Horizon Zero Dawn - Review @ LaptopMag

HiddenX

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LaptopMag checked out the PC port of Horizon Zero Dawn:

Horizon Zero Dawn review: This is how it runs on PC

Classic case of a great game with a bad port

Horizon Zero Dawn on PC is an excellent disaster. It boasts one of the most obnoxious PC ports I've had the experience of testing. This game is a perfect storm of hurdles, with half a dozen crashes, frequent stuttering on certain hardware, an awful optimization process that I experienced three times, and a day-one patch that only made things worse.

Despite all of that, Horizon is still a phenomenal game. If you missed Guerilla's critically acclaimed RPG back in 2017 and have strong enough hardware to handle the poorly optimized mess that is this PC port, I would still recommend picking it up on a very deep sale. Charging $49.99 for a port with this many issues is ridiculous, especially since the original Complete Edition is available on PS4 for $19.99.

If you're rocking mid-tier hardware like a GTX 970 or 1660, there is absolutely no reason to purchase this game on PC rather than PS4. Trust me, you'll find the experience to be unbearable.

[...]

Score: 3.5/5
More information.
 
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If you're rocking mid-tier hardware like a GTX 970 or 1660, there is absolutely no reason to purchase this game on PC rather than PS4.
:rolleyes:

Possibly the worst review I've ever seen. Even Angry Joe didn't suggest buying consoles when Arkham Knight was unplayable on PC and unlike that same Warner game, HZD plays smoothly on mid tier (not on everything ultra ofc).
It has problems with highest tier rigs, not mid!
 
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The reviewer probably heard that the game has performance issues and just jumped on the bandwagon to appear like he knows what he's talking about, while completely missing the mark. I'm starting to consider starting a site that reviews the reviewers. Should feel good to them to taste their own medicine.
 
Funny enough I've seen many opinions on this matter. On one side we have defenders who keep saying the game is optimized, and the other saying it's not. Gotta love the internet.

As for me I believe Digital foundry that site has never been wrong for me.:)
 
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Sounds like the reviewer hit the nail on the head to me. The complaints of performance issues, bugs and crashes are widespread enough that one can assume this game indeed has performance issues, bugs and crashes. The reviewer also list his personal experience trying to get the game to run properly so I doubt he just heard about the issues and jumped on the bandwagon.

Sure if you’re like Joxer and hate everything console because, well they’re consoles then it probably doesn’t make sense. However, if you’re average joe gamer with a middle of the road PC and a PS4 then buying the complete PS4 edition that works for $20 over the PC version that is a crap shoot at best for $50 make sound sense.
 
"If you're rocking mid-tier hardware like a GTX 970 or 1660, there is absolutely no reason to purchase this game on PC rather than PS4."

Fun fact: I started a New Game+ a few hours ago and I'm rocking an RX 480 from 2016.

Like joxer said, this games play butter smooth if you don't crank it up all the way. Reviewer is a dummy. Here in Brazil we have a meme that goes "falou muito, e falou merda". Something like "said a lot, [said a load] of s**t".
 
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Yes, nothing says PC gaming like ‘crank down the settings and it will play buttery smooth’. :lol:
 
Odd. I'm playing with everything maxed, and it runs great for me.

Also, forgive me for not lending too much credibility to a game review from a site that focuses on laptops.
 
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To say "It runs for me, so everyone else who can't run the game is dumb" is pretty ignorant, too. This game is clearly not optimized for the PC and fails for many configurations. (And I'm not talking about old PCs like mine).

The reviewer could run the game on his older system, but it wasn't fun after the day one patch and then used a newer PC.
 
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Honestly, to complain that an open-world game with stunning graphics and depth of field runs badly on a coffee machine is pretty ignorant too, especially as a reviewer. They could have taken it up a notch and try to run it on a Pentium 3 with Windows 2000. In the end, whining is free.
 
Honestly, to complain that an open-world game with stunning graphics and depth of field runs badly on a coffee machine is pretty ignorant too, especially as a reviewer. They could have taken it up a notch and try to run it on a Pentium 3 with Windows 2000. In the end, whining is free.

He's using a recommended configuration:
Once I started playing, I turned the graphical settings down to Medium and managed a relatively consistent 30 frames per second on an Nvidia GTX 970 GPU with 4GB of VRAM and an Intel i7-6700K CPU.
Not a coffee machine.
 
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Yea but he did not disclose something of importance here.
The game, HZD, hates overclocked CPUs and crashes the renederer immediately, later gets more crashes and stutters.
I bet the reviewer OCed that K CPU of his. That's what reviewers usually do. Well, not gonna work.
I've listed also other causes for the game's bad behavior in another thread, but kinda don't think a reviewer would go disabling swap file, "hacked" vc redists or something, that's why I believe it's OCed i7.

Yes, it's a bugged game code that despises CPU overclocking, of course.
But then tell me am I the stupid one who doesn't keep i5 4670K overclocked all the time because… well… it runs everything without it (except a few unoptimized horrors like AC4).

As you might have guessed, HZD plays smooth 60FPS on my side, no stutters and no crashes in 64 hours (except one freeze of the whole PC, now I'm not even sure the game caused it). With an ancient i5 that's lower than recommended.
1080p though. Not 4K.

The port is not perfect, not saying it is.
But I cannot accept recommending buying 30- FPS plastics instead of changing a few settings on your PC proven to cause stutters/crashes in HZD and then playing smooth 60FPS.
 
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The port is not perfect, not saying it is.
But I cannot accept recommending buying 30- FPS plastics instead of changing a few settings on your PC proven to cause stutters/crashes in HZD and then playing smooth 60FPS.

This.

Let alone, having to play an open world twitch-combat game where aiming is a thing with an analog controller. Whoever recommends that is a plain idiot.

Or if we want to avoid personal insults, at the very least this person is not having a sound judgement on what's enjoyable and what's unbearable, terms that the reviewer utilised.
 
I'll say that I installed an update today (just returned from a 4-day trip without access to my home computer, so I don't know how long it's been queued), and it kinda screwed my 4k settings. I had to downgrade to 2.6k to maintain 60FPS and no shimmering/weirdness when moving or turning the camera around.

So there, I can also say bad things about this game when they happen. Hopefully they'll revert/improve that one.
 
Funny enough I've seen many opinions on this matter. On one side we have defenders who keep saying the game is optimized, and the other saying it's not.

Which suggests to me that both sides are wrong. ;)
 
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I'll say that I installed an update today (just returned from a 4-day trip without access to my home computer, so I don't know how long it's been queued), and it kinda screwed
Actually the patch, which is supposed to be a hotfix really, caused all sorts of wrong stuff (lost saves, inability to start the game, etc).
But hey, at least dragons don't fly backwards.
Which suggests to me that both sides are wrong. ;)
No. The side who says the game is optimized is wrong.
But… That side does not exist. For example, ingame Anisotropic Filtering is bugged on each and every PC, you need (if you want it) to enable it within the driver.

There are three sides in this story actually:
1. The game is bug-o-rama, unplayable pos
2. The game requires too much of tinkering in order to make it work
3. The game works fine, I don't care about mostly irrelevant stuff
 
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Seems Joxer falls in the defender camp. Just kidding but he seems like a fanatic about this game.:lol: What's so special about this game that's gets people so animated?o_O
 
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Which suggests to me that both sides are wrong. ;)

Lol true but hey it's hilarious reading the posts. Where my popcorn?

5df41c2dab8a9c2ae9fa05158d6a2142.jpg


Want some? That'll be $5 if you do.:biggrin:
 
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Seems Joxer falls in the defender camp. Just kidding but he seems like a fanatic about this game.:lol: What's so special about this game that's gets people so animated?o_O
I'm in the steam whiners are full of shit camp.
That's people spitting on the game yet refusing to upgrade their windows build although it's already proven the game wants at least 1909 build, here's one from today:
https://steamcommunity.com/app/1151640/discussions/0/3821820927589129914/#c3821820927589206002
asicly didnt fixed till today and I will request refund at end of day if still no patch. I tried multiple things based on feedback but nothign worked

The only thing I havent tried is windows version - I am running 1607 and I have seen that for some people upgrade to newest version fix some problems but I will not ruin my laptop with crap win upgarde only to play HZD.
Remember I posted a few days back on this very forum that the game wants upgraded win10? Yea... Who cares, let's whine.
Or those who open a new thread about the same thing over and over not providing any detail, only saying "doesn't work".

On the other hand I do try to help people on steam with suggestions.
Those that don't insist on 4K. Can't help that minority. Is that a defense or an offense?
 
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