Had I known this would happen... lmfao

WHOA, y'all would pick some super busy week for me to pile on lol...  Given how this thread went, I have no doubt the one I post today will not get a single reply lmfao

I realized how many people I didn't quote, so I'll just reply in a general form:

Sony has answered many games over its years: Uncharted was their answer to Gears of War, PlayStation All-Stars their answer to Smash Bros, etc.  Much like they answered the N64 analog stick by doing TWO analog sticks, there's a history there of them trying to find a way to capture an audience playing a pillar game.

Having clarified that, I noticed people jumping to BotW, and I said "Zelda", not "BotW".  The fact that Nintendo fans gravitate towards BotW being their coup de grace in all conversations of an open world game is on them, not me.  What Sony wanted was a more action-adventure type game focused on combat and exploration.  HFW adds much more puzzles to the mix, too (relic ruins anyone?), though they PALE in comparison to Zelda's puzzles and could probably be solved by toddlers (lol), and Aloy just narrates everything which is insane.  To NOT see that Sony has tried to inject Zelda's influence into their Horizon franchise is a more defensive mindset because it is there, and it's pretty clear they want to have their own "Zelda".. They even have their own "dungeons" (cauldrons, anyone?), though also rather smaller/shorter in comparison.  And as I said, I'm absolutely cool with that, there are things HFW does better than Zelda (barring the obvious part being graphics and story-telling) despite falling short in other areas.

The fact that they've "answered" it doesn't mean they've "copied" it or "bested" it.  Console fans just love getting a little wild with their interpretations of simple words, and accuse things of being "clickbait" (which I hate).  And I should clarify since that is also another misunderstood thing: clickbait is the use of something deceptive in an effort to get a viewers attention without ever actually addressing said clickbait.  I actually mean what I said, here, there's no clickbait.  It just SEEMS that way to defensive "fans", as if people cannot compare similarities between games because "OMG ZELDA SO MUCH BETTER THOUGH HFW IS JUST GENERIC AAA GRAPHICS TRASH" narratives are so prevalent.

Just for shits and giggles, though, here's how clickbait actually works.  Costco DOES still sell the rotisserie chicken, and this ad knows it's a HOT item, so they used it in their image as clickbait, but as it turns out, ITS NOWHERE ON THE LIST BECAUSE IT'S STILL BEING SOLD.  THAT is clickbait, using something to completely deceive the viewer without having literally anything to do with it.  My statement is NOT clickbait, it just feels that way to "gamers" lol... Now whether you agree or disagree with my statement is its own matter entirely, and I respect those in the thread that simply disagree.  I'm not against disagreement, but I AM against baseless accusations lmfao