[Tim Brooks]

THIS is SO TRUE !! So many big companies have their developers wasting time on the most elite graphic designs... thus game content and additional features suffer.

There is a reason for this. All things being equal, the newest technology is going to sell over gameplay at retail. The major publishers can't afford not to go cutting edge, and they can't afford to do both- a game that costs several million dollars to produce won't make money. So graphics wins out over gameplay, because it sells better in traditional retail.

Just look at any development team from a major publisher, there are 4 to 6 times as many artists as there are programmers and designers.

The unfortunate consequence of this is that truly great games are overlooked, because they are not cutting edge in the graphics department - the money didin't go into a team of artists but into design and gameplay.

Now every once in a while you get both, but this is usually in a new title, where the developer already had the gameplay and design in place and the publisher didn't have to foot this bill - they concentrated their assets on the graphics. Rarley do you find sequels, that have both graphics and gameplay going for them, because the development effort was now funded with the emphasis on graphics.