Horizon Forbidden West PS5 PlayStation 5 Burning Shores DLC 1
Image: Push Square

We were beginning to think that Horizon Forbidden West’s anticipated expansion Burning Shores may be delayed – after all, it’s due out on 19th April, which is little over a month away. But a new PS Blog interview with game director Mathijs de Jonge confirms that Aloy’s adventure in Los Angeles is still very much on track – even if it’s light on new details.

The interview revolves around how developer Guerrilla Games is utilising the power of Sony’s new-gen system for the add-on. It’s worth repeating, of course, that despite the main game launching on both PS5 and PS4, the DLC will only be available on the former format. De Jonge notes that this is allowing the Dutch team to push the hardware even harder than the core campaign.

“The cityscape ruins of LA and its surroundings are highly detailed and require a lot of processing power as well as fast streaming technology to run properly – especially when the player is flying over the lands and can see a lot at once,” he explained. “One of the settlements is situated in and around those detailed ruins, and we were able to squeeze a lot of activity in there.”

De Jonge stopped short of sharing any spoilers, but did allude to one boss fight in particular that’s really taxing Sony’s platform: “Another notable one is a particular battle scene that requires a lot of memory and processing power! To achieve this grand vision both technically and creatively, we definitely were thankful for the many advantages that the PS5 hardware brings.”

Despite being a cross-gen game, we doubt many would argue against Horizon Forbidden West being one of the best looking games on the PS5, so we’re really excited to see what Guerrilla Games can achieve with the DLC. At this point, we’re just excited to hear the expansion is still on track – hopefully there’s a big media blowout in the coming weeks.

[source blog.playstation.com]