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[Podcast] High Tech Low Life Podcast: a cyberpunk media retrospective
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If you like podcasts and cyberpunk then I think the HTLL podcast is pretty enjoyable. It's just two guys re-watching/re-reading various cyberpunk works and then cracking open some beers and discussing it. They aren't experts and don't provide any real new insight, they just talk about what they liked and didn't like. Also, they'll recap the plot as part of their discussion so you don't need to have seen/read the works recently.

As someone who doesn't have anyone in real life that cares about cyberpunk, it's nice listening to a couple friends just informally chatting about the genre. And as far as a cyberpunk podcast goes, I'm not sure what else I'd want. Plus, it's fun listening to them trying to make sense of the plot of various terrible cyberpunk movies from the 90s.

You can listen to it anywhere that hosts podcasts, but I'm linking to their linktree here as a simple starting point.

0
New Animated Cyberpunk Project Coming to Netflix
  • This won't be made by Studio Trigger so I doubt it'll end up being as good as Edgerunners. Still, I'm a sucker for any cyberpunk anime so I'll be watching this no matter what.

  • GRAFT - Announcement trailer (post-cyberpunk game from the makers of the Shadowrun Returns games)

    > Transform yourself through grafting as you escape a vast, dying space station in this thrilling post-cyberpunk survival horror RPG from the makers of BATTLETECH and the Shadowrun Trilogy.

    When I saw this game was being made by Harebrained, I knew I recognized the name and the gameplay made me think this was the group that made RUINER. But no, this is the group that made Shadowrun Returns, Shadowrun: Dragonfall, and Shadowrun: Hong Kong. So they have a history of making cyberpunk games and they refer to this one as "post-cyberpunk". It could be interesting.

    4
    Altered Alma - Official Kickstarter Trailer (cyberpunk metroidvania)

    Altered Alma is a cyberpunk metroidvania. The kickstarter is currently active but it's already funded at 250%. Anyway, the reason I wanted to mention it is because there's a demo available on Steam and I think it's really fun (and very cyberpunk). If you're a fan of metroidvanias, I think it's got great movement, great combat, and great sprite work. And with it also being cyberpunk, I'm very interested.

    https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/2awesomestudio/altered-alma

    2
    Cyberpunk 2077: The Board Game trailer

    It seems ridiculous to me to make a board game based on a video game based on a TTRPG... but this is really just a kickstarter (er, gamefound) so it isn't real just yet. The funding goal was hit within 10 min and has already made over a million dollars though, so I guess it'll be real soon enough...

    https://gamefound.com/en/projects/go-on-board/cyberpunk-2077-the-board-game

    0
    [Music] updated Darksynth recommendation guide
  • Yeah, "cyberpunk music" definitely has different meanings for different people since music is so subjective. To some people it's the slow jazz of Vangelis in Blade Runner and to others it's more electronic. I don't think there's a wrong answer but I personally prefer the more electronic stuff.

  • [Music] updated Darksynth recommendation guide

    A couple months ago, I shamelessly posted a darksynth recommendation guide someone on reddit made and a lot of people here on Lemmy seemed to like it. Well, the creator of that guide just posted a new version so I'm shamelessly sharing it here again.

    You can see the full-sized, zoomable version here. Once again, this was created by khroshan over on reddit, not by me.

    3
    [Book] Jack: Into the Beanstalk - not as bad as the title would suggest

    Let me get this out of the way first: this is a mindless pulp cyberpunk novel. It isn't high art. But it also isn't as bad as I would expect a book titled "Jack: Into the Beanstalk" to be. This isn't a bland re-telling of Jack And The Beanstalk with some human augmentations slapped on top. It's primarily a cyberpunk world first and any references to the fairy tale feel more like easter eggs than core story elements. So in that way, I was pleasantly surprised. With that said, this post is more about me trying to keep this community alive than a strong recommendation. It's a fun mindless story, not a "must read".

    Both Astro Boy and Battle Angel Alita have the concept of a rich city in the clouds above the poor working class living on the ground. Even the Deus Ex reboot had Hengsha as a city on top of another city. So when this book has a rich city being held up above the poor city, I see that more as a cyberpunk trope than a "castle in the clouds" from the fairy tale. But maybe I'm being too generous. Anyway, the story is about a girl (named Jack) who has cybernetic limbs. She has a neurological implant in her spine which helps control these limbs. At the beginning of the story, she's doing odd jobs for a gang in the hopes of paying off the debt she incurred when purchasing the limbs. The implant in her spine gets damaged and suddenly she can see a glowing green line reaching from the ground to the rich city above. That green line is The Beanstalk. Her goal is to figure out why only she can see it and what exactly it is. No magic beans, no giants in the sky, nothing else that I would consider a reference to the fairy tale.

    In the process of trying to figure out what The Beanstalk is, she joins up with a group of freedom fighters. And this is really my main complaint with the story. This may be a nuance of the cyberpunk genre that only I care about, but I don't think cyberpunk stories should have rebellions. I'm good with a group of mercenaries teaming up to take down a megacorp, but I don't want a group of rebels attempting to make systemic change. I think an aspect of the cyberpunk genre is in trying to find your place in the world, not trying to change it. But that really is just a nitpick regarding my own enjoyment of the story; and if that's the worst I can come up with, it's not bad. The characters all have distinct personalities, the world is fleshed-out, the story is good; it's a fun romp.

    There are two books in the series so far and both are less than 300 pages. Both end on a cliffhanger though. I jumped right into book 2 to see the resolution of the first book's cliffhanger and now I'm left with another cliffhanger waiting for book 3. Also, I'm not a huge fan of where the story went in book 2. It's introducing too much "magic" for my taste. The book pretends it's based on quantum computing but as far as the world-building is concerned, it's magic. There's a lot of "oh, I guess she can do that now" in the second book. And while you might argue it's stupid for me to complain about magic in a re-telling of a fairy tale, it really has not felt like a fantasy or fairy tale at any other point in the story so it's pretty jarring to me.

    So as I said before, overall, a fun pulp cyberpunk novel but mostly me showing this community is still active.

    2
    [Music] CyberPriest - Shadow Tower (2024)

    https://linktr.ee/CyberPriest7

    0
    DEFECT | Official Reveal Trailer

    > Defect is a cyberpunk, squad-based, Immersive Shooter set in the last city of mankind, where THE SYSTEM, an authoritarian AI, rules with inhuman logic. Choose from a collection of dangerous factions—The System’s own policing force, Rogue Police Elements, or a host of gangs vying for power—play with friends in PvP or co-op. Compete to achieve objectives like smuggling guns, assassinating targets, or arresting suspects. Suit up with state-of-the-art weaponry and technology to give you the edge you need to live another day.

    https://store.steampowered.com/app/2470010/DEFECT/

    (I promise I'm not trying to constantly post video game trailers. I try to post whatever cyberpunk media news I come across and there just happens to be more cyberpunk video games in development than any other media.)

    0
    Neo Berlin 2087 - Official Gameplay Trailer
  • Totally agree. Something about the mouths in the cutscenes look too "uncanny valley" to me. But the gameplay looks like it could be pretty good.

  • Neo Berlin 2087 - Official Gameplay Trailer

    > Neo Berlin 2087, a third and first-person action RPG developed by Elysium Game Studio. Players will engage with a deep cinematic detective thriller set in a dark future vision of Berlin. Get to the bottom of a conspiracy in a dystopian cyberpunk reality with the latest trailer showcasing new and re-designed characters, gameplay, levels, and cutscenes. Neo Berlin 2087 is coming soon to PlayStation 5 (PS5), Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Steam and Epic Games Store).

    2
    Any one know what happened to Raccoon For Lemmy?
  • The dev for Raccoon also had a Lemmy community to announce updates and things (he also deleted that community). Before he deleted it, he said that post about markdown support was the last straw and he was done with it. He announced he was going to delete everything related to Raccoon and it was all gone within like 12 hours of him saying that. He said any of the forks of his app can continue development, but since he deleted the entire repo with very little warning I don't know if any of those forks were current with the latest commit before the parent repo disappeared.

  • Is there a Mastodon app (for Android) that allows for anonymous browsing?
  • Rodent is exactly what I was looking for, thanks!

  • Is there a Mastodon app (for Android) that allows for anonymous browsing?

    Sometimes I like to browse Mastodon just to see what's going on, especially when breaking news is happening (similar to how twitter used to be useful for). I don't have any interest in posting or commenting or boosting or anything, I just want to browse. I'm currently just using mastodon.social as a PWA and it works ok I guess, but I'm wondering if there are any android apps that will allow me to browse Mastodon without requiring a login.

    I tried looking at a bunch of Mastodon apps about a year ago and every app would start with a login page and wouldn't let me proceed until I logged in. Is that still the case? Or are there any apps that will let me browse anonymously without logging in first?

    I will say, this is one thing I love about Lemmy over Mastodon. Every Lemmy app I've tried defaults to anonymous browsing but still has the option to login if you want. This makes it so much easier to try out multiple Lemmy apps to see which one I like best.

    11
    What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?
  • I'm going to keep adding more items as I think of them in case others might be interested in this type of game.

    There's a free game on steam called Nightmare Kart which started out as a Bloodborne Mario Kart but the developer was getting too much attention so he removed all the explicit Bloodborne references that might get him sued and released the game as a vaguely Bloodborne-ish kart racing game. It features PS1 style graphics.

    Also, for anyone into arcade (MAME) games, there's a horror-themed beat 'em up called Night Slashers which is pretty fun.

    Apparently this game is getting a remake on steam, called Night Slashers: Remake. I actually had no idea this game was being made until I googled for the arcade game's cover art just now.

  • What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?
  • I totally agree that good horror needs to gradually ramp up the tension. But that's why I'm not looking for horror games, I'm just looking for some fun spooky games i can jump into real quick without really dedicating a lot of time to it.

  • What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?
  • I've never even heard of this! Looks like it's a turn-based RPG though. Those are typically pretty rough on the NES. Do you like the game?

  • What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?
  • Just to throw another item into the list, there's a VirtualBoy game called Jack Bros which should perfectly fit my criteria:

    Unfortunately, the game is really boring (in my opinion). You just wander around a maze collecting keys so that you can... move onto the next maze to collect more keys. You have a basic attack but the range is so short that it isn't exactly fun. I had really high hopes when I learned of its existence too...

  • What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?
  • I'm not so much concerned with the gore or being too scary, it's the slowness of the SH games that I don't have the patience for right now. I'm not looking for a game I need to spend hours immersing myself into, I'm hoping to find some fun games I can jump into for 20 minutes at a time.

    Ghost n Goblins is a good call, although I'm terrible at that game. I'll definitely need to checkout Rusty, I've played all the Castlevania games so Rusty sounds perfect.

    MedEvil definitely fits my criteria, although I find that game too clunky. There's a new(ish) game called Pumpkin Jack which was heavily inspired by MedEvil but uses more modern game mechanics. It's a fun one.

    Luigi's Mansion leans a bit too far into the cutesy/silly territory for me, but it's definitely a good choice.

    I didn't realize Dead By Daylight had a bunch of characters from various horror franchises, that's really cool! I think I'm probably more likely to play Left4Dead if I wanted an action-y spooky multiplayer game but I'll definitely give Dead By Daylight more attention.

    I've never heard of Pascal's Wager and the reviews on steam don't look great, but I'll look into it.

    Thanks for the list with so many varied options!

  • What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?
  • You're right, Maniac Mansion definitely has the vibe I'm looking for but there's no way I've got the patience for a point-and-click game.

  • What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?
  • Well that looks perfect, thanks!

  • What are your favorite spooky (but not scary) retro games?

    As I get older, I find I have no interest in playing the cutesy/silly games that are everywhere on retro consoles (obviously, they were targeted towards kids). But I also don't have the patience for survival horror games like the resident evil or silent hill series. I'm just looking for a fun spooky game that I can jump into and start playing.

    So what are your favorite action-oriented games featuring skeletons and bats and horror movie monsters that aren't actually trying to scare you? Any platform, any year. I'm looking for games whose entire theme is spooky, not just a single haunted house or graveyard level.

    36
    Demon Lord 2099 | OFFICIAL TRAILER

    The cyberpunk metropolis Shinjuku—a massive city-state bedecked with neon signs, towering skyscrapers, and the latest cutting-edge technology. It is here, in year 2099 of the Fused Era, where the legendary Demon Lord Veltol has his second coming five centuries in the making. But this landscape is nothing like the one he conquered all those years ago, for the fusion of magic and engineering has elevated civilization to dazzling, unprecedented heights. Veltol may have been reduced to a historical footnote, but make no mistake…this brave new world will be his for the taking!

    2
    Nobody Wants to Die | Launch Trailer (out now)

    This game looks similar to Observer as a first-person game with no combat about a detective trying to solve a case in a cyberpunk world. At least, that's my understanding from the trailers.

    Available on Steam, Playstation, Xbox.

    4
    The Watch Dogs Movie Is Actually Happening, Over A Decade After It Was Announced
    kotaku.com The Watch Dogs Movie Is Actually Happening, Over A Decade After It Was Announced

    Ubisoft first shared its plans for a movie based on the open-world series back in 2013

    The Watch Dogs Movie Is Actually Happening, Over A Decade After It Was Announced

    I've mentioned this before, but I'm a fan of the Watch_Dogs series. And I can't believe they're actually making a movie for it. I have no doubt this movie will be terrible but that won't stop me from seeing it in the theater. Can't wait!

    1
    BLADE RUNNER 2099 Adds Nine New Actors to The Cast — GeekTyrant
    geektyrant.com BLADE RUNNER 2099 Adds Nine New Actors to The Cast — GeekTyrant

    Nine new actors have joined Michelle Yeoh ( Star Trek: Discovery ) and Hunter Schafer ( Euphoria ) in Prime Video’s upcoming sci-fi noir series Blade Runner 2099. The new cast members include Dimitri Abold ( The Hunger Games: The Ballad of Songbirds & Snakes ) and Lewis Gribben (

    BLADE RUNNER 2099 Adds Nine New Actors to The Cast — GeekTyrant
    0
    [release] version 1.12.0-20240702-pre released for testing
  • I have the default comment sorting set to "Top". In this latest build it seems to be ordering them by "New" instead, even though the icon at the top still shows "Top". If I change the sorting type to something else and then change it back to "Top" the sort appears to be correct. So it looks like the default sorting type isn't used when first entering the post but the sorting algorithms themselves still work.

  • Pantheon
  • I've been wanting to watch this show but it's never available for streaming in the US. 😞

  • [Movie] Cyber Bandits (1995)

    Released in 1995 (the same year as Hackers and The Net!) and I've never heard of this movie. I think it was direct-to-video though, and there are plenty of terrible direct-to-video movies from that time.

    Here's a description of the movie from someone's review on imdb: > An evil billionaire develops a weapon that will entrap its victims in a catatonic state of virtual reality. His girlfriend steals the disk (back when DVD discs were considered a big deal) that creates the software for the weapon and amazingly, it's the only copy. She makes friends with a sailor who helps her escape, and they put the software in a tattoo on his back.

    Here's a trailer. If you think you can stomach it, the entire movie has been posted to youtube. For what it's worth, one of the reviews says there's a lot of nudity in the movie but I guess it isn't enough to trigger youtube's algorithm for removal. I think it's a little too low-budget even for my tastes so I haven't tried watching but maybe someone here might be interested.

    6
    Bujji & Bhairava - prelude to Kalki 2898 AD (Indian Cyberpunk?)

    I happened to stumble upon this today and wanted to talk about it. Bujji & Bhairava is an animated 2-episode mini-series (15 minutes each) prelude to one of the most expensive Indian movies ever made, Kalki 2898 AD.

    Now, as far as I can tell from the trailer, Kalki 2898 AD doesn't actually look cyberpunk to me. It looks more like Stargate or Gods of Egypt, where "the gods" have glowy futuristic technology but the humans are just living regular (non-scifi) lives. Yet this 2-episode animated prelude absolutely takes place in an Indian version of a cyberpunk city. The main character is a high-tech low-life bounty hunter who finds an android head and installs into a car to help him capture bounties. He's trying to make enough money so he can enter The Complex. Although I can't tell if The Complex is where all the rich people live (which would be even more cyberpunk) or if it's where "the gods" live (which I'd call less cyberpunk).

    Anyway, these two 15-minute episodes are available on Amazon Prime. And the movie they're leading up to, Kalki 2898 AD, releases on June 27.

    0
    new Nivalis trailer (game set in the same world as Cloudpunk)

    Nivalis is a life sim set to be released in spring of 2025, from the makers of Cloudpunk.

    0
    Dollar sign character ($) doesn't appear in Raccoon
  • Wow, this whole post looks weird in Raccoon. I embedded two images in the post body and those images are overlapping and covering the text. Also, I put a dollar sign in between parentheses in both the title and post body and both characters are missing, just like in my screenshots.

  • [Feature Request]
  • Also, it'd be nice if that community list was sorted. I believe it's sorting each individual page as that page is fetched, but not sorting the full list of communities.

  • Navigation buttons in post screen behavior
  • Also, if there are multiple top-level comments without any replies next to each other, clicking the down arrow will skip past all of them and jump to the next thread that does have comments and puts that last comment from the previous thread at the top to show the next top-level comment below that thread.

    It took me a while to figure out what was happening for this one. It can jump really far if there are lots of top-level comments with no replies.

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