Let's be honest though: modders will likely add all of those pre-order goodies into the game, and made available for everyone shortly after the game release anyway.

Indeed, that is another big problem. Who has ever heard of having to upgrade your system to play a frigging expansion to a game you already own?
What are people supposed to do, who just can't run the game after the DLC and Patch hit? Sit on a game they paid 60 bucks for (because like me, they were idiots who believed in CDPR and pre-ordered), they can't play, because a patch set the demands on their systems so high, they can't run it anymore?

It's honestly quite outrageous to do something like that AND then sell it as a big improvement.

World of Warcraft has been doing just that since 2004.

Well I watched the trailer and I can imagine folks are going nuts, the recommendation for RT (which is not even Overdrive, a RTX4080 is what it specified for, which i believed DLSS is needed for 2160P it listed) is 3080Ti and a 12900K, well my system isn't far off (a vanilla 3080 10G and a 12900K) and with Overdrive enabled I barely reach average 50-ish FPS in 1080P, DLSS quality enabled (or it will only reach about 30FPS on 1080P native), that is what i get on a 2.5 years old USD799 high end GPU (and roughly equivalent to RTX4070, a 599USD card today), that is pretty crazy to imagine you need a RTX4090 (a 1599 flagship) to be able to hit 60 FPS on native 1080P in highest setting on a 2.5 years old game, and the gameplay itself is still largely unoptimized/unfinished, it is hard to believe this game is released by the same company who made the masterpiece, The Witcher 3 :sigh:

First of all, it was specified that only old-gen consoles would not get the overhaul, so you're already bitching about something that's just not true.

perfectly put and very enjoyable to see someone share my sentiments, i don't know how a game like Grand Theft Auto 6 will even survive the scrutiny it will soon be subject to because you can't do literally everything in it

Yeah, us damn demanding customers. How dare we demand games that WORK fine at release, how dare we expect games to include the features the publisher promised.

This is not on the fans, this is and was always on CDPR, stop white-knighting for a company that has completely forgotten what they claimed to be.
And if by some magic surprise Rockstar manages to release GTA6 in a working state, without compromising everything to pacify people who will never ever play the game (those who demand games be politically correct before anything else), then of course gamers will be fine and happy.

People like you always act as if we criticize publishers and games for no reason at all and find something to complain about in anything, and that is just simply lying.
Anyone who doesn't close their eyes before the truth can see the horrible state modern gaming is in, with all the PTW, with exorbitant prices for stupid cosmetics, with live-service games that get published broken (but of course with working microtransactions) and us gamers supposed to be grateful if the publishers fix them at some point, before they discontinue support and all the money morons spent is lost (but they don't care anyway, there are always more skins and costumes to buy in other games),
Half the games by AAA publishers arrive in completely unacceptable states, single-player games have in-game shops, modelled after mobile games...
What else do you guys need, before you stop defending those practices?
Eh, you probably buy sport games and love Diablo Immortal anyway, so what use is it trying to change your mind.

And there you have the difference. The game is almost 20 years old. Just to survive, they have to update the graphics and gameplay, so as not to be hopelessly dated.
That is a huge difference to a game that is a few years old, not to mention that while yes, the new stuff looks great, from what we see, nothing in there seems to warrant these new high demands.

Uh, I never said this was on the fans. We're in the same boat and I'm on your side.

The development of CP2077 was very likely mishandled the launch definitely way overrushed and the delivered product certainly underwhelming.

I am saying some people were always gonna be disappointed while I think I had more realistic expectations, but that does in no way excuse what CDPR delivered.

I'm also saying that while the game is still far from perfect and will never been perfect, CDPR has been doing good in these 2,5 years since launch. I think they did all they could to patch the game into a much better state.

That being said, it is what it is now. They can't keep running on fumes, pushing out more patches without a new income stream forever. They're still a business.
So they announce this expansion, and I think it's fairly priced. This is not day 1 DLC as with other studios who rip already finished content from the game to sell separately, this was certainly developed post launch so it's a legitimate expansion that delivers new content, something that's extremely rare nowadays compared to the low effort weapon skin packs and season passes you get elsewhere for the same money.

So you have to decide if you want to give up on this studio and the game they're still making or if you want to help fund further development.

But the way I see it, you're being unreasonable. You're making unproductive complaints, not actually suggesting anything that could be done better NOW but you also don't go all the way and suggest a boycott.
You're just a moaner.

This could have been remidied by doing what Bethedsa did with Fallout 4: release a HD pack that allowed players to enjoy the game with the latest graphical improvements while not making it a requirement for players that were running hardware that could not run the pack.

That is the core issue with this release: it is forcing players to make drastic upgrades to their system (if not outright rebuilds) to play a game that they had bought with the understanding that the system requirement would not change - or, at least, not change as drastically.

As I said, the QoL improvements mentioned in the teasers were available on a 10-year-old game with system requirements that are easily attainable in 2023. No one would be making as much of a fuss over this if these changes were not being forced as a requirement - as far as the current statements from CDPR stand, once Phantom Liberty drops the base game will be updated with the same requirements as the expansion. Players who have no interest in the expansion will be saddled with the same performance burden as those that are.

As for a productive solution to the problem I have already stated it: download the current offline installer and, once the expansion drops, run the game from the executable rather than Galaxy to avoid the auto-updater. (Also cancel the update when you inevitably have to run Galaxy after the drop date.)

Better yet, GOG should just allow us to download the non-updated/less resource hungry version at all times.
It's the most decent thing to do.

Do I need to start over with a new character to play Phantom Liberty, or can I continue with the one I currently have?

The worst part of the "pre-order bonus" are all the attached requirements that come with it:
https://www.cyberpunk.net/en/myrewards

Want the jacket or sword? That requires "The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt".
Want the T-shirt or gun? That requires "GWENT: The Witcher Card Game" (whatever that is).

I had planned to pre-order, having spent as many hours in the game as I have, but reading about these additional prerequisites, I will definitely skip it. I got the Wolf jacket and Unicorn sword (and the rest of the CP77 DLCs) through CET, and I don't even have GoG Galaxy installed. I expect the same with the Phantom Liberty DLCs a couple months after the release.

All I want is the car anyway, and I know modders will add in the rest later on anyway - without the need to even have GoG Galaxy installed.

And what's this about increased system requirements to play Phantom Liberty? Anyone got any details on that?

From what I see here though:
https://www.gamespot.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077-pc-specs-increased-ahead-of-phantom-liberty-now-requires-ssd/1100-6515207/

...it doesn't seem so bad (but damn, the RAM requirements for games are going up these days!).

This was a cinematic trailer for Witcher 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c0i88t0Kacs

You seem to have problem with distinguishing between cinematic trailers and game footage.

Yes, the game needed a lot of work (especially on 3rd gen consoles, which probably would be better for the game if they didn't target them at all), but all those fixes were delivered for free with DLCs.

Phantom Liberty is an Extension Pack not a DLC, so it is more of another game in Cyberpunk 2077 world.

I don't think anyone at GOG knows how to use a torrent file.

I'll buy the DLC as soon as you finish the original. Better get to work, it's only about 25% done...