WereKitten on 18 March 2009
I don't see such a clean cut juxtaposition. Realistic doesn't mean drab and cartoonish doesn't mean vibrant.
Movies like Hero played with colors more than The Corpse Bride.
Uncharted is vibrant and Afro Samurai is subdued.
It's all in the art direction really.
Btw, I would not say that Gears nor KZ2 are really striving for true life-like appearance. They are only choosing a more realistic or even hyperrealistic art direction, but still pushing a very definite style. Simple realism in graphics, as in CoD4, tends to come off as boring, indeed, unless great things are done with editing.
PS: if you want to see the closest thing to a Pixar movie as a game, I think you should look at Ratchet and Clank.
