That's Innovation!

[lleihsad]

I know XCOM Apocalypse was the mutant child chained in the basement as far as most fans were concerned, but the fully destructible environments really added to that game. And it made grenades fun as hell.

Aliens were hiding in a conference room waiting to ambush you, so you had one guy blow a hole in the wall and your other guy toss some grenades in while avoiding the line of fire.

You could do that in the original XCOM, too. Aliens just don't seem to understand how poorly the walls of country farms hold up against guys with assault cannons.

Good (or at least interesting) AI is the most exciting feature a game can have, as far as I'm concerned. Bethesda's Radiant AI isn't always on the ball, but it usually fails in a way that's more "crazy" than "stupid". I love it when the computer does something I'm not expecting.

 

[Anarchemitis]

I remember when I played Sly 3, where a boss fight was good ol' fisticuffs on the wing of a giant plane over Holland [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VDT4l4Y3fOg]. I'd love to see such a fantastical oddness happen in the current generation of games.

 

[The Random One]

The problem is that most developers want their games to look as pretty as the machine can handle, because otherwise their game will look dated. That's the issue. I'm pretty sure the PS3 would be able to handle that train level without problem if the graphics were a lot worse. But then the publishers would throw a fit. Unfortunately, that will never end until the current gen graphics actually become so demanding that it's just not worth it to push them to their full effect, which I predict will happen relatively soon.