Cyberpunk 2077’s highly-anticipated Phantom Liberty expansion is set to drop later this month and, in addition to providing a fresh story for people to delve into, it’ll arrive alongside a huge array of overhauls to the base game’s mechanics.
While modders have added anything from new missions, to weapons and even a portable TV to CDPR’s futuristic RPG, long-time players are keen to see if some changes made by its original creators can finally help the game deliver an experience that matches its pre-release hype.
That said, it seems in its efforts to do just that, CD Projekt has used every tool at their disposal, leading one developer to warn players on PC that they should check their hardware before returning to Night City.
Do you hope your PC will be able to handle Phantom Liberty at its ray-traced best?
Taking to X (Twitter), CDPR’s lead scene programmer Filip Pierściński told prospective players: “Before [the] release [of] Cyberpunk 2077 2.0 and Phantom Liberty, please check [the] conditions of [the] cooling systems in [your] PC.”
We use all [of] what you have, so [a] workload on CPU [of] 90% on 8 core is expected,” he explained, advising: “To save your time, please run Cinebench or [something] similar and check [the] stability of your systems.”
While Pierściński included a link to the Scooter song ‘Fire’ in his original tweet, he’s since posted a follow-up, designed to reassure those who might have been worried that the expansion could generate so much heat it might damage suitable rigs.
“My intention was to highlight the need to maintain your cooling systems and check them regularly,” the developer clarified, “Neither Cyberpunk 2077 after 2.0 nor Phantom Liberty will melt your PCs. [The] game will perform well on recommended hardware.”
He also included a graphic showing Phantom Liberty’s recommended PC specs for different settings, giving you a chance to see where your hardware might stack up and whether you might need to invest in an upgrade ahead of Phantom Liberty’s arrival on September 26.
Regardless of whether you’re now cancelling an order for a shipment of industrial-grade fire extinguishers while Keanu Reeves tuts in the background, make sure to check out our coverage of Cyberpunk’s existing mods and our latest mods of the month.