Ummm all the games I mentioned are 3d space combat sims and for their time most where highly detailed mainly down to the nature of the game, you don't really have landscapes and such to deal with so all the polys are in the spaceship models which also to their nature are static mesh.
infact that's what X3 has done

Now while I've never played X3 only X2, it was the combat mechanic that let it down for me and the open endedness combined with the jump system meant you could break the plot a bit
Early on there's mission where you're given two routes to go some where, ether the short (fewer sectors) dangerous route or the longer safer route. but I'd already wandered off the main quest line built up a very small empire (half a dozen stations) so it became option 3 I'll use my top end jump engine and jump past the dangerous sectors and go their in one jump.
And
AFAIK the mechanics and gameplay style where carried over to X3 which is want put me off getting it.
I'm not one who's lured in by pretty graphics alone, the exact oppersit, heck I love minecraft and you cannot say that's got amazing graphics.
Also the graphics have to suit the game, the last thing you'd want in mario is realism.