Registered: Jun 2008
Location: In Luna's mane, chasing STAAARS!
Right. the lack of something creating limited supply that gets bought up even faster by S C A L P E R S. The consoles need to be physical buys from here on out to avoid them.
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Moderator
The easiest solution would be how Sony does it with their Sony Direct. They send some people emails and those people are able to go and buy PS5's the next day in the direct, and any extra PS5's are sold to people who have to get into a digitial line, and are chosen at random.
It's the only fair way to do it really.
The problem is definitely with retailers. Most do nothing to discourage scalping bots from buying their entire stock in a matter of seconds. If Microsoft and Sony just sold their entire inventory themselves, using the methods that Sony uses for their directs, then that would make things a lot better. Scalpers would still get some but they'd have no advantage over anyone else.
I'm playing the new Horizons game.....and I'm getting tired of websites shoving guides/tips and tricks/how to get best weapons articles.
It's not technically spoiling anything but ****, at least wait a few. One of the better things in games and is not knowing what weapons, gear and etc will come later in the game. Knowing you can get a kick ass weapon early in the game removes the threat some enemy types can be.
Again..not a spoiling anything but I don't know....let people search for this shit like we used too.
When I bought the PS4 version, it does clearly state you get the PS5 version.
I find it strange there is a separate storefront for different gens...but I guess that's what happens when you increase the price of next gen games.
I don't think MS has done that......but I'm not sure because I have only been using Game Pass.
That being said...Horizons 2 is a very good game....but I'm realizing its just Assassins Creed with robots....and for some strange reason, all the trailers showing colourful, warmer areas seems to be stuck at the end of the game....because the areas I have been running around are basically the same as the first.
A quest that finishes but doesn't complete (and you dont get the loot)
A quest that opens up.....and allows to complete different tasks but the last task cannot be completed because the items you need to pick up are not there (only show up after a main mission down the road.
Ton of graphical issues that I never saw on the first....texture pop-in, weird lighting effects....cutscene issues.
And the big one that I had....played the arena for the first time.....it goes to a black screen where you can only hear sound effects and music....but you can load a save.....I load the last save.....went through a ton of content for about 2 hours, saved thousands of times....but then noticed this music never changed, no matter what situation I was in......restarted the game...still the same music...over and over...and it was not very good to begin with. No matter what I did....it never ended. Googled it...turns out a fair number of people have this.....the fix it...reload a save prior to the Arena...which I didn't have (the last one was 4 hours earlier from a quest)....
It almost broke the game because the music was infuriating annoying. Turns out the Arena menu music was stuck on a loop. Replayed the arena....same situation (black screen, looping menu music)....restarted the arena again...but killed myself and luckily, the game automatically forced me directly back the quest giver instead of sending me the arena menu (which when leaving, caused the black screen).....and that unstuck the music loop.
The game has this weird unstable feeling....like its going to break at any moment. Map sometimes takes a minute to load icons.....going to workbench, menus and etc....can take a minute or like 30 seconds to load. Constant graphic issues and sometimes the game just starts loading (for instance, flying through the air and it just stops..and then a loading screen pops in)....
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Moderator
Oof, that sounds rough. I've been playing on the PS5 and haven't noticed any issues outside a couple of weird graphical bugs for a moment here and there. Like water shining really bright for a few seconds even though it was night time and there wasn't anything that should cause such extreme reflections.
Oh and Alloy's hair physics is way over the top.
Game looks great on PS5 though. I've been playing on quality mode and it looks spectacular.
The stuck music loop is by far one of the worst bugs I had with games.....it doesn't sound bad but I rather have a game crash than be stuck with the same music loop for hours...and the thought of reloading a save 5 hours ago....
Now...when I'm playing, I am noticing the music is being strange in some places...and I think the problem has restarted again. It's like PTSD.....haha.
And my pet peeve is games with quest bugs.....I have no idea why they thought it was a good idea to give out a quest without any notification it can't be done until end game....it took my like 30 minutes to do it and then it's like "nope!"
Do you notice any sound issues? I find Aloy is super quiet and for some reason, the sound mixing is a pile of shit. You know what is great? Playing a cauldron area and having story elements occur while you are moving but all you can ****ing hear is the sound effects of whirring machines.
There is some weird shit in this game that drives me nuts...and they are not big but if you add all the small things, get annoying.
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Moderator
Yes there are some sound issues, particularly when playing with headphone or possibly any mixing mode that utilizes surround sound. I found Alloy sounds very distant sometimes even though she's smack in the center of the screen. I changed the sound mix to television mode and that helped a lot, even when using headphones.
I was like Holy Shit!.....because I wasn't even looking for one.
But low and behold, those ****ers only sell bundles...so it's the cost of a PS5 (629, 90 bucks for a controller and 90 bucks for Horizons)....so 800 bucks....so about 900 bucks for the console.
Didn't bother. The idea is combat scalpers...but ****ing assholes are the scalpers as well...the difference I get a ****ing game, and an extra controller.
No idea why they just didn't sell the ****ing console at price, limit 1 per customer. But it's not about ****ing over scalpers, its about getting more money.
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Moderator
Yeah, wouldn't be bad if you didn't already have Horizon. But since you already own the game it's not worth the hassle of reselling it later.
Anyways, I really like the sidequests in the game. ALmost all have had good storylines and some have spiraled into really long engaging quests like Witcher 3.
I did also get that weird music bug that you mentioned where a certain song would play on loop. Very annoying but it sorted itself out after a while.
I'm enjoying horizon as well but so far come across 2 infuriating glitches. The Graypeak drone doesn't stop to scan the area and just keeps speeding round and round so it's impossible to catch. There's also a side quest where some of Regalla's soldiers raided a settlement and escaped by raft to see and you find 1 of them wrecked on a small island and you have to talk to her but you can't because no dialogue prompt comes up.
Can't say I've had the music glitch but the 1st arena challenge I did wouldn't complete after I killed the machines and the timer just kept counting down until it failed.
Can't say I enjoy most of the ornament puzzles either.
__________________ Sweating on the streets of Woking
Also, it's the principle of it. The solution to combat scalpers is to force people to buy more shit. So it's not about helping consumers get a console but a way to get more money from them without angering Sony/MS.
As for the game, yeah, it's a very good game. I do find some mission are moving towards the same thing...for ex. Talk to a guy, either grab something or find somebody, kill machines that show up, talk to the guy and then either its done or kil more machines.
I think the size of the game is hurting it a bit....I felt the same thing with Red Dead 2 (talk to a guy, ride a horse to area, shootout, somehow always ends in a horse chase).
My only problem is that I'm not intrigued with the story the same way I was with the first game.
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Moderator
I'm nearing the end. This game actually reminds me a lot of Mass Effect 2. A big focus on universe building side quests. Even some of the main quests are little more than large sidequests meant to develop the world and characters more than anything having to do with the central conflict, which I think is pretty cool. Also talking to your squad back at the base is very similar to wandering around the Normandy in ME and talking with your squad. Really like that whole aspect of the game.
Think there's a bit too much open world busy work BS, but that's easy enough to ignore.
I also feel like the combat is harder than the first. I found myself struggling on a lot of fights and getting killed in like one hit, which I don't remember ever happening in the first game. So I lowered the difficulty and it feels more in line with how I remember the first game.
I think the game is very well made and quite good.
But there is something about it that is not hitting the joy I had with the first game. I think it's the mainline story....it's just not intriguing enough for me.
And while it follows the same flow....the payoff is never good enough.
Even one of the main missions near the end, I thought would be super killer and it was a big letdown. I finished it and was like "that's it".
Nothing like the first where every single "old world" storyline had an amazing story payoff. I was totally invested. This game...not so much.
It looks amazing, the world map is top notch with unique areas, machines are extremely well designed/animated the missions can be quite fun, and the machines battles are amazing....so many of them and even when I'm fully kitted out....thunderjaws are still terrifying.
Also...I could care less about the rebel camps and outposts. There a complete downer for the game. Probably a reason why the developers filled them with machines.
Yeah the slow, gradual reveal in Zero Dawn with regards to the Faro plague was phenomenal and didn't really have an equivalent narrative effect in Forbidden West.
I think the platinum was too easy this time. Only had to beat 2 strike players instead of everyone or only having to do 1 round of 5 in the arena.
The upgrading of the legendary weapons and armour is the opposite though. It takes ages to do all 5 upgrades for 1 and there's 5 armour sets and 9 weapons to do.
__________________ Sweating on the streets of Woking
There is a mission where I thought the payoff was going to be glorious when I first started...and the main focus of the mission was shown off-screen. I was like "what the ****"....
Upgrading in this game is a pain.....it's not just the vast amount of items you need to collect from very specific machines...but when you find that ****ing machine, there is a chance it might not give you the ****ing item.
I'm almost done and I haven't completed most of my purple gear upgrades...there is too many of them and I'm not grinding for it.
Registered: Nov 2001
Location: Huntington Beach, CA
Moderator
Finished the game. Yeah the story wasn't as good as the first game. Got pretty silly, actually. This game just lacked mystery which was what made the first game so good.
Yeah, exactly. I don't know if it's because they didn't do a good enough job or the cat is out of the bag on where the story could go.
I'm not finished yet...I might just finish off a few of the main side quests I have left and then run through the remaining few missions. I'm starting to lose interest on doing the side stuff....and getting annoyed by small things like the inability to climb rocks. I'm also getting annoyed by some the puzzles you need to do....they are not difficult but just requires a lot of busy work (move crate here...then move crate there...than move crate back here....)
Feb 16th, 2022 08:26 PM
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