There's a lot to unpack here...
So you're suggesting that because it doesn't have certain technical features that it's not next gen? So the final result isn't important, just cram all those "next gen features" and buzz words in there and suddenly we have a next gen game? I don't care how they arrive at the final solution, all I care is whether my eyes like what they see.
These are screenshots of Metro Exodus maxed out running on my system:
No amount of amazing lighting is saving those poor assets. The game looks stunning a lot of the time thanks to the lighting but it is not consistent. Then when you consider the character models, animations, etc, to be honest it's a poor example to even bring up.
And Cyberpunk, again, maxed out:
There are some very impressive things Cyberpunk is doing from a technical standpoint, look at the ray traced reflection in the traffic lights for instance:
Like you said, the density of the world is very impressive however overall it is nowhere near as striking as Horizon FW.
I would actually say that overall the following two are among the best looking games available on PC at the moment:
Assassins Creed Valhalla:
A plague tale:
But again the density and overall visual presentation just aren't there (a plague tale is also a level based game rather than open world). Granted, we've only seen a small area of Horizon so far so we don't know whether that carries through to the whole map but if it does then it stands alone for now.
The only game I will allow in to this discussion is flight sim 2020 which
is a
fully next gen game, and we are yet to know how it will even run on consoles yet (good luck with your suddenly beloved 60fps here
Hendrick's
):
Flight sim is a game that will quite literally say "fuck your PC". It doesn't matter what hardware you have, it will make it cry. Top notch materials, lighting and particles.
For anyone saying it looks current gen or that you are currently playing games that look just as good: