Really hope you're right - I'm great fan of FPP adventures, and I see lot of potential for their comeback one day - everytime I play something like Crysis and I'm on the beach, and my wife walks in and sees the scenery, she's all "What is that, it's so beautiful?!?!". Of course, once she finds out it's FPS, she looses all interest, but if there was some sort of non-violent exploration/adventure game with graphics like that I believe there would be lot of people out there willing to play it (which Myst pretty much confirmed at one point).

I don't see the uncanny valley as being nearly as much of a risk as increasing development costs ...

With each generation since the NES development costs have increased by (roughly) 2 to 4 times primarily because of the added cost of producing graphical assets to improve visuals in the game. In most cases, sales that would have made a game a huge success 2 generations ago lose a company a lot of money today; and many of the companies who have bought into these generational jumps in graphics are bankrupt now because their sales were not unbelieveable enough.

As we move towards games that regularly cost $100 Million to produce, games will need 5 million sales to break even, and even a single mistake could bankrupt large publishers. This is a market that will most likely collapse upon itself.

yes, I think you're 100% correct here. And just another reason why this gen won't be a quantum leap over PS360 ;) BUT that's a whole different thread!

Just take a look on Barozis post below yours... There you have them cgi humans I'm talking about, and they don't look pretty!

I think they look dead, but thanks for the pics! If I'd be bothered to continue this discussion I'd post them in the OP, but I kinda hope this thread slowly dies, since no one thinks/feels the same way I do ^^

I would not be surprised if part of the whole 'push realism' thing has something to do with the Hollywood effect. "Niche" colors and graphics don't attract as much of the mainstream as realistic graphics do, cinematic effects do and perhaps it's seen as a way to open the market a little more...

Personally, my preference is with you. I liked the way developers used to push their creativity/imagination skills to the max because they weren't working with the tools they are now today. Now there doesn't seem to be as much focus. The quality is in whether all the jagged edges are smoothed out, whether it has that popular 'wow' factor. Scenery that looks so perfect that it's like everyone's favorite Windows 7 background gets old too. Lacks character.

It depends on the game though. I think some genres fit realism better than others.

Yeah. I much prefer the vibrant colors...

Is the woman in that video a robot? That's pretty impressive.