The graphics race is a joke that is killing the industry. Most devs who go down that path will end up being owned by EA, and it's their own fault for not liking money.

When people look back at past generations, they will remember the control revolutions and new gameplay/genre elements, not just a graphical leapfrog game. People will play Mario 64 longer than GTA4, as one introduced new gameplay elements and looked ugly while the other looked really pretty while taking them away.

The revolutions were things like the D-Pad replacing the joystick, the analog control stick replacing the D-Pad, shoulder buttons, multi-touch or analog triggers/shoulder buttons, rumble, touchscreen control, microphone control, dance pad controls, guitar controls, motion sensing, IR control, and camera control. Not X pixels, Y pixels, Z pixels. New control methods actually changed gaming. Graphics never changed anything. They just... got shinier.

People will remember Pac-Man forever, because anybody could play it. It had no buttons.
People will remember Wii Sports forever, because anybody could play it. It had no buttons.
In 50 years people will remember Doom, GoldenEye, Half-Life, CounterStrike, and Halo, and not 8237502987525 shooters, each shinier than the last.

And hopefully I'll be forgetting most of this garbage and only remember the Golden Age of Katamari, Mario Galaxy, and Portal. Fresh gameplay ideas. Everything else is trash.

::gets off soapbox, goes back to sleep::

People will plat GTA4 for a good long time because it is a well made game. M64 was new for it's time, but the only people who really play it nowadays are Nintendo fans. Come up with a number of how many people play M64 still, then we can talk. But a lot of this argument is the nostalgia factor, for which there are plenty of gamers whose eyes were open by GTA4. Additionally, GTA4 has a really great story, and if you wanna compare apples to oranges, I would have to put it out there that the story of GTA4 is a very nice gameplay element.

Let me remind you that portal and katamari both use a traditional controller, rube.

I'm not going to argue with you that graphics are killing the industry. Graphics are a great addition to have, even Nintendo understands this. The wii's graphics are bleeding edge, but they are capable of some very nice visuals. You also forget that while those games you listed all had innovative play and great gameplay elements, they were also cutting edge in graphics technology for their time.

(Except Katamari, in a way. Because KD relied on processing power. Sure the game was very boxy. That was a stylistic choice. But it was also a necessary one to allow for hundreds and thousands of items to be in the game.)

All those games were shiny.

Like I said, I'm not going to say that graphics are more important, and I don't believe it either. But there is a distinct co-dependance between graphics and gameplay.

People will plat GTA4 for a good long time because it is a well made game. M64 was new for it's time, but the only people who really play it nowadays are Nintendo fans. Come up with a number of how many people play M64 still, then we can talk. But a lot of this argument is the nostalgia factor, for which there are plenty of gamers whose eyes were open by GTA4. Additionally, GTA4 has a really great story, and if you wanna compare apples to oranges, I would have to put it out there that the story of GTA4 is a very nice gameplay element.

Let me remind you that portal and katamari both use a traditional controller, rube.

I'm not going to argue with you that graphics are killing the industry. Graphics are a great addition to have, even Nintendo understands this. The wii's graphics are bleeding edge, but they are capable of some very nice visuals. You also forget that while those games you listed all had innovative play and great gameplay elements, they were also cutting edge in graphics technology for their time.

(Except Katamari, in a way. Because KD relied on processing power. Sure the game was very boxy. That was a stylistic choice. But it was also a necessary one to allow for hundreds and thousands of items to be in the game.)

All those games were shiny.

Like I said, I'm not going to say that graphics are more important, and I don't believe it either. But there is a distinct co-dependance between graphics and gameplay.

What?

You have to be kidding me... Really?  GTA4?  That game will be long forgotten.  Mario64 was groundbreaking and is still fun to this day.

Don't you mean a N64 and not a M64?