Its going to be a fun Generation. Graphic Whores are in for a lot of disappointments. Companies that bothered to push well beyond what Gen 7 consoles could do already showed what Gen 8 is gonna be like to some degree.
CDProjeckt RED will deliver enhanced visuals with the final renderer and they will be fantastic but some people are gonna be pretty disappointed with Gen 8.
Sorry but you will eat a crow in near future. Tflop power aside it's consoles now are holding back graphics even on PC.
Even Crysis 3 which is vastly different on PC still is holded back by console design. The Witcher also was hold back (doors) by consoles. Already we know some techniques like megatextures will be excelent for new gen and may boom.
Just the same as this Gen. No one knew that we would see games like The Last of Us at this gen start.
As of TW2. Old renderer screenshots are completely not representative of what you will see when they will finalize their new renderer.
You can as well said already Crysis GFX is representative of Crysis 3 graphic it would be valid comparison to TW2/TW3 renderer change. Which is obviously lie.
Cloth simulation,
Water simulation,
Volumetric smoke/clouds simulation
"New skin shader" (subsurface ? )
New render should really improve how game will look.