@leo-j
Damn. Avatar level stuff seems a step waaaay too far to me. I mean the amount of offline processing going on there is staggering. We can't hope for that yet. Would love to be wrong though.

What I expect (and I think is reasonable):
*Higher resolution shadow mapping with hardware enabled 4x sampling at least (go away horrid jaggy shadows!)
*More real time reflections (go away static environment maps!)
*More complex materials like sub-surf scatter on skin
*High anisotropic filtering levels on textures (16x hopefully. Crayola looking textures must go and stay gone)
*ALL games to feature HDR (probably still 16-bits per channel)
*Generally deeper framebuffers. Post processing effects like mad

Still think 60fps and 1080p will be rare somehow. Maybe more of these in the first half of the generation than the latter.

Better.

...what?

I don't see how they can get much better. We already have damn near photorealistic looking graphics. Though that is what I thought with Gamecube/Xbox at first too, so I suppose I can be proven wrong again. I'm sure you can always improve the lighting/shadow effects, bump mapping, things like that. Also, in game graphics still haven't quite reached the quality of game FMVs so I'd like to see that change.

What I'd really like to see is more open world games with better graphics, because it seems that the games with the best graphics are often limited in terms of the gameplay scope, because of all those extra polygons pushed. I'd like to see a game as open world as Minecraft, with graphics like Crysis 2. That would be freakin epic.

Well todays computers are capable of better graphics, so don't except anything we haven't seen yet. I would except native 1080p and upwards of 16X AA and 16X AF in games (more like 8X or maybe even 4X), as well as keeping a steady 60 FPS.

I expect the computers will continue to do more and that most graphic designers will continue to let them down.

Why should we not expect more out of 720/PS4 then what PC's give us today?  Lets go back to 05-06, show me any game with computers of the time that look better then God of War 3, Killzone3, uncharted3, Gears3.  Even Today PC games don't have better car models then GT5.  Higher AA and res in their racing games but they still don't look on par with GT5. 

Games on 720/PS4 IMO will blow away PC games of today, once the next gen engines start rolling out from Sony first party and other major devs.

don't know but i expect a new level of graphics like every gen. a lot of people say this won't because todays pc's have better graphic cards than ps4 will have but lol look at uncharted 3, forza 4 or whatever and what a fking bad technique these consoles have. shit ram, shit gpu aso. and the games look still great.

put this ps4 gpu and ram in a pc and play games like uncharted 3 on it...you can't and that'S why i belive that ps4/720 will have much better graphics than pc games nowadays even with worse gpu and we don't know which gpu they will get.

I think there will be progression, just don't expect a 6th --> 7th generation difference. I have trouble believing that Sony and Microsoft will release overly expensive systems again, especially considering how they don't have "it's HD!" behind it to personalize the graphical difference, unless they go for "it's native HD!" We know Nintendo always stays on the conservative side as well, and considering what we do know about the Wii U's capabilities so far, it's extremely unlikely that the Wii U will produce such a difference. Expect something noticeable, but relatively minor this immediate generation. The only way I can see a huge difference is if Sony/Microsoft wait a few years after the Wii U is released.

Didn't epic already show what to expect?

- ah here it is :

I expect all games to run at 1080P/60FPS and 1080P/30FPS for 3D.
I expect graphics on a similar level to the Tomb Raider E3 CG trailer.
I expect to see things PS3/360 could never do, (massive particle effects, physics on tens of thousands of objects at once).
I expect to see deformation on building, (wood splintering, brick chipping) all dynamic and not pre-rendered.
I expect to look back in 5 years, and think wow BF3 did not look that good at all, and Crysis 2 on high end hardware is lacking.

I expect all of this because every gen it has been the same way. Console graphics will never touch current PC games, our hardwares is to awesome. Then the new consoles come, and thanks to standardized hardware and specialized engines, they always do way more than anyone is expecting.