Ahh see, but I'm not quite the huge graphic's whore. To me, art style comes before the insane graphics, but the HD consoles can offer a more visceral experience in terms of on-screen physics, depth of field, body counts, etc etc etc. Graphics are just part of the experience. All of these new advancements take processing power and it's not just the pretty graphics that are the hook.
A game that I picked up again recently and really shouldn't have (I'm friggin hooked -_-;) is Warhawk on the PS3. The online play with 16 vs 16 matches, insanely huge maps, locked 60 frames per second, almost no lag, massive draw distance, THX surround sound etc etc etc really shows me what this "next gen" tech is really capable of. It's a game that I still find to be insanely impressive even to this day. And if you take a look at it's screen shots, they're really not that great :P The devs went with an art style approach instead of a maxed resolution/poly/texture, and the results are what I still think is one of the most gorgeous games on the market.
So while I agree, I think some things are being too heavily focused on, I also think that the stuff you don't notice right off the bat is REALLY pushing the experience as a whole.
From 0 to KICKASS in .stupid seconds.
