MULTI [OT] Horizon Zero Dawn | More than 10 million copies sold lifetime

Necrokiller

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Apr 16, 2009
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Whelp, looks like the honeymoon period is over, and whatever visuals are there in the DLC, can't make up for the gameplay/story short comings. Gonna be skipping the DLC altogether.

Getting my base game copy tomorrow. Hopefully I'll finish Wolf II by the weekend.
 

Chandoo

Resi Evil 4 > Your fav game.
Jan 19, 2007
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The only thing I'll agree with there is that this is a bad time for the DLC to come out, it's gonna be over shadowed by a lot of other big titles released in the 2 week window of it.

The rest, angoor khattay hain :p
 

Necrokiller

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Apr 16, 2009
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The only thing I'll agree with there is that this is a bad time for the DLC to come out, it's gonna be over shadowed by a lot of other big titles released in the 2 week window of it.
Not sure what that has got to do with critical reception. Lmao at “2 week window”.

Lagta hai aapke angoor namkeen bhi hain :p
 
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Chandoo

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2 week radius with the huge releases maybe why this isnt getting the buzz it should, otherwise as far as reviews goes, 81 at metacritic is good.
 

r3aper

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Jul 23, 2007
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Since we are comparing HZD and Witcher 3, I picked up HZD right after finishing up whatever was left off in Blood and Wine (Witcher 3). Initially it was slow trek but it picked up pace as I progressed ahead of the starting 3-4 hours. At points I did compare it with Witcher 3 as I had been playing the game for months literally!* Right from the start the gameplay/combat felt simple compared to the complex combat of Witcher 3, even though HZD has a variety of enemy types but the encounter plays out the same once you level up you can lay down all the types of enemies using only the hard-point arrows, keep hitting those yellow glowing areas, I liked using the fire arrows mostly though.

I found myself to be using other elemental arrows on a very few occasions unlike Witcher where you had to deal with different enemies with different weapons/elements and potions. Now potions/oils, in Witcher 3 potions were just as useful as the swords and spells which added further depth to the combat but in HZD I never really found myself using anything else other than the health potions, even though there were some other types of it but I never really did bother with it as I never felt the need for it.

Coming on to the weapons and armors, it doesn't even come close to the variety we had in Witcher 3, the charms and enchantments made them even more diverse, don't understand why GG didn't put any variety in the weapons and armor sets. With so many machine parts and components that could have been used for upgrades and crafting, this for was a definitely a missed opportunity, kinda hard to understand how can they not think of such a simple mechanic which could add a ton of variety to the weapons. For Witcher 3 my gameplay involved using multiple spells, potions,oils and weapon/armor types to successfully take down monsters, but in HZD you can just spam fire arrows and be done with it only for a few machines you would need to use some elements to take'em out before they take you out such machines were usually the large ones such as the Rockbreakers, Thunderjaws and Strombirds as they can inflict heavy damage so you usually want to end the fight quickly. 90% of the time I was using Fire/Hard point arrows, never really used tripcasters and ropecasters not even used the traps much often.

Lack of depth in combat and a limited amount of armor sets and weapons are my biggest disappointments from this game. Come'on man this is a huge ass game and people are gonna put hours upon hours playing it, variety of weapons and armor sets should be on the top of the list ...which GG presumably put on last. Now don't even get me started on the lackluster rewards you get from completing the collectibles quests (just some purple mods...ah fuck me)

Besides that I did really enjoy the game, with its variety of machines but the encounters were unexciting due to the lack of depth in the combat. The visuals were stunning and the story/narration were riveting as you were ..just like Aloy.. kept growing eager to learn more and more about the days of the past also the side-quests were good. I loved the game (finished it last weekend) but wish the devs had put more depth in the combat.
 
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JANARIOO

DEMONxSHADOW
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Dec 17, 2008
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Since we are comparing HZD and Witcher 3, I picked up HZD right after finishing up whatever was left off in Blood and Wine (Witcher 3). Initially it was slow trek but it picked up pace as I progressed ahead of the starting 3-4 hours. At points I did compare it with Witcher 3 as I had been playing the game for months literally!* Right from the start the gameplay/combat felt simple compared to the complex combat of Witcher 3, even though HZD has a variety of enemy types but the encounter plays out the same once you level up you can lay down all the types of enemies using only the hard-point arrows, keep hitting those yellow glowing areas, I liked using the fire arrows mostly though.

I found myself to be using other elemental arrows on a very few occasions unlike Witcher where you had to deal with different enemies with different weapons/elements and potions. Now potions/oils, in Witcher 3 potions were just as useful as the swords and spells which added further depth to the combat but in HZD I never really found myself using anything else other than the health potions, even though there were some other types of it but I never really did bother with it as I never felt the need for it.

hmm stop playing story games on easy and normal .
 

CerebralTiger

Expert
Apr 12, 2007
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Islamabad
limitations like the one employed by sony's first party openworld exclusives are highly distracting in motion and impact the so called "superb visuals" a lot.
I completely agree that Horizon has limited foliage interaction and watered down water interaction (pun not intended). However, my point is that other open world games have limitations too, just not in the same area.

If level of interactivity is your primary criteria for the most technically impressive open world game, you should check out Breath of the Wild. It's insane in that regard.

Right from the start the gameplay/combat felt simple compared to the complex combat of Witcher 3
There's nothing complex about The Witcher 3's combat. I finished the game on the death march difficulty by repeatedly alternating between the quick attack and quen spell. That's all you really need to beat the game. The actual swordplay is shallow (RNG applied to attack animations lol), the AI is easily glitched, movement is sluggish, hit detection is subpar.

Horizon combat isn't complex either, but it is far far better to play simply because the movement, controls, bow and arrow combat are all fluid and precise, and the robo enemies have decent to good AI. Melee is awfully sluggish, though; the only blemish in an otherwise great combat system.
 
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r3aper

W'Sup, G?
Jul 23, 2007
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There's nothing complex about The Witcher 3's combat. I finished the game on the death march difficulty by repeatedly alternating between the quick attack and quen spell. That's all you really need to beat the game. The actual swordplay is shallow (RNG applied to attack animations lol), the AI is easily glitched, movement is sluggish, hit detection is subpar.

Horizon combat isn't complex either, but it is far far better to play simply because the movement, controls, bow and arrow combat are all fluid and precise, and the robo enemies have decent to good AI. Melee is awfully sluggish, though; the only blemish in an otherwise great combat system.
I was not really talking about the fluidity of the animations or hit detection yes it sucked in Witcher and that jump animation made me chuckle every time. As for spamming attacks, it works for all games. What I am saying that the game does really make you use all the spells, I am the type of guy who like to explore all the moves and weapons but for Horizon I was only using the Fire arrows. Limited weapons really was a disappointment for me.
 
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Necrokiller

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2 week radius with the huge releases maybe why this isnt getting the buzz it should, otherwise as far as reviews goes, 81 at metacritic is good.
40+ reviews for a SP DLC and you're making about it being overlooked... jeeez :p



Will start this over the weekend hopefully.
 

Necrokiller

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Theek hai buzz, its no Blood and Wine afterall (or Hearts of Stone for that matter).

Is there any quicker way to upload screenshots from PS4 which won’t compress them to hell and back? Quite a pain in the ass to move them to USB, transfer on PC, convert to JPG and then upload :/
 

Chandoo

Resi Evil 4 > Your fav game.
Jan 19, 2007
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I think you can upload straight to flikr (?) and Facebook. Not sure about Flikr but Facebook sure as shit jpegs the hell out of those images.

The best way to get high quality PNG's and upload them as is, is the old USB method unfortunately.
 

venom

Lado-K-Lashkary
Mar 15, 2007
2,757
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Karachi
Theek hai buzz, its no Blood and Wine afterall (or Hearts of Stone for that matter).

Is there any quicker way to upload screenshots from PS4 which won’t compress them to hell and back? Quite a pain in the ass to move them to USB, transfer on PC, convert to JPG and then upload :/
I am not really sure but I think uploaded images on Twitter images are not compressed.

Sent from my PRA-LA1 using Tapatalk
 

Necrokiller

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Apr 16, 2009
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limitations like the one employed by sony's first party openworld exclusives are highly distracting in motion and impact the so called "superb visuals" a lot. compared to other open world games, i seriously question the design choices (and sanity) of the dev. if i ever meet one i would say "yaar agar game photomode ke liye pretty banani thi to player ko aloo kyu bana rahay ho?" this is the level of my frustration with Infamous SS!
now i am sure many will fight me on importance of player interactions in SS but in Horizon, foliage plays a integral part of the gameplay! what the hell was happening inside GG when they decided to let that go!
There are actually more distracting features that no one talked about. The aggressive LOD. Its far more distracting than other already glaring limitations of foliage and water. Have a look at this:



Shadows are piss poor. This wouldn't be a big issue if the distance was much farther from the player but here its just a couple of feet away and its very distracting to see ground assets and shadow detail being streamed in right infront of you. I'll upload a video later for better demonstration once I've played more.
 
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Journeys End

No Compromises!
Jun 16, 2008
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Donno i m lost!!
There are actually more distracting features that no one talked about. The aggressive LOD. Its far more distracting than other already glaring limitations of foliage and water. Have a look at this:



Shadows are piss poor. This wouldn't be a big issue if the distance was much farther from the player but here its just a couple of feet away and its very distracting to see ground assets and shadow detail being streamed in right infront of you. I'll upload a video later for better demonstration once I've played more.
this has to be a streaming glitch. my mind denies the fact that this is the best looking open world game on PS4! ROTR should spank the shit out of this.

btw AF is almost non-existent. is this related to image compression issue or the game really that poor in reality?
 

Necrokiller

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Apr 16, 2009
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this has to be a streaming glitch. my mind denies the fact that this is the best looking open world game on PS4! ROTR should spank the shit out of this.

btw AF is almost non-existent. is this related to image compression issue or the game really that poor in reality?
Its not a glitch. DF talked about shadows and only the immediate ones are rendered in good quality. Rest are pretty shit and easily noticeable as they’re practically transtioning from PS2 to PS4 quality. They should’ve gone for a less aggressive solution (inb4 “not a required component of the game”). Game is updated to the latest patch. AF is like that on base PS4. Supposed to be better on PS4 Pro though.

Ground assets exhibit this as well:


ROTR should spank the shit out of this.
It does spank the shit out of Horizon's bow mechanics which are too simplistic. Shooting it doesnt feel satisfying in comparison. You can't even retrieve arrows lol
 
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Necrokiller

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Played this quite a bit over the weekend. Currently at the "Sun Shall Fall" mission. Not sure how much longer it is as the story has only barely started to get somewhat interesting. The opening was much more effective at getting the player to care about Aloy but as soon as the open-world is presented to the player, the game just looses its focus (pun not intended). It has been a slog through and through since. Not a single decent character, let alone a memorable one. And the missions so far have all been reptitive.


Simply being an open world game doesn't say much about Horizon. The map is even smaller than I had given it credit for. It feels even smaller once you factor in the traversable area.. I also found the sudden shift from snowy terrain to desert quite jarring. The environments ape Witcher 3, and apart from the novelty of fighting robo-dinos, nearly everything else is directly lifted from too many games to list (Witcher 3 and Far Cry being the primary case study). Not saying that every aspect has to be 100% original, but dear god it feels lazy here because there isn't any unique spin to any aspect of the game design, except for moving towers, I mean Tallnecks.

Speaking of the novelty of fighting robo-dinos, it delivers thrilling moments for the most part. One on one encounters with a big machine are intense and taking them down feels like you accomplished something big. But these are few and far between. Where it fails miserably is in its encounter design. The map size is small and the machines are placed so close to each other that fighting one pack of machine often alerts nearby packs and before you know it you are fighting a horde of different enemies. Other times you are rolling and running farther than where you started, since thats the only defensive option Aloy has, and you get swarmed by other types of machines. This renders the preparation and stealth portion of the game to be useless unless you find an isolated pack with conveniently placed tall grass. Whistle and they shall obediently walk towards their demise one by one. The camera is also proving to be a major pain in the ass. What is with Aloy going from one side of the screen to the other? It makes situational awareness even more sloppy. The lack of a lock-on system makes matters worse. Panning out the camera for better situational awareness would make the combat more functional.

Another major complaint I have is not something Guerilla Games are entirely at fault for, the controller mapping. Witcher 3 on the default DS4 and XBX controllers suffer from the same issue. Its cumbersome to access inventory from the DPAD while you're also rolling, running and controlling the camera at the same time in the heat of the battle. Perhaps this isn't much of a deal for people who exclusively game on these controllers (or are playing at lower difficulties) but the facts don't change. Accessing the DPAD means you have to let go of the left analog stick so that puts you at a great disadvantage in combat. Alot of my character's death can be attributed to the fact that these current gen controllers are simply not intuitive for games of this nature anymore. Or just in general because controls are getting more complex and the hardware is still archaic. Atleast it is to me. There isn't any other option on the consoles so I get that most people will not relate to this.

The game's "Hard" difficulty feels like the starting point of the game. Anything below it makes the game way too easy. I'm currently playing on Very Hard as I read that Ultra Hard was added with the New Game+ patch so its better left for a second run (should I decide to bother with it).

P.S:
Snapmaws are found in water and Aloy even has an ability to "Stealth swim". But, water is not an essential component of the game :p
 
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Chandoo

Resi Evil 4 > Your fav game.
Jan 19, 2007
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Cross posting from reset era
Bumping a slightly old thread but had the opportunity to finish this just today on my TCL 605 with HDR. Holy shit, the final stretch and ending of Frozen Wilds is some next gen level shit .. easily the most impressive technological game I have laid my eyes on so far (including anything I've played on PC recently at higher frame rates and whatnot).GG Guerilla, amazing technological and artistic feat. I really cannot wait for more Horizon.
 
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    I dont think games have looked any better since 2019 onwards and they are performing worse and worse. Game developers have really dropped the ball.
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    Consoles can't even catch a break in titles developed exclusively for them 😢
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    "All of this lends the game distinctly last-gen look at times, which is compounded by image quality and frame-rate issues."
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    no jokes.
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    faraany3k said:
    So while Playing Control, I found a journal which said that a bathroom is missing in Islamabad Beurue of Control. With Alan Wake and Control seems to be connected worlds. Even our city is in the universe as well. No wonder those Trail 5 and Trail 6 are haunted.
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  • faraany3k faraany3k:
    So while Playing Control, I found a journal which said that a bathroom is missing in Islamabad Beurue of Control. With Alan Wake and Control seems to be connected worlds. Even our city is in the universe as well. No wonder those Trail 5 and Trail 6 are haunted.
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    faraany3k said:
    What is peoples obsession with Battle Royale genre. 6 minutes to find a match, 3 minutes to setup a match, 2 minutes to land, 10 minutes for scavanging maybe 2 3 gunfigts and its over. Multiplayer landscape is looking absolute dogshit.
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    What is peoples obsession with Battle Royale genre. 6 minutes to find a match, 3 minutes to setup a match, 2 minutes to land, 10 minutes for scavanging maybe 2 3 gunfigts and its over. Multiplayer landscape is looking absolute dogshit.
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    skip the villain arc
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    iampasha said:
    I usually stay away from animes. Vinland saga changed the way i look at my life, and my experiences within. I recommend every breathing human being to watch this animated masterpiece at least once fromstart to finish.
    After I watched it, I never felt like i watched a show. It was a friggin journey. I got way too attached to Thorfinn and seeing him grow up and find himself and get rid of all the negativity inside of him was just pure bliss.
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    EternalBlizzard said:
    Vinland Saga > Berserk
    I usually stay away from animes. Vinland saga changed the way i look at my life, and my experiences within. I recommend every breathing human being to watch this animated masterpiece at least once fromstart to finish.
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    Crapcom's RE Engine expose hogaya saaeen. This shit ain't worth experiencing on any platform. 🤷‍♂️
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    When a $399 console provides the same experience as a 4090. Yikes indeed saeen :sneaky:
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    that's a yikes saaaen
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    " Both PS5 and Series X have an unlocked frame-rate here, with performance that generally lies between 30fps and 45fps. That makes for a stuttering and inconsistent output in general play, no matter what you are doing at any given time."
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  • EternalBlizzard EternalBlizzard:
    Vinland Saga > Berserk
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    I absolutely hate parry and Sekiro made me love it, i hate sci fi and Mass Effect made me love it. This is the definition of genre defining experiences.
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    Forbidden West Complete Edition now available on your fav websites. And Nixxes showed Crapcom how it's done 👍
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    RE Engine is just utter shit for anything other than corridor design remakes
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    This is a console first developer. LMAO
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    With how great cod warzone has translated onto mobile. Mainstream Consoles have lost its value even further. Maybe console gaming was associated with TVs and how TV is not the primary source of media consumption anymore, consoles will lose its 200 million core audiences even further.
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    Even VRR can't rescue it 🥲
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    faraany3k faraany3k: I dont think games have looked any better since 2019 onwards and they are performing worse and...