Depends on the game. If done right anything can be great, its all about the developers creativity.

I like them. Mmmmmm ... Dead Space :-]

The same could be said about japanese "sci-fi". Tooooooo cliche.

Just ignore Pullus.  He's a Japanophile that probably hasn't played most of the great western Sci-Fi games available (most are for PC).

As a side note, I feel like playing Homeworld now.

im far from japanophile actually...(cause i am asian? =s) , i like SOME Sci-Fi games but most of them never mentioned.

and instead people praise stuff like Star Trek , StarGate , Halo. those are just too cliche.

Go play Star Wars Battlefront II. Now.

While you do shoot humans (for the most part; also droids, and sometimes Ewoks, Wookies, Jawas and Tuskans), you are using only energy weapons, your pistol has infinite ammo, and from time to time, you control a Jedi. Unrealistic, but AWESOME.

Come to think of it, what he was describing did sound like Ratchet and Clank. In that case, I disagree wholeheartedly with the OP.

Star Trek was cliche about a decade and a half ago when they were pumping out multiple games in the franchise a year that ranged from TBS (BotF), RTS (Armada), Sim (Academy) and FPS (whatever it was called).  They haven't been doing that so much in recent years.  I wouldn't mind another Armada or BotF though; those were pretty fun.

I'm a big fan of the older Sci-Fi games like StarLancer, FreeLancer, Tachyon: The Fringe, Mechwarrior, Homeworld, Warzone, Gradius, and more. 

^^

Try and pick up Freespace 2 if you liked Starlancer, Freelancer, etc.

It is the pinacle of space combat coupled with an interesting story and with great missions.

It also puts you in the middle of the biggest space battles you can imagine.

I've been replaying it currently. It's great when you utilize visual enhancements brought on by the Freespace Sourcecode Project. It really brings new life to the look of this ten year old game.