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

[best3444]

Pretty impressive they made such a big improvement since launch. This is the game I play after Cyberpunk. 

[stepee]

20 minutes ago, best3444 said:

Pretty impressive they made such a big improvement since launch. This is the game I play after Cyberpunk. 

 

They didn’t mention it but since it’s using checkerboard on pro I would assume this change would help clean up the image since you last played it there as well.

[best3444]

3 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

They didn’t mention it but since it’s using checkerboard on pro I would assume this change would help clean up the image since you last played it there as well.

 

Very nice. Thanks 

[Dre801]

40Hz mode coming, eh?

[best3444]

On 6/13/2022 at 12:27 PM, stepee said:

 

They didn’t mention it but since it’s using checkerboard on pro I would assume this change would help clean up the image since you last played it there as well.

 

I've been looking for information on this. Do you have a link that states what you said?

[stepee]

1 minute ago, best3444 said:

 

I've been looking for information on this. Do you have a link that states what you said?

 

I was just making an assumption that they would carry over the same changes to the ps4 version since theoretically there shouldn’t be a problem with doing so and it would carry over similar improvements.

 

Youd have to check yourself I think, the ps4 patch notes are blended in with the ps5 ones and nobody is going to do an updated test on ps4 most likely.

[best3444]

I start this tomorrow! 

[best3444]

On 6/13/2022 at 10:27 AM, crispy4000 said:

 

 

Holy shit. I finally watched that entire video. They made pretty significant changes all for the better. Perfect timing for me to have started this game after this new patch. 

[Biggie]

2 hours ago, best3444 said:

 

Holy shit. I finally watched that entire video. They made pretty significant changes all for the better. Perfect timing for me to have started this game after this new patch. 

Can you dunk and shoot three’s in the game?

[best3444]

31 minutes ago, Biggie said:

Can you dunk and shoot three’s in the game?

 

You're missing out on a phenomenal game just because you think Aloy looks like Blake Griffin. She looks perfectly fine and isn't an ugly character by any means.

[Biggie]

36 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

You're missing out on a phenomenal game just because you think Aloy looks like Blake Griffin. She looks perfectly fine and isn't an ugly character by any means.

It’s not just that. The whole premise of the story doesn’t interest me at all. 

[best3444]

1 hour ago, Biggie said:

It’s not just that. The whole premise of the story doesn’t interest me at all. 

 

Fair enough. I'm getting up early again tomorrow morning to play. I played about 7 hours today. I had to force myself to stop. 

 

It's understandable that not all AAA appeal to everyone. 

[stepee]

35 minutes ago, best3444 said:

 

Fair enough. I'm getting up early again tomorrow morning to play. I played about 7 hours today. I had to force myself to stop. 

 

It's understandable that not all AAA appeal to everyone. 

 

ya it’s just that this has dino’s so he’s cray

[best3444]

I watched the digital foundry comparing side by side the PS5 and PS4 Pro versions.

 

While not a truly gigantic step up in visuals for PS5 but it definitely is more detailed AND runs at 60fps. There was a lot of stuff improved on the ps5 version so that's cool for those that played that version. I'm extremely pleased with the visuals on the pro. 

 

I can't stop thinking about this game and I'm waking up bright and early tomorrow morning to binge for 4-5 hours.  😆 

[Biggie]

On 7/1/2022 at 7:17 PM, stepee said:

 

ya it’s just that this has dino’s so he’s cray

Dinos and a really good Power Forward!

[Commissar SFLUFAN]

Patch 1.17 released.

 

New Horizon Forbidden West 1.17 Update Adds VRR, HFR, and 40 Hz Graphics Mode - PlayStation LifeStyle

WWW.PLAYSTATIONLIFESTYLE.NET

---

Here are the new Horizon Forbidden West 1.17 update patch notes for PS5. The new Horizon patch for today, July 6, adds VRR and more.

 

NEW FEATURES (PLAYSTATION 5)

• Variable Refresh Rate (VRR) and High Refresh Rate (HFR) support
• VRR improves dynamic resolution scaling on 60Hz
• VRR & HFR targets a refresh rate between 60Hz and 120Hz
• New “Balanced” Graphics Mode introducing 40Hz for supported displays

[best3444]

Gunna continue this Saturday. I'm about 28 hours in.

 

Edit: I thought I had an appointment tomorrow evening but I don't. So I'll be diving back in tomorrow!

[Spork3245]

 

[Dre801]

Finally was able to secure a PS5 order directly from Sony today.  Had to get the Forbidden West bundle(they didn't just have the system for sale); that's fine because I've been wanting to play this anyway.

 

Now I can retire my base PS4 like I did my XB1 after getting the Series X.

[best3444]

Ok @stepee I restarted this morning on PS5 and I will absolutely beat it this time. I went back and forth with so many games around it's initial release that I always got distracted away from this.

 

I played 4 hours this morning and just breezed through the opening to get the game moving. After playing some other games lately, coming back to this really showed me how terrific the visuals are. I'm playing in the new balanced performance mode which is phenomenal looking with 40fps. Just like Spiderman and Ratchet Rift Apart. It's nice my TV supports this. Balanced mode is the best option for me.

 

I love the characters and Aloy and the gameplay is fun which is important. Combat really doesn't get old. 

 

I just wanted to let you know this so that you can sleep well tonight knowing I'm going to beat this. 

[stepee]

noooo just continue where u left off

[best3444]

34 minutes ago, stepee said:

noooo just continue where u left off

 

I like to remember what happens and how the story builds. I'll be fine. I just played an hour now and enjoyed it. Character models and voice acting are top notch. 

[best3444]

Played 3 more hours tonight. I'm making solid progress and might be getting close to where I left of on the PS4.

 

The melee combat needs an overhaul but the bow is fuckin so accurate and fun to use. Which obviously they had to nail down as it's the primary weapon used 95% of the time in combat.

 

Aloy has grown on me so that helps me enjoy the story more. I'm actually playing this at a great time with all the patches and visual upgrades. 

[BloodyHell]

14 hours ago, best3444 said:

Ok @stepee I restarted this morning on PS5 and I will absolutely beat it this time. I went back and forth with so many games around it's initial release that I always got distracted away from this.

 

I played 4 hours this morning and just breezed through the opening to get the game moving. After playing some other games lately, coming back to this really showed me how terrific the visuals are. I'm playing in the new balanced performance mode which is phenomenal looking with 40fps. Just like Spiderman and Ratchet Rift Apart. It's nice my TV supports this. Balanced mode is the best option for me.

 

I love the characters and Aloy and the gameplay is fun which is important. Combat really doesn't get old. 

 

I just wanted to let you know this so that you can sleep well tonight knowing I'm going to beat this. 

Why do you keep restarting games? Just pick up where you left off. It's understandable when it's been years, but not when its a few months. Just pick up where you left off, and you probably won't keep falling off it. 

 

Either way, enjoy, it's a good game. 

[best3444]

2 hours ago, BloodyHell said:

Why do you keep restarting games? Just pick up where you left off. It's understandable when it's been years, but not when its a few months. Just pick up where you left off, and you probably won't keep falling off it. 

 

Either way, enjoy, it's a good game. 

 

Starting over gives me a tutorial again in how to play the game. I forget the setups in story and want everything smooth as I play through it.

 

Plus I'm a fucking weirdo. That mainly explains it. 

[best3444]

@stepee I finally reached where I left off a few months ago. I'm having a blast and things are starting to pick up. If it can keep this pace up it will be a 9/10 type game for me.

[BloodyHell]

On 9/18/2022 at 11:48 AM, best3444 said:

 

Starting over gives me a tutorial again in how to play the game. I forget the setups in story and want everything smooth as I play through it.

 

Plus I'm a fucking weirdo. That mainly explains it. 

A tutorial on how to play a 3rd person action rpg? 😜 

[best3444]

1 hour ago, BloodyHell said:

A tutorial on how to play a 3rd person action rpg? 😜 

 

Yup. I'm weird.

[best3444]

I can't really put my finger on this game. For some reason I just cannot get into Aloy's character and story. It's a beautiful game and seems well done but I find myself very bored playing it after 20 minutes. It has a great impression on me from the beginning but as the story moves along I just don't care enough to want to see more.

 

I'm not a fan of the environment it takes place in, either. I see a great game here on paper but I play this for a few hours and want to move on to something more interesting. It sucks because I know it's a quality game but it feels like a chore to play it now. I know my opinions are completely different on a daily basis and I realize I come off mentally insane on these boards, but I just don't want to play this game anymore.

 

That's why I was hoping Deathloop was released on time today so I had something to play. 

 

I woke up and played NBA 2K23 and then I was like...should I play Forbidden West or not? I said nope and turned my entertainment center off. 

 

I know I'm fucking crazy but I just wanted to get this off my chest lol. 

 

 

[SaysWho?]

On 9/20/2022 at 10:56 AM, best3444 said:

I can't really put my finger on this game. For some reason I just cannot get into Aloy's character and story. It's a beautiful game and seems well done but I find myself very bored playing it after 20 minutes. It has a great impression on me from the beginning but as the story moves along I just don't care enough to want to see more.

 

I'm not a fan of the environment it takes place in, either. I see a great game here on paper but I play this for a few hours and want to move on to something more interesting. It sucks because I know it's a quality game but it feels like a chore to play it now. I know my opinions are completely different on a daily basis and I realize I come off mentally insane on these boards, but I just don't want to play this game anymore.

 

That's why I was hoping Deathloop was released on time today so I had something to play. 

 

I woke up and played NBA 2K23 and then I was like...should I play Forbidden West or not? I said nope and turned my entertainment center off. 

 

I know I'm fucking crazy but I just wanted to get this off my chest lol. 

 

 

 

You're not crazy. I know some REALLY loved Forbidden West, and good for them, and I can tell the devs tried to rectify issues with the first game. I can also see a sequel being amazing. But some of the fixes ended up not fixing issues and sometimes made it worse. A few examples are:

 

• Traversal in the first game was limited, so they added a grapple, they added a glider, and I hadn't gotten to it, but they added mounting a flying robot. The thing is, the grapple isn't like Returnal where your momentum carries you far; it actually hurts your momentum many times. The glider is cool, and it worked in Zelda, so that's a fine addition. They also added multiple points to climb mountains, but they don't really make sense and aren't clearly distinguished between areas you can't grab onto, so you end up having to use your focus a lot while climbing so you don't end up in a place where you have no additional ledges to use. Dunno how going onto a flying mount is; it may be awesome, but I never got to it.
• In the first game, you could get the best gear pretty early, so the upgrade and gear progression could be wonky. So they made the upgrading more gradual, they required more items to upgrade gear, and they made coils more specific. But that ended up hurting the upgrade system because by the time I could upgrade something, new gear was available to be purchased. And the coils were so specific they were useless; +9% attack while facing a mount while jumping or whatever the criteria are just made it so there weren't many good coils to use. I made up that last upgrade, but even looking at a list from IGN, there's stuff like, "Increases damage dealt while falling or sliding," and, "Enemies have a chance to instantly enter the burning state when hit with impact, explosive or fire damage," and the percentage increases weren't high, so I never felt like I was getting a good buff.
• Arena is something I always thought was a great idea. But holy shit, did I find it hard. Maybe I just suck, but some people said they lowered the difficulty because they were just getting tossed around, and the animations for getting tossed are good and not that annoying in a normal fight, but quite annoying in a timed fight. I spent a ton of time doing something of them so I could get better equipment, but eventually I just said no.

 

They improved cauldrons. They gave us more mounts and more robots to figure out. They did improve melee against humans, which was lackluster in the first game but still not something I think is great in the second. I have a hard time hating on the game because it's clear they were cognizant of issues with the first -- both from what they tried to do in the second game and from presentations they gave diagnosing what they liked and didn't like about their first effort -- but the solutions ended up making it feel bogged down under its own weight.

 

I can't say I'm disappointed because Horizon was actually not in my top games in the initial games reveal. Returnal? That was my number one. Ratchet I couldn't wait for and I loved it. Sackboy looked great and it was. Astro got a sequel and it was lovely. Demon's Souls Remake was announced, in my top 2 anticipated, and was fantastic. God of War was teased and that's looking great. Horizon 2 I was looking forward to but not on the same level; I just wanted an improved Horizon 1. It was a mixed bag in the end for me, and I envy the people who adored it.

[stepee]

5 hours ago, SaysWho? said:

 

You're not crazy. I know some REALLY loved Forbidden West, and good for them, and I can tell the devs tried to rectify issues with the first game. I can also see a sequel being amazing. But some of the fixes ended up not fixing issues and sometimes made it worse. A few examples are:

 

• Traversal in the first game was limited, so they added a grapple, they added a glider, and I hadn't gotten to it, but they added mounting a flying robot. The thing is, the grapple isn't like Returnal where your momentum carries you far; it actually hurts your momentum many times. The glider is cool, and it worked in Zelda, so that's a fine addition. They also added multiple points to climb mountains, but they don't really make sense and aren't clearly distinguished between areas you can't grab onto, so you end up having to use your focus a lot while climbing so you don't end up in a place where you have no additional ledges to use. Dunno how going onto a flying mount is; it may be awesome, but I never got to it.
• In the first game, you could get the best gear pretty early, so the upgrade and gear progression could be wonky. So they made the upgrading more gradual, they required more items to upgrade gear, and they made coils more specific. But that ended up hurting the upgrade system because by the time I could upgrade something, new gear was available to be purchased. And the coils were so specific they were useless; +9% attack while facing a mount while jumping or whatever the criteria are just made it so there weren't many good coils to use. I made up that last upgrade, but even looking at a list from IGN, there's stuff like, "Increases damage dealt while falling or sliding," and, "Enemies have a chance to instantly enter the burning state when hit with impact, explosive or fire damage," and the percentage increases weren't high, so I never felt like I was getting a good buff.
• Arena is something I always thought was a great idea. But holy shit, did I find it hard. Maybe I just suck, but some people said they lowered the difficulty because they were just getting tossed around, and the animations for getting tossed are good and not that annoying in a normal fight, but quite annoying in a timed fight. I spent a ton of time doing something of them so I could get better equipment, but eventually I just said no.

 

They improved cauldrons. They gave us more mounts and more robots to figure out. They did improve melee against humans, which was lackluster in the first game but still not something I think is great in the second. I have a hard time hating on the game because it's clear they were cognizant of issues with the first -- both from what they tried to do in the second game and from presentations they gave diagnosing what they liked and didn't like about their first effort -- but the solutions ended up making it feel bogged down under its own weight.

 

I can't say I'm disappointed because Horizon was actually not in my top games in the initial games reveal. Returnal? That was my number one. Ratchet I couldn't wait for and I loved it. Sackboy looked great and it was. Astro got a sequel and it was lovely. Demon's Souls Remake was announced, in my top 2 anticipated, and was fantastic. God of War was teased and that's looking great. Horizon 2 I was looking forward to but not on the same level; I just wanted an improved Horizon 1. It was a mixed bag in the end for me, and I envy the people who adored it.

 

This is still probably my third favorite game of the year so far behind Kirby and Elden, and I think it’s quite good but those first two complaints I agree with, and I just didn’t play the arena so don’t have comment on that one.

 

The hook shot and traversal improvements were not quite what I had pictured going in. The hook shot basically amounts to a menu option and doesn’t add anything to the actual feel of the gameplay. And you can climb a lot but the way the game decides what you can and cannot climb seems completely arbitrary. I had to put the climb hold markers on at all times because it made no sense otherwise. Definitely my biggest issue with the game and what I hope they improve most next game.

 

Yes you get an air glider dino and it actually works really well, looks cool as shit, and has a cool mechanic for how you jump on it and you can pretty much call it at any time. However, you get it like a couple hours before it’s point of non return time so you don’t get to use it much unless you are planning to grind through side missions/max out your character.

 

But then that goes into your second point, where I didn’t bother maximizing anything because the final step for crafting everything always had ridiculous requirements. I just decided not to bother and stuck with the level before max.

 

I get why they push flying out to the end, the game world and sense of discovery shrinks once you get on it. But maybe that is a good thing? I hope it’s something you start out with in the next one, but the next one also I kind of expect to go

into a completely sci fi space game, at least partially

. 

 

I really enjoyed it though, it’s the best looking game on consoles at the very least, the story got more and more interesting all the way through the end; and there were some great and memorable locations. And fighting the dino’s just looks incredible and is an absolute blast.

 

I didn’t get into the fighting the little bit I played of the first one, so I was hoping that it was about as good as this one is, and that I might go back and play that at some point. Now I’ll see what this remaster thing is about first, hopefully that’s just a patch for pc.

[best3444]

As much as my opinion changed on this game I'm probably going to finish it because I'm pretty far in. I'll have to deal with Aloy and just see how it ends. I don't want to just YouTube it either. 

[best3444]

I was on the cost/beach and took down the Thunderjaw which took everything I had to beat it. I died 4 times before beating him. 

 

@stepee

 

Spoiler

Remember the mission where the "ruler" made you change clothes in the underground section? How in the hell do you get your outfit back?

 

After just doing a quick search it looks as though my fully upgraded outfit is gone. It happened to a lot of people online, too. Fuckin sucks. 

[stepee]

11 minutes ago, best3444 said:

I was on the cost/beach and took down a mammoth which took everything I had to beat it. I died 4 times before beating him. 

 

@stepee

 

  Hide contents

Remember the mission where the "ruler" made you change clothes in the underground section? How in the hell do you get your outfit back?

 

 

i know what you are talking about but no idea! unless it just changed back after some time

[best3444]

21 minutes ago, stepee said:

 

i know what you are talking about but no idea! unless it just changed back after some time

 

I just edited my post. Take a look.

 

Also, it seems I'm close to beating this?

 

Edit: 

 

Spoiler

Gaia just told me to gather the team for basically the last mission. Wtf...I'm only 16 hours into the game. Granted, I didn't do one side quest but still I'm a bit disappointed. Maybe I'll do some side quests to get better gear and level up more. Because the next mission reads lvl 30 and I'm lvl 21.