Horizon Zero Dawn's questionable remaster launches to Mixed reviews as players lament a new mandatory PSN sign-in that wasn't in the original, visual glitches, and audio bugs

It's like they don't want to release new games.

That as far as I can tell looks exactly the same as the "original"

A bad one at that!

Like seriously, the game wasn't good back then, but everyone went googoo gaga over art style. I've never seen worse story with such a boring open world content, it makes Ubisoft game design look good..

They redid her face, tons of lighting across the gameworld, and re-recorded tons of voice acting. I think maybe they also redid some motion capture. The original faces and animations were memorably pretty awkward. I read a bit from a developer suggesting they learned lots about what they would have done differently, so they did that.

As a huge fan of the original though, I'm hesitant to ever touch this since they changed so much. It'll feel like some ripoff or something. I find the original a gem, with flaws and all. Every game has flaws, and that's okay.

It feels like those creators who can't just leave their music or movies as it was and keep fucking with it.

I don't think it needs a remaster considering how good the game still looks, but it's 7 years old now. That's not exactly "new" anymore.

The OG version is still on GoG! Includes all of the original DLC but none of the new PSN bull.

I would love HZD on PC but fuck the PSN requirement.

They removed the OG version. Who didn't have the PSN requirement.

Do people genuinely not realize that sony and microsoft had a great data collection source (console gamers) that have largely "aged out"? This new push for account sign-ins is obviously because their user data flow needs a big kick. They used to get data when people bought the game on their own platform, ran it on their own platform, even how many hours their gameplay sessions were individually throughout the week. With a lot of their studios games they had either complete or timed exclusivity to really find out what was driving gamers to game, and beyond that it's a popular commodity and likely a loat or reduced revenue stream.

With helldivers 2, the account controversy sprung up on the back of Helldivers 2's stats page not showing correct numbers for anything (and sometimes being rolled back asynchronously from your currencies and unlocks). Seemed obvious to me at the time they wanted a head count from another source (a sign-in) and probably data beyond that like session time/length. Whatever people are upset about sign-ins over, I don't actually see it articulated much; there are a lot of good reasons to dislike it (potential stoppage of the service causing games to be harder to play like end of service for Games for Windows Live) and I never see them mentioned, just general vitriol for the companies. I don't find the companies sympathetic, but I do find it odd that people just slam it aimlessly everywhere instead of identifying the issues beyond basic understanding of privacy fears.

Good to know you can just nope the PSN login. I haaaate games requiring accounts for single-player experiences, but if you can just say no, I don't resent them asking as much.