Horizon Zero Dawn (Official Discussion Thread)

"For existing owners of Horizon Zero Dawn (PS4, PC) and/or Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition (PS4, PS5, PC): you can upgrade to the digital version of Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered for $9.99 on both PlayStation 5 console and on PC (via Steam or Epic Game Store)...this includes fans who added the game to their libraries during PlayStation’s Play At Home initiative"

$9.99 is a great price...I'm definitely in...good thing I haven't bought Forbidden West PC yet...I was planning on replaying HZD PC first but now I can play the Remastered Edition and then start FW
 
Been there and done that for 200+ hours already, most likely will never be playing through again. And really though does this even need a remaster? Imo I don't think so.
 
Been there and done that for 200+ hours already, most likely will never be playing through again. And really though does this even need a remaster? Imo I don't think so.
I played through the game twice because the open world aspect wasn't too badly done so a second playthrough wasn't a chore but as much as I enjoyed the game I don't expect to play it again. However, if I do ever play the game again at least I know I won't have to worry about the changes they've made to the "remaster" (as if a game this new needs a remaster) since the "remaster" is an additional cost.

I don't care what they say, the "remaster" has little or nothing to do with bringing the visual fidelity of the second game to the first.
 
Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered features over 10 hours of re-recorded conversation, mocap and countless graphical improvements that bring the game to the same visual fidelity as its critically acclaimed sequel Horizon Forbidden West. The game’s lush world includes frozen mountains, dense jungles, and arid deserts with stunning new visuals and 4K1 graphics and travelling between settlements is now lightning-fast.


The story’s many compelling characters have been upgraded, bringing them in line with current generation advances in character models and rendering. We hope that improved animation, lightning, textures and more will make new and existing fans excited to dive into the action!

Why are they re-recording? That means it may have some different dialogue/writing. The voice acting was good in the game as it was. It makes little to no sense to do that.

For the second part, I expect Aloy will be replaced with the gorilla faced design of Forbidden West with her swollen looking face. I suppose it is a good thing the original versions aren't automatically updated, and I assume you can persevere the original version of the game on Steam/GOG.
 
Why are they re-recording? That means it may have some different dialogue/writing. The voice acting was good in the game as it was. It makes little to no sense to do that.

For the second part, I expect Aloy will be replaced with the gorilla faced design of Forbidden West with her swollen looking face. I suppose it is a good thing the original versions aren't automatically updated, and I assume you can persevere the original version of the game on Steam/GOG.
I'm very suspicious about the re-recording... I've already said my piece about how FW swerved for the hills of opposition.
 
They way I look at it, this is mostly for PS5 owners. The PC version isn't really needed, but if you're comparing this to the PS4 version it's night and day. That's the knock on a lot of these remakes and remasters. They're a massive upgrade over last-gen console games, but they're minimally needed for PC ports.
 
Original looks better. They changed the entire art direction of the game wtf?
2:09 is a crime.

More or less. Colors are brighter and a lot of the detail gets lost on the architecture and mountains are completely washed out. Skip to 2:42 to compare. Unless the time of day and lighting conditions are supposed to be different, but then why compare them? Looks like a different time of day with a lot more fog. The remaster also has some awful blur. Check 3:04. The detail loss of the leaves is insane. Check 6:14 as well. Just horrible blur. I do think the lens flare is more similar to Forbidden West, but the blur is worse.

A few scenes do look better though it seems to be a mixed bag. Though I think the real comparison will be how the original PC version compares to this.
 
It's a big diff even with the PS5 version:


View: https://youtu.be/FFzO5JbQO6c

We already have the PC trailer and it looks cleaner with less noise than the PS5 trailer, so PC version will once again be superior and for £10, worth a replay.

YouTube has high compression.. Never listen to these videos.. They're also getting there info from even more compressed videos.
 
YouTube has high compression.. Never listen to these videos.. They're also getting there info from even more compressed videos.
Irrelevant. You can literally see there are big graphical improvements vs the OG game.
 
would need to see with HDR on (if this is sdr, my youtube does not have the hdr logo), from the youtube video color grading changed so much (snow scene at 3:25 make it quite obvious) that it would be a matter of taste in that regard.
 
would need to see with HDR on (if this is sdr, my youtube does not have the hdr logo), from the youtube video color grading changed so much (snow scene at 3:25 make it quite obvious) that it would be a matter of taste in that regard.
The current color grading is weird, everything is way too orange and saturated.
 
I'd like to see side by sides before paying $10 for an "upgrade". Waiting for reviews to see how bad it changed. I much preferred HZD to HFW game play wise.
 
I liked the game and I'll probably play it a second time at some point but it already looked and played fine so I question the need for it. If they're changing dialog and a bunch of other stuff as well I suspect it will actually be worse than the original but even if it isn't and I felt it was worth buying again(doubtful) the PSN account requirement would likely keep me away from it.

I think they're going to learn that it's harder to milk the PC audience with remakes for fairly recent games, pc hardware isn't fixed so there isn't a hard generational gap to help justify buying them again.
 
The lighting looks significantly better to me, not sure what people are on about. Basically everything looks improved, but I will say it does change the artistic intent and design quite a bit.
 
I don't think it looks worse??

not sure what people are on about.


For color grading, temperature, human "casting" look, that is almost purely personal-taste (and probably respective monitor being used), it often do not look worse imo, but I am not sure if it ever look significantly better either ( I do prefer the "hot" aesthetic of the original I think and even if not necessarily more realistic-advanced the humans face design).

It is not about being technically worse, but just taste, like finding movie x looking better than movie y when both of have actual perfect photorealistic real world graphic.
 
I always thought it'd be cool in HZD (or any game for that matter) if you could run the game in real time with the Photomode settings that you applied to it. We gotta be getting close to a point where stuff like that could be entirely possible, no? I'm actually still surprised that we can do the stuff in photomode without breaking the game as is. But everyone could have an entirely unique experience at that point. You could run a game at a certain time of day, season, or any other number of variables for any duration. You could even save the configs to a store and reuse them as presets. Basically any way you want it. I'd hope some devs could figure out a way to do this.
 
Horizon Zero Dawn Complete Edition removed from Epic Store: https://gg.deals/gaming-news/horizo...oved-from-the-epic-games-store-is-steam-next/
Looks like Sony might be removing the old version from stores. It might be all stores or it could be only ones that can upgrade to the remaster for 9.99, who really knows.
Epic removed it when the remaster was first announced. No idea why. It's still being sold on Steam. On a related note, Sony continues with their anti-consumerism by doubling the price for the console version.

https://www.videogameschronicle.com...-price-following-remaster-upgrade-annoucement
 
Disappointing, graphical enhancements aside it seems to have done more than that. The coloring and light in those comparisons just looks off, like a different art direction. But it isn't uncommon for for original editions to disappear and be replaced with more expensive remastered editions. I think the problem here is the price is a lot at $50. Though maybe the sales will be the same price, no one buys old games on Steam at MSRP anyways.
 
Hah, all I see in that one video is color changes and time of day changes. Hardly worth even $10 for an upgrade, at least the PC version. I guess since Sony gave it away for free on PS4 etc. in 2020 or 21 they want to make more money on it and try to push more console sales.
 
HZD.jpg
 
I'm definitely picking this up for $10...main reason being that it won't replace my original version on Steam so if the 'improvements' suck then I can just play the original non-remastered version
 
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The first game was already "modern audienced" so not sure they could take it much further.
It was? I heard it was the second one that was :(. I've yet to play my copy of the first one, amd being from Epic games store I think it gets replaced if I buy the Remaster upgrade...
 
It was? I heard it was the second one that was :(. I've yet to play my copy of the first one, amd being from Epic games store I think it gets replaced if I buy the Remaster upgrade...

It is was one of the first AAA games to pioneer so called woke politics in a game. Most of the characters are gay, the reclusive main tribe in the game should probably look mixed racially yet still have all the ethnic groups (maybe people just marry their own race in the Nora tribe), the male characters are almost all weak physically or mentally, male characters are almost always incompetent or villains, and it kind of beats the concept that men need women or are successful because of women. It was one of the first games where the oddball politics was too heavy and affected my ability to enjoy it, though I still think it was one of the better games I played over the last 8 or so years.
 
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