step back?? i will qiut gaming if they step back in graphics...

gameplay is fine as it is, horizontal on a sofa relaxing from a hard days work...

graphics please the eye, making that virtual reality, really close to reallity...adding to the atmosphere....to the emotions. I hate bad graphics, i cant stand watching them, the magic is lost.

I hope not. I like for each new gen to bring much better graphics than the one before that makes me actually feel like all the money I've spent on a new console has been worth it. And that is the way that it has been for me since seeing Donkey Kong for the first time in an arcade, then purchasing the awful 2600 version, I decided to level up to the Colecovision and it did have a version of Donkey Kong that did a much better version of replicating the arcade version of Donkey Kong. Then when I got the Adam version it was even better and even had parts that no Nintendo home version that I've seen has had -- the animation of Donkey Kong climbing the ladder, hopping over to the left of the screen, and then the message "How high can you go?"

Ermm, what exactly is the difference between the so-called PS4 and PS3 pics? :s Am I the only one who doesn't really see a difference..?

You know i really disliked this game when i first played it... though now i think i'd appreciate it.  Sadly my friend who i lent it too.... lent it to someone else who freaking sold it!  (Along with my PS1 and the other PS1 games i lent him....)

Seriously though... i'm fine with that level of graphics.

"I'm still happy with late PS1 era graphics... as long as i know that extra money saved on graphics was put to use on gameplay and other features"

this

I think next gen should be more about polishing the online play and nintendo going hd.... graphics on ps360 will be ugraded but not by much IMO. Nintendo will still probably give the weakest console in term of graphics but lets just hope its hd and its still as intuitive as the wii...(and has WAY BETTER online support)

Very sad to hear that story.

I agree, these graphics are prefectly fine. I am saddened that gamers no longer appreciate games like these. It is as though they are no longer good enough. SHUN the Haters!

Even FFIX looks wonderful these days. Even graphics in a game like Lunar: SSSC satisfy me.

Current gen is what is ruining it for everyone, setting expectations WAY too high.

Cheebee: You're not alone, I don't see much difference between Crazzy's pics.

OT: I couldn't care less about a graphical update next generation, I'll buy the consoles that have the games I want based on what I think looks like fun to PLAY not to watch.

First indicator that the PS3 has suffered a slight, panicking Sony fans start talking about what promise the PS4 holds.

If the industry is struggling to make economically sound the current standard of HD gaming then how do you hope there will ever be a successful standard such as this in the next five years?

It's already taking explosively massive budgets and half a decade of R&D to make games like MGS4, RE5 & FF13... Yet you expect an even more extravagant and resource hungry standard to supplant the current trends of which even true PS3 grade graphics are a scarcity alloted largely to first and second party developers with sony's pocket book at their disposal. Even then, to assume everyone would adopt this standard how many games a year do you honestly think the industry could manage?

Yet all you can see is promise of even prettier graphics, even greater eye candy, a wonderous trip into the uncanny valley. It's this kind of focus, this kind of blind ambition that has cost Sony the gaming market.

Right now the only thing we can be sure of is that talk of the PS4 is a P.R. tool to ensure consumers that the PS3 isn't the last of its kind and that its safe to purchase one. What other reason would there be for talking about it so early?

Well, we shouldn't see as dramatic of an increase in development cost in the next generation as we have seen in previous generations for a few reasons. In the big-buget HD games most of the modeling and texturing techniques that are being used in pre-rendered movies are already being used (at a lower level of quality), and the cost to make a single graphical asset is similar across formats; this means we have hit (or are close to hitting) a plateau in the quantity of work that is required to make a graphically intensive game.

Besides that, I think one of the consequences of this generation (in particular the Wii's dominance in this generation) will be that most projects will not try to take full advantage of the graphical capabilities of a system to produce the most realistic graphics. Although they will boost the model and texture detail from what they have produce for the Wii (with much better lighting and effects), I wouldn't expect to see EA (or other publishers) take games like Boom Blox or MySims and drastically improve the graphics using techniques already applied on the HD consoles.

True, but its also fair to say that anyone who decides to increase the graphical capabilities of their next console terribly far beyond that of the PS3 next generation does so at their own peril.