I was reading about Unreal Tournament 3 when it finally dawned on me - I really really don't care. Do we really need yet another sci-fi shooter with pumped up goons and oversized artillery? It's not a hatred of FPS or anything like that - Rainbow Six Vegas is a semi-permanent fixture in my 360 - but rather the tediously derivative setting and the assumption that sci-fi is all that matters to gamers. Halo 3 has a similar look but at least the developers Bungie seem to be offering more innovation, especially online, rather than just new ways to kill your opponents. But if there was a choice between Halo 3 and say the hugely promising Alan Wake dropping into my lap this morning there would be no competition - bring on the Wake.
So other than Unreal what other big game brands leave me cold? Final Fantasy is a good one. Huge brand and everything but honestly, life is too short. And as for Need for bloody Speed? No thanks. GTA, perhaps the biggest gaming brand of the moment, is still exciting although San Andreas was clearly a bloated step in the wrong direction. I'm not talking genre - although obviously 99% of fighting games are tedious button mashers (1% of goodness shared between Powerstone and Way of the Exploding Fist) - but big brand games. Which triple AAA's could you easily live without?
