Be Excellent To Each Other

Actually, it doesn't get too hard - some of the areas can be challenging, but you can steer clear of them. In the case of the Cauldrons those are meant to be hard

Cras - did I ever give this back to you?

I thought it was great for two days.

Then got distracted and didn't return.

I suspect I played it to close to nu Zelda, else it would have kept my attention longer.

Played this in a store, and it's probably the only game that makes me sad that I don't have a PS4. It reminded me mostly of The Witcher 3, and while not looking as good, it's still a great looking game, with a nice aesthetic and setting.

I'll play it in 2030 through an emulator, maybe.

Your eyes are broken.

Maybe comparing a PS4 game with TW3 on 1 year old PC isn't fair. But i think TW3 is still the best looking game around.

You can't, the last cell is about 75% of the way through the main questline.

Clearly not playing on a ps4 pro.

Bugger

I've become mildly obsessed with this game. No idea how far through the story I am, though I suspect it's more than halfway, but I'm literally doing everything there is to do, which is rare for me. Just noticed today I've racked up 71 hours and I'm almost on level 42. I'm pretty badass now.

What bit are you at?

Sylens has asked me to investigate a signal on the far left of the map, the idea being that I somehow learn how to disrupt the networked focuses of the Eclipse stronghold. I've had this part of the main quest open for about a week though and I've been ignoring it while I do side quests and collect metal flowers and banuk artefacts. I still have one more Longneck to do in the northwest of the map, think I may have done all the cauldrons but there may be one more.

Oh yeah, I know the one. You're getting there!

Still haven't finished this. I think I've only got the final mission left to do, or I'm pretty close as I think it's just a matter of talking to the Sun King and then heading to the nearby plateau with the antenna on it. I've downloaded the Frozen Wastes, which has removed the level cap (50), so I think I'll go do that before the final quest. I've missed a couple of the power cells, but I'm not sure I'm going to need the power armour as I'm already at level 50. Basically it boils down to whether I can be bothered to traipse around all the various locations — I know where they're supposed to be, but I can't remember which ones I have.

There are about 10 new skills to achieve, most of which seem to revolve around repairing over-ridden machines. Not sure how helpful that'll be, as it's not, as far as I understand, like you can actually direct them to aid you. Sure, you can fix your ride, but in large I've found it faster to get around on foot. You can collect things without having to dismount now, which would have been useful at the start of the game.

There are five, that I can see from the animal catalogue, new beasts, most of which start around level 30.

Some new weapons as well, though not sure how useful I'd find an energy firespitter.

Basically, if you haven't bought this yet, then I suggest getting the complete version with the DLC

I’m playing this and I think it’s ... alright, I guess.

The story has been a bit bland so far, I’m about halfway through, and for a game about robot dinosaurs that’s a worry.

The combat and taking down the dino robots is where it’s at though. GodDAMN there’s some big fuckers. And they don’t mess about. I figure when my level is high enough I’ll be able to go back and take out a few of the larger guys but floating around the level 15 mark is a bit boring so far as 90% of the dinos are out of your skill set and just triggering the bastards can often cause a stampede of cunts wanting to kerb stomp you teeth out your grill.

The most hilarious gripe I have is this: Securing a mount is easy enough. Unlocking the skill to loot on the mount is a 1 skill point skill so anyone can buy it. It’s a thing it wants you to unlock early. You loot by pressing triangle. You mount and unmount your mount by pressing... triangle. So picking up anything on the mount is so fucking tedious because it’s 50/50 if you pick up loot or just jump straight off.

Why no one picked this up just astonishes me.

My second big complaint is that the climbing mechanics are shit. There isn’t much climbing in the open world and there’s no Zeldering here - the climbing is strictly of the Assassins Creed variety. And, the climbing is boring as fuck! It’s worst than Assassins Creed because at least in that game you press a button to instigate a climb, there’s “something” that engages you as things are happening on screen as your button press causes your man/woman to jump to the next climbing point. Not here, you just press up and Aloy just gets on with the job climbing, jumping, scaling, shimmying etc. You don’t even have to press a button. Hold a direction and the game plays itself for you. Thanks game.

Also I’m level 15 halfway through the game and feel that it should be unlocking some levels quicker than this so I can take part in some more interesting combat, because if it keeps this up I’m more inclined to put the controller down rather than keep playing to tackle another giant beastie.

AND you can’t flip the camera over your shoulders!

This made one boss fight a fucking mess as I had to come around this left turn and draw my bow. The cameras over the right shoulder so this boss is already firing at me and knocking me flying before I can even see it on the screen.

Just baffling shit.

This didn't click with me at all. Too many occasions when I'd fire it up for quick blast before bed, then 45 minutes later, I'm off to bed having only managed to watch a fuckton of cut scenes and travel to a far-off destination to begin a mission.

Also, I was properly shit at the combat. Couldn't seem to target any of the dinos correctly, which meant most victories felt random, a result of flailing rather than precise fighting.

And I really can't be doing with the trend for visual overlays (changing the view of the world to reveal things unobservable by the naked eye. Ruins a beautifully realised landscape. Witcher, Arkham etc.

Yeah, it’s one of those games which takes a looong time to let go of the reins and give you enough tools, ammo, weapons and stuff to wander the wilderness hunting stuff. But it does pick up a fair bit a fair few hours in.

I’ve just climbed up my first longneck which was pretty cool even though it’s nothing more than a walking Assassins Creed tower. Well, that’s not fair, something between a walking tower and a Zelda tower, since it was surrounded by baddies and you needed to figure how to get on it. It was visually awesome too.

And I know what those giraffes in Death Stranding were now!

Bit of a slow burner this one I think and now it’s starting to get pretty good. I was socked in the grill by a robo mollusk. Not an everyday occurrence.

Holy shit, the final boss fight was the EXACT SAME fight with the exact same boss that I’d fought TWICE BEFORE!?

No fucking frills?! Jesus Christ, that’s a dreadful lack of imagination.

Ok, the premise behind the story is really smart. I liked it a great deal. And I liked where they put it in the story too, so it’s a reveal occurs just as the world is getting wider.

But, by fucking god, I hated the way in which the story was told. It is just so hamfisted and hammy. If you left it out in the sun for a few minutes it’s reak of sweat. The dialogue is terrible and the story is basically told to you by a fucking companion. A boring one at that. Urgh, it’s all so fucking dry. And the story is fleshed out by audio logs and fucking holograms. It’s so fucking lazy.

I’ll tell you this, the world is great. When you get over the fact that, actually, you ain’t doing much climbing and this ain’t BOTW - this is more Uncharted but with bows and arrows - once you get that straight in your mind you’ll enjoy it a lot more. The dinorobots are brilliant. They look great, their animations are fantastic and some are a reet pain in the arse to take down. The environments are brilliant too. The land is varied, sun soaked, winter cold, and with some lush vegetation.

But the human characters that populate the place are the worst kind of placeholder shit. Spouting their dry drivel. Urgh, I didn’t care about any of them. Not a one.

And the ending was a bit shit too. I mean, the boss obviously, but then the post credits scene. What a load of guff.

AND WHEN CAN COMPUTER DATA FLY ABOUT!? Fucks sake. Stupid. I’m so cross that the game is so fun to play but it’s mired in this dreadful direction. It needed one of those Uncharted guys to come and do dialogue. OR better yet! Make it way more wordless, hardly anyone talks.

End Game Stats:

Time to completion: 18 hours 18 mins
Enemies killed: all of them at least once.
Campfires skit: 68
Machines Overides: 5. Just fast travel around init.

Since Hawaii University created the rather excellently-named ALOHANet.

This game is coming out on PC, by the way.

Been playing that Horizon: Forbidden West and…

It’s the same fucking thing but slightly prettier.

Almost every criticism I had about the first game is still here: the climbing mechanics are so fucking bland, the story is told in the most boring way, the dialogue is dreadfully dull, the cutscenes are tedious and entirely skippable and I’m not even sure you can switch shoulder when aiming … again.

But, blasting robo dinosaurs is still cool. They look ace. Chipping bits off them is fun. The animations are groovy. The graphics are ace all round. The world looks great.

Mind you, fighting people isn’t much fun again. The new enemies with shields where you have to wear down the shield before you can kill them aren’t much fun. Headshots aren’t kill shots just baffles me. Ghost of Tsushima did bow combat so much better.

Hey, you know what annoys me, GoT got the mechanics just right. You could judge your distance of your arrow with every shot with some skill. It was so satisfying. Here (and if I remember right, the original too) when you fire an arrow it can vary wildly whether it goes higher or lower or even left or right of where your reticle is placed. So each shot you fire can go any and every fucking where if you don’t prime it long enough. It’s not very satisfying at all. And it’s hard enough when the dino’s are moving around so wildly, so when you spunk a shot you lined up, it’s annoying.

And I’m sick of the focus and having to keep pressing R3 to make the icons pop up every 5 seconds to see where the random tat is. And Aloy is fucking obsessed with that focus and telling the player to use the fucking focus.

So great graphics, dinosaurs, and some fun to be had with the gameplay. But there’s STILL shit characters, shit dialogue, shit climbing sections and a story told in the most boring way possible. I fucking hate Aloy as well; she’s a fucking dullard.

And I can’t even remember what this was about either? Seems like a weird thing to put in capitals. Maybe it was an end story thing that annoyed me? No idea. Pffftttt.