I do agree that gameplay is king, but a counterexample would be Cyberpunk 2077 that can't meaningfully run on hardware that old. It runs really nicely on my SteamDeck however.
I think a point of it is that there are a lot of tricks that can be done to create the overall experience. What I mean is, I didn't see anything outside of the visuals side that was particularly intensive with CP2077.
For instance, when I did game coding it was always a point to not make the AI smart but make it fun. The core game loop is typically pretty simple code wise, when physics comes into it then it gets a lot more heavy but even then, I see titles like Red Faction Guerrilla on the Ps3 and you can get a glimpse at the potential. Even then, apparently that title only used 2 of the SPE's for the physics system.
Yep - the Cyberpunk graphics are quite gorgeous, but a lot of what makes it so immersive is the density of story-telling which is mainly textual - found in datashards which can be found on dead gang members etc. I imagine controlling all the random NPCs and traffic would be quite hard for a PS3 to handle, but they aren't very intelligent. The combat would be very difficult for a PS3 to pull off though without simplifying it a lot.
A game with all the elements, architecture and gameplay of cyberpunk could be made that would run on a PS3, it just wouldn't look anywhere near the same
For instance, when I did game coding it was always a point to not make the AI smart but make it fun. The core game loop is typically pretty simple code wise, when physics comes into it then it gets a lot more heavy but even then, I see titles like Red Faction Guerrilla on the Ps3 and you can get a glimpse at the potential. Even then, apparently that title only used 2 of the SPE's for the physics system.