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Sony Interactive EntertainmentGuerrilla Games has been working on the Horizon series for years, and it shows no signs of slowing down, which is bad news for fans of Killzone, its initial franchise. In a new interview, a Guerrilla developer said the studio was “done” with the hyper-dark shooter series when it pivoted to making Horizon Zero Dawn.
“We were done with it as a team. As a studio, we needed to refresh the palette. It was, by choice, the opposite of Killzone,” art director Roy Postma told The Washington Post.
Guerrilla Games officially began making games in 2003, and its first big hit was Killzone, a dystopian sci-fi first-person shooter. It went on to make five Killzone games in total, with four developed after Sony purchased the developer. However, when it pivoted to making Horizon, it left Killzone behind, capping off the series with Killzone: Shadow Fall in 2013.
There haven’t been many mentions of Killzone from publisher Sony Interactive Entertainment, either. There were three Killzone cameos in Astro Bot, which pulled characters from all of PlayStation history, but that’s about it. Servers for Killzone: Mercenary on PlayStation Vita were shut down in 2020.
The studio didn’t go too much lighter in tone with Horizon Zero Dawn, but it’s going down the family-friendly route with its next release, Lego Horizon Adventures, on November 14. It’s a retelling of Horizon Zero Dawn, but with blocky characters, a more playful sense of humor, and simplified gameplay. In a preview at Summer Game Fest, we found it had a “childlike charm” that can help parents share the series with their kids. The team is also releasing Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered on October 31. Recent reports also claim that Guerrilla is working on “Horizon online” ahead of a third mainline game.
Don’t expect any Killzone news from Guerrilla, but who knows, maybe with the recent trend of remasters and remakes (Legacy of Kain: Soul Reaver 1 & 2 Remastered is coming to consoles on December 10, as one example), we can see something from another studio.
Carli is a technology, culture, and games editor and journalist. They were the Gaming Lead and Copy Chief at Windows Central…
Horizon Forbidden West is a marvel — if your PC can handle the heat
More than two years after its release on PS5, Horizon Forbidden West is now available on PC. The original game, Horizon Zero Dawn, has become a mainstay for performance testing on PC, and it's one of the pillars of our GPU reviews. The sequel ups the ante in a big way with more graphics options and a more demanding world overall.
I've been playing the game over the past week, drilling down on the best settings, comparing DLSS, FSR, and XeSS, and testing the bounds of performance. Horizon Forbidden West lives up to the standard set by the original release, though weaker GPUs with only 8GB of memory will struggle with high graphics settings and resolutions.
Best settings for Horizon Forbidden West PC
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Horizon Forbidden West multiplayer spinoff confirmed by Guerrilla Games
A tweet about available job openings at developer Guerrilla Games confirmed the existence of an online game set in the same universe as Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West.
"We are continuing to create epic solo adventures for Aloy. But there is more," a tweet by LifeAtGuerrilla says. "A new internal team is developing a separate Online Project set in Horizon's universe. Featuring a new cast of characters and a unique stylized look, friends will be able to explore the majestic wilds of Horizon together."
https://twitter.com/LifeAtGuerrilla/status/1603752192166469634
Rumors about this Horizon Online Project first emerged in an MP1ST report in October 2022 that also claimed a remaster or remake of Horizon Zero Dawn for PS5 was in the works. Guerilla Games' tweet does not mention any potential Horizon Zero Dawn re-release.
Similar to Blizzard's survival game and Respawn's Star Wars games' reveals earlier this year, this announcement is almost solely related to job openings so details on the game itself are scarce. Guerrilla Games is still in the process of hiring animators, artists, game designers, and writers for the game, so it's likely a way out from release. It'll likely be part of PlayStation's upcoming live service push, which will also impact series like The Last of Us.
The Horizon Online Project does not have a release date, but we now know it is in active development at Guerrilla Games. In the interim, PlayStation Studios announced at The Game Awards 2022 that the Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores expansion will be released exclusively for PS5 on April 19, 2023. Guerrilla's message also suggests that we can expect a follow-up to Horizon Forbidden West starring Aloy eventually.
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Horizon story explained: Everything you should know about Aloy’s journey so far
After making almost nothing besides FPS titles in the Killzone series, it was seen as a major risk for Guerrilla Games to suddenly shift gears and announce they were making an open-world, third-person action RPG. Set in a post-apocalypse where humans are besieged by wild robots that very closely resemble dinosaurs and other wildlife, Horizon Zero Dawn turned out to be a massive hit in a year full of other excellent games to compete with. Being a new IP, it had a lot of work to do between establishing a new world, characters, gameplay mechanics, and more.
Horizon Zero Dawn's story is broken into two major components: There are the events that lead up to the world becoming the way it is in the game and the actual plot revolving around protagonist Aloy and her quest. Keeping everything straight is complicated on its own, but if you missed some key audio logs, got distracted by all the extra activities to do in the open world, or just forgot the important beats over the years, it might be confusing by the time you get to Horizon Forbidden West. And if you're confused starting that game, you will be totally lost by the end of it, so let's set the record straight by explaining the entire story of Horizon so far.
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