Horizon Zero Dawn reviews looking good...

[purbeast0]

Ended up snagging it at Best Buy B&M on the way home from the gym for $20. It rang up $50 but I showed them the website and she just had to verify with her manager that she could price match it since it was sold out online. Easy peasy.

 

[cmdrdredd]

For the new items you have to farm Bluegleam and I have the map but some of the locations are inaccessible. I can work my way around to where I think you get in but it says “you can’t access this location” when I get close. Are some Bluegleam spots gated off by mission progress? So lame

 

[Oyeve]

For the new items you have to farm Bluegleam and I have the map but some of the locations are inaccessible. I can work my way around to where I think you get in but it says “you can’t access this location” when I get close. Are some Bluegleam spots gated off by mission progress? So lame

Yeah. I copped some blue gleam in a mission I chose while deviating off the main mission.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Yeah. I copped some blue gleam in a mission I chose while deviating off the main mission.

Well I bought two of the three new bows before I even did the first main mission where you try to find the shaman. I bought the one that shoots precision arrows and the one that shoots hardpoint arrows. I don’t really use the other type of bow so I’ll probably skip it. I won’t bother with the armor because I’m still using the shield weave. So basically I don’t need any more Bluegleam anyway. I also got the spear you can put upgrades in and the forge fire (flame thrower).

 

[SteveGrabowski]

Yeah I saw that thread on SD after making that post. I would have rather gotten it from Amazon if I could have.

Crap, it's back on sale for $20 at amazon now.

https://www.amazon.com/Horizon-Zero-Dawn-PlayStation-4/dp/B00ZQC73O8/?th=1

 

[purbeast0]

Crap, it's back on sale for $20 at amazon now.

https://www.amazon.com/Horizon-Zero-Dawn-PlayStation-4/dp/B00ZQC73O8/?th=1

Yeah I saw that. I could have saved like 20 minutes yesterday if I was a psychic! It came back in stock on Best Buy's website so Amazon dropped the price again.

 

[Oyeve]

Crap, it's back on sale for $20 at amazon now.

https://www.amazon.com/Horizon-Zero-Dawn-PlayStation-4/dp/B00ZQC73O8/?th=1

Damn, I may buy it just to have a physical copy. I bough the digital download when it first hit. I like tangible things.

 

[purbeast0]

I started HZD last night and forgot I had to install games on PS4 so I played Mario while it installed. Then after 15 minutes it asked me to update and I didn't want to update so I just went in and played it. When I first played it I got to the part you start gathering right before you start hunting, then I started a movie with my wife. The graphics were pretty damn good but I felt there was a bit of framerate issues or some sort of weird choppiness when you panned the camera around. I also did not like the speed of the camera as it moved around and it was too fast for me, and there are no options to change the sensitivity.

Then after the movie I went to play again and updated it. And then I saw more options appear in settings which made me happy. I could now control the sensitivity, and I saw more options in the "visual" settings. So I think initially the game wasn't PS4 Pro enhanced, and after this patch it was. I don't have HDR or 4K, but I kept going back/forth between the 2 graphics settings. While I couldn't notice much difference between the two, both were NOTICEABLY better looking than prior to the patch. I stuck with the better framerate option since I couldn't notice too much difference.

I then started playing more and got to the part where you save the boy and it shows that like 7 minute clip of you growing up. I then felt like playing Mario so I turned it off to play Mario.

So far the game didn't suck me in just yet. The game was a bit more "involved" than I anticipated, as in, you have to collect stuff and build weapons, you have this thing on your ear that is basically augmented reality that adds another layer, etc. I think I just need to put more time into it to want to keep playing. I really liked the music and environment of the game though. The sound is great, except holy shit, the voice acting is awful in this game. It really takes me out of the cutscenes. It's got such great graphics (other than the eyes of the young Aloy, looks like crosseyed or something) but hearing them talk is so obviously on another level which isn't close to the graphics.

I'm gonna try to put more time into it today so I can get into it a bit more, if I can pull myself away from Mario that is. I think I'm addicted to collecting moons in Mario right now. I'm pretty sure once I get into the game I'll enjoy it more.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I started HZD last night and forgot I had to install games on PS4 so I played Mario while it installed. Then after 15 minutes it asked me to update and I didn't want to update so I just went in and played it. When I first played it I got to the part you start gathering right before you start hunting, then I started a movie with my wife. The graphics were pretty damn good but I felt there was a bit of framerate issues or some sort of weird choppiness when you panned the camera around. I also did not like the speed of the camera as it moved around and it was too fast for me, and there are no options to change the sensitivity.

Then after the movie I went to play again and updated it. And then I saw more options appear in settings which made me happy. I could now control the sensitivity, and I saw more options in the "visual" settings. So I think initially the game wasn't PS4 Pro enhanced, and after this patch it was. I don't have HDR or 4K, but I kept going back/forth between the 2 graphics settings. While I couldn't notice much difference between the two, both were NOTICEABLY better looking than prior to the patch. I stuck with the better framerate option since I couldn't notice too much difference.

I then started playing more and got to the part where you save the boy and it shows that like 7 minute clip of you growing up. I then felt like playing Mario so I turned it off to play Mario.

So far the game didn't suck me in just yet. The game was a bit more "involved" than I anticipated, as in, you have to collect stuff and build weapons, you have this thing on your ear that is basically augmented reality that adds another layer, etc. I think I just need to put more time into it to want to keep playing. I really liked the music and environment of the game though. The sound is great, except holy shit, the voice acting is awful in this game. It really takes me out of the cutscenes. It's got such great graphics (other than the eyes of the young Aloy, looks like crosseyed or something) but hearing them talk is so obviously on another level which isn't close to the graphics.

I'm gonna try to put more time into it today so I can get into it a bit more, if I can pull myself away from Mario that is. I think I'm addicted to collecting moons in Mario right now. I'm pretty sure once I get into the game I'll enjoy it more.

Yeah it takes some time to open up for you and then the world is really huge with lots of stuff to do but yes gathering materials is a thing for crafting ammo and the like. As for the graphics options, I can see a slight difference with the higher resolution option but it's not huge. Things are just a tad sharper because it's using checkerboard rendering to push 4k instead of running at 1080p. For 1080p displays it's downsampled which gives you some extra anti aliasing. The game runs at 30fps but does have hitching at times that drops a couple fps here and there. Digital Foundry says it's 28-30fps. The higher framerate option pretty much locks it to 30fps but it's nowhere close to as smooth as Mario is which seeing as you've been playing that a lot, this is maybe why you feel it's got a weird jitter to it. All games at 30fps have some weird motion to me and it takes some getting used to. I've yet to play any game that was 30fps that didn't feel weird in motion but I deal with it because I have no choice. Mario is 60fps so it's a lot smoother in motion. It's like if you fired up Last of Us Remastered and turned on the 60fps option which is 1080p and played for a couple minutes and then switched it to the 30fps option which renders the game at 4k and played it again. The 30fps option would have odd motion and jitter. It's just not as smooth.

As for the voice acting, yeah it was one of the big complaints when it released. It seems off, but I think later on it does get a bit better. It's not Skyrim or Fallout bad to me but it's not Last of Us good either. It's somewhere in between.

 

[EXCellR8]

PSN members get it for $15... haven't done so yet as I've only completed about 3/4 of the original game... should I just download the expansion anyway?

watched the Giant Bomb quicklook last night; it seems even more difficult than the base game :/

 

[cmdrdredd]

PSN members get it for $15... haven't done so yet as I've only completed about 3/4 of the original game... should I just download the expansion anyway?

watched the Giant Bomb quicklook last night; it seems even more difficult than the base game :/

It is more difficult but there is a “story” difficulty setting that lets you almost 1 shot everything made for casual plebs lol. In all seriousness though I find the new daemon machine types to be very deadly. They are fast and you don’t really get time to line up shots when under attack. I find I have to be more strategic and use the rope caster a lot more. There are some new weapon types that help combat weaknesses though.

 

[EXCellR8]

haha, I wouldn't change the difficulty for the sake of just jaunting through it, but I was never the strongest player to begin with.

it looks like it adds a pretty sizable area to the north though, so I'm leaning toward getting it and just dealing with the punishment.

 

[Oyeve]

haha, I wouldn't change the difficulty for the sake of just jaunting through it, but I was never the strongest player to begin with.

it looks like it adds a pretty sizable area to the north though, so I'm leaning toward getting it and just dealing with the punishment.

Yeah, I'm getting killed every step. Ultra hard g+ is a bitch! Finally modded the spear.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Finished all the main and side quests for The Frozen Wilds and while I liked being back in the world again and appreciate some of the new enemies, I was disappointed in the length and in the story they created. I felt that some of the side quests were much better than the main quest line's story was. I guess it's worth the asking price but I did want more than they added. Also sadly they won't do anything else to this game and we have to wait for the sequel.

 

[Oyeve]

Finished all the main and side quests for The Frozen Wilds and while I liked being back in the world again and appreciate some of the new enemies, I was disappointed in the length and in the story they created. I felt that some of the side quests were much better than the main quest line's story was. I guess it's worth the asking price but I did want more than they added. Also sadly they won't do anything else to this game and we have to wait for the sequel.

I cant finish the end-boss. and I cant switch to an easier mode because I played the game on ultra-hard game+. I literally got killed when all I needed was probably one or two last shots. I went nuts and nearly tossed my controller at my TV.

 

[cmdrdredd]

I cant finish the end-boss. and I cant switch to an easier mode because I played the game on ultra-hard game+. I literally got killed when all I needed was probably one or two last shots. I went nuts and nearly tossed my controller at my TV.

Haha yeah I died probably 20 times. I ended up sort of cheating by roping him down and using the ice rail and repeating this. When I ran out of ammo I made some real fast and continued. Barely got touched that way but it felt cheap.

 

[IHateMyJob2004]

Haha yeah I died probably 20 times. I ended up sort of cheating by roping him down and using the ice rail and repeating this. When I ran out of ammo I made some real fast and continued. Barely got touched that way but it felt cheap.

Using the mechanics of the game isn't cheating. I use the rope caster all the time. It helps out a ton if you learn to use it properly.

 

[cmdrdredd]

Using the mechanics of the game isn't cheating. I use the rope caster all the time. It helps out a ton if you learn to use it properly.

I know but it felt cheap to me. Like I never ran out of ammo because you can just make ammo in 2 seconds while you're fighting stuff.

 

[Oyeve]

Haha yeah I died probably 20 times. I ended up sort of cheating by roping him down and using the ice rail and repeating this. When I ran out of ammo I made some real fast and continued. Barely got touched that way but it felt cheap.

What game mode did you play on?

 

[cmdrdredd]

What game mode did you play on?

Hard

 

[EXCellR8]

I don't mind the game being more difficult but it does get tedious switching out arrow types and attempting to systematically pick enemies apart. I don't want the encounters to be cheap and easy of course though having to precisely plan out your attacks or making sure you have enough resources can certainly be annoying and time-consuming. I really dig this game though and it's one of the very best on the console thus far.

I hope I can get back to it soon; it's been out almost a year already!!

 

[HOOfan 1]

So far the game didn't suck me in just yet.

I found the first hour or 2 of the game to be rather boring and linear. It wasn't until the first battle against humans that the world opened up and the game came into its own. It got even better when you move into the Western portions of the map. The story doesn't really start revealing itself until many hours in. Once the backstory starts filling in, the narrative rivals Noaughty Dog's games.

 

[purbeast0]

I found the first hour or 2 of the game to be rather boring and linear. It wasn't until the first battle against humans that the world opened up and the game came into its own. It got even better when you move into the Western portions of the map. The story doesn't really start revealing itself until many hours in. Once the backstory starts filling in, the narrative rivals Noaughty Dog's games.

Yeah I just need some time to sit down and play it. I really don't know when that's going to be at this point though. I have that to play and Cuphead, and I'm still playing Mario but I'm saving Mario for my flights to/from Aruba at the end of this month. And I'm going to get PSVR next week and am already stocking up on games. Oh, and I just started Breaking Bad from the beginning again with my wife who's never seen it. So time is kind of hard for me to get right now to just sit down and play for hours lol.

 

[HOOfan 1]

HMMM...I wonder if the new area is going to link up to the area near the Grave Hoard that I mentioned above. This DLC is obviously going to be about the Banuk and you can see a Banuk statue off in that area which seems to be unreachable.

Well it looks like I was correct, but they did change quite a bit on that little connecting area. The way they talk about the new area though, calling it "The Cut" makes it sound like this is not Ban-ur. I wonder if Ban-Ur is supposed to be Canada, and considering this expansion doesn't take place in Ban-Ur proper, it makes me wonder if the sequel will have that area.

According to my game clock I am about 16 hours into the expansion, and looking at the quest trophies, I would say I am about half done. I have found all the collectibles though, and killed 15 Scorchers and 10 Frost Claws, although the game didn't register my first Frostclaw kill which was part of a quest, I whittled it's health way down and it almost seemed to kill itself with its own attack.

The Scorchers are a bigger PITA to fight than the Thunderjaws. The Scorchers seem to be able to leap from anywhere within sight distance on top of you, and I tried fighting the Frost Claws from on top of a mountain, but they can grow ice crystals right under you even up a mountain, and toss ice chunks up at you as well.

One nit pick I have: in the area where you collect the animal statues and they activate a hologram, they call Odocoileus virginianus a mule deer...but it should be White-tailed deer, and the hologram is a white-tailed deer as well. Seems odd that they could look up the scientific name, but get the common name incorrect.

 

[Spydermag68]

I finally finished the game and the DLC. The next play through will be on NG+ ultra hard so I can platinum, but I will have to wait since I still have to play LOU. It raged quit that one a year ago.