I think a few have been trying to add to the genre. Fallout 3 I thought put some good RPG elements in with FPS gameplay. A few games are kinda doing that now. Use to your only evolvement during the game was to get bigger guns. Which is fun too, I loved the Serious Sam games for that type of style. More open gameplay areas/options Kinda GTAlite style, like FarCry2 and S.T.A.L.K.E.R. I found fun as well. Maybe it's just me, but I still find a lot of fun in even if the genre's improvements as a whole are slight.

A brief history to give you some perspective:

FPS was a PC exclusive for a very long time, it wasn't until we started to get lots of interesting things happen in FPS that consoles started to be able to port the original FPSs like Doom and Wolfenstein 3D.  At around that time we started to get games like Thief, Rainbow 6, the SWAT series, Tribes, Battlefield, Unreal Tournament and many of us were playing leagues and tons and tons of Counter Strike.  FPS was creating sub genres.

In recent years though consoles have become so powerful that they begun having their own FPS, the first time that this blew the console market away was Halo with the release of the X-Box, an originally PC game bought out by Microsoft to sell the console.  A slightly above average FPS for any PC player but not very original.  It blew the lamen gamer away as they had never played anything like it before.  Since then there has been an almost rebirth of FPS because of the console owners going nuts over this genre they never really appreciated before.  And then within the last 3-4 years I would say consoles are evolving to online much more than they were before mostly because of FPS and how much fun it is online.  Much like FPS drove PC owners in to buying 56k modems to play Quake online.

So basically where FPS feel dumbed down it's because they are, they are going back in time (not technically, they do look absolutely great these days) and the only evolved FPS games are now a very niche market on the PC because it has very small returns compared to creating an FPS that can be sold on console platforms also.

Where is the next Planetstrike?  What happened to Thief?  What happened to the tactical shooter market such as Rainbow 6 and SWAT 3/4 (the biggest loss for PC gamers in my opinion)?  Rainbow 6 turned in to an on the rails shooter with cover system....wow.... SWAT 4 went to another on the rails console FPS.  It's all to cater for these new FPS hungry crowds who don't pirate games (as much) and buy games in massive quantities.

We still do have original FPS on PC it's just a lot closer to the original Quake formula, Left 4 Dead is basically a generic FPS with an awesome tagged on team play element.  STALKER is probably one of the most original these days in that it's much more open ended.

Operation Flashpoint presented me with the light, the future of the 'fps' in 2001. Arma 2 is keeping that vision alive. (Games like the utter fail Dragon Rising don't help the image).

The console dumbed down (but still fun) gameplay FPSes like COD4 is the mainstream, you NEVER find the best in the main stream - so why look for it there?

Indeed like explained the console market has dumbed down FPS in general. But on the PC market a few remarkable improvements have been made by Fallout 3 witch is an FPS and RPG mix with a close end.

But their is also STALKER with is open ended for the newest release call of prypiate. I would realy recomend that one.

But their might be hope for consoles as well with the comming of DUST 514 developed by CCP, producer fot eh MMORPG EVE-ONLINE. DUST 514 is said that it will connect with eve online and will have lasting results as people will battle for control fo planets so that Eve players can own them. It will in part become a new mechanic of Eve onlien where Dust 514 players will represent the army division of Eve's fleet Division. It will be Awesoem if they manage to pull it off like intended.

Youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/user/CCPGAMES#p/c/FC7B99173F4DC31F/0/jzVjggarRns

I woudl personaly recomend the Stalker games. The vanila single player is good. But it gets even betetr with mods since the mods thend to enhance the strogn points fo the game such as the survivor aspect of it.

I have looked at UT3, as there is an awesome mod for it called "Angels Fall First:Planetstorm", that I am simply dying to try out (on the ground, in space, actually boarding an enemy capital ship and fighting inside it combat *drools*).

The main problem I really have with Stalker is the what I gather of the rating- M for blood and gore. I am really not into blood and gore (but sadly many people today want to see the grotesque and sickening elements of warfare in the games they play. Both disgusting and pitiable). I am not saying that some blood/gore is bad, but the over-the-top nature of some games with the intensity of violence done to an enemy player is just disgusting and sickening (not physically for me).

Probably the best point I can think of- my dad was watching TV one day, and saw the CoD:MW2 commercial. He remarked that he and several friends of his had talked about it and had said that one could get PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) from playing MW2, as it is so real looking (he is a US Marine who has done 2 tours in Iraq. So yes, he would know). Of course, the fact that MW2 also sucks for PC (and that I am not going to go and buy a '360 or PS3 to play it) also deters me from buying MW2.

UT3 and Stalker I could probably put up with as- UT3 has a variety of extremely interesting mods for it, and Stalker looks EXTREMELY interesting to me.

And now I must say something that many might disagree with- EA got it right (to a point) with the Battlefield series. Well, MOST of the series. Bad Company&BC2 I can make no comment on, having never played them. But the others I can rather soundly say are engaging, entertaining, fun games. For those unfamiliar with the Battlefield series, the premise of the game is this- capturing "control points". Generally, whichever team controls the highest # of CPs will win as the other teams "tickets", which are a pool of collective "lives" for that team, will "bleed" away. Tickets can also be depleted by killing enemy soldiers.

BF2142 also introduced the "Titan" gamemode, which places the "Titan" a massive aerial fortress that must be destroyed by the opposing team for said team to win (both teams have a Titan). This game mode has no tickets, but the core idea is the same- control missile silos to bombard an enemy Titan's shields, then either hold most/all silos to pound the Titan into proverbial scrap metal, or board the enemy Titan, destroying it from within, or even both.

One of the other things I can think of that keeps an FPS game going is what has helped keep Sins going for many players- the modding community. The Battlefield 1942 community stayed afloat FOREVER (technically speaking, as it is now rather nonexistant), thanks to modders and mods. The same thing happened with BF:Vietnam (probably my favorite Battlefield title). Battlefield 2 has been kept afloat mostly because EA rather botched things up with 2142 (though 2142 is still an excellent title, except for evil DRM for the most part), and because of the HUGE modding community around BF2. One would think modders would move to a newer game correct? In the case of BF2, there are probably 2-3 times as many mods as for BF2142.

Granted, I don't think that "point&shoot everything" gameplay is BAD necessarily (as that is effectively all Nexuiz, my favorite open-source FPS, is), as sometimes I do get the want to just kill/destroy everything in my path. But more often, when I want to blow stuff up, I want to play a game that has at least SOME tactical considerations that I can take into account.

hmm. Interesting. Is the amount of gore controllable by a setting? Even if it isn't, you do definitely have my interest in the game piqued a bit more.

The FPS genre will continue to move forward.  Companies are still producing new engines (like Valve's Source), and as long as they do that companies won't have to invest a lot of man hours to get a decent game.  A company like valve produces a new engine and makes a star example of what that engine can do.  It doesn't have to do much more than break even, and the licensing will turn a profit.  And in Valve's case, every game they make gets more people to download Steam, which means more people shopping in their retail environment.  

We've seen some BIG, BIG advancement in the past couple years in FPS.  Left 4 Dead's director lets the game design an unpredictable experience each time.  Crysis is graphically amazing, and has a great single-player element (yeah, that was only two years ago folks).

And gameplay isn't just going the way of the chainsaw either.   Mirror's edge has a really, really cool, almost surreal roof-top jumping experience.  Portal's unique puzzle mechanism is incredible.

As for the single player campaign, what about Bioshock?

If you don't look past Call of Duty 67 and Left 4 Dead, its easy to say that the entire fps genre only focuses on multiplayer focused games - and its just as easy to be wrong.

There of those of us that don't care for online gaming at all.  I don't have the time/skill to keep up with the twitch reflex 12 year olds, aimbot/hackers/cheaters and people that have nothing better to do than to play the game 8+ hours a day.  I know you don't have to always win to have fun, but it is NOT fun to lose EVERY SINGLE TIME.  It gets very old quick.  Plus, I've played enough online shooters to have me set for the rest of my life.  Despite all of the new game modes and tweaks, they really don't change that much.

I can't believe we are discussing FPS games and there has been barely a mention about the fantastic BioShock, which is my favorite FPS of all time.  To me it represents a nearly perfect single player FPS.  The campaign was pretty long too.

I do agree that it is tough to pay $50 for a short campaign, but I am willing to do it if it is a good one.  To be honest, BioShock was the first FPS that I paid full price for in years.

Bioshock was good..just that it was System Shock2, with 1940s architecture, underwater, with some mutant powers instead of psi powers, and lots of small options to make it realistic (like weapon maintance) cut out to ease the gameplay

Not to mention Bioshock was super duper easy compared to System Shock 2, where even in easy, it was some chalenge...and again, the paper cut good/evil barimeter is (like games like Fable and whatever) too meh and didn't add anything in the game....if only TWO DIFFRENT ENDING!! OH LA LA

No one mentionned Vietcong Or Call of Juarez as well

My only interest in FPS games, at this point, are co-op online games like L4D and SWAT 4. I would love a SWAT 5. I wish they would do something with that series. I don't think SWAT was ever a dumbed down experience, and presented a lot more than just shoot anything that moved.

Definitely agree with you on that one.  Frankly there hasn't been a major improvement to the FPS formula since Duke Nukem 3D introduced the jump button.  A friend of mine raves about Team Fortress 2 and Left4Dead, but I watched him play them and didn't really have an urge to try either one.  The last FPS I actually seriously played was Painkiller, and even then I was pretty bored of it halfway through.

And I'm not sure anyone IS going to try anything new with FPS.  They seem to have become the new staple game of consoles.  It's like the 'Doom-clone' era PC experienced years ago, only it's brand new to this generation of kids.

Stalker is, by far, my favorite FPS. If Deus Ex and Stalker had a baby, I would make a small large shrine in it's glory, but never play, for am I not holy enough. 

The Stalker game is unlike most other FPS's, in that it adds an X factor that is missing from all others. It has horror elements, dynamic worlds that aren't ever quite the same, and such a satisfying feeling of accomplishment when you take out your first camp of people in a firefight without needing your entire stash of medkits and bandages to keep from bleeding to death. Which by the way, is the most annoying way to die in the game. You won the fight, you collected all of the loot, you're on your way home to heal and rest, but you're slowly dying from your injuries and need divine intervention to rescue you. It doesn't.