Horizon Forbidden West

The black squares, several times the screen went all black for a second or two like it was loading, started happening a lot. I closed the game and restarted the PS5 and it seemed to have help remove it. I have a feeling there might be a memory leak somewhere and it might be exacerbated by putting the console into sleep/rest mode while the game is running.
I get the all black for a second during the loading into a scene or just after the fast travel loading popup. It has not affected anything, every than a wtf moment. I may reboot the PS5 and see if that fixes it. The PS5 has done some weird stuff when it comes out of sleep mode from a long delay in using it. I sometimes go through boot-up for it to shutoff completely, like it died, and I have to go physically unplug the power plug and hit the power button on the console itself. It has only done that 2 or 3 times since I have owned it for almost a year.
 
I've been playing in resolution mode with default settings (motion blur still enabled, etc.). I tweaked the brightness a bit, but I have difficulty seeing things in the environment, like everything is too bright. I can tolerate the 30FPS, it appears to be consistent, but I might try the performance mode.

The only significant visual improvement that has struck me are the character's facial details.
If you’re playing in HDR, keep messing with the in-game HDR calibration settings until it looks right to your eyes. I took a page out of T4rd’s book and lowered brightness and it makes the game look better.
 
  • Like
Reactions: djoye
like this
I almost forgot how distracting all of the particles in the air are for this series. It took me a little while get get used to it in the original, and it's back in full force. I appreciate the aesthetic, but takes my eyes a while to adjust.
 
So I'm 26 hours in according to my play time on my PSN profile (I'm sure a couple hours of that is at least paused during breaks) and at level 20 now and the story is really ramping up and going in a direction I really like.

Just restored GIAS' backup and spoke to her about getting the 3 other subroutines.

The Far Zenith people are very interesting and I'm guessing the other Liz Sobeck clone is essentially a prisoner to them to only function as a genetic key to access all the facilities.

I'm really excited to see where the story goes from here; could you imagine if Aloy and others travel to their planet from here? Doubtful, but I'm a sucker for sci-fi stuff and so these visitors from the planet (Sirrius was it?) alone are a nice addition to the story and very intriguing for me.
 
Just got to my base of operations it seems. Man this is a game that keeps on giving. Just can't walk 200 footsteps before I get distracted. So much to do. So many quests. And little to no repeats (unless you count contracts repeats). Really a fun time all around. Hit level 17. Need to keep on pushing. Btw this time side questing doesn't seem to be optional if you really want to make use of all them skills.
 
Played the first hour or so last night. It's great so far but man, oh man, do I wish a PC version of this existed. It's so pretty, but it runs like crap* on my PS4 Pro, and there doesn't seem to be any way to exchange graphical detail for more frames. I guess it's better on the PS5?

Also, something seems wack about the aiming. Trying to hit the ferret robot things feels like trying to use a log in lieu of a tennis racket, and that was definitely not the case in the first game.

*By Glorious PC Gamer Master Race standards, where 60 FPS is considered an absolute minimum acceptable framerate. This looks like maybe 30?
 
The PS5 version looks similar to my memory of the PC port of Zero Dawn. I'm sure someone can tear that apart in a 3-hour rant video, but I don't think most PC gamers will feel let down. The main differences I notice are related to the controller. The speaker fires a lot, it rumbles a lot, the triggers have variable sensitivity, etc.
 
Oh god, i'm in the water. Who was sitting around on the design team and thought, "hey, lets do a water level. Nothing sounds like better than having no agility, no speed, poor movement, 3 dimensional movement that doesn't translate to a controller worth a shit, lookover camera angle that keeps you from swimming in a straight line, no offensive capability, no defensive capability, currents that push you around the map, and oh yea, lets make it dark as hell. Sounds like fun right?"
 
Oh god, i'm in the water. Who was sitting around on the design team and thought, "hey, lets do a water level. Nothing sounds like better than having no agility, no speed, poor movement, 3 dimensional movement that doesn't translate to a controller worth a shit, lookover camera angle that keeps you from swimming in a straight line, no offensive capability, no defensive capability, currents that push you around the map, and oh yea, lets make it dark as hell. Sounds like fun right?"
Sounds like my kind of game.
 
Oh god, i'm in the water. Who was sitting around on the design team and thought, "hey, lets do a water level. Nothing sounds like better than having no agility, no speed, poor movement, 3 dimensional movement that doesn't translate to a controller worth a shit, lookover camera angle that keeps you from swimming in a straight line, no offensive capability, no defensive capability, currents that push you around the map, and oh yea, lets make it dark as hell. Sounds like fun right?"
I hate water levels in every game. Never have I though this was cool.
 
Water levels have annoyed me going all the way back to World 2-2 in Super Mario Bros. I'm fine with boats, subs, etc. but I don't need swimming levels in anything.
 
Oh god, i'm in the water. Who was sitting around on the design team and thought, "hey, lets do a water level. Nothing sounds like better than having no agility, no speed, poor movement, 3 dimensional movement that doesn't translate to a controller worth a shit, lookover camera angle that keeps you from swimming in a straight line, no offensive capability, no defensive capability, currents that push you around the map, and oh yea, lets make it dark as hell. Sounds like fun right?"

The swimming in the game works fine. I’ve never felt that the controllers were bad nor have I had trouble swimming in a straight line. Maybe I’m just more used to games doing this stuff. I’d rather they include water stuff over trying to find excuses not to have water or making water kill you or reset you to land.
 
I'm sure they'll be an unlock/upgrade/crafted underwater weapon at some point. I like swimming and being underwater it reminds me of those old games with the underwater levels we say we hate but never forget them !
 
Oh god, i'm in the water. Who was sitting around on the design team and thought, "hey, lets do a water level. Nothing sounds like better than having no agility, no speed, poor movement, 3 dimensional movement that doesn't translate to a controller worth a shit, lookover camera angle that keeps you from swimming in a straight line, no offensive capability, no defensive capability, currents that push you around the map, and oh yea, lets make it dark as hell. Sounds like fun right?"
You should play hydrophobia. Seems like your kinda game.
 
Horizon Forbidden West- Meet the Composers Part 1 | PS5, PS4


Meet the Composers Part 2 | PS5, PS4
 
I updated the game and immediately had a bug where I couldn't aim after climbing or swimming until I swapped weapons/ammo type and I also couldn't use melee attacks at all regardless. Restarting the game (closing and opening again) fixed it though, and hopefully won't see it again.
 
I updated the game and immediately had a bug where I couldn't aim after climbing or swimming until I swapped weapons/ammo type and I also couldn't use melee attacks at all regardless. Restarting the game (closing and opening again) fixed it though, and hopefully won't see it again.

I’ve run into a few random bugs like that pre-patch. I’ve had points where I couldn’t move a crate or open a door. Thankfully I haven’t run into any major bugs, the biggest one I’ve run across is a crate with no collision in the middle of it during one of the story quests. I was still able to get up to the ledge though by jumping off the very edge of the crate at just the right angle.
 
My only bug I get is the holding down R3 and not highlighting the tear items. I just restart the console and its back for a while. I dont think the game likes to come out of sleep.
 
Looks like Horizon is going to get GoTY stolen from it again. At least Elden Ring is worthy of the title.
 
I never knew PS5 (and perhaps PS4 as well) had such amazing motion controls. I was having such a hard time aiming at enemy weak points with the thumb stick. Then I turned on motion controls and now I can pinpoint individual pixels on the screen. Must-enable feature IMO.
Gyro aiming is unfortunately underutilized. Not many games have it. There are some games on Nintendo Switch which do it, as well. Breath of The Wild popularized the feature with players. But not enough devs are taking notes.
 
While still really good, I don't think I'd put either Horizon game on my GOTY list. At least assuming this year isn't a disastrous year for gaming like 2021.
The dialogue is cornier than an Ubisoft game and both titles are pretty repetitious. I get it if you like the gameplay (I do), but the story and acting are Saturday morning cartoon level. My mind wanders during most dialogue sections.
 
While still really good, I don't think I'd put either Horizon game on my GOTY list. At least assuming this year isn't a disastrous year for gaming like 2021.
The dialogue is cornier than an Ubisoft game and both titles are pretty repetitious. I get it if you like the gameplay (I do), but the story and acting are Saturday morning cartoon level. My mind wanders during most dialogue sections.
I agree on the dialogue. It’s pretty corny, predictable, and bland. The premise of the story is great, it’s just Aloy’s dialog interactions are mostly boring fluff. At least that’s my take so far.
 
Finally, after almost 2 years... Landed a successful PS5 order at msrp. I've been slumming it on a PS4 (not really, runs great) so far. I almost broke down and paid scalper prices for this and Elden Ring. Glad I held on for a few days and kept on keeping on lol.

Anyways, looking forward to enjoying this on new hardware soon. Very excite.

Enjoying it so far, despite some goofiness.
 
I agree on the dialogue. It’s pretty corny, predictable, and bland. The premise of the story is great, it’s just Aloy’s dialog interactions are mostly boring fluff. At least that’s my take so far.
Personally love the story also, as far as dialog goes, I keep my expectations of video game dialog real real low so I find the dialog in HZD and HFW to be good. Though I'd like them to at least reduce the amount of times she says "oh my pack is full, I can just send it to my stash get it later." I get it already, I'm a horder, your words are really getting old now.

One feature I'd like them to add to this game is a visual quality dynamic mode, where when it's a long cut scene / dialog section, switch the quality to resolution mode. I only need performance mode during the game play. I really love the resolution mode but 30fps is not good enough to play but more than plenty enough for the dialog interactions and cut scenes. I paused the game and switched to resolution mode for a long cut scene and it was nicer to watch.
 
Personally love the story also, as far as dialog goes, I keep my expectations of video game dialog real real low so I find the dialog in HZD and HFW to be good. Though I'd like them to at least reduce the amount of times she says "oh my pack is full, I can just send it to my stash get it later." I get it already, I'm a horder, your words are really getting old now.

One feature I'd like them to add to this game is a visual quality dynamic mode, where when it's a long cut scene / dialog section, switch the quality to resolution mode. I only need performance mode during the game play. I really love the resolution mode but 30fps is not good enough to play but more than plenty enough for the dialog interactions and cut scenes. I paused the game and switched to resolution mode for a long cut scene and it was nicer to watch.
Yeah that would be a nice option.
 
Soldier tags? What do i get for these. I hand them to the lady, she says "here's your reward" and nothing happens. Nothing on screen, what am i supposed to be receiving for these things?

Found this:
Soldier Tags can be turned in to Dukkah at The Arena in return for valuable resources and loot.
That's not very descriptive.
 


Vincent Teoh of HDTVTest recommends the following HDR settings for LG OLEDs:
HGiG: On
Brightness: -2
Shadows: 0 (he doesn’t explicitly state this, I’m just inferring)
Highlights: -8
 
Wow, this game is absolutely phenomenal. Just like the first one I can’t stop playing. Level 27 now and doing some sandy sea quest. But I can’t help myself taking a detour and going around doing other side activities. Boss fights are absolutely dope. I killed an elephant at level 20 (elephant was 35) and also took out a thunder jaw at level 24 whereas, the machine was 30. Fun times.

Only issue I am facing is being unable to upgrade weapons and outfits because I don’t have the right part. Never felt this poor in the previous game.

Overall, loving it.
 
Yeah I stopped on Thursday to play a little Elden Ring, but I was back in Horizon the next day. Even though the resource gathering can be a pain, it is so worth doing. I just finished upgrading my current ammo pouches to max. It took a while but it was worth it. But stuff seems much more expensive in this game than the first. I had like 6k saved up and did an upgrade spree of weapons and pouches and I dropped to 800 lol. I had more to do but I just can't I need those shards for arrows.
 


Vincent Teoh of HDTVTest recommends the following HDR settings for LG OLEDs:
HGiG: On
Brightness: -2
Shadows: 0 (he doesn’t explicitly state this, I’m just inferring)
Highlights: -8

I’ve been playing the last couple nights with these settings and the game looks much more natural, at least on my LG CX.
 
I've finally had some more time to play over the weekend and I'm having a good time. It's definitely more of the same, which is okay with me. I do feel a hair overwhelmed with the sheer amount of weapons you find, though.

Something that has annoyed me thus far is the melee combat system. They keep giving you access to these longer and longer combos that are totally impractical and always get interrupted by machines, humans, and everything else. Spamming charge-up R2 is better than literally everything else because it stuns, knocks down, has armor, sets up a critical attack, etc. There are a couple unlockable attacks that are okay (mainly because they're short), but it's annoying when games do this. You can do a 7-hit combo that's 90% likely to get interrupted and *might* do 30% damage...or you can use a charged R2 that'll blow through the enemy attack, do 40% damage, knocks down/stuns, and leads to more hits.
 
I've finally had some more time to play over the weekend and I'm having a good time. It's definitely more of the same, which is okay with me. I do feel a hair overwhelmed with the sheer amount of weapons you find, though.

Something that has annoyed me thus far is the melee combat system. They keep giving you access to these longer and longer combos that are totally impractical and always get interrupted by machines, humans, and everything else. Spamming charge-up R2 is better than literally everything else because it stuns, knocks down, has armor, sets up a critical attack, etc. There are a couple unlockable attacks that are okay (mainly because they're short), but it's annoying when games do this. You can do a 7-hit combo that's 90% likely to get interrupted and *might* do 30% damage...or you can use a charged R2 that'll blow through the enemy attack, do 40% damage, knocks down/stuns, and leads to more hits.
I used melee combat like 2 times in the game. I know everybody has different play styles, but it seemed useless to me.
 
I've finally had some more time to play over the weekend and I'm having a good time. It's definitely more of the same, which is okay with me. I do feel a hair overwhelmed with the sheer amount of weapons you find, though.

Something that has annoyed me thus far is the melee combat system. They keep giving you access to these longer and longer combos that are totally impractical and always get interrupted by machines, humans, and everything else. Spamming charge-up R2 is better than literally everything else because it stuns, knocks down, has armor, sets up a critical attack, etc. There are a couple unlockable attacks that are okay (mainly because they're short), but it's annoying when games do this. You can do a 7-hit combo that's 90% likely to get interrupted and *might* do 30% damage...or you can use a charged R2 that'll blow through the enemy attack, do 40% damage, knocks down/stuns, and leads to more hits.
For now I use melee as an ‘oh shit’ attack when an enemy gets too close to me. It’s just not powerful enough to use as a primary attack. And I have the increased melee damage bonuses unlocked on the skill tree, as well as the blue-level outfit that gives additional melee damage. I’m hoping something is unlocked later in the game that makes melee more viable because it’s pretty damn fun.
 
Back
Top