I absolutely agree. We need more games like Zork!!!

None of these pansy-ass graphics that take away from a stark black and white screen, and your imagination.

*still waiting for photo realistic Dead or Alive XXXtreme Beach volleyball *

My standards for photorealistic is something that you could take as real. Like avatar.

As far as I've seen, there's no game that meets that requirement.

Maybe the gen after Wii U. If consoles don't extinguish.

I will probably draw heat for this but I agree with the overall statement that photorealistic graphic hurts gaming. The better the graphics get, less and less gets left open for imagination and the experience just gets kinda dull. The nice graphics are spectacular for the moment but they just don't stick with me. I played Uncharted and it was cool and all but when I was done I just moved on and forgot about the game. A game like A Link to the Past or even Turtles in Time challenged my imagination because the graphic was just a means to tell the overall story but these games haunted me in my dreams and I still know pretty much everything about them.

Most graphically impressive games I've played have great gameplay. It makes sense to me. If a developer has the budget/resources/time to make a game look so beautiful they usually have the budget/resources/time to make a game play great. Usually, in my experience.

A good example is Uncharted. Drakes fortune looks awesome, Among thieves and Drakes deception are 2 of the prettiest games released this gen imo, and as the graphics have progressed between games so has the gameplay. There was always refined and new mechanics in each game, and play modes like multiplayer and co-op (added in 2, hugely expanded in 3), just like any other great game/franchise, pretty or not.

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I agree with this.

To me less is more. Sometimes it feels like the developer is trying to hard to bring about emotion and just comes off as being corny.

I don't think the lack of RPG's has much to do with graphics.

Only two things are holding gaming back atm. Ram and balls. Consoles lack the ram and publishers don't have the balls not to cater to the prettiest screenshot contest or make something new.

Good graphics help with immersion, not emotion. To the moon, Journey and Papa & Yo are the most emotional games I have recently played. The term realistic graphics doesn't even apply.
Realistic graphics are better for sims.

It's a bonus when a game can have both. That dreary scene in Heavy rain with the divorced father and son hardly interacting with each other in that gloomy apartment still haunts me.

I was talking about how we get less games in general (and less diversity), RPGs just happen to be my favourite genre. HD developement is so expensive that many publishers won't risk making something like a niche RPG nowadays.