@fortris I agree with you for the most part… but I don’t think that graphics and art direction are the same thing. I would say graphics is, how “detailed” it looks, polygon counts, lighting, reflections, shadows, framerate… etc. Art direction is how the game looks. The color palette for the game, the cinematography, character designs, environmental design, texture work, menus… basically everything you see in the game. This way you can have a game that has dated graphics, but still has excellent art direction. (A good example of this is Warcraft 3)
You can spend copious amounts of time and money developing and implementing a crazy game engine, but without some good art direction… it just falls flat. (I think Gears of War is a good example of this… sure the game is “amazing” in the level of detail… but what else makes it visually appealing? Gray characters on gray backgrounds fighting gray enemies. Compare that to say Bioshock’s enviornments and I think it’s much clearer.)