Does it have to be? It looks great already. A game's atmosphere and the overall gameplay experience are much more important than graphics will ever be. It's not just the technical things (textures, polygons) that contribute to better looking graphics, attention to detail and realistic-looking maps are just as if not more important. I couldn't care less what the 'experts' think about RO's graphics if the game gives me an immersing WWII experience.
Yeah 08/15 standard blabla.
As I've replied before(that post + the post I replied to was deleted) everybody with an IQ 80+ should know that gameplay etc. are more important, but that alone does not give anyone the right to smash any discussion about the graphical quality itself down with that cheap arguement.
Of course nobody expected RO:HoS to be the new graphical reference, that was metaphorical, I only wanted to express that I would've expected the graphical advancement from Ostfront to HoS(judging by the screens) to be bigger. But as schneidzekk said it's still WIP and that's the downside of getting media at this point of development(though I doubt that graphics will improve much). And of course I have no doubts that in terms of art style / atmosphere HoS will be top notch as we're used to by TWI games.
But at the same time we should keep in mind that HoS does not have the 'former mod' excuse anymore and will most likely be a full-price game, so whether they want or not they'll have to compete in a different league now.
Especcially when looking at
this this screenshot I have to say that it just looks kinda bland(building) and both ground textures as well as the grass doesn't really look up-to-date. There's 2008 games looking better than this and that worries me a bit since afaik TWI gets all the UE updates etc.
For any further discussion I'd suggest you take off your rose-coloured RO glasses first and stop acting like you had to defend HoS. I'll buy the game 120% and have no doubts that it will be extremely awesome, but criticism must be allowed especcially if it's valid as it is here.