Horizon Zero Dawn

[Tetsujin]

I thought this looked pretty cool at the Sony presser.

YouTube Video

Hunting robo dinos? Hell yeah.

[ForceStealer]

I agree, I thought it looked very pretty and a lot of fun. The character was a little chatty, but other than that I liked what I saw.

[Chloe Frazer]

One of my favorite trailers and it has a female protagonist, that was a big plus for me.

[DarkCloud]

This title really surprised me. Eagerly anticipating further news about the games world. The machines seem like they may be comprised of some organic component.

[Cthulhu]

I likes it.

Note also that it's from the Dutch Guerillia Games, who made fame with the Killzone series - and works close together with Sony, iirc they got exclusive access and shit to be able to make a launch title for the PS3 and shit.

Re: the trailer, it seemed awfully scripted; if they can get the chattiness to be as accurate to the current situation / player's action as in there though, I'll consider it an achievement.

[Tetsujin]

About having a female protagonist

[Chloe Frazer]

For fuck's sake companies, it's 2015, you shouldn't be worried about having female leads in your things. You don't need a focus group to tell if it's a good idea or not. You just make a well written female character and that's it.

[Omega]

Japan, though. Culture, blah blah blah.

[Hisako]

Something something something cultural sensibilities (though given Japan is open to all sorts of female "protagonists" that may be less of a point )

Sometimes it seems like common sense, but focus testing is a big part of big business. and many times, big business isn't necessarily common sense, lol.

But hey, on the flip side, the focus testing says yes to female protagonists anyway!

[Chloe Frazer]

Focus testing generally sucks, they're the reason why the original ending of Pretty in Pink was changed. Why the explanation for what Thor was doing in that cave in AoU was removed etc.

[Cthulhu]

That's just the problem with the big-budget creative media; they're too expensive and there's too many stake / shareholders to just give people creative freedom and allow them to fuck up.

Indie games are better in that respect. Have an idea? Just get some time and a free game engine and go for it, doesn't matter if it sucks in the end.

[Tetsujin]

Horizon won't be 'tutorialized'

Speaking to VideoGamer.com earlier today, art director Jan-Bart van Beek revealed that there is "a lot of interplay between the different weapons and ammo types, and there is a sort of creative aspect there where you need to find the right way to use weapons for particular robos. And that counts for a lot of the game. We don't tutorialise the game, we don't go and tell you how to hunt these robos or how they interact. You really have to go out there and explore these things by trial and error.

"And it's the same case for learning about how the robos interact between themselves; who's protecting who and how they are all interconnected. You're always a little bit like David Attenborough where he's sitting in the bushes and studying these creatures trying to learn their behaviour, seeing how you can exploit that behaviour from them."

Guerrilla is taking a similar approach to Horizon's storytelling as well.

"You won't find us in any interviews explaining what the robos are, why they are there or how they came to be," van Beek continued. "This is something for the player to find out themselves. By exploring the world, going to the ruins and learning as much as possible about our game, everything will reveal itself."

[Hisako]

The central conceit of it being a post-apocalyptic type setting with humanity relearning its technology was the best part, of course they shouldn't explain where the dino-robos come from

That's the secret sauce of whatever plot they're going to have!

[Cthulhu]

I don't mind it tbf . If they introduce concepts one at a time - maybe give subtle hints about the controls, like they did with Journey, but only at first - you wouldn't need a tutorial. Leave those to complicated games, . Or don't, then you end up with Dwarf Fortress which probably can't be tutorialized.

[Lex]

There's a big fat interview about this in Playstation Magazine and apparently development on this started before development of Killzone Shadow Fall. Ooft.