Horizon Zero Dawn

I ended up doing the jump glitch and I got the filthy armour early

Something I realized kinda only recently was how the fill gauges work with status ailments on enemies, that you only need to needle with fire arrows until the robot is on fire, that you only need to needle with freeze arrows until the robot is frozen, then switch to normal damage and so forth.

The only enemy I've genuinely struggled with was the first free-roaming Deathfucker. I died five times before reading up and 'getting' how overheating works etc. etc. then beat him immediately

oh my second playthrough I think I took out the first deathfucker (which is damaged iirc) in something like thirty seconds!

the one in the big warehouse space was more of a pain

Sounds like I have a lot to look forward to! And also that my instincts that this is ramping up were sound.

It's been a while since I had an Everything Must Go battle, where I basically need to prepare and end up using all my vital resources. That was he case for me in, like, Doom, and has almost been the case a couple of times so far here, though usually by design or when I get in over my head and decide to keep experimenting.

I think I'm reasonably good at this game, but I've found Thunderjaws to be challenging, Stormbirds to be a feat, and Deathfuckers to be an ordeal. I started enjoying my corruption arrows when there were, say, three stalkers running around, and was delighted to realize that they are n/a in Corrupted Zones, you have to fight clean or die

I still find stalkers to be rather bothersome! I don't get ropey except when there's a bunch of them, then I use shock ropes as buffers for a hasty retreat

The big birdies are fun to pin down with a bunch of ropes and methodically pick off all their weapon components

are they really called "deathfuckers"

I wish.

Something I've found tangentially challenging about this game is that I have the complete version, with DLC, but it's not always clear what missions or side missions are DLC, or if the DLC only unlocks when I finish the main game. So anything that involves snow or ice missions into the hinterlands I've generally avoided.

If you hit level 30 or so, that's a good time to do the DLC stuff

You'll know when you're there, because there's a pretty fraught chase bit to get into the area the first time

DLC is gated behind a specific part of the map, so you're not going to stumble on any of its quests on the main map.

I have a lot of map left to explore, so I guess I'll see it when I see it.

I'd guess I'm almost halfway through the main quest. Maker's End?

I think that's halfway!

By the way, with regards to that quest... just make sure you're collecting everything there is to collect as you go because you CAN come back and get it later but it's a chore to do so.

This game runs about 5000x quieter on PS5 compared to my PS4 Pro. I might actually play it!

fuckin’ Ted Faro

Just finished Maker's End. Deathbringer! Exposition dump! Lance Reddick!

This game is fun. I assume someone is already turning it into a movie/tv show?

Not that I know of, though this has more than a few similarities with the game: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Am_Mother

There is a secondary character named Trevor whose backstory, told in logs, is awesome and hilarious

Most of this game felt pretty popcorn but it seems as if I'm nearing the end of the main story and there have been some emotional moments, some real "wow I do feel very nihilistic now" moments

I haven't read any of the logs and stuff, I guess this means they are worth it?

I do like how this game rewards different play styles. Like, when I come across a bandit camp I snipe everyone from a distance, like a coward. But I had watched a bit of a playthrough a while back, and the player chose to just abandon caution and ride a robot bull right into a bandit camp and run people over before jumping robo-ship and just going melee ham. Maybe that's what happens when you've been conditioned to play everything like a FPS?

Is it worth doing the side quests in the original? i.e., are they mostly inconsequential "go here, fetch that”, or do they add to the story/world? I’ve seen folks on reddit saying the game is more fun—or at least, easier to avoid burn-out—if one just does the main story and exploration with the occasional side quest. I’m usually one to do all the missions in an open world but obviously the quality/essential-ness varies from title to title. I’ve completed Ghost of Tsushima recently, and Red Dead last year, so am interested in playing this but want to avoid “oh, this type of mission again" overfamiliarity. (Or perhaps I should just let more time pass before attempting another open world game…)

Imo so far the bandit battles have been pretty repetitive and probably not needed (very similar to some of the Red Dead bad guy camps). The cauldrons are pretty cool and useful, if iirc still optional. Same with the Tallneck towers. But the sidequests and stuff in general, some of them have been pretty fun, and all of them so far have added some color or filled in some mythology. I've yet to come across any real surprises in the wild like I did with RDR2, where out of nowhere there is a serial killer quest, or a spooky swamp mission, or helping a circus trainer find his lost lion or whatever.

The ish really is some of the side quests might as well be main quests, and others are boring and dumb, and there’s no way of knowing which you’re gonna get

Of all the errands, I would only recommend the hunter’s lodge errands, which results in a frankly wonderful battle

Aside from that, in order of fun/useful to not-fun/not-useful

Tallnecks
Cauldrons
Vantages
Corrupted Zones
Mugs
Bandit camps
Trials (I didn’t bother really I found them annoying)
Figurines
Flowers
Tutorials

I definitely got into the audio logs and data entries and I do think the story is exceptionally good. Don’t adore the two leads overall but love the mythology they build

A big mid game “aha” for me was to sell off all my bones and skins with the idea that I’d buy them back later if needed. A lot of space taken up in your resource pouch with those things

Huh, I knew you could buy them back but it never occurred to me to use that as de facto storage. Smart!

the epilogue explains the flowers in a heartbreaking way

Few hours into the sequel, the improvements outweigh the nits if not quantitatively then quantitatively.

Pros:
- Aloy is much more sharply written with greater psychological depth.
- Writing has more personality overall, quite a few excellent zingers already.
- Motion and performance capture are more naturalistic and consistently present, especially with our girl.

Cons:
- Outside of the subtitles, text is too small to read.
- Environments are so color saturated that resources are hard to see.
- Tutorial level is kind of long and short on action.

Oh and a much bigger con: texture pop in has been pretty common.

Reviews seem to indicate the release day patch had quite a few fixes. Sony's QA for their productions is usually higher, and they did push the release back, so maybe they're slipping a bit or assuming this is just the new status quo

Currently unlocking all the Tallnecks (in the first game). I figure that will give me even more flexibility to decide when to move the plot forward and when to goof around on intriguing side missions. Basically cut down on the wandering around, which I've probably done enough of.

Today I fought the giant Tyrannosaurus Killbot in one of the cauldrons, which was pretty cool. That gave me the power to override a Snapjaw, so the next time I found a pile of them hanging out I converted one to the good side and it just kicked so much ass for me, destroying not just two other Snapjaws, but also whatever stupid killer robots joined the fight, all while I hid behind a rock and watched.

Speaking of which, leading up to that cauldron was the usual chaos of robo animals that I picked fights with, including a couple of ravagers (the ones with the guns on their back). On a whim I picked up the giant back canon I'd knocked off and took it with with me over a hill, and upon reaching the top started getting shot at by what I assumed was another ravager. So I just let loose with the cannon in the general direction of the shots in the tree line below for several seconds, Predator-style, until whatever was shooting at me stopped. And when I got down there and saw all those red traps I realized, oh shit, it was three (!) of those invisible robots! And I had demolished them all without even knowing it.

This game is $125AUD on the PSN store as a download but $80 for the same thing as physical copy from JB Hifi. What the fck?

The new one, for PS5? That's weird, I wonder if there was just a mistake in the JB ad?

I hit my first big roadblock against a giant turtle, might have to grind out some levels and upgrades. Also I'm completely overlooking the valor surges, as the bar that tells me when it's changed up is too inconspicuous for me to notice in the thick of a fight.

I've got to finish the first game so that I know what any of you are talking about, lol. I'm about to hit the Grave Hoard, Near which I think, per one of the post's above, that I was just given a chance to proceed to the DLC (The Cut?) but Lance Reddick told me to turn back.

Oh? I went to The Cut long before I needed to go to Grave Hoard.

I was playing this game a lot, like four hours a day, last week, and I wanted to get more work done than I was doing, and I saw Elden Ring's release date approaching, so I rented a car and drove away from my apartment and the PS5 so I could work remotely until I got caught up haha

lmao

I thought you were going to say that you rented a car and took your PS5 with you to another more isolated place to just bunker down and finish the game in preparation for Elden Ring.

The number of people I saw posting on forums about how they were getting caught up on their work in February so they could spend March in a gaming vortex was... many. I myself do not have that luxury! Hopefully I'll get a "vacation" later in March

i will never “get caught up on my work”

Rent a car, drive your PS5 to a distant & secure location, return home to work.

Usually I feel guilty if I use my limited free time to play games instead of working on music, so I'm pleased to report that I actually finished the premasters for an EP yesterday. Thanks to Miyazaki for the deadline

Took down my first full power Deathbringer. It was pretty tough, at least until I figured out what to do. The cautious player that I am, it really gives me some anxiety to spend so much time building up an arsenal that it feels like you have to use up entirely on one enemy/boss. Though of course that's an exaggeration, since at least on "normal" setting this game really throws resources at you.

I had to do some googling to bring down my first (the one in the hangar). Didn't quite understand the overheating mechanic! now I do and they're not hard. I struggle most with Stormbirds

I finished my final cauldron, the bandit-heavy one, which was a lot of fun. I liked not knowing how to get out, and how they kept throwing new challenges at me, especially the invisible robots, which are uniquely challenging (though not difficult). I love scanning the area for enemies, tagging a couple of bandits, and then hearing a shout and next thing I know the bandits are dead. I wasn't really paying attention, but I saw the red flare traps and realized, ah, invisible robot cats! And then I had to figure out how many there were, which is a good habit to keep, because the next stage had three of 'em. No problem for me, What *is* a problem is that I've somehow ended up with close to 10,000 shards and have no idea what to do with them. I've been wearing the heavy stealth outfit for 95% of the game, and so far I see no reason to change. No idea what else to spend shards on.

Took some of the tips in this thread about using multiple weapons in conjunction during tough fights and had a blast.

I tried a couple of the hunter trials (in HZD), and they were certainly tough, but I appreciated how a couple of them explicitly required the use of multiple weapons.

Just hit the massive (mandatory) exposition dump section of the game. Some good sci-fi plotting/twists, imo. I must be close to the end of the game, but I keep bumping into sidequests, which is always awkward from an emotional investment standpoint. "You are the only one that can save us from extinction! We've got no time to waste!" (five minutes later) "Can you please help me get medicine for my sick cat?"

Getting that cat medicine is a critical experience building endeavor that will only help Aloy save the world though!

You never know in this game. Some of the side quests have been pretty neat/fun.

I really liked how this game's plot unfolded. Some real emotional moments! I didn't win it yet and haven't spoilered myself about the ending

I'm super impressed by how these AAA games deliver plot. It's a neat trick, when done well, considering everyone is playing them at different speeds, or in different ways. Movies and books generally adhere to a certain rhythm and structure, but games prove even more than some of the loosest of the former that you can stretch and disrupt the rhythm of your story all you want as long as the story beats drop somewhere, eventually, in some semblance or order. Some people might hit a huge story beat a couple of hours in, others might not hit it for 10 hours. It's kind of like a cross between the staggered narrative of fiction (another format we typically pick up and put down over the course of weeks) and the more condensed nature of cinema.