The upcoming release of Cyberpunk 2077 is weighing heavily on my mind as it rapidly approaches. With it, I saw some speculation that games journalists were crunching (much like CDPR were, for months on end; a complete failure of project management) to get reviews done in time for the review embargo lifting. Criticism, done well, isn’t a small feat, and review embargos are often a nightmare. There are a handful of reasons for that, to put it mildly. Let’s dig in.

There are very human limitations involved in the process of taking a photo in the physical world. What then happens if we remove those limits? If we allow people to effectively freeze time at a moments notice, freely manipulate the camera’s position and all of the associated settings, and capture the moment with intimate detail? What happens when those moments are primarily focused on violence?