what are the game limitations now?
 

I know that characters had to be pretty low before and it seems a lot of people still follow that low of a poly count for it. I'm just wondering what are the industry standards for poly count for characters and poly counts for the scene?

I remember reading somewhere that some of the GoW chars were as much as 10 - 14 K .

Obviously the limitations change with different types of game, such as MMORPG vs. RPG.

Plus with all the with the LOD models, and other tricks. You can get away with a lot more.

10k tirs is the middle limit the standard.
Depends on the game MMORPG requires less due to lot's of details like for example WoW.
On the other hand i have a look @ diablo III models they are REALLY HYPER DUPER LOW POLY .... but i don't know how with textures and other stuffs they look very real and the isometric camera do the job. So it depends.
Why are you asking my friend are you going for a game ?

no it was purely out of curiosity, and just to know. I've never really attempted to model a character for gaming and am just gathering information and maybe I'll attempt one as my next project.