Horizon Zero Dawn/Horizon Forbidden West

several hours into this, and my main concern is that random outlanders have sicker abs than I do. It’s v upsetting.

Unfortunately my copy had to go back to the library. Won't be playing it again for a little while, at least not until I finally finish Arkham Knight.

However.

Would the SAG-AFTRA voice acting strike that's still going on effect Frozen Wilds? Or would they have done the voice work sometime before that?

Unsure. Ashley Burch pulled out of Life Is Strange 2 as a VA but was still consulting on it. Not sure the position with Guerilla and the publisher. I think I heard her voice in the trailer, so I think she's on board.

As it wouldn't BE Aloy without her.

PGW Frozen Wilds trailer:

I see at least one new machine, some kind of fire-breathing jackal-headed thing, and I am all about that leaping off a machine seen at the end of the trailer.

edited 31st Oct '17 1:45:53 PM by artfulscruff

Not gonna play Frozen Wilds due to the amount of games taking up my time, but just came to tell that Aloy's gear will be available as DLC for Monster Hunter World, for those who like to kill wyverns as well as machines :3

That large fire breathing enemy looks like a Lynx to me but who knows for sure they are rather robotic and cool.

I think that's a lynx with a jackal head (Reskin perhaps) No new machines on show that I could see. Other than the Vulture expies now having a fire core rather than an ice one.

Still, looks beautiful. And great to hear that musical riff all over again. Definitely getting this DLC. It'll scratch the AC itch once Origins is done!

Maybe I'm wrong, but it sounds to me like you're talking about a 'lynx' as if that's a machine type, but I don't know of any machine called that. It looks sorta similar to a sawtooth or prowler, if that's what you mean.

My bad, you are quite correct. Got my terminology mixed up there.

The new machine is called a Scorcher. Don't watch all of this if you don't want to know about its behaviour, it mentions some things I would rather have not known until I was playing and had to learn about and react to fresh, but never mind.

So it has enough different moves to differentiate it from a Sawtooth. Nice.

Wonder if there's other enemies in reserve. Or if we're going to get a continuation of that post credit scene with Sylens

Or if this is just dealing with one of the other AI....

My theory is that this is going to be essentially an extended sidequest, primarily concerned with HEPHAESTUS. I think there'll be some kind of main Cauldron. I don't think we'll get any answers to any of the larger questions, or that we'll see any of more of Sylens or HADES, not directly at least.

I can't listen to the trailer right now but is Ashley Burch still voicing Aloy?

Apparently so. She even did the next load of mocap. Think it wasn't one of the companies impacted by the strike.

Ballin.

I have a few issues with Aloy's dialogue after someone made the point that Aloy is incredibly snarky and well-adjusted for a societal outcast, but at the same time, she's one of those characters I can't imagine having any other voice.

edited 2nd Nov '17 10:40:42 AM by Soble

Exactly. And I think she's snarky because Rost was a good influence.

I think it's a combination of Rost's influence and having her Focus.

The Focus teaches her. She's smart. She knows she's smart. She's a bit cocky because of it. Deep down, she also knows that what her society believes is very, factually wrong.

Rost raised her. He trained her. His influence kept her grounded and relatively level-headed. He also taught her, by example if nothing else, that her people can be utterly wrong, but still worth loving and caring about.

An Aloy growing up without Rost would be waaay more jaded and reclusive. Not to mention, she would likely lack empathy and wouldn't care about anything that happened to others. She would be another Sylens in making. At best.

An Aloy raised by Rost, but who never found the focus, would be woefully unprepared for the events of the game. Let's put aside the fact that the Focus allows her to even do some the stuff she can do, such as scanning, tracking, rapid environment analysis, etc. Without the focus, Aloy wouldn't have the analytical mindset to look deeper beneath the surface, or possibly even the self-confidence that came from knowing she's right when everyone else says "you can't do that".

Without both of parents, such as they are, Aloy simply would not have grown up to be our Aloy. Rost's patience, the focus's knowledge, and her own strong will and rash passion all combine to give us this wonderful character.

edited 3rd Nov '17 4:03:51 AM by ArcanGenth

Have some information about some of the new things. Video title is quite hyberbolic.

edited 3rd Nov '17 6:04:51 AM by artfulscruff

That was cute.

So, clearly a DLC that sit sin an existing game then. So, my save from just before the final mission. I don't mind that.

I suppose with the whole game being structured the way it is, the only way for a true continuation is the sequel.

Looking forward to this - sounds like they haven't fundamentally changed things, just a lot of streamlining, quality of life tweaks. Which is all to the good. Not sure about new weapons though - always felt it was fairly clunky with all the gear you have.

Yeah, I don't really want sweeping changes, I just want more :P And yeah, new weapons is not really what's needed, though I would be disappointed if there hadn't been something. That said, it sounds like a new type of weapon, which will probably be cool for a while and then you'll never use it again (how many of you actually use the tearblaster regularly, or even the rattler, for that matter?).

I've said before that one of my few actual complaints with this game is there's too many different weapons. There really doesn't need to be twelve different bows and nine different slings, all firing different ammo types. If there's gonna be different bows, just stick with the basic archetypes (balanced, fast+weak, slow+powerful) which are already kind of in place, have them all fire all arrow types (though I can see how that would lend itself to overpowered or obviously better combinations), and give them more customisation options.

Basically: fewer weapons, more mod options. Or upgrade existing weapons, like in Tomb Raider.

Oh, and it's good that we can mod the spear now, probably, though again I don't see it ever becoming a primary weapon.

Yeah, the weapon variety felt superfluous. I could understand different AMMO types.

Tear blaster is good for thunderjaws.... sort of. Preferred using the line launcher. But barely used the electro bow by the end.

They could've kept the weapons and just let us equip ALL of them, with a better radial menu. And yeah, just want "more" HZ:D... no need to drastically reinvent anything.

For bigger machines like thunderjaws I tend to use tearblast arrows to destroy the armour and disable or remove its weapons, then just go nuts with explosive arrows.

I do hope they rework weapons for a sequel. I've said before that they seem to have geared weapons and armour towards a Monster Hunter style approach, where you equip what you need to take down a particular enemy according to its strengths and weaknesses, but unlike Monster Hunter you're going to be regularly encountering different enemy types with different strengths and weaknesses, and no one loadout is going to be massively effective against all of them.

What I'd like is either to be able to equip more weapons for a more versatile loadout, or, and I think this is preferable, have the weapons themselves be more versatile. Like we've said, do we really need to have different bows for different arrow types (and why does that even make sense? It's not like guns where different bullets just won't fit), and do the ropecaster and tripcaster really need to be different things? They both work the same way in terms of what they actually shoot, it's only really the effects of the ammo that differ.

Finished Frozen Wilds; the Daemon is Hephaestus and the end seems to set him up as a major antagonist further down the road.

We also got a hint as to what another of the subroutines is up to; the metal flowers are effectively confirmed to be the work of Demeter though I'm not sure how relevant they'll be to the plot in the future.

How long was it? I mean in terms of activities and plot etc? Something you can breeze through in an afternoon or is it more intensive?