Horizon: Zero Dawn - The Bear and Badger

b0r1s

As they like to say on Digital Foundry this patch is transformative. It really does make the game much better. Think I’m pretty near the end now. There is so much left on the map with side quests and various things to clear but it’s so much uninspired “stuff” that I really can’t be bothered to do it. The main quest is good enough that they really didn’t need all this task busyness.

Gamermike

I'm really enjoying this. I'm around 10 hours in, just cleared my first bandit camp and spent a bit of time opening up the East side of the map, theres plenty to do and lots to come back to.

I mostly avoid conflicts with the mechanical beasts (which is probably the wrong thing to do), I usually opt for stealth or picking off things from afar, but i've just encountered a few new enemy types that look a bit intimidating/bigger than i've seen so far.

I love the general world building/lore in this mind, not many games do that for me; think maybe Skyrim was the last time I was really invested in its world like this.

New patch has made a significant difference in overall polish, it already looked lovely of course, but in 60fps it's just flawless in motion.

b0r1s

The world gets better as you uncover more. One of the best post apocalyptic type games I’ve played for story. Even if the delivery can be a bit wonky at times.

cosmicjellybean

I have it another shot after the new patch and I don’t think the game is for me. Not sure why but after 4-5 hours I just can’t click with it. I started forcing myself to play it and that’s never a good sign… so have deleted it for now and will finally try and finish dark souls 3 me thinks.

mrsmr2

I started to find it a bit dull as I stayed with the spear and basic arrows for a lot of the early game. It's only when I finally invested in the different bows and arrows and experimented that I found new interest, partly due to quicker kill times.

b0r1s

Definitely need to use the more interesting arrows. I’m a fan of tear arrows to knock out a machines various attacks before following up with elemental and fire arrows. The spear with the critical hit skill can then be used to finish em off.

DF boys have checked out the update. Basically a flawless (bar one hit in an early cut scene) 60 fps.

acemuzzy

Transformational

Dark Soldier

It's actually not very good.

mrsmr2

He's back being wrong again.

It's not super mega awesome or anything, but it is decent, and looks fantastic.

Dark Soldier

Yes it is very pretty, the rest is ass.

digi

mrsmr2 wrote:

He's back being wrong again.

afgavinstan

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2021-09-02-horizon-forbidden-west-standard-and-special-editions-do-not-include-dual-entitlement-for-ps4-and-ps5-versions

Fucking yikes. What a mess.

EvilRedEye

Sony are being greedy fuckers trying to have their cake and eat it - they want that sweet, sweet PS4 revenue from the massive install base but also want to charge the full next-gen £70 asking fee for the PS5 version despite it not being designed around the new hardware. Makes them look really bad compared to the competition. Really isn't like the additional revenue from pulling this stunt is gonna make or break the franchise.

acemuzzy

Agreed, doesn't seem good

b0r1s

Yeah it makes no sense in this context. If they put a load of stuff in that the PS5 gets on top then a tenner makes sense or if it’s going back and adding loads to an old game like the Death Stranding update then I’m happy to pay a bit for it but a game that has been designed to work with both systems should just have the one price. Then you can throw all your other crap extras on top for the deluxe editions.

Seems like Sony hubris in full force from the start of the PS3 days.

digi

Huh, isn't it £10 to upgrade?
And the game were free on ps+.

b0r1s

Talking about the new Horizon gouging.

EvilRedEye

Also, the expensive collector's editions don't come with discs???!?!???

yourfavouriteuncle

Give them 24 months and then they’ll have to go all good cop again but at the moment they’re making some weird fucking choices. The bee in their bonnets is clearly about trying to maintain their assertion of high expense, high quality games that they will not undersell or devalue. It’s a clear corporate message that they have to maintain seeing as they’re not giving everything away for nowt like their main competitor.

b0r1s

They’re probably also looking at Nintendo thinking how do we get some of those cray cray fans who’ll pay anything for a game+tat. Maybe they’re gonna try and pull an Audi who just seemed to price their way into the BMW/Merc market.

Gamermike

Yeh this is some shitty money grabbing bollocks tbh.

I’ll just wait a few weeks and it will come down in price fairly quickly. See returnal and ratchet & clank, the latter dropped by a tenner a week after release.

TheBoyRoberts

For me, it's not necessarily the price of the game; rather the fact that Sony are choosing to go down this route.

I really do have to wonder how much extra they will make in the long run from having the 2 different versions of the game and then also the upgrade charge? It can't be worth all of the bad press the are getting at the moment?

Anyhow, I missed Horizon back in the PS4 days and although I started to play it when the PS5 launched, I stopped when I realised games were getting the PS5 patch in the hope that one would eventually drop. So, quite pleased I waited. Looking forward to getting stuck in.

afgavinstan

https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/04/sony-will-offer-free-ps5-upgrades-for-all-horizon-forbidden-west-owners-after-all/amp/?__twitter_impression=true

Jim Ryan walks it back. Horizon upgrade will be free for all PS4 version owners. God Of War, Gran Turismo, and future first party titles will be $10 to upgrade.

EvilRedEye

Thursday was to be a celebration of Horizon Forbidden West and the amazing team at Guerrilla working to deliver it on February 18, 2022. However, it’s abundantly clear that the offerings we confirmed in our pre-order kickoff missed the mark.

Last year we made a commitment to deliver free upgrades for our cross-gen launch titles, which included Horizon Forbidden West. While the pandemic’s profound impact pushed Forbidden West out of the launch window we initially envisioned, we will stand by our offer: Players who purchase Horizon Forbidden West on PlayStation 4 will be able to upgrade to the PlayStation 5 version for free.

I also want to confirm today that moving forward, PlayStation first-party exclusive cross-gen titles (newly releasing on PS4 & PS5)–both digital and physical*–will offer a $10 USD digital upgrade option from PS4 to PS5. This will apply to the next God of War and Gran Turismo 7, and any other exclusive cross-gen PS4 & PS5 title published by Sony Interactive Entertainment.

— Jim Ryan, President & CEO, Sony Interactive Entertainment

*To upgrade an eligible PS4 game on disc to the digital PS5 version, you will need a PS5 console with a disc drive. PS4 game discs can’t be used with the PlayStation®5 Digital Edition.

I think it's hilarious they backtracked on Horizon but are determined to fuck everyone on future games.

yourfavouriteuncle

I’m not apologising for them here but that £10 upgrade is better than anything we’ve had from the previous gens where we’ve been grateful for a ‘remastered’ version of something from the previous gen and paid full whack for them. This just looks worse because they’d tried to bury the bad news behind layers of super collectors edition obfuscation and that MS are currently on a buying hearts and minds spree that Sony don’t really need to do but are sort of being forced to compete with.

b0r1s

It’s a bit shit but obviously once the gen transitions this will be non-news and we know how quickly the interwebs move on.

And I think we’ll see some big announcements next Thursday that will bury this even quicker.

yourfavouriteuncle

My worry is that they have people in charge who initially thought that this would be a fine way to head. I get that they’re probably frustrated that MS are aiming to take market share simply by brute forcing their way in but they do have to somehow confront this approach and with a more consumer friendly attitude than “lol, fuck you, we make good games”.

Yossarian

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

I’m not apologising for them here but that £10 upgrade is better than anything we’ve had from the previous gens

It’s not even as good as what Sony have offered in previous gens.

https://www.destructoid.com/opinion-sonys-cross-buy-should-be-the-norm/

DrewMerson

Yossarian

It’s a contemporaneous article, I’d have thought that the list wasn’t exhaustive, but I wasn’t paying much attention to it myself.

Also, I do have to come back to this a second:

yourfavouriteuncle wrote:

I get that they’re probably frustrated that MS are aiming to take market share simply by brute forcing their way in

I’m amused by the implication here that Sony somehow wasn’t a billion-dollar corporation which decided to expand into a new market which had been created by others by buying out companies and signing huge cheques for exclusivity deals. Microsoft aren’t brute-forcing their way into market share any more than Sony did with the original PlayStation.

Howdy, Stranger!

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