Guerilla Games developers recently opened up about what kinds of monsters to expect in Horizon Forbidden West. In a PlayStation Blog post, Blake Politeski, principal machine designer, and Maxim Fleury, asset art lead, name-drop a few returning monsters and explain their design process behind creating new ones.
Some monsters like the Watcher and Snapmaw, which appeared in Horizon Zero Dawn, return in the sequel. However, others like the Clawstrider and Tremortusk showcased in the trailers, are completely new to the franchise. Those are only a few examples.
Politeski cited a few thoughts behind developing the new monsters, including added areas and weapons. “It was interesting to figure out what type of machines would live in different ecological zones, and how they would interact with each other, their environment, and, of course, humans,” said Politeski. In that sense, the team approached the new machines’ creation similar to how they would with animals. Some designs also revolve around combat using new equipment like grappling hooks.
For example, the Tremortusk takes inspiration from war elephants with its mammoth body and fire-breathing trunk. “We recommend using traps, as well as the Pullcaster. Though slow, they can reach a speed that will easily trample Aloy, so get ready to dodge,” Politeski and Fluery agreed. This takes into account the new Pullcaster (read: glider) and Aloy’s new movements mechanics that can give her a leg up in combat.
Some machines even come from scrapped ideas that didn’t make it into Horizon Zero Dawn. Politeski reveals that “not everything could make it into the first game.” However, the team was able to bring back ideas that weren’t originally feasible and reinvent them for the new game.
Horizon Zero Dawn incorporated over 25 machines into its story. It’s unclear how many machines Horizon Forbidden West adds to that list. Players will find out when the title releases on February 18, 2022, for the PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5.
The Call of Duty franchise has held a special place in my heart ever since I played my first Black Ops game back in 2010. That game's campaign was something else, with twists and turns that culminated in a mind-blowing finale. We can all admit that compared to those older campaigns, the recent CODs have been lackluster at best, and a complete and utter disappointment at worst. The reboot of Modern Warfare did give me some hope, as the first two installments were actually quite good, but the third game left such a bad taste in my mouth that I wasn’t exactly expecting much from Modern Warfare 4.
After recently finishing the campaign, I can say that this installment is nothing like the recent releases and instead feels closer to the franchise’s roots. For the first time in a long while, the campaign comes across as well-crafted rather than rushed to hit a release date. It arrives three years after MW3, and you can see exactly where all that time went. It seems the studio finally made listening to player feedback a priority.
Epic Games has just announced the 2026 Epic AI MegaJam, which is looking to see how much game development can be squeezed into a very short window. This is running from November 12 through November 15.
Participants can work alone or in teams of up to five people, build in Unreal Engine or Unreal Editor for Fortnite, and bring along “as many AI agents as you want.” Epic explicitly encourages coding agents, AI-generated assets, audio tools, writing tools, and other AI systems. The official event page literally says "Vibe your way to $50k.”
It’s turning into a pretty good time to be a Monster Hunter fan who plays on a phone. Capcom has confirmed that Monster Hunter Outlanders will launch on Android and iOS on October 29, giving the series a new mobile-first game just as Monster Hunter Rise is also preparing to make the jump to smartphones through Netflix.
Outlanders is being developed by Tencent subsidiary TiMi Studio Group under license and supervision from Capcom. Unlike Rise, which appears to be the full console and PC game adapted for mobile, Outlanders is a free-to-play survival hunting game made specifically for phones.