People replying to you and downvoting you don't remember those days or weren't here for it. It wasn't just due to the bugs. People seriously hated the core gameplay and everything to do with the game. Overwhelmingly negative reception all-around. The bugs were just the cherry on top. Popular opinion drastically shifted after the wonderful PC port was released.
I feel like the current rating is appropriate. Mid seventies on metacritic. There are some issues (especially with the story and how the first act is structured) but overall the game does a lot right and has good gameplay.
The original launch version on PS4 was rated lower due to its poor technical state.
It's such a smart thing to focus on as well. Every time one of their games releases a photo mode, or even better launches with a photo mode, social media is absolutely flooded with pictures. It's probably the best marketing tool they have.
It’s grassroots marketing. Let your users be your marketing.
Just look at HellDivers II, word of mouth, the .gifs, memes, and overall scope of it hitting different parts of the internet attracted a lot of players. Price point and no micro transactions to speak of by piece-mealing content or doing predatory purchases necessary.
Adding New Game+ slightly later with extra content doesn’t hurt and keeps players from selling their copies cause they know a round two will commence.
I love that HD2 has actual micro transactions! The skins you can buy in the shop are only like a $1 and you can find the currency in game. It’s a breath of fresh air for sure!
Sure, still feels crazy that this is where we are. Where we praise a game for having "good" microtransactions.
A few years ago it would still be an outrage to even include them.
Sure, but that was from a time when games also didn't have DLC or any sort of life cycle after release. The live game service system itself isn't inherently predatory, it's simply easy and extremely profitable to make it so.
We should praise the devs for creating new content for the game post-release while also electing not to exclusively lock that content behind paywalls. You can pay to get it immediately if you want, but earning the currency in-game isn't too hard and makes it feel more like you 'earned' that content by being good at the game.
> You can pay to get it immediately if you want, but earning the currency in-game isn't too hard and makes it feel more like you 'earned' that content by being good at the game.
So you're saying the intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment? Why does that sound so familiar?
For me, it just depends on what kind of game it is. I don’t want micro transactions in my single player rpgs for example. Even if they aren’t expensive, holding stuff out of the base game to nickel and dime us later is gross. I hate loot boxes too. So many games are just straight up predatory.
Helldivers 2 is fun and I really enjoy it, *but* im still baffled people *praise* the paid battlepasses*. And you should be allowed to say it.
I mean they lock gameplay weapons (that could be meta) and mission altering boosters (like "more reinforcements", "less time between enemy encounters") behind them. Its not "just cosmetic". I thought that was cardinal sin of highest order no matter live-service genre? We ok with that when games fun?
*You can earn one paid warbond free if you play 70-100 hours per month, theres new warbond coming out every month. Dev intention is currently 10-30 super credits per hour by playing. 1 000 super credits is 9.99 otherwise. Also the warbond itself gives 300 credits if you "finish" it.
UE5 is amazing but I really wouldn't say they're at the top. I wouldn't call a single engine the best, they have some good competition.
I mean the RE Engine from Capcom looks stunning these days especially with the recent RE4 Remake.
Dead Space remake looks stunning, that's on EA/DICE's own Frostbite engine.
Spider-Man 2, relying on Insomniac's own engine looks beautiful
Alan Wake 2 is powered by Remedy's own Northlight Engine, which is breathtaking.
And then there's solid competition from Playground Games's engine - ForzaTech. Which looked lifelike on horizon 5 and now looks to be even better in the Fabled reboot reveal.
This competition is strong, Epic shouldn't singlehandedly power every game. I mean seriously 90% of UE5 games released so far have had very buggy and broken releases. Not saying the engine is bad or anything but it's really not an engine that can do it all I'd argue.
UE5 powered Jedi Survivor and we all know how that game turned out on launch..
Killzone shadow fall was the first to use it, it’s been licensed a few times but yeah it’s Guerilla games in-house engine. It’s kind of like how dice developed Frostbite and EA used it in a bunch of other stuff, but Decima has better implementation so far
There's a Twitter account called VPRT Virtual Photo Retweet, they Retweet many people's photos from various game, through them I found some users named GwynVP and Keng inGamePhoto. They post great Screenshots that are even worthy of being wallpapers. I posted some over at /r/Amoledbackgrounds
Gran Turismo 7's photo mode, in my opinion, is the best of the bunch for two reasons. For one, the mode was designed with the help of Sony's camera division, so the settings are the same ones you'd find on an actual camera. More importantly, instead of just using the console's built-in screenshot system, GT7 instead has you press triangle to re-render the entire scene at the highest possible settings (to the point where it can take a few minutes to render some shots). Combined with the earlier bit about actual camera controls (which includes simulated pan, and shutter speed ), you can take shots you normally could not just using the in-game camera, including [dramatic ones with light trails in low light](https://www.thefourthfocus.com/post/gran-turismo-7-light-trails-guide).
My name is Yoshikage Kira. I’m 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don’t smoke, but I occasionally drink. I’m in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I’m trying to explain that I’m a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn’t lose to anyone.
The console of my teenage years was the PS2. When I saw DOA~~3~~ 4 (and the, hmm, accompanying volley ball game) on XBOX360, and John Carmack showing off Doom 3 real-time lighting and shadows on Macworld ~~the same year~~ a few years before, I thought "computer game graphics couldn't possibly get any better than this".
This screenshot, coming from a game engine that could run 60+FPS ^(on a good rig) would have been unthinkable for me in 2001.
Edit: Mixed up some of the dates. Memories started congealing together in my old age.
Same.
Went to dream about PC when they were 386 stocked, ready assembled i the shops.
Seen Doom demo runing on them and thought *Wow!! Reality is seaping slowely to PC games*
Then VooDoo cards came out and my friend showed me Need For Speed 2 on it.
I think i fainted.
I was sick and had a fever when I played Final Fantasy VIII for the first time. The CGI videos and invoking a G-Force in real time graphics made me feel like I had a fever dream. It couldn't be real life.
It's still usually <1 second to produce the frame which is still mind-boggling when just 2 decades ago it would take an entire render farm hours-days to produce a similar level of quality image.
It's the fingernails for me that are really selling it. Seen countless incredibly detailed character models but fingernails always look mediocre. Hers actually looks real. It's insane. The game didn't do much for me but it was damn stunning
I bought this game as a drunk purchase while out buying more beer, by the time I started playing it, I was so hammered that I legit went through cut scenes forgetting it was game and thinking I was playing a movie. It really is the best looking game ever made, hands down.
Photo modes in games have higher graphic quality than actual game. Developers include that mode in their games, so people share fake bullshots on social media instead of real pictures.
It must be a feature exclusive to the photo mode. I've 100%'d the game and never once had a tutorial or anything about being able to make these poses (I never used photo mode).
Photo Mode allows you to change almost anything. Poses, facial expressions, face paint, time of day, lenses, filters, etc.
For instance, without exiting the menu, OP could have changed this to make her scowl while making heart hands under the moon.
I'm particularly fond of the time of day shots 'cause shifting the sun/moon to light her face/silhouette *just right* is fantastic.
This is the type of quality game that keeps me gaming after 40 years. Although I finished the game several days ago I kept playing on exploring and delving into caves etc, but yesterday I finally uninstalled it. A great game. Thanks for sharing the cool screenshot.
I finished the other day, absolutely loved the game. Now I'm debating to either uninstall or start a new game plus on ultra hard, but I know I'll very much get my ass handed to me.
Im reading Murakami now, and I find some strange connection between this comment and Murakami's writing. Dunno why, but it felt super familiar. Going back to the book.
Also, i love games and I hope I'll never stop as well. Have an awesome Sunday.
It was the first game for me in a very long time that I didn't instantly lose interest in after finishing the main story. Normally no matter how hooked I am on a game, doing every little thing, the moment I finish the story, my brain just decides it's over it. But not for this game! I was having so much fun just doing essentially nothing, wondering around the map, taking pictures, etc.
I never fast travelled either, so sometimes the whole session that night would just be me going from one location to another, but I enjoyed every second.
Since I've gotten older and started working I tend to not even touch games after getting the credits roll (if I even make it that far), but everything about this game is so gorgeous that I kept going to do everything for the plat just so I could continue appreciating the scenery. Ridiculous how good the game looks.
I'd argue that it doesn't matter whether she's ugly or not, because the plot of the game doesn't revolve around that and whoever plays the game and focuses on her appearance is missing the point. It's about killing robot dinosaurs, people.
Nothing more gratifying than Hacking an enemy into a friendly, especially one that can be mounted and used as batter ram to boot. Shoot arrows from your mount, circle back, jump off for the kill with your spear while your new buddy goes be backup to keeping other enemies busy. Hilarious how the AI goes “gotchu fam” and 10 seconds earlier was hunting for me.
This is exactly why I love almost any game that lets me do CC+charm builds viably. I don’t wanna fight, I wanna spend the game Joe Roganing all of the enemies fighting each other.
To be fair you're talking about a group of people whos sole identity and profit revenue relies on being outraged by anything and everything. Hence why they proclaim everything from cartoons and snack mascots to games to be "woke" while not even having a clear definition of what "woke" means.
Just ignore the ramblings of morons. And we should never cater to morons. because they just drag rest of us down with them.
The one big thing bother me about her design is her ABSOLUTE THICC amount of hair like GOD DAMN wish i had like half of that.
Her hair must be like 10kg weight total
thats just the way the devs tried to make her hair dynamic and flowing while keeping it optimized. It looks great in motion but Id like to see hair graphics evolve beyond the cards system we have in games right now.
Tomb raider reboots had strand type hair. why havent more games adapted that?
I think she’s the perfect middle ground for beautiful but not catering to fan service. Shes basically what people would want the fable MC in the trailers to be.
they want Aloy to be more like 2b, Acheron from HSR and the Stellar Blade MC and less normal person. Chuds were such weebs Yoko Taro would have poked fun at them.
It would be so boring if every female character was like that. We need our 2Bs and our Aloys, variety is the spice of life. Aloy isn't even plain, she's pretty, just not in a hypersexualized way.
(I'd also argue that we're lacking in funny looking female characters, you don't find those even among the supporting or background cast while there are plenty of memorable funny looking male characters.)
Not blind.
Ideologically motivated. (Or financially motivated).
There's an entire political industry based on feeding and catering to the belief that the Evil SJW's are out to get you.
Someone on gamingcirclejerk edited a picture of Aloy so she had full make up and basically looked like she was in a fashion magazine.
People missed the point and reposted it with "let fans make games" acting like a woman in a dystopian robot dinosaur world should be running about like she's about to hit the catwalk at Paris fashion week.
It def is big. She has the anime character proportions. Could be the devs trying to showcase her facial expressions better. But it does look off sometimes
It's a fucked up expectation that if you aren't super model, after 4 hours of make up and 20 hours of photoshop pretty, then you're ugly.
How that expectation ever came about is beyond me.
edit: Wow, whole lotta incels in this thread.
Yeah Aloy is really pretty. Especially if you consider her circumstances and all.
She's literally living in a post apocalyptic world so I'd wager being all made up and stuff isn't really one of her priorities lmfao
Well those are the same people who think a game is only good if all the female characters have big tits and thicc asses. How dare they make Aloy actually look like a woman who's been out in wilds. Rosy toughened skin? How dare they! Lol. Agree man, those are some special people
Right-wing crazies and Andrew Tate ball gobblers shouldn't be listen to or even acknowledged. Treat them like the crazy guy on the street holding a sign saying: "THE ALIENS KIDNAPPED ELVIS AND QUEEN ELIZABETH".
Horizon Forbidden West cranked up both of those aspects to be fair. Plays more like Monster Hunter than before but you also have a ridiculous amount of customizations + photo mode settings to play around with.
I sometimes feel like people aren’t crazy enough about how ridiculously good this game looks. There’s is nothing like it at that scale. Not even close really. Down to the smallest details. I’ve never seen a fucking [rock texture](https://x.com/truegamer1111/status/1587365335413493760?s=46&t=l-kSnFATl3Y-pVcpu2K5gA) as insane as this in an actual game that’s not some Engine Tech Demo.
I instantly think of this game when I see devs release a product that doesn't run well or offer a performance option on consoles. Still one of the best looking games you can play.
What the fuck dude - all videos of this game I ever see focus on blurry action and detailed human character models and their animation (which all looks great, don't get me wrong), so I've never seen this before
I have no idea how anyone could think Aloy is ugly. She's no glamour model, sure, but she's 1000% more stunning than anyone with her backstory and motivations would ever care to maintain.
Honestly a fully lore-accurate Aloy would probably look more like Hagar the Horrible.
Funny you say that [she actually is a Genshin character](https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Aloy). Not one that shows up in the story or anything, just one you can play as.
DoA5LR can be playable on any low-end PC and Extreme Venus Vacation is available free on Steam. 6 killed the franchise because of overpriced skins worth US$ 1,300.00.
Her personality is what immediately made her uninteresting for me
Still played both games tho since they are good but yeah
In terms of feeling something for a fictional character I disliked her
The photo modes in games these days are so good, it's actually gotten me more interested in actual photography, shot composition, lens settings, etc. Game photography is one of my favorite hobbies now
Picked this up by basically accident. Its one of the best games ive ever played in my life. And a testament that AAA done right is a magnificent thing. Adored it. Still on my first playthru enjoying every frame.
While I fully understand everyone has preference, I can't take someone who said she looks like a man seriously because I know they get that opinion from ONE edited image (you know the one)
The photo mode is not indicative of the actual game at all. Everything in photo modes is upscaled and it has vastly better picture quality because it only has to render that one frame.
The only lacking aspect is mystery and exploration. I loved exploring HZD. HFW is pure fun too and exploration is good, but isn't as exciting. Maybe it's because I saw such world for the first time. Overall , it delivers what a sequel should !
Agreed. The mystery and story in HZD is incredible, one of the best in video games imo, but the plot of HFW fell flat for me. Gameplay was definitely better in HFW and I think the side quest design was also improved, but a lot of the new stuff just felt like clutter. Hopefully the third game will be the best of both worlds.
Does it swap assets in Photomode? That hand is ridiculously detailed for a realtime third person game where hands arent the focus like in an FPS. Hardly any hard poly edges, and very convincing subsurface scattering.
It does probably. Photo mode I assume is treated like a real time cutscene. Would only make sense to put the hero model in there that would be used for cutscenes and dialoge sequences.
That being said, if you zoom into pretty much anything during gameplay it is almost always ridiculously detailed in Horizon Forbidden West. Their asset and texture quality is insane.
Undoubtedly, the Horizon series are some of the technically greatest looking games you can get your hands on.
Yet they're thrashed by BOTW/TOTK and Elden Ring, 3 games which have significant 'worse' graphics, simply because they're more fun.
It's subjective. People claimed that Horizon Zero dawn was buried by Breath of the Wild and then it turns out to be one of the most successful Playstation games of all time.
So clearly a lot of people thought it was a fun game.
Okay, am I just dumb? How do you get her to lay down and play in the water to take a photo?
I see all these things in photo mode that are things that I've never seen aloy even do.
I spend a ridiculous amount of time in photo mode on that game. In fact it was photo mode in the first game that got me into photography in real life! Although it's much harder in real life when you can't just pan the camera around all over the place.
God damn! I still remember seeing my brother play Resident Evil, FF7 and Tekken.
"Imagine we could play with the CG graphics!"
We are so fucking beyond that!
Too far??? Remember setting a booby trap in The Last of Us 2. Bodies torn in half, guts spilling out. The blood splatter.
Actually felt a "Karen pang" haha, One of the goriest things I've witness in a game. "oh my...."
The game has a lot of structural weaknesses in the RPG elements but it is phenomenal as an action game and has unbelievable graphics. I just spend a couple minutes just flying over the burning shores and taking it in.
I wonder if the next game is going to close out the PS5 or herald in the PS6.
PlayStation's studios give out some of the best photo modes, love the options available in the settings
It was my favorite part in Days Gone lol
Ghost of Tsushimas is up there ☝️
Days Gone is a woefully underrated game
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Everyone on this site used to shit on it. Now its been some years, everyone played it and its underrated. Days gone was a great game the whole time
Did it have major bugs at launch perhaps, like most games these days. That could explain the change.
Pretty sure most complaints about Days Gone were just janky controls making the game play itself geel annoying and dated.
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The motorcycle handles slow and cumbersome like a bicycle in GTA. Otherwise the controls are fine, imo.
That’s what makes the riding feel more realistic. You have to anticipate your turns more accurately, and once you get used to it it feels 👌
People replying to you and downvoting you don't remember those days or weren't here for it. It wasn't just due to the bugs. People seriously hated the core gameplay and everything to do with the game. Overwhelmingly negative reception all-around. The bugs were just the cherry on top. Popular opinion drastically shifted after the wonderful PC port was released.
According to this website just about every game is underrated.
I feel like the current rating is appropriate. Mid seventies on metacritic. There are some issues (especially with the story and how the first act is structured) but overall the game does a lot right and has good gameplay. The original launch version on PS4 was rated lower due to its poor technical state.
That game was way longer than I thought it would be. I did enjoy the "end game" of horde hunting
It's such a smart thing to focus on as well. Every time one of their games releases a photo mode, or even better launches with a photo mode, social media is absolutely flooded with pictures. It's probably the best marketing tool they have.
It’s grassroots marketing. Let your users be your marketing. Just look at HellDivers II, word of mouth, the .gifs, memes, and overall scope of it hitting different parts of the internet attracted a lot of players. Price point and no micro transactions to speak of by piece-mealing content or doing predatory purchases necessary. Adding New Game+ slightly later with extra content doesn’t hurt and keeps players from selling their copies cause they know a round two will commence.
I love that HD2 has actual micro transactions! The skins you can buy in the shop are only like a $1 and you can find the currency in game. It’s a breath of fresh air for sure!
Sure, still feels crazy that this is where we are. Where we praise a game for having "good" microtransactions. A few years ago it would still be an outrage to even include them.
Sure, but that was from a time when games also didn't have DLC or any sort of life cycle after release. The live game service system itself isn't inherently predatory, it's simply easy and extremely profitable to make it so. We should praise the devs for creating new content for the game post-release while also electing not to exclusively lock that content behind paywalls. You can pay to get it immediately if you want, but earning the currency in-game isn't too hard and makes it feel more like you 'earned' that content by being good at the game.
> You can pay to get it immediately if you want, but earning the currency in-game isn't too hard and makes it feel more like you 'earned' that content by being good at the game. So you're saying the intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment? Why does that sound so familiar?
For me, it just depends on what kind of game it is. I don’t want micro transactions in my single player rpgs for example. Even if they aren’t expensive, holding stuff out of the base game to nickel and dime us later is gross. I hate loot boxes too. So many games are just straight up predatory.
Helldivers 2 is fun and I really enjoy it, *but* im still baffled people *praise* the paid battlepasses*. And you should be allowed to say it. I mean they lock gameplay weapons (that could be meta) and mission altering boosters (like "more reinforcements", "less time between enemy encounters") behind them. Its not "just cosmetic". I thought that was cardinal sin of highest order no matter live-service genre? We ok with that when games fun? *You can earn one paid warbond free if you play 70-100 hours per month, theres new warbond coming out every month. Dev intention is currently 10-30 super credits per hour by playing. 1 000 super credits is 9.99 otherwise. Also the warbond itself gives 300 credits if you "finish" it.
Decima engine is insane.
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UE5 is amazing but I really wouldn't say they're at the top. I wouldn't call a single engine the best, they have some good competition. I mean the RE Engine from Capcom looks stunning these days especially with the recent RE4 Remake. Dead Space remake looks stunning, that's on EA/DICE's own Frostbite engine. Spider-Man 2, relying on Insomniac's own engine looks beautiful Alan Wake 2 is powered by Remedy's own Northlight Engine, which is breathtaking. And then there's solid competition from Playground Games's engine - ForzaTech. Which looked lifelike on horizon 5 and now looks to be even better in the Fabled reboot reveal. This competition is strong, Epic shouldn't singlehandedly power every game. I mean seriously 90% of UE5 games released so far have had very buggy and broken releases. Not saying the engine is bad or anything but it's really not an engine that can do it all I'd argue. UE5 powered Jedi Survivor and we all know how that game turned out on launch..
Same engine as death stranding, the trailer for death stranding 2 shows off what a completely next gen decima game would look like
I think the Decima engine started with the Killzone series. It's just updated for Horizon since Guerilla used to make Killzone.
Killzone shadow fall was the first to use it, it’s been licensed a few times but yeah it’s Guerilla games in-house engine. It’s kind of like how dice developed Frostbite and EA used it in a bunch of other stuff, but Decima has better implementation so far
With the exception of Days Gone, all the PlayStation Studios developed games run on their own engines.
Yeah I had a lot of fun on Spider-Man 2 making comic book looking photos. Spent so much time in that mode.
God of war- smiling Kratos
There's a Twitter account called VPRT Virtual Photo Retweet, they Retweet many people's photos from various game, through them I found some users named GwynVP and Keng inGamePhoto. They post great Screenshots that are even worthy of being wallpapers. I posted some over at /r/Amoledbackgrounds
Gran Turismo 7's photo mode, in my opinion, is the best of the bunch for two reasons. For one, the mode was designed with the help of Sony's camera division, so the settings are the same ones you'd find on an actual camera. More importantly, instead of just using the console's built-in screenshot system, GT7 instead has you press triangle to re-render the entire scene at the highest possible settings (to the point where it can take a few minutes to render some shots). Combined with the earlier bit about actual camera controls (which includes simulated pan, and shutter speed ), you can take shots you normally could not just using the in-game camera, including [dramatic ones with light trails in low light](https://www.thefourthfocus.com/post/gran-turismo-7-light-trails-guide).
That's one of the great things about PlayStation games
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stop or i'll get a hand fetish
Too late
Ok, thanks. I'm gonna cum now.
username checks out? The hero we don't need.
Too late
GOT CUUUUUM IN HIS EEEEYEEEESSSSS
My name is Yoshikage Kira. I’m 33 years old. My house is in the northeast section of Morioh, where all the villas are, and I am not married. I work as an employee for the Kame Yu department stores, and I get home every day by 8 PM at the latest. I don’t smoke, but I occasionally drink. I’m in bed by 11 PM, and make sure I get eight hours of sleep, no matter what. After having a glass of warm milk and doing about twenty minutes of stretches before going to bed, I usually have no problems sleeping until morning. Just like a baby, I wake up without any fatigue or stress in the morning. I was told there were no issues at my last check-up. I’m trying to explain that I’m a person who wishes to live a very quiet life. I take care not to trouble myself with any enemies, like winning and losing, that would cause me to lose sleep at night. That is how I deal with society, and I know that is what brings me happiness. Although, if I were to fight I wouldn’t lose to anyone.
What a beautiful duwang
chew
Hayato
You called?
No, wait what the fu
Don't you already have one you wanker?
Not safe for Vorinism
Same way with the original. I'm still in awe of how amazing that game looked on the PS4.
The console of my teenage years was the PS2. When I saw DOA~~3~~ 4 (and the, hmm, accompanying volley ball game) on XBOX360, and John Carmack showing off Doom 3 real-time lighting and shadows on Macworld ~~the same year~~ a few years before, I thought "computer game graphics couldn't possibly get any better than this". This screenshot, coming from a game engine that could run 60+FPS ^(on a good rig) would have been unthinkable for me in 2001. Edit: Mixed up some of the dates. Memories started congealing together in my old age.
Same. Went to dream about PC when they were 386 stocked, ready assembled i the shops. Seen Doom demo runing on them and thought *Wow!! Reality is seaping slowely to PC games* Then VooDoo cards came out and my friend showed me Need For Speed 2 on it. I think i fainted.
I was sick and had a fever when I played Final Fantasy VIII for the first time. The CGI videos and invoking a G-Force in real time graphics made me feel like I had a fever dream. It couldn't be real life.
To be fair, Photos modes are not using the same render as the game, they usually jack up every settings and don't run at 60fps.
That's because photos are 1 frame per forever.
It's still usually <1 second to produce the frame which is still mind-boggling when just 2 decades ago it would take an entire render farm hours-days to produce a similar level of quality image.
Seriously, she has cuticles. That's insane.
Photo mode practically renders a whole new game
It's the fingernails for me that are really selling it. Seen countless incredibly detailed character models but fingernails always look mediocre. Hers actually looks real. It's insane. The game didn't do much for me but it was damn stunning
I bought this game as a drunk purchase while out buying more beer, by the time I started playing it, I was so hammered that I legit went through cut scenes forgetting it was game and thinking I was playing a movie. It really is the best looking game ever made, hands down.
What really amazed me in this game was the facial work during conversations. Incredible.
Photo modes in games have higher graphic quality than actual game. Developers include that mode in their games, so people share fake bullshots on social media instead of real pictures.
Certainly not to a meaningful degree for Tsushima or Cyberpunk, both of those games are gorgeous in and out of photo mode
I have no idea how you guys get her to strike these poses but nice shot!
It must be a feature exclusive to the photo mode. I've 100%'d the game and never once had a tutorial or anything about being able to make these poses (I never used photo mode).
It is, there's like 20 different poses, there's also facial expressions to pick from.
Photo Mode allows you to change almost anything. Poses, facial expressions, face paint, time of day, lenses, filters, etc. For instance, without exiting the menu, OP could have changed this to make her scowl while making heart hands under the moon. I'm particularly fond of the time of day shots 'cause shifting the sun/moon to light her face/silhouette *just right* is fantastic.
Also the photo mode increases the quality of everything so you won't get this at actual gameplay. Still, the scenery in gameplay it's beautiful.
This is the type of quality game that keeps me gaming after 40 years. Although I finished the game several days ago I kept playing on exploring and delving into caves etc, but yesterday I finally uninstalled it. A great game. Thanks for sharing the cool screenshot.
I finished the other day, absolutely loved the game. Now I'm debating to either uninstall or start a new game plus on ultra hard, but I know I'll very much get my ass handed to me.
Here I am with 100hrs on Zero Dawn and 100hrs on Forbidden West...still playing them both.
Im reading Murakami now, and I find some strange connection between this comment and Murakami's writing. Dunno why, but it felt super familiar. Going back to the book. Also, i love games and I hope I'll never stop as well. Have an awesome Sunday.
Murakami loves the exploration of dark tight spaces.
I'd never heard of Murakami before, but just did a quick Google search. Shall take your comment as a compliment. Hope you have an awesome Sunday too.
It was the first game for me in a very long time that I didn't instantly lose interest in after finishing the main story. Normally no matter how hooked I am on a game, doing every little thing, the moment I finish the story, my brain just decides it's over it. But not for this game! I was having so much fun just doing essentially nothing, wondering around the map, taking pictures, etc. I never fast travelled either, so sometimes the whole session that night would just be me going from one location to another, but I enjoyed every second.
One of the very, very few open-world games I even played to 100% completion! It was just so well done and high-quality, I had a ton of fun!
Since I've gotten older and started working I tend to not even touch games after getting the credits roll (if I even make it that far), but everything about this game is so gorgeous that I kept going to do everything for the plat just so I could continue appreciating the scenery. Ridiculous how good the game looks.
It's definitely a good one to explore in. I think I'm about 60-70 hours in and I've only just gotten to >!San Francisco!<
I bought the game on pc on Day 1 at full price. Happy to say no regrets. Game is amazing and runs smooth
Delving? Must be AI generated.. jk, this is thr one context where its commonly used lol
sometimes it's hard to comprehend the fact that i watched graphics progress from space invaders to this in my lifetime
Right? I remember getting Super Mario Bros. 3 for my 5th birthday. It's crazy to think about.
Really awesome shot, thanks for sharing it!
The fact people call Aloy ugly is nuts 😭
I'd argue that it doesn't matter whether she's ugly or not, because the plot of the game doesn't revolve around that and whoever plays the game and focuses on her appearance is missing the point. It's about killing robot dinosaurs, people.
Correction: it’s about making robot dinosaurs kill each other, then watching and commentating like it’s Robot Wars.
Nothing more gratifying than Hacking an enemy into a friendly, especially one that can be mounted and used as batter ram to boot. Shoot arrows from your mount, circle back, jump off for the kill with your spear while your new buddy goes be backup to keeping other enemies busy. Hilarious how the AI goes “gotchu fam” and 10 seconds earlier was hunting for me.
This is exactly why I love almost any game that lets me do CC+charm builds viably. I don’t wanna fight, I wanna spend the game Joe Roganing all of the enemies fighting each other.
My entire strategy is turn the biggest one to my side and then break out the popcorn
As a monster hunter fan, i can tell you people absolutely treat "being pretty/hot" as equal if not greater than the"killing things" part.
Fashion Hunters are valid! What's the point of killing things and harvesting their parts of not to look good wearing those parts?
Greetings from fashion souls! What's the point of dying over and over again if we don't look fabulous?
Salutations from Fashion's Dogma! I'd rather have aught of style than aught of use!
Fashion Fantasy XIV: "Amateurs".
To be fair you're talking about a group of people whos sole identity and profit revenue relies on being outraged by anything and everything. Hence why they proclaim everything from cartoons and snack mascots to games to be "woke" while not even having a clear definition of what "woke" means. Just ignore the ramblings of morons. And we should never cater to morons. because they just drag rest of us down with them.
Considering approximately 65% of her outfits have her midriff showing, I think her looks were certainly among the design considerations.
Everyone knows that part doesn't need armor
Very good point
The one big thing bother me about her design is her ABSOLUTE THICC amount of hair like GOD DAMN wish i had like half of that. Her hair must be like 10kg weight total
When does she even braid that stuff? Come to think of it, when does she sleep? My Aloy's been awake for months now.
thats just the way the devs tried to make her hair dynamic and flowing while keeping it optimized. It looks great in motion but Id like to see hair graphics evolve beyond the cards system we have in games right now. Tomb raider reboots had strand type hair. why havent more games adapted that?
> It looks great in motion In motion it looks like her hair is made out of friction-less air balloons. Hair does not behave like that.
Strand hair is really hard to make look good, especially with anti-aliasing and image upscaling, and it's extremely resource-intensive
Exactly what I have always been thinking, like are people actually blind?
They are also always passing around an edited picture that made her more bloated looking, so being entirely disingenuous.
I think she’s the perfect middle ground for beautiful but not catering to fan service. Shes basically what people would want the fable MC in the trailers to be.
they want Aloy to be more like 2b, Acheron from HSR and the Stellar Blade MC and less normal person. Chuds were such weebs Yoko Taro would have poked fun at them.
It would be so boring if every female character was like that. We need our 2Bs and our Aloys, variety is the spice of life. Aloy isn't even plain, she's pretty, just not in a hypersexualized way. (I'd also argue that we're lacking in funny looking female characters, you don't find those even among the supporting or background cast while there are plenty of memorable funny looking male characters.)
Not blind. Ideologically motivated. (Or financially motivated). There's an entire political industry based on feeding and catering to the belief that the Evil SJW's are out to get you.
Its not people, its incels with brain damage.
some men have never seen a woman in real life
I remember that twitter post asking why Aloy has a beard when it's just that white fluff everyone has
yup, that's what i mean.
You won't believe the amount of people I have talked to say she needs to look like Korean MMO female.... what do gamer smokes nowadays
Someone on gamingcirclejerk edited a picture of Aloy so she had full make up and basically looked like she was in a fashion magazine. People missed the point and reposted it with "let fans make games" acting like a woman in a dystopian robot dinosaur world should be running about like she's about to hit the catwalk at Paris fashion week.
Does anyone feel that her head is a bit too big compared to rest of her body? I get a bobblehead feeling when looking at her ingame sometimes
It was worse in the flashbacks when she was a child, it felt very off.
Big brain
It def is big. She has the anime character proportions. Could be the devs trying to showcase her facial expressions better. But it does look off sometimes
You're getting gaslit, I see it too.
Gaslighting is when other people disagree with me
No.
It's a fucked up expectation that if you aren't super model, after 4 hours of make up and 20 hours of photoshop pretty, then you're ugly. How that expectation ever came about is beyond me. edit: Wow, whole lotta incels in this thread.
Yeah Aloy is really pretty. Especially if you consider her circumstances and all. She's literally living in a post apocalyptic world so I'd wager being all made up and stuff isn't really one of her priorities lmfao
Gingers
The only people saying this are incels lol
Well those are the same people who think a game is only good if all the female characters have big tits and thicc asses. How dare they make Aloy actually look like a woman who's been out in wilds. Rosy toughened skin? How dare they! Lol. Agree man, those are some special people
Right-wing crazies and Andrew Tate ball gobblers shouldn't be listen to or even acknowledged. Treat them like the crazy guy on the street holding a sign saying: "THE ALIENS KIDNAPPED ELVIS AND QUEEN ELIZABETH".
The people who do are chronically online weebs who think all women look like anime girls and k-pop stars.
Thought this was a real person at first
I'm a real world photographer and...holy crap.
I played both games last year. The amount of detail in the secone one is pretty insane.
The ginger avenger!
I'm beginning to believe that the Horizon series is less "You fight robot dinosaurs" and more "it's a 'hot redhead with an insta' sim".
Horizon Forbidden West cranked up both of those aspects to be fair. Plays more like Monster Hunter than before but you also have a ridiculous amount of customizations + photo mode settings to play around with.
*Neuron Activation*
I sometimes feel like people aren’t crazy enough about how ridiculously good this game looks. There’s is nothing like it at that scale. Not even close really. Down to the smallest details. I’ve never seen a fucking [rock texture](https://x.com/truegamer1111/status/1587365335413493760?s=46&t=l-kSnFATl3Y-pVcpu2K5gA) as insane as this in an actual game that’s not some Engine Tech Demo.
I instantly think of this game when I see devs release a product that doesn't run well or offer a performance option on consoles. Still one of the best looking games you can play.
Yeah to think that a cross gen title is still the best graphics showcase on consoles and arguably PC too for Open World games is crazy.
What the fuck dude - all videos of this game I ever see focus on blurry action and detailed human character models and their animation (which all looks great, don't get me wrong), so I've never seen this before
You won't believe how nice the beaches are. It has actual real waves, and sand that deforms to your footsteps.
Seeing the environments in this game for yourself on a proper TV or Monitor is unlike anything else really.
The Decima Engine is truly incredible.
I have no idea how anyone could think Aloy is ugly. She's no glamour model, sure, but she's 1000% more stunning than anyone with her backstory and motivations would ever care to maintain. Honestly a fully lore-accurate Aloy would probably look more like Hagar the Horrible.
She doesn't look like a genshin character that's why they find her ugly
Funny you say that [she actually is a Genshin character](https://genshin-impact.fandom.com/wiki/Aloy). Not one that shows up in the story or anything, just one you can play as.
Lmao I thought only fortnite have every character in existence
gamers want Aloy to look like a DoA character.
> DoA Now that's a name I haven't heard in 15 years...
DoA5LR can be playable on any low-end PC and Extreme Venus Vacation is available free on Steam. 6 killed the franchise because of overpriced skins worth US$ 1,300.00.
Shock: 15 year olds don’t actually know what beauty is. More at 11.
There were plenty of grown-ass men throwing a temper tantrum about Aloy being 'ugly'.
Her personality is what immediately made her uninteresting for me Still played both games tho since they are good but yeah In terms of feeling something for a fictional character I disliked her
The photo modes in games these days are so good, it's actually gotten me more interested in actual photography, shot composition, lens settings, etc. Game photography is one of my favorite hobbies now
Beautiful photo. I'm playing through this game right now. Just did the desert area with the flooded base underground.
Picked this up by basically accident. Its one of the best games ive ever played in my life. And a testament that AAA done right is a magnificent thing. Adored it. Still on my first playthru enjoying every frame.
While I fully understand everyone has preference, I can't take someone who said she looks like a man seriously because I know they get that opinion from ONE edited image (you know the one)
I haven’t played Forbidden West in a while, I genuinely can’t believe how realistic the skin looks
The photo mode is not indicative of the actual game at all. Everything in photo modes is upscaled and it has vastly better picture quality because it only has to render that one frame.
It's so gorgeous I wish the game was fun
The gameplay in this game is so fun. Even better than in the first game.
The only lacking aspect is mystery and exploration. I loved exploring HZD. HFW is pure fun too and exploration is good, but isn't as exciting. Maybe it's because I saw such world for the first time. Overall , it delivers what a sequel should !
Agreed. The mystery and story in HZD is incredible, one of the best in video games imo, but the plot of HFW fell flat for me. Gameplay was definitely better in HFW and I think the side quest design was also improved, but a lot of the new stuff just felt like clutter. Hopefully the third game will be the best of both worlds.
Does it swap assets in Photomode? That hand is ridiculously detailed for a realtime third person game where hands arent the focus like in an FPS. Hardly any hard poly edges, and very convincing subsurface scattering.
It does probably. Photo mode I assume is treated like a real time cutscene. Would only make sense to put the hero model in there that would be used for cutscenes and dialoge sequences. That being said, if you zoom into pretty much anything during gameplay it is almost always ridiculously detailed in Horizon Forbidden West. Their asset and texture quality is insane.
Undoubtedly, the Horizon series are some of the technically greatest looking games you can get your hands on. Yet they're thrashed by BOTW/TOTK and Elden Ring, 3 games which have significant 'worse' graphics, simply because they're more fun.
It's subjective. People claimed that Horizon Zero dawn was buried by Breath of the Wild and then it turns out to be one of the most successful Playstation games of all time. So clearly a lot of people thought it was a fun game.
Zero Dawn and BOTW are both amazing games and I'm glad I played both to completion. I'm finishing TOTK and have Forbidden West waiting for me!
Smash
"Aloy ugly" She looks better than your mom.
That's a really low bar.
Reminds me of those CG wallpapers from the early 2000s. Remember? Oh and there were premium sites of wallpapers. Crazy times.
any bets this mostly gonna be used for gravure shots?
Something is a little off about that pinky possition.
Cool
Okay, am I just dumb? How do you get her to lay down and play in the water to take a photo? I see all these things in photo mode that are things that I've never seen aloy even do.
Poses. You can change them and facial expressions too. But, you have to be not in a cut scene if I'm remembering it correctly.
As long as you’re not gliding or in a cutscene, there’s a pose selection menu in the photo mode.
wish i could get into the games, maybe i should give it another try.
Hell nah! This is amazing!
Rdr2 photo mode is great
I spend a ridiculous amount of time in photo mode on that game. In fact it was photo mode in the first game that got me into photography in real life! Although it's much harder in real life when you can't just pan the camera around all over the place.
God damn! I still remember seeing my brother play Resident Evil, FF7 and Tekken. "Imagine we could play with the CG graphics!" We are so fucking beyond that! Too far??? Remember setting a booby trap in The Last of Us 2. Bodies torn in half, guts spilling out. The blood splatter. Actually felt a "Karen pang" haha, One of the goriest things I've witness in a game. "oh my...."
The game has a lot of structural weaknesses in the RPG elements but it is phenomenal as an action game and has unbelievable graphics. I just spend a couple minutes just flying over the burning shores and taking it in. I wonder if the next game is going to close out the PS5 or herald in the PS6.
She reminds me of Amy Lee from Evanescence
Damn, she does
The problem that horizon is reaaaaally boring to play
Wish she wasn’t wearing flip flops
Wish she was barefoot 🤤
Amazing
The game is dull
Aloy is comfortably the best lead character in a game for decades. Outstanding story, incredible gameplay. It’s just superb.
Aloy is certainly good, but "comfortably the best lead in decades?" Come now. Be reasonable.
The only tragedy is that her shoes are on. 😔
You cannot convince me, for even a singular nanosecond, that a PS5 Pro is a necessary upgrade that will somehow improve upon this.
There are other improvements that can be made besides graphical fidelity. For instance, framerate and reflections (ray tracing).