Welcome back to our weekly gaming news roundup. As the year comes to a close, we're looking back on 12 months of massive change for the video game industry, driven by acquisitions, layoffs and unionization. You can read my story on consolidation for more on gaming's tough year. Baldur's Gate 3 is officially the Game of the Year and after months as a PlayStation console exclusive, it's finally available on Xbox. However, if you're waiting for it to become available on Game Pass, stop.

Cyberpunk 2077 developer CD Projekt Red has confirmed it used AI voice cloning software to reconstruct the voice of a deceased actor for its Phantom Liberty DLC. Actor Miłogost Reczek voiced the character Viktor Vektor in the Polish version of the game and would have been tapped to reprise the role for the DLC, which came out last month, but he died in 2021 before its production. The developer told Bloomberg it decided to go this route as a way to "pay tribute to his wonderful performance," and was given permission to do so by his family. Instead of replacing Reczek outright, CD Projekt Red worked with Respeecher, the Ukraine-based voice tech company known for deaging Mark Hamill's voice in The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett to create a young Luke Skywalker. Another actor was hired to speak the new lines, and Respeecher's software reworked them into Reczek's voice, CD Projekt localization director Mikołaj Szwed told Bloomberg.

Phantom Liberty is CD Projekt RED's masterpiece. Not only is Cyberpunk 2077 Phantom Liberty graphically easily three generations ahead of the entire industry and redefines how we experience video games with pathtracing, it's also written even more thrillingly and staged even more explosively. Anyone who doesn't enjoy this several times in different play styles has never loved video games. Cyberpunk 2077's Phantom Liberty expansion is a reminder of how incredibly explosive gaming has become – and the perfection with which CD Projekt RED manages to involve its actors. When Idris Elba is on a train out of Dogtown, joking with Songbird about how they really need to eat that one famous burrito of his together sometime, and there's such an eerie silence to the flirtation – the nervous looks of the head hacker because she's about to betray him – these are moments that feel like they'd belong in House of Cards or 24.

Developer CD Projekt Red just announced it is in the early stages of developing a live-action TV show or movie based on the once-hated and now-beloved Cyberpunk 2077 game. Details are scant, as we don't even know if it'll be a film or ongoing series, but the game developer has teamed up with production company Anonymous Content to bring Night City to glorious live-action life. You probably don't know Anonymous Content by name, but the company's behind a slew of high-profile and critically-acclaimed TV shows, like True Detective and Mr. Robot. It's also helped produce recent films like The Revenant and Spotlight, but also classics like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and Being John Malkovich. This is a serious production company, so we could be in for something special.

Only the neon-colored OLED walls remind us that this was once a district of Pacifica, the Dubai Night City, a luxury oasis that ran out of money in the corporate war. We stand on high scaffolding that was supposed to be a sports stadium. We look up – rockets scream towards a plane, it goes down, literally whizzing over our heads before crashing with a thunderous explosion. But this isn't just any plane, it's Space Force One, the government plane of President Myers of the New United States of America in Cyberpunk 2077's hotly anticipated Phantom Liberty expansion. This article was translated from German to English, and originally appeared on pcwelt.de.

E3 is canceled this year due to both the pandemic's effects on development schedules and the success of events elsewhere in the year, like The Game Awards. As such, expectations are higher than ever for Summer Game Fest (SGF). It's now the biggest mid-year opportunity for developers to reveal new games and hype up their upcoming releases. At the same time, you might not see absolutely everyone. Don't worry if it's all a bit overwhelming -- we'll let you know how to watch, and what you'll likely see when Geoff Keighley and partner studios take to the stage.

Mike Pondsmith started playing Dungeons & Dragons in the late seventies, as an undergraduate at the University of California, Davis. The game, published just a few years before, popularized a newish form of entertainment: tabletop role-playing, in which players, typically using dice and a set of rule books, create characters who pursue open-ended quests within an established world. "The most stimulating part of the game is the fact that anything can happen," an early D&D review noted. Soon, other such games hit the market, including Traveller, a sci-fi game published in 1977, the year that "Star Wars" came out. Pondsmith, a tall Black man who grew up in multiple countries because his dad was in the Air Force, loved sci-fi, and fancied himself a bit like Lando Calrissian, the smooth-talking "Star Wars" rogue played by Billy Dee Williams.

Cyberpunk 2077's woes have continued long after the game launched, with all the issues that entailed. CD Projekt Red announced yesterday that we'll have to wait until the second half of March for the next big patch. The developer cited that recent ransomware hack as the major culprit -- it initially planned to launch the 1.2 patch in February. As you're probably aware, February ends this week. The news is especially frustrating for PS5 owners as the game hasn't returned to the PlayStation Store since it was pulled.

The studio behind "Cyberpunk 2077" is urging consumers who have failed to get a refund for copies of the video game bought at retail to contact them for their money back. In a tweet published Friday, CD Projekt Red established the email address helpmerefund@cdprojektred.com to assist players who want to return their copy of "Cyberpunk 2077" after reports console versions of the game were riddled with bugs. "We'd like you to know that our intention is for every owner of a physical copy, or a digital copy bought at retail, who has valid proof of purchase to receive a refund," said the studio in its statement. Players turned away for a refund by retailers must email CD Projekt Red by Dec. 21. The studio said it will move forward with next steps once the request window closes.

Cyberpunk 2077 looked for years like it would be an instant classic. A neo-noir role-playing game with laser-sharp graphics and a gritty dystopian setting, Cyberpunk debuted its first trailer in 2013 and quickly became one of the most anticipated video games ever. Polygon called it "visceral, claustrophobic and beautiful." Players couldn't wait to tailor their characters with cybernetic enhancements, join factions to fight evil megacorporations, and explore Night City, the game's vast, mysterious setting. Last week, Cyberpunk 2077 finally came out. But players found it riddled with disruptive, often catastrophic glitches.