Video Games

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

I'm on level 35. Played lots of side quests, killed a lot of machines, did rebel camps/outposts, but I've been slow on the main missions. Because the new Valor Surge mechanic is so new and I keep forgetting to use it, I've made a more conscious effort. If the fight is against machines that are spread out more, I use the Ranged Master Valor Surge at the beginning of the fight to deplete the health bars of all machines using my bows. If the fight is more concentrated in a small area (and against a lot of machines), I use the Radial Blast Valor Surge to deplete the health bars of all machines close to me.

For humans, they're more spread apart. I stick to Ranged Valor and use melee once in a while for some change of pace.

I don't have the best weapons but I've got the next-best weapons for each type.

Overall, the game is fun but not as much fun as Horizon Zero Dawn, mostly because the developers rehashed 75-85% of the same weapons, game mechanic, scenery, character types, interactions, etc. At times, I thought I was playing Horizon Zero Dawn, not Horizon Forbidden West. I haven't reached the "I'm getting sick of this game" point yet.

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

I've said this before but I can't stop thinking about it every time I play this game. I love the fact that the "ancient" world of hundreds of years ago had far superior technology and overall historical/cultural knowledge than the modern day which consists mostly of primitive tribes with primitive weapons (e.g., bows, spears, swords, knives). Whatever the modern day people didn't understand, they created gods to explain it away.

The game's time period is the 31st century, 3041 AD. All the Post-Apocalyptic stuff happened in the late 21st century.

[mikegarrison]

Oct 20, 2024 16:37:15 GMT -5 Wolfgang said:

Horizon Forbidden West

I've said this before but I can't stop thinking about it every time I play this game. I love the fact that the "ancient" world of hundreds of years ago had far superior technology and overall historical/cultural knowledge than the modern day which consists mostly of primitive tribes with primitive weapons (e.g., bows, spears, swords, knives). Whatever the modern day people didn't understand, they created gods to explain it away.

The game's time period is the 31st century, 3041 AD. All the Post-Apocalyptic stuff happened in the late 21st century.

I think you mean "all the apocalyptic stuff happened in the late 21st century", because everything that comes after the "apocalyptic stuff" is by definition the "post-apocalyptic stuff".

[mln59]

demon's souls

i've cleared 4 of the 5 main areas. just one more boss before the end game

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

This game complicated the Cauldrons (for better or worse). In the first game, the Cauldrons were dark maze-like structures. When you get to the end, you fight some big arse machines in order to learn how to override certain groups of machines. Then, it takes you outside the Cauldron. Simple.

In the second game, it's not so simple. You still have to go through this dark maze-like structure. After you accomplish the override for that Cauldron, it doesn't take you straight to the exit. You now have to find your own path out of there -- but not the way you came in. It's another opportunity to get lost in there. Ugh.

I like it because I've always believed going out should be just as difficult as going in. I hate those scenes in movies and video games where, after you've infiltrated and accomplished your goal inside, they make it seem like getting out is easy as pie. Sometimes, they don't even show you getting out, just a cutscene where you're back home. On the other hand, I hate it because...damn...I hate the dark maze-like Cauldrons.

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

After 35 levels and 40+ hours of gameplay, I have yet to set foot on California. It's been all New Mexico, Arizona (I think?), Utah, and Nevada. It's possible I may have gone to Yosemite National Park in The Bulwark section but I didn't recognize any familiar sights.

I will forever hate the "false advertising" of this game, leading me to believe the bulk of this game is set in the west coast of California.

[mikegarrison]

Oct 21, 2024 16:17:04 GMT -5 Wolfgang said:

Horizon Forbidden West

This game complicated the Cauldrons (for better or worse). In the first game, the Cauldrons were dark maze-like structures. When you get to the end, you fight some big arse machines in order to learn how to override certain groups of machines. Then, it takes you outside the Cauldron. Simple.

In the second game, it's not so simple. You still have to go through this dark maze-like structure. After you accomplish the override for that Cauldron, it doesn't take you straight to the exit. You now have to find your own path out of there -- but not the way you came in. It's another opportunity to get lost in there. Ugh.

I like it because I've always believed going out should be just as difficult as going in. I hate those scenes in movies and video games where, after you've infiltrated and accomplished your goal inside, they make it seem like getting out is easy as pie. Sometimes, they don't even show you getting out, just a cutscene where you're back home. On the other hand, I hate it because...damn...I hate the dark maze-like Cauldrons.

Standard dungeon design in the Elder Scrolls is to have a hidden and/or one-way passage back out to the entrance from the finishing boss room. Lets you avoid the whole "walk back through the many now-empty rooms you just fought through" thing. Sometimes subverted by dungeons that let you walk all the way inside and then fill with enemies, making you fight your way back out. Halo memorably did that latter in the level where you first fight the Flood.

BG3, despite being called "Dungeons and Dragons", has very few dungeons or dragons. And the few that do exist generally have an exit portal that opens up after you defeat the boss.

Although, except in "hostile areas", you can always just fast-travel. Elder Scrolls generally have a restriction against fast-travel unless you are outdoors.

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

Well, just as I commented about exiting the Cauldron being as complicated as entering, I got to a Cauldron where, after the final override, the platform Aloy was standing on moved up and took her directly outside. LOL!

[mikegarrison]

All of the companions in BG3 can be killed. Either you can just attack them, or they can die in various ways.

One of the companions is Astarion, and he is a vampire. Well, technically a "vampire spawn", sort of a very weak vampire. Anyway, as is often the case with vampire characters, some people really like Astarion. I pretty much hate him. But I always kept him alive (well, vampire, but you know...). He does have a personal quest (like all of them) and specific content related to it.

But I finally had enough of him and staked him when he revealed his vampiric nature by trying to bite me. (This happens pretty early on, and you can either let him feed off you, tell him no, tell him to get out and stay out, or try to kill him. If you let him feed, it's possible he can kill you. If, for whatever reasons, you have no other companions, that's a game over. If you have other companions, they can rez you in the morning.)

If you want to romance Astarion (seems like "ick" to me, but some people are into the whole brooding creature of the night thing) it helps his approval of you if you let him feed. And as usual there is a whole arc where he can be redeemed. He's been abused for 200 years, and like many victims of abuse he has internalized it. He is pretty abusive himself. But if you show him a better way, yada yada yada, he becomes a better person. Or you can let him replace his old master as an ascended vampire, in which case he becomes pretty much the same as the old vampire was in terms of seeing all personal relationships as master/slave.

Anyway, his story all comes to a head in a final confrontation with his old master. The master needs Astarion there in order to complete a ritual. So if you kill Astarion like I did, you might think the ritual is stopped. Nope. Instead "zombie Astarion" is there in his place.

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

There was one Tellneck that gave me a lot of problems. (In the Horizon series, Tallnecks are like the towers in Assassin's Creed and Far Cry games. You have to climb them and do something specific at the top to reveal the game map in the surrounding area.) So, in this one problematic Tallneck, I had to climb some abandoned structures to jump on the Tallneck. The problem was that Aloy kept missing the jump onto the Tallneck. I timed it to jump toward the targeted ledge slightly before, slightly after, and bullseye -- to no avail. Nothing worked. I checked youtube videos and found everyone jumped from that spot. (But a lot of people in the comments sections noted that this particular Tallneck was frustrating. As one person said, "Aloy has hands of oil all of a sudden.")

So, I tried about a dozen times last night. Nothing worked. I kept falling on my arse and the Tallneck stepped on me a few times. I quit the game. This morning, while eating breakfast, I fired up the game again. When the game loaded my autosave file with the current progress, the game screen opened and I found myself facing a different direction. Often this is common for autosaves where the game places you in a slightly different location from where you last quit, but in this particular case, the game actually positioned me in a "more" optimal direction. (Facing east on one ledge vs. facing north on a different ledge) This time, when the Tallneck arrived, I was able to make the jump easily on my first try. It was as if the game "gave" me the solution. (I think it was the same platform but the more I think about it, I'm not too sure anymore. I didn't pay attention that carefully because the Tallneck's arrival was imminent and I had to make that jump.)

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

I'm now level 40. I've now switched to the shredder gauntlet as my weapon of choice. The gauntlet is this boomerang-type weapon where each disc hits the enemy, does some damage (based on the stats) and then returns back to you. If you catch it on its return, the next hit is buffed with higher damage. If you catch three discs in a row, the fourth throw will end up with a massive explosive damage.

[mikegarrison]

Do you still hate Aloy or has she gotten more personable?

[Wolfgang]

Oct 22, 2024 15:03:14 GMT -5 mikegarrison said:

Do you still hate Aloy or has she gotten more personable?

I've never hated Aloy. Just annoyed at her. But she's a fictional character, the annoyance (or hate) doesn't run deep. It's quite shallow actually.

I'm playing the game because of the combat gameplay, mostly fighting machines. All the other non-combat stuff like dialogue wheels are things I put up with.

[Wolfgang]

Horizon Forbidden West

Video games sometimes bring out my worst OCD tendencies. I don't really suffer from it in real life because...you know...I'm pretty f---ing normal. I guess I have "situational OCD." For example, I just got the Vine Cutter tool from one of the main missions which allows me to destroy all vines that grow around metal flowers. (In Horizon Zero Dawn, metal flowers were easy. You just go up to it and interact with it without the aid of any special tools. In Horizon Forbidden West, the metal flowers are non-interactable until you get the vine cutter.) The stuff behind the vines are loot boxes and other collectibles.

I don't really need any of those loot boxes (and collectibles) behind the vines because I'm pretty rich with shards and the things I really need for the rest of the game aren't things you can get from those loot boxes. But now that I have the vine cutter, I have this uncontrollable urge to go back over areas I've been to cut all the vines around metal flowers. This also clears the map of the those metal flower symbols. It's a waste of time to do this but I can't help myself.

[Wolfgang]

One thing I've learned recently is that I need a better gaming chair. I don't need a cup holder or crap like that. But I think I need a backrest (aka seat back) that is high enough to support my head. Currently, my head is not supported and I find that during lengthy gaming, I get a slight headache and my neck starts to hurt. (The headache could also be from motion sickness combined with dehydration.)