Do we really need a Horizon Zero Dawn remake? That was the first topic on this week’s Digital Foundry Direct, as John, Rich and Alex grapple with the prospect of a PS5 remaster of a recently-released PlayStation 4 title.
It’s a hard question to answer, as undoubtedly the team at Guerrilla Games wants their work to be playable at the best possible quality, but the 2017 PS4 release already runs well on PS5 thanks to a patch – and the PC edition from 2020 remains one of the best-looking games on the platform two years later. Creating a remake could be a good way for the developers to work on a PS5-only engine for future titles but that same development time could also be devoted to an entirely new Horizon game, albeit one that won’t result in an influx of cash for the company quite as soon.
It’s an interesting point of discussion, and the rest of the spreadsheet that spawned the Horizon Zero Dawn remake rumour also makes for entertaining reading. There’s mention of a Horizon multiplayer ‘live service’ game for PS5 and PC and a new Death Stranding, for example.
Elsewhere, PSVR 2 has reportedly entered mass production, with Bloomberg reporting two million units on the way by March 2023 – and that ties into another leak that suggests that Half Life Alyx could be coming to the PlayStation VR headset. In theory, such a port would make a lot of sense – Alyx is undoubtedly one of the most polished and ‘AAA’ VR releases ever and would certainly run well enough on PS5 hardware. The Bloomberg report also suggests that the launch would be significantly scaled up beyond the original PSVR, with something like three times as many units available for launch – which in turn implies a strong level of confidence from Sony in the platform.
DF Direct Weekly #81: Do We Need A Horizon 1 Remake? Path-Traced Quake! Dead Space Remake! Watch on YouTube00:00:00 Introduction00:00:58 News 01: Horizon Zero Dawn PS5 remake leaked!00:12:00 News 02: PSVR 2 enters mass production 00:18:53 News 03: Ray-traced Quake 1 released 00:25:10 News 04: New gameplay trailer for Dead Space remake 00:31:31 News 05: Need for Speed: Unbound revealed, dated 00:38:59 News 06: Nintendo shows first trailer for Mario film 00:45:45 DF Content Discussion: Intel ARC review follow-up and questions01:01:30 DF Supporter Q1: Is there a project that was just too big for DF Retro? 01:03:39 DF Supporter Q2: Will Unreal Engine 5.1 fix the #StutterStruggle?01:04:55 DF Supporter Q3: What’s a game you love that is largely unknown? 01:10:35 DF Supporter Q4: What potential RDNA 3 feature could get people to switch to AMD? 01:16:27 DF Supporter Q5: Is there any reason to use last-gen hardware instead of current gen backwards compatibility for PS4/Xbox One games? 01:18:43 DF Supporter Q6: Why don’t developers use DLSS 2/XESS/FSR 2.0 to upscale RT effects? 01:21:43 DF Supporter Q7: What game would you like to see remade that will never happen?
Of course, it wasn’t all about leaks and rumours. Alex also detailed the recently released path-traced version of the original Quake, following the release of Quake 2 RTX from 2019. This is available via Github and comes from the same developer working on a path-traced version of the original Half-Life. It’s exciting stuff, and well worth trying out even in its early form.