Raithe

"Riker's Nemesis...."

I think one of the things that weirded me out with the storyline is that you have all these "temples" that no humans built.. with funky gravity effects going on. At times these places are literally with a human outpost built within 800 m... And at no point does anyone actually talk about them, reference wild theories of aliens or how shocked people have been to find structures on planets when they arrived, or that research that had been carried out on them. Constellation has been looking into the "artifacts" for a couple of years, but never considered anything of note to these strange, pre-human buildings that cause stone to float until you get into the funky gravity readings...

So that's going to be part of the secrets behind House Va'ruun!! Given how much they're talked about, and a companion plotline involves them, there's surprisingly little actual interaction with them as a faction.

I just finished my first playthrough. Apparently I've managed to sink 112 hours into it. The main story is pretty much an excuse for why there's a NewGamePlus mode 😄 But I'll avoid spoilers on that. There's nothing outrightly wow or amazing about it, but it's got that standard Bethesda you just roam around and discover odd little bits and pieces and kind of engage on that level. There are some missions and moments that are very well handled, and a bunch that have interesting ideas behind with shallow execution. The explanations for what you need for Outposts is fairly minimal, so that's very much a learning process. The stealth mechanics are fairly horrible when trying to do anything seriously stealthy. Trying to design your personal starship can get a little addictive, and I'm sure there's going to be a slew of mods to break some of the "maximum modules used" aspect given some time. One thing that does feel weird is that there's minimal engagement with the Factions. Or rather, there's something like 5 factions with actual quest lines or missions, but several more factions are mentioned and you have encounters with, but you never really get any depth or interaction with them beyond specific bits from other faction / companion quests. It makes it feel like there's a hole waiting for future DLC to fill.

For the WoT memes... (I will say, Verin is being handled very nicely as we get more of her on screen)

https://www.gamespot.com/articles/cyberpunk-2077-players-warned-to-check-their-pc-cooling-systems-before-phantom-liberty-launch/1100-6517637/?

They managed to slip it in smoothly enough... Still, for images that will stick with you rent free...