Horizon: Forbidden West

[Monocle]

That and it would look really bad on Sony if they kicked Cyberpunk off their store for not working very well (although it was more due to CDPR putting the refund ball into Sony's court without even asking for permission) to then release a first party game that also doesn't work well.

Apparently the climbing is a lot less restrictive this time around too. Another interview (or maybe it was the same one as the other stuff) said the climbing is more free, so I'm hoping that means something similar to Assassin's Creed where if something is a climbable surface it doesn't require exact handholds to do it. Also let Aloy grab ledge edges regardless of markings, because it irked me so much in ZD when she wouldn't scale something that was shoulder height just because it lacked a handhold.

I'm concerned because get focus showed climbable places so I still think it's kinda restrictive. nothing like BotW where your can basically climb anything. Maybe there's going to be more handholds? not sure what they're idea of freeing is when even their trailer showed holds for climbing being pointed out

[Moonface]

I've seen a comment that pointed that out, and someone else replied to it saying maybe they just show handholds to let the player know what's climbable without just highlighting an entire wall.

For me I just want every surface that should be climbable to be so, and not like ZD where an entire ledge would have a single spot to climb.

[Moonface]

Journey into the Forbidden West on February 18, 2022
Sony has confirmed that Horizon Forbidden West will be launching on February 18, 2022 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, with pre-orders for the game starting on September 2, 2021. Source

If you can't bear to wait until then for Aloy's next adventure, you can always return to Zero Dawn to enjoy the free 60fps performance patch that has gone live today.

---

I bet the pre-orders aren't opening until a month from now because there's going to be special editions announced later this week. Not shocked about the delay since there were rumours of it being a 2022 release, although now I'm trying to think of what Sony has coming out for the Holiday season.

[ShiraNoMai]

I enjoy how it's coming out around the same time it came out in its predecessor (February 28th, 2017), even if it was completely unintentional.

Looking forward to them keeping to this date and being able to actually see it in real time being played!

[Moonface]

So I forgot to post about the different editions being announced a few days ago, and that only the most expensive editions would include a free upgrade from PS4 to PS5. Since that initial announcement though, Sony have been getting slammed so hard about the upgrade that they have now reversed their decision to lock the upgrade behind a huge paywall: https://blog.playstation.com/2021/09/04/...s-detailed

The link also contains the original announcement and the details of the different editions.

Glad to see they changed their tune on this though. If anything, just make upgrades $10 for the price difference on regular editions and have it bundled in free on the really expensive ones, instead of making people double dip if they want the upgrade.

[Moonface]

Horizon Forbidden West - TGA '21 Gameplay Trailer
Watch the newest trailer for Horizon Forbidden West, showcased at tonight's The Game Awards ceremony, featuring a variety of new machines for Aloy to fight against while flaunting new outfits and abilities.

[ShiraNoMai]

Game continues to look great. Doesn't seem like the PS4 "holdback" is really noticeable, but hard to say in cut trailers I guess

[Moonface]

Okay I'm not one to often get Lego these days but I might be tempted to get this one.

I'm also sad I have to wait to play Forbidden West because I don't have a PS5 still. ;w;

[ShiraNoMai]

It looks so cool, ngl. Would be a cool piece in our cabinet

Hoping pre-orders don't sell out before we can afford it though >.<

[Moonface]

Major Update Brings New Game+ and More
Horizon Forbidden West is receiving a major update that is available today, bringing with it New Game+, Performance Mode improvements, Ultra Hard mode, and more!

• New Game+
  Replay through the entire game with everything from your first playthrough, including endgame gear.
  
• Performance Mode
  Performance Mode is receiving improvements to increase visual fidelity with revamped Temporal Anti-Aliasing.
  
• Transmog
  Customize the cosmetics of your equipped outfit to take on the appearance of any other owned outfit, allowing you to keep the stats you want while looking stylish in the forbidden west.
  
• Respec Skills
  Freely reset your skill points and redistribute them at any time in the event you put your points into the wrong thing, or maybe you just want to test something else out without grinding for the skill points first.
  
• Ultra Hard Difficulty
  If you played Zero Dawn, you know exactly what to expect here. Ultra Hard is available to choose for New Game+ so you do not need to start a fresh playthrough to experience it.
  
• New Weapons and Trophies
  Need more reason to revisit the forbidden west? A brand new set of trophies and weapons are available to earn so you can keep things fresh and challenging in your New Game+ playthrough.
  

[ShiraNoMai]

I don't know what it is with Sony either intentionally telling these devs to hold back on implementing NG+ in their games, or all the devs thinking this would be a good idea to leave it to a post-game update/DLC.

[Dragon Lord]

When you know your game is going to get its ass obliterated by Elden Ring and end up being a middling release, so you withhold content to release later to try and generate interest after the game is already dead.

 

[Moonface]

Yeah, I really don't understand why this game is following the pattern of Zero Dawn in holding NG+ and Ultra Hard off until later. For ZD I can forgive some of it as being it wasn't thought of beforehand, but for this I think it was just held back on purpose. If Sony already expected to make the PS5 bundle with this game included, I wouldn't be surprised if they asked for these things to be pushed back until now so that discussion gets generated about the game again and increases the exposure of the bundle to non-PS5 owners.

[Moonface]

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores DLC Announced
Travel with Aloy to pursue a sinister threat in the untamed wilds of Los Angeles, now a treacherous volcanic archipelago. Following on from where the storyline of Horizon Forbidden West ends, this dangerous new region south of the Tenakth Clan Lands will feature new characters, adventures, and more.

Our creative vision for the Burning Shores is an ambitious expansion which will take Aloy to the ruins of Los Angeles. It’s an overgrown and fractured city that can be fully explored via the water and flying on the back of a Sunwing. A massive machine threat lurks in its shadows – a huge challenge that Aloy must overcome by using all of her skills and abilities. To achieve this grand vision technically and creatively, we’ve made the difficult decision to focus all our efforts on making an incredible experience exclusively for the PlayStation 5 console.

Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores is coming to PlayStation 5 consoles on April 19, 2023. Although the base game is also available on PlayStation 4, this expansion will not be available on that system.

[Moonface]

I started this game a couple of days ago, and so far I'm really enjoying it, especially once I got past the opening tutorial style area of the game. There was a few things I really wanted to talk about that I think the game does really well based on my experience so far, hence this post.

• The game has a couple of settings that I really appreciate that I haven't seen other games offer. The first is an option to disable the animation for pickups, which I absolutely love because you have to constantly be collecting resources in the world to keep your supplies stocked, so it gets tedious sitting through animations every time you pick up wood or plants. The other option that I didn't use but found to be unique was the choice to disable tinnitus sounds, which I'm sure is a very appreciated choice for those who hate that noise.
  
• Facial animations have been vastly improved over Zero Dawn. I've noticed the odd in-game dialogue scene where lip syncing was massively off, but it was because for some reason the animations weren't synced up correctly to the dialogue delivery. Skipping a couple of lines helped somewhat in bringing it back as it forces the game to skip forward in both animations and speech, and today is also the first time I've seen it happen so it might just be a random bug that happens for some reason. Nobody looks stiff anymore though, which was a big problem in ZD.
  
• I utterly adore the presumably main villain (Regalla) even if I've only seen her in the one cutscene where the game introduces her to you. I'm really excited to see more of her once I start progressing the story.
  
• There is a much wider range of weapons this time around, and weapons are no longer limited to just being X weapon in Y category where you just constantly upgrade X to unlock new ammo types for it. For example, in Zero Dawn there is only one Hunter Bow, and you unlock Fire and Tear arrows for it via upgrades. In this game, I've come across at least six different Hunter Bows, with each one focusing on a main arrow type and then also offering a secondary arrow type, so you have to constantly be managing your equipped weapons to best handle each situation you come across. In ZD, you could put most of the games weapons into the weapon wheel and the only choice you really had to make was what to pick if two weapons shared an ammo type. I much prefer this games approach where I have to consider things regularly versus loading up my weapon wheel and not touching it very much.
  
• It's been a while since I played Zero Dawn to fully remember everything Aloy says and does in that game, but I'm loving her character in this game so far. She has such a zero-fucks-fight-me-bitch energy when it comes to dealing with characters that rub her the wrong way and just goes straight to the point of saying what she thinks about them. The way she yells at Regalla to come down and fight her in the first cutscene gives such "Are you not entertained?!" from Gladiator vibes. XD
  
• The number of machines in this game is crazy compared to ZD. I've only encountered a few machines so far, but the compendium for them all is stupidly huge by itself and then each entry also has variants inside it, so there has to be like 40-50 or more of these things in this game. I like that the developers expanded on the machine variants from the first game which only had a couple of machines come in different forms.
  
• Climbing is no longer limited to indicated handholds in a limited number of places in the world and this is such a huge improvement. Cliffs that you can climb are full of different routes and they get highlighted by your focus, instead of being indicated by handholds that look out of place or just ugly, and Aloy can finally climb up any ledge that she can reach with a jump. In ZD she would never climb ledges unless they had a marked handhold for her to use which was infuriating, especially since I went to that game from BotW which was total freedom for climbing.
  

This game is also going to be free for anyone with a PS+ Premium or Extra subscription as of this month, and although I don't think anyone here has a sub at either of those tiers I thought I'd mention it just in case anyone wants to try this game out that way. I definitely recommend it if you liked what ZD was doing but felt it had a lot of room for improvement, since so far it seems this game is addressing all of those areas.

Also this game is punishing on Very Hard. I did consider going straight into Ultra Hard right away but I'm glad I didn't because you die very fast as it is on VH, as I'm learning multiple times over and over right now trying to fight a machine that resembles a hippo that's almost one-shotting me with most attacks.