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Horizon: Forbidden West |OT| Red Head Redemption - II -

decisions

Member
I’m sad.

The game only looks impressive to me in resolution mode, but it doesn’t feel great to play.

Doesn’t seem to be a great option between the two. I’m surprised how much of a hit the game takes to hit 60fps.
 

Mossybrew

Member
Jumping seems less precise somehow to me. I'm frequently missing jumps in some of these indoor areas, Aloy not grabbing when I think she can, jumping in some random direction instead of where I want her to go. I don't remember having any issues with the last game, maybe because it was more rigidly structured, so far I'm not sure this is an improvement. Feels more loosy-goosy so to speak.
 
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Mossybrew

Member
I’m sad.

The game only looks impressive to me in resolution mode, but it doesn’t feel great to play.

Doesn’t seem to be a great option between the two. I’m surprised how much of a hit the game takes to hit 60fps.

I kind of feel you here. I thought 30 fps would be fine but somehow it just feels ever so slightly choppy or something, not quite right, and I am usually totally fine with 30fps.
 

Kagero

Member
One more thing I would like to mention is Aloy isn’t as hideous looking as what the early previews were showing. I know everyone was going fucking nuts about it 😂 I think she’s super likeable and pretty adorable.
 

Mossybrew

Member
All these particles in the air are getting annoying. Just so much shit floating around, butterflies everywhere. You are having a conversation with someone out in the wild and these little white dot particles keep popping in and out and it's really distracting.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
I am about 10 hours in, and in my opinion this is easily the best looking game ever made. Nothing else even comes close. If this is what a Sony first studio can do this early into the generation, I cannot wait to see what the likes of Naughty Dog pumps out in the coming years.

I mean it's insane how good this game looks sometimes.
 
Took forever but I now have something called Ornament The Daunt. I wonder if all ruin exploring is going to be this involved. I should be killing bristlebacks and instead I'm in old ruins scrounging around.
 
Jumping seems less precise somehow to me. I'm frequently missing jumps in some of these indoor areas, Aloy not grabbing when I think she can, jumping in some random direction instead of where I want her to go. I don't remember having any issues with the last game, maybe because it was more rigidly structured, so far I'm not sure this is an improvement. Feels more loosy-goosy so to speak.
You are correct. The jumping is actually frustrating. I'm in very enclosed spaces in this ruin and I missed the jump several times and have to backtrack to do it again. I've asked Aloy several times through the screen what the heck are you doing? Why did you jump that way?
 

rapid32.5

Member
resolution mode is slow mo to me after trying performance. On 1080p tv I cannot see any visual difference but frame rate is king. In Ghost of Tsushima I could notice visual difference between two modes quite easily.
 
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Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Golden State Warriors Reaction GIF by NBA
I bet grandma is a freak.. did I just say that out loud

will smith mib GIF
 

Lethal01

Member
The story side of the game is a disaster. The dialouge is total shit. The acting, especially from Aloy is garbage.
I'm slightly interested in what will happen with the overall plot but the delivery of the story is so bad it would probably be more enjoyable to get it in the form of a handful of notes.
 

zkorejo

Member
The story side of the game is a disaster. The dialouge is total shit. The acting, especially from Aloy is garbage.
I'm slightly interested in what will happen with the overall plot but the delivery of the story is so bad it would probably be more enjoyable to get it in the form of a handful of notes.
Is it really that bad?.. I mean the storytelling is bad or the story itself is bad?
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
On topic, I think Horizon Forbidden West is way better than Zero Dawn, there's so many improvements across the board

Even the bow feels a lot better. It could also be helping that this time someone didn't spoil the story for me like with the 1st game
 

decisions

Member
This game has some annoying graphical issues that kind of makes me wish I waited to play it. It seems like whenever I turn the camera in certain areas the color of everything changes and the grass shimmers a bit. Notice how the grass shimmers and all the browns in the environment become more red when turning the camera. This is even in resolution mode where the shimmering is less apparent:


Also I restarted the game twice and that did absolutely nothing.
 
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hlm666

Member
We started to see that late last year with games like Guardians able to do 30 fps native 4k and then struggle to do 1080p 60 fps lower settings. Everyone was shitting on Dying Light 2 being 1080p 60 fps but well Returnal is the same thing. And its not even open world.

Even Ratchet and Spiderman which run at 1440p in their performance modes had way too many downgrades in traffic density, NPC crowds and even lighting. And even then, that 1440p was dynamic and could go down to 1080p when combat kicked up a notch.

I have no idea whats going on under the hood in the PS5 and even the XSX are struggling with 60 fps in frigging cross gen games. Whats going to happen when CPUs start to get taxed with destruction, physics, and enhanced simulation effects?

this shouldve EASILY been running at native 1440p 60 fps at the same exact settings on a equivalent PC GPU.
It's probably memory bandwidth, while the one pool of memory has benefits it also does have some cons like the cpu contention and having to share the bandwidth with the cpu. They also don't have infinity cache which AMD is leaning on heavily in the pc space to make up for their short comings in that area. You mentioned Returnal and it looks like it has alot of effects that look bandwidth heavy and as you said it's 1080p.
 

Fredrik

Member
Started playing last night, took down the snake and went away to the west. All in all I’d say it won’t win over anyone who didn’t like the first game. It’s very much the same thing. But for fans (me) this is great!


Only complaints I have right now is:

- they removed the animation where she throw off the water from her arms when exiting water. Why? Looked so good.

- some wonky hair physics in dialogues

- the automated parkour jump, it’s imprecise

- you can still only climb rare spots here and there, it’s too linear and simply not fun. They need to update this to what AC is doing.

- feet ain’t always synced with the ground, she’s been standing in the air on several occasions
 
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DragoonKain

Neighbours from Hell
Want to play this so badly. Got an update on my order and it's listed as delayed now with delivery date TBD. Pre-ordered many months ago too. FFS
 
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Fredrik

Member
resolution mode is slow mo to me after trying performance. On 1080p tv I cannot see any visual difference but frame rate is king. In Ghost of Tsushima I could notice visual difference between two modes quite easily.
Yeah I tried resolution mode and it felt like it ran a 10fps when I turned the camera. I don’t understand how anyone can choose that over the butter smooth performance mode.
 

BadBurger

Is 'That Pure Potato'
My biggest complaint so far: Guerrilla, please learn to tell a story through game play. I am tired of hopping here and there, constantly lugging power cell A to power outlet B, constantly climbing here and there to reach a destination that is right in front of me. Your game is long enough. Just let a brother walk into DOOR A and be done with it. FUCK
 

J3nga

Member
Yeah I tried resolution mode and it felt like it ran a 10fps when I turned the camera. I don’t understand how anyone can choose that over the butter smooth performance mode.
mm, because it looks like a complete garbo? Calling that mode nintendo switch would make more sense. Maybe you're playing on 24" 1080p monitor and don't notice the difference but on 55" 4K difference is night and day.
 

Fredrik

Member
mm, because it looks like a complete garbo? Calling that mode nintendo switch would make more sense. Maybe you're playing on 24" 1080p monitor and don't notice the difference but on 55" 4K difference is night and day.
Yeah the framerate stutter is just brutal on res mode, I was shocked, it’s like I forgot how bad 30fps was, not sure I’ve played a 30fps game since the The Medium early last year. Edit: And The Matrix UE5 demo. And Flight Sim.
 
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I'm a few hours in and I have to say I'm not THAT impressed by the graphics 🤔 - I mean it looks great but nowhere near as impressive as Ratchet. The facial animations are also a far cry from the ones in TLOU2. But whatever 🙂

I just reached the open world btw.

I'm playing in resolution mode and while it doesn't feel as smooth as the first game did in 30 fps it's perfectly fine to me. I was amazed by how smooth the first game felt.

Many surfaces are just too reflective to me so they look super shiny and not very realistic (not RT), and many plants, mechanical debris and other objects just have super sharp edges and don't blend in with everything smoothly.. Hard to explain.

There is some ugly glow around everyone's faces in the cutscenes, and the hair has some shimmering.

Also, there is some stuttering in the cutscenes every time they change into a new scene?

Anyway it will probably look more impressive soon enough!

Well enough of this nitpicking, these are just the first impressions - the game is a joy to play and I'm loving the gameplay, so far it's just what I wanted: an improved version of the first game.

The new gear is fun! Haptizs really add a lot to the experience.
 
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White-fire

Member
Dare i say, haptics are becoming the killer app for me. Just love how it feels in single player immersive games like Horizon.

Using the bow for the first time made me smile pretty hard. But yes, loving the controller, it feels surprisingly responsive for 30 FPS.
 

J3nga

Member
Yeah the framerate stutter is just brutal on res mode, I was shocked, it’s like I forgot how bad 30fps was, haven’t played a 30fps game since the The Medium early last year.
Huh? There really ain't no stutters on res mode, what are you talking about mister? It's just 30fps being 30fps and I was saying perf mode looks likely monkey ass that's why some choose res mode.
 

Fredrik

Member
Huh? There really ain't no stutters on res mode, what are you talking about mister? It's just 30fps being 30fps and I was saying perf mode looks likely monkey ass that's why some choose res mode.
Feels like a slide show if you swap back and forth. I just can’t do it. I’m so over 30fps.
The game looks awesome in performance mode as far as I’m concerned. Best looking game of the gen.
 
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J3nga

Member
Feels like a slide show if you swap back and forth. I just can’t do it. I’m so over 30fps.
The game looks awesome in performance mode as far as I’m concerned. Best looking game of the gen.
Absolutely not, I launched GoT(PS5 version), Ratchet and Clank, U4, Spider-man(PS5 version), all of those look waaaay better on perf mode, hell I'd say HFW is worst looking game of the gen on perf mode.
 
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Fredrik

Member
Absolutely not, I launched GoT(PS5 version), Ratchet and Clank, U4, Spider-man(PS5 version), all of those look waaaay better on perf mode, hell I'd say HFW is worst looking game of the gen on perf mode.
Well I don’t agree. But to be fair I’m still in the crush phase, started last night, might cool down in a few days I guess and start complaining. Right now I’m super impressed by all of it, been taking screenshots like crazy, love it!
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Finished the first major story mission. Very impressive stuff. Cutscene quality is absolutely incredible. You can tell they mocapped every single dialogue tree option, side quest and main quest. It's kinda insane. What's more impressive are the setpiece story moments. It felt like I was watching Game of Thrones for a second.

Sadly, I am just not feeling the combat so far. I have put a lot of points into the hunter tree and still dont feel strong at all. They still havent fixed the issue of tracking enemies with your bow. They move too fast even in slow mo and it feels janky. At least in Horizon 1, you could upgrade your handling or increase your DPS, but you cant do that here. Upgrades are minor, and the passive skills are just bonuses that dont really do much. Maybe it opens up in the end game.
 

Fredrik

Member
thats every game. Never do that if you plan on giving 30 fps a chance.
It’s just too late, everything I play now is 60fps.
I simply started with performance mode as always and played a few hours, then tried the resolution mode and turned around the camera a few seconds, then went nope and changed back to performance mode. I don’t want to sit there all cranky trying to adjust to the 30fps frame update when I don’t have to, I don’t see the problem some talk about with the performance mode, looks awesome imo. Plus, I played through HZD on PS5 just weeks ago. It’s too late. No more 30fps for this IP.
 
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Dr Bass

Member
Finished the first major story mission. Very impressive stuff. Cutscene quality is absolutely incredible. You can tell they mocapped every single dialogue tree option, side quest and main quest. It's kinda insane. What's more impressive are the setpiece story moments. It felt like I was watching Game of Thrones for a second.

Sadly, I am just not feeling the combat so far. I have put a lot of points into the hunter tree and still dont feel strong at all. They still havent fixed the issue of tracking enemies with your bow. They move too fast even in slow mo and it feels janky. At least in Horizon 1, you could upgrade your handling or increase your DPS, but you cant do that here. Upgrades are minor, and the passive skills are just bonuses that dont really do much. Maybe it opens up in the end game.
Playing in resolution mode?
 

isoRhythm

Banned
That scene where they introduced Regala, wow that was so well done and really exciting.

Had to pull myself away to get work done but will be spending more time on it over the weekend.
 
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Brigandier

Member
I've only got upto the 1st town where you meet Petra but I've had a bit of a venture climbing a few towers to get a couple of lens and I did a side quest in a mine, I've played in performance mode as quite simply put resolution mode is jarring beyond words that surely isn't 30fps? It feels like it's 15-20.

Yes I can tell the difference in visual fidelity for sure in resolution mode but I much prefer performance and it's not even close to being as bad as some people are making out lol.... The smooth fps more than makes up for it, The visuals are still incredible, I guess my eyes are bust since people think they're bad or older games are better looking.

I'm playing on a 55" LG C9 about 2.5 metres away and I feel it's brilliant, Ashame we can't get native 4k in 60fps though 😔 I also can't get my HDR settings right the game is so damn bright with DTM on and HGIG looks same as DTM off?, Any tips would be appreciated.
 
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Has anyone managed to complete a vista point? I'm almost 99 percent sure I'm standing in the right place for the Daunt and nothing is happening.
 

Synless

Member
I've only got upto the 1st town where you meet Petra but I've had a bit of a venture climbing a few towers to get a couple of lens and I did a side quest in a mine, I've played in performance mode as quite simply put resolution mode is jarring beyond words that surely isn't 30fps? It feels like it's 15-20.

Yes I can tell the difference in visual fidelity for sure in resolution mode but I much prefer performance and it's not even close to being as bad as some people are making out lol.... The smooth fps more than makes up for it, The visuals are still incredible, I guess my eyes are bust since people think they're bad or older games are better looking.

I'm playing on a 55" LG C9 about 2.5 metres away and I feel it's brilliant, Ashame we can't get native 4k in 60fps though 😔 I also can't get my HDR settings right the game is so damn bright with DTM on and HGIG looks same as DTM off?, Any tips would be appreciated.
From the DF vid I watched they are claiming a solid 30 fps in fidelity with minor single digit dips on rare occasions. They said frame pacing is even too.
 

Fredrik

Member
Sadly, I am just not feeling the combat so far. I have put a lot of points into the hunter tree and still dont feel strong at all. They still havent fixed the issue of tracking enemies with your bow. They move too fast even in slow mo and it feels janky. At least in Horizon 1, you could upgrade your handling or increase your DPS, but you cant do that here. Upgrades are minor, and the passive skills are just bonuses that dont really do much. Maybe it opens up in the end game.
Did you like HZD?
I’m only at the start, after going into the west. But so far it’s been classic Horizon combat for me. Which is what I love about this IP. In short I sneak around in tall grass, lay out traps in the machines path or get their attention for a pause and weakpoint shot or wait for them to get close or walk up behind them for a stealth kill. Love it.
Melee combat is still clunky, going by the beginning at least, it’s the last resort when every methodical approach has failed and it usually end badly.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Did you like HZD?
I’m only at the start, after going into the west. But so far it’s been classic Horizon combat for me. Which is what I love about this IP. In short I sneak around in tall grass, lay out traps in the machines path or get their attention for a pause and weakpoint shot or wait for them to get close or walk up behind them for a stealth kill. Love it.
Melee combat is still clunky, going by the beginning at least, it’s the last resort when every methodical approach has failed and it usually end badly.
It was my goty. Platinumed it last year after it got the 60 fps patch, bought the PC version over Christmas and beat it three times. Twice on ultra hard.

The combat feels weird. Maybe i just need to switch to 60 fps.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
Melee combat having so much delay, and auto hit is off putting - she literally beams to the enemy at times. If you press R2 two times, she will do that second attack even after 3sec have passed and the situation changed. Its just not crisp.

Expected more from Sony first tier developers. Hope they fix stuff.

In therms of IQ this is what I think is annoying me a lot about this game:
Using a random picture I took, then maxing the sharpens is resulting in an artificially sharpened image (left), the one on the right has a pleasant amount of sharpness to it. Horizon looks too much like the left picture:
kVuReuf.png
 
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