All of that takes place in a brand-new section of Night City that’s loaded with environmental storytelling and hidden quests waiting to be uncovered, and all of it makes a replay of the entire original story – complete with a new ending exclusive to Phantom Liberty – feel inevitable.Īll of that is true no matter where you play Phantom Liberty, but CD Projekt Red deserves special mention for fully leaning in on PC and pushing graphics technology to make use of today’s highest-end GPUs.

But this spy story, which stars the likes of Idris Elba and features the return of Keanu “No, You’re Amazing” Reeves, earned that label by touching on the mature themes of near-future technological paranoia in its many morally gray scenarios you must weigh in on.

When you consider its initial rocky and divisive launch in the final days of 2020 (when it was very clearly at its best on PC) all the way to this past September’s near-universally acclaimed redemption thanks to its spectacular Phantom Liberty expansion – the reason it was eligible for this award – and the accompanying 2.0 revamp patch, there are only a handful of games that can claim to have won back gamers’ love after letting so many down. Runner-Up: Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty

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