8 years after the first game, cyberpunk adventure Read Only Memories: Neurodiver pushes its release to 2024 as it shows off its psychic protagonist and weird pocket leech

Given that there's only about two weeks of 2023 left, it probably shouldn't be a surprise that Read Only Memories: Neurodiver has been pushed back into 2024, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sad about it. The original Read Only Memories—which somehow turns nine years old next year, god help us—was an excellent cyberpunk visual novel I still think about from time to time

But it's no doubt for the best. As Gabe Newell tells us, "late is just for a little while, suck is forever," and at least we got a new story trailer out of it. Narrated by the game's creative director John James, the trailer gives you a look into what's going on in Neurodiver and what this whole Read Only Memories-verse is all about, man.

Turns out it's all about being a psychic detective named ES88, who's hot on the tale of a shapeshifting criminal called Golden Butterfly. Along the way you'll use your personal pocket leech thing—that'd be the Neurodiver—to repair people's memories by biting them. Pretty standard stuff.

I'm eager to try this one. Like I said, I thoroughly enjoyed my time in Neo-San Francisco in the original Read Only Memories, and I've been curious about the sequel ever since it was first announced in 2019. From what I can tell, it looks just as weird and intriguing as its predecessor.

If you too cannot wait to bite people with your personal pocket leech, you can keep track of Read Only Memories: Neurodiver over on its Steam page, where you can also check out the demo. We'll see more of it, with any luck, when it hits its release window next year.

One of Josh's first memories is of playing Quake 2 on the family computer when he was much too young to be doing that, and he's been irreparably game-brained ever since. His writing has been featured in Vice, Fanbyte, and the Financial Times. He'll play pretty much anything, and has written far too much on everything from visual novels to Assassin's Creed. His most profound loves are for CRPGs, immersive sims, and any game whose ambition outstrips its budget. He thinks you're all far too mean about Deus Ex: Invisible War.