4 features introduced at WWDC 2025. MetalFX Frame Interpolation will insert intermediate frames to improve fluidity and stability during gameplay, aiming for 120 FPS on Ultra settings. MetalFX Denoising will also be added to enable real-time path tracing at the highest graphics settings.
Time of India
16-07-2025
- Time of India
Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is coming to Macs with Apple Silicon. It's official
Tired of too many ads? Remove Ads Cyberpunk 2077 and its expansion, Phantom Liberty, will be available on the Mac App Store starting July 17. This marks the first time the game will run natively on macOS, with full support for Apple Silicon and Metal, Apple 's graphics API. The Mac version includes all previously released updates and content. It supports hardware-specific graphic presets that adapt based on the Apple silicon chip in use, offering a tailored experience across different Mac models. Performance and visuals are tuned to take advantage of Apple's M-series chips, from M1 to the latest M3 and M4 will find support for MetalFX and AMD FSR upscaling, as well as frame generation optimised for Apple GPUs. The game includes features like Spatial Audio with head tracking for AirPods, dynamically calibrated HDR for Apple's XDR displays, and compatibility with controllers, Magic Mouse, and Trackpad. Cross-progression is also available across 2077: Ultimate Edition is not limited to the Mac App Store; it will also be available via Steam, and the Epic Games game uses native Metal API integration and Apple's Tile-Based Deferred Rendering architecture to optimise performance. By reducing memory traffic and minimizing CPU overhead, the rendering pipeline is tailored to Apple's GPU design. Native and converted Metal shaders work together to balance quality and efficiency, with MetalFX upscaling integrated to maintain frame this year, a future update will add support for new Metal 4 features introduced at WWDC 2025. MetalFX Frame Interpolation will insert intermediate frames to improve fluidity and stability during gameplay, aiming for 120 FPS on Ultra settings. MetalFX Denoising will also be added to enable real-time path tracing at the highest graphics settings.
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Business Standard
16-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Standard
Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition is coming to Apple Macs on July 17: Details
Polish video game development studio CD Projekt Red has announced the launch date for Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition for Macs with Apple Silicon. Scheduled to release on July 17, the game has been promised to deliver smooth performance, sharp visuals, and more on Macs powered by the M-series chips. Notably, this is the complete edition of the open-world role-playing game (RPG) first launched in 2020, and it includes all post-release content, such as the Phantom Liberty expansion. On Mac, Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will support MetalFX upscaling for enhanced performance and will support spatial audio. The game will also support tracked spatial audio with Apple AirPods by default. Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition: Availability and eligibility The Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be released on July 17, and it will be available for purchase from the App Store for Mac, Steam, and the Epic Games Store. Consumers running any Mac, including iMac, MacBook Air, Mac mini, MacBook Pro, and Mac Studio, which is powered by Apple M1 chip or later, with at least 16GB of unified memory, and running on macOS 15.5 or later firmware, will be able to run this game on their system. Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition: How will it make the most of Macs? CD Projekt Red has confirmed that Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition will be fully supported on Macs powered by Apple Silicon. This version includes all the post-launch updates released since the game's debut in 2020, including the Phantom Liberty expansion. On Macs, the game uses Apple's Metal graphics framework to improve visual quality and performance. By integrating native support for Metal and using features like MetalFX upscaling, the game can maintain higher frame rates while reducing the load on the system. This helps deliver smoother gameplay, even at more demanding graphics settings. In an upcoming update, the game will also support new Metal 4 features such as MetalFX Frame Interpolation and MetalFX Denoising. Frame Interpolation works by generating extra frames between existing ones to create more fluid motion, while Denoising enhances image clarity during real-time ray tracing on higher graphics settings. Together, these additions will allow the game to reach up to 120 frames per second on supported Macs, offering a better visual experience for players without compromising performance. What is Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate Edition is a complete version of the open-world action RPG developed by CD Projekt Red. Set in the futuristic and dystopian Night City, the game follows the story of V — a mercenary navigating a world dominated by mega-corporations, advanced technology, and cybernetic enhancements. The Ultimate Edition includes the base game along with all post-launch updates and the Phantom Liberty expansion, which adds a new storyline and area to explore. The game is known for its branching narrative, first-person perspective, and extensive character customisation. Players can approach missions using different playstyles — whether through combat, stealth, or dialogue choices — while exploring a richly detailed city filled with side quests, factions, and lore. The Ultimate Edition serves as the definitive version for new players, bundling all content and technical improvements into a single package.
