More realistic physics that better reflect the real world will add a great deal more to the gameplay and immersion of games than the cosmetic face lifts of recent releases. There are many games that model real world physics already... flight sims, driving sims etc but these are very specific situation. I think what will emerge next will be a more unified environmental model where the 'materials' and 'objects' that makes up the model exhibits real world properties. A mattress floats - become water logged - then sinks. As the environment becomes more detailed and realistic then this will open up the potential for the AI softbots to interact with the environment in increasingly intelligent ways. In addition an apple would have food value - a chair would have a rest value - a mattress that isn't waterlogged would have a sleep value and so on. If you stop a softbot in a corridor and ask him what he is doing then he should be able to give you an intelligent response like "I'm going to stop by the vending machine and get myself a drink. I'll rest up for a while in the lounge than it's back to guard duty." It's still going to feel wrong unless the AI receives a major push too.