In response to Gen 3 hate... I agree, somewhat.
To me, Gen 3's problem was that it had all of the momentum of G/S/C behind it... it wanted to do good... but it fell short. The graphics were nice, the music was catchy, but a few things haunted my mind:
1. Being someone who didn't go online much, when I got Ruby and realized there were only 200 Pokemon in the game (and that there was no mention of the national dex), I began to get upset that nearly 200 Pokemon were cut from the game (I was 12). Also, the knowledge that Gen 3 was a "restart" for the series (being detached from Gen 1 and 2), didn't help my impression that it was a misstep. At the very least I wished that they had given you SOME hint that the pokemon were still in the game, just not obtainable... This made me think they were cutting out a lot of Pokemon's past, and replacing them with obvious "replacement" Pokemon (Lairon replaces Rhyhorn, Wurmple replaces Weedle/Caterpie, etc.)
2. Certain features from Gen 2 were cut, or severely downgraded. Case in point, the Pokegear was relegated to being the Pokenav, cutting out the phone and radio, and replacing it with contest stuff (which could have been handled by the PC or a Key Item IMO). And the biggest change was the Day and Night features and the Days of the Week features... That was the biggest problem with Gen 3 IMO...
3. Clone Pokemon. Say what you want, but personally, I don't like the Pokemon "pairs" they made to hype the double battle features. I can stand pairs like Lotad and Seedot, or Seviper and Zangoose... but Plusle and Minun, and Volbeat and Illumise (which could have just been gender forms of a singular Pokemon) irritate me as I believe we could have had a more original Pokemon to replace them (whatever happened to using Ekans and Sandshrew as pairs/version exclusives?)
4. Water... Oh god was there too much water and too many water Pokemon. Normally this wouldn't be a problem, except for the fact that suddenly the entire region was pretty much explorable before you even collected all of the badges... Which meant Pokemon couldn't be TOO strong in case an unwitting trainer strayed too far from the beaten path... Also, it's easy to get lost in a giant seas of water with no discernable landmarks... and that makes it boring for a game that involves exploring to a degree. Also, the mass amounts of water Pokemon made each of them seem less unique... Especially when most of them didn't offer new type combos or anything...
And again, the biggest problem is that the games seem to have taken a couple of steps back from it's predecessor... which is what I hope Gen 5 won't do. I hope Day and Night, Days of the Week, and Following Pokemon become staples of the series from now on...
Now as for what I've seen. The city looks more like a cave kinda place, in the sense that you go through the entrance to get to another area. So does this mean you can skirt around a city to get to the route you want to go to without running through the all the buildings (the cities may be huge)? It would make sense, especially with the Pokemon CenterMart being on the outskirts, so you can heal and run off without getting sucked into the city.
The battle scenes look great... and I can only hope they add blinking/sleeping/flinching (from being hit with an attack) sprites into the fights... I've been wanting them for awhile to add realism...
And am I the only one who noticed this... but does the image with the boy standing outside the house (which I assume is in the starting town) seem a bit... spacious? I mean, the only other house I see is in the bottom corner, and is a fair distance away. Usually the first town is crammed with 3-4 buildings... so does that mean these places are going to be huge? A huge region sounds really nice...
Also, gauging by the fact that the reference pic for the Pokemon CenterMart is based off of a regular Pokemon Center in HG/SS, I don't think it's a league Pokemon Center (also, why would they show one this early? Or when have they ever showed one for a pre-release?)
An Electric Cave sounds interesting... perhaps you can hop on the floating stones and move them around with strength to solve puzzles? All merely speculation at this point though...
I hope to seem clearer images, but I'm liking the more simple look to the male and female characters... Gen 3 and 4 were making them too complex... it was almost like having the choice to be a jock or a nerd... such limited options when we all don't fit that identity. Maybe this also hints at the possibility of getting character customization, as a lot of people (including me) have been wanting.
I do think though that the following Pokemon hasn't been seen because of spoiling Gen 5 Pokemon (plus, it's not as "hot" an upgrade as the graphics). I think the following Pokemon will be revealed when the starters are, which could be anywhere from May to July...
Nintendo and Pokemon are masters at giving us the tiniest of morsels of info and yet making us feel like we've gotten a lot... They're evil that way (but also awesome).
... And thus ends my first post on this forum... and hopefully not my last... XD
Also, in response to the basic colors being used for the names of the games, I'm kinda glad that the gens aren't trying to one up each other with "precious gems/metals/rocks"... Now let's just hope the version mascots won't be legends (though if they are, I guess it won't be too big a deal... I just would rather them not... since we're going back to the basic colors and everything). Though this does lead me to think what the third game could be... Pokemon Grey just doesn't seem like it'll sell well...
-T-