Rare was once a AAA company...now reduced to creating entry titles for entry level gamers. While their games this gen have been enjoyable to most I've truly been waiting for a noteworthy Rare title that could remind me of the Rare I grew up. As far as I'm concerned Rare is dead.

so your theory is that Gears of War 3 will be better than having all 7 of those games because they're only in the 80's on meta and KZ2's campaign is meh?  If you only have money for one game that seems reasonable, otherwise it's horrible reasoning.

Why's that? Are Xbox 360 owners allergic to playing anything but exclusives? And I'm sure as hell not sweating bullets waiting for games to be announced. I've got plenty of stuff coming out this year and next year that I want to play, but please, do keep generalizing.

Surely not.   I think we all can agree that the best efforts from all three consoles have been the exclusive ones however.  If I were buying a console on January 1st 2011 and looking at the upcoming library?  The 360 would be behind  Nintendo and the PS3 in terms of desired software lineups.

Your very defensive presence throughout this thread insisting that you are perfectly fine playing what will more than likely amount to mostly average third party efforts is not generalizing.  It's calling a spade a spade.   

I know personally as a 360 owner,  I have higher hopes for the library other than Gears 3.....

*steps on soapbox*

Calling a spade a spade? If no one calls you out on it, it looks like there's a perception of truth to what you say, then if someone does, it leads me to being pointed out as defensive. Let's call a spade a spade after all, am I right? I'm getting tired of this site and its style of arguing that doesn't rely on facts, but instead labelling the opposition in an attempt to discredit them. Riddle me this if you will: who on January 1, 2011 is buying a new console and completely ignoring the past 5 years of games on these systems? I'm dying to hear the answer to this one.

So since you think I'm dishonest, I'll go ahead and list all the games I'm interested in next year:

1. Dragon Age II

2. Rage

3. Mortal Kombat

4. Dead Space 2

And I'll go ahead and throw the stuff releasing this year that I'm not buying until next year as well:

5. AC: Brotherhood

6. Fallout: New Vegas

7. Arcania: Gothic 4

8. Two Worlds II

But wait, I'm sorry. These are all "average" third party efforts. I'm sorry for not playing the games you want me to, your freaking lordship.

Now please, feel free to go ahead and talk about 360 owners crying sleepless nights, because they have no games to play or some such nonsense, or better yet, continue to "call a spade a spade" and label me as "defensive," but please stop acting like there are no games coming out for the 360 and that we're all begging and praying for games, and freaking stop implying that I'm lying just because you seem to think the 360 has no games coming next year that are anything above "average."

*picks up soapbox and walks away*

 Both the PS3 and 360 owners will be playing those games. Those games don't give the console more or less value to new consumers. The point he was trying to make was that its the exclusives which bring an educated consumer over to a particular console. If it came down to multiplat games and exclusives all on one system Sony wins 2011 by a mile. He's quite correct in saying that I called a spade a spade, because thats exactly what it is. There is no reason to be so defensive. As for 360 owners being allergic to exclusives....well no they're not as you can well see by the 360 library. In 2011 seems like Microsoft is allergic bro. Lets hope they release new info new exclusives or Sony is going to sweep up existing core gamers world wide to buy PS3's in 2011 on both a casual and core front. 

Either way, Kinect or move won't matter for a hill of beans, but regardless, MS is spending a lot of resources for kinect games instead of hardcore games that would sell a lot more.

Exclusive and 360 do not belong in the same sentence which is quite strange given the fact that Microsoft is a software based company. Point being, 90% of the so called exclusive titles can be played on the PC etc.

As a PS3/360/Wii/DS/PSP/Droid/VTech (I'm dead serious) owner, I must admit that the 360 exclusive lineup does pale in comparison to what's being announced for the PS3.  Exclusives are important but they aren't the defining characteristic of a quality console.  Games like Madden, Metal Gear, Call of Duty, and the like are incredibly important to consumers.  One could argue that these series are bigger than even the exclusives that push each company's respective consoles to their technical limit, if we're talking about your average consumer.  The games named earlier in this thread are going to be quality software, no doubt.  Some of them may be in contention for game of the year 2011.  Who's to say?  But I assure you, unless you are Nintendo, the dozens and dozens of third party games are what the consumer will be looking at.  These will (mostly) be available for both consoles.

Exclusives give a console its identity--this is true.  But there are other intangibles.  Hardware reliability, online, controllers, and other features (Motion Control, Blu-Ray, downloadable content) can have a huge influence on consumer perception, too.  These days, it's not just the games (even though, as a gamer, games are what's most important) that makes a console unique. 

I have to agree with the OP.  It looks like its going to be slim pickings for the 360 in 2011, as far as exclusive experiences are concerned.  The PS3 offers quite a few gems--I'll be picking up inFamous 2 and Last Gaurdian, for sure!  But in the end, it all comes down to what the consumer values most.  That's something each and every buyer will decide for themselves.

2011 is the year of the 3DS, btw.  I'm just saying.

Just remember that exact same thing was said about the Xbox 360's 2010 lineup back in 2009 and it looks like the system has at least three games in the running for GOTY,  two of which can only be played on Xbox 360 in 2010 and the other with the 360 having the superior console version.