Mario 3D World probably cheats by having simplistic graphics and non open world gameplay but, as an owner of everything except the PS4 and Xbox One, I can honestly say the image I see on screen pleases my eye more than anything I've seen on a seventh gen console. They're comparable but 3D World just pops. Maybe it's the art style. Now, it definitely doesn't look as good as stuff I've seen on PS4 and The One but on a non-technical level, on my LED HDTV, the game has wowed me.

I think that, like Wind Waker, 3D World will be one of those games that looks fantastic for years to come. It's a shame we Wii U owners are competing in graphics wars against last gen consoles but, unlike the Wii vs Xbox/Gamecube, I can already see the jump in quality. I hate to admit that the Wii never showed me a leap over Starfox Adventures, Rogue Leader, Riddick, and Bad Fur Day.

I already went insane when Leo-J said Uncharted 2007 looked better than every Xbox 360 game ever released and backed up his claim with bullshots.  I'm not going through that again!  Now, while Uncharted 3, God of War 3, Tomb Raider, and a few others still look fantastic, they just dont have the resolution and textures and framerate that 3D World has.  You can't tell it from most screenshots but when you look closely at Mario, there's details you didn't notice.  Totally different art styles buy 3D World, and many 8th gen games I assume, are going to look worse in screenshots than running on hardware.  Meanwhile 7th gen games will look better than they actually are.

It all is a matter of opinion but, running on my TV with all consoles connected, I see the improvement.  Games like X will show this even more with their realistic art style. Right now, it's like we're comparing a Pixar movie to James Cameron's Avatar.

I'd say Mario Galaxy was a step above any of those games graphically.

That is just because you don't get overcharged by companies there as much as we are here =] (its starting to get better, if you disregard PS4k).

Well outside shooters that I won't discuss the upper hand of Halo/Gears (its a thing of taste and coming first), I believe Sony have equal or better exclusives in the genres than MS... let's see how things will pan out this gen.

The whole diminishing returns thing came up last gen as well. It's true to an extent but there will be a significant improvement nearing the end of the gen. Remember when The Elder Scrolls IV was considered beautiful?

I was just posting these to make the point that PS4/One/Wii U games are going to look a lot better than what we've seen right now.

But yeah I sort of agree, the more stylised a game is the better it holds up, but I think that stops being true with games like Uncharted 3, Metro and even Resistance 3 to an extent because although those games are going for a more realistic look than say 3D world, they look just about good enough technically and are stylised enough through filters/colour distortion and whatever that they still look pretty compared to a heavily modded crysis or whatever Crysis 6 will look like. The games that are going for raw realism and don't have the attention to detail and artistry behind them like Uncharted 3 does (the environments in uncharted 3 are just insane, and still look beautiful after seeing this or even this) won't hold up as well... games like COD, Battlefield, Gran Turismo etc.

Gran turismo will hold... GT5 will keep looking pretty, it may just look outdated by newer GTs, the same with Marios and UCs... they are already at the point were they are pretty enough that they don't need to have lot of upgrade, but they will have and won't smoke the previous games.

Agree. But while cod 2 is ugly today, back in the day was not. I'm much more interested in developers putting time and effort working the graphics on an average engine, than to spend all their time and money creating a new one just for pretty textures and lightning effects. But since most people are graphics whores, graphics will sell games and consoles.

I saw Mike playing SM3dW in Cinemassacre.com yeasterday and it is really pretty indeed, for what I have seem so far, the Xbox One and Ps4 are very capable of impress, saw Killzone Shadowfall yesterday on a store and it right away doesn´t look like something the PS3 could show.

1.) that's a cutscene

2.) No more color in that game than Gears 1

3.) Lighting is no better than gears 1

4.) in that game everything is staged and has no replayability