I'm not so sure, no matter how good the graphics are after a while (or the initial viewing/wow factor) you always get used to to it and process it differently to the initial viewing expereince. At least I do and peeps I talked to about this stuff.

Rememebr the first time you saw mario 64? OMG!

Or Doom 3 OMFG best looking thing ever.

Things quickly move on. Crysis engine is stunning though I agree, but the progression in gfx just gets gradually better, to the point where you'll never really reach the immersion you're on about unless they adress the way images are diplayed. I.E. headset or something drastic.

BTW
was over a mates dads today and he justarted playing FPS for the first time, RTCW, and he was gobsmacked, I checked the options, the fking thing was on vertex lighting and low picmip, so I rampd it up and he was OMG! and thinks I'm now a genius, cuz I did it through the console. Thanks q3 :)

The point is, it's all relative to what you have seen before and what you're used to.
Tomorrow I'm going to show him doom 3 and q4 and I bet he don't think RTCW looks so amazing anymore.

Remember HL2 singleplayer ;)

Interesting you say that, because what made HL 2 memorable was it's VOLUME and IMO that's what people really remember after the bells and whistles, becasue that's wht the environments gets paraphrased to after the OMFG!

The actual structure/size/layout of the levels. The fancy effects like bumps are superficial. It's probably why Farcry is still so memorable for me.
It was a believable terrain.

I didn't play Return To Castle Wolfenstein singleplayer much, but from what I saw the graphics were very nice and I still think they look very good with Anti Aliasing + 1280x960 resolution. Pretty amazing for a 2001 game.

In my opinion RTCW was the best online multiplayer game - period!. The player models were animated very well, the majority of the maps like mp_beach, mp_village, mp_chateau, mp_dam, mp_frostbite, mp_keep, mp_rocket and mp_assault were pure genius, it allowed players to train and improve their movement, aim & tricks to a level that quakers achieve.

I loved RTCW but it still looks like a game, watching the HD footage I just posted, you start to believe you're in the jungle :-). I can't wait for RTCW:2 but I doubt any game will live up to the gameplay value that was Return To Castle Wolfenstein!

btw your mates dad might like to see these movies from online matches, but the editing on them makes them pretty amazing to watch, I haven't seen any other movies from other games which come close (yet)

http://www.swertcw.com/default.php?c=download...amp;id=459

http://www.swertcw.com/default.php?c=download...mp;id=1002

http://www.swertcw.com/default.php?c=download...amp;id=758