Paid DLC being used to inflate prices.
In the times of Steam and holiday sales, if you are patient it isn't so bad. But I miss the proper full game package, and some optional expansion packs later on. Now it's more like building a house from Lego bricks where developers just put some of them into the game. And after a year or more you can finally have a whole game. There are exclusions of course. Rockstar did great when making the The Lost and Damned and Ballad of Gay Tony. Of course they had the whole game world already done, but content/hours wise it was money well spent. The most shitty thing is probably super easy/trainer DLC's plus some overpowered weapons that aren't in vanilla version.
General lack of content.
The graphics are nice, voice acting is cool and everything seems good at the beginning. But after the first hour of playing we find out there is no more new things to learn, new enemies to see. A good example of "lack of content" is Alan Wake. Using the flashlight on enemies turns into boring routine and only the story can keep the player awakened. Of course we have the whole popamole of new generation where you just use one mechanic through the whole playing time with some minor adjustments. The only exception was Binary Domain.
Too much budget spent on marketing.
Marketing will always be the first in the AAA chain of command. The graphics and voice acting are just a consequence of it. Besides, I doubt anyone would object to a game that is visually impressive, has fluid animations and delivers the plot through a good actors. Not every game needs it, but some of them really gain from it. Marketing just inflates the budget of the game, when you see the behemots like Bethesda and sums they've put into the promotion of Skyrim, instead of acquiring more variable cast for the voice acting, you know something is wrong.
Too many cutscenes.
In a game with good plot, you need some exposure that isn't interactive. You just sit and listen to the conversation or watch the consequences of your previous actions. But when it dominates, I feel like a child with ADD when someone takes my toys away from me.
Dumbing down difficulty for crappy players/idiots.
Dumbing down complexity for crappy players/idiots.
Forced tutorials for everything.
The inseperable trio of decline. When you play an AAA game you always get the whole package. The normal is new easy, the complexity (even with all those juicy DLC content) is shallow. Tutorials were a thing in the past, but now in every FPS you need to learn how to move/shoot and probably breath if you need to learn so simple stuff. Older games were putting the player from the start into hostile territory, and learn how to effectively play, increasing the variety of enemies and difficulty. Later on, we had Half Life with optional Hazard Course. Now we just need to sit through the first hour of the game to finally start the real deal.
Complexity is bad too. If you put too much variables onto the player they will be like children in the fog. It goes hand in hand with the difficulty part. You just show everything what you can do in the tutorial and play it. No more surprises, and when something new occurs, you'll have a nice tutorial about it. It's guaranteed. A friendly reminder that some people were able not to now that there is a bullet time in first Max Payne.
My favourite IP is dead or raped.
There was a time, when there was annoucement of a sequel of a good series I would feel anticipation. But right now I just want to left oldies where they belong, in the past. But there is brand recognition, and marketing guys are working day and night to show us the new King's Quest, an old school Dragon's Lair clone.
Preorder bonuses.
What's preordering ?
Fucking DRM.
Erase the Securom, Starforce, Denuvo and all that shit from the existence. The pirates will crack it, the legal buyers will be shafted one way or another. It's unproductive, and sometimes it even causes the instability of the game.
Human factor.
Blaming the fat cat's in suits and their little helpers is always fine and dandy. But what is important, that many people, even those who have tasted the early generation of games, are willingly buying into these things mentioned in the poll. Shallow gameplay combined with trainer DLC's is their day 1 purchase. They love it. And when the title seems to be unoptimized piece of coding they vehemently cry on the internet. But after some time, when some fixes were made, they change completely their minds. It's like watching a women who has a period. I don't think there will be a big influx of gamers who know what they are doing with their money by giving them to the fat cats. I'm not naive to believe that most of them will not change their minds. They are happy with their games, always ready to criticize, and easily forget about it. Blaming the horse armor is easy, but there is always someone who is giving it the green light.
Ok, back to Call of Booty XXX.