Now if your talking  Metro exodus on the PS4 I disagree having finished  it on the Pro it has some lovely effects one but  parts stood out, an example I was looking at a debris field  made up of splintered wood floating in an underground channel, obviously it wasn't a place you would venture into Artyom isn't a good swimmer but just passing close by I was shocked not that it was lo res but it was flat like those flat textures you would see in PS2 games that looked to be 3D till you got close, and while that's extreme there were lots more examples of low quality texturing  ,then you have all the bugs,so for me Horizon came across as a more competent game from an overall perspective regarding it's graphics and looks than Metro were the margin between it's best and worst was a lot wider , now having said that The PC iMetro is a different beast but who's to say what Horizon would become if it was made for PC.

My reason would be because there is a Metro exodus on PS4 to compare with Horizon and using PC rather than the  PS4 game  leads us  to this question,  if we need to use the PC version to make the point, then  how would a  hypothetical PC Horizon  compare using what we can deduce from the differences between the PS4 Metro and the PC version as a rough guide.

Your using the PC version is fine in the context of rereading Johns first quote I was thrown off when he later suggested it was an unfair comparison thinking he must have never mentioned the PC version when in fact he was the one who brought it up so it was fair game, I agree with you about comparing software, my argument isn't with comparing versions against one another, hell  it's core to digital foundries existence and helps us with choice, while John opened this particular discourse up  to Metro  PC , I still feel no matter how silly you may think it is, if you are comparing different games in respect to how they may have aged using the same platform if available gives a more even view toward that end, you can cut back somewhat on the wriggle room, then again how much does any of this matter when most people talk of aging are really mostly talking about ascetics and how they view the games appearance so it is truly in the eye of the beholder.

My point of difference is a pretty simple one " I believe that  if the games that are being compared  happen to be on the same platform then that should make the  comparison more straight forward ", that isn't advocating that it's the only way to make those comparisons, I feel both of our views aren't mutually exclusive more a case of selection criteria, your view is looking at the versions of a particular game being part of a set where you would use the most capable version to be the example, while my selection would differ from yours in the cases where the games being compared include a game that's platform locked then that platform would be taken into consideration when possible.

Sorry that was my fault When I typed my reply I was looking at the wrong quote I have re edited it and tried to explain where i feel both of us  are coming from , let me know if you feel I'm close.

WOW.   Pure art.    

https://streamable.com/ft4hu

wooooah, really awesome!