Horizon Hunters Gathering is reportedly being rebooted without its live service bits following negative playtest feedback

Some execs are still clutching onto Fortnite aspirations.

The funny thing is that chasing photorealism is expensive and difficult and not always the right solution. A lot of time stylized, cartoony graphics can be a better option, and I'm even willing to buy that it could've worked here, too.

But they went with this bland, generic, flavorless toon style. This is "marketable" but clearly lacks any distinct artistic vision that could set it apart from any of the other shovelware slop these days.

I set up a library of dozens of my favorite PSP games in Emulation Station and just scrolling through them you can see how they have all wildly distinct styles but still form this kind of coherent vision of what Sony was like back in the late 00's, early 10's. I miss that ...

Your use of uncanny valley is at odds with what I understand the term to mean. I understand the uncanny valley effect to take hold on the approach toward realism (something trying too be realistic but not quite there) - where as this is a stylized move away from realism.

I just wish it wasn't Horizon. Art style looks cool, gameplay could be fun, but I think it is so tonally dissonant from the other games in the series to the extent I no longer feel as invested in the setting.