Morning folks! I spent the entirety of my weekend in Horizon Zero Dawn (minus a bit of time playing World of Warcraft while podcasting of course). I’ve played the game before, in fact it was my game of the year from 2017. However like always, my preferred method of playing games is on the PC and with Mouse and Keyboard and there was a lot of the game that I found trying because if the imprecise nature of controller gaming. Additionally there was a Frozen Wilds DLC that was released after our initial play through, and I never quite returned to pick that up and play it. So with the release of Horizon Zero Dawn on my preferred platform, with my preferred play style, and with new content I had never seen… It prompted me to sit down and play the game with fresh eyes some three years after my first visit to this world.
There is a bit of controversy surrounding this game, and I am not sure if it is coming from legitimate issues or hyperbole. So some things that you need to know before heading down this road. The game install is about 70 gb and there will be a 35 gb patch immediately after installing. I am not sure if the binaries have been updated in steam to allay this issue or not, but I pre-loaded and was greeted with a significant day one patch. The game also really wants you to be on the latest revision of your video drivers, so I highly suggest doing that before attempting to play. Those things out of the way immediately following launching the game it is going to do this step that takes a significant amount of time as the shaders are pre-compiled on your hardware to make sure the game runs as smoothly as possible.
For me this was about a 15 minute process, but for some folks I am hearing it can take upwards of an hour as they wait for their game to reach a playable state. From what I understand if you are running the game on the “Original” preset, you are effectively playing the game with the same graphical fidelity that would have been present on a PlayStation 4 Pro. For me, the game detected High preset and is running at 4k resolution, and I have largely left that alone and run with it. Unfortunately I scale down the screenshots to 1080p and compress them before uploading to the blog so it doesn’t exactly do the game justice. It is hard to state just how pretty the game is and how good the experience of running around in this world feels on a PC.
The other complaint that I am hearing is that the game crashes, and that is not entirely untrue. I don’t have significant issues with crashes but I have experienced a handful while playing. Normally it happens after a two to three hours of gameplay and the game will just lock up… before crashing out and asking me if I want to send a bug report. I am hoping that later patches will remedy this, since hopefully they are getting an influx of bug reports about this issue. However it really hasn’t caused that much of an issue while playing. The game is pretty prolific bout creating auto saves while you run around the world, and I am also extremely used to hitting every campfire I happen to pass. The combination of these has meant that I have never really lost any significant progress from a crash.
I realize it is a bit unusual for me to address things in this order, but in the case of this game and its current mixed reviews on Steam, I felt like I wanted to get the negative bits out of the way first. The positives of the game greatly overwhelm these and for me who has not played the game in three years… it felt like visiting an old friend. The biggest take away I have upon returning to the game is that I am just significantly more powerful than I was the first time. That isn’t a change in a game, but more a change in the way that I approach it. I understand how combat works now, and I understand how important it is to target the weak points on enemies. For example there is a latch on the back of a shell walker, that if you disable with your bow will cause a treasure trove to pop off of its back. I didn’t do a good job of this the first time around and as a result I missed out on a lot of powerful loot as a result.
There is a moment early in the game where you are set up against what is supposed to be a very intimidating encounter. However that same encounter with time becomes something that you see pretty often out in the world, and as a result I went into it knowing exactly how to disable it and take it down efficiently. Essentially as I titled the podcast this weekend “Precision is Power”, I know how the world works now and as a result I can do a much better job of navigating its hurdles. Coming back to the game, I find myself remembering so many things that just keep flooding back in waves as I arrive at areas. It only took a few minutes before the Keyboard and Mouse controls felt like an extension of my arm, rather than something that I was having to account for.
If you want my gaming impressions, you are probably significantly better off reading my original post from 2017. Those are the thoughts of someone experiencing the game for the first time, and probably a better experience for those who have never played the game. To be honest… Horizon Zero Dawn might be on my Games of the Year list for 2020 because playing it on PC and with my chosen input method is such a more enjoyable experience that it elevates everything to a new level. That said… playing the game with the expansion content adds a new dimension to the game. I wasn’t exactly sure how the new content would weave its way into the story, but it does so in a manner that feels seamless.
You can branch out into the new content as soon as I arrive at the city of Meridian, which depending on your play style could be pretty quick… or could be several hours into the game. What is unique however and the thing that I noticed almost immediately is once you have exited the “tutorial” content, the world seems significantly more alive than it used to. The only frame of reference I can really give you is that the game now has Skyrim-esc random encounters as you are roaming the world. You might come across a pack of enemy bandits trying to take down a machine, and you have to choose to either avoid the entire mess or take advantage of both sides and get some easy kills. Additionally there are encounters were you happen across some Nora braves, and you can help them out and get experience for doing so.
It is a little thing, and subtle… but it adds so much life to the world. In the original game, once you left any of the settlements it was more or less just you and the zoids out there. Now there are other human beings along the way that make the world feel more inhabited and vibrant. I love this game so much, and coming back has felt amazing. If you have never had the chance to play the game I highly suggest checking it out on your PC storefront of choice. I picked up the game on Steam and have been happy with that decision, thought it is also available on Epic Game Store. However it seems like the EGS didn’t offer preloading which was a bit odd. Bow combat feels so much better with the precise nature of the mouse and keyboard, and I am legitimately wishing this had been an option from day one. I am hoping as we go through the next generation of consoles, that more games will natively support KBM.
The post Horizon is Better on PC appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
Featuring: Ammo, Ashgar, Belghast, Grace, Kodra, Tamrielo and Thalen
Due to improper planning and the fact that last week was Belghast’s wedding anniversary so we called it for the evening. Tonight we are back and with a proper show chock full of goodness. Actually just prior to the show Tam carpet bombed the trello with like two dozen topics, so we will probably be in business for several weeks. Kodra participated in the very first GenCon Online and has lots of things to talk about regarding it. During the middle of this discussion we break into a side tangent about how we feel like Shadowrun would work well using the World of Darkness Storyteller system. Grace and Bel revisit Horizon Zero Dawn on the PC and talk about how much better the game feels with a mouse and keyboard. Ash talks about playing Gundam EX vs Maxiboost ON and this leads to a side discussion about Gundam Breaker. Bel talks about finishing Death Stranding and how emotionally connected he was to the characters in the game. Finally we dive into a discussion about games and companion apps and how a lot of tabletop gaming and the company fear of the internet shoots them in the foot.
So yesterday I made a post that is a bit out of the ordinary for my blog. Largely it was a thought experiment about whether or not we would actually get consoles this season. In a normal year I would take that both companies had announced a Holiday launch to be a done deal. However 2020 is the year when everything has been cancelled, sometimes rescheduled and often times cancelled again. We are not playing under normal circumstances and there are likely unforeseen supply chain issues that are being impacted by Covid-19. However regardless of that a Sony show happened yesterday and as they suggested there was no major PlayStation 5 news, but instead some discussion about things that had already been announced.
If you are curious about the entire show, then you can check out this link that should forward you right to the beginning of the broadcast. Of the things shown, I think Crash Bandicoot 4 was probably the most interesting to me. We have been in this time of reboots and re-imaginings, so I find it extremely interesting to get an official sequel to Crash Bandicoot: Warped from 1998. The gameplay looks to have evolved as well and I am pretty excited to get to play it. Additionally it appears that the game will be coming out for PlayStation 4 and won’t actually be a PS5 launch title. Availability to more players is always going to be a good thing, especially considering I think the PS5 will be in extremely short availability this year.
We also got to see more information about Godfall and while it still sorta looks like if Skyforge and Destiny had a kid, it appears there are also elements of Warframe factored in with your ability to find and unlock new “suits” with their own unique abilities. The designer giving the demo went out of his way to state that there would be no micro-transactions and that the game has all of its content on day one. This could be a good thing or a bad thing depending on how you look at it. I am hoping that means the game is something more akin to Diablo 3 in the way it grows and progresses, but even D3 released a Reaper of Souls expansion and a Necromancer DLC pack. The combat looks fun, so I will likely be checking this out on PC, because it doesn’t seem like the type of game I want to play on a console.
Other than watching the Sony show, I spent the majority of the night piddling around on the Shaman in World of Warcraft. I managed to ding 60 and say goodbye to the old world and move my way into Borean Tundra. I contemplated starting over in Howling Fjord because I like that zone significantly better, but the last character I ran over there seemed to level significantly more slowly. The quests are spread out and the hubs are less conducive to batching things up. I am still really enjoying the Elemental Shaman and up until this point I don’t feel squishy, which really helps the enjoyment of a caster.
All of that said… forward momentum on the Shaman is probably going to grind to a halt given that Horizon Zero Dawn complete edition releases on PC at some point this morning. I was able to log in and pre-load last night and I can see this more or less eating the rest of my free time. I played through the original game on PlayStation 4, but never really touched the DLC. My hope is that by replaying the experience of transitioning into the DLC will feel more seamless. I also think playing with a mouse and keyboard is going to make the bow combat feel significantly better. I’ve heard some weird issues with performance, so I am hoping that gets patched quickly. I’ve been running Death Stranding which uses the same engine so my hope is that I can at least get it to look as good as a PS4 Pro.
So… what does your weekend look like? Will you be dipping your toes into Horizon Zero Dawn? Drop me a line below with what you have planned.
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Today we have a press conference scheduled for the Sony Playstation 5, where in theory we are supposed to be getting the price it will be launching at as well as pre-orders opening. I say supposedly, because this is not the first time we have heard rumors through 4Chan sources stating that a price announce and pre-order are coming. Right now it feels like both Microsoft and Sony are playing an intricate bluff, with neither wanting to show their cards before the other. I feel like this is largely pointless given that to me Microsoft and Sony are pursuing two different strategies for this general.
It feels like Sony is very much setting up for the traditional console experience of wanting to push total units sold and with that total volume of software sold. Microsoft on the other hand seems to be rolling out a significantly more service based approach with its multiple tiers of product offerings in the form of the Xbox Series X, the rumored Lockhart, XCloud for those without devices and on all platforms the extremely strong offering that is Xbox Game Pass. Microsoft appears to care more about getting that monthly subscription from you and providing varied entry points to their ecosystem than they really do about “pushing iron”. It makes sense given that Microsoft has been shifting to service based solutions on the business side for years.
While we have played this game of cat and mouse on console reveals and the dates associated with them… I have to admit there have been a few seeds of doubt planted in my head. We know both consoles exist and are preparing to launch, but I do wonder if maybe the delaying tactics are not due to price competition but instead due to the fact that they are about to announce delays in shipping the hardware due to the ever present complications of Covid-19. No one wants to deliver that news to a public that has likely built up some seriously toxic expectations surrounding the ability to have a shiny new console sitting under their tree come Christmas morning.
With that I decided to do a bit of a thought experiment to determine how late we are on this announcement. I decided to mine available data through some careful google searching and figure out the key dates associated with the last two generations of consoles.
Xbox 360
Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 8/18/2005
Date Console Launched – 11/22/2005
PlayStation 3
Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 10/10/2006
Date Console Launched – 11/17/2006
PlayStation 4
Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 6/11/2013
Date Console Launched – 11/15/2013
Xbox One
Date Pre-Orders Opened Officially – 6/10/2013
Date Console Launched – 11/22/2013
So what can we take away from this. Firstly I think it is pretty clear when the launch window is going to be for new consoles. I would predict the viable dates for launch would be either 11/10/2020 or 11/17/2020 with myself personally leaning on that second date. Essentially an early November launch is critical because that first shipment of consoles is going to sell through in its entirety and retailers will be clamoring for a second shipment before Christmas. Given the reality of logistics that means early November is key so they can send shipment number two early in December.
With a target launch window, we go back to the problem that we currently have that pre-orders have yet to begin. We are very much not following the pattern experienced with the most recent generation. In that case both announced price of console and began pre-orders at E3 2013. We are looking to be setting up for something more akin to that of the 2005/2006 360 and PS3 launch. In both cases it was a Christmas plagued by console shortages that were not remedied until the second quarter of the following year.
If there are no delays and we don’t get an announcement pushing back the launch to first quarter of 2021, we are going to experience severe shortages of consoles for this holiday season. I feel like that is still a significant “if” because it seems like the clock is ticking on what would be a viable launch strategy. That said we are living in a different world than we were in 2013, with more and more things being handled digitally. Game Stop is not the juggernaut that it once was and Best Buy is seemingly struggling as well, so I have a feeling this is going to be the generation where the vast majority of console units are purchased online and drop shipped to the waiting hands of gamers.
That said this is also shaping up to be a console generation plagued by bots and scalpers. Right now we are dealing with constant shortages of the Nintendo Switch, a console that three years ago because each new shipment gets gobbled up by resellers. I expect that to largely be the norm going into this console generation, in that you will be fighting against an army of cleverly scripted bots that are trying to snag your console and sell back to you at a 50% mark up. So even if the consoles do in fact launch this year, it is highly unlikely that most of you reading this post are going to be playing with it for a few quarters.
Right now we roughly thirteen weeks away from a possible launch window for these consoles, and the clock is ticking. I personally have been prepped to put in my PlayStation 5 pre-order as soon as they open, because I figure I will have a day at most window of being able to secure one. I have a bunch of Discover cash back bonus sitting there waiting to hopefully blunt whatever the launch price ends up being. I hope the announcement today does in fact signal the opening of pre-orders, but there has been some significant messaging floating around from Sony trying to blunt the expectations, which leads me to personally believe that we are not going to get a price or an official launch window. Which leads me back to the original title of this post, are we in fact actually getting consoles this year?
The post Are We Getting Consoles This Year? appeared first on Tales of the Aggronaut.
