I like what you're saying. It's anti-hype that will help to balance the coverage a bit, lowering expectations. Fortunately, I don't think I have read or heard much of the "Halo killer" moniker as with the first title in the series. It's too late for that. How about "Gears killer"?

Too bed we couldn't have mastered graphics back in the days of Commander Keen and Super Mario World when the actual gameplay was less formulaic.

I believe the opposite to what you said is true,there are TOO many Anime realtime strategy games and not enough realistic 1st and 3rd person shooters,It seems like NAMCO BANDAI single handedly froze the genre in it's current form 10 years ago and nobody seems to care! I want MORE distructable environments in games,MORE realistic textures,MORE dynamic lighting,ect.That's why I shelled out the big bucks for the PS3!I want to be amazed!I believe it can be done,the power is there,it just needs to be tapped.This satisfaction with mediocrity needs to be stopped!