those arent photorealistic graphics

how do YOU call this then ? ... a painting? ... come on, I think you havent played this game... ,may it be the attention to minute details, but hey, that is what makes the difference...

real-time ray tracing.... what do you think how they calculate the shadows in the game or even the ballistic curve of a bullet?

in the user.ltx you can unable global illumination wich makes every lightsource emitt 16 photons wich are able to bounce off one time and carrying "energy" info regarding illumination to the next surface...

IT depends on your meaning of photorealistic. In the general sense of the word, if you were to compare a photo of chernobyl with the game itself you're notice stark similarities between the two, and by all acoutns you could call it "photo realistic" because of the attention to detail. However, the game tiself looks far from real life.Vandalvideo

okay, I can agree... but if I would not use the word photo realistic, I WOULD say it looks like real life... thats my point

that doesnt even look close to photo realistic.  wiiforever25

... :D ... yeah, right...

this game is photorealistic.... thats a real achievment and the game was looking like this since 2005.... but if everyone thinkd thegraphics are just on par with HL2 its a bit unfair... and I am not posting that much :D

and the rest...

full size pictures....

Yeah, its true and I didnt made it an easy choice for myself but playing stalker with everything maxed is almost unreal... its like you are in a movie, everything you see is so lifelike, crystal clear, modeled, colored and illuminated like the real world... this beats everything else. You cant stop playing. Every sub-zone is in fact an amazing tactical playground, you can use all kinds of tactics and exploring the graphical marvelousness of the environment is always rewarded....

the story is great, profounding and far reaching... the game combines the best tactical shooting, has great underground labs wich make doom3 and F.E.A.R. look like your everyday tv-show and its absolutly non-linear...

the best is, its so amazing and gorgeous to look at it will be worth to play even in a year or two, when hardware is cheap enough that everyone can run it with everything maxed...

yeah, I mean crossplatform, its the graphicaly most advanced game released till now... thats true only from an artisticaly point of view, but the game renders lifelike urban as well as natural environments, indoor and outdoor...

check the pics, the textures never become pixelated, even if you press your face as closly at them as possible, instead a more detailed texture becomes visible at close range... and all surfaces are covered with normal/parallax mapping...

it runs in permanent HDR in DX9 render modes... it has the most advanced shadow casting engine made till now...

its a far beyond HL2 and does a better job than Gears of War,but let the technical facts aside and lets feast on some gorgeous pics, its not a matter of taste... you just have to agree... graphicaly most advanced

...you have to agree...

The reason the Wii is selling three times as much as any other console right now isn't because the fact that it has "killer app". It's because of a new way to play and be creative and that is a fact.

playing games was never be concidered an creative act itself, making a game is creativity...

plaing a video game is "cheap" replacment of creativity cause you are not creative at all but just running through a labyrinth like a lap rat trying to get behind the mechanics the maker of the game has developed to pose you a "problem"...  and giving you a Wii-mote is just step further to replace this with no one reconginzing it...

besides that, dancing-games dont make you look like you are dancing... you probably know that

the wii mote is like an interactive-laserpointer, while this is not new, no one has tryed to make use of it for videogaming... but the best use for it is as sort of interactive laserpionter... anything else is just the involvment of some physical activities... wich was always a matter of tase ...

but they will have to utilize the controller and make it intuitive,

I dont see the need for them to do so, cause the Wii isnt forcing them to do so. The Wii is inexpensive and fenzy, so there will be alot of devices around, wich makes it perfect for mainstream-distribution...

see, videogaming equipment was always expensive in regards to its "use" when compared to other entertainment-devices,... so the development was always around the visual aspects of the game and to improve them, so the only way to make videogames mass-apealing was always to bring the visuals to somethng lifelike... when videogames started to look 3dimensinal and lifelike they become really mass entertaining... so the only reason to buy a new very expensive gamingconsole was its promise to enhance the visuals and the lifelikeness of the games ...

so since games are selling there plattforms, the developers where always in need to make games that fulliy utilize the capabilites of the enhanced hardware ... to make a visible reason for the customer for purchaising a new hardware

so the Wii would be perfect and everything you say, if they had put in some experimetal or newly developed stuff of hardware ... and if they had made GoW for Wii, or MGS or something on par with next-gen graphics... then they would been forced to utilize the wii-mote and make it intuitive....

but as it is, they just need to port older games, tak on some motion sensing to make a good deal... and as much as I like DS games they just dont support that gaming I am talking about, thats just the B-market of gaming... puzzles, reaction and such games.... like the new Wario, its a shame it isnt for Wii, isnt it

games like Phoenix Wright, Yoshi's Island, and Elite Beat Agents sell really good. Thus having devs make good games similar to these to have their games sell.

see, this totaly supports my point that N is feeding the mainstream-core of the industry... those games are okay, I guess, but they nowhere near "an expression of creativity and intellect"...