Horizon Zero Dawn

[Aikouka]

It has been confirmed that Sony is releasing Horizon Zero Dawn (Complete Edition) for the PC, and it should be out this summer. This has pretty much been heavily rumored since Death Stranding was set to release on PC and Death Stranding uses the same engine as Horizon Zero Dawn. In other words, porting one likely helped port the other one a modest amount.

 

[Stg-Flame]

It was a fun game but I played it on the PS4 and don't plan on buying it again unless they also release HZD2.

 

[nakedfrog]

I guess it works out that I haven't gotten around to buying it for PS4 yet.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

It's dirt cheap for PS4, but I can see the appeal using a powerhouse PC. I've been wanting to do my New Game +.

 

[Stg-Flame]

It regularly goes on sale on the PSN for around $10 and I can't imagine the PC port adding anything of substance that would cause me to choose one over the other. From the vast history of gaming, ports usually come with a plethora of issues, but not always. It would be nice if they are porting this to announce a second game.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

If you check slickdeals, you can get a digital download code for ~$5 even.

 

[Aikouka]

That’s one reason why I’m curious about the price. I can see Death Stranding still cost a higher amount due to its relatively low age. On the flip side, Horizon Zero Dawn has been out for a while and has seen rather low prices while on sale. However, we also don’t want to diminish all the work the port takes — and we'll have to see the asset quality to truly know — and make sure people are paid for their work.

I do own the game on PS4, but I’ve been reluctant to play it because while it seems really interesting, I’m just so bad at aiming with a controller and the game uses a considerable amount of weapons and gadgets that require aiming. So, I’d lean toward PC for that reason.

So, out of curiosity, how much would you guys be willing to pay? I’m leaning toward the $30-40 mark.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

It would be a great new trend to see console exclusives get ported over to PC near the end of a console's life cycle. Basically a win win for everyone: The console manufacturers potentially gin up some interest in their next gen of consoles from a crowd of folks that are not afraid to drop some coin on hardware, while PC gamers get some great games and those like me who are willing to wait don't really miss out on anything anyway.

Figure $30 is a fair "new" asking price for this.

 

[Stg-Flame]

I’m just so bad at aiming with a controller and the game uses a considerable amount of weapons and gadgets that require aiming.

I've played it twice on the PS4 and while you do aim with your bow a lot, it's not exactly precision aiming that would require quick movements. Needing precision is only to start off the battle because once they become alerted to your presence, all bets are off and you're better off switching to melee or explosives/traps (or just ropecaster them and use strong attacks until they die). If you are using a bow after being discovered, you're either using elemental arrows (which don't require precision aiming) or tearblast arrows which do AoE damage to tear off components and weapons from the enemies. Not to mention the game has auto-aim, so you're never really struggling to light the Glinthawks on fire if they've discovered you.

So, there's really no reason to not play it on PS4 if you've already bought it once. If you don't own it for the console and still wish to play it, I would highly suggest using a controller anyways. The third-person nature of this game just feels better suited for a controller, but I grew up with the NES and SNES so action games feel more fluid with a controller for me.

 

[Aikouka]

I've played it twice on the PS4 and while you do aim with your bow a lot, it's not exactly precision aiming that would require quick movements. Needing precision is only to start off the battle because once they become alerted to your presence, all bets are off and you're better off switching to melee or explosives/traps (or just ropecaster them and use strong attacks until they die). If you are using a bow after being discovered, you're either using elemental arrows (which don't require precision aiming) or tearblast arrows which do AoE damage to tear off components and weapons from the enemies. Not to mention the game has auto-aim, so you're never really struggling to light the Glinthawks on fire if they've discovered you.

So, there's really no reason to not play it on PS4 if you've already bought it once. If you don't own it for the console and still wish to play it, I would highly suggest using a controller anyways. The third-person nature of this game just feels better suited for a controller, but I grew up with the NES and SNES so action games feel more fluid with a controller for me.

I think it was Assassin's Creed Origins that sort of put me on edge a bit. I never had a lot of issues with bows in that game because I could cheese most shots using the Predator Bow's talent that allowed you to steer the shot. What I would do in some cases is literally fire the shot up in the air and treat it like a ballistic missile. Now, I could manage this with a controller, but I ran into a lot of problems in one specific area of the game, which I'll avoid detailing due to it being a story beat, where you were forced to use your bow the entire time. I tried a few times, and I just couldn't beat this with my controller. I ended up having to use mouse and keyboard just to beat that, and I actually beat it pretty quickly.

One other thing Assassin's Creed Origins taught me? The shoulder buttons on the Xbox One controller are not comfortable to press that often. (RB is mapped to the melee attack button in Origins.)

 

[Fenixgoon]

Since I don't own consoles, this is exciting news!

 

[Stuka87]

I don't have a PS4, so I am really happy that this is coming out for PC.

I have to say that it has been hilarious to see PS4 fanboys getting livid over this coming out for PC. I totally don't understand getting angry about a game being available for more people to enjoy, but sure is fun watching those that are getting angry over it.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

I don't have a PS4, so I am really happy that this is coming out for PC.

I have to say that it has been hilarious to see PS4 fanboys getting livid over this coming out for PC. I totally don't understand getting angry about a game being available for more people to enjoy, but sure is fun watching those that are getting angry over it.

It's my favorite game of this generation, but why would I care if it comes out on PC? It's not multiplayer.

 

[Stuka87]

 

[A Casual Fitz]

I watched a bit on mute with captions, but it seems like the gist of the argument is that they feel swindled because they thought the only way to play this game was to buy a PS4.

Meh... maybe that would have some merit if they surprised everyone with a port like a few months after, but 3 years? How many people do you really think went out and bought a PS4 just for this game? If they did, you probably could have told them to wait 3 years for a PC port and they would have waited, right? Right?

 

[Stg-Flame]

If I'm not mistaken, HZD was a launch title so people have had plenty of time to play it on PS4. It's a great game with a pretty unique story so I doubt anyone honestly cares if it gets ported. Whenever I hear someone generalizing, I usually tune it out because things are blown way out of proportion these days to the point that if someone reads a single tweet, somehow it means the vast majority of people on the internet feel the same way. People put way too much stock in what others think and do with their time.

 

[nakedfrog]

Nah, it wasn't a launch title, released 2017 vs the PS4's launch in 2013. It has been one of the stand-out PS4 exclusives as far as I can tell.

 

[Zenoth]

Heh, "exclusivity". I'm 99% convinced that there would be no complaints if Zero Dawn would be ported to the PS5.

But it angers some out there because it's going on PC. This reminds me of how to this day some people still call Breath of the Wild a Switch game, when it was primarily made on the Wii U dev kit for the longest time and then was ported on the Switch. And on forums at the time of release people going as far as claiming that buying the Wii U version of the game wasn't fair to those who couldn't get it at launch the same day because the Switch was out of stock (and if not, the Switch version of the game was out of stock even if you did manage to get the Switch itself). Did anyone complain when The Last of Us ended up on PS4? Was it fair for those who got a PS3 at the time 'just for it'?

Console players should be thankful that even if it's timed they do have their exclusive titles driving sales of the console it gets released on (at least to some extent, even if minor overall). On PC we barely ever have any exclusives, unless we count all those Early Access "games" on Steam that you can't find on consoles as PC exclusives. I never gave a rat's ass when Half-Life 2 was released on consoles, and never thought that any game I got on PC 'first' "shouldn't" come out for a console at some point or another.

What has always mattered to me is being able to choose which platform I prefer to play my games on. It's been PC since the early 2000s and never looked back since then. The only single exception is Nintendo and their first party games. And it does make sense for them since there would be next to no reasons (in my book, anyway) to get any of their console if they decided tomorrow that their Zeldas, Metroids, StarFoxes, Donkey Kongs, Marios, Smash Brawls and Parties would be released on all major systems as well. Everyone would stick to their currently-owned system and wouldn't move a finger to buy another platform to play their Nintendo games on.

But for Microsoft and Sony I really don't feel that way. The only IP I "associate" with Sony is Crash Bandicoot and it's now on PC. The only IP I associate with Microsoft (or rather the XBOX) is Halo, and it's now on PC, more so then ever before (although I do expect Halo Infinite to be at least time exclusive for a year on Series X before going on PC at some point).

Anyway, I welcome Zero Dawn on PC.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

^^^ I honestly had no idea of this entitlement culture in video game exclusivity until recently. Who gives a shit?

Like Jack Lalanne once said: If it's a good video game, play it!

 

[Stg-Flame]

People put too much stock in what other people are doing and saying on the internet. It's become a thing where if someone reads a single tweet, they assume the vast majority believe the same and end up blowing things out of proportion or sensationalizing mundane things.

If ten people complain online about HZD getting ported to the PC, it affects absolutely nothing and nobody. If ten thousand complain about it being ported, it still affects absolutely nothing. I appreciate exclusives since it gives the developers a single aspect to focus on instead of trying to appease everyone and giving us a half-assed finished product (looking at you launch-version of Skyrim). But if the exclusive later gets ported, that just means more people get to play the game and if the sequel is created as a PS5 exclusive, it might be enough to get people to invest in a PS5 or just wait a few years for it to be ported to PC.

 

[Fenixgoon]

bump - picked this up on black friday sale.

the first thing i ran into was N64 mode for this game. some bizarre graphical error. i eventually put all graphical settings to "original" and that seemed to clear the problem, whatever it was.

running 2560x1440 with recommended settings HERE and it generally runs smooth - i've had a couple of frame drops (one involving the motion blur) but otherwise not too bad on my Dell G15 Ryzen (Ryzen 7 5800H, GTX 3060 6gb). running full 4k is a slideshow - not an indictment of the game so much as the limitations of a 3060 GPU is my guess.
the level-of-detail system seems really odd - like, some things seem to totally lack texture when you'd expect them to be more highly detailed. or textures pop in/out dynamically (had that happen a couple of times in cutscenes).

i'm sure i need to tweak the graphics more - overall it's a very pretty game despite the above criticisms.

after getting through the tutorial, i'm now in the open world. i've shot down a few monsters, and so far it feels good from a game mechanic perspective. who knows how long it will take me to complete the whole game so i can give a final review, hah.

 

[el-Capitan]

Great game, I really enjoyed it. Even though I tend to bounce off open worlds like GTA...

Going by publishing date, your graphics guide is based on an earlier, unpatched, release that had crass performance issues. You may want to try to find a more update guide.

Patched it runs pretty even on my rx580.

Enjoy!

 

[Stuka87]

I considered getting this during the last steam sale, but it seems it still has some pretty major privacy concerns, and I rather not give them access to all my data. Which is a shame as its a good game otherwise.

 

[A Casual Fitz]

This is easily still my favorite game for PS4. I'm cautiously optimistic about Forbidden West, but I don't get offended when games don't live up to expectations.

 

[Fenixgoon]

anyone on PC run into texture problems, and if so, how did you fix them?

mine are all over the place - from pop-ins and/or failure to load to completely sudden LoD changes...it really takes away from what should be a visually stunning game. i'm really disappointed.

fwiw: purchased through GoG, running on a 3060 6gb w/ AMD 5800H cpu.