I imagine some here will be lucky enough to receive their physical copies on monday already, so feel free to toss your musings this way! My order's arriving digitally, so I still have a day and about 9 hours to go over here 'till the unlock, which will be early tuesday morning in my case and seems like a great way to start the day.

...please be a good open-world game...

Why not just wait a day?

I heard it's good.

The way Jeff was talking about it on the Bombcast really sold me. It's rare for Jeff to talk about a game with that much passion these days; ESPECIALLY when it comes to story in games.... I can't wait to play it.

In the comments of that review I saw a lot of people mention how it's amazing that Jeff gave it 5 stars, like it's this rarity for him to even like games. Kind of weird because I feel like Jeff gets fairly passionate about games he enjoys quite often, I think it's just that he doesn't write reviews a whole lot.

Either way I'll be playing it when it unlocks on the 1st of March for me. I should be finally done with NIOH by then (man that game is long) and I'm hoping it's every bit as good as everyone says it is. I'm especially curious about the story and hope there will be a cool twist like "oh man this whole planet was just one big abandoned tourist theme park all along!" or something. Maybe something even crazier like Enslaved: Odyssey to the West

Also oddly enough, waiting on this game is kinda getting me curious about playing Killzone Shadowfall for some insane reason and I hope this passes.

To make a thread? I save people's time and money by at least five minutes when I make this thread beforehand! Or I'm just too hyped for the game myself.

I don't know if you've played the previous ones, but it's certainly more like a traditional shooter, instead of Killzone 2's type of trench warfare. I suppose KZ3 was already like that as well. But the gameplay mostly being ok and the graphics still holding up for a launch PS4 game are kinda the only good things I have to say about it. Forgettable plot, mostly underwhelming voice acting and some gameplay sections that are kinda garbage. Jeff's review is pretty much on point.

@glots: I have never actually played a Killzone game before. I read up on the story at some point and surprisingly thought it was pretty interesting. Also something about the way Guerilla games look always piques my interest although I know better than to go anywhere closer than a Wiki to anything Killzone related. Going back to Horizon - have you played Enslaved? Because the more I think about it the more the two seem to have in common.

@humanity: Enslaved was one of my favorite games of last generation, but I think beyond the premise they aren't too similar. Enslaved is much more of an adventure game. Come to think of it, it did end exceptionally well though.

@humanity: I tried the demo on PS3 back when it launched 2010 and while I remember the setting looking interesting, the performance was pretty bad and that kinda soured my opinion on it. I've heard some good things about it, though, so I might go for the (assumingly best) pc-version at some point when it's on sale.

main character also reminds me of nariko at least in design. there does seem to be a bit of ninja theory dna in this. maybe aloy and a thunderjaw will trade "fuck you"s during a cutscene.

man this and possibly a switch/zelda is going to be rough on my wallet.

@glots: sony owns guerilla games so it's not coming to pc.

So the Horizon Quick Look was probably earmarked for the wrong day (today), right? Bummer, I was hoping to get one last round of impressions from the GB guys before deciding whether to buy the game or not. I still have my crippling NBA 2K addiction to deal with and picked up Titanfall 2 and Rise of the Tomb Raider for over 50% off in the latest PSN sale (and I still have both DLC portions of The Witcher 3 to block out time for despite having the season pass since launch) so I'm the opposite of games poor right now, but I love being a part of the zeitgeist when I can be and have always been a huge fan of Playstation exclusive games.

Most of what I've heard makes this game seem like it could be a ton of fun but the constant Far Cry comparisons put me off a bit since I didn't find Far Cry 4 all that engaging (it's the only one I've played). It also seems like the Waypoint staff is far less impressed with the world building than the world premise and finds the gameplay pretty repetitive, and I haven't heard too many similar opinions so I'm curious to see more extended footage of the game.

@nodima: it's going up 8am pst

@ripelivejam: ah, ok. I feel like the upcoming window is way less consistent than it used to be, I'm CST and most of the time it displays the time relevant to me but whenever it's something I'm really looking forward to it tends to be PST. Weird!

I'm pretty sure Glots was referring to Enslaved which as far as I know does have a PC version. It's not a bad game but it's a much better story. They had face mocap from Andy Serkis if I'm not mistaken.

@zevvion Well they're both games that take place in the distant future where civilization has fallen into disarray, people are living in primitive tribal cultures that makes use of technology salvaged from before the "fall" and they're fighting against robots.

Considering those are both somewhat unique situations the circumstances are pretty similar. In both cases I think the main questions are: where do the robots come from and what happened to the world?

@humanity: enslaved is on steam actually, at least in 'murica. was always curious about it. i have to check if i bought it whilst drunk during a steam sale.

anyway i'm mad it's not tuesday yet. curse you gershman!!!

So

Far Cry: Tomb Raider or Tomb Raider: Far Cry?

@ripelivejam: Enslaved was for a dollar in HumbleBundle 2 weeks ago. I bought and finished it. It's a fun game. There are some similarities - Earth after some kind of apocalypse, machines, searching for purpose of those machines.

@humanity: I agree, I guess this was more for how he was describing the story. Jeff has been on record saying that 99% video game stories are terrible, so to see him gush about the story in this game surprised me. He definitely was passionate about games like Titanfall 2, DOOM, and The Witness last year.

Recently, games got better than usual and it's pretty overwhelming, time wise. I just don't have the time to play all of them. I just started playing FF XV a week ago and Mass Effect Andromeda, Nier Automata and Persona 5 are coming out soon. Not to mention I need to get Nioh, too. So I'm kinda glad the QL discouraged me from getting this game.

@whatshisface: Nioh will last you about 60 hours probably. I know I won't be satisfied myself playing Andromeda just once, so that will be another 60+ hours. And now I'm playing Fallout 4 again like some asshole. Not enough time indeed.

@zevvion: Why would anyone willingly play Fallout 4?

EDIT: I mean for the second time. Heck, even for the first time. That is one terrible game.

Played about two hours now and it seems pretty good this early on already, as expected! Looks real good too, can only imagine how pretty it'd be on 4K display.

I haven't noticed any problems with the lipsync, so I imagine that got patched for the release. One possible "complaint" so far would be that the quest icons are showing on the screen, despite the fact that I've turned off every option related to quest objectives. My current lazy-self won't stop playing the game even if I can't turn those off completely, but I wouldn't mind just trying to navigate on my own as well. I did that for Dishonored 2 as the most recent example and it made the game more fun. Nevermind, guess I can just deactivate the quest to prevent it from showing!

I like the setting and stuff and what they're going for, but the open world fatigue is real man. Also just don't like Bow combat at all. It never feels satisfying to me. I wish she had a slow firing gun instead or something.

Ok just started it. Why the fuck can you skip cutscenes by pressing X and it doesn't even ask for a confirmation. This is bullshit.

@humanity: Fallout 4 is a hidden gem. I agree it's not a good game on its own, but with mods it really shines.

Is anyone else having framerate issues? I'm running the latest patch on PS4 Pro and set it to favor performance and there is so much hitching. The Digital Foundry analysis showed the game to be mostly smooth but man this thing barely stays above 20 FPS at times.

I have preordered this game even though im really unsure about it, i have to find out! On one hand this seems like the perfect game for me, A mix of Tomb raider and Enslaved and on the other hand it seems like a bland Far cry clone. I have never been so divided about a game before buying it.

I think the DF analysis was made before the release of the day one patch, so it's possible something went wrong? Because as you said, the version they tested had little to no trouble keeping up and the patch was supposed to improve on that and put the game beyond 30 fps on Pro. To be clear, you are on a 1080p TV, right? Have you tried the favor resolution mode as well?

@quipido: The TV shouldnt matter in any way.

Are you sure? My understanding is selecting a performance mode in games that let you is there specificaly for 1080p screens, as it bumps the resolution to that number - which would be really unfortunate on a 4K TV.

1080p on an 4k screen is no problem and 4k on an 1080p screen is no problem. The TV or the PS4 scale the picture very easy between those resolutions. The option is there to focus performance instead of the better anti aliasing/filtering that 4k rendering gives. Dont let the marketing term "4k" trick you into thinkng its only for 4k TVs. Theres infact very little difference between playing a game in "4k mode" on an 1080p vs 4k TV.

Played for maybe 4-5 hours by now and haven't had any problems here, been a steady 30 all-around.

Game continues to look gorgeous as hell and I still haven't even seen other landscapes. Some of the facial animations, though...lipsync still seems ok, but some side characters look a tad janky. Not a big problem, just one of those odd little mishaps in a game that otherwise looks so good. Liking the combat a lot as well, which seems demanding enough for me on the Hard setting.

No it's not.

intro was surprisingly a little touching. rost sounds a bit like peter cullen. hard to believe they got something this gorgeous running on ps4; there has to be some wizardy involved. some stuff was photorealistic and i actually feel these are some of the best faces to appear in any game ever (guess im mostly alone on that front) havent run into lipsync jank yet and was starting to wonder if they patched it. think the quick look unfortunately sold the game short but we'll see as i go along.

I was worried after hearing all the FC comparisons (I've never been able to finish a FC game) but the final nail in the coffin was struck after watching the quick look. The way the crafting works, stealth that's only used to set up combat (instead of being an actual option to avoid fighting), and especially how lackluster fighting human enemies seemed compared to how cool fighting the robots looked confirmed my fears.

This is a game I'd rather watch than play, solely to experience the story a la Uncharted 4, the Yakuza series, the new Zelda, etc. Which is fine, not every game is for me. It's just a bummer that I've felt like this about a good amount of recently released games this past year. The above mentioned ones, the mainline FPS', Nioh all do not interest me enough to play them but hey, Torment 2 comes out today.

That or people annoyed that they've already blown their game budget for a couple of months, so trying to convince themselves Horizon is crap.

I'll probably buy a digital version of the game when I get home. I was on the fence when it came to this game for a while, I never got into the Far Cry games and that comparison made me a little hesitant. I was really tempted to preorder when I saw the 5-star review from Jeff, but I decided to wait and the QL combined with a really positive reception of the game have sold me.

I got mine yesterday. I agree with Jeff's review. Fantastic game so far.

Excellent way of sidestepping every legit criticism as being butthurt.

I have a PS4 Pro and the money to buy games for it, by the way.

Probably.

that QL did not show this game in the best light. Horizon is pretty awesome so far. it's like if the witcher 3 QL was taking a look at gwent for half an hour then walking around the first area of the game (white orchard?) for 10 minutes, fighting a bandit for a minute and calling it a day.

First hour was pretty good. Nice smooth intro to characters and gameplay. Can't wait to get home and play more.

@snowypliskin: I've got a decent gaming laptop but mainly game on the PS4. After watching videos I feel "meh" about it like I similarly feel about the other games I mentioned in my post. To even out other console exclusives I have even less interest in the new Gears game and have fallen off Halo hard since 4.

This game just isn't for me (which I'm bummed at because the world and story looks cool). It looks like a quality game though, so cheers.

@snowypliskin:

Yes, you are wrong.

I just got a the LG B6 (55" OLED) and was pretty excited to play this on my PS4 Pro. I'm about 2 hours in and it is not disappointing so far; I've never been so stunned by visuals in a game. I'm not sure how they got this thing to render in 2k at 30fps but holy crap does it look gorgeous on that TV. I'm enjoying the setup and mechanics so far, my only gripe is I think the voice acting and dialogue can be a little subpar sometimes.

This game makes me want to get a 4k HDR tv, it's beautiful. I haven't played all that much of the game, I only finished the first side quest, but so far I really like it.

It sure is pretty. I'm getting used the combat still, but it feels pretty solid. The only thing bothering me comes from my long standing open world fatigue: having to run from mission to mission is super boring. I grit my teeth through it when I played through Watch Dogs 2 earlier this year, and I'm trying to do the same here. I applaud Guerrilla for the world they created, but damn if I'm not put off by having to run everywhere all the time, just to play the fucking game.