The death of couch co-op and local multiplayer is legitimately an unforgivable sin in modern gaming.

I honestly can’t imagine being a kid today and heading over to a friend’s house for a sleepover and not being able to all gather on the couch to play Halo or Nightfire with your friends.

Occasionally in Cyberpunk 2077, you’ll end up scooping up datashards from the gangoons you’ve just mowed down. Sometimes, this validates what you’d done, especially scavs and Maelstrom.

But sometimes you just get a bit of squabbling between a guy and his girl who is fussing at him for letting his friend drag him into trouble because she’s worried he won’t be around for their kid or a guy and his elderly grandfather who’s had an accident and is pleading for his grandson to come home because he doesn’t want anyone to see him like that.

And then you look down at the chunky meat salsa that the shotgun created and feel awful.