Sony Horizon Forbidden West - Information Thread, update: Digital Foundry hands-on with PC version

[stepee]

I fucking LOVE fighting these dino’s. This must be what monster hunter is like for people who like that.

[EternallDarkness]

finally got around to trying out the racing and man does it suck.  

[Kal-El814]

18 hours ago, stepee said:

I fucking LOVE fighting these dino’s. This must be what monster hunter is like for people who like that.

 

Yeah it's really good. There are a couple specific machines that are just a drag to fight on hard mode, but in general the combat is really fun.

[stepee]

47 minutes ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

Yeah it's really good. There are a couple specific machines that are just a drag to fight on hard mode, but in general the combat is really fun.

 

Im playing on easy (not story, regular easy because I’m a BADASS) and some of these fuckers still kick my ass. They can be so ferocious coming at you, it’s almost scary, I’m not used to such large enemy’s with decent ai. The games regular fights constantly look like the coolest parts of the best boss fights in other games. 
 

I admit I didn’t really get into the first game. Though, knowing what I know now, mainly how sci fi it is, I apparently bailed too early on the first. I didn’t really jive with the combat in the first game but I was stuck on this idea you had to do stealth and traps and shit which didn’t interest me here, and the melee just seemed bad/useless.

 

I typically don’t use bow and arrow unless I have to and it wasn’t until here that I got into going that route and seeing how fun and addictive tearing down these machines piece by piece like reverse legos is. The concentration slow mo is also great for getting a chance to really take these mechanical beasts in.

 

But yeah it feels different than bow and arrow in other games, it’s closer and more direct and more impactful, and it just feels great. And then of course you get all the different types and all that jazz. Good stuff.

[legend]

By halfway in the first game I figured out a very effective strategy for taking down any big robot with ease: rope caster with handling mods to shoot it faster so you can tie down a robot in one concentration burst. Then blastsling sticky bombs which has the most damage potential (and modded for more damage) and didn’t break the ropes because they delayed explosion. 
 

In this one sticky bombs are a skill instead and my rope caster is a ghetto POS so I haven’t been able to make that work yet. We’ll see as I go on though. In general I found discovering a almost brokenly good strategy like that satisfying

[SaysWho?]

On 2/28/2022 at 4:24 PM, EternallDarkness said:

 

I don't know that BoTW hurt HZD any. It's not like Zelda was available on the PS4. The game old like 10 million copies. As for Elden Ring I don't know that the game appeals to the same demo. 

 

It sold 10 million as of early 2019, as well, so my guess it's much higher. Uncharted 4 was similar where the 16 million shocked me after the total was, like, 9 or 10 million for a few years.

[stepee]

1 hour ago, SaysWho? said:

 

It sold 10 million as of early 2019, as well, so my guess it's much higher. Uncharted 4 was similar where the 16 million shocked me after the total was, like, 9 or 10 million for a few years.

Are you guys referring to Horizon ZD sales? It’s over 20mil: 

Horizon Zero Dawn Has Sold Over 20 Million Copies Across PS4 and PC - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

---

Sony has announced that Horizon Zero Dawn has sold 20 million copies across PS4 and PC.

 

 

zeldoomed

 

 

 

[SaysWho?]

14 minutes ago, stepee said:

Are you guys referring to Horizon ZD sales? It’s over 20mil: 

Horizon Zero Dawn Has Sold Over 20 Million Copies Across PS4 and PC - IGN

WWW.IGN.COM

---

Sony has announced that Horizon Zero Dawn has sold 20 million copies across PS4 and PC.

 

 

zeldoomed

 

 

 

 

 

It did just bloody fine despite Zelda existing lol

[BloodyHell]

1 hour ago, SaysWho? said:

 

 

It did just bloody fine despite Zelda existing lol

It was given away to millions. It still did very, very well, but apparently that number is pretty skewed. It includes the summer of gaming giveaway.

[SaysWho?]

8 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

It was given away to millions. It still did very, very well, but apparently that number is pretty skewed. It includes the summer of gaming giveaway.

 

This is sold, not given away, from every analyst I'm reading.

 

 

[johnny]

20 hours ago, legend said:

By halfway in the first game I figured out a very effective strategy for taking down any big robot with ease: rope caster with handling mods to shoot it faster so you can tie down a robot in one concentration burst. Then blastsling sticky bombs which has the most damage potential (and modded for more damage) and didn’t break the ropes because they delayed explosion. 
 

In this one sticky bombs are a skill instead and my rope caster is a ghetto POS so I haven’t been able to make that work yet. We’ll see as I go on though. In general I found discovering a almost brokenly good strategy like that satisfying

the ropecaster was a criminally underused weapon in the first game. people were literally just spamming arrows and not trying other things out lol. 

[stepee]

Cross posting from resetera/twitter but this sucks.

 

Since the 1.06 patch I have been unable to proceed at the end of the Gemini chapter after you complete it. The first cutscene plays and then the second cutscene has Alloy waking up and she says “beta” but there is no sound and then it freezes, eventually shutting off the entire ps5 to the point where I have to unplug it and plug it back in. Replicated this several times, tried going back to an early save and beating the boss again, changed my outfit, same thing every time.

 

This is right when the climax is approaching and Im p bummed  

[SimpleG]

Not very far into this game about level 15 in the "real" open world and as much as I am loving it , it has some issues.

Hit box, hurt box and collision is fucking terrible sometimes. I have had enemy swing right through me and I have had projectiles ding me from 10 feet away. 

The mob levels seems dumb, ive had dinos 3x lower level take a 3rd of my life in a swing. I am fine with that but dont give them levels, levels usually indicate a threat level.

Climbing... Aloy is either the worlds best climber or she struggles with lacing her boots up. There is no skill in the traversal which is fine but she either spiderman grips the surface or she seems to slide right off it. There is a traverse over water section thats so damn obvious but I struggled with leaping between 2 poles because atleast a 3rd of the time she would just not grab the edge, and this wasnt a section where you had to leap at the last second to make the jump. It was dumbshit easy but she didnt wanna cooperate.

 

Other then those complaints i rather enjoy the game when it works as it should.

[stepee]

2 hours ago, stepee said:

Cross posting from resetera/twitter but this sucks.

 

Since the 1.06 patch I have been unable to proceed at the end of the Gemini chapter after you complete it. The first cutscene plays and then the second cutscene has Alloy waking up and she says “beta” but there is no sound and then it freezes, eventually shutting off the entire ps5 to the point where I have to unplug it and plug it back in. Replicated this several times, tried going back to an early save and beating the boss again, changed my outfit, same thing every time.

 

This is right when the climax is approaching and Im p bummed  

 

reinstall seems to have fix it phew

[EternallDarkness]

21 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

reinstall seems to have fix it phew

 

you shouldn't have to reinstall for the game to work 

[legend]

50 minutes ago, SimpleG said:

There is a traverse over water section thats so damn obvious but I struggled with leaping between 2 poles because atleast a 3rd of the time she would just not grab the edge, and this wasnt a section where you had to leap at the last second to make the jump. It was dumbshit easy but she didnt wanna cooperate.

 

 

I'm pretty sure I know exactly what sequence you're talking about  What I came to learn from that area is a subtle rule to make sure it works. Hold the analog stick toward the edge and *wait* for her to lean and reach her hand out. If you jump before that, she'll just ignore the edge and fall straight down. If you wait for her to reach, she'll grab it.

 

It shouldn't work that way, but at least it made it so I could reliably get it working.

[Keyser_Soze]

1 hour ago, EternallDarkness said:

you shouldn't have to reinstall for the game to work 

 

PS5 is still in beta so this is one of the features.

[Kal-El814]

There are a few bits in the game where Aloy effortlessly moves 1000 year old, rusted train cars by pushing them along tracks using her bare hands... as part of puzzles to get loot that is visible yet "inaccessible" because it's sitting behind rotting wood in a rickety ass structure.  Reminds me of 16 bit JRPGS where I have spells that are basically tactical nukes or when Edgar has an actual chainsaw... but they can't open locked doors without a key.

[best3444]

How many updates/patches has there been since release? I'll eventually get to this after Elden Ring.

[Brian]

12 hours ago, Keyser_Soze said:

 

PS5 is still in beta so this is one of the features.

It annoys me that the sleep/resume mode is broken for my PS5 still. Every time I try to use it, the PS5 crashes. I think it must be some issue with the PSU but I am not sure. 
 

I finally reached the open area after what I consider to be a slow beginning. The combat really shines when you use the arsenal you have which I am glad you get early. I still wish there was a quick swap option. Pulling up the radial each time to swap isn’t ideal. I look forward to seeing where the story goes. 

[Kal-El814]

6 minutes ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

It annoys me that the sleep/resume mode is broken for my PS5 still. Every time I try to use it, the PS5 crashes. I think it must be some issue with the PSU but I am not sure. 
 

I finally reached the open area after what I consider to be a slow beginning. The combat really shines when you use the arsenal you have which I am glad you get early. I still wish there was a quick swap option. Pulling up the radial each time to swap isn’t ideal. I look forward to seeing where the story goes. 

 

It could be your surge protector if you're using one. I had an older one I'd used for ages and sleep mode frequently didn't work on my Bone / Series X or PS5. Getting a newer one did the trick.

 

Only game it doesn't play nicely with is Elden Ring, but that's a network issue not a power one.

[Brian]

1 hour ago, Kal-El814 said:

 

It could be your surge protector if you're using one. I had an older one I'd used for ages and sleep mode frequently didn't work on my Bone / Series X or PS5. Getting a newer one did the trick.

 

Only game it doesn't play nicely with is Elden Ring, but that's a network issue not a power one.

I’ll look into it. I think it is on the same one as the XSX and that doesn’t have an issue but I could be wrong 

[Kal-El814]

9 minutes ago, ManUtdRedDevils said:

I’ll look into it. I think it is on the same one as the XSX and that doesn’t have an issue but I could be wrong 

 

It was always worse on the Sony consoles. It’s entirely possible that swapping out the surge protector was incidental, who knows. It’s not like I went HAM on a super expensive one, or anything, just one from the last couple years and not the last 10

[SaysWho?]

Just came back to the game, and DAMN, does it feel good to play. Even after playing Elden Ring, I got right back into it and everything felt smooth.

 

Dunno how we got this lucky to get Horizon->Elden Ring and for Biggie->GT3 week after week after week, but we did.

[Biggie]

46 minutes ago, SaysWho? said:

Just came back to the game, and DAMN, does it feel good to play. Even after playing Elden Ring, I got right back into it and everything felt smooth.

 

Dunno how we got this lucky to get Horizon->Elden Ring and for Biggie->GT3 week after week after week, but we did.

GT7!!!!!!!! Not 3. But ya, PlayStation is killing it. Ima download Horizon too but I have to much to play right now. 

[best3444]

Just now, Biggie said:

GT7!!!!!!!! Not 3. But ya, PlayStation is killing it. Ima download Horizon too but I have to much to play right now. 

 

You're going to give Horizon a shot? I really think you should and Alloy is not a bad character. 

[stepee]

Alloy is so much better here than what I played of the first one. She is actually a really likable character and a total badass. 

 

question for those of you who finished the game, don’t click unless you are at least on the last mission:

 

Did you chose to kill or spare Regalla? Normally I actually choose the “nice” option in games but I just could not spare her so bitch dead. She just caused so much death for such a selfish and immoral cause and honestly she wasn’t that great of a fighter imo.

 

Also I managed not to spoil the big question I had of if you

get to fly a mount and fuck yeahhhhhhh they did it. They seem proud of it in the moment they give it lol. I wish it wasn’t so late game though since it’s about to wrap up right when I get it. But i understand the reasons they may have. Though, I don’t see how you can have a third one that make you wait that long again.

Cemented further that this is the best looking game out right now though! Looking forward to seeing if GOW2 can quickly yank it away.

[stepee]

I’m not sure if this has been mentioned in the topic already but Zo is bae right?

[stepee]

oh man this climax is epicccc so far 

[stepee]

Yeah solid 9/10 for me here. Might be Sony’s third best game after TLOU2 and GOW.  Really slow start but as soon as it opened up after the first 4 or so hours the next 50 hours just flew by. HUGE game, I only did about 6 side quests and it’s still one of the longest games I’ve beaten. We will see how big of a jump Horizon 3 is built for ps5 only but they did a great job of coming out with the best looking game so far yet still having it somehow run on ps4. 

 

I really hope they improve traversal, it’s much better here but it’s actually not as improved as I hoped. I thought the hook shot for example was going to be you swinging around and stuff naturally but it’s only a few context sensitive spots you can use it. It’s very hit and miss with seemingly no real logic as to what you can and can’t hold.

 

In a lot of ways this game kinda reminded me of Mass Effect 2. Horizon 3 certainly seems like it’s going to be exciting after that ending. Maybe it’s like ME but in reverse where it just keeps getting better and the next one will be the GOAT that launches during its launch month. I mean [end of game spoiler],

we are going to space and visiting other planets in H3 right????

[best3444]

Glad it turned out awesome. I'll play this after I fully dissect Elden Ring which could be a very long time from now. 

 

 

[stepee]

2 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Glad it turned out awesome. I'll play this after I fully dissect Elden Ring which could be a very long time from now. 

 

 

 

hopefully you can find a ps5 by then lol, game is bonkers on it. They really did improve the image quality just enough the last two patches that the game in 60fps mode just looked great without it feeling like it was too compromised. 

[Brian]

I’m only 20% complete but I have been surprised by how much stuff I encounter that I need to come back to. I don’t remember if the first game was like this. 

[best3444]

12 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

hopefully you can find a ps5 by then lol, game is bonkers on it. They really did improve the image quality just enough the last two patches that the game in 60fps mode just looked great without it feeling like it was too compromised. 

 

I highly doubt I'll have a ps5 this year. 

[BloodyHell]

On 3/3/2022 at 11:20 AM, ManUtdRedDevils said:

It annoys me that the sleep/resume mode is broken for my PS5 still. Every time I try to use it, the PS5 crashes. I think it must be some issue with the PSU but I am not sure. 
 

I finally reached the open area after what I consider to be a slow beginning. The combat really shines when you use the arsenal you have which I am glad you get early. I still wish there was a quick swap option. Pulling up the radial each time to swap isn’t ideal. I look forward to seeing where the story goes. 

I find this so weird. I exclusively use sleep mode, and have never had a problem with it. 

Your machine is fully updated?

If so, I'd have sent it to Sony, because that's some bs.