Horizon Zero Dawn

Got it. This game is interesting in that it seems like a lot of weapons and outfits are sold by venders pretty early in the game, which makes them tempting.

OK, got a good rhythm going on here. Do a bunch of main quest, do a bunch of side quests and errands, do a side thing like the corruption zones or (as I find them) the cauldrons. Spend some time gathering, selling, crafting, spending. Repeat. Fought a giant underground thing in a side quest but not sure if I did it as designed, kind of an accidental cheese. I suspect I was supposed to blow up the blaze containers, but I just hid around a corner and kept shooting arrows as it appeared.

(Reviews of the new one I've skimmed predictably skew "more of the same, but even more, which is mostly great, except when it's not!", like they want to rave but feel maybe self-conscious about doing so?)

I've seen some raves and also some measured "more of the same but MORE," which is entirely fine with me as I'm in it for the story as much as anything else.

I have grown to love this game. For the first ten hours or so I wasn't sure, and I read those articles that were like "here's what you need to do, beginners" and none of them gave me the actual goods:

1. Kill enough wildlife to upgrade your resource storage so it's not a constant concern
2. Get the shadow bows

There is a rare thing happening here where I'm finding a use for almost all of the play functions. Between a hunter bow, war bow, sharpshot bow and a trip caster, I'm finding all weapons useful. Stealth is useful in certain contexts, resistance potions are a must in others, overriding certain key enemies is useful. I'm so used to having SOME aspect of play be redundant to my build and it's pretty magnificent feeling like "a full arsenal" is being used at all times

Yeah, I just took down my second cauldron, and I appreciated getting to use all (well, a lot) of my arsenal to make things easier. I felt very Home Alone as I set a bunch of traps and wires and got into position for whatever epic fight was in store. Haven't used or needed to use any resistance potions yet, at least not in purpose. I think I applied one mistakenly before the fight, but don't know which one. It was yellow.

I stalled out on this game early but the robot creatures with specific vulnerabilities do seem like a good way of making you use all the different tools? Sort of the opposite of the Dark Souls approach where there are a bunch of different ways to do damage, but it's all damage, and you pick the one that works best for you.

I do wish the weapon wheel slots could be expanded, though.

I don't know if stuff escalates as you level up, or just based on story progression or map region, but I was playing yesterday and trying to finish the tutorial for the shadow ropemaster (or whatever), which entailed getting the heart of a Robogator, when things got messy. First, I was not sure of the parameters of the quest: was I supposed to tie down the Robogator then carve out its robo heart? Unclear what I needed the ropemaster for. But as I wore down the robot (one of the tougher enemies) I was suddenly attacked by *two* other angry Robogators, and then as I retreated I was attacked by a wave of bandits, who at first I thought were allies until I noticed they were yelling and shooting at *me*. All of this while Robobirds circled (don't know why they didn't attack, too). Burned through a ton of resources just to get out of there, killing what I could.

Anyway, did kill two Robogators, but neither gave me a heart, so no idea what I did wrong, or even if I did. Regardless, it was all pretty tough, all at once!

this seems extremely BOTW-adjacent, i sunk 250+ hours into that and am plain burned out on the idea of an open world right now. i've had this saved on my PS for a long time, even did the tutorial twice without going much further. is this different enough from BOTW to pique my fancy? something about not just an open world, but a focus on inventory management and even mechanical monsters, ehh, i'm just a little offput

It's not quite as thorough as BOTW. That is, you can just play in BOTW as a sort of sandbox for long stretches, or riff on various mechanics, or try new things or whatever, if that's your thing, and this one isn't quite that, or at least those sorts of play style avenues are more limited. I stand by my initial assessment that this is like a less novel BOTW with better graphics, plot and characters/characterization, and if those things don't matter to you than it might seem a step down. Personally, I like how the plot is being driven, and Aloy as a character is a million times more interesting (as such) than Link on BOTW, even though I consider BOTW the better game, so ymmv. Like, BOTW truly felt like an open world (despite its obvious constraints). This one seems like more of the conventional AAA sorta open worlds that I've played, like God of War or RDR2, where it's less "OK, what do I do next?" and more a directed "I know what's next, but I'm going to do this other thing first." But again, I think that's probably because it has a narrative plot and afaict BOTW doesn't. \

Fwiw inventory management in this is nbd, no worse than weapon degradation in BOTW. I do think the mechanical monster are cool. Weren't there mechanical monsters in Zelda? It's really no different from that. Things you have to fight, things you can opt to avoid, different ways to fight different things, etc.

Lol

I was doing some booze errand and saw a vantage marking nearby so I went toward it

Ran into some stalkers! ok that’s fine, I corrupted them against each other

Oh no! some glinthawks in the middle of nowhere. Strange but dealt with

Then a holy stormbird? why? I exhausted myself but dealt with it, freezing then damage is a good way to butter a bread

And I get the vantage and move forward, curious, and stumble upon some epic ruins, start to intrude, and seemingly arrive at a dead end

A Google later, I find that I’ve preemptively discovered the Gaia Ruin and they are inhibiting my progress by withholding a necessary ladder until the mission is actually activated. Dang!

I tried a glitchy jump trick but it seemed far fetched so I left

I'm at the Olin excavation mission (which I'd forgotten about), with two corrupters and some cultists, and it's kind of kicking my ass, which makes me think I'm doing it wrong.

That’s a good one to do with 90% hiding and sniping iirc

Yeah, that's how I ultimately did it. I got to higher ground and just worked from there. Same with a recent corruption zone, the baddies just couldn't reach me where I was (though at the same time sometimes my bow can't reach them). Speaking of corruption zone, I was working my way through that one when a couple of glinthawks swooped in and killed the last robot for me! Aside from Aloy messing with them, what makes the robots fight each other?

And speaking of robots, I was wandering around on the map when I encountered my first roaming giant T. Rex super robot (Thunderjaw?), which I steadfastly avoided.

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