Horizon Zero Dawn/Horizon Forbidden West

Horizon's story is way better-paced than most open-world games, and I never felt that there wasn't enough stuff to find. You don't actually want to overload your map with stuff, too much and everything just becomes a grind. Quality > Quantity.

Yeah, I was surprised by how 'little' amount of sidequests there were in Zero Dawn. Enough to wet your appetite to explore, but not enough to drag down the main plot.

Yeah, they hit just the right balance, I feel. There's enough side content and worldbuilding to give the impression that there's a world beyond the main plot, but not so much that it's daunting.

And there aren’t so many collectibles and extra things that finding them all feels like a chore. It feels doable.

I guess there’s the data files in the middle of nowhere, but I’ve heard the game doesn’t count those towards 100% completion.

Edited by SapphireBlue on Feb 26th 2021 at 2:28:23 AM

Have to agree. I'm playing Cyberpunk 2077 right now, and I'm certainly enjoying it, but I was level 20 before I got out of the prologue story missions, because there's so many sidequests.

Sidequests are great. I really do love them. But they are a distraction from the main narrative, and that can leave things feeling unfocused.

I'd say Cyberpunk is worse or more obvious about that inherent problem than most. Most open worlds really sequester their main plots into little chunks and it feels natural to take a breather and go do other content and I've not got too much plot tension going on.

Cyberpunk's story is extremely tense and in an intimate way that illustrates the gameplay-story segregation more than others; If I am dying horribly right now, why am I doing all this side content?

I don't think it's BAD; game's have oft required a differing level of suspension of disbelief and I believe that extends to the nature of side-quests and main plot content stuff like 'But Thou Must' even though I'm off having a shopping episode before the final boss or collecting all my rent payments or finding Old Lady Mac Cready's cat way back in the starting area. Nature of the beast in my opinion.

Apparently Aloy is coming to Fortnite

Almost finished with another playthrough. Such an incredible game, well-crafted in every way. The sequel needs some minor gameplay improvements, such as mounted combat and the fact that a number of skills feel useless or redundant, but still great. Kinda like the Tomb Raider reboot, where they can paste in the exact same gameplay without any real trouble.

But as for the (also great) story, I noticed a few things. First, the Odyssey and Far Zenith missions are only mentioned in optional text logs—not even audio logs. So I feel like it's less likely that they'll be particularly relevant (and I once again question what their motives would be). I'm still staking my money on Faro.

However, as for Faro, in addition to all the pharaoh and hypothetical immortality foreshadowing around him, one of the Alphas mentions his pyramid being filled with "Pantah Antimod cuckoos." So he wasn't completely alone. There's absolutely no hint at what "Pantah Antimod" means (pantah is apparently a made-up Italian word for Ducati motorcycles), but my guess would be that he had some of anti-tech cult... which preserved technology in their bunker for a thousand years before they eventually hacked GAIA.

Forbidden West State of Play, Thursday, May 27th, 9 am PDT for the pre-show and 2 pm PDT for the 20 minute gameplay reveal.

Edited by tclittle on May 25th 2021 at 8:11:31 AM

I haven't actually watched the video (it's become a policy of mine to not watch gameplay of games I'm actually interested in and definitely going to get), but it seems no release date was revealed, and I kinda had my fingers crossed for a performance patch for Zero Dawn.

Edited by artfulscruff on May 27th 2021 at 10:34:29 AM

Fuck me there's gonna be robosharks aren't there?

Also did Aloy just go full Legolas on the oliphauntrobo-mammoth? Well, minus climbing up it before destroying the platform, but still.

I am very excited to see all the new climbing possibilites are in store for us with the new traversal options

https://twitter.com/GenshinImpact/status/1418194123845246976?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Etweet

Have y’all seen this

A little odd that Aloy keeps showing up in gacha games. That's not a complaint, and the logic is clear—makes money and keeps the franchise active during the long wait for the sequel—but still odd. Western games don't really do crossover gacha in the same way that Eastern games do.

Also, Aloy looks adorable in anime style.

How do you get her is it like Fire Emblem Heroes?

Forbidden West delayed until February 18th, 2022.

VG As 2021 Gameplay trailer

Edited by tclittle on Dec 9th 2021 at 8:21:55 AM

More underwater stuff, but we expected that from the first trailer. More tools and traps are also not a huge surprise. I wasn't expecting new traversal options, though. Those sorts of things can often require rebuilding the entire engine from the ground up.

I wonder if we're going to get an explanation for why there are different machines here, though. Sure, Hephaestus is still pumping out new combat machines constantly, but for everything else, why would he build a different water purification machine for the Forbidden West when the snapmaws are doing fine in Carja territory? Wouldn't the entire world have the same models for the same roles?

"Rebuilding the whole engine" also sounds like an expected thing when moving to a next generation of consoles, so why not add more stuff while at it?

New machines may be specced for different pollutants?

I want CYAN to come back. I want her to be Aloy's Voice with an Internet Connection.

New story trailer

Place your bets on the identity of the mysterious angelic figure at the end of that trailer! My top guesses:

• One of GAIA's subroutines we haven't seen yet
• One of Ted Faro's "holo-holo girls" from his private bunker
• A yet-unintroduced pre-apoclaypse human who uploaded their consciousness to a computer

That trailer was some major hype. I hope it comes to PC sooner rather than later, because PC was the only way I was able to play the first. So looking forward to the eventual port!

It seems like a very Sylens move to be like "I'm gonna conquer a historically tumultuous region rather than granting my knowledge to a more peaceful people." Obviously we don't have many details yet, but my first guess is that he plans to create a stable nation from where he can build an industrial base. And he's probably going to be an Enemy Mine by the end of the game against whichever subroutine is causing the problems.

Awesome that they're bringing in Erend and Varl as companions. Just a tad miffed that there isn't a girl. I guess Vanasha and Talanah probably have too many things going on to just hare off on a wild quest. I wonder if they'll be gameplay companions, like Dragon Age and so on, or just story companions. I think if you could control them directly, they would have shown it off already.

The thing at the end doesn't strike me as an AI; every AI we've seen besides GAIA has just used a hologram of their core to communicate, not bothering with a human guise. My guess is that this is a communication from a genuine human. I know people have brought up the "failed" colony ship multiple times, and that's a possibility, but if so I still have to question their motives. Good or evil, why would they be coming back after a thousand years to interfere?

To recolonize the planet, presumably. Even if they were good, that would be an entirely valid goal.

If they're good, maybe I can see that. But if they're not, then things get more confusing. One theory was that they were behind the alien signal that activated the subroutines—but why try to roll back the terraforming? It's a completely zero-profit move.