you're probably going to have to shell out some serious dough for a new console or a hefty PC upgrade. No one ever said graphical fidelity came cheap.
Nonsense.
Assuming the technology continues it's current trendline, in ten years, a PC with enough punch to create photorealistic graphics will be within the budget of most gamers. And if not, fifteen years at the outside. Even now, the problem isn't really end-user technology. The problem is that developing photorealistic images of living creatures, particularly humans, is
very hard to do from a programming perspective.
Our brains are very hard to fool when it comes to things such as posture, movement, and (especially) facial expressions. So, it takes a great deal of effort and expertise to make models that will fool our brains, which also means a great deal of expense. I doubt there will be many companies that will be willing to dedicate resources to that one area. BioWare or iD, maybe.
I'm hoping that once we get to the point where we can produce photorealistic images, we'll get over our collective obsession with the idea. When photography was introduced, it didn't put painters out of business, but gave them the freedom to explore all kinds of new visual styles and techniques. We're already seeing some of that kind of experimentation, particularly with indie developers. Not always, though... would TF2 have been as much fun if they'd gone with realistic character models instead of the highly-stylized ones they chose instead?
