"I might be a sucker. But at least I'm not the sucker that's writing off a lot of great games simply because, on the surface, they don't appear to be innovative. Not every game can be an Animal Crossing or a Katamari Damacy. And really, I wouldn't want them to be. Why? Because there's still something to be said for a standard action game that actually manages to get everything right. Once game developers have absolutely mastered the existing genres, then I think we'll be ready for some more new ones.

Then again, who says that the existing genres haven't already been mastered? Sure, we could up the polygon count and make the AI smarter, pixel-shade it, and present it in 5.1 surround, but will all this technological terror really improve that tingle up my spine the first time I have one of those really great moments with a game? No, not really. But because video games are intrinsically a technologically driven form of entertainment, there is this silent agreement between publishers, manufacturers, and consumers that we're all constantly looking for bigger, better, faster. I can objectively say that Half-Life 2 looks and sounds better than the original Half-Life, but was the experience itself, at least for me, qualifiedly improved? No, not really." [more]