Next gen will be fucking crazy nice. Games won't run at 30 frames anymore, everything will be 1920x1080 at a usually stable 60 fps. DX11, much better anti-aliasing, screen tearing and everything will be almost extinct (with good coding),PCs have been doing this since 2007 now (supercomputers at that time especially for crysis) so in 2013-2014 consoles can do this easily. starting games of the gen will look like UC2 but in 60 fps. Things will be very nice then. Crysis is still the king of graphics 4 years running BF3 might finally surpass it (dont know why i included this sentence but oh well.)

Most games will have the basic graphics only improve a little, instead we will hopefully see things like - better draw distance, native 1080p, less pop-in, better/more AA, more dynamic lighting and higher res shadows. 

 In my opinion instead of pushing the graphics envolope, the next-gen consoles biggest improvments should aim to fix load times (shorter and fewer please), patches (no more day 1 patches let consoles download them in the background instead of when i boot up a game), complete intergration of features added this generation( taking screenshots, recording video, uploading video to youtube, custom in-game music), better management of game data (i want folders that separate game data and game saves via games not just throwing it all into folders game data and game saves). 

 Ohh and i'm not sure what live is like when buying stuff (don't own a 360) but on PSN i want to have 2 separate download list, everything(demo's, trailers, etc) and bought items(maybe even divide it up, games, dlc). As for Wiiware, DSiware, DSiXLware and 3DSware - i want 1) a much faster service, 2) better interfaces 3) an account, having games tied to a single console sucks.

No, but what kind of a logic is behind that question?

2000 to Crysis is 200 to 2007 = 7 years.

Crysis to now is late 2007 to early 2011 = 3.5 years

Most importantly though Crysis the game mostly reflects evolution of graphics software tech (and a huge leap at it) rather than hardware tech, and there's simply been no better PC engine released yet. Usually graphics engines come in 4-5 years incrementations (is that a word?), almost as seldom as console hardware generations. Like UE3 is already 5 years old. id Tech 4 is already over 6 years old while id Tech 5 is not even out in a playable game. Source engine is almost 7 years old and we haven't even heard of a new iteration still.

Maybe i totally misunderstood your question Khuutra?

I think it depends on how much the respective console maker wants it to be.

Though they could potentially make a big leap, I dont think they will due to the cost of production on making such a console. So the actual difference wont be any where as much as it could be.

I cant say I blame them either. Take the current gen, Microsoft and Sony produced a pwerful console but the cost to buy it was high and even then they had to take a loss on each one sold. Where as Nintendo's Wii was only a small leap from the Gamecube but could be sold at a more competitive price while still making a profit, and look how that turned out between the three.

No you are right it was a dumb question

Among other things I forgot when Crysis came out

Yeah I've seen that chart. Even if its over-promise on the time schedule it suggests a very bright future for graphics!

Great post.

And most people don't realize that in the long run stuff such as sophisticated mapping techniques, tesselation, polygon-counts, lighting, physics, surface and volumetric technology etc will mean much more for future graphics than screen resolution, framerate and anti-aliasing which are the features everyone argues about in this gen.

And the big dream is of course ray-tracing...

Next console gen will look so good. I am convinced it will look even better than the wonderful UE3 Samaritan demo:

They can improve the overall quality of the games i.e. they run better and look generally nicer but other than that it will be other functionality surrounding things such as motion and the media hub. The next console will be more rounded overall.

Will this be enough for us to buy...Nope so they will probably wait a while. I liken the change in graphics to us currently being in upscaled DVD quality to the move to full HD, yes it is better but is it enough and I think many will think no.

With all this in mind I think the next gen is gonna have to be a lot more innovative and graphics and power in general is not going to the be the draw. The draw will be whatever they offer as the complete package.

I don't think it'll be quite so huge a leap but there will be a decent leap. I expect it will be more about smoothing out performance issues with games running at 1080p and 60fps as a minimum standard.

It's just logical that as time goes by the leaps get smaller, because we're talking about something with a finite limit. It's all about the pursuit for photo-realism, so once we get there, what next?

i think next gen console will be like current gen most hi-end pc level only, cause pc will always be higher...