Horizon: Zero Dawn

It should be around 15 hours for normal people. It was 30 for me, but I like to take my time.

I probably have a little over 20 and did everything except going through the list of mods I found and pairing them with weapons/outfits. I figured I'd try to get everything available now to use in a NG+ in the future.

I did restart the entire game on the easiest setting when I picked up the complete edition, so it took a lot less time for everything (around 75 hours total).
 
Started into a New Game+ with this. I tried a couple other games (Kiwami, RotTR) but couldn't get into them and kept thinking about Horizon.

Replaying the beginning, I'm reminded of how much the early story hooked me, and how much I liked Aloy as a character. Outcast, shunned, courageous, kind. I found the themes compelling (e.g., multiple losses, living for something greater than yourself, a good world corrupted). I saw some Christ parallels (e.g., she is the only daughter of 'God,' she sacrifices for the people who rejected her), although Jesus didn't fight robot dinosaurs, unless I missed that part.

I do have trouble with two parts of the story so far, though. [Early story spoilers for those who haven't played the game.]
First, it doesn't make sense that the Nora would cast her out. She was birthed by the mountain they consider the home of God. In the story, one priestess thinks she was planted there by evil forces, but I don't see how that idea could get traction. She should've been treated as special, not outcast. I guess I can let that one go, though. They didn't understand where she came from.

Second, it doesn't make sense that Rost, just before the Proving, tells her he is leaving her forever. She's got to be at the top of her game for the Proving. Why pick that moment to tell her that he (the only person she'd ever loved) was leaving her forever? That is cruel and undermining. She'd be distracted and in tears, while competing in a challenge that meant so much. It doesn't make sense. I get why he wants to make the choice (more self-sacrifice for her sake), but he could've easily waited until after the Proving to tell her.

I assume the reason they did it that way was because Rost gets killed at the end of the Proving, so unless he tells her beforehand, he wouldn't be able to tell her at all. So it was just a story timing thing. That's ok. It's a story, so you've got to arrange things for drama's sake sometimes.

[edit: Just saw it won the DICE award for Outstanding Achievement in Story. Nice. It also won for Technical Achievement.]

Anyhow, I'm enjoying the second playthrough. I find it relaxing and enjoyable. I like redoing the old quests. I haven't played the game for a year, so it's relatively fresh. New Game+ allows you to take all your weapons and gear with you, so it's a breeze. I gimp myself a little, to keep some level of challenge, but I'm enjoying the power. I'm having fun experimenting with things I didn't do much of in the main game (e.g., jumping to slow time, firing from ropes, riding mounts, dismount strikes, etc.), as well as just having fun taking on machines with better gear/weapons. It's nice to play in 4K/HDR, too -- better colors, more particles and details.
 
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I'm still yet to start this game, I it but as it's such a big game I'm trying to get Uncharted 4, God of War 3 remastered and the new God of War before moving onto this (I only got a Playstation last June).
 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-28-horizon-zero-dawn-shifts-a-whopping-7-6m-copies
Very impressive sales numbers for the game, yeah it dropped in price a few months back but a new IP with no multiplayer selling like this is awesome. I don't think any 1st party game on the X1 or even most of the 1st party games on PS4 not named Uncharted 4 have sold this many copies.

Horizon Zero Dawn shifts a whopping 7.6m copies


Horizon Zero Dawn has sold an impressive 7.6m copies, Sony has announced.

Guerrilla Games' open-world action RPG is the best-selling new first-party franchise on PlayStation 4.

Sony announced Horizon's sales figure to coincide with the one-year anniversary of the game. It includes both physical and download sales from the PlayStation Store.

"We had huge ambition for Horizon Zero Dawn and as we approached the launch we knew people were excited, but to see sales of this volume is truly mind blowing," Guerrilla boss Hermen Hulst said.

"Since launch, millions of players have joined Aloy on a quest to discover the secrets of the old ones. We hope they enjoy playing Horizon Zero Dawn as much as we enjoyed making it."
 
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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-28-horizon-zero-dawn-shifts-a-whopping-7-6m-copies
Very impressive sales numbers for the game, yeah it dropped in price a few months back but a new IP with no multiplayer selling like this is awesome. I don't think any 1st party game on the X1 or even most of the 1st party games on PS4 not named Uncharted 4 have sold this many copies.

Horizon Zero Dawn shifts a whopping 7.6m copies
Halo 5 we know is at about 10 million as of about a year ago.
 
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-02-28-horizon-zero-dawn-shifts-a-whopping-7-6m-copies
Very impressive sales numbers for the game, yeah it dropped in price a few months back but a new IP with no multiplayer selling like this is awesome. I don't think any 1st party game on the X1 or even most of the 1st party games on PS4 not named Uncharted 4 have sold this many copies.

Horizon Zero Dawn shifts a whopping 7.6m copies

Probably not but we have no real idea what Halo 5 is at
 
Halo 5 is likely well below HZD, of course there are about twice as many PS4's out there in the as their are X1's so that helps.

Well its not well below if its even below. It was at 5 million after a few months so its probably pretty close.
 
Halo is not a new I.P. and I don't think any new I.P this gen from first party is bettering those sales. I knew when the concept art leaked Guerrilla were onto something special. Now I cannot wait for the sequel.
 
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Well its not well below if its even below. It was at 5 million after a few months so its probably pretty close.

Halo 5 has been on game pass for a while, I doubt it's moved many copies in the last few months. Around 5 million compared to 7.6 is WELL below :) the difference between them could be more than 50% of what Halo 5 has sold in total. BTW I'm not knocking Halo I'm praising HZD, Halo is a monster IP, one that's been in decline but it's still one of the heavy hitters and by far MS's biggest exclusive.
 
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Halo 5 has been on game pass for a while, I doubt it's moved many copies in the last few months. Around 5 million compared to 7.6 is WELL below :) the difference between them could be more than 50% of what Halo 5 has sold in total. BTW I'm not nocking Halo I'm praising HZD, Halo is a monster IP, one that's been in decline but it's still one of the heavy hitters and by far MS's biggest exclusive.

5 million after a few months. It didn't just stop selling copies after that. It was even in the top 50 in UK in 2017. So its probably at like 8 million.
 
Pachter :laugh:

Ok lets stop talking about Halo now
I would agree with you about Pachter (and I do). But he wasn't analyzing. He just regurgitated what was told to him from MS. Big difference.

Yes, back to Horizon. I shouldn't have taken JinCa's Halo bait.....
 
5 million after a few months. It didn't just stop selling copies after that. It was even in the top 50 in UK in 2017. So its probably at like 8 million.

Halo 5 released in October 2015, by November it was already down to number 8 and it was out of the top ten beyond that, it's not that big of a seller when compared to past Halo games, it still did well but it has gone down significantly from where Halo used to be.

BTW I used NPD because North America is by far the territory where Halo does it's best. The game likely had low sales it fell off of the chart, it's not like they've been touting it's sales success beyond the opening month when they only gave out dollar amounts which included Halo themed consoles, controllers etc in the total. It's the lowest selling main line Halo game to date.
 
Halo 5 released in October 2015, by November it was already down to number 8 and it was out of the top ten beyond that, it's not that big of a seller when compared to past Halo games, it still did well but it has gone down significantly from where Halo used to be.

BTW I used NPD because North America is by far the territory where Halo does it's best. The game likely had low sales it fell off of the chart, it's not like they've been touting it's sales success beyond the opening month when they only gave out dollar amounts which included Halo themed consoles, controllers etc in the total. It's the lowest selling main line Halo game to date.
Lies.
 
Can we not talk about Halo in a PlayStation thread please? This thread is for good games, like Horizon: Zero Dawn. Congrats to Guerrilla on the 7.6 million sales. Well deserved, can't wait to see what they do with the sequel.
 
When TD is the voice of reason, you know your thread has gone off the rails. Enough about Halo 5.

Good job, Horizon. 7.6 million is much more than I expected. A couple Xbox guys (nervus, Sasquatch) had posted it was in the neighborhood of 4.3 million. I posted that it was probably approaching 5 mil, which of course was met with skepticism. 7.6 million is impressive, especially for a new IP, and especially for an SP-only title. Well-deserved success.
 
When TD is the voice of reason, you know your thread has gone off the rails. Enough about Halo 5.

Good job, Horizon. 7.6 million is much more than I expected. A couple Xbox guys (nervus, Sasquatch) had posted it was in the neighborhood of 4.3 million. I posted that it was probably approaching 5 mil, which of course was met with skepticism. 7.6 million is impressive, especially for a new IP, and especially for an SP-only title. Well-deserved success.

Even 4.3 would have been something to celebrate but hitting the numbers it has only helps prove the point that new IP single player games can be huge hits, they just have to be done well.
 
When TD is the voice of reason, you know your thread has gone off the rails. Enough about Halo 5.

Good job, Horizon. 7.6 million is much more than I expected. A couple Xbox guys (nervus, Sasquatch) had posted it was in the neighborhood of 4.3 million. I posted that it was probably approaching 5 mil, which of course was met with skepticism. 7.6 million is impressive, especially for a new IP, and especially for an SP-only title. Well-deserved success.

Sasquatch usually pulls sales numbers out of his rear so no surprise.
 
The game sold over 450k in the UK including digital which is seriously impressive because our market is the most casual market imaginable.
 
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The new dynamic theme is nice. It's composed of shots taken by players in Photo Mode. It's free to download.
 
The 'Magic Formula' Behind Horizon: Zero Dawn's Success
Jason Schreier

SURPRISE! It’s a bonus episode of Kotaku Splitscreen, featuring Guerrilla Games’ boss Hermen Hulst, who shares some insight as to how Horizon: Zero Dawn turned out so special.

Excerpt:

Jason: Something that I find really fascinating is that usually in the video game industry, when you have a new IP, it has to go through some growing pains before it gets where it wants to go. For example, we saw this with Uncharted and Assassin’s Creed, the first game has a solid foundation but it’s not until the second game, once the team has learned to make that type of game, [the quality] is much better. With Horizon it feels like you guys have really nailed it out the gate... What’s the magic formula? Is it just having so much time, because you worked on the game for so many years?

Hulst: I think first of all it’s the acknowledgement that you need quality in all areas: world design, characterization, gameplay, but also the story. You’ve gotta acknowledge the fact that in some areas, you’re not strong enough, and you’ve gotta build that expertise, so that’s the first part of it. The second part is, if you make a game in a new genre, your playtesting, and focus testing, and all the appeals testing that you do becomes even more important, because your intuition is not as well-developed yet, as it is when you make more games in a certain genre.

I think we should also acknowledge the fact that PlayStation as a publisher has been generous and has given us ample time, has given us more time at some points, to really go for the quality and get everything right, and give us time for all the individual ingredients to click together, and really make a very well-balanced world with a well-told story with a character that can actually carry that story. And the fact that PlayStation has allowed us that time, I think speaks for that quality orientation of the publisher.

https://kotaku.com/the-magic-formula-behind-horizon-zero-dawns-success-1823647530
 
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I thought co-op might be in the sequel, but judging by this comment, probably not. It's from an article speculating about what might be in Horizon 2.

"Co-op? Actually, demand for co-op in Horizon has been pretty low. According to Hulst: “I think some people are very happy when there’s a beautiful single-player campaign and a story. That’s been the overwhelming majority.”
https://www.gamesradar.com/horizon-zero-dawn-2-release-date-news/

Doesn't mean it won't happen, just makes it less likely, in my eyes. Which is fine. They would probably do better to have a broader multiplayer component, rather than just co-op. As I go through the game, I can't help but imagine what competitive or cooperative battles might be like.

In other news, Horizon raked in a bunch of awards for tech, graphics, best this or that, etc., but I won't link them all. I don't want to come off like I'm promoting the game (too late, probably).
 
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Finished my New Game+. Enjoyed it a lot.

I was able to track the story much closer this time. It was more complex than I appreciated, the first time around. One thing I don't understand is that
they talked about needing to purge Hades before rebooting Gaia. The game ends after purging Hades, but there is no rebooting of Gaia (unless I misunderstood, and that was what the brief sequence inside Hades was about). Maybe that's something for the sequel. Meanwhile, Sylens is off seeking knowledge of where/how the "Old Ones" sent out the original signal that disrupted Gaia (I suspect Faro). Sylens is a sociopath, but I'm glad he's on the case; we need to uncover that mystery.
Although I've heard some people talk as if the story is all wrapped up, it clearly isn't.

Great game. Great story (for a videogame), likeable and admirable protagonist, great combat, beautiful world, good message. I can see myself coming back to replay it again in another year, or replaying the DLC. I'm at 230 hrs, level 60 + 14 ghost levels.

Btw, here's a tip for any world-saving programmers out there: don't create a subroutine called Hades. You're just asking for trouble.

p.s. Sorry for the quadruple post.
 
I just started the DLC and I was quickly reminded how beautiful this game is. Anyway, all of the machines are dialed to 11 and batsh!t crazy now. I was struggling against this new enemy machine called a Scorcher. I think I have a good strategy now by freezing it and then using fire bombs but sheesh its a massive and yet slippery machine that its hard to be accurate. I forgot how many things the player has to keep track of, such an intense and satisfying combat system.
 
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Yeah, that Scorcher is a wake-up call, isn't it? "This is not going to be easy." I got my ass kicked the first time. I think most people did. Like most things in Horizon, once you tangle with them a few times, you'll develop a strategy. I think mine involved tear arrows to the thing on their back, frost arrows, trip wires, and lots of dodging.

Have fun with the next new beastie you'll encounter. I remember that being a very cool fight.

And yeah, the DLC is beautiful. Nice snow effects. I loved trudging through a blizzard.


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