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Horizon Zero Dawn |OT| The Land After Time

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Lime

Member
My jaw is literally on the floor throughout every single frame in this game. It's simply unbelievable visuals, both technically and artistically.

And the fact that this is paired with a quality narrative with good characters and writing just makes my heart ache of happiness.

This game is simply one of those special moments that surprises me in what developers are able to do and that reminds me of the artistry and hearnestness in video games. And I'm still in the beginning of the game.
 

Kin5290

Member
uhhh I'm in the first cauldron.... tips?

this bellowback is taking like no damage. what am i doing wrong?
Hit the
fire bellowback
with 2 frost bombs from the Carja Sling to freeze it, and the hammer the big dorsal sack and the gullet with precision arrows from the Carja Sharpshot bow until they explode. Double/Triple shot and Concentration are must haves. You might need to reapply frost as well.

The real hard part is doing all of that while also dodging a half dozen Watchers and getting blinded by them.

One thing that I really like about this game is that meeting new machines is an exercise in frantically backpedaling and rolling to avoid being killed and break contact. I pulled the Shellwalker pack by Cauldron Sigma and almost died as I spent 15 minutes running around trying to evade them and accidentally pulled some RedEye Watchers into the fight. (For Shellwalkers: Sonic/Terrorblast Arrow to knock off the claws and then hammer it with fire arrows from range).
 

DrBo42

Member
So you manage to take control of a machine, make it a mount and it's this really cool moment where all of a sudden the world opens up. Then you ride past fellow braves on it and no one gives a fuck.

They couldn't record a handful of voice lines for that first sighting from the NPCs? The disconnect there felt really weird. Considering how polished the game is in most areas it makes stuff like that all the more bizarre.
 
Okay.

Aloy talking to herself is AMAZING.

Playing hudless without any quest notifications, I can just traverse the world, have her comment on locations and quest objectives in a fairly natural way, complete my tasks and be on my way. All without looking at the quest and the actual objectives.

I love this so much.
 
I had one of those "I'm not gonna cry... I'm NOT gonna cry" moments during that scene.

Well and its amazing because throughout that entire scene, or scenario or whatever, I was actually kinda taken out of the experience as she looked like the fucking GRINCH with each passing frame.

Then that moment, and also when
she puts the focus to her ear for the first time and immediately tosses it back off, terrified,
made me pause and begin to appreciate the details in reaction and awareness, performance wise.
 

The Goat

Member
Dude, what open world RPGs have better facial animation than this game? I was blown away by the quality considering its genre.

The Witcher 3, to an extent. FFXV at least conveys the emotion of the voice acting. Horizon never hits much, if any, emotional beats with the faces. Aloy is definitely where they spent time, but even she feels flat. In the grand scheme, its not a big deal, but one of the things I really hope GG works on in the future. Things are only going to get more photoreal, the animation needs to follow suit the same.
 
Alright so I've, we've, all played a lot of cinematic games with as close to lifelike acting and emoting and physicality as possible (LOU, UC4) but I swear to god when *first 20 minutes spoilers*
young Alloy responds "hi" to the holograph, wanting to simply talk to someone, to say hi to another person,
I fucking lost it.

Bravo.

Yes, this was me. Also, the cinematic not to far after that part where it transitions from
young Aloy to current age Aloy
.... Fucking goosebumps, man.
 

kaching

"GAF's biggest wanker"
Either there are less sidequests than I thought or I'm missing some. Can anyone just quickly tell me how many there are in the starting area? The only ones I saw/did were:

Brom/Olara, father/daughter and Errands for the old spirit lady.

I was just made a Seeker so outside there's probably more quests but is that it for inside for at least this point in time?
You can go back to the ruins Aloy fell into as a child and access areas she wasn't able to back then. In doing that, you can also trigger a new sidequest that extends out beyond the starting area. Hopefully that's not too spoilery.
 

spekkeh

Banned
Game has been downloading since this morning 9AM.

I hate that this is the one game that doesn't feature early start. Though not as much as I hate PSN godawful download speeds.

/dear diary
 

LoveCake

Member
My copy arrived from Amazon today (I only pre-ordered the other day) played through nearly three hours this evening and wow!

It has a sort of Fable feel to it to me.
 

Phloxy

Member
Posted my review. Game is so good. https://youtu.be/ZlDuVBZX3Jo Really think it's great to be spoiled by all the good titles that have hit in 2017. I risk sounding like some peace to all hippie but I'm happy that Zelda and this can both be coming out so close and be so good. It's good for all gamers to be getting to play all these quality experiences regardless of platform. Get tired of people on the internet bashing one or the other due to fanboy console wars.
Good stuff to GG though, great great game.
 

Kin5290

Member
The Witcher 3, to an extent. FFXV at least conveys the emotion of the voice acting. Horizon never hits much, if any, emotional beats with the faces. Aloy is definitely where they spent time, but even she feels flat. In the grand scheme, its not a big deal, but one of the things I really hope GG works on in the future. Things are only going to get more photoreal, the animation needs to follow suit the same.
Witcher 3's facial animation was awful and felt very Biowareish (in contrast with character animations outside of cutscenes). There certainly wasn't the level of emotion beintg conveyed compared to Horizon.
 

The Lamp

Member
Okay.

Aloy talking to herself is AMAZING.

Playing hudless without any quest notifications, I can just traverse the world, have her comment on locations and quest objectives in a fairly natural way, complete my tasks and be on my way. All without looking at the quest and the actual objectives.

I love this so much.

This part is very well done. She naturally asks the questions we're all thinking, which closely engages the player in the objectives and narrative. She's not a passive character. She feels just as interested in resolving this plot as we are.
 

D6AMIA6N

Member
Game has been downloading since this morning 9AM.

I hate that this is the one game that doesn't feature early start. Though not as much as I hate PSN godawful download speeds.

/dear diary

FYI if you have a game suspended, it sometimes takes forever to download anything. I had Fallout 4 suspended while I DL'd a bunch of shit and as soon as I closed the application, my speeds were much better.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
I hope John Gonzalez becomes one of those writers we know by name. I'm kind of in awe of what he and his team have accomplished here, and I've just gotten my feet wet. Also hope GG keeps him for the sequel!
 

Ferr986

Member
I've been trying the 2 modes from Pro on my 1080 TV and it's true that seems like Res mode looks a lil softer than Perf mode.

I do think Res mode is still the way to go if only because the foliage looks better, but seems like it's a case of preference.
 
The lip animations are probably my biggest problem I have with the game. At times, they're nearly flawless and incredibly well done. Then seemingly the very next second, everything goes to shit and nothing looks right. Doesn't seem to be consistent.
 

jaaz

Member
Am i crazy or the game looks better without HDR?

Your HDR is probably not working correctly. I was shocked at the difference between HDR and non-HDR on my Sony 43" X800D. It does take a bit of tweaking to make sure it's working as intended though.
 
Very cool how you can go so high where you're either above the clouds lookind down or literally inside of a cloud.

I have 2 story missions left, just trying to wrap up all the sidequests before I finish as i think there's a trophy associated with that. The
ancient
armor might be OP
 
Had a moment where I'm hiding in the grass from a Thunderjaw and a Watcher. The Watcher is closest to me, so I whistle to draw it near for a silent kill. Of course, the Thunderjaw comes over instead; instead of running I sit there while this huge beast walks over and stands right over me. I'm literally looking up at it's underside, and when I tell you that visually it was the most impressive moment that I've seen in a game yet; just so seamless, with no clipping or anything. It was like seeing Jurassic Park for the first time all over again. I'm astounded at what GG has acheived here.
 

jaaz

Member
Is there any way to heal your mount? I'm a sucker and got attached to the first Strider I overrode. But I don't think he's meant for this world. :(
 

Playsage

Member
For those who finished the game/are way past midpoint, did you ever faced consequences for choosing a certain reaction/completing a particular quest?
 

Nyx

Member
So you manage to take control of a machine, make it a mount and it's this really cool moment where all of a sudden the world opens up. Then you ride past fellow braves on it and no one gives a fuck.

They couldn't record a handful of voice lines for that first sighting from the NPCs? The disconnect there felt really weird. Considering how polished the game is in most areas it makes stuff like that all the more bizarre.

Yeah I definitely noticed the lack of any response to that.
 

Muzicfreq

Banned
Ugh the delima
I feel like if I use one of the DLC armors I feel like I am cheating in a way as well as kinda breaking the game's story progression as well
Yet playing on Hard I feel the need for some better armor as well. -_-
 

SDCowboy

Member
So does no gear continue to unlock at merchants as the game goes on, or does it stop pretty early? The same armor/weapon options have been my options for some time now.
 

Mifune

Mehmber
Ugh the delima
I feel like if I use one of the DLC armors I feel like I am cheating in a way as well as kinda breaking the game's story progression as well
Yet playing on Hard I feel the need for some better armor as well. -_-

Oh, the DLC armor is strong? I completely forgot to download it.
 

kng3025

Member
My jaw is literally on the floor throughout every single frame in this game. It's simply unbelievable visuals, both technically and artistically.

And the fact that this is paired with a quality narrative with good characters and writing just makes my heart ache of happiness.

This game is simply one of those special moments that surprises me in what developers are able to do and that reminds me of the artistry and hearnestness in video games. And I'm still in the beginning of the game.

Damm, I'm scared to play now.

In all seriousness, I can't wait for my copy to arrive. I was expecting to have it by now buy Amazon still hasn't shipped it. Anyone else experiencing this? A rep told me that they were waiting for the manufacturer to provide them with copies hence the delay.. If I didn't use Amazon credit to purchase the game, I probably would have picked it up elsewhere.
 
This part is very well done. She naturally asks the questions we're all thinking, which closely engages the player in the objectives and narrative. She's not a passive character. She feels just as interested in resolving this plot as we are.

I really like that. I like that I can be exploring the world, she'll comment as to "isn't that that area where so and so happened" and so, without engaging with the map or the quest menu, I'll wonder over, do this entire quest line, find out what to do next and move on.

It makes my hudless experience oh so wonderful.
 

Codiox

Member
Okay after 16hours I finally found something that really grind my gears:
These fucking fetch exams and Hunter quests. Also taking over the bandits fortress
seems so unnecessary...


Other than that still my GOTY!
 
Alright so I've, we've, all played a lot of cinematic games with as close to lifelike acting and emoting and physicality as possible (LOU, UC4) but I swear to god when *first 20 minutes spoilers*
young Alloy responds "hi" to the holograph, wanting to simply talk to someone, to say hi to another person,
I fucking lost it.

Bravo.

Loved that touch.
 

HStallion

Now what's the next step in your master plan?
I hope John Gonzalez becomes one of those writers we know by name. I'm kind of in awe of what he and his team have accomplished here, and I've just gotten my feet wet. Also hope GG keeps him for the sequel!

I felt he was pretty well known in the gaming sphere for having worked at Obsidian.
 

Skeletron

Member
It's a machine my man. Go override a new strider and call it a day.
I upgraded the skills that make Overrides last forever and feel kind of bad now after a battle when the Watcher I hacked is falling apart but still walking, the last survivor of it's group now that it's helped me to wipe out all its buddies, and I gotta put it out of its misery.
 

avaya

Member
I was banned for a flippant comment about Guerilla when I first heard the concept of this game and how much Sony was going to pour into it.

Well deserved banning. I was so wrong. Guerilla have more than delivered, this game is simply fucking outstanding. I have never enjoyed a videogame story as much as this. Everything about this game is fucking insane.

You glorious Dutch bastards.
 
Man, the melee combat in this game is rough. Didn't notice how bad it was at first against the robots, but once you fight humans...

There was also some sound issues in the city area with most of the NPCs.(many were barely audible)

On the other hand, I'm really liking Aloy as a character so far. I'm interested in where this story goes.
 
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