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Digital Foundry: Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores PS5 - A Visual Masterclass

Draugoth

Gold Member


Horizon Forbidden West returns and looks better than ever in its Burning Shores expansion. Freed from the constraints imposed by having to deliver a last-gen version, Guerrilla Games adds extra detail and new technology to the Decima Engine. Forbidden West looked beautiful, and Burning Shores only adds to the spectacle. Oliver Mackenzie reviews.
 
Watching this guy video is dizzying. Someone needs to feedback him. I don't have this kind of dizziness with DF's other videos, Alex's, John's, etc.
On the contrary I found it to be mostly coherent in terms of what needed to be covered.

Are you referring to the video editing?
 

Atrus

Gold Member
As great as it looks there are still LOD issues, missing textures in rock faces, and pop in.

Burning Shores was also too small a scope to fully realize the visuals.

I’d love to have seen a lava laden fire strewn hellscape, an area shrouded in mists, regular tropical storms, and better abyssal environments.

One of the generic npcs has a line “Burning Shores? More like Stormy Shores!” and frankly I didn’t really get the sense for either.
 
A few things to note about this DLC.

1. The pop in and visual glitches are out of control compared to the base game. They released one patch so far and it really didn't fix anything. The main building at fleets end loads before your eyes from only a couple hundred meters away. The tress and shadows have a ton of pop in like the video shows. I've seen multiple visual errors such as misaligned terrain, holes in rocks that show the liminal videogame underworld and I've even seen the water LOD glitch and appear to be sideways going up a cliff in the distance.

2. In the cutscene where you sit on the log by the ocean with Seyka, the fucking sun changed positions in the sky three times!!! What is that! It was insane.

Hopefully they fix a lot of this which I'm sure they will. But it's obvious is was probably released a little bit faster than it should have been.
 

Hunnybun

Member
For me the biggest problem with the visuals - the fog affecting pretty much every vista - is still there, so it's not as big of an upgrade as I was hoping for. I guess ultimately it's still built on an engine designed around old technology, and there's just only so much you can do with that.

IMO the biggest single improvement is the amount of enemies and particles etc they throw at you during fights. That seems extremely noticeable and properly next gen. The environments look a bit better (better draw distance and denser) but it's not a huge step.

Realistic clouds seems like it belongs in the same category of technically impressive but completely pointless features as RT shadows etc. Something for the DF crew to wank themselves over but not much more.
 

Musilla

Member
ezgif-5-7099ffe9ba.gif
 
You can still feel the PS4 everywhere in this besides one boss and the clouds system.
The pop in is everywhere when you're flying...missing textures in multiple mountains, the fog is just too much. All this for no reason.

If this game was fully optimized for the PS5, all these things wouldn't happen.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Aloy looks much better with a head band on. Her hairdo is dumb and makers her face seem oddly shaped otherwise.
 
Playing through the base game right now and I'm floored lol this game looks ridiculous on an OLED if games start looking markedly better than this I'm curious how it'll run we'll definitely need pro models
 

SABRE220

Member
While the cloudtech is nice I cant help but feel a little underwhelmed. The new town area is a little more densely detailed but hardly a big leap and the real bummer is that it came at a big cost to visual consistency. There is a massive increase in popin, shadow draw in and visual bugs to the point the popin almost reminds of the ps3 darkdays. These issues really shouldnt be happening for a supposed ps5 exclusive...I really cant wait for them to build a new game from the ground up for the ps5 because looking at the aggresive popin etc its pretty damn clear the ps4 roots are holding the engine back bigtime.
 
You can still feel the PS4 everywhere in this besides one boss and the clouds system.
The pop in is everywhere when you're flying...missing textures in multiple mountains, the fog is just too much. All this for no reason.

If this game was fully optimized for the PS5, all these things wouldn't happen.
Remember being laughed at when I complained about the fog and how it ruins the overall visual quality of the main game. Funny finally seeing others acknowledging it too.
 
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22:22:22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
Is this a DLC

Love me some good graphics but I'll wait after Zelda
 
Last edited:

22:22:22

NO PAIN TRANCE CONTINUE
You mean the red cheek's? It's because she's a raging alcoholic. The next game will cover her journey to overcome the biggest challenge yet. Rehab. Horizon Forbidden Gin.

Imagine a stamina bar you'll have to fill with gin
 

ShakenG

Member
A few things to note about this DLC.

1. The pop in and visual glitches are out of control compared to the base game. They released one patch so far and it really didn't fix anything. The main building at fleets end loads before your eyes from only a couple hundred meters away. The tress and shadows have a ton of pop in like the video shows. I've seen multiple visual errors such as misaligned terrain, holes in rocks that show the liminal videogame underworld and I've even seen the water LOD glitch and appear to be sideways going up a cliff in the distance.

2. In the cutscene where you sit on the log by the ocean with Seyka, the fucking sun changed positions in the sky three times!!! What is that! It was insane.

Hopefully they fix a lot of this which I'm sure they will. But it's obvious is was probably released a little bit faster than it should have been.
In regards to point 2. Ive noticed this in the main game, no dlc. While playing the game, ill notice the sun shifting very quick. But it only seems to do it in specific areas.

At first i thought it was an intentional feature that was just bugged. But now im thinking its just a bug in general. Really hope it gets sorted, just leave it fully dynamic at a set speed and change the time for missions that need it.

Will get around to the dlc, but im gona hold off for bug fixes first like i did the main game.
 
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The clouds are okay but then again the clouds don't even move... By itself its good but when you try to compare it to flight sim..its like a toy. Anyone think a game is gonna come close to FS in cloud rendering this gen?


 
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Kerotan

Member
Is this a DLC

Love me some good graphics but I'll wait after Zelda
Definitely play Zelda first. Otherwise it will look severely underwhelming visually after this. If you're stuck for time you'll be glad to know this isn't super long expansion. Definitely quality over quantity and as a busy father I sure as hell appreciate it.
 

Varteras

Member
Definitely play Zelda first. Otherwise it will look severely underwhelming visually after this. If you're stuck for time you'll be glad to know this isn't super long expansion. Definitely quality over quantity and as a busy father I sure as hell appreciate it.

Dear god... they let you breed?? :messenger_face_screaming:
 
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