Horizon Forbidden West - Digital Foundry Tech Review - A PS5 Graphics Masterclass

[@OroborOSX11]

Honestly, what strikes me the most is the gorgeous color work. The artists were not afraid to craft really vibrant colors for their scenes. The sheer saturation of colors in a variety of different scenes is breathtaking, frankly.

[@axelhopfinger533]

This game's visuals were practically made for HDR.

[@geiers6013]

@@axelhopfinger533Exactly. Also the games hdr settings and implementation is just perfect. There currently is just no other game which looks even similarly good in hdr, especially if you consider it's also open world.

[@pwrthrst400]

Digital Foundry’s reviews have become essential viewing for any game I’m interested in playing.

[@christopherm7248]

I agree. I won’t buy a game now without researching it technically.

[@SwiftViper]

I learned this lesson with cyberpunk

[@rolandngom5080]

Especially now that I own both a series x and ps5 I come to them first before making a purchase

[@Ajstyle48]

First digital foundry tech review .then purchase.

[@colson2919]

Digital foundry for tech specs and any resolution/fps questions for sure

[@ChimpFlipperJr]

What an amazingly well-made video. I can’t imagine how much work it took to write and produce this video that covers all of these concepts so thoroughly, we really appreciate your hard work John. You and all of the Digital Foundry team. This is seriously impressive and you are providing an insight that nobody else can, thank you!

[@reedified6514]

You new here?

[@xXJeReMiAhXx99]

@@reedified6514 haha even for a DF video I was impressed, this is an infinitely better piece than say just a performance review and comparsion

[@JasonMcMullen]

this

[@Xinlongsai]

U new here? Stop being cringe ok. Not the first time already the way u talk man it makes me puke

[@malazan6004]

@@Xinlongsai you sound insecure about something

[@fernandofaria2872]

This is the prettiest game i've ever played. The fact that its not being discussed as much as it deserves baffles me. And i did play and loved Elden Ring as well.

[@PointlesslyNecessaryConvos]

I think it’s because everything else in the game is quite derivative.

[@fernandofaria2872]

@@PointlesslyNecessaryConvos Thats my opinion on 99% of the games i play these days, including these both.

[@Markos581973]

Pretty is not the same as entertaining. The game is boring like most games these days.

[@fernandofaria2872]

@@Markos581973 And that is your opinion, which differs from mine.

[@youtubeisshit2electricboog635]

@@Markos581973 imagine thinking your opinion is fact. Lmao fuckin’ internet people.

[@michaelgreiner1665]

There really is no one like John to offer us videos quite like this. Masterfully crafted. Thank you for your amazing work John

[@ansafniyaz8540]

Both John and Alex are S tier in their craft

[@mcrazza]

No, they’re all excellent.

[@gdoumit]

Everyone other than their newest guy is enjoyable to listen to. The new guy always sounds so scripted and dull. I can't enjoy his videos and largely just started ignoring them now. I can't even remember his name because I just cannot stick around more than a few minutes of listening to his videos.

[@jackjohnson8305]

John is paul's hardware long lost twin, ofcourse hes the best.

[@carlosdonizetti9573]

John reading this: "Thats an interesting comment ! " Jokes aside this guy is the best ! You can really feel (check his twitter) his passion for games in all his videos .

[@IMan_93_]

Decima is genuinely incredible.

[@TSE_WOODY]

I’m very interested to see what Kojima does with it next too

[@zubiecup]

@woody me too. Death Stranding was also gorgeous.

[@lowsodiumgamer6805]

@@zubiecup Death stranding actually made me more excited for forbidden West because death stranding looking so good

[@justathan8257]

@George xander Oh look at me! I'm smarter than you! Nobody cares bozo...let people enjoy things.

[@皮皮-d6u]

I’m impressed with the ps4 version. They managed it well and stable 30fps. I got the ps5 though.

[@conan_der_barbar]

I love seeing comparisons to the previous games, in my mind they always looked better than they actually did

[@TechnoMinarchist]

@@ramonandrajo6348 Gotta get their esg rating up.

[@malazan6004]

@@TechnoMinarchist he's commenting this on everything positive don't give into the bait. He's a big Halo fan.

[@TechnoMinarchist]

@@ramonandrajo6348 ESG ratings are a rating that financial institutions use (originally created by Blackrock) where your rating is essentially the more woke the higher the number. Most companies cannot get financial investments in their company if they don't have a good/high ESG rating. Hence why so many companies are going woke.

[@TheManaTree777]

@@ramonandrajo6348 Poor little snowflake.

[@Teremei]

@@ramonandrajo6348 I'd suggest you grow up and stop being "triggered" by every little thing.

[@HrabiaKaczula]

I love how Digital Foundry evolved becoming not only the technical benchmark but also a meritorical benchmark. Listening to John is always a pleasure. Always on point, always calm, always smart and most importantly always objective.

[@ryno1808]

Yeah hes grest to listen to... df before any gane purchase know sad that's how gaming has become tho

[@The_RedVIII]

The differences to Horizon 1 are mindblowing. Especially the new water effects are just absolutely insane. It looks so good, I wanna drink from it right now!

[@terrystokes7893]

Me too 😋💧💧💧

[@Maxxxim1]

Don’t do it

[@zaidlacksalastname4905]

Super Mario Sunshine is still the king of yummy water lol

[@leonxus2701]

thats what i thought, it made me thirsty

[@DonBilboism]

@@Maxxxim1 they put something in it.

[@DonBilboism]

The quality of this channel 👌I guess even the developers appreciate this kind of detailed review as it highlights all the work that has gone into it. Which makes me also appreciate the work they have done even more.

[@MRHardRoller]

Word 💪🏼

[@mindsteve]

The best part of these tech breakdowns is it makes me appreciate small but amazing stuff I might otherwise overlook.

[@homerthompson416]

Looks more like the publishers appreciate a fluff piece that completely ignores how shitty performance mode looks

[@MRHardRoller]

@@homerthompson416 Looks too good tbh 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@HRBSFrank]

Almost like a kid in a candy store. I find myself often getting hyped to watch a DF Tech review. It can only be credited to a well-scripted, produced, and presented video. Amazing work! GG's guys!

[@malazan6004]

@@ramonandrajo6348 a pity you don't own the console to play it on. You can own both you know that right?

[@Fafnir2000]

@@ramonandrajo6348 pre-owned og PS4 is lower than 200 bucks rn.. Just buy that and escape from your pathetic old life where you have to spam shits on ps videos just because you won't get to play it.

[@talion7268]

The game was straight up phenomenal they litterly improved in every single aspect!!

[@anasshahid224]

Fr man

[@jollama]

*literally

[@han1508]

"Note how this raccoon leaves a trail behind him as he scurries away across this field. ...impressive" One of the best lines in DF.

[@razvanzamfir1545]

"...impressive" - greatest DF compliment

[@calum769]

It was impressive tho! Lol

[@calum769]

I find myself nodding and smiling as grass is flattened lol

[@marsovac]

It is impressive but surely not realistic. You won't see trails behind raccons in the wild. You will have a hard time even up close inspecting footprints on soft earth. The effect should be toned down for lighter creatures and perhaps even turned off for really small ones.

[@SmorgasLord]

Horizon 3 will have unique tracks for different animals so you can learn to be a tracker

[@ThatGamingGuyfromthe70s]

Im at a point in gaming where I'm as excited for the DF review as I am for actually playing the game. Shining a light on the art direction and in depth analysis of the game engine gives me a greater appreciation for the game and in many cases elevates my experience when playing.

[@Deedric_Kee]

👍🏽

[@Monafide3305]

Totally true for me too. Call me lazy, but if a game that DF doesn't cover gives me the choice of performance, RT, or resolution modes, I'll usually just pick resolution and run through the game since I find it's usually a consistent choice and I don't mind 30fps too much. DF is awesome because instead of having to switch between modes (which often involves restarting a game to some degree) and look for the small details early on, I can find out my preferred option before it's even installed. And like you said, it actively makes the experience more fun for me when I understand how impressive it is under the hood and can spot the little things.

[@malazan6004]

@@ramonandrajo6348 a pity you can't play it on your console of choice

[@Starless85]

The fact that they accomplished a game that looks better than Naughty Dog’s but in a massive open world is absolutely insane.

[@julianorozaa]

This was also the case in comparing Horizon Zero Dawn and Uncharted 4

[@bbdrix23]

It looks soo much better then Spider-Man 2 PS5 which is not a cross gen game.

[@jphuwae4505]

@@bbdrix23it’s the engine, Decima was obviously designed around the ps4/ps5 while SpiderMan engine seems to be not as advanced. Sony should really just tell their studios to use Decima

[@thesaucyprophesy2939]

@spiral7399you can say you prefer the art style, but to say uncharted 4 is better on a technical scale is false

[@MetalGod-id8st]

Because of this, both HZD & Last of us 2 are getting a remaster 🙄

[@cyberedge881]

People tend to think things look fairly similar when the art direction and general design is similar, but these are some very substantial improvements that to me result in a much more beautiful and convincing world to explore.

[@gamerbum9350]

Yes the game looks great no doubt but you can definitely tell it’s cross gen roots. It’s not as big of a jump than what FH5 was over FH4 and it’s not as impressive as Hellblade 2. Hellblade 2 is the most visually stunning game to date in the video game world followed by Flight Sim and FH5 with HFW and Ratchet n Clank bringing up the rear.

[@sandman1347]

@@gamerbum9350 Hellblade 2 is not even out yet...

[@gamerbum9350]

@@sandman1347 So what! Doesn’t matter. It’s still the best looking game ever at this point in time. The graphics are phenomenal.

[@sandman1347]

@@gamerbum9350 So what, you say? The game isn't out buddy. You don't know what the actual game will look like. How many times have we seen trailers that look amazing and then a massive drop off in the actual release version of the game? When will people learn?

[@trey5973]

@@gamerbum9350 there hasn’t been a single gameplay trailer for hell blade yet so your making no sense

[@aaliguy9986]

I didn't want the video to end. The game looks stunning! Great Job, John and DF team.

[@Ray-dl5mp]

I want a 2 hour review by John of this game bad. This was amazing though.

[@subservient8]

I love these guys but no no no no. you mean "Great Job Guerilla Games studio and Sony Interactive" for perfectly utilizing their Decima Engine and create an amazing game on top of it.

[@aaliguy9986]

@@subservient8 Of course! We wouldn't have Horizon if it wasn't for the talents of Guerilla Games.

[@Mospen]

Well done John and Digital Foundry team! Your Tech Reviews continue to impress. Not just from an gamer perspective, but attention given to what makes the game itself, is a great acknowledgement to the development team. It recognizes their hard work and effort put into such a project. This really appeals to multiple audiences. A real treat for the eyes and ears. Keep up the excellent work!!!

[@NeoMoonSevin]

What mospen said 👍

[@NeoMoonSevin]

@@ramonandrajo6348 looks like Tomb raider with robots to me and abit of fortnite

[@Egurius3]

@@ramonandrajo6348 It is not

[@MarkusFFFF]

PLEASE Digital Foundry, make a video about the bad image quality of the performance mode. Media are confusing the "shimmering bug" (which was already fixed) with the shimmering/flickering of the textures in performance mode. This is what thousands of comments in the support threads are all about, but media is writing articles "Everything is OK, bug was fixed". That's not true. There need to be awareness outside of the support threads. This game has the worst image quality (i am not speaking of graphics style here) of all games on PS5 i have seen so far.

[@MarkusFFFF]

@Transistor Jump There is no comment from them. They got silent after the shimmering bug was fixed.

[@MarkusFFFF]

@Transistor Jump They did. Until more and more started complaining about the bad image quality. After that they got silent.

[@sKullkidi]

@@MarkusFFFF Well, I’m disappointed as well but it’s the weekend. Hopefully they can fix it somewhat quick though…

[@fugamantew]

"This game has the worst image quality of all games on PS5 I have seen so far", really? What game has better image quality on the PS5 in your opinion?

[@MarkusFFFF]

@@fugamantew Search it on KZbin, for example "Horizon Forbidden West - Performance Mode is Broken" or read some of the thousands of comments about this in the support threads of the game. Even DF admitted it on Twitter, but they never made a video about it.

[@bobbyteenager4e]

I guess I am in the minority, but I am extremely disappointed in the graphics. I can't play games like this at 30fps...so that's off the table. In 60fps, the resolution and jaggies is just terrible. Coming from Uncharted Legacy, this looks downright jarring

[@MarkusFFFF]

No, you are not. There are thousands of comments about this in the support threads of the game.

[@homerthompson416]

@@MarkusFFFF And thousands of downvotes if you mention how shit this looks on r/PS5 lol.

[@MarkusFFFF]

@@homerthompson416 It's changing. Yesterday i wrote something about this problem in the /PS5 reddit and for the first time it wasn't downvoted, other people even started to talk about it too.

[@sev2300]

I wonder why he didn’t mention any of these issues in his video. It’s really hard for me to believe he didn’t notice these issues

[@Jacky_man542]

To think these visuals are been produced so early in the PS5’s life is astonishing.I think this is what Mark Cerny was aiming for when designing the PS5 architecture.I love attention to detail in games and this is just remarkable.What a talented dev team these guy’s are .

[@alistaircraig7849]

It's a bit of a shame there's not been much since..

[@Jacky_man542]

@@alistaircraig7849 totally agree.Wish Naughty Dog do something new instead of revamping old games.

[@Jacky_man542]

💯.Wish Naughty Dog would do a new genre instead of constantly remaking their old games.There were rumours about a fantasy game but nothing has been heard since.Please Sony get the big hitters do something new.

[@flyingplantwhale545]

It’s really impressive, the potential these devs can squeeze out of the PS4, given how damn good the game looks on that hardware.

[@MichaelDoesLife]

Stop being a sheep consumer blinded by marketing and use your brain for once

[@t.o.p6849]

Yes, this game is amazing

[@hnj1237]

@@MichaelDoesLife maybe elaborate so we can use our BRAINS?

[@MalphasMikaelson]

@@MichaelDoesLife What does this even mean?

[@nicholascaldarelli5332]

It means ps5 is being held back by ps4

[@jkstatus1793]

Why didn’t you mention the shimmering on lg Oled tv’s, looks like shit

[@riktreutmann6530]

same here. it seems to be a hdr bug. when you turn it testwise off. no flickering. its a shame. waiting for a patch. it ruins the game.

[@axeratedmofo]

Been wondering this myself. The shimmering is beyond distracting. After messing with all my tv settings I ended up deleting and reinstalling to see if it was an issue with the version. If it turns out that all I had to do was disable hdr then that's pretty funny

[@ericsahli]

So glad I bought a c1 last week for this to happen 😅

[@jkstatus1793]

@@riktreutmann6530 they just released a hotfix, restart the game twice

[@RyLifeWeekly]

Why didn't you guys point out the TERRIBLE color/shimmering/aliasing/HDR/saturation bug? The detail of everything gets brighter when you move and suddenly dims when stopped... MANY people are having these issues in both modes, sadly.

[@kyuubi3408]

Yes!!! I have this issue and see others talking about it, but I can't see it replicated when I watch any other videos on youtube so I keep thinking it is my tv.

[@joeydirt420]

When have their videos been about mentioning bugs that are going to be fixed really quick? They will rarely mention something like that because it is actually the exact opposite of what their videos are suppose to betray. Does nobody actually know the point to their videos.

[@Roalfy]

That foilage deformation and the trail left behind Aloy and the wildlife looks unbelievable!! 😮

[@razvanzamfir1545]

"...impressive!" - John

[@IIISentorIII]

You never did play RDR2 did you ;)

[@Roalfy]

@@IIISentorIII Yea I played it…

[@VIP-ov1qo]

@@IIISentorIII red dead doesn’t have that.

[@urekmazino6800]

@@IIISentorIII this looks better than rdr2

[@86lanzo]

Gurrella has mastered this game engine...but already looking forward to what they can do with full next gen game design...

[@amunra1743]

Guerrilla...

[@matthewjuarbe5826]

not much considering the only difference they could have done was add in ray tracing but that's too demanding for this kind of game. PS5 gpu is basically a AMD 6600xt. paired with a ryzen 3700x if you wanna build a PC equivalent. in terms of graphical fidelity this is as good as were gonna get with the hardware inside the PS5 and Series X

[@SanHydraxon]

I think you will be waiting until the PS6 is almost out >_

[@Leo-zero711]

@@amunra1743 Gorilla*....

[@TheMrNukeman]

@@matthewjuarbe5826 he's not talking about computer specs or any shit like that he's talking about the actual game engine when they update to the next version of decima engine. And by the way trying to compare any system to any similar computer equivalency is a complete bullshit argument because the way that optimization works computers will always have to be substantially more powerful to keep up with the console output

[@kresimirmandic3807]

Can't wait to play this, it looks phenomenal. John's tech review is top notch as usual. DF videos have almost become the only ones I really care for.

[@pshearduk]

Me too mate

[@dougr8646]

No mention of the atrocious image quality of performance mode. My God its a jaggy mess.

[@bmc1222]

This game looked so great from DFs review. But in real life on my 4K Samsung TV, performance mode is a mess. The grass and fine details like in grass shimmer when you start moving the camera. The game looks over sharpened and grainy in performance mode. Resolution mode looks better buts it’s only 30 FPS. The lighting in this game seems off. Everything looks like it has a hot white specular highlight.

[@SentientIronHeart]

have not had these problems at all

[@UnderWarranty]

I have the exact same issues, i thought it was my OLED TV, not sure how people can't see it

[@bmc1222]

@@SentientIronHeart Glad you’re able to enjoy it.

[@bmc1222]

@@UnderWarranty Ya it’s a shame to spend $70 for this in it current state. Clearly there’s visual issues since they’ve already released a supposed fix. I think part of the issue is they tried to put too much texture detail into some of the environment like the rocks, and it’s just making the environment look weird. Sometimes the grass is green but the rocks have bright white highlights. I swear when I play the TLOU Part 2 or Ghost of Tsushima or GOW you don’t see these issues. Even the first Zero Dawn doesn’t have these problems, it’s looks much easier on the eyes.

[@hexrise3569]

Same issue here. Regret paying full price for it. Imagine if they don't patch the performance mode? Reviewers are full of shit on youtube

[@razvanzamfir1545]

Holy shit! Those vistas are amazing, and how much money did it go into making water so great?! I remember aweing at the water effects in Bioshock (1)... how far have we come

[@KogMawsTvShow]

I never got any problem witch Water since realise Horizon 1.

[@CHEESYhairyGASH]

@@KogMawsTvShow Be sure to drink 2 litres of water everyday.

[@radekseky4571]

Just you wait for Horizon 3...

[@JohnSmith-ep1ul]

One of the best water rendering subsystems I've ever seen in a console game. Makes me want a PS5 again actually. Series X is nice though.

[@radekseky4571]

@@JohnSmith-ep1ul What non-console games you know have better water?

[@Brian-458]

To Digital Foundry Staff: like all of us, I love your technical breakdown videos… they are an incredible resource to me as a gamer. That said, I do want to raise a constructive criticism: is it possible your credibility is in question when you consider Horizon Forbidden West a master class in graphics when Performance mode is clearly very blurry, and many, many people are reporting serious blurriness / anti-aliasing issues with leaves, foliage, grass, etc.? This is especially proven as true when compared to Horizon Zero Dawn, or Ghost of Tsushima. Neither of these similarly structured games, (while one is from the same developer!), are currently having these issues. What are your thoughts on this? Thank you for your consideration!

[@Rafaellk07]

They lied in this video or they played another version. I'm playing from PS5 and I'm really disappointed with the graphics.

[@Rafaellk07]

@Transistor Jump This is just a hypothesis created by the players, but I hope it's right.

[@hexrise3569]

This comment shoud be at the top

[@Brian-458]

@@hexrise3569 Thank you for your kind words here! I don’t mean to beat on Digital Foundry’s staff at all. I hope it didn’t come across that way. Instead, I am really just asking if they really sat squarely with the performance mode and truly evaluated its performance. It seems like there are thousands of players who report that performance mode is really, really fuzzy and blurry, and virtually unplayable…which is the experience I am having.

[@Duckpo988]

I beleive you. So please believe me, because honestly, I don't have any of the issues you mentioned. They patched yesterday. How does it look now?

[@orochiownstyle]

Nice job ignoring the crappy image quality of performance mode. More than one month after launch and this shit still not fixed. Why it should be, the big reviwers says nothing about it...

[@paracuja]

5 seconds loading time with this level of detail in the game world, this is insane 🤯

[@mangasaint]

I was drinking some pineapple juice when I was looking at that load time. The scene sent me into a coughing fit… got it everywhere. With Ratchet & Clank it was still a smaller scale linear world that would load and when swapping worlds could have had them preloading in the background but with an open world game like Horizon I would have still been happy if it took just shy of 20 seconds.

[@ahadzovinstinct40]

thats just a start. They dont yet really tapped in ssd

[@NexGenTek]

And you can mount a bird

[@DEVILTAZ35]

Actually in reality it's over 20 odd seconds to load the game. It has already been tested elsewhere. Not sure what fluff they are telling here. IGN already did the performance review and said it is one of the slower games to load on PS5 but not terrible overall.

[@mangasaint]

@@DEVILTAZ35 Probably the system files during initial game start. The Drive needs to have the game primed and check for system errors before it ever lets you get in the game. Loading a game once you are past that or fast traveling will probably be on par with the 5 second window.

[@ReneHoffmann194]

Wow what an incredible leap in visuals. Its almost unbelievable for me how detailed stuff has become.

[@SaviorInTheSun]

This game looks incredibly beautiful as I watch this video on my phone. I can’t wait to see what it looks like on my OLED on Friday! Absolutely gorgeous!

[@mtdubdachamp6917]

Same feeling with my Quantum dot tv. The HDR is about to be amazing. Horizon 1 had some great HDR and I know they topped it with this

[@jayh1246]

Enjoy , I’m holding out for a ps5 slim I definitely be playing this when I get

[@ReLapse85]

🔥

[@RoyHoy]

@@jayh1246 My prediction is 2024 for PS5 slim.

[@konstantinoskaradimas9615]

Amen brother

[@Rafaellk07]

Amazing how this 30 minute video didn't say anything about the serious problems I identified with 1 second of game!!!! Extremely disappointed in this video! Unfortunately smaller channels that speak the truth don't have the same audience as you!

[@thepluggy1]

I completely agree, there is definitely some Sony sucking up going on here.

[@hexrise3569]

@@thepluggy1 DF likes to be fucked by sony

[@TheAstralen]

I love this channel but I'm surprised why so little was mentioned regarding the atrocious Performance mode. Grass, bushes, leaves, hair, rocks...pretty much everything shimmers extremely much both in motion but also stationary. The quality difference between Performance and Fidelity is quite large and I cannot believe Performance targets 1800p. To me it feels like the whole scene has this FXAA layer on top making everything slightly blurry. The game visuals are praised but the only thing I dare to praise here is the Fidelity mode which, as mentioned in the video, looks great. However, there are some people like me that really suffer playing in 30fps mode and would want to use the 60fps mode, which indeed does deliver promised frames per second but looks horrendous. Visually the overall presentation in Performance mode is a step back from HZD and I cannot stress how disappointed I am.

[@tatamaka3]

I would be happy to play the ps4 pro version of the game via backward compatibility on 60 fps on ps5. Hopefully guerrilla will patch this. Currently i can not enjoying the game because since i got my ps5 i'm so used to play every game in 60 fps. I don't know why John or other reviewers doesn't say any word about the cost of the mode. The performance mode is a masterpiece of shit for me! Ok maybe i'm exaggerate here a little bit but i'm very disappointed, too. I came up with the "never-buy-a-game-day-one-rule" for me. But i broke it for HFW considering a first party studio will not mess it up like the others. Maybe now i will play cyberpunk for 25 bugs first. For sure i will never ever break my rule again...

[@s4tchm0j0n3s]

I can't honestly bring myself to drop out of fidelity mode. The game looks too damned gorgeous. I've not even tried performance mode...

[@homerthompson416]

@@LastDreamy Sad day to see Digital Foundry becoming just another shill channel

[@MegaPieru3000]

@@s4tchm0j0n3s Try it. I couldn't play at 30fps after going 60fps.

[@s4tchm0j0n3s]

@@LastDreamy 'A critic doesn't agree with me online. They've been paid off'. Such a new and fresh way of thinking. I'm surprised people haven't been saying that since the early 2000's. Oh wait...

[@punch180]

The quality of Playstation exclusive games!!! 😀

[@D..S..]

Why did you guys not mention at all the awful over-sharpened "grainy" look of the game, the AWFUL stuttering when moving the camera in resolution mode on PS5, the "30 FPS" that feels like half that, the weird aliasing issues with foliage (even in resolution mode), and the HDR turning on and off when moving/stopping the camera??? All of these were IMMEDIATELY noticeable upon starting the game on PS5 in resolution mode on a 4K Samsung Q80 TV. It is completely unplayable, compared to say Spiderman Miles Morales in resolution mode. I started playing Horizon and I was like "were the Digital Foundry guys paid off by Sony?" How could you not notice how awful the game looks and give it nothing but praise??? This KZbin video looks great though... 30 FPS looks fine, no HDR issues, no shimmering and aliasing. WTF happened???

[@datdavid]

Could a day 1 patch have accidentally screwed things up?

[@ThumTrick]

Can you dig into the noisy grainy issues a lot of people have been reporting? Trying to understand if it’s my TV or that’s just the intended look.

[@abnorth2276]

Those close up shots of the flowers, clovers etc. on the ground were amazing.

[@TriXareForKidZ1]

Hey guys why are you guys silent on the performance mode broken graphics? Weird you guys are normally honest…

[@okaybutwhythough7456]

A year and a half later, still one of the best looking open worlds out there. Its just well balanced in everything and the image comes together really well, and you almost never see such a level of detail in other games. Hopefully this level can become a sort of a standard in the next few years.

[@ernestofernandez7471]

It is the best looking game still. I played a thousand games this year and no one can get that close.

[@olba7804]

why don't you guys review in detail the performance mode as you usually do??? You used to love 60fps but just brushed it away this time

[@StuartHinckley]

I know exactly why John didn't focus on it. We all prefer 60, but having tried both on PS5, I can confidently say, Performance Mode in this game is super low-res and muddy. Not worth the trade off like in say.. Ratchet & Clank or Miles Morales. In Forbidden West, it's just.. bad. Waiting for PS5 Pro to replay this game

[@owlcircus6811]

@@StuartHinckley it’s surprisingly bad. It just looks like a PS4 game with 60fps

[@reeanimationgaming1034]

Guys, your editing and presentation in these videos are amongst the best on youtube. Every shot you show is relevant to the topic you speak of. Every single shot… You guys are great editors, and I can’t imagine the amount of time it takes to record everything and put it together in a big video like this.. Most people just consume videos. But guys, I know and appreciate the hard work you put in to these videos.. Fantastic job guys 👌

[@nicolagiampellegrini3411]

Why 60 FPS mode looks so blurry even at 1800p? I suspect there is a double scaling in place here. One resolution scaling with resolution with a range for example 720p minimum 1080p max, and a secondary fixed scaling (checkboard reandering) that boost the image to 1800p.

[@StuartHinckley]

It's just bad. Resolution Mode is a must until PS5 Pro

[@nicolagiampellegrini3411]

@@StuartHinckley i ended playing the game at 60fps by the way. Much more enjoyable, despite some scenes looks horrible

[@StuartHinckley]

@@nicolagiampellegrini3411 Some PS5 games, I have completed in both modes. Someday we won't have to choose. Or it will be 60 vs 120

[@gatote1819]

I'm experiencing shimmering on plants and grass on performance mode. Anyone else?

[@hexrise3569]

Everyone is complaining this. And the reviews above they said the game is cool in both modes. Shame on you df.

[@gatote1819]

@@hexrise3569 But I don't know, maybe there are a few people that are experiencing this. Bc I've seen a lot of people that don't have this problems...

[@benstephens187]

​@@gatote1819 it depended on your TV. DF and many PS5 owners are playing on very high end TVs and monitors. Since then, they've fixed it

[@mnormansell1984]

Wow, Digital Foundry appear to have deleted my comment, such a shame, didnt say anything bad or negative, just surprised you did not point out the flaws in ps5 version that i and others have reported and the devs have acknowledged.

[@hexrise3569]

99% they got paid to throw us some fake reviews

[@mnormansell1984]

@@hexrise3569 I never thought id say this but i think your right, there is no way they would of not picked up on the shimmering or the pop in i saw in the opening titles, ridiculous. Even after the hot fix its still very noticeable, performance mode defo needs attention asap from the devs

[@SpartanG087]

Does this video mention the grainy and shimmery presentation in performance mode?

[@Lonewolf.wildcamping]

Nope they covered it up disgraceful

[@SpartanG087]

@@Lonewolf.wildcamping damn. That's really disappointing. I thought this channel has some integrity

[@Lonewolf.wildcamping]

@@SpartanG087 nope they only quietly admitted on twitter two days after millions of copies were sold.

[@Partsi87v]

This game would be a great canditate for 4K 40fps mode for those with HDMI 2.1 4K 120Hz capable displays.

[@Aggrofool]

The PS5 Performance Mode shimmering is truly horrible! I don't know why DF didn't put more attention on this issue, it's a big big problem.

[@alsopsarchive5384]

Same issue here. Pretty disappointed in DF tbh.

[@griffgames9538]

The HDR bug on some setups can amplify the sense of shimmer. It will be patched.

[@ivanleon6164]

hahaha you are ridiculous, i have this game and looks incredible, stop playing it in youtube.

[@rtasi2000]

@@Stephen_Black what exactly looks awful? and how far did you get into the game before stopping due to the awfulness that put you off?

[@snight01]

performance mode looks god awful

[@meeee32156]

Agreed. I came in dead set on playing performance mode…till I saw it in person

[@th3orist]

its really bad tbh. i have no idea what they did, either the reconstruction technique is bad or the dynamic scaler, the oversharpening or the antialiasing method.

[@masonmckay7935]

Thank you, Digital Foundry, for doing what you do! Absolutely phenomenal work that I get excited to watch every time

[@Daniel189HLL]

Great vid John. I wish there was a 4k 40 fps mode for 120hz screens though

[@roblox_supergirl7111]

I'm playing this at the moment the visuals in this game border on masterpiece in my opinion I don't think I've ever been so impressed with an open world game it all just fits together perfectly bravo devs

[@LongsamaGaming]

Man I need guerilla to use insomniacs temporal anti aliasing solution to get those 60fps mode artifacts in check

[@hexrise3569]

Poor performance mode. The sad thing is reviewers are either blind or paid

[@MarkusFFFF]

Hi DF! I think this could be interesting for you: Channel "Gaming Tech", Video "Horizon Forbidden West - Performance Mode is Broken". A very professional analysis.

[@W_Strone_Swiatla]

This game has serious anti aliassing problem which is even more evident in Performance mode. And the fact there is no comment on that is somewhat surprising...

[@diocub4022]

I antialiasing and see it on my monitor on performance mode, and on resolution mode It doesn't look noticeable. Playing the ps5 on my OLED TV the antiaalisasing in performance mode dissapears. I don't understand how that works.

[@UXGReal92]

There was a comment. Did you even watch the Video? Checkerboarding Artefacts are the Problem Here.

[@hexrise3569]

@@UXGReal92 it's antialiasing related issue, he is not meaning checkerboard artifacts.

[@UXGReal92]

@@hexrise3569 oh okay

[@sreeshnelp]

There've been so many people reporting significant shimmering and noisiness in the performance mode yet it doesn't seem emphasised in this video at all. It's weird. Edit: Guerrilla have acknowledged the issue on the horizon subreddit

[@petermolina1317]

Dude I get in the first minutes of the games glitches of the cutscenes where there is invisible buildings. Damn one thing is gameplay but cutscenes

[@Lasse3]

It's terrible .. The performance mode.. My god! the static picture quality made up of the resolution and anti-aliasing, is very blurry with noisy shimmering artifacts.. At times performance mode looks like 720p.. And not a good one at that..! I'm being dead serious, 1080p in other games has looked better than HFW. Going back into horizon zero Dawn you get that crystal clear 2160p at dead locked 60fps, and it really does look far superior.. They crammed way to much object detail, density and effects into the forbidden West and was forced to compromise greatly on picture quality (resolution/AA) in order to maintain 60fps The result is an inferior fidelity as compared to what they released 5 years ago.. Amateurs!! And these Sony shills at DF is turning a blind eye, unsubbed!!

[@petermolina1317]

@@Lasse3 So many things wrong with this game and all the reviewers are part of the problem. Just to get some extra money and more views. Sadly nowadays we see less and less reviews that are completely objective and more and more games realesing without being complete. That is why this market is going down one day and I will be glad if it happens we need the product we buy completely functional not incomplete and wait a couple months to finally have it functional.

[@GameslordXY]

@@Lasse3 You won't be missed

[@GameslordXY]

@@petermolina1317 You are vastly exaggerating in case of Forbiden West

[@Frankenslide]

How come you guys don’t touch on how grainy the dynamic resolution looks super grainy in performance mode? Distant objects seem to drop to what looks like 720p sometimes it’s so bad. It gets even worse if you have your console inside a cabinet where it’s running warmer. I placed a small fan near my cabinet to push cool air into it while play and it helped drastically however, there was still very noticeable low resolution being used on background objects. Objects not even that far away maybe 10 meters or so in the background. The game will clearly do whatever it takes to maintain 60fps which I can appreciate but sometimes like it cutscenes it looks so bad that I quickly switch it to resolution mode just to watch the game how it was likely intended. I’m absolutely loving this game but it’s weird I hardly find anyone talking about this at all. *edit* okay after reading comments below it seems everyone is talking about this lmao.

[@paddington2063]

Would’ve really preferred native 1440p. I seriously can’t stand the flickering of checkerboard rendering on thin edges - foliage, specifically. Imo, HZD was borderline unplayable below 2160p because of how horrible aliasing looked on grass with its AA implementation basically skipping grass. DLSS has completely fixed that… if only these consoles ran on Nvidia GPUS…

[@petermolina1317]

That is the problem with gamers they can't enjoy a game if it doesn't have a lot pixels. I played HZD with an really old TV and to me it looked good. If we keep demanding good graphics we get shitty games.

[@paddington2063]

@@petermolina1317 I half-agree with you. There is a standard for a clean image though pixels aren’t the only means to facilitate that as sharp ≠ clean. So pixel counts, to an extent, are important for that. I personally would never go back to playing a game at 1080p but I’m totally okay with 1440p over 2160p - though I do, absolutely notice the difference, the image is stable and clean enough for it to not really be losing anything, but not have the gains of the extra resolution. I just don’t understand why HFW didn’t go native 1440 with TAA - checkerboard 1800p with virtually no AA looks so much worse.

[@jasonm2056]

Hi John. Did you have a different version than what we all are playing on now? With performance mode and even fidelity, there is god awful shimmering that is so distracting an nauseating, making it unplayable. Would love for you guys to revisit this as your voices/expertise on the matter would help in getting this “glaring” problem addressed by Guerrilla faster.

[@diocub4022]

I play it on my oled lg c1 TV, with vrr on, and the shimmering is gone. Vrr is a must 👌

[@griffgames9538]

Make sure if you've resumed a game, you then restart it twice -- in order to apply yesterday's new Hotfix addressing shimmer.

[@jasonm2056]

@@griffgames9538 that doesn’t seem to work. Still horrific graininess. Something I’m not seeing in review footage the past week. Something must have changed or it’s just so much foliage/detail that just exacberates the issue. Playing on both a 4K HDR (lcd) and 1080p non-HDR Sony set.

[@jasonm2056]

@@diocub4022 PS5 doesn’t support VRR.

[@electronicsaxman1]

@@diocub4022 there’s no VRR on PS5. And not only does the image shimmer even on fidelity mode, it looks like sharpness is jacked up to 11 making the whole image look kind of shit. This is with sharpness on my C1 at 0 without super resolution and any other image-altering video settings disabled

[@jaycos3]

The performance mode needs an update big time. The anti aliasing there using is terrible. A lot of shimmering.

[@darkhaven9119]

Wtf is shimmering?

[@smilemore3181]

@@darkhaven9119 Why ask the question when you can look it up yourself? To shine with or reflect a subdued, tremulous light; gleam faintly. to appear to quiver or vibrate in faint light. It took me 10 seconds to find this. You’re welcome.

[@darkhaven9119]

@@smilemore3181 so I don’t have to waste time looking it up

[@darkhaven9119]

@@smilemore3181 and thanks bro but yeah I don’t notice or see any of that in performance mode

[@MrRaitzi]

Lower TV sharpness setting. You have it too high maybe.

[@etbadaboum]

It looks stunning. I really, really hope that adjectives like 'depth' and 'nuance' will also apply to the story.

[@razvanzamfir1545]

my main concern too; I've heard the story might not be one of the strong points, but I'm having an open mind. at least the side missions appear to be stellar for the most part.

[@etbadaboum]

@@razvanzamfir1545 I'm craving for a new Last of Us 2 experience so I maybe put the bar very high

[@krystoast]

@@etbadaboum yea I agree, that’s why I loved exploring in HZD but was not as invested in the story as I was in exploring AND story of tlou2 Looking forward to playing this on Fri-yay

[@zaidlacksalastname4905]

@Yugi Saisri wow you debunked his opinion with facts and logic !!! He won't recover from this

[@asturides]

@@etbadaboum yeah, you're putting it extremely high. Maybe lower your expectations to the level of HZD

[@823DanielF]

17:56 - So happy that someone/where Influential(DF.. More and more Studios, Publishers, Devs big and small see you guys as a golden standard) is exploring this concept... I am truly a fan of open world games and since playing Breath of the Wild, TES 4 & V, HZD, Death Stranding I have wondered why those games TRULY touched by heart of exploration and why have so many games fallen short since. I think part of it is this very thing

[@Daniel-yz3zf]

This has to be one of the most visually impressive games ever created... seriously, seriously impressive Edit: emphasis on ONE OF, for those who seem not to get what that means! 😅

[@Mutation80]

And its even crossgen, not using the full ps5 power

[@Fox_H96]

Have you heard of Forza Horizon?

[@lllULTIMATEMASTERlll]

@@Fox_H96 This looks quite a bit better than Forza. Even then, one can still think both are some of the most visually impressive games. Sound like some cringe fanboyism to me.

[@cropredator1027]

@@Fox_H96 haha 😄😆 forza really!!!

[@jordankelly2230]

@@Fox_H96 comparing a racing game to a open world 🤦‍♂️

[@JevousGaming]

John, not only was this (yet again) fantastically analyzed, it was poetically presented. Never underestimate how good you and DF are at graphical analyses. God bless my man.

[@volatilelyle5170]

I'm glad they didn't scrap checkerboard resolution. Feels like devs these days don't bother with it and try to hit native resolutions instead. Definitely gonna play in performance mode. I don't mind a little softness if it means I can play at 60fps

[@Dick_Valparaiso]

Agreed. CBR is an excellent tool that comes at no cost and works on virtually any hardware. I don't have the knowledge on a per engine implementation. But, more engines should include this. It's really unfortunate that games like DL2 and Guardians of the Galaxy only run at 1080p in performance mode. 4K/60 in every game on current gen just isn't feasible. And, 1080/60 is insulting. I hope FSR will mature like DLSS did. In the meantime we have dynamic res and cbr to give us the best of both worlds.

[@Thedon-xs7ix]

But didn't they say you can actually tell the difference between the 2 modes? I'm think playing at 4k30

[@Dick_Valparaiso]

@@Thedon-xs7ix You can always feel the difference between 30 and 60fps. It really comes down to tolerating 30fps over 60. A willingness to sacrifice precision and performance for visual fidelity. Admittedly, some games can pull off 30fps really well. Spiderman on PS4 felt really great and responsive. So, it's not impossible to enjoy a 30fps experience. ...I'll preface the next part by saying it's definitely not an insult. If you're more of a casual gamer that doesn't care as much about input time, can deal with less precision, and values resolution above fluidity of movement- then go for 30fps. Personally, I think the minor hit in visuals won't be enough to dissuade most people from playing at 60fps.

[@helloguy8934]

I think checkerboard rendering at 1800p was a bad idea. It should only ever be used at native res. In this case they should have used temporal upsampling with drs. I suppose that wasn't implemented in the engine though.

[@MrMrTravman]

@@helloguy8934 Yeah Im not a fan of CBR at all.

[@th3orist]

Played this game with a friend last night on his PS5 and on a B9 OLED and i have to say that the performance mode had a really bad image quality when it came to mid distance vegetation, it was everything so noisy, it was incredibly bad i have to say and its a massive shame because thats a huge visual aspect of the game. I have no idea what Guerilla was thinking. If i look at other open world cross gen 60fps modes, they are much much cleaner image quality wise. Also the game appears to me oversharpened and it had nothing to do with the TV or PS settings. The HDR implementation also seemed somewhat off with blown out highlights and color saturation seemed to me also a tad much. Again, its a shame because if these areas would be fixed the game would truly shine, you can see how incredible it can look. But these aspects drag the image quality down massively.

[@Teh_Chosen_Juan]

yes! the oversharpness is exactly what i'm seeing. along with the grainy/shimmer. i hate that sharp look. reminds me of ghost recon games. just too crisp and grainy.

[@StuggiSuzi]

Exactly what me and others experience as well. Wonder why this is not an issue here for @digitalfoundry

[@th3orist]

@@StuggiSuzi because John loves 30fps motion blur modes and played it mostly like this.

[@Teh_Chosen_Juan]

@@th3orist i just find it weird that there hasn't been much talk about it. or at least, in the reviews at and just before launch, it was all about how amazing the game looks. so when i threw it on, i thought something was wrong with my machine/tv. granted i can see it definitely is an awesome looking game. but the artifacting, some grainy textures and blurriness in performance mode should have at least been a big talking point. definitely not nearly as crisp as the first one back compat 60fps.

[@alekseev1986]

Some people are complaining about the gamma as ginger and hurting eyes 👀

[@jergernice1]

ive heard 30 fps mode is almost uplayable on oleds.....stuttering is awful.

[@Sofawookie]

I can’t speak for others, but I’m playing on a LG C1 and having zero issues in resolution mode.

[@thepluggy1]

Playing on a CX, not seeing this problem thank god.

[@PietDAmore]

If you will disable motion blur it's stuttering hell. With motion blur it's okish, but not good. Players that don't have any stuttering are probably not using the gaming mode on the TV and accepting laggy controls and artefacts.

[@28marshplan1]

All I can say is I want to play the game Digital Foundry was playing when they did their review. It looks so much better. Its like somebody at GG forgot to enable AA.

[@Lonewolf.wildcamping]

Exactly

[@homerthompson416]

God the game looks like trash in performance mode. The palm trees at the beginning are so noisy you'd think you were playing the XBox 360 version of the game. The game is so overly sharpened that all vegetation looks like it's from 2006 with the way it shimmers and the pop-in is pretty awful too. And this is only in the first 15 minutes of the game. Digital Foundry really let us down with this review, I would have never bought this game at launch had they shown this. Just makes me never want to trust professional reviewers again and only focus on community feedback.

[@s4tchm0j0n3s]

@@homerthompson416 I've deleted my previous reply as I was too much of a dick, so I'll apologise for that.

[@frankvandermerwe1487]

@@homerthompson416 Holy shit

[@Gameplato]

Shrugging off 60fps and failing to report widespread issues… I hope you guys do a follow-up video to explain. People feel misled.

[@Jay-jb2vr]

What issues?

[@homerthompson416]

Because we were misled. See John Linneman's tweet about the image quality not being great and the picture being very noisy on performance mode the day after launch when we had already blown $60 on the game. Would have been nice if he included that in his video instead of calling it a PS5 Graphics Masterclass. What a joke this channel is.

[@apollo3340]

The misleading was intentional. DF have clearly been bought out.

[@Rafaellk07]

I wanted to make it clear that the blurry and grainy image problem is present in both game modes!! In performance mode it is very visible, in resolution mode it gives an improvement, but it is still there! In some situations the effect is simply terrible and even occurs with the game paused!! Also the game seems to have a horrible saturation filter that forces players to fiddle with the TV settings to alleviate the problem!! The first game had a much cleaner and nicer image, I'm scared by the low quality of the game on PS5!!! This video is a joke, sometimes they zoom in to find faults and here they didn't say anything???

[@frankvandermerwe1487]

"I'm scared by the low quality of the game on PS5" - You're telling this game is LOW Quality? im sorry, but maybe you need glasses. Sounds like you need an eye transplant, shame. Sometimes they zoom in to find faults and here they didn't say anything??? - They zoomed in MULTIPLE times, and it looks detailed as fuck. This hyperbole is ridiculous

[@arnabsaha8761]

@@frankvandermerwe1487 you dont get the point dude,image quality is actually bad. Its 1800p but image quality is terrible somehow maybe bad aa

[@frankvandermerwe1487]

@@arnabsaha8761 O ok, dude

[@gordoncampbell7858]

I Agree with this, the image is pretty terrible with all the shimmering and fuzziness in 60 fps mode. However it's a good trade off if you have a qled tv as 30 fps is quite sickening in motion. I think it would have looked better if they stuck 1440p rather than 1800p checkerboard. It make it look like there's no anti aliasing applied.

[@hexrise3569]

Still can't imagine where is reviewers now? Sleeping? No one is talking about this major issue. All they care about is clicks and monetization because such subject doesn't interest majority of people. Just keep throwing us gameplays, walkthrough and spoilers that's how money is made.

[@TLW4118]

I really appreciate all the hard work that goes into videos like this. DF never fails to amaze and educate

[@MagisterHamid]

Holy cow. The graphics in this game is insane. Guerilla games are wizards!

[@gamerbum9350]

Yes the game looks really good but you can definitely see it’s crossgen roots. The jump in visuals from the first game is not as pronounced as say FH5 over FH4 was and it’s not as impressive as Hellblade 2. Hellblade 2 is easily the most graphically stunning game to date in the video game world!

[@spenny2cents]

@@gamerbum9350 name checks out, minus the “gamer” part

[@waycoolscootaloo]

@@gamerbum9350 Mmm.. to be honest, Playstation systems tend to historically be the best looking games. The first Hell Blade was good-looking. But it kind of was forgotten about rather quickly and was surpassed. And Hell Blade 2 trailers show the game to be mostly rocky and devoid of any vegetation or a lot of physics and really just very dark. And to be fair that's what the developer is aiming for. But the trailer so far doesn't show it to be any better. I would defiantly argue that so far Horizon looks better. It's a lot more colorful and the environment is far more interactive. Ninja Theory is really good at what they do. But visually I have to say games coming out of Sony's 1st party studios are second to none at this point.

[@jhoanmolina1822]

@@gamerbum9350 you’re under almost every comment trying to downgrade the game. Cross gen or not the game is visually amazing and very pleasing.

[@gamerbum9350]

@@jhoanmolina1822 Yes and I agree the game looks great. All I said was that you can see it’s cross gen roots and that Hellblade 2 looks more impressive.

[@Evaquiel]

coming back here after Spider-Man 2 and Alan Wake 2..... Man, is Ray Tracing really necessary? Those two games still don't look as good as this and this runs flawlessly WITHOUT FSR or DLSS.

[@vandammage1747]

The water in 4K30 mode is the best looking water I've ever seen! When these graphics and image fidelity are possible in a 60fps game with ZERO lod pop'in we have reach a milestone. Hopefully it will happen this gen at some point. This and Forza Horizon 5 goes to show that raytracing is not needed.

[@tehCostHD]

Raytracing is great in games like Spiderman because it really enhanced modern city locations but in a game like this? Yeah definitely not needed for it to look incredible

[@Nibba22]

Water in Crysis 3 looks kinda similar.

[@xtechtips152]

AC Odyssey has better water.

[@andreaciocca4524]

What about the water in Sea of thieves?

[@chrys9256]

Whether ray tracing is needed would depend on your definition of "needed". I'm sure every game developer out there would rejoice at the possibility of not having to spend countless hours of work faking lights, shadows and reflections. Raytracing is so much quicker to implement in comparison. The only reason why anyone would thing RT isn't needed is those countless hours of work developers spend making their game look as good as possible. I would say a bigger milestone in gaming is going to happen when more affordable hardware can handle full path tracing at 60fps so developer won't need to fake lights at all any more. That's quite a ways off though.

[@mnormansell1984]

All these comments pointing out blatant and obvious issues that DF neglected to mention leading most of us to be hugely dissapointed in visuals, not one reply or video from DF addressing these issues, my confidence in DF has been rocked now and I'm now thinking, like a lot of youtubers, that maybe DF got paid off, if this is the case it will be last time i watch one of their video's, we need more honesty in this industry, not more paid off reviews. 😒

[@mnormansell1984]

@Transistor Jump They said in the video the day 1 patch improved the game

[@mnormansell1984]

@Transistor Jump 25:12

[@mnormansell1984]

@Transistor Jump Ok, thanks for saying that. I dont get what your trying to get at, 1 min you seemed to defend them by saying they reviewed a pre patched game, i shown you they said it was better after the patch, now your saying that everything they say is not true. Thats my point, they have lied and didnt tell us the poor visual defects in the game that many are experiencing.

[@mnormansell1984]

@Transistor Jump I'm sorry if me saying that upset you, but how else was i to take it? I put a comment, you replied stating it was the day 1 patch that broke the game and they reviewed a pre patched game, if you watched the video instead of assuming you would of known this, as i said, they stated and shown the patch improved it in the video. I didnt say everything they said was false, i said they neglected to point out the obvious bad defects which a lot of people are experiencing.

[@AlabamaSoundsGood]

Always top of the notch quality for DF. I love how professional and stylish your videos are! Keep up with the good work guys

[@Gloamy17]

Have to agree that the Resolution mode looked the best overall. 60fps puts out a rather rough, shimmering image with a lot less detail. I don't think it's enough to put those off who are adamant 60fps is minimum but if your eyes can handle the 30fps adjustment, it end ups being far, far superior in detail. Beautiful game but I just wish the performance mode cutbacks weren't quite as obvious.

[@nicolagiampellegrini3411]

@@Fabio-ql5yf same, but in this game 30fps feels ok (exept in Battle), because its slow pace and the input latency Is very good for a 30 game, they grow a lot since Killzone 2 on ps3, where the input latency was a big problem

[@Gloamy17]

@@Fabio-ql5yf well that's why there's a 60fps mode for you! 😁 I just hope they can clean it up a little more.

[@TVAlien]

Really, just like how well the first game looks on PC, I wonder how a port would look in the future! 60fps with all the trimmings would be great to see!

[@jackjohnson8305]

This makes me super excited for the PS5 exclusive games, they were able to make the game look this good with the PS4 holding them back just imagine a complete PS5 exclusive fully utilizing the system its gonna look glorious.

[@razvanzamfir1545]

I'm honestly not sure how much better the game could've been. It seems it reached the limitations of the console given that they can't even do 4k/60fps. I think only the timetable would've changed and had an earlier release than 2022 (as it was supposed to initially happen). Maybe a little more polish. But I'm still in awe at the vistas and water effects present. But the engine will keep improving over the course of the PS5 and I'm sure the next Guerilla game will be even better in a few years, crossgen or not.

[@sellingacoerwa8318]

I don't have to imagine, it's called Returnal.

[@FounderX9]

@@sellingacoerwa8318 that game was awful

[@iHaveTheDocuments]

Once they finally dump the ancient PS4, games will resemble the best looking game ever made, Demons Souls

[@scislife2398]

I know I can't wait till it comes to pc in a couple of years, I'll play it then. It does look very pretty

[@manudosde]

Based on your comments I was expecting performance mode to be tollerable form a visual standpoint. Alas, it looks incredibly noisy and grainy on my OLED TV, so much so that I've put down the game for now (resolution mode feels too rough). I'll wait a couple of days to see if Guerrilla are doing anything about it but it seems unlikely so I'll probably return my copy.

[@hexrise3569]

Still Can't get refund for digital copy. That sucks

[@manudosde]

@@hexrise3569 Thankfully I purchased a physical copy, but I feel your pain :(

[@maxwell9199]

Lost alot of faith in Digital Foundry after this =(

[@hexrise3569]

@@manudosde totally lost faith in sony exclusives, if all next gen games will be 30fps and look terrible in 60fps I rather sell the console.

[@tarikmahdi8308]

The performance mode runs a lot better now. Some of the noisiness on your OLED is a product of the game’s HDR being simply too bright by default. I suggest you use hdtvtest’s settings and put the highlights on -8 and the brightness on -2. With those settings the game is gorgeous in 60fps and the choice between the two modes is easy. Hope this helps. Peace.

[@fh5kskalf]

Looks grand, can't wait to play it! Great video as always John!

[@MichaelDoesLife]

Wow! Great comment! Really helps contribute to the conversation!

[@TheBomber15]

Ha! “Grand” in my part of the world means “okay”, or “only alright”, so I was expecting to be underwhelmed.

[@k1ng_vic18]

@@TheBomber15 grand in my part of the world means big, tall, massive. Where are you from?

[@apictureoffunction]

I really hope DF takes another look at performance mode after patch 1.14 The shimmering has almost completely been eliminated, I can only see it now if I'm actively looking for it, and even then it's only really visible in very dense, fine grain foliage

[@jollama]

Coming from the future, a video was don’t on patch 1.16

[@XenokaiX]

I have a really big feeling that Sony payed DF off to not point out how bad the 60fps mode truly is on this game. The performance mode has a pixelated blurry look that should of been pointed out in this video but isn’t. It clearly is a 1080p image scaled to 1800p using checkerboard rendering that makes it look like a mess. I do not recommend performance mode at all! Maybe on a 2nd playthrough after you’ve experienced the game but as a first impression its so bad!

[@johancitygames]

I don't think so, df clearly said that he played the game in resolution mode so maybe he missed out what you are pointing out because he doesn't use the performance mode enough, or maybe is just a bug or an issue that will be patched and not everyone had.

[@monchicruz8278]

Yea it’s pretty bad I have never played a game before with such bad graphic quality in performance mode, and that is the mode I prefer.

[@dadamj]

It's wild to me that Guerrilla are able to get this kind of quality and performance so early in the PS5 lifecycle. Can't wait to see where they are able to take their engine.

[@yanceyboyz]

To be fair, Cerny's while presser for the ps5 discussed in detail that their aim was allow development studies to access over 90% of the consoles power from day one, due to it being really easy to develop for and just an enhanced, smoother version of PS4 production cycle. This time round we won't see massive leaps towards the end of console cycle, and any big improvements will come from new engines being launched and legacy software being left behind.

[@oz7586]

Its basically a PC with special customizations at this point. I wouldn't imagine it's that hard to get running on PS5. Unlike going from PS2>PS3>PS4 all with vastly different architectures

[@nicktubby9710]

@Transistor Jump right, PS5 can't compete with PC on the top end, but it's got the low-mid level stuff beat

[@urekmazino6800]

@@yanceyboyz pretty sure this was developed the majority of the time for ps4 tho and the last 2 years on ps5

[@mtx247]

I'm a die hard PC guy... But this... This is STUPID impressive. The last game that blew me away was RDR2 and now it's this game. I look forward to the eventual PC release.

[@Westlee_]

Same bro

[@MaverickMMMX]

At least 2 years from now or more

[@lukehodgson4887]

You guys honestly didn’t have any performance issues on Resolution mode? On PS5 I feel like mine is running at 15-20fps constantly, it doesn’t feel smooth at all. (But I could just be so used to 60fps)

[@hexrise3569]

Have doubt on 30 fps too. It looks like it varies between 20 and 30

[@AyUniz]

@@hexrise3569 nope solid 30fps on ps5 Res mod

[@MagisterHamid]

Should we just ignore the fact that Killzone Shadow Fall still looks absolutely amazing? It was a launch game for PS4 so it’s almost 9 years old!

[@justpassingby3409]

It surely does

[@RiasatSalminSami]

Man these playstation exclusives always look beautiful compared to most other cross platform games.

[@hovercroft]

I don’t notice the different in image quality between the 2 modes. But I definitely notice the difference in frame rate. Performance mode for me every time.

[@fightnight14]

This is a PS4 game optimized for the PS5. The reviewer is making it sound like it’s a real PS5 game when it’s not. We are still at the PS4’s territory. Once they stop making games for the PS4 that will be the true “PS5 Graphics Masterclass”

[@Sdramsay1977]

Fantastic video, super detailed and techie yet still compelling and easy to absorb. Like many of your videos, this really calls attention to and makes me appreciate the attention to detail and love that has obviously gone into this game. Special mention for the quality of the writing behind this too..."turbulent tributaries"...lovely!

[@alshukriai]

We need more focus on the god awful shimmering

[@tatamaka3]

Resolution Mode is next gen in case of particles yes. But 30 fps is old gen for me. However performance mode has huge graphical issues. Every particle or other fine detail especially in vegetation is flickering and shimmering like nothing else i've ever see on ps5. Bad upscaling, checkerboarding or anti-aliasing I suggest. Yeah John the 60 fps mode is stable but on what cost? I would be happy to play the ps4 pro version of the game via backward compatibility on 60 fps on ps5. Hopefully guerrilla will patch this. Currently i can not enjoying the game because since i got my ps5 i'm so used to play every game in 60 fps. I don't know why John or other reviewers doesn't say any word about this.

[@fenixa2z936]

My question then is why does it look good in these videos but bad on my TV?! 😫😫😫

[@tatamaka3]

​@@fenixa2z936 Because of youtube's video compression. Also the video is not in HDR. John Linneman says it himself in the other video about HFW. You have to download the video on digital foundrys website to see everything/more. However to download it you have to become official member/supporter of DF and that cost 5$ a month or so.

[@sKullkidi]

@@tatamaka3 Umm, I think you misunderstood. He is saying the KZbin video (compressed) looks better than when he is playing it for real on his TV 😅

[@tatamaka3]

@@sKullkidi no it's the same for me. KZbin video's of HFW looks great. But the real game in performance mode looks not that good.

[@gabswiss]

@@fenixa2z936 Because you have to upgrade your CRT TV 😂

[@michaelarthurs9288]

This game looks horrible on my lg C1 oled. Not sure if anyone else is having issues as well. Extremely fuzzy and shimmering graphics at 60fps. Zero dawn looks better. Hopefully it’s a bug. I’m playing Ps5 version on performance

[@Teh_Chosen_Juan]

DUDE 100% my buddy is clowning me saying there's something wrong with my eyes. i'm on a C8. was super unimpressed. looks so grainy and shimmery. makes me think something is wrong with my tv!

[@meeee32156]

I got last years Sony tv, it’s awful on that too. I have a 1440p monitor that supports a 4K signal and Downsamples to 1440p. I was hoping that would at least look like native 1440p, nope. Looks awful on that too

[@Teh_Chosen_Juan]

@@meeee32156 good to know im not crazy! Haha My buddy swears it looks great on his tv. Think he's on samsung

[@brianmiller9585]

77 inch CX here. Easily looks worse (in either mode) than HZD does on my pc.

[@michaelarthurs9288]

@@brianmiller9585 something is definitely off with the graphics on this game. Compared to many other ps5 games that run 60fps (Hitman 3 and AC Valhalla) the fine details are very poor and blurry. Not that impressed

[@deskruxtion1]

How was nothing said about the horrible jaggied and pixelation in the performance mode… it’d jarring

[@DarkReturns1]

They did mention it and recommended the resolution mode in fact

[@bmc1222]

Honestly feels like this game needs to be reworked. Sucks that so many people spent $70 and up on a game that clearly has visual performance issues. Luckily this isn't as bad as Cyberpunk, but for $70 this should have been pristine. I understand bugs and glitches occur, but to have visual issues of this magnitude are simply unacceptable. Even if it meant delaying the game a while longer. TLOU Part 2, Death Stranding, God of War, Horizon Zero Dawn, Spiderman, and Uncharted all look significantly better than Forbidden West right now. This is a sad state of affairs man. Did DF not have or experience these problems ? Because this is far from a "Masterclass" on graphics. Especially compared to top tier titles that have been released in the past.

[@hexrise3569]

Metacritics opened users reviews and it's already down to 7.7/10 , let's give them some real reviews about the game and performance mode.

[@Bootstrap_1]

Xbox fanboys review bombed it. User score is irrelevant.