Uncharted 3, Mass Effect 3. That's me set for games in 2012. I suspect I'lll be playing ME2 for A LOT of 2011, and not a lot else.

I would have been fine with ME2 or GOWIII winning as well,  and yes if it was up t me it would have been Heavy Rain.

The problem with the points your trying to make is that you sound like someone who's arguing from an outsiders point of view. Judging by your game collection and console of choice, I doubt you have a heavy investment in HD gaming and so I also doubt you've fully experienced all these games your trying to criticize. 

Just because a game looks fantastic, it doesn't mean it's fallen in the gameplay department. Uncharted 2 is a perfect example, it's the best looking gaming on consoles and yet it's plat forming and shooting mechanics are so refined that they near perfection and it also adds new elements into the gameplay that differentiates it from it's competitors. If you had played the game, you could probably provide me a list of new and refined gameplay elements that other Third Person Shooters are missing.

Assassins Creed 2 is another example, it's a beautiful game that masterfully recreates 15th century Italy. So basically it looks great, but it also offers the player unique and refined gameplay elements that cannot be found in any other games. It plays better than it looks, but it also looks phenomenal.

Your blanket statement that games are merely becoming the same content but repacked with a visual upgrade is false. You can probably find a few examples, but you won't find many and they also won't be among the top tier games that is usually brought up in these debates. Uncharted 2 isn't just a prettier Uncharted 1, Assassins Creed 2 isn't just a prettier Assassins Creed, God of War 3 isn't just a prettier God of War 2, MW2 isn't just a prettier MW1, Little Big Planet 2 isn't just a prettier Little Big Planet, Mass Effect 2 isn't just a prettier Mass Effect, Bayonetta isn't just a prettier DMC4 and I can go and on but hopefully you get my point. 

It also helps that every year, these developers your trying to criticize, put effort into creating new IPs and gaming experiences. Just this year we've had Bayonetta, Alan Wake, Heavy Rain, Vanquish, Super Meat Boy, Joe Danger, Limbo, Split/Second, 3D Dot Game Heroes and heaps other great new experiences and they all look fantastic.

What your doing is going along with the standard Wii fan argument that they give out when ever graphics is ever brought up in a discussion, but it's a disgusting statement to make and it's incredibly stupid. Just because a developer puts an effort into their artistic direction and overall visual presentation, it doesn't mean that they don't put that same amount of love and effort into the gameplay.

Real quick. VGA was complete shit. I Dvr'd it and watched it later JUST so I didn't have to labor through all of the BS. Even still, what little I did see of the people on stage was completely embarrassing. 

That said, I think Sony represented big time. Hey 360....where the fuck were you? Uncharted 3 was looking good  and I thought Arkham looked off the hook. I'm cool with RDR winning even though I haven't played it. By what everyone says it seems like a good game that deserves it, like UC2 last year. Also happy for LIMBO. I think someone here said that Reach didn't win anything but gamrFeed says it got best multi-player. 

I'm getting closer and closer to pulling the trigger on a PS3 though, I wanna play Killzone and Uncharted.

This is virtually impossible. That is after all the reason for my complaint. The video game industry, especially the marquee releases are growing increadibly stale.

I know that true innovation in gameplay is extrordinarily difficult and rare. I am fine with designers who work hard on refining or imporving already exsisting game mechanics. The problem with the direction of (parts of) the industry is that that is not what they are doing, instead they create generic games and try to make the experience stand out by improving the graphics or equally bad, write a 'compelling' story.

The most innovative advanced done for videogaming this generation has been in input methods rather than gameplay. Wii remote, the balance board and kinect mostly. On the gameplay front I can't think of anything outside of co-op play maturing.

It's obvious Microsoft doesn't give a flying crap anymore. All we get is a Forza 4 trailer that shows us absolutely nothing. They might as well have cut Forza 4, invited Peter Dille to host the show because it might as well have been a freaking Sony press conference. You have a 10 million lead on the PS3 in Americas, and you get completely outclassed by Sony at an awards show. Absolutely freaking predicable as usual.

Let me just be sincere by saying that I prefer the PS3 so I'm not trying to come at you from a certain angle.  So let me just say that Sony really takes care of their own.  Get a PS3.  Something about it just... deep.  Also, I do want an Xbox 360.  I just don't have time for it now.  Good luck to, ya.

I appreciate the reply and your well stated arguments. I don't think it is necessary to call my statements disgusting and increadibly stupid, but the overall post is strong so I will let that slide.

I don't expect everybody to agree with my opinion, if you think the games you mention are great value then I am happy for you. I have not played or tried them all, but the ones I have sampled fall handily into the pattern I am pointing to in my opinion.

There is no way you will get me to believe that there's even a 50/50 split in presentation vs game mechanics for the development of a typical game today. I would prefer that significantly more resources are put towards making the actual game and less on the presentation. For the record, I consider things like 'adding more weapons', 'improving NPC AI', 'more complex world maps' etc. to just be updates of the presentation.

As for my game library, the list on my profile is nowhere near complete. As for my console of choice, the points I am making are even more glaring on the Wii. That system is overrun by games where the developers don't care about the gameplay OR the graphics. I suppose that when chosing between a shitty game or a shitty and ugly game it makes sense to pick the shitty game. I want good games though.

So all you are basically saying is all current gen games suck then?   Alright well then I guess this conversation is done. If  you cant even give an example of what you are comparing too, you have no argument, just hollow words.  And those input methods arent innovative,  in fact they are also, how you say, the same thing over and over.  

Youre right bong lover, why dont we toss nathan drake a magic staff sitting on top of a chocobo while hes busy browsing through his menus trying to figure out if he should upgrade his spellpower or that ifrit summon hes been eyeing for the past 4 experience levels... im not quite sure how much different you would like each iteration in any series to be but apparently you only play one game in a franchise and forget about it.  If every game was like crackdown, then maybe your posts would be justified but if you believe that every franchise that spawns a sequel is nearly identical to its predecessor then I feel sorry for you for being so cynical and not allowing yourself the opportunity to enjoy these games and experience the myriad of gameplay changes/additions and improvements overall that most sequels tend to receive.  Ive said this before and ill say it again, I dont think Ive ever seen a straight guy complain about women only having three entrances with which to penetrate, sure there are different positions and  techniques but at the end of the day men just want to have sex.  Despite a few exceptions, most video game series fall within these parameters in order not to alienate their fanbase but are still able to create a varied enough experience that it all feels fresh and familiar at the same time.  There is absolutely no reason to scrap the core mechanics and premise if it worked so well to begin with, its actually incredible to see these games transform from iteration to iteration while keeping their identity intact.  Welcome to gaming my friend, you seem to be lost.