...remember seeing that on every Origin game back in the early 90s. Back then, we really had to use our imagination to immerse ourselves in the games made from pixels (Ultima7, Wing Comm 2, etc). These days its getting to a point in graphical quality that we no longer have to imagine worlds from pixels.

Im currently playing Arcania Gothic 4, which im really enjoying, please dont hurt me Gothic fans. I was doing a quest along a cliff over looking the ocean waves crashing against the beach rocks below in an overcast moonlit night and i just stopped for a few minutes just to enjoy the view, much like i would do in real life. For a few minutes, i was completely immersed in the game world and i did not even have to use my imagination. The games graphics literally transported me into another world. PC games have come a very long way and i look forward to what the next 10 or 20 years will bring. These are wonderful times for PC gamers.

Quite agree - good design and art / mechanics etc will always be the core priority of enjoying games, but quality graphics to bolster it really add to the immersion levels and make it more effortless.
Though as to the next 10-20 years, some of the potential leaps in technology equally intrigue and disturb me.

Minecraft has "primitive" graphics but people still play it in huge numbers.
There's a future for indie games.

I think the having the capability to make games with very high quality, realistic, graphics is great. At the same time there is a danger of over emphasizing their importance. Some games benefit from having the latest shiny graphics, but there are others that would not benefit, and perhaps would even lose something, by using such a style.

I think it's great that technology is allowing designers to make games more graphically realistic where appropriate, but am also glad that we seem to be getting to a point where more people realize that doing so isn't always necessary.

While I don't think that excellent graphics are the end all be all of gameplay, but decent visuals do a lot to enhance immersion. What art style works really does depends on the game and what environment and atmosphere one is trying to create.

I second dae6, for some games less is more while for others more is more.

The industry's drive to create more and more realistic graphics is waning. Some are still doing it (LA Noire), but most are going for artistic style instead (Borderlands). I'd argue this is a good thing. The closer something is to reality, the more we notice the differences, ie, immersion killer. I'm happy to be immersed in artificial reality.

Although I sincerely hope they come out with that fighting game that's in the latest Star Trek film. That'd be cool :) Is that Morrowind Overhaul 3.0? If so, I'm reinstalling.

It's an interesting issue. I do believe that the importance of the technical (as opposed to artistic) quality of graphics decreases drastically after a couple of hours of gaming. Certainly, that's my experience - and it does cut both ways. I remember replaying the original Half-Life two years ago, and after the initial shock at how dated it looked, I quickly became accustomed to it all. jackalKnight's comment about Minecraft is right on the money, too.
Conversely, spectacular graphics tend to loose all relevance after a certain phase of... familiarization.

There are certain notable exceptions, though. The Elder Scrolls games are an example, as are, to a lesser degree, Mass Effect and Crysis. In these cases, the sense of awe never left me.

I've got even prettier prettier. And it's Morrowind Overhaul 2.0, 3.0 gets even better than that :-P

Tempted to reinstall myself now

It doesn't really decrease, you just get used to it. I know for sure that I have enjoyed Black Mesa Source more than the original Half-Life, even tho it's pretty much a carbon copy with increased graphical fidelity. Worse graphics just never add to the enjoyment of the game in any way, shape or form, but they can detract from it if you happen to get that 'wow' effect every time you launch the game.

Sure, that's my point. After that phase of getting used to the quality of the graphics, which in my experience lasts about 1 to 3 hours, I simply stop noticing it.

Totally depends on the genre for me. Most games that takes place in the first person or over the shoulder third person are hard for me to feel immersed in with poor graphics. Rare exceptions to that are first person dungeon crawlers, Morrowind, and a couple of other games like Deus Ex. But for the most part, I'm not going to go back and play Duke Nukem 3D, Doom or Wolfenstein 3D, regardless of how awesome they were (I played them all at release and loved them). I believe there are actually ways to play Duke and Doom with update graphics though I'm not positive. But for Wolfenstein I don't know about any complete graphical overhauls.

When it comes to games like Alpha Centauri or even Baldur's Gate, I could care less about the graphics. Graphics just don't matter to me one way or the other in those cases. I don't prefer Civ V over Civ III because Civ V uses a newer graphics engine. And I can still play and enjoy old games like Galaga '88 without flashy graphics. I probably wouldn't play Galaga at all if they remade it with fancy graphics. I prefer it with the old, simple look.

On a side note, after seeing those comparison shots of Morrowind, I think it's about time for a revisit. I haven't played it in years and that overhaul mod looks promising.

I think Art Style is more important than graphics to be honest.
Even games with the best graphics seem generic after a while if their art style is boring.

As for graphics don't matter, I used to think that until I realized I'll probably never play the original Halo again after Anniversary and now I want more old games to be remade :)

Some classic game designers had to be creative back in the day without good graphics, Heroes of Might and Magic comes to mind. I'd rather the art style of the first 2 than the 4th one any day. I even like Might and Magic 8's art style. I think it's unique even though I've heard it's the exact same as M&M 7, which I never played. Morrowind music is now playing full blast in my head, thanks. I agree there are some proposed gaming futures which I do not want. The future is motion-controlled for example...

HOMM is an interesting case, since the first two have a real "storybook" look to them. The best way to do a similar effect in modern graphics would be cell shading rather than the realistic style Ubi goes for...

Motion controlled WOULD be a sucky future if most Kinect stuff is anything to go by. I'd rather all gaming be touchscreen tablets than that! (note: I'm not saying this is ideal either, just that touchscreen seems less gimmicky than Kinect)