It all depends on what one expected, i think the UE5 demo and some of the hype around forums had some expecting this 'true generational jump'.
In no way was the PS5 presentation doing that true gen jump, the jump in hardware performance just isn't enough for that, tech has slowed down. SSD ofcourse made the biggest leap over HDD in terms of speeds, but it still doesn't enable better rendering performance, and that's what eurogamer, DF etc are saying.
Sony did show more of a leap then MS, that's not the hardwares fault though, MS seems to cater more around cross-gen and 'xbox game platform'. No doubt MS's platforms will get better looking games down the line too.
Maybe, most likely that's not the case though. But i can agree that MS should have shown something that shows the advantage regarding the SSD, they have talked alot about it, but not shown yet. I'm sure they can do something equally impressive, but they didn't focus on that in their last show.
Watch their video on the PS5 show.
They note that GT7 isn't a huge leap over GT Sport, and honestly i agree. The only big differences are ray tracing and some of the things you mention, but a true huge leap? It's the same graphics in pure rasterization to me. That's also because GTS already looks so great.
If i remember correctly, DF was impressed by ratchet's presentation, it showcases fast loading not possible on current gen and high fidelity. There's also ray tracing going on.
But faster loading of worlds and subtle ray tracing etc perhaps don't make for a true generational leap like we had in the past. Theres where the problem lies, some were claiming the biggest leap ever thanks to SSD and powerfull CPU's. What we get is the smallest leap ever, atleast so far, on launch. Moore's law had this one.
And again, i do agree that MS seems to not improve at all for their earlier games, Sony atleast tried to (and partially succeeded) in bringing a big leap. You can't do both, MS's strategy is very intresting i think, they have this rolling generation, where everyone can easily join the eco system, without forcing to a new dedicated platform. Games and graphics will most likely improve over time, Infinite could look like a true next gen game in 2 to 3 years down the line, when hardware has moved more and more into the higher end spectrum for both PC and Xbox systems. More of a service then Sony's.
MS has choosen for a dynamic platform, which evolves slowly over time, abit like the PC. This meas that devs are free to do as they want.
Sony is more traditional, the advantage of that is that their studios 'have to' design with only the newest system in mind, delivering that graphical upgrade that pleases people.
They have totally different strategies, which one is best, no idea, i think theres a market for both. PC gaming is still the biggest aside from mobile, and there it's normal with 'rolling generations', where graphics improve slowly over time, instead of everything at once like from PS4 to PS5.
In these times where jumps arent that great anymore, i think it's not such a bad time for MS to take this strategy, see from GT Sport to GT7, or from Spiderman to the gameplay squence of Miles Morales, or from HZD to forbidden west, we didnt get any gameplay there, but even then, the graphics aren't that much of a jump, feels more like a mid gen upgrade imo. And again, that's what EG and DF etc mean.
Some thought star citizen graphics would be baseline..... or even some of the NV/UE demos from the past years. Hell, some said the biggest jump since 2d to 3d ,)
