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

[@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.

[@Thedarkportalshow]

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

[@fernandofaria2872]

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

[@youtubeisshit2electricboog635]

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

[@Graczula]

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

[@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

[@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 😋💧💧💧

[@bully33]

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]

@@bully33 they put something in it.

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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?

[@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 .

[@talion7268]

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

[@anasshahid224]

Fr man

[@jollama]

*literally

[@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 🤷🏻‍♂️

[@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.

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@ReneHoffmann194]

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

[@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

[@punch180]

The quality of Playstation exclusive 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

[@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

[@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 🙄

[@abnorth2276]

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

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@REE-Animation]

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 👌

[@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?

[@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.

[@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.

[@masonmckay7935]

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

[@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...

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@Doc_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

[@Doc_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.

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@Daniel189HLL]

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

[@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.

[@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

[@Partsi87v]

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

[@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

[@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

[@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

[@TLW4118]

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

[@FungeHucker]

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

[@FungeHucker]

@@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!

[@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

[@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.

[@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

[@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

[@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?

[@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?

[@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!

[@RiasatSalminSami]

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

[@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

[@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.

[@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?

[@ps2playa999]

I must have gotten a beta build, mine doesn't look no where near that especially in preformance mode. The shimmering and grainess or too much for me. Resolution mode looks good until you get into a fight.

[@mani-rc2tv]

Try waiting for an update. Shimmering should get fixed but idk about the graphics getting an upgrade in 60. 30fps is always going to look better with half the frames only being rendered, doubling the performance

[@headkicked]

My favorite part about the water is how it looks when you're diving in the ocean, look up, and see how the waves look from beneath. The water effects in this game are some of the best I've ever seen in a game.

[@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

[@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

[@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.

[@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.

[@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.

[@monchicruz8278]

After playing this game a lot (completed the story and still have things to do), I have to say that the game looks absolutely fantastic on resolution mode. The developers outdid themselves when it comes to creating the environments, and to say the vistas are breathtaking is an understatement. The game never ceases to impress with that fact. On the other hand performance looks grainy particularly in areas with high grass amounts can be distracting. If you really want your 60fps I could play it like that, but for me resolution is the way fo experience the game. The game honestly doesn’t have as much movement as other action games due to the fact you are constantly aiming with concentration mode/refilling ammo and 30fps works more than fine.

[@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

[@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

[@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 🤦‍♂️

[@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

[@xikaryo6735]

Decima Engine is incredible, man. Really happy to see all the improvements the engine has gotten since the first game.

[@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...

[@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

[@Teh_Chosen_Juan]

anyone else play yet (ps5) and was a little shocked at how grainy/shimmery everything is? performance mode more prominent. doesn't seem to have that smooth crispness of the old one. or something like Ghosts of Tsushima or Kena. if this is devs' new technique to "push pixels", i don't like it.

[@RussianXboy]

Yes, I get the same feeling that the first game with 1800p looked a lot crisper than performance mode here

[@Teh_Chosen_Juan]

@@RussianXboy wonder if they can "fix" it?? Hopefully this isn't some dev technique that will dominate this generation.

[@homerthompson416]

Yeah I was pretty surprised John Linneman and Digital Foundry lied to us so blatantly.

[@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.

[@TriXareForKidZ1]

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

[@theanimerapper6351]

Gurrella games art design is incredible

[@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.

[@TheGman901]

How in the?! This game looks unbelievably striking! Just look at it! JUST LOOK!!

[@monchicruz8278]

How come you guys didn’t mention the egregious issue with the graininess of the game on performance mode. Particularly the red blight areas are an eyesore.

[@getsuckedd5685]

Because there isn’t? Must be your eyes

[@danielhagberg7413]

There is. And its obvious as hell.....

[@lorenzoxv4364]

@@danielhagberg7413 and they didnt fix it yet, bought the ps5 yesterday and coulnt believe myself they didnt patch it yet.The game in performance mode is AWFUL

[@Astralmess]

Character lighting "slightly standing out" means it's literally doing what it's intended to do- make the character stand out. Yes, it doesn't look "realistic" but when 2 characters are having a dialog, then these 2 characters are the focus of the scene. This is more about design intention rather than something being realistic or not.

[@JuanPabloSecundo]

Yep, you have to still remember it's a game and in those type of dialogue cutscenes you simply can't have big shadows that you wouldn't be able to see the characters. But i guess you could go for a more realistic approach that they would stand out in a more balanced way

[@MikedieONE]

yes thats why they use tons of light setups/reflectors in movies as well. "realistic" doesnt mean "better looking"

[@marsovac]

@@MikedieONE like comparing women both wearing a makeup - better looking does not apply :)

[@credoTI]

@MikedieONE glowing heads also doesn't mean better looking, but that looks like the case. I would appreciate realistic lighting and clever camera work as well

[@MikedieONE]

@@credoTI good lighted out profiles (like renbrandt lighting) can have a much better visual impact than any "realistic" light could ever have. almost no movie ever has "realistic" (natural) light. So why should that apply to games? They are basically interactive movies only that you can't see the light setups when you turn around the camera.

[@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.

[@phrozac]

Finally coming back to this after setting it aside a few days later for Elden Ring...a lot has improved! The shimmering is gone and there's 120hz support. I'm just about done with the main campaign and I'm super impressed. Some of the most spectacular visuals I've ever seen, awe-inspiring battles, and solid gameplay throughout, I feel like HFW is getting severely overlooked in the GOTY contest. I think Elden Ring deserves it most but if it was between this and Ragnarok, I'd say it's a toss up.

[@scottd7222]

There seems to be issues with performance mode. I always go with frames but on this one it's so bad I stuck with resolution and it looks phenomenal. If you lower motion blur and lower camera movement sensitivity and xy sensitivity it gets better and after a few hours I'm used to it.

[@monchicruz8278]

Same I cannot play with performance even though I love 60fps. Thankfully I can get used to 30fps it’s not amazing but better than looking at grainy graphics at the moment.

[@Lightsaglowllc]

Its insane we are still forced to accept 30 fps in 2022. Sony needs to do better.

[@tatamaka3]

I would be happy to play the ps4 pro version of the game at 60 fps on ps5. However that grainy, shimmery shit hole of performance mode on ps5 is unplayable.

[@absterdam9795]

Are you playing on an OLED? I still have a 1080p TV... You reckon performance mode would look good on that?

[@provax4925]

@@Lightsaglowllc rachet rift apart @40 fps resolution mode was TBH more playable than 30fps horizon... Sony should make all 1st party @40 fps graphics mode.

[@enthusiasticgamer88]

I am obsessed with this game. I avoided all media on it as I loved HZD so much. This game is just next level amazing, I cannot stop playing it.

[@StuartHinckley]

Same. I avoided everything until completion. Loved it

[@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.

[@dougr8646]

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

[@qwertmom]

Unfortunately all the people playing performance mode are having the opposite impressions as those who prefer fidelity. So I think this guy's preference for fidelity mode skews the review abit.

[@StuartHinckley]

This game shouldn't be played in Performance Mode ... Full Stop.

[@steadychaosproductions3376]

the graphics in this game are mind blowing. Super sharp and colorful.

[@gamerbum9350]

I wouldn’t say there mind blowing. It looks great but you can definitely see it’s cross gen roots. The jump between FH5 and FH4 is larger. FH5 actually looks next gen and Hellblade 2 is more impressive. Hellblade 2 is the most graphically stunning game yet in the video game world no doubt about it.

[@steadychaosproductions3376]

@@gamerbum9350 yeah, but the gameplay in hellblade one was trash. So well see about 2.

[@deltavictorbravo-7428]

@@gamerbum9350 better take off those fanboy glasses then look, oh, you can’t because you’re a fanboy, lol

[@gamerbum9350]

@@steadychaosproductions3376 The gameplay in Hellblade 1 was decent but the graphics on show in Hellblade 2 are out of this world, the best we’ve ever seen in a video game. The Hellblade 2 reveal reminded me of when they first showed the OG Gears of War in action. It was the introduction of High Definition gaming and Gears on the 360 just melted people’s eyeballs at the time.

[@XiLock_Alotx]

@@gamerbum9350 crazy for a game that isn’t even out yet. Downgrades could surely happen. And having a pretty game doesn’t mean it’s fun to play.

[@ari-fsa5468]

The game looks superb on the PS5, but I'm even more curious to see if they managed to optimize the game well for the PS4 and PS4 Pro, it would be interesting to see the PS5, PS4 Pro and PS4 in one video.

[@undisclosedsteve6361]

I think he said we will see that in another upcoming video, so I guess we will see

[@danielaacevedo1150]

There are comparisons now, absurdly stable, is incredible, no frame drops in PS4

[@remynyc149]

ign has a comparison video across all 3 systems

[@mtdubdachamp6917]

I read a PS4/Pro review and i read the fps is stable and the only gripe is the fan noise. Graphics are not to far apart either.

[@DavideDavini]

Me too. This one and GT7 I’m very curious to see how they compare.

[@jackburton2946]

There are major problems with this game on PS5 performance mode. It actually hurts my eyes in motion after 5mins, you should be pointing these issues out.

[@provax4925]

Exactly!! Greatly disappointed with DigitalFoundry! I got the game today with version 1.07 but I was surprised there is a shimmering issue on this game in which all major game reviewers never mentioned about it. Only found out from some random nobody youtubers whom were all honest and proved I was not the only one bothered by the shimmering on vegetation.

[@CRSmaug]

Speak for yourself. I have no issue with it. Played the game for 8h on Performance without the game hurting my eyes.

[@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 👀

[@ohmyjosh3065]

I’ve never seen DF go into this much detail when doing a tech review. Seems Guerrilla Games have raised the bar once again.

[@KillaSin515]

They do it with every game they review.

[@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

[@cronodoug]

I loved the comparison with Pokemon, clearly showing GameFreak's inexperience in making scenarios, being surpassed many times even by Indie studios.

[@bern9642]

Pokemon will still outsell Horizon Forbidden. Business is about making money. Pokemon has no incentive to improve because they are obtaining max profit

[@nicerhabara]

@@bern9642 By that logic there wasn't a reason to make a game like Legends Arceus to begin with since even lackluster titles such as Let's Go and SwSh sold incredible well

[@stuartjwhittingham]

@@bern9642 but it matters to the end customers - us

[@Darth-Shadow]

@@bern9642 that is such a stupid take. And "fans" like you are the reason Pokémon games are always behind in quality

[@BrotherO4]

One has to run on a old ass hardware on the switch and the other is running on more powerful system. Stupid comparison

[@AmirLiberty]

Digital Foundry's videos are usually like free university tech courses. Thanks for sharing the best content with the viewers.

[@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.