Cyberpunk 2077: Ultimate 2.31a

Version 2.31a fix changes one small but noticeable thing: AutoDrive now overtakes blocking vehicles, keeps a smoother line, and no longer stops at traffic lights unless it has to. If you spend time riding rather than walking, the change is obvious within the first few trips.

A typical session runs in a loose sequence:

1. Open the map. Night City is dense with markers: main jobs, side jobs, contracts, and open-world encounters. You pick based on distance, reward, or simply what interests you.
2. Travel there. You drive, ride a motorcycle, or use fast travel. AutoDrive handles the route when you want to watch the city instead of steering.
3. Work the job. As V, a cyberpunk mercenary, you talk, sneak, hack, or shoot. The game rarely forces one approach for long.
4. Shift focus. Between jobs you manage cyberware, weapons, and contacts. The Ultimate Edition adds the Dogtown storyline and Solomon Reed, voiced by Idris Elba, alongside the base game.

That loop is the core of it: pick a job, get there, handle it, adjust your build, repeat. The Mac version requires Apple silicon and 16 GB or more of unified memory, and it is built for that hardware rather than ported as an afterthought.

Achievements Synced via Game Center

Cyberpunk 2077 leans on several macOS subsystems without making a fuss about it. Game Center handles achievements and tracks play time across devices — your progress syncs if you sign in with the same Apple Account on another Mac. The game respects Focus modes: turning on a Gaming focus silences notifications from Messages and Mail so Johnny Silverhand's commentary is the only interruption you get. Mission waypoints and the in-game clock stay visible, but the rest of macOS stays quiet.

If you use a DualSense or Xbox Wireless Controller, the game picks it up through Apple's Game Controller framework. Button prompts switch to match the controller layout, and haptic feedback works on supported pads. No third-party drivers needed.

For players who capture footage, the built-in screen recording in macOS works without any special configuration. The game runs in a standard window or fullscreen, so QuickTime Player, OBS, or third-party capture tools see it as a regular application. Audio routing through an external interface or something like Loopback behaves predictably — game audio on one channel, voice chat on another, no surprises.

Save files live in the user's Library folder, which means Time Machine backs them up automatically. If you migrate to a new Mac, your V comes along.

A Visit to the Badlands

Consider a player who finished the main story a year ago on another platform and is now on a Mac, picking up the Ultimate Edition for the Dogtown storyline. They have a Mac mini with an M4 chip and 24 GB of memory, a 1440p display, and an hour to kill on a Thursday evening.

They load a mid-game save where V has a netrunner build and a handful of unfinished gigs. The goal is not to push the main quest forward, but to clear a few contracts, test how the Mac build handles vehicle combat, and see one of the new Dogtown missions. The session is about momentum, not completion.

Twelve-Second Save Load on This Hardware

They launch the game from the Applications folder. The REDlauncher checks for updates — none since 2.31a fix — and the main menu appears within seconds. Loading the save takes roughly twelve seconds on this hardware.

V spawns outside a ripperdoc clinic in Watson. The player opens the map and filters to show only contracts. A job marker sits in the Badlands, six kilometres out, with a recommended threat level labelled moderate. They mark it and step outside.

Instead of fast travel, they call a Yaiba Kusanagi motorcycle. AutoDrive handles the route out of the city. The bike overtakes a slow-moving van on the Ringroad curve — something the older AutoDrive would have sat behind — and merges cleanly. The player watches the skyline shift from neon towers to the dusty sprawl of the Badlands. No steering input for four minutes.

At the contract site, a Wraith camp, the plan forms quickly. Quickhacks from a distance: disable the turret, ping the guards, overload the generator near the fuel tank. Two guards go down to the explosion, the third gets a silenced pistol round while stunned. Looting takes a minute; the data shard they came for is in a tent.

Back on the bike. They switch the radio to Pacific Dreams and let AutoDrive navigate to the Dogtown border checkpoint. The new Free Roam behaviour means the bike signals before turns and obeys speed near pedestrian zones — a small thing, but it makes the city feel less like a stage set.

The Dogtown gate triggers a cutscene. Solomon Reed, voiced by Idris Elba, makes his entrance. The player saves after the dialogue, glances at the clock, and quits. Fifty minutes, two jobs, one story beat. The session felt dense without feeling rushed.

On this hardware, the frame rate stayed smooth throughout, even during the explosion at the camp and the dense geometry of the Dogtown checkpoint. The Mac mini's fan spun up once during the firefight but quieted within thirty seconds of returning to the open road.

• AutoDrive — now drives smoothly, overtakes blocking vehicles, and avoids stopping at traffic lights.

• macOS 15.5 or later
• Apple silicon Mac
• 16 GB unified memory or more