9. The Post-Apocalypse
More a setting than a plot, admittedly, but hasn't the post-apocalypse thing sort of played itself out by now? The Fallout games captured a massive, desolate expanse with untapped levels of imagination, such that it warranted several expansions as well as another sequel being in the works. Great though the games are, they started an aesthetic trend of earthy greens and greys that has just made this scenario pretty damn boring, to be honest. Take the quirky Rage, a similar game with a slightly different, more idiosyncratic aesthetic, yet one that still turns boring after a few hours of play; it's just the same damn, drab textures all over again, and though this might be "realistic", it just doesn't make for the most exciting gaming experience, outside of those crazy characters thrown in just to liven it up a tad. This one's difficult to fix, and that's precisely the point; we've already had a fair share of superb end-of-the-world games - how about retiring it for a while until someone comes up with a vision that's not completely derivative? To be fair, The Last of Us looks like it might be promising, but if it doesn't vary its art style a little beyond what we've seen in the demo, it might well be subject to the same criticism.