[Damien_Azreal]

Personally, judging from the leaked media/screens and such... I think the game looks perfectly fine and would hold up pretty well in today's market. True, it's not going to be competing with the likes of Gears of War 3, Alan Wake or Killzone 3...
But it's still a very nice looking game.

BUT... graphics, art direction and design.... they are nice. But to me, it's all about the gameplay. Look at Raven's most recent release with Singularity.
It is not the best looking shooter out there, hell... even Wolfenstein (which they release a couple years earlier) looks better at times.
But, the games gameplay is amazingly fun and completely makes up for any lack in the visuals.

DNF could look like the 2001 build, be released in a month or so... and I'd still probably love it. Because it's the gameplay that looks so amazing.