this  beyond a doubt

great game play and story over graphics has always been the way to go. 

ND is great on all fronts but i'll take the 2 formers over the later.

No one really cares anymore. At this point, the only ones who really give a damn are those who want to score points in the console war. Fallout: New Vegas is as ugly as sin but it sold very well. Skyrim doesn't really look that much better and it sold tons. Borderlands, with it's cartoon style, was one of the biggest new IP of last gen. CoD was never the best looking title by any means but it dominated the charts.

It's time to stop devoting so much resources to an area of gaming that isn't really all that important to most gamers.

Gen 8 will be a gen in which artstyle Will be more important than the technical features of the graphics. This is why some people will prefer driveclub graphics over project cars pc graphics. Saying Mario kart 8 having the best graphics of this gen is a step to far though. I can think of 7 gen games which looked better than mk 8 like uncharted or God of war 3.

Though I can understand when.people say Rise is still the best looking next gen game or even that forma horizon looks better than driveclub. (Which I think it doesn't)

So if crytek would want to WOW people with graphics the artstyle should be unique like the order for example 

Those guys are just losers. See what Nintendo or Naughty Dog can do with whatever hardware they have: wow graphics and very cool games.
Just use your talent instead of raw dumb power

Maybe they should start wowing us with a.i. improvements instead.

Maybe Crytek will make a game people actually want to play now? Graphics don't make the game and after the fiasco from the summer they should know better.

Considering they also maintain and update Cry Engine I would argue that they don't have a lot of time for game design. The engine can make beautiful stuff, but Unreal 4 came and pretty much put it to shame. I agree it's really hard to wow people with graphics now a days. People are just spoiled by fidelity. 

HAH! Next chapter Crytek, please. :-p

Every developer updates their engine, and most other developers realize there's a happy medium.  Spending all your time on the engine takes away from the rest of the game.

Crytek completely misses the point. It's not about having the best looking graphics on a game, it's about finding balance between art style, gameplay and graphics. That's what a good game is about, isn't it?