I loved Oblivion, but its far form "photo-realistic", for such graphics we still have many years to go. Maybe in 20 years photorealism in everything aspect will be possible in realtime.

Greats strides have been made in increasing realism in graphics. Remeber that the older primitive graphics were a product of tehcnology, just as modern graphics are. Contrived "styles" or non-photorealsim tend to be gimmicky and not lasting, even if visually interesting.

IN otehr words, if you want to make a cartoon game, make a cartoon game with goofy looking models, not rely on "cell_shading", because the original hand-painted cell animation was also of product of technique, the efficiency of painting frames with simple colors and no modelling of tones. Its not an end in and of itself.

Poeple often confuse technique with art. Just as digital photography is now very much accpeted over film photography, the art is not the technique or technology.

Each method, medium or technique has its unqie characters, but these characters in themselves are incedental, and the idiosyncracies of technique tend to attract only the less orginal creators.

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