Are devs making graphics way too much of a priority?

[Biggerboat]

I forget the exact comparisons but doesn't a title cost around 3 times more on 360/PS3 than a Wii equivalent? If so that surely means that roughly 2 thirds of a 360/PS3 game's budget is being spent on visuals, as lets face it, it's the main thing seperating the platform's games! Now I know that to a lot of gamers higher poly counts, hi-res textures and light blooming up the yazoo is important but to the point where it swallows the majority of a game's budget? Really??

Take Heavenly Sword for example. It supposedly had around a 20 million dollar budget and yet it was over, well, too quickly. To those that bought the title wouldn't you have rather had a game with more meat to it with extra levels, more varied enemies, etc. even if it meant that the main character's hair didn't move like a shampoo commercial on steroids? Before anybody asks, no I've not played the game, but the sentiments seem to be shared by the majority of critics so I'm taking their word for it.

There are countless other games which I think also suffer from too much makeup and too little substance. MotorStrom, which I have played looks great but as a game is hugely inferior to tonnes of racing games on PS2 which I'm assuming cost a fraction of mula to make. Lair, again pretty pictures but where's the game to justify that huge investment? By the way I realise I've only mentioned PS3 games but they just happen to be good examples of what I'm talking about and have been most publicised for their shortcomings.

I'm not saying that graphical advances should stop however I do think that developers should start to think about using these unpresedentedly high dev budgets for more than just bells and whistles. Just think what a game with KilleZone2's budget could achieve if it settled for reasonable graphics and spent the majority of the resources on the actual game!!

Anyway that's my 2 cents on the issue. If I've got any of the figures wrong or have somehow misunderstood the development process to the point where my argument falls apart  let me know, I don't pretend to know everything and don't mind being set straight!