Horizon Forbidden West

Did they patch in a cure for Aloy's verbal diarrhoea, or did I imagine that? I can't find a toggle in the options and she's driving me a bit nuts.

Very annoying bug in this where you can't map the TAB button to anything it'll always open the bloody map.

I've had to set up all my keybinds how I want them. Save and exit.
Edit the registry to set the map 'map' key to m so that the game allows TAB to be recognised as my weapon wheel.

I'm sure it'll be patched eventually but in case anybody else picks it up before then (tho it seems most went into DD2) then this is the fix.

Yeah I don't really like motion blur so dialled it down. Running it native at 1600p uktrawide and with dlaa. Nixxes have done an absolute bang up job with the port (keyboard mapping aside).

iirc, it's linked to heavy attacks, especially if you charge them.
There might be another upgrade that makes it easier, melee pits might help to understand it better

This game is getting good. I've just completed a mission that allowed me to get onto the west side of the mountains and the game opened up quite a lot storywise. I've still gone back east as there is loads of area unexplored.

The dino combat has improved quite a lot from the first one with a lot more emphasis on taking pieces off to get to weakpoints or to get resources for upgrades. Love, love, looove the shredder gauntlets with the throw/catch loop. It slowly getting more powerful on each successful catch/throw is clever.

I likey very much.

I'm exploring the desert area of the west and came across another tall neck but the setup was changed up from the usual formula. Really enjoyed that. As I continued I stumbled across an old world city that had been practically buried by the sand which lead to the whole sub quest with the Poseidon sub function. Have to say I enjoyed every bit of that, it was very good and looked pretty damn good throughout.

Some of the criticisms usually levelled at open world games where it's lots of copy/pasted missions hasn't applied yet.

I'm also playing with most of the map icons turned off so I'm stumbling across stuff organically as I explore. I do wish they made it such that icons were added to the map as you found them instead of the binary on/off we have right now.

True. Again with that I wish it was, 'there was trouble in the north-west towards x location'.

It's an oddity of mine really. I hate icon spam where all the POIs are prepopulated (even more so when there is a fog of war). Yet I don't mind those icons if they are a cumulation of areas I've discovered.

Still it isn't affecting my enjoyment of the game so I can clearly live with it.

Umm, I might be mis-remembering, but I thought icons only appeared in the fog of war in response to rumours.

But I agree with the sentiment, having to go out and explore in order to find stuff is always preferable.

Good god Shellsnappers a tough sons o' bitches!

Some of the spritely bots are fun as hell to fight, especially rollerbacks or slitherfangs but the Shellsnappers are nimble tanks that can take a beating. I want some chuffing bolts to upgrade my bow FFS

120+ hours now and I've been around the map and done everything short of collecting all the messages/data points. Upgraded all the leg stuff of choice, death seeker, sun scourge and the Nora armour that I got from the arena.

Started the 'point of no return' mission which so far was cool AF with the robo printing battle. I was just climbing up from where the elevator cut off, guessing for a final battle but had to cut it short cos I have to do parenty stuff.

Not gonna lie it's been well worth the money and I've still got the dlc to play through

Looks like Zero Dawn is getting remastered. Sony really wants this to be a bigger IP if they're going down this route. Maybe as a means of pushing the PS5 Pro. I was going to make a statement about why PS4 games need this treatment in the first place but then everyone is clamouring for Bloodborne to be upgraded in some way. But Zero Dawn already has a PC port and looks and plays very well already when Bloodborne requires fans to push through an unofficial 60fps update.

It already looks really good though? I dunno, the difference between successive generations feels less and less these days, stuck in diminishing returns.

It's why I was never really happy with the Last of Us 1 remaster. Sure I didn't have to buy it but what a waste of resources, and they just seem to be pumping out more. Until Dawn is another one that's pointless.