1. Some might argue that it runs, plays and looks better than W3 on a console.
You're being modest here, NaNoW. Not counting stuff like resolution, AF, AO, shadows, draw distance, water and foliage interactivity, Horizon running on a PS4, not pro, looks better than TW3 running on a PC at the highest quality settings.
- Horizon's procedural world creation tech is far more advanced than TW3's SpeedTree implementation for the placement of foliage.
- Horizon simulates dynamically generated volumetric clouds, TW3 does not. A mod adds volumetric cloud simulation for the Skellige region, but even that doesn't look as good.
- Horizon has more detailed character models that also animate better than TW3.
- Horizon renders higher quality material shaders and features more detailed geometry than TW3.
- Horizon features superior post-processing than TW3.
- Horizon features a seamless open world with zero load times during traversal, TW3 does not. Though, TW3 features a larger world map.