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Horizon Burning Shores: Will Guerrilla Games First PS5-Only Title Be the Best Current Gen Showcase To Date?

When Horizon Forbidden Shore Releases...


  • Total voters
    217
  • Poll closed .

Rykan

Member
It's PS5 only, so it would be weird if it did. Also this from the developer:
You'll probably see some minor enhancements and improvements, but don't go into it thinking that it will look like what a Horizon game that was build up from the ground for PS5 would look like.

It's still built in the framework of H:FW.

The fact its for PS5 only has more to do with resource and manpower allocations than a push for a unique experience that couldn't be done on last gen. We've seen next gen only exclusive DLC in other games, and there was no huge jump in graphical fidelity in them.
 
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CamHostage

Member
Burning Shores appears to be heavy on verticality, plus (according to the trailer) it spends time literally up in the clouds. So, I would expect cloud volume and skyborne weather/smoke simulations would be a major focus, for potentially dogfighting and increased arial exploration. (You get up there in the base game with the Sunwing and even the glider, but every bit of footage and artwork for Burning Shores has been in the air so far; flight seems to be more important to the traversal and potentially combat here.) That's stuff that PS5 could let loose with, as Decima's cloud system is heavy for PS4 and it often had to use tricks to show off what it could. And not just clouds; the lava systems could create smoke and updrafts to -deal with in the air. Draw distance improvements would help air play too, but I don't think you're going to get some "Nanite-style" geometry rendering overhaul from a DLC or from the dropped past-gen, rather they'll accomplish improvements through more complex/advanced procedural routines and then level design improvements built to the PS5's stronger capacity.

Water is also mentioned as the other key component of the Burning Shores location, as it is described as an "overgrown and fractured city that can be fully explored via the water and flying on the back of a Sunwing," so underwater level systems might get some new features to encompass a greater variety of land underwater in a city that has both sunken into the sea and smashed up into the sky from seismic ruin. (I'm not sure what new graphical tech would be used underwater not already present in H:FW or not possible with the compromises already made to the PS4 version, but water and land are specifically called out in the teaser material and so I'd expect it to be where the brunt of improvements are, much as snow and cold weather effects were primary innovations made to Frozen Wilds.)

0273989116ba083cab1a849647394f8dcfae801c.jpg
 
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Three

Member
Hmm... You're going to have to track down that quote.

Cross-gen has been a confusing (and on the surface frustrating) aspect of this gen so far, but I have not seen a developer themselves say the past-gen was what really held them back, when they're not using past-gen they do say they're pushing beyond what was possible with cross-gen but it's more about what was not possible if they tried to support both rather than something that they were "held back from" because they had to develop for two gens. (And going by reactions to most new-gen-only games released, they've still not gotten to the point where the advantage is as undeniable and impactful as in previous generations.)
I don't think that quote exists. They've even said 'last gen wasn't limiting' and then possibly contradicted that with their DLC PR

"To achieve this grand vision technically and creatively, we’ve made the difficult decision to focus all our efforts on making an incredible experience exclusively for the PlayStation 5 console."

Depends what they mean by technically. I think this is what the OP is referring to.
 

nowhat

Member
it will be improved like how Frozen Wilds was on ps4.
Yeah, this. Frozen Wilds introduced the amazing snow deformation stuff, so I'm expecting (also because of the trailer) more destructible environments. Something that PS4 with its Jaguar cores just can't handle.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Honestly with how incredible HFW looked the more I think about it the more I wonder "where is the improvements to be had?" The game was incredibly dense and detailed, the environments lush and expansive I mean where do they go?? It's the same engine afterall it's not like it's a 2.0version but i for one will be buying this on release as I loved HFW so it'll be cool to see if I can spot any additional details
 
I expect no improvement for 1 (pop-in) because the game will have to run on PCs. This is why they are not using any of specific hardware on PS5, only compute, because they are very likely developing the game first on PC (like VFXVeteran was claiming already years ago).
 
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RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
I expect no improvement for 1 (popin) because the game will have to run on PCs. This is why they are not using any of specific hardware on PS5, only compute, because they are very likely developing the game first on PC (like VFXVeteran was claiming already years ago).
This is a crock o shite, not using specific PS5 hardware? What? The console is their biggest bloody market, PC is simply bonus $$$ and if you think that Sony built a console and that Sony's 1st party studios aren't utilizing every single aspect of it you are fucking deluded mate
 

Three

Member
Yeah, this. Frozen Wilds introduced the amazing snow deformation stuff, so I'm expecting (also because of the trailer) more destructible environments. Something that PS4 with its Jaguar cores just can't handle.
I'd be interested to see if they introduce faster traversal in some way. Maybe some sunwing ability or new dino that's faster.
 
This is a crock o shite, not using specific PS5 hardware? What? The console is their biggest bloody market, PC is simply bonus $$$ and if you think that Sony built a console and that Sony's 1st party studios aren't utilizing every single aspect of it you are fucking deluded mate
They are not even using specific Pro hardware according to their own technical slides about rendering. Maybe that will change in the future but now that they are focusing on PC market I dunno.
 
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[Sigma]

Member
Just do something about the pop-ins. Game looks so beautiful that the smallest imperfections like pop-ins in the background become very noticeable and annoying even when they're small. I'm not expecting a decent jump from the base game. More of the same, like I said, want something done about the pop-ins though.
 
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Portugeezer

Member
Would be a bit strange for the DLC to look vastly different to the base game.

I don't expect much improvement in terms of visuals, unless they want to update the base PS5 version also.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I'm looking forward to seeing it atleast. Just gotta hope the game stays on ps plus extra as I'm about to trade in my sealed copy for profit.
 
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I think the DLC might be bigger than people think.
There's no reason abadoned ps4 version just to make it looks the same as the base game.
 
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ABnormal

Member
Well, it will surely be further improved, but it will not scrap entirely the foundations that have already been done, so it will have things of the base game.

I'm more interested to see if they will add some freer traversal gameplay, both on the ground and up on the air.

I espect more from Spiderman, which is built from the ground up on ps5.

But I'm sure that both will be proper current gen tastes.
 
I think the engine will have some nice improvements.

However I think the primary reason for it being PS5 only is the Horus boss fight. Gigantic monster pushing insane amounts of polygons/triangles and textures. I think the PS4 would bottleneck immediately with the streaming.
 
It will look fantastic for sure but the series is boring to play and the story is forgettable. That's the thing with Guerrilla games, they make visually stunning games but they forget that people actually have to play them.
 

Heisenberg007

Gold Journalism
I think the engine will have some nice improvements.

However I think the primary reason for it being PS5 only is the Horus boss fight. Gigantic monster pushing insane amounts of polygons/triangles and textures. I think the PS4 would bottleneck immediately with the streaming.
This.

I think that's the main reason for dropping last-gen. So, overall, the game would look mostly similar with minor upgrades. But the battles they're doing wouldn't have been possible on last-gen (very similar to Final Fantasy XVI).
 

mdkirby

Member
I doubt there will be much difference at all to forbidden west. There’ll likely be some sort of mechanic they are doing which was a nightmare on ps4 hence dropping support. They aren’t going to be rebuilding the engine and restricting the game to fully make use of the ssd asset streaming just for a dlc.
 

mdkirby

Member
I wish they’d drop aloy too tbh. She’s just annoying as a protagonist, always seems irritatated with literally everyone and everything. Every time she talks it’s like she puts on a fake smile and talks through her gritted teeth in a sort of sarcastic fake niceness, whilst being annoyed at the fact she has to give these people attention. It makes her super unlikable. I’d much rather play as Zo, or as those archaeologist guys, or even a spin off playing as sylens.
 
I think the DLC might be bigger than people think.
There's no reason just abadoned ps4 version just to make it looks the same as the base game.

Launch sales stunk on PS4... and most of those who bought the PS4 version just did it to save 10 bucks. Dropping PS4 likely saves quite a bit of development time.
 

3liteDragon

Member
I’m not expecting the kind of difference you would get from a Horizon 3 but any minor visual improvements to the best looking game on the market right now is more than good enough for the DLC. And the main & only focus being on the PS5 this time is even better when it comes to optimization.
 

Fbh

Member
Visually I expect minor improvements, if any at all.

I think the "next gen only" part will come from things like some large scale setpiece moment with the big machines shown in the trailer. Since flying seems to be a focus maybe they'll also enhance the flying mechanics by allowing you to fly higher and faster than in base game, or maybe there will be more complex sequences with things happening in the air and the land at the same time.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Hmm... You're going to have to track down that quote.

Cross-gen has been a confusing (and on the surface frustrating) aspect of this gen so far, but I have not seen a developer themselves say the past-gen was what really held them back, when they're not using past-gen they do say they're pushing beyond what was possible with cross-gen but it's more about what was not possible if they tried to support both rather than something that they were "held back from" because they had to develop for two gens. (And going by reactions to most new-gen-only games released, they've still not gotten to the point where the advantage is as undeniable and impactful as in previous generations.)

I was bullish on next-gen-only back when Sony said they "believe in generations", and I desperately want to see these new consoles do more that I've never seen before thanks to their power, but from most of what developers have said about the projects they're working on (and unfortunately, from evidence of some of the next-gen-only games they've released,) I would say cross-gen is somewhat unfairly held as the big bad holding next-gen back, and that the true circumstances of this gen's power revolution is much more complicated.

I don't think that quote exists. They've even said 'last gen wasn't limiting' and then possibly contradicted that with their DLC PR


GDC Vault: Adventures With Deferred Texturing in Horizon Forbidden West

We also have several different materials for different types of foliage, so we would need to efficiently support switching between them. The approach was also going to have to work on both PS4 and PS5 as we were going to launch on both. Because we were going to be running on PS4 whatever we did was going to have to be very light on memory. We could afford 10’s of Mb not 100s. Also, foliage typically has lots of overdraw, so the laydown of the visibility buffer would need to be very cheap, preferably just a single 32 bit export. We were also going to want this to integrate nicely with other non-deferred textured geometry and so we wanted it to output to our G-Buffer.

Decima already had a depth prepass, so we augmented this with an additional depth and visibility pass that wrote to the Visibility Buffer as well as the Depth Buffer. For each pixel this pass needs to write out information about the triangle, instance and batch as a 32 bit primitive ID. In theory we could use the dedicated hardware that’s in PS4 Pro and PS5 for this, but unfortunately this would leave PS4 Base out in the cold, as it doesn’t have a proper way to get a primitive Id without using a geometry shader.
 

Humdinger

Member
Thanks for the reminder. I'd forgotten the DLC was coming in April.

I didn't vote, because both the poll options are absurd. I'm sure there will be some tech improvements, but nothing mind-blowing. I'm just hoping for an enjoyable questline.
 

jm89

Member
Not too fussed about technical improvements, give me a good story with some new machines to fight. Forzen wild was a chonker so having high hopes for this one.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
To those who say not to expect any major engine upgrades. Much can be accomplished on better hardware running the same engine, although I understand what constitutes as "significant improvement" will be subjective. Consider same TLOU2 engine on PS4 vs PS5 results:

nSsltUu.png
 

Deerock71

Member
I think we've hit a wall. You can only cram so much onto the screen before it starts looking too busy, and then it'll be recognized as too samey to the nitpickers.
 

Buggy Loop

Member
Whenever it’ll release, another huge game will release a week later that will be a generation’s classic and everyone will drop horizon, for a 3rd time.
 

Madflavor

Member
I started playing Horizon TFW for the first time a week ago. It's certainly the best looking game graphically I've seen to date. But I haven't touched the game in the past 3 days. It just feels like a very by the numbers, design by committee, open world game. At the end of the day all those shiny cutting edge graphics did nothing for me.
 

Polygonal_Sprite

Gold Member
We’ve already seen a lot of what their engine is capable of with current gen tech on Forbidden West PS5 and it’s absolutely stunning looking. I expect some improvements on top of that but I wouldn’t expect a generational leap as that’s just unfair.

Spider-Man 2 will be the same but again Miles is already a stunning looking game which offers a ray tracing mode at 1440p/60fps. There’s only so much more possible on the same hardware especially if they’re targeting 60fps.

This is the reality of having mid gen consoles which had 2-4x the GPU power (PS4 Pro / XBO X) then Remasters / Remakes of games on next gen consoles which had 3-4x those consoles GPU power and also PC’s with $1500 30teraflop GPU’s then cross gen games and then after all that people expect a generational leap in visuals over cross gen games which leverage a lot of the power already by running games at twice the resolution with improved foliage and textures and then running the games at twice the framerate.

This is why it has become an almost impossible task to impress people with visuals nowadays. Compare the above to going from Horizon on PS4 at 1080p/30fps to Forbidden West on PS5 at 1440p/30fps or 4k/30fps. That leap is a generational leap if we hadn’t already seen all the smaller improvements in between.
 
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Unknown?

Member
It will look fantastic for sure but the series is boring to play and the story is forgettable. That's the thing with Guerrilla games, they make visually stunning games but they forget that people actually have to play them.
Says this about a critically acclaimed game where the story and combat is the best part. Hmmm.... Haven't played Forbidden West yet though so idk.
 
Sure, as if they were going to redo all the assets and build a complete new "game" just for this dlc... It's a ps 4 game optimized for the Ps 5. Coma
 
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