Could you play the game offline ? If not, it's a very big deal.

According to the newest infos PSN will be mandatory on every single version of the remaster. Which means, indeed this is a account DRM, on a offline game.

Online features? Usually only here in order to split away content from the game, therefor punish those not using a account. Multiplayer on the other hand can make sense using an account but this is optional on a non Online (only) game.

Not released yet, the last word is never spoken but the first big word is spoken at 31. October.

In general i think Sony now really want to push "PSN requirement" on many if not all new franchises. Same for God of War Ragnarok. The users did not enjoy it a lot... so the sells are rather mediocre, as far as i can say.

For Sony not the best moment making users upset with non necessary restrictions, as they already had their fair share of "bad responses" already.

As well, it seems the preorders of the PS5 Pro, with the exception of the extremely rare "anniversary model", is not in the biggest demand ever, so i guess Sony was somewhat hitting a "red mark" which is in many cases slightly above gamers acceptance. One of many reasons is indeed the very weak "PS5 only lineup" still... 4 years after release, which surely is much weaker than what we had on the PS4 inside the same time frame. Yet, the hardware is the best ever made, the main issue is the way to low amount of good innovative software for the new system, clearly. Sure, the new Dragon Age is out soon, an improved Horizon Zero Dawn and next year actually the "real next gen title Ghost of Yotei" which may stay Sony exclusive for some years, i assume... as a rare exception. Still to less to make most users "run for the PS5", yet still way better than XBox Series which got zero exclusives at all.

Besides: Dragon Age will need a new firmware on some Ryzen CPUs, else it may fail to run:
https://www.reddit.com/r/dragonage/comments/1etbbsg/regarding_amd_cpus_on_windows_11_require_agesa_v2/

Basically, if the BIOS is older than 2 years it may stop to boot.

Luckily... it is only a issue for Win-trash 11!

This only applies to AM4. Those systems will need AGESA 1.2.0.7 or newer.
Or in other words a June 2022 BIOS or newer. (All AM5 BIOS are newer ;))

You know, AM4 is the most successful AMD platform by far? So, this is not something minor...

Yet, indeed true... i would not be affected and it is important to know that the AGESA of AM4 and AM5 are different and the numbers are separate for each AGESA. It can become confusing if not enough research.

But why Win 11 and AM4 only? I think it got something to do with the TPM (Trust Platform Module). TPM can be used in order to "lock" a software to a certain system, so basically a "hard DRM", although it should be deactivated because i consider it a security risk and not a security gain... as it has been told. On Win 11 hardware support is mandatory, not on Win 10 though.

On AM4:
On games it is generally not used but there might be exceptions... Dragon Age for example. Some AMD CPUs had issues with the CPU-based TPM which is only affecting AM4-CPUs (not a expert here... just to less interest for this junk) which was hurting the performance. Albeit as long as not activated this issue is not affecting the system.

The real reason why it is troubles on Win 11: Win 11 is demanding TPM to be run (in theory it can still be disabled but it may become upset and cause malfunctions... because it is coded very hard into this OS), and because AM4 is using CPU based TPM it may need a BIOS update in order to fix it.

On AM5:
This platform basically got the TPM integrated into the chipset, so there is no CPU support required for executing TPM. It can become deactivated but... just as i said... initially it is always enabled and on Win 11 disabling it might cause many issues with the OS. On Win 10 disabling it is not a problem because it was never a hard requirement and there is no "hard coding" linked to it.

Screw PSN!

Whats surely fun: Using a PS5 will allow for constant offline play and even without PSN is possible. On PC it seems impossible and it may need 2 or even more accounts at once... Online most- or all- of the time. Oh my!

However, the standard PS5 might only be able to handle 30 FPS at full settings without RT. It will need a PS5 Pro in order to get playable frames at full settings with RT. So this remastered is not really made for "standard users" yet, Sony surely will keep shut about.

Nobody can say how much more demanding it may become but actually, even the standard version of Horizon Zero dawn is able to push the PS5 to the limit at 4k, no RT, and 30 FPS only. I dare to say... perhaps it works with 4k and full settings on the PS5 Pro but not much more than 30 FPS. We once again may get the "performance or graphic-settings".

Somehow the hardware just can not keep pace with software demand and Nvidia is clearly with guilt because they was using AI in order to artificially boost frames and soon... this AI-tech is basically always included in the "minimum specs": It may still look better at native... but either it will stay at 1080P this way (i currently do it) or the GPU really need to be a immense monster if it will have to handle it even at 4k... not even 4090 will be sufficient anymore.

For example how it looks for the most demanding games:

Native on the PS5 is ONLY THEORETICAL because Sony is always using frame generation/dynamic res! It can not become deactivated.

PS5: Frame generation/dynamic res + max setting without RT = 4k with 30 FPS. Can only handle native 1080P at 30 FPS and without RT. Max capability: 4k 30 console, without RT. RT on the standard PS5 is, lets be honest, just useless because the RT chip is just way to weak! Sure, it is a nice upgrade to a PS4 Pro but it is simply no real RT console, it just suffers to much performance using it. Besides no matter "how great" the old 1080 TI seems to be, it can nowadays not even keep up with a standard PS5 anymore and with zero RT, just a fact.

PS5 Pro: Frame generation/dynamic res + max setting with RT = 4k with 45 FPS. Can only handle native 1080P at 45 FPS including RT. Max capability: 4k 45 console.

3090 TI: Lowest spec able to handle native 1080P/max setttings with 60 FPS including RT. Can only handle native 4k at 30 FPS with RT. Can only handle 4k with 60 FPS using Frame generation/dynamic res. Max capability: 4k 60 card.

4090: Max capability: 4k 90 card

5090: Lowest spec able to handle native 4k + max setting with 60 FPS including RT. Can only handle 4k max settings/RT with 120 FPS using Frame generation/dynamic res. Max capability: 4k 120 card.

Nintendo Switch: Okay, lets forget it. Not a matter because lets just create "Indie tech-games" and we will be fine.

8k? Just a dream... for the most demanding games.

Sure, most gamers telling me "their almost for free GPU is sufficiently strong", either use indie games, 20 year old classics or frame generation/dynamic res all the time!

Actually i got me the Remastered Horizon Zero Dawn today. I surely would not pay a full price of a improved game i already got, not even as a nice disc version, but the current price of 45 CHF was alright to me, which is actually cheaper than the current PSN-digital-price in my country... crazy but true.

I never had Horizon Zero Dawn on PS5 because i used the clearly supreme GOG version since the beginning. Still, since i got me a PS5 Pro which will be able to show me the "full muscles" of the Remaster it would be a waste not to experience it one more time with some graphical tweaks. I actually enjoy having the best PC version from GOG and the best disc version on console, as this is one of my favorite games of all time. Of course i would NEVER pay so much on any digital version, with the exception of a GOG version. Yet... if we ever get a GOG version is very uncertain, as Sony is now increasing the "DRM ropes" as we all know already. We did not even get Horizon Forbidden West so far...

It will be interesting to compare it, personally, without bad Youtube-Videos who are not very good at representing quality matters. In my mind the GOG version is already graphically great... even if it actually had "cross-gen" material inside, which was in between PS4 and PS5 related to the overall quality, with some nice PC improvements.

The Remaster is probably now "real next gen" by now, the game we should have gotten on PS5 right from the start but we was "held back" by PS4 technology. Anyway, the PS5 would still not be able to produce playable frames using RT, so the first time it truly can be played on a console is with the arrival of the PS5 Pro. I still am curious how big the improvement really is, which surely can be seen on the best Plasma-TV ever produced (which simply is not giving up... working almost forever).

92.7 GB on the disc and a update file already... takes lot of time for install. GOG version is around 70 GB as far as i can remember, unable to check now.

Here we go again... on all the Playstation games, only "Horizon" isn't on sale atm. They're going to do like the "Life is Strange" series here, no longer sell them at a discounted price so that people buy the "remastered" version instead.
I've been waiting for years for "Before the Storm" to be discounted again and nothing...now "Horizon", it's really frustrating !

At least they haven't delisted it... for now lel.