Hmm, add few new players, change the visuals some and you have next years sports game! There has to be cliches galore with lastest trend of gun holding video game characters and FPS as well but I really dont play them that much.

Playing Homefront reminded me of this thread and a relatively new video game cliche from this generation of consoles : The scenario goes like this : A seasoned military vet sees you and says "Hey rookie, come here! This is the most sophisticated targeting system we have in our arsenal. I need you to target those tanks/ transport vehicles/ aircraft carriers and take them out". Okay but um, isn't there anybody here more qualified to use this thing?

EVERY new FPS has some version of that, it seems.

In just about every FPS (and some 3rd person shooters) there is a moment where you lose control of your character, and a have to watch as he is overpowered/disabled....at this point

A: you have to helplessly watch as your teammate is killed

or

B: Have your teammate come save your ass..at which point they will probably say don't let it happen again..

In almost every case, you can see it coming but there is nothing you can do. This happened about every 5 minutes in the latest Medal of Honor game...I know that developers think they are doing something special but I just roll my eyes and put my controller down...which leads to a small addendum...

(quick time even in the middle of the above cinema that you did not see coming at all...results in you having to start over...I am talking to you Uncharted 1)

While every FPS has a version of this, nowhere did it seem more ridiculous than in Homefront.

That reminds me...I've really got to get rid of Homefront.

mario is gay.

Good to know Scott hasn't changed much in the last 5+ years.

TV Tropes has a ton of these:

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...ideoGameTropes

There is always a double agent in the storyline. Always.

As far as gameplay goes....fetch quests, they drive me absolutely f'n crazy.

The first bio-shock got me back into gaming again (before that, I haven't played since I was a kid) and I definitely got frustrated after running from the beginning of the level all the way to the end again just have some jerk off say "hey that's great...now go find the other 7 pieces"......I hate this more than anything in a video game.

Crackdown 1/2...
How long has it been since pacman?
And the best this "original" action game can think of is collecting orbs and power-pellets?
That game is a collection of cliches that dumb down the experience to it's most principle level. It has no originality and is laughable if you take a step back and look at how little originality it has.

Maybe, but I still thought Crackdown 1 (haven't played 2) was just fun.

And yet, oh so fun. Simple? Sure, but sometimes you don't want complexity getting in the way of having fun.

As for cliches, I'll go with the token driving level. So many games do this; they cram in just one level where you have to drive, fly, sail or something along those lines. Up until that point and for the entire rest of the game, you are on foot, but NOW you need to able to do this completely other skill set in order to advance in the game. Ugh. And to make it even better, usually the driving/flying/whatever mechanics are off or wonky because (shocker) this game wasn't designed to be a racing game, flight simulator or whatever other activity you expect us to learn.

As for Crackdown, I love those games. I'm actually just finishing up Crackdown 2. Is it simple gameplay and concepts? Sure is, but like Michael Corvin said, sometimes you just want to have fun. And blowing people up with a rocket launcher sometimes is just fun.