yes I agree, it costs nothing to try, then let us know the experience :)
yes doing photorealistic things takes a lot of time, it's not just about textures and materials or a lot of polygons, the whole scene has to respect the things of reality, it means you have to put a lot of details .. small objects, everything has to look real otherwise it ruins the whole scene etc.
really a lot of time and very difficult, if you work alone you really risk going crazy .. I don't aim for photorealism, let's say that a graphic like ps3 suits me just fine..
here are some photorealistic models I made, it took at least an hour to make them and they are very simple, by the way I am also selling them at the same price as the game. lol