Here's a thought. For the general consumer base of games, buy less shooters and buy more games in other genres. When there's not as much motivation(less sales) for developing in a particular genre, it's less likely it is that games that are uninspired or better yet cash-ins on the craze will be made in such sucession.

That's why it wouldn't be fair for a person to call all shooters generic if they haven't played any of the ones on PC.

despite what control improvements 'war' shooters have gone through over the years, from medal of honor to battlefield to call of duty, they're all generic. pc or not.

You need RE5

minor changes, mate. in the end, it's the same brown background, the same gameplay, the same enemies, the same guns, the same theme.

they just add little tweaks here and there that don't really influence the gameplay much. that's still generic.

When it comes to balance, minor changes can make big differences.

As for gameplay, it really sounds like you just don't wanna like shooters. Still not sure whether you've played the big FPS's on PC, but they gameplay is much different than what you'd see on a console. PC still is the home of shooters. If you take the time to search some mods that are available for some games and get a taste of some of the insane creations that come from the talented modders out there, it's extremely hard to call them "generic".

HL2's Gmod is huge. When I was still gaming on my PC (back when I was able to stand my computer's shitty performance), I'd spend hours playin online with others. It could easily be described as an FPS version of LBP. People were able to make some crazy stuff on there.

If you haven't tried out the quality stuff, it's easy to look at all the shooters out there and call them "generic". It's what happens when you purposely allow yourself to be close-minded. Whenever I think of the FF series (or most other JRPG's), I still images of pre-teen japanese boys holding oversized block swords and scenes that look like they came straight out of a low-budget hentai. I'm not saying I hate those games - I think it's very possible that I'd like that if I actually tried some out, but the only console I own is a PS3. I do plan on buying the latest FF when it comes out though.

Well on the purest sense...Almost all games are generic. I mean the way you are talking you are breaking it down to it's simplest common denominator. Shooting games, you shoot and kill people. That's the point.

That's like complaining about racing games having too much 'racing' in them. Or Puzzle games having too many puzzles. Or Platformers requiring too much 'jumping'.


Story, Graphics, Weaponry, Multi-Player, Overall Realism really drive the genre. As for the basic formula? That's never going to change too much.

well,when 8m people buy CODWAW...i think you're going to see some more.....people like war games alot......it would seem....

a good story/character,humour...kind of help......but that goes for most games......

i'm not the biggest FPS player but there is no doubt picking up a good shooter every once in a while sure hits the spot...

Well i do understand the Op , however i havent really played many FPS's recently due to the fact that i just really do not like the genre. I also never tend to play any games online so whenever ive played an FPS in the past i was trying single player mainly.
Recenyl vve played both CoD4 and Halo3 on the 360 ( both single and multi player)(and Cod 5 on the Wii) and they were decent but i just cant get exited over FPS games. It's just not very fun for me, all that running around with a gun gets boring, plus i really suck at FPS's, so thats another reason why i dislike them.

When i was younger, i did spend a lot of time playing Medal Of Honor: Allied Assault, Operation Flashpoint and Unreal Tournament on my PC, since we played that in the hood.

You are right... I'm playing KZ2 online but I barely touched the campaign (it is a COD 4 in space... nothing more...and I don't talk about the "story"). Halo 3 lives thanks to a lot of different playlists, vehicules... still pretty cool...

But that is the problem with the genre, when you get too much originality, you loose the mass market audience : The best example for me is Team Fortress II.

Pushing the FPS genre is something too risky for the moment... when the sales of COD45 will decrease... they will start to think about it again.

I'm too much in FPS this gen... so when I started playing Fable 2 and LBP... it was very refreshing

NB: Special mention to the Gears of War series who inovated quite well.