Exactly my point, many expect the games to look better and don't reallly give a damn about game play. Take a look at the last year of FPS and RTS game releases, now honestly how many of these games had unique gaming elements? Sure many of them had amazing graphics but nothing new is being done. Distant guns may not have the fancy graphics the majority of gamers crave, but it will certainly (based on Norm Koger's past games) evolve the surface combat genre rather than just rehash what we had with Fighting Steel or the GNB series from SSI.
Second point, I just ordered 2 HPS sims to play. Take a look at them, they're the poster child of turn based grand tactical gaming. Are they pretty? Hell no! Its not the sounds/graphics I'm buying them for, it's the depth of play they provide as well as the unique topics that they cover. With each game in the series adding some new rules and features it's a "living" engine which will be fun for years to come.....
I may have shot off on a tangent here though these trends cannot continue, gameplay must come first always.
