100 per cent completion fixes and performance boosts headlined last week's update for Horizon Forbidden West, which is fairly understandable. However, it means the best thing about patch 1.09 isn't getting the praise it really deserves. In fact, the change wasn't even mentioned in the patch notes! If you dive into the game's options, there's now a toggle that removes Aloy's animation for picking up healing items, plants, and wood out in the open world.
If you decide to skip the animation, the process of picking these items up is vastly sped up, meaning you can collect more in a much shorter space of time. The Twitter video below demonstrates what happens, but effectively, you are hitting the Triangle button and the resource is being automatically placed in your own inventory. Simply run past them whilst spamming the button and you'll collect them all instantly.
Opting not to skip the animation means Aloy will crouch down for a split second and have to individually pick up every single healing item, plant, and piece of wood you wish to loot. That's nice for immersion, but when you're 20 hours into the game, you just want to pick them up as quickly as possible and move on, right? This new toggle allows for that.
To find the option, pause the game and select Settings. At the bottom of the General tab, you'll find the "Pickup Animations" toggle. Set them to "Off" and they'll be a distant memory for the rest of your playthrough. Now watch your collection of healing items balloon!
Do you wish you had this option when you played through the game? Curse its absence in the comments below.
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Comments 65
This is why i wait for to buy games cause it seems alot of good fixes come after the game has been out for awhile.
I play ESO and Elden Ring. One of my absolute most favorite things about Elden Ring is the lack of a loot animation. One of the things I hate most about ESO is that there’s a loot animation. There’s even an option to put skill points into making the loot animation faster. Anyway, I welcome the change!
Yes! I thought the animations from that were way too long. Like seconds, when it should have been microseconds. Seemed like some janky loading screen half the time.
@AhmadSumadi Except Elden Ring also commonly spams you with big view-blocking messaging that requires a button press to dismiss, for some reason. Not only is it annoying because it could just be a timeout, but while the messaging is up (of any kind) you can't actually do anything. It's still super dumb.
I know this sounds small, but this was by far one of the biggest turn offs for me with the original Horizon. After coming from BotW and Ghost it felt more tedious and annoying than immersive. Incredibly happy that this option is here, while not also being the default in case people do find themselves being immersed.
Now if the amount Aloy talks can be toggled as well we got a 10/10 here
I wish this was in the game before I put 100 hours into it! Better late than never!
@mrtennis1990 It'll be great when new game plus finally shows up.
@Enuo agreed!
@Snick27 Same here. I can't imagine how much time this will save me when I pick this game up. I would've been so mad if they added this after I got it lol
Having 111 hours in Elden Ring but basically no story - just beat Rennala and made it to Atlus Plateau (elevator and mamga wyrm b/c why not) I would have died a thousand more times if there was even a half second hesitation picking up items. I can ride my horse thru anything and pick it up, I fear no enemies as long as my horse is running. I think that animation would get real annoying real fast, so glad for the toggle off. 👍
I'll have to try turning the option off. The animation is getting kinda annoying after 40+ hours.
The update didn't fix a game break for me in one quest. It just moved the marker a few steps away. Only hope I have now is for New Game+ to come out so I can try all over again.
Was surprised this was never an option after Ghost etc. especially when mounted on your machine. Interacting with anything would almost bring it to a halt completely ruining the flow, as a result I rarely rode anywhere.
Don't mind the animations myself but a nice addition nevertheless should I decide to use it.
it's interesting. Thanks for saying .
@Grimwood Except this isn't Tsushima, and it sure as hell isn't Elden Ring. It's meant to be FUN first, immersive second. Spending cumulative hours gathering mats or getting killed because Aloy decided to pick something up in the middle of a fight instead of attacking because Guerilla made the animations so ridiculously long ISN'T fun. It's just tedious, actively takes away from the overall experience, and after multiple dozens or even a hundred hours any minor annoyance can compound into a legitimate issue that can turn players off.
Up until fairly recently, I'd be buying games like this on day one but this year I didn't have time to play a couple of these big games so had to wait. I'm so glad of that now and plan to do this moving forwards, too. Whether I stick to it is another thing but let's see.
So it's like Ghost Of Tsushima then, I'll be turning that on later 100%
I haven't played this since Elden Ring launched, but am definitely going to return to it eventually. Gonna load it up quickly and turn this option on before I forget it exists though!
I've never found it even remotely immersive to have my character stop to collect everything, it's only ever ranged from mildly annoying to RDR2's seriously just get on with it, level of annoyance
As someone who shnaffles up every resource within reach while I explore, this sounds very very nice.
@mrtennis1990 yeah! Glad I've 'only' put 60+ hours into the game this far. Still not finished it, so this option is still welcome for me.
@Shepherd_Tallon Yeah, I was doing the exact same thing until I got about 80 hours in then I started to ignore everything. Haha.
I just finished it, but I would definitely turn this on if I was still playing now.
I actually enjoy that snapped branch sound when picking branches and berries in the quiet moments. But I like my games to be immersive and always take my time with them. What I'd love to see is a much speedier animation for when Aloy gets stunned and takes a moon cycle to get back up again.
@rjejr sounds like you got gud
Don't get why something like that wasn't there from the beginning but good that they added it. Now add an option where Aloy only talks when it is neccessary (for example a quest) instead of talking every 10 seconds
@Grimwood "As if games going backwords now."
So games becoming more fun instead of tedious is considered going backwards now?
@Deoxyr1bose Aloy talks way too much! Didn't even get a chance to look around a puzzle room before she would say "THERE SHOULD BE A SWITCH IN HERE!!!!" or something like that. Really annoying after a while. Still love her though!
@Thenewguy
Love the game but absolutely sick of this don't even get a chance to scan anything and the game tells you what to do in any puzzle situation
My partner even asked me if I was playing on easy because of all the hints I was getting 😂
Now they just need to patch in an option for Aloy to shut up during gameplay
Clearly I'm in the minority here, but I don't mind the animations at all. I remember being so disappointed coming from RDR2 to AC Origins and having loot magically appear in my inventory. It felt so "gamey" and ruined immersion for me, if only for a split second.
Too late! Hopefully the sequel will have it day one!
I really don’t get the whole “immersion” argument people make when it comes to games. I mean, I already know it’s a game. Having it not having a loot animation doesn’t make it any more or less of a game. It’s not real life. 🤷🏾♂️
🤦These "in a hurry" gamers. Well as long as the option is there, fine, but hoping devs don't ditch realistic immersive animations for this magical pickings. ER doesn't have it and it doesn't bother me cause the game has soooo much going for it. Every game doesn't have to be the same, else what next? Invisibly opening doors, chests, pulling levers, turning cranks, no reload animations, non-existent world so you can just fast travel from point to point cause the game you claim you're enjoying is actually wasting your time... sheesh.
I've been so immersed in this beautiful game that I didn't even notice, surely the animations aren't that long?
Maybe gamers are just an impatient bunch these days. Flying through one game to get to the next.
Awesome. Now make Aloy stop talking.
It sounds like it will be ready for me to play when I get round to it. Remind me why anyone buys games on or near the release date.
This is minor to me. .. don't personally care about this. Playing on hard mode and this makes no difference. If your picking berries etc. during a machine fight that's on you lol!
What I would like to see added is more ways for me to compare my weapons. I can do it at the vendor, but once I buy the weapon I can't find a way to compare the new weapon to what I'm currently using afterward and kind of annoying. If anyone knows a way that I'm not seeing please let me know. I know you can scroll through the upgradable stages of weapons to see their final stats, but a side by side would be better when comparing what I'm using with what I've bought.
Love this game... for me its GoTY just like the first one.
This didn't bother me in the slightest. I played over 140 hours to platinum this and never once wanted the animation gone - but I'm glad its now an option for those that want it!
Will never get the complaints about Aloy talking too much. This isn't a silent RPG character, your playing Aloy and that's what she does, she's always inquisitive and thinking things out.
@kyleforrester87 "Gud"? Well not at the game, no. Good at summoning other people to fight the bosses for me and good at moving fast. Mostly I'm just addicted to the open world. Like, it's my escape from the world's woes. It does a lot of things right and a lot of other games are going to have to live up to it. If they add a "beginners" mode in a year, after most people stop playing so all of my co-op summons would have gone unanswered, I think a lot of people are going to be really impressed. I don't think they'd even need to tinker w/ the game that much to make a beginner's mode, just at the build selection screen have a level 60 character labeled "For first time Dark Souls players Only" and that would give people a chance to learn stuff, get to level 90 or so w/ the low rune requirements, which should be enough to enjoy the actual game. Equip them w/ high dexterity and intelligence, a blood sword and pebble, will get you through a lot of encounters. My kid, 70 hours of fighting bosses, calls "bleed" broken and pebble cheating.
Oh, funny thing, so I'm 111 hours in, carrying around a ton of clothing, and I really rarely find anything better than my starter confessor gear. Think I have changed each piece once. Weight limit has me stymied. That's one thing I think they could have figured out better. So much equipment to find, but it's either too weak or too heavy. Also funny b/c the gear I'm wearing has the lamest names, page trousers and common robe, compared to all the cool sounding stuff I find. But I can't play heavy, I need to roll away quickly. But it's still GotY for me. Though I suppose I'll play HFW and if GoWR releases. But I think ER wins, it dos so much, and and so many consoles. Cyberpunk makes it look all that much better.
I'm in the minority camp-- I love the animations and the fact that Aloy talks to herself adds realism to me.
But, on the same note, I'm glad there's a choice for people who don't prefer the animations.
Like the 'easy loot' setting, I'm glad the game has plenty of optional settings to tailor the game to your liking. Even down to the custom difficulty settings, allowing for individual tweaking of the damage dealt & damage received, that should allow a lot more people to experience and finish the game.
@AdamNovice I don't think the complaints are for Aloy actually chatting to herself but more for her hint drop talking which happens almost immediately upon stumbling on a section that the player has to work out for themselves. It's absolutely ridiculous and kind of spoilt the game a little for me personally.
I’m still filling out the trophy list and completely side content, so this is definitely a welcome change. I took a break from it to get back into Returnal and run the Tower of Sissphus.
@rjejr with plenty of points in your endurance and with the help of some talismans you can wear plenty of stronger armour while maintaining your roll speed. I’m in heavy armour with a big sword and shield and I’m at medium load still.
Tried this out today. You can really feel the difference. I found I was picking up more items as a result.
@kyleforrester87 I did have a weight talisman on for awhile, maybe from Magrit or Godfrey? And I finally realized I can use a rune arc and turn on my Great Rune to raise all my stats 5 each which also raises my load. It's only after I died that I realized I was heavy again, think I was using a halberd that weighed 8. Guess I'm just so used to all the JRPG I've played where you constantly get better armor and weapons as you go w/o ever worrying about weight, and now I've gotten so many options but between weight and stats I find myself just keeping what I have.
Though I do understand the dev had to go above and beyond making weapons and armor for 8 different classes and that's why, but I kind of fell thru the cracks, starting as Confessor but I'm basically a sorcerer now. Another bad habit I've gotten into over the years from too many JRPG, balance your stats. Mine are all basically even at around 20 w/ vigor at 30 - I like health and prefer running or riding away over dying. I have beaten Renalla and I've seen a merchant w/ an egg tear thing, so I may rearrange my points. Hard to know exactly what to give up but I think some of my strength to dexterity and faith and/or arcane to intelligence. It is a lot though to take in. Glad I got to take it in, even if only 20% of the story, it's bene fun. Just not the dying part. 😉
@rjejr well sounds like you got a lot further than you thought so far so you may surprise yourself and get to the end, even if you are way way higher level than “normal” to do so. Do pay attention to the scaling of your weapons in the menu and do some reading on it if you’re not sure what it means. There is a hell of a lot you can do before you hit any absolute walls though, it’s a ton of fun even if you don’t clear it. But yes, certainly worth considering a respec if you are not confident you have used your stats properly. Personally I always play strength based melee in these games, I should really try a mage build.
@kyleforrester87 I don't have the finger capacity for melee builds. I keep drinking all my potions when I want to do something else. 😝 Though I think I did well against the mamga wyrm blocking passage to Atlus Plateau, but it took my kid standing their saying "Just go fight it, it's easy" for me to actually go and fight it. And it really did go down pretty quick once I changed my lock-on from their head, which kept getting me killed w/ magma, to their body, which let me slice and dice, thank you level 13 kenagata katana w/ 70 bleed.
Funny thing, after I killed it I said to my kid, "Wow, that was a lot easier than the meargal knight I just tried to fight, guy was destroying me." my kid replied "The spectral knight? Yeah that guy sucks, you can't beat him." 😂
I did just run away from the Mt. Gilmer magma dragon. I had about 38,000 runes after clearing out that whole area and beating the sea mariner earlier, I can alwasy go back. I'm just trying every which way to get that map piece. Beginning to think it's locked behind a magic transport chest. Well I may still have 1 way to try, after that I'm going around the top of the capital to get the other map piece. Tried the bottom, spectral demon scorpion bull aside it seemed like a dead end.
Oh wow I just remembered I still have the dragon heart from that magma wyrm, I should go trade it in. Have rot breath and claw swipe so far. I have traded in Renala's piece yet b/c I have Intelligence 23 and her staff requires 60, her spell 70. I don't see me getting that far.
I don't think you can play as a mage after melee. Mage is the beginner build to get the lay of the land, pebble half health off each enemy then work on your sword fighting skills. I think it's fun now but if I were physically capable of winning hand to hand combat I wouldn't bother. Only hand to hand combat I win I'm sitting on my horse, have the horseback prowess talisman for added assistance. Every time I touch a bloodstain and see someone die not on horseback I'm like "What were you thinking?"😁
This actually does make the game that bit more enjoyable.
Like, I get why they had an animation. It makes sense, but after the 500th time you just want to pick up the things and be on your way.
Now I'm collecting way more things as I run by.
@lolwhatno i actually thought they could do it like immortals Fenyx. That Pick once, pick every similar item in the near vicinity . But this is good too. Realism isn’t always good indeed
That smile is just creepy... 😆
Great news. May not seem like much but things like looting animations being too long are what stopped me playing RDR2 after a few hours.
Immersion isn't always about realism. We don't think about picking something up IRL so we shouldn't have to engage with that process in a game.
Now if they could just fix the hair physics...
@lolwhatno good day to you
@lolwhatno My "kids" are 17 and 19. Well pretty sure anyway. 😉
Was going to give you an ER update but then I said it all to kyleforrest somewhere. I'm still going though. 😁
@lolwhatno Sorry, but I know I'm not going to finish it. I watched my kid, who's pretty good, battle some big dude and his two henchman knights in ice castle this afternoon several times. He tried everything, even calling in help - which he hates to do - and this big dude who goes by "Karen", I kid you not, came in and wiped the floor w/ the 2 knights using some gravity earthquake move I'd never even knew existed before, but my kid got killed by the big guy. I don't see how I can get past the big super earth sentinel blocking entry into the castle, and even if I did, I've watched my kit battle Mogrot enough inside the castle and even w/ Melania's help it took forever, more attempts than I could watch.
My best case scenario - keep exploring Mt Gilmer, then try to get into the castle some secret back glitch broken way, then hit up some caves and tunnels now that I'm level 70 that I probably can beat, maybe beat Millicent's invader and the big guy w/ her golden needle. But I don't think I can beat any of the big required bosses. Oh sure, maybe I could after 30 or 40 tries, but I have like a 6 try limit. 😂
It's still my game of the year, the fact that there are flask things that are the same but look different - I have 2 crystal tears that do half health but are sort of mirrored - show show much they put into it. 2 or 3 years from now when people stop playing so all the multiplayer stuff goes away - co-op, vs, messages - I really hope they do a Definitive Edition for Beginners w/ normal things like instruction manuals and bestiary's and stats like times died, miles walked or ridden on horseback. Usual game stuff. And a book of lore, b/c I can't follow it. Maybe by then people will stop complaining about the graphics, game is legit beautiful. Oh, a photo mode would be nice. They don't need to recreate the wheel on that, just look at God of War or Spiderman.
But I'll keep ya posted, ya never know.
@lolwhatno "don't like summoning (it feels like cheating)"
If it's built into the game it certainly isn't cheating. And besides, it's a single player game, there aren't even any leaderboards that I am aware of, so who's being cheated? 🤷♂️
That said, I do get what you mean, lot's of people want to do things themselves w/o any help. I'm just not 1 of those people. 😁 Well I take that back, I do my own taxes, but a game is a game to me. I don't actually cheat though, no mods for me, above my paygrade. But if it's built into the game, sure.
@lolwhatno "summoning makes the game a walk in the park"
Another funny ER noob story.
So I was trying to beat the big shiny shielded tree sentinel to get into the castle so I could advance a bit more. After half a dozen failed attempts I decided to summon someone. Only I used the curly finger rather than the pocketwatch flower and I got summoned into someone else's game. Thankfully someone else got summoned as well, so there was 3 of us. And we all ran up to him, I ran behind, and we got vanquished right quick. I think we maybe had his health down 1/4, if that.
So maybe it makes it easy for you, but the 3 of us got obliterated lickety-split. 😂
@tselliot wonder how you feel about red dead redemption then lol
@Thenewguy how else would you know there is a switch? no spoilers because i haven't played yet but would you rather a light shining on it or some yellow paint?
@MFTWrecks dude stop comparing this game to elden ring. i'm sick of people doing this...they are not the same.
@rjejr you said all this just to say you're glad there's a toggle? lol
@lolwhatno I have noticed that most of the people complaining about Elden Ring being too easy have played From software games before. My kid is always like - well I knew how to beat that boss b/c he was in DS3 and that other boss b/c he was from DS but since you didn't play any of those games you're stuck.
So apparently Elden Ring does have an "easy mode", play all of the previous games first.😉 Doesn't help us noobs though.🤷
@middyone "you said all this just to say you're glad there's a toggle? lol"
Yes, I'm old, I grew up in a time where people expressed themselves with complete thoughts, words and sentences on pieces of paper we snail mailed. It's b/c of people like me that Twitter had to expand it's character count.😁
@rjejr I understand that but you went off topic and on a rant about elden ring on a horizon post. that part just seemed weird to me. I almost thought I clicked on an elden ring post by mistake.
@middyone Yeah sorry about that. Elden Ring is my 1st From software game and I'd been talking about it a lot w/ Kyle Forrester and lolwhatnot and some of those replies I actually thought were on the Elden Ring article.😂
Looking back now, I've been carrying on the same conversation across about 5 articles. For future reference I will at east limit it to Elden Ring articles though.😁
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