Oh I completely agree that gameplay trumps graphics but since we're talking about how the game looks I'm bringing that up.  When we start seeing more gameplay and start talking more about gameplay I'll have absolutely no reason to bring that up.

The Pokemon Snap gameplay isn't my cup of tea but it's still not bad nonetheless and it will be interesting to see what they do with it. 

 More often than you would think. 

I agree the ground looks pretty bad, but I still feel it looks amazing despite that.  Clearly this is something we aren't going to agree on, so I will probably be taking my leave.

Twesterm you choose the best looking picture for the game and it just has some small grass to hide the horrble lack of any textures the game has.  So i went and looked for some screens to that safari wii game and this is what i found.  I also found some pictures of the newest Zelda game and that unreal game you are talking about.  This PS3 game blows these other games away in terms of textures, so i don't see how people can say they are all that bad looking, or even compare them to last gen games.

I noted that lizard also :) For comparison, here's a real life pic I took of the same kind of lizard, the little bugger is maybe around 25cm long from head to tail.

@ Griffin

My god, the ground in those pics have no texture at all.

Actually, I just chose a random with elephants. I think I spent all of a minute searching and I have no idea why you chose to put some Zelda pics in there. Are you trying to prove to me that PS3 games look better than Wii games? If so, you went through a lot of trouble for something I already knew.

Just to get things straight, I'm not trying to say the Wii game or Zelda (again, no idea why that's even there) is better looking than Afrika, I'm just trying to show what the ground should look like in Afrika.

And yes, in those pics you posted the ground is pretty boring and flat too. But still, Afrika is a PS3 game and it should be able to do anything in the original screenshot I posted. This is something that was around un Unreal Tournament 2004 and I'm sure before that and you could plaster an entire map with that kind of stuff and not really affect performance that much at all.

-edit-

And noticed you posted an Unreal 2k4 pic too without the feature I'm talking about. I forget what exactly it's called, but what I'm talking about is in the terrain options and you just pic a static mesh and paint it on the terrain. That map obviously didn't use that feature.

-edit #2-

Since you went through the trouble of showing me Zelda pics, I'll explain why they don't bother me that much (though I wasn't a huge fan of much in Twilight Princess). Look at the art style. Does it look like they're going for super realistic? Of course not.

So in that case, the low res ground actually makes sense in that world and isn't something that really destracts from the experience.

-edit #3-

Also, way to show me something from 2004 to try to prove to me that something from 2008 is awesome. 

@ Griffin

A PS3 game looks better than a Wii game? Stop the press!

@ SpartanFX

Is that lizard actually part of the game footage or the real-life footage in the trailer?

The Zelda pic was just used as a comparison to show that the texture detail does not really matter in a game. Considering Zelda TP is one of the better games ever made. And i know what your talking about regarding the Unreal game.

But back to Afrika, why do you think this grass feature would of been left out for most of the map, in parts of the video you can see it being used, around the water and around the shrubs and near some of the trees. Would the adding of a massive amount of grass to the map caused a dip in performace at all, or is it just lack of time and resources for the development team.

The game still has about 80 days until release, is the grass something that could be added in the remaining time or are they are already passed this part of development? 

the animals are looking fantastic, i can't help but agree that the environment in some portions (moreso in the 'closeup' parts) look bad in comparison.. thats not to say they are bad.. but relative to the animals, it really takes apart the realistic feel that could have been achieved

I am with twesterm on this one.

this is a game which has been created SOLELY for the purpose of good graphics. the ENTIRE gameplay is created around seeing beautiful animals and Africa. If it doesn't look amazing, then the game fails. If the point was anything but running around taking photos, then I wouldn't care, but if the game is based on me taking pictures then those pictures better be damned pretty.

Also, if getting too close to a lion, hippo, elephant, etc doesnt result in a painful death, then this game fails completely.