I see a lot of discussions around about whether games like Shadow Fall, Driveclub and Deep Down represent a leap as big as we saw from the 6th gen to the 7th. Some say it's as big and some say it's barely noticeable, so I wanted to ask the community here and see what the majority thinks.

From what you have seen, will the 8th gen (PS4 at least) bring a true generational leap in graphics?

Eh, the last "true" leap was from the 6th to 7th gen.

8th gen looking to look great but doesn't completely blow me away.

it seems the same to me. slightly higher res, slightly more enemies, better lighting, better resolution.

5th-6th gen was quite pronounced imo. and 4th to 5th, was extremely different because of the transition to mostly 3D games. This and the last one have been good incremental. That's not really a bad thing.

We'll probably have to wait for some time further into the generation to really make a good call. As developers get a better feel for the hardware and its capabilities, the quality of games rises in every generation... For now I say it is definitely a smaller leap.

It's already clear effects like lighting and physics are moving well forward though. It will be much more about finer details this generation, which will be ever more noticeable as games run in 1080p. The texture of the fabric on the enemies in that Killzone video, the lighting and reflections off of glass, the particle effects and object physics for explosions, the way fire behaves and affects lighting and shadows, minor facial features and animation details in movement. These are the things that will drive and define the next generation.

It's been said before, but the leap will be less apparent in screenshots than in actual gameplay. Animations are going to be more fluid and less "uncanny valley"-ish, lighting, reflections, and particle effects are going to be more realistic, enemies will have more complex decisions trees, environments will be more interactive, and there will dramatically less limitations on simultaneous events.

Will it be prettier, too? Sure, but to be honest, I care a lot less about that than gameplay mechanics opening up.

I guess I should give my opinion.

For me it seems to be in the same ballpark. I think the fact that no one has been able to play these games yet is what is hurting them, as we are used to CGI movies and the like, and we have seen at best YouTube videos of them.

Still, games like Deep Down and Driveclub seem way ahead for me. I think once we get our hands on a PS4 we and see it with our own eyes we will realise how much of a leap it is. Personally, I'm already happy games will be in 1080p, I have a 70" screen so that alone will make a world of difference alone. Though some games may be in 720p still to push graphics...

Plus these are only the first few games on the system, I remember the first PS3 games were quite underwhelming too. It's only when I go back to PS2 games when I realise how far we've come.

In short, I think it's a similar leap, slightly smaller at worst but still very noticeable.

Its updated yes, but more noticeable is the better frame rates I would think.

People have bad memory. They think back to the best of the PS2 and compare it to the best of today when considering how big the leap was. Well let's look back at the best PS2 game's graphics.

Now look at Call of Duty 3

Basically it's in HD. Apart from more pixels and more vertices it isn't that much better. In fact GOW 2 can be argued to actually look better if COD is scaled to the same resolution.

That's a really small jump!

Now with PS4 we don't have as large of a pixel jump but we actually have a larger graphics jump.

That's actually a huge jump! It's a bigger jump than PS2 to PS3.

It's not the size of leap from 6 to 7th gen but it's enough to keep us happy. In the end, isn't that all that matters? Happiness? All my Ms, Sony and Nintendo brothers, join hands!

it ain't all that and don't really care.

*Indie developers have been doing a marvelous job.