First, we get absolute photo-realism. When I can play a game, use a peripheral to imprint my face on the protagonist's and it really is like looking into a mirror, THEN the graphics are perfect.
Somewhere along the way, the AI is going to be improved greatly. I've often thought about a game where you don't actually control the protagonist because the protagonist is actually a sophisticated AI. Instead, you put on a headset and talk to the character, guiding them to victory.
Also, storage is going to be revolutionized a few times to allow for the absurdly large amount of space the AI is surely going to need. Blu-ray is nice right now, but there are already some alternatives here/on their way.
Example: Moviebob made a case for a temporary return to cartridges. That is, SD cards and flash drives that are almost as large in capacity as blu-ray. Without needing the space for the optical disc drive, consoles can either be made more compact, or just use that space for the big graphics cards, as well as providing air-flow to cool the components.
Either way, the concept of the Cloud - and tech-savvy as I am, I admit to not knowing very much about the Cloud - is going to eventually be fleshed out to a point where games don't even need physical mediums, instead relying on constant connection to the Internet, or at least being able to download them to a hard drive.
Oh yeah, we still have to perfect physics engines, too. I'd be happy with a script that says "this is solid, nothing clips through it without leaving an imprint" that is applied to people and clothes, ground, walls, and so on. I'd be happy with that much, but if we can get explosions, projectiles, flames, water and such to behave as in the real world, so much the better.
In the end, I think it all comes back to motion controls. We can only find so many different ways to play games with buttons before we have people saying, "Can we control games without using buttons?" Of course, Nintendo has a bit of a head-start on that front. Kinect isn't nearly perfect, but it will be, and I for one am hugely anticipating that day. Supplement Kinect with a Wiimote or similar one-handed controller, and I'm one happy gamer.
Somewhere along the way, the AI is going to be improved greatly. I've often thought about a game where you don't actually control the protagonist because the protagonist is actually a sophisticated AI. Instead, you put on a headset and talk to the character, guiding them to victory.
Also, storage is going to be revolutionized a few times to allow for the absurdly large amount of space the AI is surely going to need. Blu-ray is nice right now, but there are already some alternatives here/on their way.
Example: Moviebob made a case for a temporary return to cartridges. That is, SD cards and flash drives that are almost as large in capacity as blu-ray. Without needing the space for the optical disc drive, consoles can either be made more compact, or just use that space for the big graphics cards, as well as providing air-flow to cool the components.
Either way, the concept of the Cloud - and tech-savvy as I am, I admit to not knowing very much about the Cloud - is going to eventually be fleshed out to a point where games don't even need physical mediums, instead relying on constant connection to the Internet, or at least being able to download them to a hard drive.
Oh yeah, we still have to perfect physics engines, too. I'd be happy with a script that says "this is solid, nothing clips through it without leaving an imprint" that is applied to people and clothes, ground, walls, and so on. I'd be happy with that much, but if we can get explosions, projectiles, flames, water and such to behave as in the real world, so much the better.
In the end, I think it all comes back to motion controls. We can only find so many different ways to play games with buttons before we have people saying, "Can we control games without using buttons?" Of course, Nintendo has a bit of a head-start on that front. Kinect isn't nearly perfect, but it will be, and I for one am hugely anticipating that day. Supplement Kinect with a Wiimote or similar one-handed controller, and I'm one happy gamer.
