Seriously, it's like these two games are in the exact opposite side of the spectrum for horniness and only one of them understands the appeal of sex beyond a vaguely transgressive aesthetic
In BG3 I had to sit there and click through a bunch of options every step of the way in order to fuck the squid guy, and each option was concerned with the emotional and sensory experience of fucking the squid guy. Like you had to choose to grab his tentacle, decide if you wanted to kiss or caress it or part the tentacles to find a mouth, decide that you wanted to keep going, decide how you were feeling about it, etc. It was a tender scene that did not shy away from eroticism, even if it was played slightly for comedy at the end (your companion's reactions when it turns out they could totally see you fucking the squid guy)
In Cyberpunk 2077 I got pretty much ambushed with a sex scene with some random hot corporate/military lady that was a few minutes of me looking at the screen, bored out of my mind while aggressive guitar riffs played and virtual titties glowed in the pink neon light, almost disembodied because there's so many camera cuts to keep up with the aggressive guitar riffs. Like I thought I was picking up a quest from this NPC I met exactly twice, for a previous quest, but no, it's just the "reward" of... an extremely vanilla sex scene but trying really hard to look kinky. The hot lady has vinyl tape over her nipples, you see. There's a dildo on the floor of the motel. Nevermind that the only things implied in this scene are her going down on you and... idk, scissoring I guess? Wow, so adult, what a mature game, how transgressive... It isn't even a rare or unique thing to experience in this game, you get the exact same scene with any "joytoy" (that's what sex workers are called here) you choose to hire off the street.
Okay so in BG3 you can go to Hell and fuck a succubus, but in exchange, the succubus gets to keep your image and use it to fuck whoever. The catch is that you will feel when you're being "used" in this way, it can happen at any time and you'll have no say about it. Obviously, this concept alone is hornier than any number vinyl-taped boobs. However, a less horny game would have just stopped there. Or would have made this into an unmitigated power/desirability fantasy of your character being just so hot all the hot devils in hell are irresistibly attracted to you and isn't that fun and hot. But BG3 understands that the reason losing agency is a kink is... the loss of agency, being a plaything whether you want it or not. So you get your companions worried about the deal you just made. You even have a moment where your character actually feels someone doing something and it's treated as inconvenient, almost embarrassing. Astarion, if nearby, will actually comment on that and offer emotional support because he knows what it's like to be someone else's plaything.
Contrast with Cyberpunk's "dolls." In Night City there's a brothel that has its workers implant "behavioral chips" so that an algorithm matches a client with a "doll," and then the chip takes over and makes them act in whatever way the algorithm decided would fulfill the client's deepest desires. Once the encounter is over, the chip releases control and the doll goes back to being a person, with no memory of the encounter. Now while I was doing whatever quest nearby, I can hear two NPCs talking about it. One is perplexed because it's so much more expensive to pay for a session at this brothel than it is to get an actual doll with super advanced behavioral programming or whatever, since the worker has no input and won't remember anything anyway. The other NPC explains that this is different because it's "actual flesh" and not just "cold latex," which the first NPC rejects because it feels the same (this is the future) and they argue about the minutiae of actual skin vs. plastic skin vis-à-vis sexual feedback.
This is so stupid I feel like I shouldn't have to point this out but... both drone kinks and hypnotism kinks are a thing that would perfectly map to this concept of "dolls" in cyberpunk. The thing that makes "dolls" appealing is not that "they feel more real than latex" is that they are actual people with all of their agency removed for the sake of sexual pleasure. That's what people would pay for in the world of Cyberpunk. These aren't even kinks that do much for me but even I can see why they're a thing?? The objectification of a person is the actual kink served here, but the game doesn't fucking realize this or tries to ignore it entirely, in which case... why is this even in the game in the first place? It's just the most boring way to say "this is the future and it's gritty, which means people FUCK and PAY for SEX but in a FUTURISTIC way. We live in a SOCIETY. BOTTOM TEXT."
I do like Cyberpunk 2077 but for whatever CDPR does next with it (codename "Orion" I think?) I hope the team understands that their vision of cyberpunk is so backwards and mired in the same Gen-X baggage that spawned Mike Pondsmith's Cyberpunk setting in the first place that it reads as "pleasantly quaint" to people living in the present.
It's quaint not just because every car is some kind of Delorean and every bike is some kind of Kaneda's Bike and people wear weird jackets have "cyberdecks" but also because of the above ideas about what's hot and tittilating are so...old as to be cute in a sad way when paired with things like a catalog of shitty night clubs and such.
Added Disclaimer: I honestly think some of it is cool! But! But! I also recognize I'm a cishet straight millennial squarely in the game's target demo, and I desperately hope CDPR are also cognizant of how limited that box is before it becomes a weight around their next project's neck.
