A game doesn't have to be a looker in order to play well. There was this game on Sega Saturn called Bulk Slash which had some really crappy graphics even by Saturn's standards (maybe not but you get the picture) and yet I was addicted to it at the time and enjoyed playing it a million times over and over again. So, unless there is a great deal of slowdown, I don't see the graphics having a great effect on the gameplay.

That said, there is nothing wrong with wanting games with superior graphical abilities. I guess, with games like MGS4 for instance, a lot of the hype is built around the graphics. You will always get games that push the envelope as long as nVidia and ATI keep coming up with new graphics cards. Someone will want to push these to their limits. Besides, certain gameplay tricks might only be possible with epic graphics.

At this stage of the next-gen life cycle, companies would of course want to produce games that maximize the capabilities of their systems in order to convince people to "jump in" or have them thinking that "this is living". As the systems become more mature, and the cost of development decreases, more quality titles will come out. It always has been the case.

But I got to wonder, when we have machines capable of producing photo-realistic visuals; what would the main 'attraction' factor be? And, would we have more than one system if they are all capable of producing such great visuals?

cg cut scenes are cool and all but there is definitely no need for them now especially on the 360 and ps3 cuz the graphics are so good already. putting in cut scenes just blows space on the disc and money for no reason. back during the 32/64bit gen the cut scenes on ff7 were awesome but they always felt weird cuz you go from crappy ps1 graphics to ridiculously gorgeous graphics in cut scenes. i much prefered the cut scenes on zelda OoT cuz the graphics were still great (for the time) and it flowed really well with the game so i felt like i was actually watching a cut scene of the game, which is what they are supposed to be. the ff7 cutscenes while awesome to watch made me feel like i was no longer in the game and it didn't really fit. so now with wii graphics and up developers should get rid of the pointless cg cutscenes