I like the way Bethesda has been doing it, with TES and Fallout. not cartoony like Borderlands, and not "realistic" like Crysis.

I think the opposite tends to be true. Look at DA2. Awful art style that will certainly appear dated in a few years. I like the look of Skyrim. They seem to be channeling Frazetta.

I'd say that the only art style in computer games that bugs me is that plastic-y, "uncanny valley", non-real "realism" that you get in games like the initial release of Everquest 2 - where everything looks like badly rendered plastic dolls.

That's actually not what the uncanny valley is. It's when it is really really close to realism, but it's just off, so it makes you uncomfortable. It'd be like if your friend or family member was secretly replaced with an identical imposter who was a great actor, but sometimes failed to nail the mannerisms exactly, and you have this weird felling in the back of your mind that there's somethin wrong.

I'm quite fine with what I've seen of the game's art style, it looks realistic enough where realism is applicable, but in terms of the actual design of themes, it seems like Bethesda still remembered that they were making a fantasy game, there's a degree of fantasy feel to the armor, archetecture, creatures and such, but like the characters, effects and such that I've seen look believable. The end result is that it feels like your in a fantasy world, but it still looks like what that world might look like if it were real, and this is usually how I prefer my Medieval European fantasy to be. Now, there are some games that I feel benefit from a more stylized appearance, however, for the Elder Scrolls, I still prefer the game to look as realistic in terms of style as the technology available permits it (Though not necessarily design, so I'm perfectly happy to keep the ornate fantasy armors, for example.) In the end, developers should do what best conveys the feel they're going for with the game, as long as they do that, I won't complain unless the feel they're going for doesn't appeal to me to begin with. It just so happens that for the Elder Scrolls, I think a less stylized appearance fits best.

Now, it is true that the graphics of more photorealistic games seem to age quicker, which I think comes from two things, first, stylized graphics don't need such advanced technology to look good. Whereas realism can be easily ruined by graphics that aren't up to the best of standards, stylized graphics leave more to the imagination, therefore, once they start to get dated, it doesn't hurt them as much, further, even once a game's graphics are no longer impressive from a technical standpoint, I can usually still appreciate its design for what it is. Crysis may look impressive now, but I doubt people will praise its graphics in ten years, creative enough art design doesn't necessarily need the best graphics to look good. Still, I don't think developers should worry too much about that, because time has proven that if a game is good enough, people will continue playing it even once it's graphics start to become dated, and if the game is highly moddable, people can create graphics mods for it to help it look better if they're no longer satisfied with the graphics. Just look at Morrowind and Oblivion, both were games that were considered graphically impressive in their time, but technology moves on, however, with the help of graphics mods, I can play both games now and have them look much better than they did upon release. In short, even if the graphics start to look rather dated in a few years, I don't think that will stop people from enjoying Skyrim, if Bethesda succeeds in creating a game with as much longevity as we've come to expect from the Elder Scrolls.

I'm quite fine with what I've seen of the game's art style, it looks realistic enough where realism is applicable, but in terms of the actual design of themes, it seems like Bethesda still remembered that they were making a fantasy game, there's a degree of fantasy feel to the armor, archetecture, creatures and such, but like the characters, effects and such that I've seen look believable. The end result is that it feels like your in a fantasy world, but it still looks like what that world might look like if it were real, and this is usually how I prefer my Medieval European fantasy to be. Now, there are some games that I feel benefit from a more stylized appearance, however, for the Elder Scrolls, I still prefer the game to look as realistic in terms of style as the technology available permits it (Though not necessarily design, so I'm perfectly happy to keep the ornate fantasy armors, for example.) In the end, developers should do what best conveys the feel they're going for with the game, as long as they do that, I won't complain unless the feel they're going for doesn't appeal to me to begin with. It just so happens that for the Elder Scrolls, I think a less stylized appearance fits best.

Now, it is true that the graphics of more photorealistic games seem to age quicker, which I think comes from two things, first, stylized graphics don't need such advanced technology to look good. Whereas realism can be easily ruined by graphics that aren't up to the best of standards, stylized graphics leave more to the imagination, therefore, once they start to get dated, it doesn't hurt them as much, further, even once a game's graphics are no longer impressive from a technical standpoint, I can usually still appreciate its design for what it is. Crysis may look impressive now, but I doubt people will praise its graphics in ten years, creative enough art design doesn't necessarily need the best graphics to look good. Still, I don't think developers should worry too much about that, because time has proven that if a game is good enough, people will continue playing it even once it's graphics start to become dated, and if the game is highly moddable, people can create graphics mods for it to help it look better if they're no longer satisfied with the graphics. Just look at Morrowind and Oblivion, both were games that were considered graphically impressive in their time, but technology moves on, however, with the help of graphics mods, I can play both games now and have them look much better than they did upon release. In short, even if the graphics start to look rather dated in a few years, I don't think that will stop people from enjoying Skyrim, if Bethesda succeeds in creating a game with as much longevity as we've come to expect from the Elder Scrolls.