Videogame – Nivalis Nights
Exciting new cyberpunk video game, Nivalis Nights, was released this week on PC via Steam. The game, developed by Ion Lands and published by 505 Games, is a cozy open-world cyberpunk life sim.
From the publisher –
Welcome to the cyberpunk city of Nivalis, where neon dreams become your reality!
In a district pushed to the brink by CorpSec crackdowns and a mysterious serial killer, your ambition is your best weapon. Start humble with a noodle stand, then climb your way up to own the city’s top restaurants and premier nightclubs.
In this slice-of-life simulation, every day is a choice: will you spend it growing your business or forging bonds with the city’s strange inhabitants? From managing bustling ramen bars to navigating complex relationships, your influence grows with every decision. Whether you’re legally growing your own ingredients or illegally sabotaging your rivals under the cover of curfew, this city is yours to conquer.
When the pressure gets too high, retreat to the docks to explore the city by boat, customize your home to perfection, or master a high-stakes cyberpunk chess tournament. With a realistic weather system and a vibrant cast of characters to meet, “Nivalis Nights” offers a unique simulation where your path is entirely up to you.
Nivalis Nights is a slice of life simulation in a rich and vibrant cyberpunk setting. Starting from the bottom with a small noodle stand, you will have full control of how you wish to go about your business in this bustling city. You can manage business, choose to buy or grow the ingredients you use. You can explore the city, meet other citizens, and build relationships. Will you choose to conduct your business peacefully and legally, or will you choose to sabotage rival businesses?
The screenshots look absolutely beautiful, with a highly detailed, classically cyberpunk environment. The trailer shows how atmospheric the setting is, and we can’t wait to play the game and see more of it. Ion Lands previously developed and published the delightful award winning Cloud Punk, a neo-noir story in a cyberpunk setting, where you work as a delivery driver. Nivalis Nights has a very similar noir cyberpunk aesthetic, and looks to be even bigger and better.
Nivalis Nights was released today on PC via Steam, and will be available on Epic Games Store at a later date. You can check out the ‘A Day in the Life’ trailer below.
Book – Ethical Tyranny
Rhys Constance’s new cyberpunk novel, Ethical Tyranny, was released this week. The 3rd book in his Ashton Frey series, the story sees protagonist Frey given an offer he can’t refuse.
Synopsis –
The most efficient way to trap a man is to give him nothing left to want.
They made Ashton Frey an offer. It was reasonable. It was generous. It was impossible to refuse, which was how he knew he was in real trouble. Ashton has survived fire, betrayal, and a doomsday weapon that lives in his skull and won’t stop workshopping insults about his internal organs. He knows what it looks like when someone wants him dead. He has no idea what to do about someone who wants to save him.
The domes are dying. The corpo-nations are eating each other. Strangers wait in the freezing dark outside his door, certain of things about him that aren’t true. And behind it all, something vast, patient, and quietly certain has spent a very long time arranging the furniture toward a future that runs beautifully and costs only everything. The bill arrives later.
Ethical Tyranny is a savage, funny, black-hearted reckoning with the oldest lie ever told: that if someone can build a perfect world, they should.
Burn it down with the final book of the series on Kindle, Kindle Unlimited, and soon on Audible, narrated by Hector Carrillo. However you choose to experience it, the offer is still on the table. That’s the problem.
Ethical Tyranny is the third and final book in Constance’s absurdist satire cyberpunk series, which started with Privatized Freedom, continued with Regulated Truth, and now concludes. The series is set on a ruined Earth, with the population living in sealed dome cities, their only barrier to the permanent impact-winter outside. The populace, ruled by corporations, use technology through neural links, but the technology also has a mind of its own. The protagonist, detective Aston Frey, has a failed neural implant, which can make life difficult, although it has its advantages when it comes to working covertly.
If you haven’t read the previous books in the series, fear not, for Rhys Constance is also releasing The Complete Ashton Frey omnibus edition on Kindle, bringing all 3 books together in 1.
Ethical Tyranny is available now in E-Book, Paperback, and Hardcover formats, with an Audiobook also on the way.
Trailer – Dreamquil
This week, the first trailer for psychological thriller Dreamquil was released. Starring Elizabeth Banks and John C. Reilly, it follows a jaded career mother who takes steps to find a way to repair her marriage, but finds her life changed in ways she wasn’t expecting.
Synopsis –
A woman embarks on a virtual wellness retreat in order to get her life back on track – but with nightmarish consequences.
Dreamquil has a near future setting where failing air quality leads to people living more digitally than physically. Carol finds she is struggling to maintain a healthy relationship with her husband, and her child. Based on a recommendation, Carol embarks on a “DreamQuil” digital wellness retreat. When she returns home, however, she comes face to face with a robot ‘companion’, identical to herself, which her family have come to rely on in her absence. Is this robotic Carol a godsend, or is it not quite what it seems?
Another month, another robot companion horror? Based on the title and the main cast, I expected this might be a comedy, but it is being variously billed as a sci-fi drama, and a psychological thriller. It’s difficult to get a true feel of tone from the trailer, and early word on the movie isn’t promising, but we’re looking forward to checking it out. Dreamquil is directed by Alex Prager, who writes along with Vanessa Prager. As well as Banks and Reilly, it also stars Kathryn Newton, Juliette Lewis, and Sofia Boutella.
Dreamquil is scheduled for release on October 16th, and you can check out the trailer below.
Comic – 30-09-26 Releases
We take a look at this week’s cyberpunk and dystopian comic releases.
REBELLION
2000 AD #2502
From the publisher –
Prostrate yourselves before the Thrill-power — I am Tharg, cosmic channeller of zarjazness!
It’s that time of the week again, Terrans, when you can put aside everyday reality and immerse yourselves in the pulse-pounding contents of my illustrious organ. As the Galaxy’s Greatest surges towards the end of September, we’ve got more Dredd, Azimuth, Durham Red, Herne & Shuck and Ghosted, all guaranteed to energise your diodes!
But if you’ve ever thought, as you peruse the scrotnig stories, ‘This is all well and good, Mighty One, but what would make the 2000 AD experience truly ghafflebette would be to meet some of your talented droids and let them know how much I enjoy their endeavours’, then you’e in luck, humes, for Saturday 3 October has been declared Day of Dredd, and I’ve released a legion of script- and art-meks for signings all over the country.
You’ll find John Wagner, Chris Weston, Liam Sharp and more at Forbidden Planet London, Mick McMahon at FP Southampton, Ian Edginton, D’Israeli and more at FP Birmingham, and lots more. Check out the full list at 2000AD.com!
2000 AD Prog 2502 is out now from all good newsagents and comic book stores, plus digitally from our webshop and apps!
2000 AD is a British science fiction comic book, which has been publishing for nearly 50 years 1977, famed for its dark British humour, and satirical and subversive stories. The jewel in the crown is Judge Dredd, a dystopian cyberpunk icon, whilst The Fall of Deadworld is a kind of an alternative history prequel series about Judge Dredd enemy Judge Death. Meanwhile Mega-City 2099 stories serve as a more traditional prequel.
DARK HORSE COMICS
THE SMART DIVISION #2
From the publisher –
As they clash over AI’s role in society, newly-made partners Stevie Larque and William Bailey set out to find a missing developer. The trail leads through a seedy world of cybersecurity conspiracy theorists, underground app development, and billion-dollar AI startups.
Hit creator Zack Kaplan (Kill All Immortals, Masterminds, Port of Earth) and Eisner-winning artist John Pearson (In Bloom, The Infernals, The Department of Truth) reunite for the first time since their fan-favorite sci-fi horror series, Mindset!
The Smart Division is a near-future detective series. Following a pair of investigators, a chaotic Gen-Z savant and a veteran FBI agent, they are tasked with starting an AI crimes division by the FBI when a ‘perfect’ murder is instigated by an artificial intelligence.
MAD CAVE STUDIOS
DENVER #2
From the publisher –
Following the kidnapping of his wife who is now being held hostage, Max Flynn is forced to break the laws of the city of Denver, the very same laws he’s spent his career trying to protect and enforce, if he ever wants to see her alive again. Growing increasingly desperate with each new dangerous request from the kidnappers, Max knows he’s close to the point of no return and must decide whether to take matters into his own hands before it’s too late… for both him and his wife.
The Denver comic series is set in a future Earth where the rising sea level has created a dystopia, ad resources are scarce, and the populace is tightly-controlled in designated safe zones. The protagonist, Max Flynn, is a border control officer who is forced to go rogue when his wife is kidnapped, and the perpetrator uses this leverage to control Flynn’s actions.
INDEPENDENT
CRITICAL OPS TASK FORCE #1
From the publisher –
War has evolved.
In a brutal near-future, elite mercenaries take on impossible missions for the highest bidder, where survival is never guaranteed and the truth is always buried.
This 130-page, full-color graphic novel delivers three explosive stories set in a violent, high-tech world where power always comes at a cost.
In a fractured future, the Critical Ops Task Force is deployed into conflicts no one else can survive. They are the solution to impossible problems. But every mission leaves scars. As the line between right and wrong disappears, the team begins to question everything, their orders, their purpose, and the system they serve.
Are they saving the world… or helping destroy it?
Written by Nigel Lynch, Critical Ops Task Force: Volume 1 offers three stories, including The Prodigal Son, about a daring rescue mission, Stolen Salvation, about a rogue scientist, and Ruby Pixel: Ctrl Alt Delete, a cyberpunk thriller about fractured identity and digital ghosts. Critical Ops Task Force is currently funding on Kickstarter, and can check out the Kickstarter page for full details of the tiers available, and to pledge to the campaign – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/akoma/critical-ops-task-force-volume-1?ref=discovery&term=bcr&total_hits=319&category_id=250
SCUM #1
From the publisher –
The Spire is a city of rigid ranks and locked doors, and Sam has managed to slip right through its cracks. The entire city is controlled by an AI god, Panopticia. She and her various underlying programs control every aspect of citizens’ day-to-day life.
Sam is unregistered, which means she can’t interact with any of those systems. On the one hand, that makes life pretty hard. Can’t open a door. Can’t buy a sandwich. Can’t get a job. On the other hand, she can steal anything she wants and the security systems won’t even know she was there. For the AI systems of The Spire, she does not exist.
And so, Sam and her unregistered friends exist on the edges of society, invisible to the eyes of God and just about everything else in The Spire, surviving the only way they can.
After a heist goes wrong, Sam is rescued by Augustus, a mysterious benefactor that needs her help. Unregistered, Sam can move through The Spire undetected. On her own, she has only used this for petty crime. Augustus has a bigger plan and a much more ambitious goal. With Sam’s help, Augustus will kill The Spire’s AI god.
This 48-page cyberpunk comic by Reed Hinckley-Barnes, Halil Mete, and Maja Opacic is currently funding on Kickstarter. You can see the reward tiers on the Kickstarter page, and pledge to the new campaign, here – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/reedhb/scum-a-cyberpunk-thriller?ref=profile_created&category_id=250
BREEZE #2
The Kickstarter campaign for cyberpunk comic Breeze, Issue #2, is currently live. The comic, written by MD Ortiz and Alex Hulett, sees a gang of gunslingers on the run after pulling off a daring heist in issue #1.
From the publisher –
Welcome to Babylon, where megacorporations own your soul and tyrannical super-soldiers keep you in line. Fortunately, firepower is affordable.
In Breeze Issue #2, hacker Galli and cybernetic gunslinger Synth are on the run after pulling off the score of a lifetime. Unfortunately, escaping with their lives proves considerably harder than stealing whatever it was they stole.
With corporate troopers closing in and a particularly persistent bounty hunter on their trail, Galli and Synth have to figure out what they actually stole; and why everyone suddenly wants them dead.
Oh, and somewhere along the way, there’s a cybernetic cat.
Breeze #2 is a full colour, 35 page comic set in Babylon, a sprawling corporate megacity in the Dawnward Universe, amid a neon-drenched future dominated by megacorporations. In issue #1, hacker Galli joined up with a group of freelancers, who then embarked on the heist of a lifetime—robbing a megacorp. But when you rip off a corporation who have their own squad of super soldiers, getting away with it is not going to be easy. Especially when you also have a bounty hunter on your tails.
As you can see from the panels, the comics are filled with beautiful art, with a story inspired by comics, anime, and action films. The series promises snarky humor, irreverent characters, gunfights, explosions, and mayhem. Breeze is written by MD Ortiz and Alex Hulett, with art by Francis Nuguit, and graphics and lettering by Andrew Dickert.
There are a number of reward tiers available, including digital copies, physical copies, alt covers, and bundles that include issue #1. You can check out all the details, and pledge to the campaign, on the Kickstarter page here – https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/breezecomic/breeze-a-cyberpunk-inspired-comic-issue-2
Short Film – Anesthesia
This past week, director Jeff Osborne’s sci-fi short film Anesthesia was released on YouTube, courtesy of the Dust channel. The story sees a businessman encountering his mother via an anesthesia app while undergoing a procedure, but all is not as if first appears.
Synopsis –
Michael is enjoying a nice day at the beach with his parents, but his mother has a strange, and rather invasive question to ask.
A young boy is sitting on the beach with his mother, who promises to take him for pizza on the way home. What at first seems like a wistful childhood memory, however, quickly becomes more sinister when the young boy’s mother asks him for his passwords. Michael, suddenly at his adult age, questions how he can possibly be talking to her, and why she even wants the information. She calms him momentarily, but he is then struck by the surreal nature of the encounter, and naturally continues to question what’s going on.
Anesthesia plays as almost a variation on Inception, by way of Black Mirror. Or more like a reverse Inception, I guess. Michael is undergoing a heart operation, and whilst asleep under Anesthesia, somehow he is able to be aware (is it a lucid dream, or something more sophisticated?) of what is going on via the use of an anesthesia app. This allows him to interact, to a limited degree, with the real world by way of a tablet device he is given whilst in the dream state, by his childhood mother.
The movie offers an intriguing scenario, and a rather frightening one. If people are able to communicate with us whilst we are unconscious, to interact with us when we think we’re in a dream, we can be caught off-guard. Using childhood memories, our relationships with people we love, to try to draw out valuable information from us, is like violating our very souls. As technology develops, and information gathering becomes more sophisticated, more personal, we are at a very real risk of being lulled into a false sense of security, into a state where we can easily let secrets slip. Michael is in a very vulnerable state, not knowing what the outcome of the operation will be, and the introduction of a ticking clock threatens to force him into action without thinking through the ramifications.
Anesthesia is written by John Harden, and directed by Jeff Osborne. It stars Aaron Staton, Marianne June Noscheze, and Arthur Waite, amongst others. You can watch Anesthesia on YouTube, for free, below. It is well made, with twists and turns, anf is very much worth checking out.
Dust is a curated Youtube channel of independent short films, all in the science fiction genre, and they have a wide selection of well produced, thought provoking sci-fi films, all available to watch for free. We highly recommend checking them out.
https://www.youtube.com/@watchdust/featured
Podcast – The High Tech Low Life Podcast Episode 134: Cyberpunk 2077 Part 1
The latest episode of The High Tech Low Life Podcast is available now. This week, hosts Eric and Josh finally talk about the Cyberpunk 2077 videogame, joined by Colin from the Astronomica podcast.
The High Tech Low Life Podcast is a retrospective of cyberpunk fiction across all forms of media. Every episode, Eric and Josh start by talking about the real world dystopia in which we find ourselves, offer some cyberpunk related or adjacent recommendos, and then discuss a piece of cyberpunk media, sometimes joined by a guest. They have nearly 150 episodes available, and you can find The High Tech Low Life Podcast at the link below, and all good podcast platforms.
Also have another completed podcast, Johnny Mnminute, where each episode they watched one minute of the movie Johnny Mnemonic, and stripped it bare. It’s a great listen, and you can check it out below.
The High Tech Low Life Podcast also has a Patreon, which offers exclusive content and early access to episodes, which you can access below.
https://www.patreon.com/cw/hightechlowlife
They also have a channel on the Astronomica Discord server.
Film – April X
Cyberpunk action thriller April X was released in theatres in the US this week. The movie follows a black market organ trader, who goes in search of his missing twin sister, and ends up losing his grip on his sanity the situation spirals out of control.
Synopsis –
When his twin sister April (Lilly Krug) goes missing, Bax (Connor Storrie) searches every corner of their futuristic, post-Soviet cityscape to find her, ultimately descending into madness.
Considering the proliferation of cybernetic implants and augmentation in cyberpunk media, it’s been quite some time since we last had a movie revolving around the subject of the bionic organ industry, 2010’s Repo Men. April X doesn’t look to focus as directly on the bodypart market, however. Bax has cleared out his bank accounts, owing money to some very dangerous people. His sister has a plan to get the rest of the money he needs to repay his debt, but mysteriously disappears in the process. This sets Bax on his odyssey to find her, but from the looks of it, it doesn’t go well.
Setting the story in an industrial-looking, post-Soviet setting allows the filmmakers to save some budget on the sets. Showing us a beautifully grim, graffiti-covered cityscape contrasted against the more technologically advanced, futuristic affluent locations really hits home the contrast between the haves and have-nots. The movie looks to be an exciting mix of action and thriller, with beautiful visuals in both the decaying urban locations, and the vibrant futuristic areas. Several cyberpunk staples can be seen in the trailer, including futuristic motorbikes and neon-soaked nightclubs, and all in all it looks very promising.
Along with Connor Storrie and Lilly Krug, April X also stars Tudor Chirilă, Șerban Pavlu, and Tourialay Akbari. Michel K Parandi directs his first feature film, having previously directed scifi shorts. He also co-writes, alongside Jack Coulton. The movie releases in the US today, having released in the UK back at the beginning of September.
You can watch the trailer below.
Books – September Roundup
Over the past month, we’ve been spoiled with a number of cyberpunk books, from thrilling action cyberpunk novels, a crime investigation thriller, YA dystopia, and more. We took a look at September’s cyberpunk and dystopia book releases, and you can check it out here – https://cyberstopia.com/books-september-roundup/
PODCAST – HOSTS IN THE SHELL EPISODE 71: Richard K Morgan Interview Part 2
The latest episode of Hosts in the Shell is available now. This week, hosts Jon Richter and Matt Adcock conclude their interview with Richard K Morgan, author of Altered Carbon, a cyberpunk classic.
The Hosts in the Shell podcast is a cyberpunk podcast where Jon and Matt discuss the genre’s greatest work, often alongside a notable guest, and they have over 50 episodes available. You can find the Hosts in the Shell podcast at the link below, and all good podcast platforms.
As well as being podcasters, Jon and Matt are also authors with cyberpunk related titles amongst their novels.
You can find out more about Jon’s work here –
You can find out more about Matt’s work here –
www.completedarknessnovel.com/
CYBERSTOPIA – Discord
Cyberstopia now has a Discord server! Please join us and build a community for cyberpunk and dystopia discussion. We have sections for all the latest news, channels for discussion of The Ghost in the Shell series, as well as upcoming shows like Edgrerunners 2, Blade Runner 2099, and Neuromancer, as well as an author section with a number of cyberpunk authors talking about their work, giving updates on your current projects, etc… It’s a great place to hang out.
https://discord.gg/qgMBwC5X8
For more of the latest news on cyberpunk and dystopia media, stay tuned to Cyberstopia here on the website, and across social media. If you have a Cyberstopian project or release, or there’s something you think we should be covering, please let us know here in the comments, on your social media platform of choice, or on the Contact page at www.cyberstopia.com
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