Don't need boss fights. Nothing is gained by giving that regular human dude a health bar larger than a robot t-rex's. The climax of their story was hours ago when she busted out of the arena, she's known she's better than him for ages this is just a formality.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
The arena and then murdering a certain murdering motherfucker was the climax of the story for me. The rest was...kind of like the usual MCU big CGI fight? Seemingly necessary while being a forgone and uninteresting conclusion? Was kinda cool seeing everybody again after having done all the sidequests.
Sidenote: the game is perfectly paced for me for one complete playthrough. I love every moment of it, but when I'm done with the game I guess I'm done. Twice now I've tried to play through afterwards and I just...get bored/wander off and do something else instead of replaying immediately.
I have a feeling this game is going to end up like Outpost 2 was for awhile for me--a game I pick up every couple years and play through, because that gives enough time to be able to enjoy it again.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
speaking of which holy shit Outpost 2 is on GoG now! So much for my weekend!
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Well I for one am still quite happy with this 'nothing' achievement.
Oh man I didn't mean to imply that. It's still impressive to me that you beat it.
I'm just trying to counter the impression that Ultra Hard is for crazy people. A little hyperbolic in the other direction.
It's actually really well designed, it's not fully masochistic at all. You don't die all that often. What it does is make you engage more with the game, and do more thinking, which is a sign of a great difficulty. That's all I meant.
Regarding human boss fights, they were kind of amusingly amazing because they still get knocked down or staggered by explosions so you just load up your boom stick and you throw bombs until they die.
And that's it, that's what happens really. If you wanna be cool about it you can line up a triple headshot but otherwise bombs until they die. Every human boss fight.
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Gameplay footage for Horizon: Forbidden West has dropped! Just like the last one for HZD, it showcases Aloy going up against both smaller hostiles as well as one big sonofabitch. Some of the vertical traversal looks inspired by Breath of the Wild, and it looks much more dynamic than it was in HZD--you can actually use it fluidly in combat.
My priority with this game is highest place in the game + glider.
Unless I find the slightest hint that Faro's still alive somehow, in which case my priority is to advance the quest until I can stick a spear up his ass and out his mouth.
I'm not optimistic it'll happen, but glider + grapple + overridden machine = parasailing? Please?
Oh I hope what's under that spoiler isn't true. It would be an absolutely terrible decision.
My biggest worry with HFW is that without the backstory carrying the weight they'll need the current day story to do all of it. And HZD's current day story wasn't anything to write home about.
Oh I hope what's under that spoiler isn't true. It would be an absolutely terrible decision.
My biggest worry with HFW is that without the backstory carrying the weight they'll need the current day story to do all of it. And HZD's current day story wasn't anything to write home about.
There's still plenty of backstory to reveal.
I don't expect he'll turn up alive and well, but I will also be astounded if it doesn't turn out that he stopped fucking things up after murdering everyone and crippling Zero Dawn. He had the rest of his life to come up with new and innovative fuckups, and by god he was a man who'd rise to meet that challenge.
Considering the location, I'm taking it as a given that we'll find out more about the killers Rost went there to hunt down, and whatever they were doing in the Sacred Lands in the first place has to be important.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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MichaelLCIn what furnace was thy brain?ChicagoRegistered Userregular
Comments on the video above with spoilers for HZD:
Glad they went with unlimited air for underwater. Makes it much more interesting and likely that there will be big sections underwater.
In the state of play, it looks like the big bad is going to be HADES coming down to deal with Alloy or try running its extinction program again?
Hope it's not just chasing Sylons and HADES around again, but certainly up for more Alloy regardless of story
Oh I hope what's under that spoiler isn't true. It would be an absolutely terrible decision.
My biggest worry with HFW is that without the backstory carrying the weight they'll need the current day story to do all of it. And HZD's current day story wasn't anything to write home about.
It's funny because HZD has one of my favorite sci fi stories but it's all the stuff from the past/records/etc.
I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the current day stuff except that one prominent character suddenly was into Aloy out of nowhere.
Oh I hope what's under that spoiler isn't true. It would be an absolutely terrible decision.
My biggest worry with HFW is that without the backstory carrying the weight they'll need the current day story to do all of it. And HZD's current day story wasn't anything to write home about.
It's funny because HZD has one of my favorite sci fi stories but it's all the stuff from the past/records/etc.
I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the current day stuff except that one prominent character suddenly was into Aloy out of nowhere.
It wasn't out of nowhere, he had just lost someone close to him who was very similar personality wise so he tried to compensate for that pain and get the good feelings back by immediately propositioning her. She shuts him down and calls this out directly.
It's also not out of nowhere because everyone is into Aloy.
Aistan on
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
And I appreciate how she has no time for any of them
Comments on the video above with spoilers for HZD:
Glad they went with unlimited air for underwater. Makes it much more interesting and likely that there will be big sections underwater.
In the state of play, it looks like the big bad is going to be HADES coming down to deal with Alloy or try running its extinction program again?
Hope it's not just chasing Sylons and HADES around again, but certainly up for more Alloy regardless of story
.
Or HEPHEASTUS, wanting the humans to stop messing things up. Or this plague thing might be whatever program it was making the plants(was it DEMETER?) , wanting the humans to stop messing things up.
Without GAIA keeping them in check, the humans are messing up the operations of pretty much every AI, so there's a lot of potential.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Except Ikrie! She has plenty of time for Ikrie for the short number of quests you spend with her.
I will never let this go goddammit.
Ikrie and Aloy are besties, it's true.
Just gals being pals.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
My only problem with the original Horizon was that once you figured the enemies out there wasn't much challenge or variation to them. Add in the small pool of enemy types and that didn't help.
I'm sure the sequel will have more enemies so that isn't a concern. I would also like more mixing and matching, and maybe something like alpha forms that are faster, more aggressive versions of machines.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
My only problem with the original Horizon was that once you figured the enemies out there wasn't much challenge or variation to them. Add in the small pool of enemy types and that didn't help.
I'm sure the sequel will have more enemies so that isn't a concern. I would also like more mixing and matching, and maybe something like alpha forms that are faster, more aggressive versions of machines.
Have you played Frozen Wilds? They do some fun stuff in the vein of alpha versions, grouping disparate types together, etc.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
I downloaded it back never got around to playing it. I was thinking about going back to it with the sequel announced.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
edited June 2021
You should give it a shot. They change up things just like ME2 DLC did as they gameplay designers refined their understanding of what works and what doesn’t given the core loop and structures.
and then again for most players the combat is ever challenging even after you learn each enemy. Long after I mastered the Thunderjaw fights, some of the mission encounters with them changed things up pretty fine.
That gameplay footage is absolutely gorgeous, hot damn. I don't see how that's gonna pan-out on last gen consoles.
ALRIGHT FINE I GOT AN AVATAR
Steam: adamjnet
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HonkHonk is this poster.Registered User, __BANNED USERSregular
It looks fantastic and fluid and gorgeous. Flying looks very fun too and riding “carnivores” is something I missed in the first game. My secret wish for story would be
an Ark returning from deep space.
I hope and wish there’s variety in the environments, for how high fidelity it looks I’m not feeling the jungle beach setting of the video. Just doesn’t vibe with me the way deserts and forests did in the first game. With how far away the bridge is in that footage it seems likely the game will just be the Bay Area. I know the first game got mad stupid with overworld map scale but it doesn’t seem doable if you have the bridge there in a 1:1 scale.
Maybe you’ll get to climb a redwood and kite down from the top, that’d be neat.
There would be some fun conversations to be had with (spoilers for HZD)
Aloy having chats with humans from that era, via suspended animation or some advanced AI that copied an intellect or whatever.
Just back and forth "Wait... what? And then you did WHAT? Hold on, what the shit?" as they went over the history that led to this collective mess, and what she went through to fix it (and what they're going to need to do to make it stick.
Note, I don't think that's actually going to happen, but it's fun to imagine (for me, at least) all the same.
First they came for the Muslims, and we said NOT TODAY, MOTHERFUCKER!
Thinking of picking up HZD on PC. How are the higher difficulties? I've wanted to play it since it came out on PS4 but am in the mood for a challenge right now.
Thinking of picking up HZD on PC. How are the higher difficulties? I've wanted to play it since it came out on PS4 but am in the mood for a challenge right now.
Not too bad in my experience, though I'd advise against playing on Ultra-Hard unless you really know what you're doing. I'm pretty sure they balanced it for NG+.
Nobody remembers the singer. The song remains.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
Thinking of picking up HZD on PC. How are the higher difficulties? I've wanted to play it since it came out on PS4 but am in the mood for a challenge right now.
Not too bad in my experience, though I'd advise against playing on Ultra-Hard unless you really know what you're doing. I'm pretty sure they balanced it for NG+.
I did a fresh Ultra Hard playthrough and it's balanced and comfortably completable on a fresh game.
Someone who knows me is going to point out that "Yes but Morninglord you are crazy." And my answer is "Yes! Yes I am! But I start out as bad as anyone else. I simply do not care if I die hundreds of times I just keep going until I eventually brute force learn." I did not die hundreds of times. I have a friend that completed it on Ultra Hard his first playthrough as well. He also didn't die hundreds of times. It's difficulty is the type that forces you to learn the game systems and exploit them, not 'run headlong into a wall a million times until you manage to pass it by pure luck'. When you beat things on this difficulty, it will be because you effectively exploit enemy weaknesses and bring the correct tool to the fight. It also makes the economy much more sensible. Quest rewards are meaningful instead of just more money on the infinite money pile. Hunting is necessary, instead of optional. And so on. the difficulty brings everything together into a cohesive whole.
NG+ actually trivialises part of the challenge because you already have everything. As an example, enemies have drastically increased sight range? But if you have a two slot stealth armor with stealth mods attached, this increase is practically neutered. You walk into NG+ with that armor set and you basically get to ignore that. The more difficult enemies are obliterated by upgraded ropecaster and fully maxed out freeze bow or freeze sling, then killed in a couple of triple shots with a maxed out sniper bow. All human fights you just blow them all up with the blast sling. And so on.
If you really like challenge, give it a go. If it was really meant for NG+ only, you'd only be able to play it on NG+.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
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DragkoniasThat Guy Who Does StuffYou Know, There. Registered Userregular
Yeah I did like how there was a point to switching out armor depending on what you were fighting.
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MorninglordI'm tired of being Batman,so today I'll be Owl.Registered Userregular
edited June 2021
Yeah. You bring a maxed out two slot physical defense armor against a Sabertooth it is only going to tickle you.
There were no one shots once I got halfway decent armors. And once you are high enough level, almost nothing is even capable of one shotting you without armor. I think there's only like two attacks even capable of it.
I've straight up tanked physical damage based enemies on a fresh Ultra Hard once I got the gear. By that I mean, I'm not dodging, I'm just getting smacked around repeatedly and healing up.
It's because all the armor is percentages. It doesn't matter if the starting value is high if you are removing 60-70% of the damage. Same applies to the weapons and the increased resistances on enemies.
I did have to avoid some creatures (or use a ton of traps) until I had the tools to fight them effectively. But that's part of the fun and the challenge.
Scanning enemies is super important! It tells you what to use, and what attacks they use.
Morninglord on
(PSN: Morninglord) (Steam: Morninglord) (WiiU: Morninglord22) I like to record and toss up a lot of random gaming videos here.
Thanks for the recommendation. You've convinced me to give it a shot on Ultra Hard. I haven't played a game that forces you to experiment with all the tools it gives you in a while and really want that kind of experience. I was between this and Nioh 2 but Robot Dinos won especially after the patches improved performance.
Looking forward to the puzzle. And the bows. bows.
+3
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GnomeTankWhat the what?Portland, OregonRegistered Userregular
edited June 2021
I would like armor switching more if it didn't require menu diving. Console games have never seemed to figure this out, but some kind of secondary wheel, that also slowed time, and allowed me to quick switch armor would make me engage with the armor system more. Nothing breaks the flow of a game for me like having to dive in to a menu to switch gear mid-fight.
I would like armor switching more if it didn't require menu diving. Console games have never seemed to figure this out, but some kind of secondary wheel, that also slowed time, and allowed me to quick switch armor would make me engage with the armor system more. Nothing breaks the flow of a game for me like having to dive in to a menu to switch gear mid-fight.
Yup, if you require me to open a menu in the middle of battle to swap weapons or armor or use items or whatever..... I'm just not gonna do it. That stuff may as well not exist for me, as far as I'm concerned.
Oh wow this game is gorgeous and the presentation is great. I'm still in the tutorial and am floored by how good it looks.
+13
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-Loki-Don't pee in my mouth and tell me it's raining.Registered Userregular
Something that’s taking me a while to get used to in this is how dangerous the world is.
Open World games generally give you enough power that aside from bosses you don’t have to worry too much, especially Ubisoft style map fuckers.
But in this, casually walking about can get you straight up murdered. Walking into a group of even just Scrappers or worse, Sawtooths while not prepared or in a bad position can lead to a pretty horrible death.
This makes it annoying when you just want to explore. The other night I finished a story quest and on my way back I figured I’d do a vantage point, then unlock a campfire I hadn’t been to. I got to the campfire and there’s a pair of Bellowbacks on it?! Just casually sniffing around.
Welp, off to a different campfire.
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OrcaAlso known as EspressosaurusWrexRegistered Userregular
Something that’s taking me a while to get used to in this is how dangerous the world is.
Open World games generally give you enough power that aside from bosses you don’t have to worry too much, especially Ubisoft style map fuckers.
But in this, casually walking about can get you straight up murdered. Walking into a group of even just Scrappers or worse, Sawtooths while not prepared or in a bad position can lead to a pretty horrible death.
This makes it annoying when you just want to explore. The other night I finished a story quest and on my way back I figured I’d do a vantage point, then unlock a campfire I hadn’t been to. I got to the campfire and there’s a pair of Bellowbacks on it?! Just casually sniffing around.
Welp, off to a different campfire.
Eventually you just sort of yawn and wipe them out. But while your equipment still sucks, yeah, time to find a new camp fire or just fast travel to a known-good one.
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knitdanIn ur baseKillin ur guysRegistered Userregular
One thing to remember is that running away is almost always an option
And even if you die there’s not really a penalty for it other than the time and gear you spent since the last save
“I was quick when I came in here, I’m twice as quick now”
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades
+5
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BaidolI will hold him offEscape while you canRegistered Userregular
Posts
Don't need boss fights. Nothing is gained by giving that regular human dude a health bar larger than a robot t-rex's. The climax of their story was hours ago when she busted out of the arena, she's known she's better than him for ages this is just a formality.
Sidenote: the game is perfectly paced for me for one complete playthrough. I love every moment of it, but when I'm done with the game I guess I'm done. Twice now I've tried to play through afterwards and I just...get bored/wander off and do something else instead of replaying immediately.
I have a feeling this game is going to end up like Outpost 2 was for awhile for me--a game I pick up every couple years and play through, because that gives enough time to be able to enjoy it again.
Oh man I didn't mean to imply that. It's still impressive to me that you beat it.
I'm just trying to counter the impression that Ultra Hard is for crazy people. A little hyperbolic in the other direction.
It's actually really well designed, it's not fully masochistic at all. You don't die all that often. What it does is make you engage more with the game, and do more thinking, which is a sign of a great difficulty. That's all I meant.
Regarding human boss fights, they were kind of amusingly amazing because they still get knocked down or staggered by explosions so you just load up your boom stick and you throw bombs until they die.
And that's it, that's what happens really. If you wanna be cool about it you can line up a triple headshot but otherwise bombs until they die. Every human boss fight.
Looks like I need to get my hands on a PS5!
In theory it's cross gen, but I'm not sure how well the PS4 will handle it
I'm not optimistic it'll happen, but glider + grapple + overridden machine = parasailing? Please?
My biggest worry with HFW is that without the backstory carrying the weight they'll need the current day story to do all of it. And HZD's current day story wasn't anything to write home about.
There's still plenty of backstory to reveal.
Considering the location, I'm taking it as a given that we'll find out more about the killers Rost went there to hunt down, and whatever they were doing in the Sacred Lands in the first place has to be important.
In the state of play, it looks like the big bad is going to be HADES coming down to deal with Alloy or try running its extinction program again?
Hope it's not just chasing Sylons and HADES around again, but certainly up for more Alloy regardless of story
I honestly couldn't tell you anything about the current day stuff except that one prominent character suddenly was into Aloy out of nowhere.
It wasn't out of nowhere, he had just lost someone close to him who was very similar personality wise so he tried to compensate for that pain and get the good feelings back by immediately propositioning her. She shuts him down and calls this out directly.
It's also not out of nowhere because everyone is into Aloy.
Some of them are also pretty icky!
I will never let this go goddammit.
Without GAIA keeping them in check, the humans are messing up the operations of pretty much every AI, so there's a lot of potential.
Ikrie and Aloy are besties, it's true.
Just gals being pals.
I'm sure the sequel will have more enemies so that isn't a concern. I would also like more mixing and matching, and maybe something like alpha forms that are faster, more aggressive versions of machines.
Have you played Frozen Wilds? They do some fun stuff in the vein of alpha versions, grouping disparate types together, etc.
Steam: adamjnet
I hope and wish there’s variety in the environments, for how high fidelity it looks I’m not feeling the jungle beach setting of the video. Just doesn’t vibe with me the way deserts and forests did in the first game. With how far away the bridge is in that footage it seems likely the game will just be the Bay Area. I know the first game got mad stupid with overworld map scale but it doesn’t seem doable if you have the bridge there in a 1:1 scale.
Maybe you’ll get to climb a redwood and kite down from the top, that’d be neat.
Just back and forth "Wait... what? And then you did WHAT? Hold on, what the shit?" as they went over the history that led to this collective mess, and what she went through to fix it (and what they're going to need to do to make it stick.
Note, I don't think that's actually going to happen, but it's fun to imagine (for me, at least) all the same.
I did a fresh Ultra Hard playthrough and it's balanced and comfortably completable on a fresh game.
Someone who knows me is going to point out that "Yes but Morninglord you are crazy." And my answer is "Yes! Yes I am! But I start out as bad as anyone else. I simply do not care if I die hundreds of times I just keep going until I eventually brute force learn." I did not die hundreds of times. I have a friend that completed it on Ultra Hard his first playthrough as well. He also didn't die hundreds of times. It's difficulty is the type that forces you to learn the game systems and exploit them, not 'run headlong into a wall a million times until you manage to pass it by pure luck'. When you beat things on this difficulty, it will be because you effectively exploit enemy weaknesses and bring the correct tool to the fight. It also makes the economy much more sensible. Quest rewards are meaningful instead of just more money on the infinite money pile. Hunting is necessary, instead of optional. And so on. the difficulty brings everything together into a cohesive whole.
NG+ actually trivialises part of the challenge because you already have everything. As an example, enemies have drastically increased sight range? But if you have a two slot stealth armor with stealth mods attached, this increase is practically neutered. You walk into NG+ with that armor set and you basically get to ignore that. The more difficult enemies are obliterated by upgraded ropecaster and fully maxed out freeze bow or freeze sling, then killed in a couple of triple shots with a maxed out sniper bow. All human fights you just blow them all up with the blast sling. And so on.
If you really like challenge, give it a go. If it was really meant for NG+ only, you'd only be able to play it on NG+.
There were no one shots once I got halfway decent armors. And once you are high enough level, almost nothing is even capable of one shotting you without armor. I think there's only like two attacks even capable of it.
I've straight up tanked physical damage based enemies on a fresh Ultra Hard once I got the gear. By that I mean, I'm not dodging, I'm just getting smacked around repeatedly and healing up.
It's because all the armor is percentages. It doesn't matter if the starting value is high if you are removing 60-70% of the damage. Same applies to the weapons and the increased resistances on enemies.
I did have to avoid some creatures (or use a ton of traps) until I had the tools to fight them effectively. But that's part of the fun and the challenge.
Scanning enemies is super important! It tells you what to use, and what attacks they use.
Looking forward to the puzzle. And the bows.
Yup, if you require me to open a menu in the middle of battle to swap weapons or armor or use items or whatever..... I'm just not gonna do it. That stuff may as well not exist for me, as far as I'm concerned.
PSN/Steam/NNID: SyphonBlue | BNet: SyphonBlue#1126
Open World games generally give you enough power that aside from bosses you don’t have to worry too much, especially Ubisoft style map fuckers.
But in this, casually walking about can get you straight up murdered. Walking into a group of even just Scrappers or worse, Sawtooths while not prepared or in a bad position can lead to a pretty horrible death.
This makes it annoying when you just want to explore. The other night I finished a story quest and on my way back I figured I’d do a vantage point, then unlock a campfire I hadn’t been to. I got to the campfire and there’s a pair of Bellowbacks on it?! Just casually sniffing around.
Welp, off to a different campfire.
Eventually you just sort of yawn and wipe them out. But while your equipment still sucks, yeah, time to find a new camp fire or just fast travel to a known-good one.
And even if you die there’s not really a penalty for it other than the time and gear you spent since the last save
-Indiana Solo, runner of blades