I think that the story lines to games are still good... but its all been done before really, so its difficult for a game developer to come up with something ground breaking with a story, however graphics can be pushed... so we see the same storys coming up, but with amazing visual aspects.
I'll take interstate 76 as an example from a previous post,
That was an amazing game for the time, it had a great quirky story, and amazing graphics, I actually played that game non-stop, and can still remember the story / characters / cars.
I bought the game again, a while ago, and thankfully it wouldnt work on windows XP.... because I think to play it now, would shatter my memorys of it.
I remember the game for fantastic game play and great graphics for the time.... now however I am so used to next-gen graphics the old PS2 games seem bad... so I hate to think what I would make of Interstate 76!
I think overall you cant have a show without punch, so whilst story is important, I think the graphics are now equal.
GTA finds the right mix between the two, it comprimises some graphic content for a huge map and massive playability, but the graphics are still enough to stand up to its competitors...
personally, if the new GTA looked like gta3, I would be disapionted... so I guess Im just as much about the graphics as I am the storyline lol
*edit*
I also how the new GTA is modable, it might engorage me to start modding for games again