Horizon Zero Dawn

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.

I came across a random side quest with a weirdo who drinks robot blood. After I got him the required blood, he has a vision of ... "Horizon Zero West"?

love that dude

I think I just got the final power cell, and if I didn't I must have missed an earlier one somewhere ...

OK, got my super armor (sneaky to put one back in the very first location) and I think am primed for the final/end battle of the game, but instead I decided to start the DLC. I think I read something saying that while it doesn't matter whether or not you do the DLC before or after the main game (the game I guess adjusts accordingly), the writer of the story recommended doing it before you finish the main quest. I did find that kind of surprising, because even leveled up well above its suggested start number that first enemy (demonic scorcher?) was *hard*. In fact, even though I destroyed it, I suspect it's mostly there as a warning and that you're meant to find a way past it rather than fight it. Sort of like sneaking back through your homeland toward the end of the game, which is full of tough enemies you can fight if you want but you're probably better off avoiding, unless you just want the challenge and/or XP.

Frozen Wilds is definitely harder than the base game, but I am also better armed and leveled up, which means the enemies aren't *that* hard, they just take tons of your ammunition, which for the first time I sometimes run out of. Anyway, glad I am doing this now and not after the main game, since I think it would be a let down.

Ok, finished frozen wilds and the main game. Really well done! Looked great, fun to play, great writing with nice emotional beats. I wonder if there is a different path to writing these things than there is to writing a movie, for example. They hit many of the same standard emotional /plot marks, but games parcel them out at a totally different pace. Anyway, good job, people that made this game. Look forward to playing the sequel in a year or so.