Disaster : Day of Crisis (Wii) first pic

[baka]

While this doesn't look like my type of game, if they're putting more money into gameplay than graphics I think that's an excellent idea. I'd rather have a game that played well and didn't look that great than vice versa. I've seen far too many games that look amazing, but fall apart when you try to actually play them. Most of the games that I have been able to get into for extended periods of time haven't been terribly graphically intense titles. Typically strategy and RPG games, although I do enjoy a good racer every now and then. I've found that I also really enjoy games which promote activity of some sort outside of cramping your thumbs on the controller's buttons and joysticks. Games such as DDR, the Guitar Hero series, several Wii titles (particularly Wii Sports and Wario Ware: Smooth Moves) and the like have really made gaming more enjoyable, for both my wife and myself. Action games get beaten and then set aside with few exceptions, and FPS games are a big yawner for me unless there's a good amount of puzzle action involved. The original Doom was great IMO, it had very fast action and level design that challenged you to find all the secrets. The series degenerated over time into what we now know as Doom 3, basically a lot of monsters thrown into what might as well be a side scroller for all the ways you have to play through the game. I probably won't get the next title if they don't do something dramatically different with the game play. The point of all this is that not everyone is a hard-core gamer. A number of people are going to enjoy games that you would consider "crap", and these people would probably never play half of the games you enjoy the most. Most women for example, and probably most people outside of the early teen to 20s range. I'd also be willing to bet that there are more of these people than hard-core gamers. The Sims and Bejeweled sold extremely well, and I'm guessing it's not hard-core gamers that are buying them.

It is much more difficult to create great graphic than gameplay.

I couldn't disagree more. Great gameplay, particularly of the innovative variety, is rarer by far than great graphics; it's just not something that throwing in more CPU power will get you.