Im pretty sure it happened because of Direct X 9. Before Direct X 9 games were generally innovative. After Direct X 9 and onto 10 and 11 the games just started becoming clones of one another. Obviously it was Microsofts fault, they should have never released a new Direct X version!

MAFKKA said:
Engine or no engine. The game dosen't have a story, unlike Gears, U2 etc.

Oh wow. It doesn't have a story. Holy shit, I never realized I was playing online shooters for the story. Here I thought it was the gameplay that kept me coming back. I don't know what I was thinking enjoying Counter Strike, Tribes, and Serious Sam which clearly deserve to be ridiculed for having no story to speak of!

Its just L4D1 with new skins.

Saying it's L4D1 with new skins shows me you obviously have little experience with L4D1 beyond watching gameplay videos on youtube and maybe a few runs with bots on normal difficulty. I could go over all the changes that make this a very worthy successor to the original, but I fear it will just be lost with you and other detractors who in all likeliness simply don't like the kind of gameplay L4D offers.

Its not like you get the feeling of finding out how the zombies became zombies or whatnot in L4D2. Its just zombies, and you shoot them. In the first one you shot them with guns, now you can smack em around a bit aswell in a new scenery.

There are hints dropped throughout the 5 campaigns about how people became zombies from scrawls on the wall, to dialogue and things you encounter. It never overtly states what caused it, rather letting the player draw their own conclusions. Your gross oversimplication here "it's just zombies and you shoot them" shows me you have no friends to play with or maybe just don't like cooperating. Who knows.

3 out of the new special infected were cut from the first game. So its more weapons, skins and a much less "scary" enviorment for 60 bucks. Im such an idiot for playing L4D2. But atleast im not that mentaly retarded to be spending 60 bucks on it.

No. You're wrong. Much less scray enviroments? How about you play the game and get back to me about scariness? Trudging through swamps in the rain, edging across skyscraper ledges, navigating a minefield of alarmed cars in addition to cresendos that prevent some of the annoying camping from the first. Much more recorded audio for each survivor, more contextual sayings. A well-done Realism mode, Versus mode that's much tougher for survivors than the first, with a beefed up AI director controlling shortcuts, weather, pacing... everything. I could go on and on.

Yes.. obviously... There is absolutely no other explanation!

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Spin it however you want, consoles have reduced gaming to a repetition of games most of which shouldn't even be considered passable.

Or possibly it was due to developers getting bored of releasing games using the same old keyboard + mouse interface. They found the innovation of consoles with different analogue stick placements refreshing and thats why console games are FAR more innovative than PC only games.

Indeed, I miss the days when innovation was the only way to get above a 7. It seems only like yesterday when "Diablo Clones" or in fact any "X Clones" were graded down just because they copied and didnt innovate. Now it seems you can copy the same thing over and over and still make millions and garner tons of praise....

You just can't innovat as much on a console as you can on the PC. The hardware is locked and your control are limited, how can anyone expect innovatoin in such an environment? Add the lower standards of console gamers and you end up with a recipe of repeating games and milking from developers who don't deserve the money they are making.