Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC is sailing to new visual heights thanks to ditching a PS4 launch.
Speaking to PlayStation Blog, Horizon Forbidden West game director Mathijs de Jonge explains how the Burning Shores DLC is taking advantage of the PS5. The new DLC will mark the first release in the Horizon franchise that's ditched a last-gen launch, as Forbidden West arrived on both PS5 and PS4 in 2022.
"One of our key priorities with Horizon games is to add a ton of detail and richness to our environments," de Jonge begins. "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," the game director continued.
de Jonge then explains that LA and its surroundings are "incredibly detailed" and therefore require a "lot of processing power as well as fast streaming technology to run properly." Burning Shores could be unlike anything we've seen before in the Horizon franchise, then.
Horizon Forbidden West's director also talks up on battle that requires a "LOT" of memory and processing power. De Jonge doesn't delve into specifics on what the battle entails, but if it is this big, it could dwarf the likes of the fight against Regalla's troops in Forbidden West.
Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC launches next month on April 19. Considering we've seen relatively little of the DLC since it was announced in December 2022, this news will come as music to the ears of anxious Horizon and Aloy fans.
Check out our upcoming PS5 games guide for a look at all the major releases slated for Sony's new-gen console.
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