There is some good news for Horizon fans. Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores will officially launch next month, but the difference this time is the expansion to the Horizon Zero Dawn sequel will only be available for PlayStation 5.
Sony and developer Guerrilla Games revealed a vast update for Horizon Forbidden West back in December 2022. The DLC, titled Burning Shores, would take protagonist Aloy to the ruins of Los Angeles, California.
Burning Shores is expected to provide new challenges and biomes for Aloy to overcome. Volcanoes, lava fountains and all-new, extra-large machine threats appear to be the obstacles for the protagonist in this new expansion.
Upgraded visuals
In a recent interview with the PlayStation Blog, Mathijs de Jonge, Horizon Forbidden West game director, explained why Burning Shores would only be available on the PS5.
He noted that the PS5’s increased capabilities allowed Guerrilla to experiment more with the game’s DLC. As a result, Guerrilla could do new things with Burning Shores — which were unavailable in the base game — because they weren’t limited by what the PS4 could do.
“One of our key priorities with Horizon games is to add a ton of detail and richness to our environments,” de Jonge said.
“On Horizon Forbidden West, everything we added or increased was something we’d need to have a plan around how to optimize for PS4 as well. On Burning Shores, since we can just focus on PS5, we’ve been able to charge forward and we’re really excited about what we’ve been able to pull off in creating this stunning post-post-apocalyptic version of Los Angeles.”
He revealed another noteworthy aspect regarding the combat in Burning Shores on PS5, pointing out that one specific battle scene in Burning Shores takes “a LOT of memory and power,” which Guerrilla was able to pull off due to the PS5’s hardware resources.
“Another notable one is a particular battle scene that requires a LOT of memory and processing power,” he said. “To achieve this grand vision both technically and creatively, we definitely were thankful for the many advantages that the PS5 hardware brings.”
What players can expect
In the DLC, there will be a specific lighting system for Aloy, which generally appears solely during cinematic but always plays an active part on the PS5.
Players can draw in greater depth on the map, revealing stunning landscapes one would see with gamers worldwide. The expansion offers 40Hz mode and variable refresh rates for extended playtime on capable TVs.
Numerous first-party PS5 games have had to make significant changes to be compatible with their respective PS4 versions — God of War: Ragnarök and Gran Turismo 7 are among them.
According to Tech Radar, third-party publishers are not “uncommon” to release products across generations, notably Capcom with Resident Evil Village and Street Fighter 6.
Yet, the tech publication noted that cross-generation releases are experiencing new shifts. Street Fighter 6, for example, will not be released on Xbox One at all.
Meanwhile, Marvel’s Spider-Man 2 is coming out exclusively on the PlayStation 5, along with other highly anticipated games such as Final Fantasy 16.
According to Techradar, the PS5 and Xbox Series X are being restricted by last-gen, and developers are more eager than ever to adopt the power that current-gen platforms possess.
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores will be released on April 19. Meanwhile, the base game Forbidden West has recently been introduced to PlayStation Plus Extra and Premium users’ extensive collection of free titles.
