These videos actually make good visual aid in what zeldaring was trying to say over most this thread about 3rd party devs using graphics to sell games lol.

Horizon was built as the Zelda killer with high fidelity graphics and it worked in moving the new IP. I remember even being impressed how great it looked at the time and this is what would have sold it to the PS gamer and friends of aid gamers.

However the finer detail is shadowed by what BotW does vs what is missing in Horizon.

ON A SIDE NOTE:
I am either getting old to remember everything, but I can't recall you mentioning on here that you had a GF, or I missed it as been busy with a baby who's now 2 lol.  Through all the shit you have been, congrats happy for you.

So many questions, so little time:

1. Was it love at first site?

2. How you meet?

3. How long you been together?

4. Have you/her met each others families?

5. Any cultural differences/challenges you faced/facing? I ask this as my wife and I had several with her parents lol.

6. Any proposal plans soon?? i.e. you think she is the one?

Yeah it's also a good showcase of the fundamentally different design philosophies of Sony and Nintendo. Sony focus more on fidelity and storytelling while for Nintendo gameplay takes priority over all else. 

As to the questions:

1. No actually, my brain doesn't really work that way, it was more a gradual process.

2. Dating app actually haha, during lockdown of all times. Talked online for 2 months before we could finally meet, which helped I think as it got the awkward getting to know you stuff out of the way so by our first date we already felt like we knew each other.

3. 19 months now!

4. She has met mine, I have yet to meet hers. 

5. Yeah there are some cultural differences (she's Chinese and I'm anglo/aus) but so far none that have caused significant difficulties. She has introduced me to a lot of cool new foods and other stuff I'd never tried before which is nice.

6. I definitely plan to someday, but we're in no rush. :)

Thanks for the updated and your wiliness' to share, and wow, 19 months puts it into perspective haha. With a child at home it didn't feel like it was that long ago you have your surgery. I hope it all works out for you and hopefully that mentoring job you were doing is also panning out. 

Love at first site, for better or worst that is how I got hooked lol. I wasn't expecting it, as I wasn't looking because I was still hung up about my ex who moved overseas. But when my wife walked into UNI for the first time she did this little qwerky thing that made me think she is cute lol. I had to use my powers of persuasion to get her on my wave length though lol, but she come around eventually. 

Glad to read the cultural differences havened caused any significant difficulties. If they were do, my only advice is be patient her parent will always come around eventually once they learn she truly loves you. Took a while for my wife's parents to come around but they did in the end.

As for the other foods, just by being in Melbourne I learnt a lot about how different real Chinese food was compared to the ones they made for white people in western countries lol. 

Now I know SegaHeart and DarkLord are gone from these forums, but they always used to be so negative about finding some. If they still read the forums I hope they take something positive away from this post  and get their lives on track.

Bullshit Horizon wasn't built as a Zelda killer it came out around the same time as BOTW if anything it was Sony's take on Ubisoft open world games.

 Yeah, and the Spider-Man games world is very Ubisoft. Something I hope the sequel changes. My biggest gripe with those games. I enjoy the stories and traversal but once the story ends no reason to keep playing.

I played BotW and HZD back to back, completely different games. Ironically the nitpicks of HZD were foliage not bending when you walk through it, graphical stuff not having anything to do with gameplay. HZD has many options for combat as well, but the main difference is HZD has an expansive story with a main quest line to follow, a linear game set in an open world environment. BotW is a sandbox with loose story threads. In BotW you can directly go kill the end boss if you like, or spend over a hundred hours messing around with its systems while clearing all the shrines.

Both sequels (TotK and FW) expanded on their strengths while increasing places to explore. TotK adds more sand box toys and 2 new environments to play in, while FW fleshed out more of the world, more tribes to interact with and also more environments, including a huge underground 'water temple'

Atm I'm still giving the edge to FW as it gave me a whole new map to explore while TotK feels like retreading old ground with Hyrule. If you like building contraptions, TotK is obviously the better game in that department. If you like to explore a new place and get to know the locals, traditions and be part of their destiny, I would say FW is the better game when it comes to immersive story telling.

Both are technical master pieces. Video games are based on graphics, graphics can and do enhance the experience, just as much as interactivity enhances the experience. Only issue I have is lack of persistence in TotK (apart from hard to read text and low contrast making it harder to see). FW doesn't remember everything either, but doesn't let me build bridges, thus no expectations for it to stay.

Some side machines were super fun for me. Especially the one with timers and perfecting your web swinging 

To me, Horizon felt less like it was conceived as a Zelda rival and more like Sony wanting in on last gen's open world craze. It just happened that Nintendo had similar ideas.
They each went in their own direction, but ultimately Nintendo's take was more novel and impactful.

Agreed 100% most of those physics demonstrations comparing horizon to zelda are pointless one is going for a stunning world and one is physics. both have strengths and weakness. If you are making a realistic game like witcher 3 and physics are Gonna make your game look much worse then its not worth the trade off. Zelda is a cell shaded  game  about exploring and puzzles  so it's works perfectly for it. 

You say that with such confidence like there was no Zelda game before BotW. Go look at all the articles, videos calling it the Zelda killer. Then look at all the outrage why BotW won GOY.  

The one thing you are right on yes they came out at about the same time so what Horizon was, was never going to be a direct battle against BotW but it's predecessors. I would argue not many people thought BotW would be such a significant leap from the previous game that it surprised many when it come out