OT: Video Games VI

[AlexModvechkin8]

That review reminded me of another peeve from the original: the long-ass text/notes/data found all over the place. Looks like that's not a thing anymore. Nice.

I actually just booted up HZD to play around with it for a few days before FW drops and I forgot how irritating it was that you miss meaningful storyline contributions by not having all of the text and audio logs, and they’re not located on the map so you’re essentially f***ed unless you want to explore the whole damn map again.

 

[Hivemind]

Can y'all stop talking about the only game that makes me want to even consider buying a console right now

You can talk about it in 3 years when it comes to PC

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Can y'all stop talking about the only game that makes me want to even consider buying a console right now

You can talk about it in 3 years when it comes to PC

Worth it if you can get one and don’t mind / are able to spend the cash. I love the PS5.

 

[g00n]

Worth it if you can get one and don’t mind / are able to spend the cash. I love the PS5.

I still only have a (pretty large) 1080 tv for my PS4. Not sure the upgrade makes sense for me.

I just watched the comparison of ps4/5 for HZD2 and maybe its my computer monitor but it didn't seem like $500 worth of upgrade, at least for one game. I'll probably just get the ps4 version in a few months (not like I could find a PS5 anyway).

 

[shtorm2005]

Worth it if you can get one and don’t mind / are able to spend the cash. I love the PS5.

PC is better

Spoiler

... but

 

[usiel]

PC is better

Spoiler

View attachment 507462

... but

Hahah.

Doing a couple of 2.0 adds to my 3080 PC. Jumping up to 64GB RAM and and a second m.2 NVMEe stick WD Black SN850 SSN (the one with the heat sink).

 

[tycoonheart]

Can y'all stop talking about the only game that makes me want to even consider buying a console right now

You can talk about it in 3 years when it comes to PC

I recently played GoW 2018 on the PC and it's making me want to buy a PS5 for the sequel.

Horizon never interested. Maybe I should give the first one a try.

 

[shtorm2005]

Hahah.

Doing a couple of 2.0 adds to my 3080 PC. Jumping up to 64GB RAM and and a second m.2 NVMEe stick WD Black SN850 SSN (the one with the heat sink).

Lucky you! I have money to buy 3080 too, but I will lose selfrespect if I give that much to scalpers.

 

[usiel]

Lucky you! I have money to buy 3080 too, but I will lose selfrespect if I give that much to scalpers.

Yeah I went the system builder route via cyberpowerpc.com so retained some self-respect, heh. Probably have had at least five systems built by them in between a few on my own builds.

 

[Hivemind]

Worth it if you can get one and don’t mind / are able to spend the cash. I love the PS5.

I just have so little interest in most console exclusives. My PS4 has pretty much sat collecting dust for like 3 years at this point, even as a Netflix machine it's been replaced by my laptop and phone. The last playstation exclusive I played was TLOU2, and before that was God of War and Horizon Zero Dawn, both of which are now available on PC. So I have zero interest in dropping the cost of new console to just play one game, even without all the supply chain heartburn associated with hunting one down. I also avoid most controller-based games these days anyway. I much prefer mouse and keyboard for most genres (basically anything aside of racing/flying games or Soulsborne clones, which I don't play that many of anyway).

 

[Devil Dancer]

Anyone interested in the Cyberpunk next gen patch?

I played it at launch on a laptop with a 2060. It was buggy but beautiful. Now I'm looking forward to a replay on XSX at 4K.

 

[twabby]

Anyone interested in the Cyberpunk next gen patch?

I played it at launch on a laptop with a 2060. It was buggy but beautiful. Now I'm looking forward to a replay on XSX at 4K.

I'm planning on giving it a go on PS5 now that the patch has been released. It's going to take a backseat to HZD and Elden Ring, but I'll get to it eventually.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

I’ve only been able to play Forbidden West for about an hour or two because of life but the story is already super captivating and the environment is pretty stunning.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Thoughts after six hours or so on HFW which included finishing the introduction and doing some exploring, main missions, side quests, and a relic challenge in the first area.

• The story is immediately captivating again, at least for me. They do a terrific job of setting the stage for Aloy’s new quest by wrapping up some loose ends and building on the cliffhanger from the end of the first one, and you get to meet some old friends from Zero Dawn very early on into the game which was fun.
  
• The skill tree is massive and kind of complicated. You also can’t reset it at all so once you make your choices then that’s what you’ll have for the rest of your play-through which I don’t think I’m a fan of but we’ll see. Coming from playing AC Valhalla where it’s very customizable and you can reset the entire thing at any point makes this feel very limiting. That said, there’s a ton of cool stuff in the skill set which makes it feel less useless than the last skill tree.
  
• The combat seems better and less clunky, especially combat with the bow. Aiming seems to be less of a pain. You can also now light and heavy melee attack with machines you’ve overridden which I think is new. Climbing still kinda sucks but I guess it’s more of a puzzle than just straight open world exploration. Highly recommend turning on climbing indicators if you play that game.
• The visuals are a bit odd and actually slightly disappointing. The ruins and the graphics around the old world and it’s disintegration are amazing and the details are second to none but it seems really bright and the vegetation seems to almost shimmer which is tough on the eyes. I’m trying to work on some setting adjustments but haven’t found the right setting yet. It doesn’t affect the cutscenes but the gameplay is a bit off visually. I imagine it’ll be fixed in the next patch because a quick search on Reddit shows that this feedback is widespread.

Overall, can’t wait to spend more time on it. Certainly feels like an early Game of the Year candidate.

 

[shtorm2005]

Damn those with PS5 and their exclusives

 

[twabby]

Thoughts after six hours or so on HFW which included finishing the introduction and doing some exploring, main missions, side quests, and a relic challenge in the first area.

• The story is immediately captivating again, at least for me. They do a terrific job of setting the stage for Aloy’s new quest by wrapping up some loose ends and building on the cliffhanger from the end of the first one, and you get to meet some old friends from Zero Dawn very early on into the game which was fun.
  
• The skill tree is massive and kind of complicated. You also can’t reset it at all so once you make your choices then that’s that you’ll have for the rest of your play-through which I don’t think I’m a fan of but we’ll see. Coming from playing AC Valhalla where it’s very customizable and you can reset the entire thing at any point makes this feel very limiting. That said, there’s a ton of cool stuff in the skill set which makes it feel less useless than the last skill tree.
  
• The combat seems better and less clunky, especially combat with the bow. Aiming seems to be less of a pain. You can also now light and heavy melee attack with machines you’ve overridden which I think is new. Climbing still kinda sucks but I guess it’s more of a puzzle than just straight open world exploration. Highly recommend turning on climbing indicators if you play that game.
• The visuals are actually a bit odd and actually slightly disappointing. The ruins and the graphics around the old world and it’s disintegration are amazing and the details are second to none but it seems really bright and the vegetation seems to almost shimmer which is tough on the eyes. I’m trying to work on some setting adjustments but haven’t found the right setting yet. It doesn’t affect the cutscenes but the gameplay is a bit off visually. I imagine it’ll be fixed in the next patch because a quick search on Reddit shows that this feedback is widespread.

Overall, can’t wait to spend more time on it. Certainly feels like an early Game of the Year candidate.

Yeah I’m about 5 hours in and I’m loving it so far. Agree with mostly everything you said.

Looking forward to getting all the weapons and experimenting!

 

[ChaosLord]

• The skill tree is massive and kind of complicated. You also can’t reset it at all so once you make your choices then that’s that you’ll have for the rest of your play-through which I don’t think I’m a fan of but we’ll see. Coming from playing AC Valhalla where it’s very customizable and you can reset the entire thing at any point makes this feel very limiting.

This seems disturbing, and I have a hard time believing devs wouldn't allow you to reset the skill tree at all during the game -- I mean thats not just backwards, thats prehistoric. Maybe its like Witcher 3 were you find out later on in the game that you have the ability to reset, at a price of course (in Witcher 3 you gain access to a skill reset potion but only later in the game and the potion is pretty pricey).

If there really is no reset option, its going to take a lot of planning before playing. And a lot of internet research as well (finding out what the best builds are, etc).

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

This seems disturbing, and I have a hard time believing devs wouldn't allow you to reset the skill tree at all during the game -- I mean thats not just backwards, thats prehistoric. Maybe its like Witcher 3 were you find out later on in the game that you have the ability to reset, at a price of course (in Witcher 3 you gain access to a skill reset potion but only later in the game and the potion is pretty pricey).

If there really is no reset option, its going to take a lot of planning before playing. And a lot of internet research as well (finding out what the best builds are, etc).

It’s a pain in the ass to be sure. I’ve spent a lot of time reading up on which skills to stock up on first. I guess the one saving grace is you get skill points with every mission that’s completed so they’re not hard to come by and it’s evidently not incredibly difficult to acquire every skill on the skill tree.

Still, I can’t quite understand the logic. What’s the benefit? Why do they think it enhances the game playing experience?

There is another feature in the game I forgot to mention that is absolutely awesome and should be standard in every open world / looter game. In HFW there is a feature where as you’re collecting stuff around the game be it wood for crafting arrows or berries for medicine or whatever, if your pouch is full the supplies are automatically sent to your stash and your stash can be accessed at any settlement or small encampment. When you access your stash at one of the locations you can just select the option to replenish all available and it automatically maximizes your inventory for what you can carry. So much better than spending time dumping, selling, or dismantling stuff or spending a ton of time trying to kill wild animals to increase your satchel capacity (which you’ll still do, just not as much).

 

[Devil Dancer]

Maybe its like HZD or Tsushima where you will get all or almost all of the skills by the end, so there's no real need to reset?

 

[g00n]

It’s a pain in the ass to be sure. I’ve spent a lot of time reading up on which skills to stock up on first. I guess the one saving grace is you get skill points with every mission that’s completed so they’re not hard to come by and it’s evidently not incredibly difficult to acquire every skill on the skill tree.

Still, I can’t quite understand the logic. What’s the benefit? Why do they think it enhances the game playing experience?

There is another feature in the game I forgot to mention that is absolutely awesome and should be standard in every open world / looter game. In HFW there is a feature where as you’re collecting stuff around the game be it wood for crafting arrows or berries for medicine or whatever, if your pouch is full the supplies are automatically sent to your stash and your stash can be accessed at any settlement or small encampment. When you access your stash at one of the locations you can just select the option to replenish all available and it automatically maximizes your inventory for what you can carry. So much better than spending time dumping, selling, or dismantling stuff or spending a ton of time trying to kill wild animals to increase your satchel capacity (which you’ll still do, just not as much).

God I hated dealing with the resource capacity issues. Such a time waster. That's good to hear.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

God I hated dealing with the resource capacity issues. Such a time waster. That's good to hear.

It’s one of the best new features in a game that I can remember. I always end up putting down games like these eventually not because I don’t love the game but because spending as much or more time working on load outs or inventory capacity than actually playing the game drives me to a stopping point.

 

[AlexModvechkin8]

Nice to see Guerilla acknowledging and fixing these issues quickly.

Horizon Forbidden West Gets Its First Post-Launch Patch - IGN

 

[ChaosLord]

And Now IGN goes ahead and gives Elden Ring a straight up 10.

Elden Ring Review - IGN

I didn't realize it was a part the Dark Souls series, however. I'm not a huge fan of that
franchise, and will likely give this game a pass.

 

[twabby]

I need a significant block of time to tackle Elden Ring so I was planning on waiting until the summer, but I don’t know if I’ll be able to wait if the reviews are that good!

 

[tycoonheart]

I'm conflicted. Not a fan of Souls games but the reviews have been amazing and most say it's more approachable. I want to play it but I'm also afraid I won't get into it.