I think the point that UnknownTarget is trying to make is that games were never intended to be art. They were created for fun, for enjoyment, for blowing **** up. Not to be works of art. So that should be the core of the game, the ability to be fun, not to impress people with awesome graphics.
These days though, the devs place a lot of emphasis on pretty graphics that sometimes they lose track that games are just supposed to be fun. There's no point in having scenery porn if your gameplay feels as weak as a training laser.
Having a good story, excellent graphics and beautiful music is just the icing on the cake. So saying that you don't believe a game will be able to impress with graphics is like saying you think the Prometheus is useless cause it doesn't shoot cool looking bolts. It's important but you're focussing on the wrong thing. At the end of the day, gameplay should be what matters the most, though it does boil down to personal preference.
... Okay, that went into a slight rant.