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Horizon: Forbidden West |OT| Red Head Redemption - II -

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I agree

This game took 5 years due to the Ubiboat, but I guess that’s why these types of games sell

I think if they made it a little more focused it would have taken much less time

The side content got boring to me as well, because the characters don’t persist much.

I’d much rather they have focused almost everything on the campaign, less side activities. I thought Ghost of Tsushima struck a better balance
TBH, i think this is a way better open world game than Ghost. Yes, the side quests arent as interesting, but the open world has far more to do than Ghost where I got tired of chasing foxes and cleaning up bandit camps. They definitely shouldve learned from Ghost's running side quests that span the entire main quest as well as the fast looting system, but overall I am very satisfied with the campaign. Ghosts hits some really good highs, but HFW's campaign is just as good if not better.

If they were planning on making this a PS4 game, the budget and dev time shouldve been 3 years max. Release the game in Feb 2020 and then work on getting a true next gen sequel out in 2023 or 2024. I am just depressed thinking about the sequel might not come out until 2027 with the launch of the PS6.
 

James Sawyer Ford

Gold Member
TBH, i think this is a way better open world game than Ghost. Yes, the side quests arent as interesting, but the open world has far more to do than Ghost where I got tired of chasing foxes and cleaning up bandit camps. They definitely shouldve learned from Ghost's running side quests that span the entire main quest as well as the fast looting system, but overall I am very satisfied with the campaign. Ghosts hits some really good highs, but HFW's campaign is just as good if not better.

If they were planning on making this a PS4 game, the budget and dev time shouldve been 3 years max. Release the game in Feb 2020 and then work on getting a true next gen sequel out in 2023 or 2024. I am just depressed thinking about the sequel might not come out until 2027 with the launch of the PS6.

Oh I agree the campaign in HFW is better

I was just talking about side content. There’s too much of it in HFW. Every camp has side stuff that is highly distracting and not that important to the overall game

I would rather those resources be used to make the campaign even longer, or release the game sooner
 

Paasei

Member
Definitely beat the story before going all in on the open world. You want the story only upgrades.

Trust me.
Good that you’re saying this, as I was just about to go for that and do the side content later. Playing on very hard is truly taking it’s toll on my death counter now that I’m about 25hrs in game with hardly any main quests done.

Somewhere in the middle of the entire map story spoiler. Middle of the map as in location.
Last main mission I’ve done is defending the arena where all the clans unite
.
 
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Mossybrew

Member
Jesus I'm an idiot, all this time and I just found out that you have to wait till that valor surge bar is full to get the benefit of your fully upgraded surge.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Yooo

did they totally stick in a post-apocalypse ROAD RASH in this ?

Fuck that's great :D
 
Welp, my copy should be coming in the next few days. Still debating on how much of the side content to do, depending on the size of the main campaign. Since I will probably only have scant time on weekdays to play a tad and most free time on the weekends (but I am also playing some other games alongside that, mainly retro stuff).

No experience with Zero Dawn and I both haven't played too many full-on open-world games nor been spoiled by 60 FPS consistency of current-gen offerings, so some of the issues others bring up likely won't matter much if at all for me. Have to see how great this looks on my own television screen tho; visual fidelity seems to be one area we can universally agree is fantastic here. And from the gameplay I've seen, the sense of exploration is very much present as well.

Should be a fun time.
 

Dr Bass

Member
Welp, my copy should be coming in the next few days. Still debating on how much of the side content to do, depending on the size of the main campaign. Since I will probably only have scant time on weekdays to play a tad and most free time on the weekends (but I am also playing some other games alongside that, mainly retro stuff).

No experience with Zero Dawn and I both haven't played too many full-on open-world games nor been spoiled by 60 FPS consistency of current-gen offerings, so some of the issues others bring up likely won't matter much if at all for me. Have to see how great this looks on my own television screen tho; visual fidelity seems to be one area we can universally agree is fantastic here. And from the gameplay I've seen, the sense of exploration is very much present as well.

Should be a fun time.
I'll be interested to hear your take given you haven't played the first one. There is a recap at the beginning that covers some important parts of part 1 though.
 
I'll be interested to hear your take given you haven't played the first one. There is a recap at the beginning that covers some important parts of part 1 though.
Nice; also if by some chance I'd need more a refresher there are probably some synopsis write-ups or short videos I can check out. But yeah, will definitely at least have some impressions to share and maybe review it when completed (though that might be a minute 😯).
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Still not a fan of the throw shit at you thats beyond expectation as a 'surprise'. Might have just got unlucky with the string but tonight.....

Had the quest with the zenith aerials. Going well, though the land god quest with like 2 bellowbacks, 2 apex grimhorns and a skydrifter was beyond the level suggestion imo.

Second site is a tough battle then a stormbird spawns at the end. Then you complete the mainline and they throw two new machines at you from Zenith. And that's not even mentioning the thunderjaw, tremortusk and skydrifter encounter that takes place in a prison yard. And despite it being small, the berserk arrows did fuck all.

The only commonality here is the AI helping who are shit. They really need to look at their encounter designs imo for some of the side quests. Rest is fantastic, in the wild picking off herds and engaging apex/alpha packs but the trsnslation is lost when they are part of a side mission.

And it becomes very apparent on hard that Aloy can get stunlocked very easy with the jank of the environment coupled with her taking four days to get off the floor when knocked down!
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Man it's really weird that Aloy can use the grapling hook to reach SOME distant jump spots but not all.

Just let us use it everywhere ... would make traversal so much better.
 

Lonely_Wolf1886

Neo Member
Eh still no fix for the performance mode.

I just wish they add the sharpness back they removed after the last patch. It made the game look incredible in the 30 fps mode.
When did they remove the sharpness? I thought it was placebo that the game didn't look sharp compared to playing day 1 in 30fps mode.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Cauldon Iota ending and the swelling music sting.

Pretty fucking good. I'm loving this game when it plays nice.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
64 Hours in and probably about just over halfway through the story and I havent even discovered over half the map yet. This game is fucking massive

Yeah, I actually don't take this as a positive personally.

The first game was better about not peppering the map with dozens and dozens of markers. This game does it a lot more, almost as much as your average Ubisoft open world game.
 

Esca

Member
This is the first open world game in ages that I find myself doing most content i come across. I've got like 34 hours in the game and I only just did the arena story mission
 

J3nga

Member
I'm nearing 40 hours mark and my opinion about it is that it's insanely beautiful and very meh game. I'm kinda tired of it and want it to end. All that open world bloat and grind is sickening. Want increase you bow or armor by one level? Go grind x parts. Want bigger arrows satchel? yeah you guessed it right buddy, go grind. The map is huge and filled with question marks but nothing really interesting you'll find. Story is so so, the main plot is okayish, but tribes stuff in between is such a bore fest.
 
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Trunim

Member
The story, the dialogue and the characters are so utterly uninteresting. It's like your run-of-the-mill movie that caters to teenagers and doesn't really say anything with meaning.. And the main character, oh my god, I should've known better from the first game, she still has zero personality and absolutely zero development. What a shame. It's a pretty game with a hollow shell.

And then you have these ordinary errands and side quests that comes with an open world game that doesn't really want to do anything new. It feels like an expansion to the first game with major updates in the character animations.

What I like is climbing stuff and trying to explore, even though the game does its best from time to prevent you. I want to climb that rock, but I can't, because the game only allows me to climb this other rock....Cmon... I just missed Breath of the Wild then.
 
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GooseMan69

Member
What’s with the random difficulty spikes during certain side activities? The melee pit in Bulwark was legitimately harder than some Soulsborne bosses. Was not ready for that at all. Especially since the previous melee pits were a joke.

Game is outstanding though.
 
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azertydu91

Hard to Kill
What’s with the random difficulty spikes during certain side activities? The melee pit in Bulwark was legitimately harder than some Soulsborne bosses. Was not ready for that at all. Especially since the previous melee pits were a joke.

Game is outstanding though.
I didn't have much trouble with the melee pits, the game just forces you to use what it just taught you and the last challenges always shows that.
 

J3nga

Member
The story, the dialogue and the characters are so utterly uninteresting. It's like your run-of-the-mill movie that caters to teenagers and doesn't really say anything with meaning.. And the main character, oh my god, I should've known better from the first game, she still has zero personality and absolutely zero development. What a shame. It's a pretty game with a hollow shell.

And then you have these ordinary errands and side quests that comes with an open world game that doesn't really want to do anything new. It feels like an expansion to the first game with major updates in the character animations.

What I like is climbing stuff and trying to explore, even though the game does its best from time to prevent you. I want to climb that rock, but I can't, because the game only allows me to climb this other rock....Cmon... I just missed Breath of the Wild then.
I agree on dialogues as well, they are utterly boring so's Alloy. Zero Dawn was worst major PS exclusive to me and trend seems to continue for me, insanely beautiful in resolution mode on OLED TV, but boring. Still not a bad game though.
 

GooseMan69

Member
I didn't have much trouble with the melee pits, the game just forces you to use what it just taught you and the last challenges always shows that.

That’s the thing, I had to completely abandon what it just showed me because those moves kept getting me killed. As soon as I did that I started having better success (playing on hard difficulty). The one I mentioned was just insane. It puts you in a tiny little combat area against two enemies, who attack you IMMEDIATELY. On some tries I would eat about 200 damage right off the bat despite me being ready for it. One of them has a massive AOE attack that covers most of the arena. You get no healing items. And you have two minutes to kill both of them. I seriously think it took more attempts than any of the bosses in Demons Souls. Whoever designed that must have been having a bad day.
 
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azertydu91

Hard to Kill
That’s the thing, I had to completely abandon what it just showed me because those moves kept getting me killed. As soon as I did that I started having better success (playing on hard difficulty). The one I mentioned was just insane. It puts you in a tiny little combat area against two enemies, who attack you IMMEDIATELY. On some tries I would eat about 200 damage right off the bat despite me being ready for it. One of them has a massive AOE attack that covers most of the arena. You get no healing items. And you have two minutes to kill both of them. I seriously think it took more attempts than any of the bosses in Demons Souls. Whoever designed that must have been having a bad day.
Yeah I remember that part, I think I used to immediately roll back during the black screen and kept spamming it.I had way more trouble about the arena and especially when your equipment is restricted, it forced me to use weapons that I didn't like but damn was I better with my own stuff.
 

Boss Mog

Member
Anybody else getting a bug where your spear attack just stops working. it seems to happen when I get hit by certain attacks during a spear combo. Reloading the game seems to be the only way to fix it for me. This happens a least once per play session. I thought yesterday's patch might fix it but evidently not.
 

Fox Mulder

Member
Yeah, I actually don't take this as a positive personally.

The first game was better about not peppering the map with dozens and dozens of markers. This game does it a lot more, almost as much as your average Ubisoft open world game.

Except Ubisoft games never pull me in with their world or story. I couldn’t get into Assassins Creed or Far Cry. I’ve enjoyed like 60 hours in HFW already and did 80+ in the first one for the platinum trophy.
 
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J3nga

Member
Except Ubisoft games never pull me in with their world or story. I couldn’t get into Assassins Creed or Far Cry. I’ve enjoyed like 60 hours in HFW already and did 80+ in the first one for the platinum trophy.
HFW does not pull me in personally as well.
 

Cyborg

Member
Jesus I'm an idiot, all this time and I just found out that you have to wait till that valor surge bar is full to get the benefit of your fully upgraded surge.
Well, it's not your fault! Game fcking doesn't tell you it's full (you need to see it glow) and I'm 45h in and still don't know how to activate Valor exactly. The game states ''tap R2'' but most of the time nothing happens!
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Well, it's not your fault! Game fcking doesn't tell you it's full (you need to see it glow) and I'm 45h in and still don't know how to activate Valor exactly. The game states ''tap R2'' but most of the time nothing happens!

Yeah, the tutorials leave a bit to be desired.

But ... that being said ... even though you can do so many fancy combos in the game, the machines are jumping around so much that you barely get a chance to input the buttons and end up relying on the ol light light heavy combo, for me at least.
 

Mjordan23

Neo Member
When did they remove the sharpness? I thought it was placebo that the game didn't look sharp compared to playing day 1 in 30fps mode.
Just started playing after patch 1.05, and generally think the IQ looks much better and cleaner in framerate mode. Quality mode looks a bit messy and not so fluid. Might have been different in the first patch though if they removed sharpeness.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Well, it's not your fault! Game fcking doesn't tell you it's full (you need to see it glow) and I'm 45h in and still don't know how to activate Valor exactly. The game states ''tap R2'' but most of the time nothing happens!
Its tap R1 while you have the weapon wheel up.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
The shredder kinda sucks. I'm having a blast sticking with the classic spear / hunter bow combination.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
I like how nobody in the team played Ghost of Tsushima.

R2 to instantly pick up resources is the best thing about that game.
Yep. Even TLOU2 has an accessibility setting that lets Ellie automatically pick up resources if shes near them, and unlike GoT, she actually does the animation and everything.

There is a lot of busy work in this game. The platforming is broken up constantly by having to wait for the pullcaster animations to finish. For some reason, you can only craft 5 arrows at a time, even at the workbench. You have to collect 3 Thunderjaw or Tideripper tails for one weapon upgrade level. 11 Tremortusks lol. Thats 3-4 kills.

They have enough content in the game. They didnt need to add so much busy work.

What sucks is that they unlearned a lot of the lessons from the Frozen Wilds DLC. Every quest or collectathon in that DLC awarded you the best damn coils in the game. The hardest side quest had you kill 5 fireclaws but at the end of which you got THE best coil in the game with the highest handling and damage. I did it three times on three playthroughs simply because it felt so rewarding. I feel like so many of the quests in this game offer only cosmetic rewards and/or just skill points. Even killing Trex might not give you any purple coils. You used to get three per kill in the first game.
 
Yep. Even TLOU2 has an accessibility setting that lets Ellie automatically pick up resources if shes near them, and unlike GoT, she actually does the animation and everything.

There is a lot of busy work in this game. The platforming is broken up constantly by having to wait for the pullcaster animations to finish. For some reason, you can only craft 5 arrows at a time, even at the workbench. You have to collect 3 Thunderjaw or Tideripper tails for one weapon upgrade level. 11 Tremortusks lol. Thats 3-4 kills.

They have enough content in the game. They didnt need to add so much busy work.

What sucks is that they unlearned a lot of the lessons from the Frozen Wilds DLC. Every quest or collectathon in that DLC awarded you the best damn coils in the game. The hardest side quest had you kill 5 fireclaws but at the end of which you got THE best coil in the game with the highest handling and damage. I did it three times on three playthroughs simply because it felt so rewarding. I feel like so many of the quests in this game offer only cosmetic rewards and/or just skill points. Even killing Trex might not give you any purple coils. You used to get three per kill in the first game.
Ignore all of that. (dont, but do)

There is no reason to press a button for 3 seconds, to grab something.

But yeah theres alot of useless shit in the game. Just make the game harder if you want busy work. I may just hate open worlds.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
Yeah, I actually don't take this as a positive personally.

The first game was better about not peppering the map with dozens and dozens of markers. This game does it a lot more, almost as much as your average Ubisoft open world game.
elden ring is getting praised for that exact reason. its only bad when the world is trash, ugly and filled with nothing, thats not the case here. the world is dripping with life and atmosphere. best ive seen in an open world game quite easily.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
elden ring is getting praised for that exact reason. its only bad when the world is trash, ugly and filled with nothing, thats not the case here. the world is dripping with life and atmosphere. best ive seen in an open world game quite easily.

I think Elden Ring is being overrated to all hell
, but that's just my opinion.
 

Represent.

Represent(ative) of bad opinions
I think Elden Ring is being overrated to all hell
, but that's just my opinion.
yes, yes it is. shit looks like a straight up 7/10 to me. everything from combat to graphics look awful. i'd bet my left nut if it wasnt for the enemy design/variety it wouldnt be scored as high. From are industry darlings simple as it gets.
 

Con_Z_ǝdʇ

Live from NeoGAF, it's Friday Night!
Platinum achieved after 48h.

Pleasantly surprised by the game especially since i never finished Zero Dawn. My only real complaints are the technical inconsistencies and the lack of that final bit of polish.
 
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