#Colombian plane crash

[sanjeev-thakur]

"A MIRACLE IN THE JUNGLE"

One of the most incredible feats of survival in modern times.

Four children have just been found ALIVE in the Amazon jungle after a May 1st plane crash

The children aged 13, 9, 4 & 11-month old survived almost 40 DAYS in one of the harshest places on Earth.

They’re dehydrated and covered in insect bites, but they’re okay! 🙏

#miracle #survivors #survival #amazon jungle #amazon forest #forest #jungle #plane crash #kids #survived #columbian #Amazon jungle plane crash #Colombian plane crash #plane crash survivors #children

[notesfromachair]

Grumpy Golden Faucets

Here’s a great and meaningful story this week that’s not about that big, bloated news hog. Four children were rescued in Colombia’s Amazon jungle, surviving alone for 40 DAYS after their plane crashed last month.  That crash killed all three adults onboard, including their mother. But the kids – aged 13, 9. 4 and 1 – lived due to the knowledge and skill they acquire at a young age as members…

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#alice in wonderland #citizen kane gif #colombian plane crash survivors #fran leibowitz #gold #jack smith #kenan gif #Rachel Maddow #Sally Draper #snakes #Trump #trump bathroom #trump documents

[kafiranablogs]

His mother told him before she died

The four children were missing in the forest since May 1. Bogota, Colombia: “I’m hungry” and “my mother is dead” were the first words spoken by four children missing for 40 days in the Colombian jungle, members of a rescue group said in a televised interview on Sunday. After wandering alone for more than a month, Huatoto indigenous children aged 13, nine, five and one were rescued and airlifted…

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#Amazon #Amazon jungle #Amazon rainforest #colombia latest news #colombia president #colombian jungle #columbia news #columbia plane crash

[ms-hells-bells]

the story of the four colombian children that survived over a month in the jungle after surviving a plane crash is incredible. their mother initially survived the crash, but was fatally injured, and as she was dying, she told them to leave her so that they may live. the eldest child, a 13 year old girl, is who kept the younger siblings alive, having both knowledge of edible jungle plants, as well as scavenging the wreckage, knowing how to take care of an infant (yes, the youngest was an 11-12 month old baby), and also had a hobby of playing 'survival games' with her 9 year old sister, where they would built make-shift shelters outside for fun. they were finally rescued several days ago, in large part because the search helicopters continuously played a recording of their grandmother, telling them to stay where they are in their native language.

so, three generations of women and girls, grandmother, mother, and daughter, all contributed to the group's survival. they are malnourished and dehydrated, but apart from that, fine physically. they will be out of hospital in little over a week (excluding perhaps the baby).

#the ages were something like 13 9 5 and 1

[cricketcat9]

New Goddess

“The indigenous peoples of Colombia and the country in general have a new Cacica, the Goddess of the Yari. LESLY MUCUTUY. She survived a plane crash and fought together with her little brothers for 40 days for her life, she preserved and guided her little brothers, she carried her baby in her arms She faced the inclement weather and the adversities of the jungle.. Pride Uitoto many blessings…” - Colombians on FB

“The siblings, who ranged in age from 1 to 13 years, were found alive and well in the Colombian jungle this week, 40 days after the May 1 crash of the plane in which they were traveling.

The siblings managed to survive because their indigenous grandmother taught the eldest how to hunt and fish, and which fruits and seeds were safe to eat in the rainforest, according to reports.” - from “El Comercio”

#lesly mucutuy #indigenous girl #plane crash

[apple-pie-42]

Reuters Canada: Four Colombian children found alive in jungle weeks after plane crash

[baekk-hhyun]

i'm surprised that my colombian mom didn't know the story of the andes plane crash survivors. from all the spanish news reports i've watched, it appears that it's something most people in latin america know about

#i'm hoping it wins the oscar #society of the snow was a great movie

[enriquemzn262]

Lockheed C-130B of the Colombian Air Force, registration FAC 1007, which on July 3 1990 overran the runway while landing at Aguas Claras airport in the small town of Ocaña, carrying 23 soldiers, all of which were injured in the crash, while one of the crewmen was killed.

The plane stayed on the end of the runway for months before getting scrapped on the site.

Mom and dad, whom had recently moved to the town, got to see the wreckage a couple of times, in one of which mom was already pregnant with me.

#aviation #air force #colombia #ocaña #hercules

[angeliquenoir58]

Children found in the Colombian jungle: who is Wilson, the sniffer dog whose fate worries Colombians? - The Limited Times

[kashmirmonitor]

Miracle! 4 kids survive 16 jungle days after plane crash

There are reports that four children who were involved in a plane crash in the Colombian jungle have been located after more than two weeks in the forests of the Caqueta province. Four children who were missing for more than two weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed in a jungle in Colombia were found alive on Wednesday, May 17. The children, aged 13, 9, 4, and 11 months, were…

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[theowritesfiction]

#yellowjackets rewatch

[newstfionline]

Sunday, June 11, 2023

Energy Drinks Are Surging. So Are Their Caffeine Levels. (NYT) It has been more than 25 years since Red Bull hit the market and introduced caffeinated energy drinks to the United States. While the company claimed its beverage would “give you wings,” it never said it was actually good for people. Yet as the energy drink market continues to grow rapidly, companies both new and old are trying to attract health-conscious customers with a wave of no-sugar, low-calorie drinks that claim to boost energy as well as replenish fluids with electrolytes and other ingredients. This new focus has helped the energy drink market grow, with sales in the United States surging to $19 billion from $12 billion over the past five years. But there are concerns that drinks being pitched as healthy are resulting in children and teenagers consuming caffeine in unhealthy amounts. A 12-ounce can of Prime Energy contains 200 milligrams of caffeine. That’s roughly equivalent to two Red Bulls, two cups of coffee or six cans of Coca-Cola. Some schools in Britain and Australia have already banned the beverages. In the United States, federal regulations say schools cannot sell or provide caffeinated drinks to elementary or middle school students, although many schools do not restrict what students can bring from home. “Not long after drinking them, the students showed up in the health office saying they didn’t feel good and that their hearts were racing,” said [one school nurse].

A Puzzle in Arizona’s Boom Towns: How to Keep Growing With Less Water (NYT) As the mayor of an old farming town bursting with new homes, factories and warehouses, Eric Orsborn spends his days thinking about water. The lifeblood for this growth is billions of gallons of water pumped from the ground, and his city, Buckeye, Ariz., is thirsty for more as builders push deeper into the desert fringes of Phoenix. But last week, Arizona announced it would limit some future home construction in Buckeye and other places because of a shortfall in groundwater. A new state study found groundwater supplies in the Phoenix area were about 4 percent short of what is needed for planned growth over the next 100 years. That may feel like a far-off horizon, but it is enough of a change to force the state to rethink its future in the near and long terms. Now, there are urgent questions about how Arizona should be using its increasingly precious water—for water-guzzling alfalfa and lettuce farms or thirsty new computer chip and battery factories and coffee-creamer manufacturing? For new sprawl or more development inside cities? Could the Phoenix suburbs keep up their frenzied pace of growth? Should they?

Four Colombian children found alive in jungle weeks after plane crash (Reuters) Four children from an Indigenous community in Colombia were found alive in the country’s south on Friday more than five weeks after the plane they were traveling in crashed in thick jungle, Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro said. The plane—a Cessna 206—was carrying seven people on a route between Araracuara, in Amazonas province, and San Jose del Guaviare, a city in Guaviare province, when it issued a mayday alert due to engine failure in the early hours of May 1. Three adults, including the pilot and the children’s mother Magdalena Mucutuy, died as a result of the crash and their bodies were found inside the plane. The four siblings, aged 13, 9, 4, as well as a now 12-month-old baby, survived the impact. Narcizo Mucutuy, the grandfather of the three girls and one boy, told reporters he was delighted at the news of their rescue.

Argentina inflation seen hitting 149% this year, up from previous poll (Reuters) Analysts polled by Argentina’s central bank forecast annual inflation this year at 149%, above the 126% expected in the previous poll, according to the monthly survey released on Friday. For May, the analysts polled expect prices to have risen 9% in the month. Argentina’s economy, strained by a historic drought that has worsened an ongoing currency crisis, is expected to shrink 3% in 2023 from 2022. Analysts see the weakened Argentine peso, currently officially valued at 245 pesos per dollar, ending this year at 408.68 pesos per dollar and 2024 at 917.54 pesos per dollar. Rising prices and tumbling foreign reserves pose a challenge for Argentina’s left-leaning government ahead of general elections in October.

Boris Johnson quits as UK lawmaker after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament (AP) Former U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson shocked Britain on Friday by quitting as a lawmaker after being told he will be sanctioned for misleading Parliament. Johnson resigned after receiving the results of an investigation by lawmakers into misleading statements he made to Parliament about “partygate,” a series of rule-breaking government parties during the COVID-19 pandemic. By quitting, he avoids a suspension that could have seen him ousted from his Commons seat by his constituents, leaving him free to run for Parliament again in the future.

Russia to deploy nuclear weapons to Belarus in July. (1440) Russian President Vladimir Putin made the announcement in a televised meeting with the Belarusian leader Friday. Belarus, a close ally of Russia, neighbors Ukraine to the north and shares an almost-700-mile border. Russian forces have used Belarus as a staging ground since the beginning of the war.

UN aid chief says Ukraine faces ‘hugely worse’ humanitarian situation after the dam rupture (AP) The humanitarian situation in Ukraine is “hugely worse” than before the Kakhovka dam collapsed, the U.N.’s top aid official warned Friday. Undersecretary-General Martin Griffiths said an “extraordinary” 700,000 people are in need of drinking water and warned that the ravages of flooding in one of the world’s most important breadbaskets will almost inevitably lead to lower grain exports, higher food prices around the world, and less to eat for millions in need. “This is a viral problem,” he said in an interview with The Associated Press. “But the truth is this is only the beginning of seeing the consequences of this act.”

As Ukraine Launches Counteroffensive, Definitions of ‘Success’ Vary (NYT) After months of anticipation, Ukraine’s forces—newly trained on complex warfare tactics and armed with billions of dollars in sophisticated Western weaponry—launched operations on multiple fronts in the past week in an effort to dislodge entrenched Russian military units, a counteroffensive that many officials in the United States and Europe say could be a turning point in the 15-month war. What remains unclear, though, is exactly what the United States, Europe and Ukraine view as a “successful” counteroffensive. Publicly, American and European officials are leaving any definition of success to President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine. Privately, U.S. and European officials concede that pushing all of Russia’s forces out of occupied Ukrainian land is highly unlikely. Throughout the war, the Ukrainian army, with deeply motivated troops, creative military operations and advanced Western weaponry, has outperformed Russia’s military. But the Ukrainians have also found it difficult to dislodge the Russians from their entrenched defensive positions in the last few months, with the front lines barely moving.

A Rising India Is Also, in One Remote Pocket, a Blood-Soaked War Zone (NYT) People burned out of their homes by the hundreds. Villages, even refugee camps, raked with gunfire. Men, women and children beaten and set ablaze by angry mobs. India, the world’s most populous country and home to the fastest-growing major economy, is now also the site of a war zone, as weeks of ethnic violence in the remote northeastern state of Manipur has claimed about 100 lives. Militarized buffer zones now crisscross the state, patrolled by local women—who are seen as less hotheaded than men—and the thousands of troops who have been sent to quell the fighting, drawing down forces in other parts of India, including the border with China. More than 35,000 people have become refugees, with many living in makeshift camps. Internet service has been cut—an increasingly common tactic by the Indian government—and travel restrictions have made it difficult for the outside world to see in. The development has been jarring for a nation whose 1.4 billion people usually manage to get along despite belonging to thousands of sometimes rivalrous ethnic groups. And it presents an unwelcome image of instability for a national government focused on portraying India as a rising global power. “It is a nightmare,” said Mairembam Ratan, a small-town career counselor who escaped his home with help from the army. “It’s a civil war.”

The Pentagon Is Freaking Out About a Potential War With China (Politico) The war began in the early morning hours with a massive bombardment—China’s version of “shock and awe.” Chinese planes and rockets swiftly destroyed most of Taiwan’s navy and air force as the People’s Liberation army and navy mounted a massive amphibious assault across the 100-mile Taiwan Strait. Having taken seriously President Joe Biden’s pledge to defend the island, Beijing also struck pre-emptively at U.S. and allied air bases and ships in the Indo-Pacific. The U.S. managed to even the odds for a time by deploying more sophisticated submarines as well as B-21 and B-2 stealth bombers to get inside China’s air defense zones, but Washington ran out of key munitions in a matter of days and saw its network access severed. The United States and its main ally, Japan, lost thousands of service members, dozens of ships, and hundreds of aircraft. Taiwan’s economy was devastated. And as a protracted siege ensued, the U.S. was much slower to rebuild, taking years to replace ships as it reckoned with how shriveled its industrial base had become compared to China’s. The Chinese “just ran rings around us,” said former Joint Chiefs Vice Chair Gen. John Hyten in one after-action report. “They knew exactly what we were going to do before we did it.”      Dozens of versions of the above war-game scenario have been enacted over the last few years, most recently in April by the House Select Committee on competition with China. And while the ultimate outcome in these exercises is not always clear—the U.S. does better in some than others—the cost is. In every exercise the U.S. uses up all its long-range air-to-surface missiles in a few days, with a substantial portion of its planes destroyed on the ground. In every exercise the U.S. is not engaged in an abstract push-button war from 30,000 feet up like the ones Americans have come to expect since the end of the Cold War, but a horrifically bloody one. And that’s assuming the U.S.-China war doesn’t go nuclear.

Saudi crown prince threatened ‘major’ economic pain on U.S. amid oil feud (Washington Post) Last fall, President Biden vowed to impose “consequences” on Saudi Arabia for its decision to slash oil production amid high energy prices and fast-approaching elections in the United States. In public, the Saudi government defended its actions politely via diplomatic statements. But in private, Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman threatened to fundamentally alter the decades-old U.S.-Saudi relationship and impose significant economic costs on the United States if it retaliated against the oil cuts, according to a classified document obtained by The Washington Post. The crown prince claimed “he will not deal with the U.S. administration anymore,” the document says, promising “major economic consequences for Washington.” It is unclear whether the crown prince’s threat was conveyed directly to U.S. officials or intercepted through electronic eavesdropping, but his dramatic outburst reveals the tension at the heart of a relationship long premised on oil-for-security but rapidly evolving as China takes a growing interest in the Middle East and the United States assesses its own interests as the world’s largest oil producer.

From restaurants to water towers, unrest dents Senegal’s economy (Reuters) A KFC restaurant ransacked. Public transport torched. Glass-paneled stations for a multi-million dollar electric bus link shattered. A water plant vandalised. Senegal is taking stock of the damage after the jail sentencing of prominent opposition figure Ousmane Sonko sparked the worst civil unrest in decades that threatens to dent progress in one of Africa’s fastest-growing economies. Sixteen people died and hundreds were injured. Rioters attacked banks, supermarkets and petrol stations. Small businesses were also hitAn attack on a state-owned water plant could create shortages in Dakar, where it hasn’t rained for eight months and where water cuts are common, an official said. Aside from the damage, a day of protests can slow economic output by the equivalent of up to around $33 million per day, the government estimates. Citizens rapidly feel the pinch in a country where over 95% of the work is informal.

#headlines #news

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 3.17

45 BC – In his last victory, Julius Caesar defeats the Pompeian forces of Titus Labienus and Pompey the Younger in the Battle of Munda. 180 – Commodus becomes sole emperor of the Roman Empire at the age of eighteen, following the death of his father, Marcus Aurelius. 455 – Petronius Maximus becomes, with support of the Roman Senate, emperor of the Western Roman Empire; he forces Licinia Eudoxia, the widow of his predecessor, Valentinian III, to marry him. 1337 – Edward, the Black Prince is made Duke of Cornwall, the first Duchy in England. 1400 – Turko-Mongol emperor Timur sacks Damascus. 1776 – American Revolution: The British Army evacuates Boston, ending the Siege of Boston, after George Washington and Henry Knox place artillery in positions overlooking the city. 1805 – The Italian Republic, with Napoleon as president, becomes the Kingdom of Italy, with Napoleon as King of Italy. 1824 – The Anglo-Dutch Treaty is signed in London, dividing the Malay archipelago. As a result, the Malay Peninsula is dominated by the British, while Sumatra and Java and surrounding areas are dominated by the Dutch. 1842 – The Female Relief Society of Nauvoo is formally organized with Emma Smith as president. 1860 – The First Taranaki War begins in Taranaki, New Zealand, a major phase of the New Zealand Wars. 1861 – The Kingdom of Italy is proclaimed. 1862 – The first railway line of Finland between cities of Helsinki and Hämeenlinna, called Päärata, is officially opened. 1891 – SS Utopia collides with HMS Anson in the Bay of Gibraltar and sinks, killing 562 of the 880 passengers on board. 1901–present 1921 – The Second Polish Republic adopts the March Constitution. 1942 – Holocaust: The first Jews from the Lvov Ghetto are gassed at the Belzec death camp in what is today eastern Poland. 1945 – The Ludendorff Bridge in Remagen, Germany, collapses, ten days after its capture. 1948 – Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom sign the Treaty of Brussels, a precursor to the North Atlantic Treaty establishing NATO. 1950 – Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley announce the creation of element 98, which they name "californium". 1957 – A plane crash in Cebu, Philippines kills Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay and 24 others. 1958 – The United States launches the first solar-powered satellite, which is also the first satellite to achieve a long-term orbit.[ 1960 – U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs the National Security Council directive on the anti-Cuban covert action program that will ultimately lead to the Bay of Pigs Invasion. 1960 – Northwest Orient Airlines Flight 710 crashes in Tobin Township, Perry County, Indiana, killing 63. 1963 – Mount Agung erupts on Bali killing more than 1,100 people. 1966 – Off the coast of Spain in the Mediterranean, the DSV Alvin submarine finds a missing American hydrogen bomb. 1968 – As a result of nerve gas testing by the U.S. Army Chemical Corps in Skull Valley, Utah, over 6,000 sheep are found dead. 1969 – Golda Meir becomes the first female Prime Minister of Israel. 1973 – The Pulitzer Prize-winning photograph Burst of Joy is taken, depicting a former prisoner of war being reunited with his family, which came to symbolize the end of United States involvement in the Vietnam War. 1979 – The Penmanshiel Tunnel collapses during engineering works, killing two workers. 1985 – Serial killer Richard Ramirez, aka the "Night Stalker", commits the first two murders in his Los Angeles murder spree. 1988 – A Colombian Boeing 727 jetliner, Avianca Flight 410, crashes into a mountainside near the Venezuelan border killing 143. 1988 – Eritrean War of Independence: The Nadew Command, an Ethiopian army corps in Eritrea, is attacked on three sides by military units of the Eritrean People's Liberation Front in the opening action of the Battle of Afabet. 1992 – Israeli Embassy attack in Buenos Aires: Car bomb attack kills 29 and injures 242. 1992 – A referendum to end apartheid in South Africa is passed 68.7% to 31.2%.

#Events

[ms-hells-bells]

in reading more about the colombian children that survived the plane crash and jungle, i stumbled upon this story. there is almost no english news about it, largely only an AP article from 1996 about it, there's not even a wikipedia page, but i found a translated page of a guyana newspaper with the story.

THE gripping, inspiring survival experience of two young girls lost in Guyana’s jungles is the stuff epic films are made of.

Bertina and Bernadette Domingo of the Wapishiana tribe, Apoteri Village in the Rupununi began travelling from 7th April 1995 with their uncle up the Essequibo River; an uncle who had been instructed by the father of the girls to take them direct to the family farm.

Instead he diverted in the opposite direction with them, paddling for ninety-five miles in a canoe, then forcing them to trek through the jungle, threatening to kill the terrified girls when they cried.

At Pakani Falls they watched in fear as their uncle died of malaria – an uncle whose motives for his actions are shrouded in secret, lost forever in the hinterland landscape that had been the undoing of men from a time even preceding the Spanish Conquistadors.

If that uncle meant harm to his innocent, trusting nieces, as his actions indicated he did, because terrible pictures come to mind of child and female trafficking, he paid a terrible price for his heinous betrayal of his brother and nieces.

But that was no real consolation to the two young girls, who were left alone and defenceless to fend for themselves in the dense, dark rainforest, with merely a cutlass, a hammock, and their traditional tribal skills to keep them alive.

They were forced to undertake a journey that would test all their survival skills, their resilience, their character, and their survival instincts if they were to live.

The older Bertina, at thirteen, would have to become the leader, transmitting her unshakeable faith that they would survive their ordeal to her frightened nine-yr-old sister. In turn, the response of the younger girl, and the faith she reposed in her older sibling, would bolster Bertina’s spirit and inspire and encourage her to greater feats of endurance.

Before their journey ended they would have traversed over 200 miles of virgin rainforest, at the mercy of the elements, with all the inherent dangers of the deep rainforests – from the remote reaches of Essequibo to approximately 190 miles up the Berbice River – a mile away from the Lindo tributary.

They ate what they could, but their knowledge of the land and basic survival skills, inculcated from birth by the traditions of their aboriginal tribe, came to their rescue, resulting in their finding the “haiwa” wood to produce the most crucial requirement for their protection at night – light.

The girls staved off hunger by eating berries, peppers and fish caught by the traditional method. They remembered their tribe’s ancient skill of lighting an area of water with the “haiwa” wood to entice fish to the surface, then spearing them with a spear – in their instance with a cutlass.

The girls also had a miraculous escape from the claws and jaws of a jaguar and were forced to keep their terror at bay when they encountered the large snakes, crocodiles, and other large and dangerous denizens that proliferate in Guyana’s rainforests.

At one point they thought that they were about to be rescued. Hearing the sound of an engine their hopes soared as they walked quickly toward the sound and what they hoped would have been the end of their ordeal.

But as fast as they walked it was not enough and the frightening sounds of the rainforest enclosed them once again.

Rescue seemed near at hand once more when they stumbled upon a porknocker’s camp, but the camp had long been abandoned and was empty of any human presence. At nights they slung their hammock high in the trees to protect themselves from the many ever-existent perils threatening their survival every minute, with every step they took, and even in their sleep.

Many nights Bertina stayed awake for hours watching protectively as the exhausted Bernadetta slept the sleep of the innocent.

Meanwhile the girls’ parents were frantically looking for them and search parties were organized. The parents, accompanied by members of one search party went as far as Kurupukari – 60 miles from the Potaro River, but had to give up, not knowing what direction to take in the vast, dense rainforest.

Frantic messages were sent to relatives living in Georgetown in attempts to locate the uncle and girls, but to no avail.

Finally, at 5.50 p.m. on the third day of May, 31 days after they had left home, covered with mosquito bites and weak with hunger, Bertina and Bernadetta stumbled into a porknocker’s camp.

The astonished miners fed the girls and then took them into the city, where officialdom took over, affording them medical and other care.

Their rescuer, a miner named Gonsalves, said that the area in which they were found was so remote that hardly anyone ventured there.

The indomitable will to survive, their stoic resilience in the face of betrayal and overwhelming dangers, and the epic journey of these two fragile little ones is the stuff of which legends are made.

This was triumph of the human spirit against all odds. These two little girls were imaginative, resourceful, determined, tenacious, and, above all, courageous beyond the parameters of normal human endurance of body and mind.

To honour their resilience and courage in the face of danger and adversity, the Domingo sisters were deservedly conferred with a special award for courage during the 1996 investiture ceremony by then Executive President of Guyana, Dr. Cheddi Jagan.

They had also been awarded with a plaque saluting their bravery by the South Ruimveldt Policing Group.

Bertina and Bernadetta Domingo represent the best of the indigenous peoples of this land.

#over 200 miles and THIRTY DAYS #have you noticed how a majority of jungle survival stories are women #particularly young girls?

[1984tilforever]

Cyberpunk 2077: Phantom Liberty - so, back in December 2020, CD Projekt RED released Cyberpunk 2077 in a state that could be, very mildly, describe as "troubled." Still I, like so many others, played and enjoyed it just fine on the good old PS4, even as it indeed suffered from occassionally hideous frame rate, glitches and a tendency to just crash. It was like I was gaming on my old, shitty PC back in the 90! Anywyay, three years later we now have Cyberpunk 2077's first - and only - piece of DLC, not to mention in a slew of updates leading to Cyberpunk 2077 version... 2.1. Also, I'm playing it on the Xbox Series S now because the DLC is not available for the PS4. And just as well!

First off, the 2.1 update does smooth the game experience somewhat. For instance, the entire leveling system has been streamlined, with web of incremental boosts that was the perk system being tied to your main six stats and redesigned to fit different play styles. Meanwhile armour has been tied to your cyberware, rather than your gear, meaning you can dress your avatar as you see fit while worrying that you don't have enough cash and components through which to upgrade your, well, upgrades. It's neat! I also think the gunplay has been improved just a smidge - it's no Doom, but fun enough - and you can even mount weapons on cars! Too bad that the handling of most vehicles remains as slippery as ever, you'd think Night City's streets are coated with a layer of grease on a nightly basis. Anyway.

But heading to Phantom Liberty itself, what we have here is a tight narrative package that's accessible around one-third into the main campaign. It's mainly set in a new, walled-off area of NC dubbed Dog Town. There's some narrative guff about how it was occupied by a warlord during some conflict or another, but what you really need to know is that it's yet another chunk of luxury real estate that's now occupied by the poor and downtrodden. Dog Town feels smaller in terms of sheer size compared to NC's other districts, but it is definitely more dense, with makeshift scaffolding snaking around half-built tower blocks that you can fully clamber on and explore, should you feel like it. The streets are also much narrower, meaning that if you're to drive around then your best choice of vehicle is the hilariously tiny two-seater jeep a generous patron hands you early on in this new adventure.

And what an adventure! What we have here is some of CDPR's best in terms of both narrative and mission design, as the game smoothly shifts genre from pitch-black noir to espionage. There's a literally explosive opening that has you rescue the president of the NUSA from her crashed space plane, one of the toughest choices I've ever had to face in a videogame and, spoilers here, little chance for a happy ending. Good thing you can cheer yourself up with the sillier side missions that will have you do things such as help a pair of idiots convince a Brain Dance star to do a performance at their shop or impersonate a legendary Colombian assassin in order to affect Dog Town politics. It's all very good stuff, but...

...Too bad the game still has a hideous tendency to crash at all the inopportune moments, and there's a bug where the game gets stuck as it autosaves ahead of major scripted moments, necessitating your quitting and restarting. The frame rate might be massively improved and the visuals are generally very pretty, but the PC gaming during the 90s feeling remains as strong as ever.

#cyberpunk #cyberpunk 2077 #phantom liberty #review #just finished #videogames

[shadyrest]