Blue Monday has a nice interview with Kevin Johnstone graphics artist for Unreal2.
"Unreal 2 is going to make your jaw drop. I"ve never been as excited about the possibilities of a game I"ve worked on before as I am about U2. In U1 you can be impressed by much of the games environments and characters but you"re still sure they are not real. In U2 you can be fooled, as the detail level is much, much higher."