As a tumultuous 2020 ends for the company, Intel finds itself once again under fire going into 2021.

According to a report from Reuters, activist hedge fund Third Point LLC is jockeying for a loud enough voice to force Intel to make some greater strategic moves to combat what will inevitably be an onslaught of AMD, NVIDIA and Apple silicon competition in the coming months and years.

While Apple’s consumer and commercial base only make up a fraction of Intel’s chip business, AMD’s recent gain in server chip provisions has elevated Third Point CEO Daniel Loeb’s argument that Intel needs to take some “immediate action to boost the company’s position as a major provider of processor chips for PCs and data centers.”

Over the course of a couple of years, Third Point has become a significant voice in Intel’s investors’ meetings as it has accumulated close to a $1B stake in the company which is why Loeb sent out an emergency flare in the form of a letter to Intel.

Loeb points out some key identifiers that should have most Intel investors worried, such as the loss of talent within the company due to “human capital management issues”, the erosion of Intel’s industry-leading position as a micro processing manufacturer to TSM and Samsung, and its market share loss in its core PC industry to ARM as of recent. Even when it comes to championing computational modeling for AI, Intel has been surpassed by NVIDIA.

Perhaps, not simply satisfied with sounding the alarm, Loeb also goes on to mention more strategic things Intel can do to stem the company’s bleeding of mind and market share beginning with an evaluation of its business as an integrated device manufacturer.

Among Loeb’s notes for Intel include a call for advisors to reexamine whether the company should remain an integrated device manufacturer and or divest failed acquisitions.

Third Point believes that Intel should consider separating its chip design from its semiconductor fabrication plant manufacturing operations, according to the sources. This could include a joint venture in manufacturing, according to sources.

Aside from its suggestions, Third Point is also ready to play aggressively if sees Intel brushing off its concerns. Loeb and company have reserved the option to submit potential nominees to Intel’s board to help facilitate the changes Third Point believes are a necessity for the company to ward off the continued dabbling its partners are doing with their own custom silicon as of late.

In a response to Loeb’s attentive letter, Intel offered the following, “Intel welcomes input from all investors regarding enhanced shareholder value. In that spirit, we look forward to engaging with Third Point LLC on their ideas towards that goal.”

Despite Third Point’s lack of subtly and nuance, the ideas that Loeb brings forth are worth examining for Intel as its once-dominant position is being quickly undermined by companies working faster and producing better alternatives for its partners.

2020 was undoubtedly a very special year for all of us, with a worldwide pandemic that impacted everyone and profoundly changed the way we work. This year has been pretty brutal for many sectors including transport, restaurants and food services, or the events industry, though the biggest tech companies including Microsoft, Apple, Google, or Amazon are still thriving.

Like many of its competitors, Microsoft quickly enforced a work from home policy for its employees and cancelled all in-person events until July 2021. This global switch to remote work had a big impact on the growth of Microsoft Teams and Zoom, and the software giant also didn’t fail to launch various new hardware and services since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Microsoft has continued to perform very well quarter after quarter this year, there have been some notable misses on the consumer side of things, with the closure of the company’s Mixer game streaming service coming first to mind. As 2020 is coming to a close, this is my personal and non exhaustive list of Microsoft’s hits and misses for this year.

Microsoft Teams became a juggernaut

Microsoft Teams has been one of the fastest new Office 365 services since launch, and the app has experienced a meteoric growth this year due to the ongoing pandemic. Microsoft announced 115 million daily active users for Teams back in October, adding 40 million new users in just six months.

Teams continue to compete with Zoom and Slack, with the latter soon joining Salesforce following a $27.7 billion deal with the CRM heavyweight. Teams continue to benefit from being integrated with various Microsoft 365 commercial plans, but Microsoft also introduced new personal features in Teams this year that make us wonder if Skype is really here to stay.

Overall, Microsoft seems to have doubled down on Teams since the beginning of the pandemic, adding several new features to make the video conferencing experience better than Zoom’s. It’s sometimes hard to keep up with all the updates coming to Teams every month, but my colleague Rabia penned yesterday a good recap of what Teams added in 2020.

Your Phone is becoming an essential Windows 10 app

If the selection of Microsoft UWP apps that ship with Windows 10 still leaves a lot to be desired, Your Phone is starting to really stand out. If you own an Android phone, Your Phone will allow you sync recent pictures, send and receive text messages, and even make phone calls right from your PC.

Apple has created similar synergies between iPhones and Macs many years ago, and it’s nice to see Windows 10 finally catching up. Microsoft has been testing some exclusive Your Phone features on select Samsung Galaxy devices, including the ability to run multiple Android apps on your PC, and the company can probably do more to make Android devices integrate even more seamlessly with Windows 10.

In recent years, Microsoft introduced several new Windows 10 features that didn’t really get momentum, and the list includes Timeline and the now deprecated My People shortcut in the Taskbar. Your Phone isn’t as deeply integrated to the system and remains an app that can be updated regularly through the Microsoft Store, and that’s probably best for users. Do you remember having to wait six months to get new features for the legacy Microsoft Edge? Yeah, Microsoft should probably avoid doing that again.

Xbox Game Pass remains one of the best deals in gaming

Xbox Game Pass crossed 15 million subscribers this year, and the service remains one of the best deals in gaming these days. This fall, Microsoft added EA Play games and Xbox Cloud Gaming to the Ultimate tier at no additional cost, and we’re continuing to see high-profile games join the service such as Control or Doom Eternal.

All new Xbox Games Studios titles continue to launch on Xbox Game Pass for Console and PC on day one, and this has really helped niche games like Microsoft Flight Simulator to reach over 2 million PC players since its launch in August. Microsoft’s upcoming acquisition of Bethesda/ZeniMax Media will guarantee a regular stream of new first-party games coming to the service, and Microsoft is likely not done with studio acquisitions and business deals with big publishers.

Following the addition of EA Play to Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, a recent rumour suggests the Ubisoft+ catalog could also join Xbox Game Pass next year. We’ll see what happens, but Microsoft is certainly ready to make Xbox Game Pass even more attractive than it is today.

Microsoft didn’t screw up the launch of its Xbox Series X|S consoles

We all remember the disastrous launch of the Xbox One seven years ago, when Microsoft had a console that was less powerful than the competition, but still cost $100 more due to the inclusion of Kinect. The Xbox One also really suffered from all the FUD about the console requiring to be always connected to the Internet, and Microsoft wasted years to rebuild the trust it had lost in the Don Mattrick era.

Fast forward to 2020, the recent launch of the Xbox Series X|S is a completely different story. Even though Microsoft didn’t share any sales numbers, both consoles have been selling out very quickly in all their launch markets, and many enthusiasts haven’t been able to get their hands on the new Xbox or PS5 consoles during the holidays.

The Xbox Series X and Series S unfortunately launched without the flagship game that should have been Halo: Infinite, but delaying the game to Fall 2021 was definitely the right thing to do even though we’re still a bit worried about it. We hope that Microsoft will have a stronger lineup of exclusive games next year, and the company also has yet to convince us that the Xbox Series X is the most powerful new console on the market. So far, many cross-platform games such as Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, Dirt 5, or the much-criticized Cyberpunk 2077 run just as well, if not better, on Sony’s PlayStation 5 console.

A not so exciting year for Windows 10 users

Five years after the launch of Windows 10, the OS finally crossed the 1 billion monthly active users mark earlier this year. The ongoing pandemic has apparently benefited PC manufacturers, with data showing that global PC shipments surged up 15% compared to last year.

Microsoft once again shipped two Windows 10 updates this year, with the latter being a pretty minor update with just a couple of UI changes. Panos Panay, Microsoft’s Chief Product Office Officer and new head of both Windows client and hardware said earlier this year that the company was going “to accelerate innovation in Windows 10” to meet customers where they are now. As a result, Windows 10X, Microsoft’s new OS originally designed for dual-screen devices has been delayed to next year, and it will now ship first on single-screen devices aimed at customers using cloud-powered apps first and foremost.

For now, we haven’t really seen the results of this “accelerated innovation in Windows 10,” though a significant design update codenamed Sun Valley could make its debut in the second half of 2021 with the Windows 10 21H2 update. As for Windows 10X, the first devices running the new OS are expected to be released next year, but Microsoft’s dual-screen Surface Neo, which was expected to be a launch device for Windows 10X this fall has been delayed to an unknown date.

Between the bi-annual Windows 10 release cycle, the company’s internal work on Windows 10X, and the slow progress on Windows 10 on ARM, it may look like the Windows division may have a bit too much on its plate right now. In many ways, it’s probably Apple that made PCs exciting again this year with the launch of the first Apple Silicon Macs, which don’t suffer from the same performance and compatibility issues that have been plaguing Windows 10 on ARM PCs for years.

If Apple expects to transition its whole Mac line to its own Apple Silicon over the next two years, Windows 10 on ARM still looks like a little side-project instead of the future of Windows 10 it should be. As you may know, the first Windows 10X devices will apparently keep using Intel chips that no longer offer the best battery life on mobile devices. It remains to be seen if Windows 10X can avoid ending up like another Windows RT or Windows Phone, but Apple’s being all-in on ARM chips seems to be the right thing to do right now.

The Surface family continues its slow growth

Just like Apple, Microsoft is a company that slowly iterates, and that’s why we keep seeing the same designs in the latest Surface Pro, Surface Book, and Surface Laptop devices. The Surface Pro X was an interesting change, but it looks like the refreshed design isn’t coming to the Surface Pro 8 expected to be announced in January.

Following the launch of its first Surface Go tablet in 2018, Microsoft followed up with more low-cost Surface devices this year with the Surface Go 2 and the Surface Laptop Go. While it’s certainly a good thing to make Surface devices more affordable, I also think that many Surface fans are still waiting for a true Surface workstation. I’m imagining this device as the “Surface Laptop Pro,” which would have a powerful dedicated GPU that’s still missing on the regular Surface Laptop models, and no gimmicks like the detachable (and somewhat unreliable) hinge from the Surface Book line.

I also believe there’s a market for a boring “Surface phone” with a single screen unlike the Surface Duo, but with the same premium design and top of the line specs. My colleague Arif, who is quite the Surface fan, reviewed the Surface Duo and initially liked it, but he eventually returned it because of the disappointing camera as well as an issue with USB-C port. He got an iPhone 12 Pro instead, and I don’t blame him.

Truth be told, the 1st-gen Surface Duo is overpriced for a device that shipped with a subpar camera and an unpolished OS. Even after a couple of software updates, the Android OS and its apps like the Microsoft Launcher apparently still requires some work, but that has to be expected from a new Android manufacturer. Actually, Microsoft acquired the operations team from a Finnish company working on the Surface Duo’s Android software this year.

After the Duo launched, I was optimistic for aggressive updates to improve the overall expereince…but it has been slow, at best :/ https://t.co/neKB2jpmqV

— Brad Sams (@bdsams) December 29, 2020

Microsoft is obviously serious about its Surface Duo line, and we hope the Surface Duo 2 will fix the shortcomings from the first-gen devices. In the meantime, the company still has a deep partnership with Samsung and the company’s latest Galaxy devices have unique synergies with Windows 10 that could really make Surface Duo customers jealous.

Microsoft still doesn’t get social

This year saw the closure of Mixer, the game streaming service that Microsoft acquired four years earlier. The Redmond giant spent a lot of money to get big streamers like Ninja to stream exclusively on Mixer, but this didn’t really help to move the needle and Mixer continued to lag behind Twitch, YouTube, and Facebook Gaming this year when all these services experienced meteoric growth during the pandemic.

If Mixer’s Faster-than-light protocol will live on in other Microsoft products including Teams, this failed acquisition shows that Microsoft still doesn’t get social. While Zoom pretty much became the default app for video meetings this year, English comedian James Corden wondered “what the hell happened to Skype” in a funny video that went viral a couple of months ago.

Microsoft’s struggles with social apps continue with the new Xbox apps available on Windows 10, iOS and Android, which dropped all Xbox Live social features such as Looking for Groups or Xbox Live Clubs. More and more Xbox gamers are now ignoring Xbox Live’s social features in favor of Discord servers, and Microsoft itself is a heavy Discord user with many official servers for Xbox games or their studios.

I could see a Discord acquisition making a lot of sense for the company, but unfortunately, the company chased another rabbit this year with TikTok in what ended up as a quite embarrassing episode for the company. While the US Government pushed the Chinese social network to sell its US operations to a US-based company, Microsoft stepped it but ultimately dodged the bullet as despite an announced deal with Walmart and Oracle, the fate of the company’s US operations is still in limbo.

Again, I think Discord would be the perfect acquisition for Microsoft as it’s currently growing fast and tries to distant itself from its initial gaming focus. Discord also has a live streaming community that Microsoft could be interested in following the sunsetting of Mixer, and I also believe Discord is a much better social app than Microsoft Teams, which Microsoft is now trying to position as a Skype/Zoom alternative for consumers.

Looking forward to 2021

2020 was a good year for Microsoft overall, but 2021 should be much more exciting. Windows 10 users should see a big design update in Fall 2021, and the first Windows 10X devices should also make Windows interesting again. On the Xbox side of things, we should finally get Halo Infinite 2021 and see more games that really take advantage of the power of the Xbox Series X. Microsoft should also continue to surprise us with Xbox Game Pass announcements and maybe some new studios acquisitions.

I’m a bit less excited about Microsoft’s Surface division, which really needs to shake things up after Apple really impressed with its first Apple Silicon Macs. Microsoft is reportedly working on its own ARM chips for Surface devices and servers, but we likely won’t see the results of this work next year. Anyway, the “Wintel” alliance had a good run and it’s now time for Microsoft to really double down on Windows 10 on ARM in case PC manufacturers and consumers end up ignoring Windows 10X devices.

Lastly, 2021 should be another big year for Microsoft Teams, which has become one of the company’s most successful new apps since its launch in 2016. If companies have been embracing Microsoft Teams in a pretty big way this year, it remains to be seen if the addition of personal features can make the app appeal more to consumers. Microsoft had Skype and Mixer, but the latter is now dead while the former is now pretty much irrelevant. I’m not sure a TikTok acquisition would have made Microsoft cool again, but I doubt consumers will abandon Zoom and WhatsApp in favor of Microsoft Teams anytime soon.

Ever wanted to copy text from a photo or a video that you see, and then paste it into your clipboard in Windows 10? Joe Finney, the same developer behind Ink Calendar in Windows 10, is back with another app to help you do just that.

Named “Text Grab” this latest app works similarly to a screenshot tool. However, instead of saving an image, it captures the text from the selected region and passes it to the Windows OCR API and then to the clipboard, so you can paste the text from the image anywhere. According to Finney, each word has its own bound box, so with a single click, you can select a word. See it in the demo below.

Using Text Grab by selecting a region pic.twitter.com/sAmyAiffHR

— Joe Finney (@TheJoeFin) December 29, 2020

The app is still a work in progress, but Finney says on Twitter that he wanted to get the word out right away so people could play around with the app. It’s even open-sourced on GitHub, too, so you can contribute to the project, as well. Try the app now via the link below, and let us know how you’ll be using it, too.

Download
QR-Code

Text Grab

Developer:
JoeFinApps

Price:
$9.99

Cyberpunk, one of the most-anticipated games of the year finally launched on PC, Xbox, and PlayStation consoles two weeks ago on December 10. While the initial PC reviews were generally very good despite some technical issues, developer CD Projekt has been facing some intense backlash since console players got their hands on the game.

Despite multiple delays, there’s no doubt that Cyberpunk 2077 shouldn’t have been released in that state on old-gen consoles. It’s easy to make fun of the game’s various glitches, but performance on the base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles is so bad that Sony went as far as removing the game from its PlayStation Store.

CD Projekt has previously apologized for the game’s poor performance on 8th gen consoles and the developers already released a couple of patches, the latest one being released yesterday. It’s too bad to see a developer shoot itself in the foot by releasing an unfinished game, though CD Projekt Red can hopefully turn things around next year. The developer’s critically-acclaimed game The Witcher 3 was also not great at launch, but it went to become one of the best open-world RPGs following months of patches and the release of two excellent DLCs.

Reviewing Cyberpunk 2077 hasn’t been an easy task, though I did my best to ignore all the bad buzz to judge the game for what it really is today. I’ve been playing the game on Xbox Series X and Series S exclusively, and so far I’ve had a good experience with very few bugs. My colleague Arif has been playing it on PC with an Nvidia RTX GPU with ray-tracing on, and this is currently the best way to play the game until Cyberpunk 2077 is fully optimized for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles next year.

Why you should play Cyberpunk 2077 on Xbox Series X|S consoles

As of this writing, I wouldn’t recommend anyone to play Cyberpunk 2077 on the base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles. The game really struggles to reach 30FPS on these now seven years old machines, and even the more powerful PlayStation 4 Pro and Xbox One X can’t run the game very well. It’s a different story on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles, and Cyberpunk 2077 actually isn’t running like the rest of backwards-compatible games on next-gen hardware.

Usually, Xbox Series X owners get to run the Xbox One X version of backwards-compatible games, while Xbox Series S users get to play the Xbox One S version of games without 4K textures and other enhancements. However, a technical analysis from Digital Foundry revealed that Cyberpunk 2077 does things differently, and the game’s code seems to be aware that it’s running on next-gen console.

On Xbox Series X, Cyberpunk 2077 uses a 1080p/60FPS Performance mode by default that isn’t available on Xbox One X consoles. Players on Xbox Series X can also choose a Quality mode in Settings that applies a 30FPS cap, but with a dynamic resolution that can go up to 1800p. The Xbox Series S apparently uses a tweaked version of this Xbox Series X Quality Mode, with a 30FPS cap and a dynamic resolution that can go up to 1296p.

Again, CD Projekt Red is working on true next-gen versions of Cyberpunk 2077 that should be available next year on Xbox Series X|S and PlayStation 5 consoles, and this will be a free upgrade for those who already own the game. While CD Projekt Red has yet to share details about what to expect from these next-gen updates, I hope that a 4K/60FPS Performance mode and a Quality mode with ray-tracing at 30FPS is feasible on Xbox Series X.

Overall, Cyberpunk 2077 is a good-looking game on Microsoft’s next-gen consoles, and I’d say that it looks and better than Watch Dogs Legion, a game that’s already optimized for Xbox Series X|S with support for ray-tracing on both consoles. Watch Dogs Legion is locked to 30FPS even on the Series X, but Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t and it makes a big difference.

Night City is a fascinating setting

Cyberpunk 2077 is set in Night City, a dystopian megacity that makes you feel like you’re in Blade Runner when it’s raining during night time, or in a futuristic version of Los Angeles or other sunny cities from the US West Coast during the day. Night City is pretty big, and I still have a lot to discover beyond the Japanese district, the business center, the not so shiny suburbs, and the surrounding Badlands.

You play the game as V, a cybernetically enhanced mercenary taking various jobs that will often have a violent outcome. Cyberpunk 2077 starts with a very detailed character creator where you’ll also get to choose between three life paths: Corporate, Nomad, and Street Kid. These life paths will determine your background, providing different dialogue options throughout the game. I opted for the Street Kid life path for my first playthrough, and each life path also has its own prologue mission.

I’ll do my best to avoid spoilers, but the story of Cyberpunk 2077 really gets interesting once you encounter Johnny Silverhand, a character played by A-list actor Keanu Reeves. In the game, Silverhand is a former rock star and terrorist who died while trying to take down the corrupt Arasaka corporation. During an infiltration mission where V attempts to steal a mysterious biochip from the same Asaraka company, the chip’s protective case is damaged and you’ll have no choice but to insert it in your brain to keep it working, without knowing that the chip hides the digital ghost of Silverhand.

Silverhand first appears as a seemingly evil character trying to take over your body, and you’ll soon learn that the damaged chip inserted in your brain will ultimately kill you. This death sentence will ultimately force V and Silverhand to cooperate, and Keanu Reeves’s character, who can only be seen and heard by you, will interact with you during missions and your various interactions with secondary characters.

Overall, Keanu Reeves does a great job at playing the cynical and nihilistic Silverhand, a character you’ll never really know for sure if you can trust him or not. Besides Silverhand, Cyberpunk 2077 also has a great cast of secondary characters including Judy, the braindance editor you meet early on in the gaùe. Braindances in Cyberpunk 2077 are a form of VR experience used mostly for entertainment, but you’ll often use these 3D recordings in the game to investigate crime scenes.

CD Projekt Red is known for crafting immersive worlds with well-written quests and characters, and Cyberpunk 2077 shouldn’t disappoint fans of The Witcher 3. There are some truly memorable quests in the game, and in some of them, you’ll get to make important choices that can put the life of secondary characters in danger. Cyberpunk 2077 also includes multiple romance options throughout the game, and the game also has multiple endings.

Just like The Witcher 3, the game deals with adult themes and you can expect a good deal of violence, sex, drugs, and other themes inspired by the original material, a dystopian tabletop game originally released in 1988. CD Projekt Red probably went a bit over the top with the amount of dildos that can be seen in the game and which serve no real purpose, though the developer has already promised to fix it.

A good mix of the best open-world RPGs

Cyberpunk 2077 was originally announced back in 2012, and expectations went pretty much through the roof after years of teasing and the release of the critically-acclaimed The Witcher 3 in 2015. What I was personally expecting is a more open version of Deus Ex: Mankind Divided, a game that also deals with cyberpunk themes but didn’t get the same AAA production quality as CD Projekt Red’s take on the genre.

Overall, Cyberpunk 2077 isn’t really pushing many boundaries, but it takes a lot of inspiration from other open-world games and adds CD Projekt Red unique’s storytelling expertise to offer something really unique. The gunfights, driving, and hacking aren’t that great in the game, but exploring Night City is never boring and you’ll always have lots of things to do. If you found the world of The Witcher 3 overwhelming, Night City seems just as intimidating at first with lots of optional quests to discover by visiting the various “?” symbols on the map.

The game’s missions are pretty varied, and most of them will allow you to try different approaches. I had the most fun playing games like Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and Dishonored 2 without killing anyone, though I believe it’s not possible to do that in Cyberpunk 2077. In some situations, enemies will start shooting at you or hold you at gunpoint, and avoiding combat just doesn’t seem possible. However, the game does encourage stealth, and you can use hacking to deactivate security cameras, distract enemies, or even blind them temporarily.

Gunfights are pretty good in Cyberpunk 2077, and with the right implants, you can use special weapons with homing ammo, bullets that can ricochet off walls, and more. Blades and other blunt weapons can also be quite powerful, allowing you to kill unaware enemies in just one blow.

The more you’ll use a certain type of weapons, the more you’ll get deadly with them, but Cyberpunk also comes with a pretty complex skill tree with lots of specialization options. Every three levels, you earn an attribute point that you can use to improve one of your core attributes (Body, Reflexes, Cool, Technical Ability, intelligence), but you also gain a Perk point with every level that you can use on the Skill tree to get passive bonuses.

In addition to the classic level system, Cyberpunk 2077 also has Street Cred, which is a measure of your reputation in Night City. You’ll gain Street Cred by completing missions, and reaching higher levels will grant you access to new vendors, items, and side missions.

While implants are optional and will cost you money, they can really make a difference, giving you passive bonuses or allowing you to use new hacks and weapons. One of the most expensive implants I purchased allows V to perform a double jump midair, which really helps to apprehend the verticality of Night City. You can also do street fights in Cyberpunk 2077, and the Gorilla Arms implant that deals bonus damage can make your character really deadly.

There’s a lot of loot in Cyberpunk 2077 as well, and there’s also a crafting system for creating new objects and upgrading your existing equipment. Overall, it certainly takes some time to understand how to optimize your character, though it’s possible to ignore crafting, hacking, and implants and play the game like a regular loot shooter. However, some of the best missions are probably those where there’s no action at all. I particularly liked the few missions where you get to act as a detective looking for clues on a crime scene or in a virtual “braindance” VR experience.

So many things can break the immersion

If CD Projekt Red succeeded in creating a fantasy world with some very detailed urban areas in The Witcher 3, GTA V’s Los Santos really raised the bar for urban open worlds. There’s no denying that Night City really shows CD Projekt Red’s attention to details, but car traffic, pedestrian AI, and so many other things can break the immersion when exploring Night City.

In general, driving vehicles doesn’t feel great in Cyberpunk 2077, though motorcycles are a bit easier to handle. For some reason, you can’t shoot guns while driving like in GTA, which is a really weird omission. While you can purchase many cars in the game, you can’t customize any of them, not even give them a fresh coat of paint, and that’s quite frustrating.

Cyberpunk 2077 is a first-person game, and you’ll only see your character while looking in the mirror or driving vehicles. Once you’re done creating your character at the beginning of the game, you won’t be able to change your haircut, or get some tattoos or jewelry. Equipment and some implants will change your appearance, but that’s pretty much it.

When you think that The Witcher 3 was one of the first RPGs where your character could grow a beard and go to the barber, the absence of hair salons, tattoo parlors, and other places where you can change your appearance is really weird. I should add that most equipment in the game looks pretty bad, though that doesn’t really matter for a game using a first-person camera.

A lot of reviews have already pointed out the game’s lackluster AI, and I sadly have to agree with them. Enemy AI is pretty dumb in general, and it’s the same thing for pedestrians or cars who will struggle to go around you when you’re blocking the passage. Cars and pedestrians can also disappear or be replaced with others when you look the other way, and we really shouldn’t see such things in a game with such a big budget.

Just like in GTA V, your character in Cyberpunk 2077 has a phone that can be a great source of distraction. Your Phone is how you’ll get most of your missions, and you’ll usually get alerts when you visit a new area in Night City. A new character will call you or send you a message to ask for your services, and new missions and activities will be added to the world map, which can get intimidating really quickly. You’re free to ignore side missions to focus on the main quests, but it’s hard not to get overwhelmed every time you look at the world map.

Should you buy Cyberpunk 2077?

Cyberpunk 2077 has been released at a very busy time of the year for the video games industry, and there are many other blockbuster games to check out this holiday. Ubisoft just released three blockbuster games in a row with Watch Dog Legion, Assassin’s Creed Valhalla, and Immortal Fenyx Rising, while established open world games like Destiny 2 and Borderlands 3 just received new content. There are also new J-RPGs on the market such as like Yakuza: Like a Dragon and Dragon Quest XI S: Echoes of an Elusive Age, the latter being free to play with Xbox Game Pass.

I wish CD Projekt Red had delayed Cyberpunk 2077 to next year to fix all the bugs and the performance issues on base Xbox One and PlayStation 4 consoles, though the game is already a best-seller with 13 million copies sold as of December 20. The developer announced two big patches coming in January and February, and Cyberpunk 2077 will also get new DLCs as well as a multiplayer mode in the near future.

I’m usually fine with waiting a couple of years for games to get patched and receive more additional content before playing them, but I’ve been having a lot of fun with Cyberpunk 2077 so far. I really couldn’t put it down during the first 10 hours of gameplay, and if you’re playing on next-gen consoles like me, you probably won’t immediately notice the game’s lack of polish. Cyberpunk 2077 makes a very good first impression, and I find this world much more interesting than the dystopian London from Ubisoft’s Watch Dogs Legion.

I’m looking forward to seeing how CD Projekt can fix the game in the coming months, but I’m confident Cyberpunk 2077 will end up just as good as The Witcher 3 did in the past decade. Actually, I think Cyberpunk 2077 is probably CD Projekt Red’s most accessible game ever, even more so than The Witcher 3 which I found pretty hard to get into. Creating successful and impactful new IPs is a very difficult thing to do, but I think CD Projekt Red pulled it off and we’ll probably continue to talk about Cyberpunk 2077 for many years to come.

If you expect to find the same level of freedom as in games like Fallout 3 or The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, you’re likely going to disappointed: Where Cyberpunk 2077 really shines is in its storytelling, immersive setting, with some truly unforgettable quests and supporting characters you’ll really care about. That’s enough for me to make it a really good game, and one I’d easily recommend next to the relatively uninspired Watch Dogs Legion. Cyberpunk 2077 also offers lots of replay value if you’re willing to choose another life path at the beginning of the game, and make different decisions during the few missions where your choices can make a real difference.

Cyberpunk 2077 is currently priced at $69.99 on the Xbox Store, and Microsoft recently announced an extension of its refund policy for all Xbox players dissatisfied with the game. The company also added a warning message to the store listing for players on base Xbox One consoles, though the hotfix 1.06 released yesterday should bring “improved memory management and stability” resulting in fewer crashes on all consoles.

If you got the opportunity to play Cyberpunk 2077 on console or PC since launch, feel free to share your thoughts about the game in the comments. Do you think it’s still one of the best games of the year despite all the bad buzz? Let us know below.

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Cyberpunk 2077

Developer:
CD PROJEKT RED

Price:
$29.99

The desktop version of Microsoft Teams is about to receive a new History menu, which will allow users to easily navigate back and forth between frequently visited sections of the platform. The Microsoft 365 Roadmap entry indicates that the feature is expected to launch in February 2021 (via Windows Central).

“The History Menu for Teams desktop clients displays your recently visited locations when hovering over the backward and forward navigation options. Using the menu you can quickly jump back to previous locations, making it much easier to quickly get back to nested locations like tabs or documents. The menu is also accessible via keyboard shortcut,” the company explained.

Although many people have coped admirably with the disruption caused by the ongoing pandemic, there have still been challenges along the way. The new navigation experience will aid users by decreasing the time and effort needed to search for an important file or document while collaborating with their colleagues.

Microsoft keeps adding new features regularly to Microsoft Teams, and the company has released a bunch of new features this month. The list includes Breakout rooms, end of meeting notifications, new Together mode scenes, and more. If you’re interested, we invite you to check out our separate posts for more information.

Microsoft has announced an important update for its Microsoft Editor tool in Word for Windows, though these features are limited to Office Insiders at this time. The new capabilities include an upgraded Editor pane, a simplified view for suggestions, and a one-click reviews experience.

The first new feature that the company highlighted today is the ability to view spelling and grammar suggestions with one click. With this new experience, users will be able to click (either left or right) on an underlined word to display Editor suggestions. There is also an option to press the Shift+F10 or Alt+Down keys to view these recommendations.

Microsoft is also making some improvements to the way the Editor displays suggestions. On this front, the company is introducing a simplified and dedicated Editor’s suggestions view in Word for Windows, allowing users to display additional information if required.

Wrapping up the list of announcements is the introduction of an upgraded Editor pane, which will provide a more accessible and contextual review experience. Users will be able to open the Editor pane directly from the ribbon or by pressing the F7 key to view suggestions.

The company is bringing the full Editor pane experience to Outlook for Windows and Outlook for Mac soon. It is important to note that all these new capabilities are already available in Microsoft Editor for Word on the web. However, there’s no word on when the new update will be rolled out to the browser extension.

Microsoft introduced a new suggested replies feature for Outlook on the web back in 2018. This feature launched first in the US for English-speaking users, but it will be coming to customers worldwide in January 2021.

According to the Microsoft 365 roadmap, the company is adding support for new languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, French, Italian, and German. Microsoft says that Outlook on the web will provide suggested replies to international users if they have a conversation in any of those languages.

Outlook’s suggested replies is a nifty feature that makes it easier for users to respond to emails based on their context. When users receive an email that can be answered with a short response, they can quickly choose pre-set replies to send a response without typing it out. The feature uses machine learning and natural language processing techniques to help users compose emails.

As a reminder, Suggested replies are already available for Outlook for Android and iOS in various languages such as English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, and French. While the feature should begin rolling out worldwide in January, it will not be available to all users straight away. The company will gradually roll out the new capability to all tenants.