What do I mean by this? Well if you think way back, probably around 2004-2005, there were screenshots floating about of Oblivion and everybody was blown away by these. You would look at these screenshots and you would think "thats not real, it can't be" and then when the game got demoed for the first time at E3 and the videos started to leak out, people were blown away by how good the game looked.

Oblivion finally came out and it lived up to everyones expectations graphically (soft shadows aside) and I think we all remember the feeling we got for the first time when we turned on the console/PC. I remember even watching a 12 hour marathon on gamespot and just so anxious to finally get the game.

Skyrim gets announced we are all excited, super excited in fact but I think one can argue (and thats what I am here to do) that it didn't give us that same feeling that Oblivion did many years ago, that sense of graphical prowess and true next generation delivery. I remember booting up Skyrim and thinking "oh yes this is good" but I know for certain that it did not give me that same 'oblivion sensation'. I was not as eager to watch the marathons that were taking place on game sites all over the internet, and even though I remember thinking alot about the game up until release, I never really did reach that level of excitement that Oblivion gave us.

Now, a new generation is here and there are even more powerful consoles on offer. Do you think we will experience this again with the Elders Scrolls, do you think bethesda will tease us with some screenshots that will just blow us away like Oblivion, or do you think it has reach the point of diminishing returns and they can't really get much better now?

Let me know your thoughts : )

Yes I think it will happen again. Oblivion was a big step up in graphics, whereas Skyrim was designed for the same platform, a platform near end of life.

I don't care. I've stopped paying much attention to graphics. Bethesda can leave the graphics the way it is for TES VI. I want interesting gameplay.

yes, i think that games will (edit: can) advance to a point where there is not only a leap in graphics but it will be more consistent.

however, like pseron said, i too care about interesting gameplay. in fact, that ALWAYS comes first for me.

and, imo, superduperunbelievable graphics means unimpressive gameplay.

so, i look at it more like: will the console technology ever allow super-duper graphics AND super-duper gameplay?

We have probably reached the point of diminishing returns. Photo-realism is the next step and I don't think that should be in a game really (it's more palatable to kill a toon than it is to kill a person). Stock, Skyrim looks great, and the mods (enb's, texture/mesh overhauls) that are out that change the look and feel of the game are more personal preference than something that is needed to make the game look better. Most of the Texture mods do what they do at the expense of processing overhead, and not all systems can handle the graphics load that some of those mods put on the system (enbs and texture mods)

So, we are at a point where the graphics can improve, but the gains are not going to be huge, or that noticeable, unless they make the game a bear to run. Quite frankly that is a good thing, as now game designers can focus on what is really important, game play, plot and dialog.

Just like Hollywood with CGI, pretty graphics are a crutch applied to a less than stellar product. We end up with movies that have some dialog in between set pieces of ever more "spectacular" explosions. Take those scenes away, and almost any action movie falls flat. Some games have even gone down this route. The latest Bioshock is one game that is really pretty, but underneath the glitz and DX11 shaders, it's a shallow game with a contrived plot.

In an era where true "3D" games were all but impossible aside from simple "line drawings" outlining the possible movement squares, Daggerfall created a pseudo-3D world using animated "sprites". The serious lack of detail and single-color slab-sided scenery was "normal" back then, and the freedom of a huge open world with "acceptable" graphics was exceptional. Most of the other games at the time were a top-down or angled view with sprite-based characters moving across a flat backdrop, at best.

A game generation later, Morrowind gave us an amazing first-person perspective, with a (smaller) true 3-D game world and detailed "textures" on everything. Detail was leaps and bounds above DF. The characters were a bit disjointed, and the faces somewhat cartoonish, but they had individual moving arms, legs, heads, etc. The view distance was relatively short, and everything more than a few dozen yards away obscured by haze, because that's about all that most computers or consoles could handle.

Oblivion took the graphics a fairly decent step further in resolution, and added moving grass and tree branches, as well as better animations. It provided a long-range scenic view of the landscape, for breath-taking views of the landscape. The faces were adjustable, even if they did look a bit blobby and grotesque.

Skyrim is apparently another noticable step up, but from the few glimpses I've seen, isn't a "fundamental jump" in quality, just a better job at doing what OB did.

It seems as if (1) the limitations of the current generation of consoles is putting a damper on further advancement, and (2) the amount of time, effort, and money to make further advances is a lot greater for even small improvements. A new generation of consoles may solve the first issue, but the latter one will require a LOT more resources to provide any noticeable improvement. The likely result will be that better graphics will come at the direct expense of variety and flexibility, since the studios can only afford to do an ever-smaller number of objects to meet the ever-higher quality standards needed.

I don't think we will. I feel the graphics is taking smaller and smaller steps and will soon come to a halt. Then other things will improve instead such as AI and world size.

I'm sure a next gen TES will differ a lot than Skyrim in terms of looks. ya know since its next gen. but to be honest the graphics are the least thing that excites me about a new game. i'm more interested in bigger landmass, new implanted gameplay mechanics. more solid story. etc.

I'm sure the graphics of TES VI will blow away Skyrim, just because of the new consoles and what they can do.

However, it will take more than that to get me excited about TES.

Not sure about anyone else, but I can bet I will be amazed by the first look at TES VI. Yes, next gen hardware, etc... but it's not only that, it's also the change of setting. Given the 4-5 years development cycle for a TES game, I tend to play a lot the latest installment, so I get very familiar with its artistic style and colors. When I first saw http://cdn4.steampowered.com/v/gfx/apps/22330/0000009066.1920x1080.jpg?t=1381855957, or http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/1041/full-res/1122063851.jpg the excitement was great not necessarily because it looked photorealistic (goodness knows Oblivion's faces holy [censored] lol) but mostly because it looked so different from Morrowind's style, so colorful and vibrant. Same with Skyrim, it looked majestic and different. So next, give me pictures of a lush magical swamp or half a temple burried in sands and I'll be amazed again, be it more or less photorealistic.