The graphics aren't just stagnating but are infact getting worse in many cases over the kid gen refreshes. There is a clear shortfalling over the mid gen refreshes of last gen, I swear many games looked better on my PS4 pro.

Why can't they make use of more powerful hardware. Why are they regressing and bringing things like ailising, pop in and what not which were solved last gen? Is 4k the problem? PS4 PRO done close to 4k without these issues, without sacrificing so damn much to get to 60fps. Even 30fps quality modes seem worse. 

Is it time for them to stop trying to advance graphics and instead make the image quality the best it can be first and foremost? Should the just choose a balance between the two and get rid of options, focusing on the best the balance mode can be...

See: Astro Bot :)

It's in my games rotation right now. I don't find it graphically impressive...

There is many amazing looking games on current consoles and way better than last gen, Alan Wake 2 for example. Monster Hunter wilds looks way better than World. Hellblade 2, Wukong, Silent hill 2 remake, list goes on and on.

Graphics for the most part have plateaued. How much farther can we go into photorealism to the point video games don't look like video games anymore?

Like Next Gen Gamer above mentioned, Astro Bot is a great example of a modern day game that's not chasing photorealism, yet still looks incredible so the greater focus could be on the game itself. I would also like to devs focusing on optimization more. I don't wanna use the word lazy, but it's insane to think that unless an AI tech is used in most AAA games, then the game is going to run like crap. It's almost like devs are getting too comfortable with AI being a bandaid fix for better performance.

Kingdom Come: Deliverance 2 is a great example of the game looking great, but you don't even need any sort of AI tech to make the game run good. Even on lower end hardware.

I mean they did 5yrs ago with Demon Soul R no?

Would be nice to see MH Wilds at that level or many other games that have fallen short. Hell, KCD2 has half the budget of many of the other games and looks great with no image quality or performance set backs. I guess Demon souls will remain the best vanilla, no remaster PS5 game until GTA6 or Naugjty Dog. Perhaps Yotei will bring a significant upgrade. I'd love to know what has gone wrong. 

I'm fairly certain Yotei will be more of an asset flip rather than a true next-gen experience. Which is not bad a thing at all. Tsushima looks absolutely GORGEOUS! To the point I'm not sure how much farther they can really take the games graphics and art direction lol. 

MH Wilds was made on Capcom's quickly aging RE Engine, which has not shown the greatest results in open world games so far. But we know they're working on the REX Engine, which hopefully will make its debut here soon.

What's gone wrong is how long and how much AAA games cost in the chase of photorealism. There's a reason why over 1000 developers worked on something like TLOU Part 2, and that was a PS4 game!

Because the hardware wasn't powerful enough. Ever since the PS4 gen, hardware leaps have been dead, imo. And even the PS3 gen was underwhelming. The last time hardware was powerful enough to wow me was the Dreamcast/PS2/Xbox/Gamecube. It's been a long time.

Nope. I'm actually playing it now. Wukong looks terrible in most places. Chapter 2 looks hideous with severe image quality issues and all the cool stuff from the PC release like fur, particularly effects and what not is missing apart from some of the snow displacemnet in chapter 3 which is mildly cool, the artifacting while hidden by the blur of the staff is absolutely disgusting. Ghost of Tsushima which is a similar looking game or Sekiro on PS4 PRO both look better than WuKong. My god the shadow pop in and what not makes that game as ugly AF.

Hellblade 2 is essentially a tech demo or interactive CGI and Alan wake reuses everything multiple times so they can focus on making stuff look good but it's no better than Control on PS4 PRO, also the reason here is that the quality mode can be used cause it has a very smooth 30, these are also slow paced linear games like Hellblade. The list goes on and on yes, the PS4 PRO had graphics like games today in 2016 with less image quality disasters. 

MH Wilds does not look way better than world and it's apparently plagued with image quality issues unless you wanna play with a sickening framerate. They need to go back to focusing on one mode with a high frame rate at around 45 and stop trying to have the best of both worlds. 30% of people don't even use quality modes so it's pointless and then you make most gamers choose the inferior version. One unified goal of a balanced mode how games were made for so long and get the best of both worlds, people don't need a solid 60, they just don't want choppy 30.