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GameInformer Cover Reveal – Horizon Forbidden West

Bartski

Gold Member
I remember a GDC talk where some guys from Guerilla said everyone in the studio thought they really dropped the ball in HZD with the game economy so I wanna hear more about how they reworked that in the sequel.
I like the idea crafting and resource management is now based on harvesting specific machines for their unique parts you can apparently set up like side missions for yourself to hunt after those, good idea.
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
Pretty much the same, can't really tell them apart.

HZD (PC 1440p ultra)

VAxgyXL.jpg


HFW

hfw_market.jpg




Indeed, just a change of scenery if we ignore all the textures, polygon counts, draw distance, etc.
Maybe I missed something. Where did you get actual texture resolution numbers from the two games? Or the polygon throughput numbers? I can't tell a draw distance is further than the PC version which increases it from the original by a lot.

I'm not going to get into this "but it looks night and day difference" with you guys so poke all you want. I'm not going to be apart of it. HFW is a current-gen game made to run on a PS4. It's not going to look like a giant leap. The word "next-gen" is there for a reason. This new game added a few bits of enhancements to the original formula. There really is nothing dramatic looking about the new game. Even the art direction is similar to the last one.
 
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Tripolygon

Banned
I never said there would be 0 differences between the two games. I said they would look roughly the same.. and they do as the screenshots show. The only thing readily apparent is the backscatter specular lobe for the hair. I am not sure why the HZD pic is so saturated though. Other than that, their clothing looks very similar. It's the same engine with a lot of the same techniques used from the last one.
Is that what you said?

I don't understand this logic. Especially if HZD on PC looks better than HZD2 on PS5.

It is very possible that HZD on the PC, in it's original director's vision, can look better than the PS5 version of HZD2.

I believe your internal logic was high-end PC with ultra settings will make HZD look better than the next-gen version of Horizon FW. Not roughly the same, not similar but better than.
 
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Maybe I missed something. Where did you get actual texture resolution numbers from the two games? Or the polygon throughput numbers? I can't tell a draw distance is further than the PC version which increases it from the original by a lot.

I'm not going to get into this "but it looks night and day difference" with you guys so poke all you want. I'm not going to be apart of it. HFW is a current-gen game made to run on a PS4. It's not going to look like a giant leap. The word "next-gen" is there for a reason. This new game added a few bits of enhancements to the original formula. There really is nothing dramatic looking about the new game. Even the art direction is similar to the last one.
I Cant See Dont Look GIF by ABC Network


I’ll let you know when its safe to open your eyes
 
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Elysion

Banned
Regarding the ‘hero lighting’ on Aloy’s character model in the PS5 version, it reminds me a bit of the lighting on Mario in the Galaxy games on Wii. Mario’s model in those games had this nice looking rim lighting which made his character model really pop on screen. Surely an effect like that could be implemented on PS4 as well?
 
Regarding the ‘hero lighting’ on Aloy’s character model in the PS5 version, it reminds me a bit of the lighting on Mario in the Galaxy games on Wii. Mario’s model in those games had this nice looking rim lighting which made his character model really pop on screen. Surely an effect like that could be implemented on PS4 as well?
No ps4 couldn’t handle it…
 

VFXVeteran

Banned
Is that what you said?





I believe your internal logic was high-end PC with ultra settings will make HZD look better than the next-gen version of Horizon FW. Not roughly the same, not similar but better than.
Doesn't matter man. HFW looks better. It has better textures, better LOD, better everything...
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Yeah, they said how the person playing tried to cheese the slitherfang by grappling to a high point and shooting it and it wrapped around the structure and broke it apart
That sounds so cool. I bet he's breaking this high point down here, taking the advantage away from Aloy

SoVzRUL.jpg
 

GymWolf

Member
That sounds so cool. I bet he's breaking this high point down here, taking the advantage away from Aloy

SoVzRUL.jpg
In that particular occasion he is climbing and assuming that position to use all of his ranged arsenal, at least this is what they said, when he moves around he probably can't use some moves like when he agitate those things in his head before shooting them.

I remember someone saying that he assume that position to have his entire arsenal available, when he moves around he probably use more melee moves.

An enemy taking a position pre-emptively to cut you out seems a bit too advanced, i think that he cut you out when you are already on some ledge and he follows you and force you to jump from that (like they described in the example, the guy trying to cheat and the enemy cutting out that option by following him)

Hopefully i'm wrong and enemies got that big of a jump in IA.
 
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GymWolf

Member
I remember a GDC talk where some guys from Guerilla said everyone in the studio thought they really dropped the ball in HZD with the game economy so I wanna hear more about how they reworked that in the sequel.
I like the idea crafting and resource management is now based on harvesting specific machines for their unique parts you can apparently set up like side missions for yourself to hunt after those, good idea.
You kinda had a "create your side mission for materials" in the first game aswell, but now its gonna be more important in the sequel.

Many of the things they said for the sequel, were kinda already there in the first one, like knowing what part of armour is weak to an element or the general weakness of the enemy, but it was a bit cumbersome so many people played blind without using this stuff, i expect that many journalists did the same.

In the sequel they just made all of this stuff more streamlined and easy to do.
 

GymWolf

Member
No ps4 couldn’t handle it…
On reee they opened a topic about hero light and they say that many games in the past used it, not to the extent of horizon that has that pixar quality look on aloy's model and its probably heavy to sustain for weaker systems, but it has been used in the past (and many people hated and modded away because it looked wrong).

This hero light is not universally loved by everyone, people who like realistic lights, rtx and all that shit hates the effect on aloy, people who gives 2 fucks about realistic lights seems to love it, i'm strongly on favor for example, it makes aloy pop everywhere.

They say that aloy seems green-screened into these pics because the hero light make her look fake.
 
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cormack12

Gold Member
It's probably easier to always have the model looking great with a point of consistent lighting as well. As it's a controlled light source.

On topic, the only thing I'm not really 100% on is the 'corruption' being as prominent. Feels like retreading the same storyline to be honest. Was hoping we'd be chasing something else after the events of the first game.
 

GymWolf

Member
It's probably easier to always have the model looking great with a point of consistent lighting as well. As it's a controlled light source.

On topic, the only thing I'm not really 100% on is the 'corruption' being as prominent. Feels like retreading the same storyline to be honest. Was hoping we'd be chasing something else after the events of the first game.
It's not the corruption, don't get fooled by the red color.

Corruption only had to do with the machines, it didn't killed flora and fauna, this is a different menace that someone is causing on purpose because their first plan failed, probably the same people who caused ALL the troubles in the first horizon, and we don't know who they are (there are some theories tho)
 
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Yeah, i think the biggest “hook” to this game is that the villains will be in control of the machines not just “these machines are corrupt”

As far as the narrative goes it seems like its still mostly under wraps. I wouldn’t be surprised if most of it is kept in secrecy to create the feeling of mystery the first game had
 
In that particular occasion he is climbing and assuming that position to use all of his ranged arsenal, at least this is what they said, when he moves around he probably can't use some moves like when he agitate those things in his head before shooting them.

I remember someone saying that he assume that position to have his entire arsenal available, when he moves around he probably use more melee moves.

An enemy taking a position pre-emptively to cut you out seems a bit too advanced, i think that he cut you out when you are already on some ledge and he follows you and force you to jump from that (like they described in the example, the guy trying to cheat and the enemy cutting out that option by following him)

Hopefully i'm wrong and enemies got that big of a jump in IA.
Is the snake a 1 off boss fight or do you repeatedly fight him? If he's a one off they could probably set up a combat area to make use of those abilities
 
I always remember the bit of tech info you glean, where Horizon guys are in a quandary as their drones have butchered and consumed a pod of Dolphins and they realise control has been lost. I imagine that's exactly how the great AI cataclysm would begin.
 

SSfox

Member
Maybe game devs should give us a masculine/feminine slider in game where we don't make our own character. This way you can please multiple demographics

No offense, but this is so dumb imo

Devs should just make the game they want with the character they want. If someone doesn't like the game or the main character then just move on and find something you may enjoy, and let people who are enjoying it enjoy.

Not because Ubisoft dumbed down AC that everyone else should do same with their franchises
 

GymWolf

Member
Is the snake a 1 off boss fight or do you repeatedly fight him? If he's a one off they could probably set up a combat area to make use of those abilities
Except for the final boss, there was no unique 1 off fight in horizon 1 (and even the final boss was kinda repeated), i expect here to be the same, you probably gonna encounter him only in areas with pilons or stone structures.
 

Men_in_Boxes

Snake Oil Salesman
The best part of that GI show was hearing them say Guerilla is really hiding the open world stuff for now. Hoping they made some big advancements in that area.
 
List of improvements from the first game so far

  • Better Animations & motion capture
  • Overall graphical LoD and all that stuff
  • Companions and sidequesting is more robust, having continual plot threads and encounters
  • Sidequest will have better rewards, not just shards. Things such as armor, weapons, or rare material
  • Crafting is now contained to workbench, finding and highlighting parts is more streamlined.
  • Towns feature battle pits where you can challenge people to fights and learn new attacks
  • Revamped skill tree with 6 different paths, 20-30 skills each path with their own ‘valor surges’
  • More flesh out melee combat, introducing a combo system that lets you switch between melee and ranged on the fly and containers super moves known as Valor Surges
  • Increased traversal, vaulting mechanic, pull caster (grappling hook), shieldwing,(glider), free climbing, and deep water diving. They’ve mentioned that these tools will have more than one use, ex. Pullcaster can pull down chest and items
  • World is more dense, the ocean and lakes will their own substantial maps, higher elevation in land terrain
  • Machines are more intelligent with their own behaviors, attitudes, and day cycles
  • More destructible environments
  • NPC are also more intelligent and lively, different tribes will have their own set of quirks and personalities
  • More weapons and tools such as the smoke bomb, and Spike Thrower
  • New ways to scan, which will give you detailed information of humans and machines and the type of parts you can farm from them
I’m sure theres a lot more info I’m forgetting.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
List of improvements from the first game so far

  • Better Animations & motion capture
  • Overall graphical LoD and all that stuff
  • Companions and sidequesting is more robust, having continual plot threads and encounters
  • Sidequest will have better rewards, not just shards. Things such as armor, weapons, or rare material
  • Crafting is now contained to workbench, finding and highlighting parts is more streamlined.
  • Towns feature battle pits where you can challenge people to fights and learn new attacks
  • Revamped skill tree with 6 different paths, 20-30 skills each path with their own ‘valor surges’
  • More flesh out melee combat, introducing a combo system that lets you switch between melee and ranged on the fly and containers super moves known as Valor Surges
  • Increased traversal, vaulting mechanic, pull caster (grappling hook), shieldwing,(glider), free climbing, and deep water diving. They’ve mentioned that these tools will have more than one use, ex. Pullcaster can pull down chest and items
  • World is more dense, the ocean and lakes will their own substantial maps, higher elevation in land terrain
  • Machines are more intelligent with their own behaviors, attitudes, and day cycles
  • More destructible environments
  • NPC are also more intelligent and lively, different tribes will have their own set of quirks and personalities
  • More weapons and tools such as the smoke bomb, and Spike Thrower
  • New ways to scan, which will give you detailed information of humans and machines and the type of parts you can farm from them
I’m sure theres a lot more info I’m forgetting.
Sounds amazing! There's also gameplay systems involving the tide under water that Guerrilla hasn't fully revealed yet
 

SLB1904

Banned
List of improvements from the first game so far

  • Better Animations & motion capture
  • Overall graphical LoD and all that stuff
  • Companions and sidequesting is more robust, having continual plot threads and encounters
  • Sidequest will have better rewards, not just shards. Things such as armor, weapons, or rare material
  • Crafting is now contained to workbench, finding and highlighting parts is more streamlined.
  • Towns feature battle pits where you can challenge people to fights and learn new attacks
  • Revamped skill tree with 6 different paths, 20-30 skills each path with their own ‘valor surges’
  • More flesh out melee combat, introducing a combo system that lets you switch between melee and ranged on the fly and containers super moves known as Valor Surges
  • Increased traversal, vaulting mechanic, pull caster (grappling hook), shieldwing,(glider), free climbing, and deep water diving. They’ve mentioned that these tools will have more than one use, ex. Pullcaster can pull down chest and items
  • World is more dense, the ocean and lakes will their own substantial maps, higher elevation in land terrain
  • Machines are more intelligent with their own behaviors, attitudes, and day cycles
  • More destructible environments
  • NPC are also more intelligent and lively, different tribes will have their own set of quirks and personalities
  • More weapons and tools such as the smoke bomb, and Spike Thrower
  • New ways to scan, which will give you detailed information of humans and machines and the type of parts you can farm from them
I’m sure theres a lot more info I’m forgetting.
In the first I spend so much time looking at the environment. I'll get lost in this one. Is just gorgeous. I really hope there are loads more landmarks. Love those places
 

TheGrat1

Member
This is not the box art, right? I would love to see more hand drawn box art, however this looks more like the game's 3D assets with a filter overlaid.
 
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