Emma Frost and all the other "Skimpys" are gonna look real funny when Disney is done retouching them to fit into the palette.

The whole world wide run on Videogames is pretty much a repeat of how folks treated Books if not religious, certain types of Music, Movies and what not when they first appeared. It's always the same arguments too. Some pretty far fetched argument about those things having a bad and detrimental influence on kids, causing asocial non-conformist behavior. If history is a good teacher, and it usually isn't since we keep on repeating bullshit on an annual basis, this phenomena is going away when the next big thing appears.

Yeah, but I want to feel like there's no hope just so it feels that much better when we escape. Also, I didn't really like vs. mode, thought it was more like a conventional fps than the rest of the game. Seemed like Tremulous.

Juice up the difficulty to expert. Advanced is okay to learn the game and anything less is just there so anyone can play it as well as offer a mode for folks that simply want to blow up Zombies. Expert on the other hand, few teams reach the end of a map.

Like Kobel said, the placement of Tanks/Weapons/Witch is exactly the same for both teams. However the other ressources are still randomly placed in most situations and finding 7 healthpacks more than your enemy basically spells "Victory" for even the worst of teams. I didn't know about the CEVO Config, I basically just play it with a fixed group of people I know.
I should suggest that config since the random items have ruined a fair share of otherwise very fine rounds.

I also think it would be more fun if instead of getting infite of every weapon every time you find some, there are only a couple weapons

Oh dear! No. There is usually a pretty strong argument for everyone that thinks this is a good idea. Play one public round of Zombie Panic:Source. People are usually quickly cured from this idea.
Anyways, Killing Floor is pure arcade, it feels a lot like playing really old games in coop mode. Which isn't a bad thing but it really doesn't feel like a Zombie Game. There's just no creepy atmosphere, only carnage and fingers glued to the mousebutton. Left 4 Dead is oozing atmosphere all around. The characters constantly comment the game and sometimes even automatically engage in dialogues.
And the witch, well she can be pretty scary if you have trouble finding her (she's sometimes sitting in well hidden places. And when the tank suddenly emerges from a crowd - instant panic mode.

It's true though that Left 4 Dead is only good for a couple of plays. A lot of the atmosphere is lost once you learn to listen for sounds. The Tank doesn't come as a surprise anymore and finding the witch is easy. It gets worse the more you play as soon enough you'll know the spawnpoints for items. AI Director my ass, its just randomized between a couple of spawns.
I love playing it in Coopmode with friends though. Especially if they got the game fresh off the hook. It's fun to hear them whine after their first witch encounter or to listen to their voice "wtf? seriously... wtf just happened?" when the Tank tossed them off a building.
I don't like the Versus Mode. It's fun and really something but the random placement of items is a real funbreaker. Take two equally strong teams, one team is wiped out after about half the map, the other team takes the same kind of punishment but is lucky enough to find one bloody medpack after another. Enough to heal all damage you do. Grrrr.

It lacked the most important question of them all:
"Do Artgames need game-mechanics in them?"
1) You dun mess with teh art!
2) Only Nazis say Art ain't art!!
3) It's so fucking meta, I forgot what the question was!!!

In a way I think it would be funny if the whole Langdell mess is the outcome of a single lost e-mail.

Does seem interesting, the kinda game I can get into.
Can't play it though, it gives me some weird constant flickering (black screens mixed into everything). I'll fiddle a bit with it, perhaps it'll work in the end.

I don't know, the EA Game looks a lot more like your average Sims Game. It doesn't seem to be about the same things as your game at all. It just looks like the usual Sims Type of Game. You know, feed them, slap them, scratch them and then watch them do cutesy stuff all day. Same Gameplay as in "The Sims".
The way we know the Sims, their SimAnimals Game will be a collection of Minigames and watching a couple of Bars go up or down. To me it looks like they're actually ripping off themselves and their other games. The Setting is kinda similar but no offense, that's due to it being in Africa. I'm usually the first to bash and trash EA, its not like they don't deserve a good verbal beating but in this case I just can't see the similarities.

The whole deal might prove beneficial to you though, it might get another Africa Craze going and to some players, your game might just be the thing they're looking for. I'd use the chance for some additional Advertisement for your game once the EA Game hit the shelves and generated interest in Africa in general.

I reckon the hatred for cutscenes stems from todays short attention spans. We all know society is trimmed on fast and constant sensory stimulation to the point where a lot of people have gotten addicted to it. Cutscenes are thus interfering with one of the holiest laws of modern entertainment, they momentarily break the cycle of overstimulation and limit the sensory input for a while.
If you want to only be entertained, push buttons, see reactions, cutscenes are an immersion breaker and thus spawn hatred. I've observed several gamers during cutscenes and the way some of them simply tick out just because they can't smash their buttons for 10 seconds is downright scary - if not emberassing and insulting.
It's got something to do with using your own imagination in a game. Cutscenes give you time to think and imagine. With short attention spans, that's not something you want to be doing. Cutscenes are essentially about changing the pace for a bit, modifying the point of view. Some people cite the beginning of Devil May Cry 4 as the worst example of Cutscenes. It's essentially a boss battle and tutorial. Every now and then it switches into Cutscene Mode, showing the player the hilarious over the top action that's going on.
Critics say: Why not let us play that, the moves are in the game!
Appreciaters say: Thank you for actually letting me see those moves! Actual Gameplay is much too fast to appreciate them in detail

So according to the OP. None. All games would lose large parts of their soul and what makes them entertaining in the first place unless they didn't have any story to begin with.

Having played two Succession Games I can only say:
Backups. Plenty of them. Make them. It frequently happened that something ended up messed up. Some folks forgot they had mods installed, at other times the AI would just downright bug out and freeze. There'll be plenty of opportunities where you'll be thankful you made that backup to fall back on.

Also be prepared for at least 50% dropouts from the people signing up. Some of them lose interest along the way, after half a year of waiting for their turn, that's understandable. Others suddenly realize its actually quite a bit of work to write an entertaining journal and drop out because they don't want to take the effort. The rate of "broken" computers during a DF Succession Game is ridiculously high and conveniently timed to a day or two after someone started his turn. Funny, eh?

Enemies are indeed a tad overdone. I much prefer solving the puzzles with a friend. Except for the Hordes, I have to say Trine is the perfect game. Nothing I can argue about, it just does everything right for me.

You know, in a way this does kinda remind me about another person with similar methods. A german laywer that swarmed german websites with lawsuits and notices. He got quite popular with the Symicron Affair in which he represented the company with claims that they owned the brand "Explorer". So what the Lawyer did is send notices stating ridiculous amounts of "financial damage" to, and now take a seat, private people that used the word on their website.
So if you talked about the Internet Explorer in Germany, he was coming for you. If you linked to the Software FTP Explorer, you were on his money harassing list. He also sued a large amount of people that went up against him, trying to unmask what he is doing. He was the nightmare of the german internet and he spawned a large amount of follow up "proper" lawyers since it was a really lucrative way of earning money. And only slowly, you can finally talk about the issue because he's well known to have send loveletters from his office if you disagree with him.


Anyways, long story short:
1. Karma kicked his ass. He was sentenced to 14 months without probation for fraud.
2. Tim Langdell can get nastier still. So far he isn't openly attacking his critics. I wonder how long it will take for him to kick it up a notch.

I just thought about something...
They've got to license "The Prodigy - Space Invaders must die" as the theme, if they don't, its a completely missed opportunity. :D

I'll definitely watch it, but I must say that I much prefered the original short film over the two Trailers. The basic premise of the movie is quite interesting but I'm afraid the typical Hollywood Boom/Boom is gonna ruin it.

I wouldn't blame violence in games as the driving factor behind a lack of innovations. I personally believe that the graphics rush is the reason for it. Graphics rushed so far ahead of everything else that the rest got left behind.
To explain it with different words;
Let's say we've got a couple of good friends. They play a lot of Soccer together and in the Beginning they're all equally good. They have to come up with plans to win matches (innovate). As time passes, one player starts to become a lot better at Soccer than his buddies. It's not by much at first and the difference isn't immediately obvious. However as time goes by, he has gotten so good at soccer that his friends just can't keep up anymore. The result is that they no longer come up with plans (no more innovation) since no matter how good those plans are, that one player will be the decisive factor for the success of your team.

That's the kinda state games are in currently. It's only recently that the other areas are finally starting to be developed again. We've seen vast improvements in interactivity and production values and there are a lot of new great ideas. They're furthermore experimenting with new Input-methods. I think that in a year or two, when the graphics rush has finally calmed down, we'll finally see a lot more innovative games being made again. Or just games that are well done and well rounded.
And I firmly believe it will calm down soon since there isn't much they can do anymore. They can keep on cranking up Textureresolutions and come up with all sorts of nifty new technologies, but in the end the cost will no longer meet the payoff.

So, no it's not the violence that "killed" Videogames, it's the graphics rush that forced Videogames into a cocoon, waiting to be born again.

Flash has one major advantage, it (normally) doesn't require you to mess with a computer. You don't have to install anything, just click and play. And if you don't like a particular game you just press backspace and pick another one.
I don't think those people don't realize that there are better games out there. It's just that they don't want to go through the trouble of: downloading it, installing it, having to mess with its config, only to find out it might not be what they like. It's okay if someone points out an awesome game to them, this way they know they'll enjoy it without the risk of losing time. And Time is precious, albeit happily wasted on games.
This is also why the PC as a gaming platform is starting to be left behind by gamers. Even me, a longtime PC User sometimes glares an envious look towards the console crowd. That usually happens when yet another game forces me to mess with compatiblity settings, demands specific driver versions to be installed and throws a tantrum (dwarven style) if some random obscure runtime isn't present.
____

I recently played Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia. I really appreciated what they have done with the series, there were a lot of changes for the better. Order of Ecclesia however left a very sour taste. It's not really a bad game but it's a badly balanced one. I don't mind difficulty in itself, after all I loved Contra back in the days when I was still young enough to play it and actually win it. After all I have completed Dungeon Crawl and Rogue and that's gotta count for something when it comes to frustration tolerance and difficulty.
Still, the Difficulty in Ecclesia was completely random. It often changed from incredibly easy to brickwall hard in the matter of a room transition and I'm not talking bossfight here. This inconsistency along with a missing learning curve prevented me from getting better at the game. I died. Lots. I died so bloody often that all the dead bodies could have fueled the next Left 4 Dead Installment. It didn't help that all the "weapons" (glyphs) had really obscure names. Melio Falcis? Vol Ascia? Vol Falcis? Vol Lumiore? Seriously? The Game offers a large variety of options, weapons and spells to pick from, equipment and accesories, quests. It's sad because of the completely botched difficulty, I ended up sticking with powerful spells, spamming them nonstop and not even bothering with dodging - just toss a potion.
It wasn't until the end of the game that the game had finally decided on how hard it wanted to be. With consistent difficulty came a quick adaption process and I was finally able to appreciate all the tactical options at hand. But by then it was too late and I was about 5% from the final boss. Without a Spoiler, the three second blabla Ending made me dislike the Game even more. I'll happily go back to Dawn and Aria of Sorrow. I'll gladly steel the whip in the original Castlevania but I won't ever touch Order of Ecclesia again despite it actually being a good game with high production values - all thanks to badly balanced difficulty.

I really love Outcast. Back then just as much as today I'm simply not capable of understanding why so many people hated it. I guess it's because Outcast was so far ahead of its time. Everything about it just seemed right to me, the Atmosphere was so thick that I found myself simply wandering around and gazing at the far off temples, playing the beautiful orchestral soundtrack on full volume. I don't know, it really felt like you were on an alien planet.
And thanks to the Voxel Engine you could see into far off distances, something that was simply unseen for non Voxel Games. The game even featured full voice acting, in top quality too. The Aliens had a strange and compelling culture and just playing with open eyes was often rewarded by finding strange places and ruins. I remember wasting entire afternoons in front of the Screen trying to figure out this or that in the game. It's not like I actually played the game as intended at times, occasionally I would just scurry around landmarks and make up my own stories.

Up to this day, no other game has managed to do that. No other game has managed to catch such a strong atmosphere. Yes, it's all nostalgia by now but I really love me my outcast.

For anyone that can't quite get my fascination, you can get the Soundtrack from the official website. Just listen to the Maintheme and imagine the epic scale of this game. *wipes a tear* I want a sequel =(
http://www.outcast-thegame.com/gallery/audio.htm

My vote goes to Spore.
I'll be honest and admit that I got pretty hyped on this game. I followed the Videos over the years, soaked up the list of features. Deep down I knew they weren't going to be included but something inside of me simply wanted to believe it.
When they released the Editor as a Demo, I went ahead and preordered Spore. I had a lot of fun with the Editor, creating funny abominations and in a way the Editor is really amazing in that it allows you to create creatures and make them look possible, no matter how crazy it gets.

The Downfall came with the full game. I broke one of my principles to never buy a DRM infested product and boy, did Spore make me wish I had just ignored the game. There are mainly three reasons why Spore came to be my number one most hated game:

1. No continuity. When they first introduced it, the game seemed to be flowing. You know, from starting a small single cell to evolving into a fish and finally walking onto land. Down to hunting and starting your own tribe, developing and researching technologies on the way. You know, I wished and hoped that Spore would have played more like an interactive version of Civilization (not the turnbased stuff, mind you).
Instead, the final game was a collection of Minigames. I'm sorry, they really don't have a lot more content than your average Flashgame, perhaps even less. To make things worse, each new Minigame seemed to be entirely unaffected by the one before that. Actions just had no real impact except for some pointless bonus feat that did close to nothing.

2. Hollow Game. It was obvious to me after a bit that Spore had been created with Sims Style Expansion Spam in mind. Even worse, judging from old Trailers it seems that a lot of finished features from the game had been cut in the last minute prior to release, just to provide them in the shape of expansions.

3. Endgame Nagging. The random events. The horrors. I probably could have overlooked all of those flaws if it weren't for the random events. I'm still in total awe how this got by their QA Team without being butchered into nothingness. To those that didn't play spore:
Everyonce in a while, a random event would occur that demanded your immediate attention. They were timelimited to a couple of short minutes and always had some very negative effect for your empire if you didn't tend to them. The first problem was that there were only about 4-5 different events. The second problem was that they came far too frequently. Multiply that by the amount of different planets you have and once you've had about 100 planets, it just wouldn't stop nagging.
Driiing, driiing. Your planets ecosystem is collapsing.
Drrring. Driiing. Pirates are attacking.
Drriiig. Driiing. Our Planet is under attack.
Driiing. Driiing. Our Planet is under attack.
Driinng. Driinng. Your planets ecosystem is collapsing.
Driiing. Driiiin. Your planets ecosystem is collasping.
Driiing. Driiing. Our Planet is under attack.

Alright, I'll take care. Fly here, fly there with your single spaceship and solve all the problems. Wiping the sweat from your brow, you finally smirk. A moment of peace and Driiing silence, finally  Driiing some Driiing time to Driiing go explore Driiing all Driiing the planets. Driiing. Driiing Driiing Driiing.
AWwww Driiing fuck ofDriiingf already.

Seriously, if you solved one of those problems, five new ones were waiting for you around the corner. And its always the same 5 events. Argh. So bloody annoying. But if you didn't do them, your empire would collapse completely and your ship would get gradually weaker as a result, limiting your maximum range and opportunity for exploring. Pure downright, rage and hatred.
I gave the game to my girlfriend and then made fun of her as she got pissed by the constant Driing. We then burned the Spore CD. I'd give 95% Funrating for burning it.

So link another mod that is: a tactical shooter in a cyberpunk setting and then you can say it's not original.

So by your argument, Doom 3 has an original setting in that it pits a disgruntled Space Marine on Mars instead of Earth? Makes sense. Not. Or how about Halo is the most creative game ever  . I'm talking about gameplay and the game itself and how obvious it is where it took all of its influences from. But in this case it's not just inspiration, it's a simple copy of ideas. Usually folks provide a new twist on old ideas and thus make their own niche. Not so much in this mod.

But here, your wish is granted:



____

So if you want original mods:
Try DIPRIP, vehicular combat.
Try Sourceforts, create your own bases for your CTF Games.
Try Garrymod, uber flexible "create all" mod.
Try Pirates versus Vikings, well toned meleecombat mod.

Further Highquality Mods that take inspiration but provide new twists:
Try Insurgency, for high quality realistic gameplay.
Try Empires, bringing back the old Natural Selection feel with new toys.
Try Eternal Silence, besiege spaceships with Fighters, then take it down from the inside.

I'd mention Dystopia for its unique two world gameplay but most gave up on that mod far back in the Betas without trying the new Version 1.2.

All those mods are doing something Neotokyo doesn't. They come with new experiences, new gameplay mechanics or simply modify existing ideas until they become unique and interesting again. Neotokyo is just... well it's Counter-Strike. In itself that might not be a bad game and might interest some people (as we all know, Innovation is highly undesired in First Person Shooters).