Lack of ambition?
Both are great sequels that gave their fans everything they love about Gears and Borderlands while still improving upon the original formula.

Pure Nonsense. This is just shit from haters that are not capable of putting something good together but always cry.

I would love to assemble a team of all those crying babies and make them develop a game and see what horseshit they will deliver.

Even tho gears 5 was praised for its new editions to gameplay...

I got exactly what I wanted from Borderlands 3. More but bigger, wilder, and more variety. A few technical issues aside it's a fantastic game. Don't expect sequels to reinvent the wheel. If you want new gameplay support new IPs.

GoW5 is very ambitious tf you talking about? It brought new mechanics into the game that previous games didn’t have. The open area in its self is ambitious for a game that never featured levels like that before. Weather or not you likes it is irrelevant it’s a very ambitious game with TONS of game modes and value for the dollar. Gtfo...

I will also say that A.I. in games is just as dumb as it was 15-20 years ago. I really havent seen ANY improvements since the OG Halo (and I'll give F.E.A.R. a nod) on A.I. in games. Most games these days do feel like uninspired cash grabs and that chase to duplicate games that are already successful.

What ambition are people looking for then?

There are a ton of changes in Borderlands and Gears.

I think it's more that people are looking for certain games to be more like other games rather than maintain their uniqueness.

But it's also a double edged sword.

Assassin's Creed, for example, does what they did in Odyssey and people complained that they changed it. Now these other companies keep their base but improve in other areas and they're not ambitious enough?

Typical of third party studios and MS first party studios. They can and do make good games, but it often just feels like more of the same.

All are guilty of this. The question is who’s going to make the change

BL3 wasn’t looking to re-invent the wheel. They gave fans what they wanted, another Borderlands game. It’s a fantastic game with tons to do. Why mess with what works. After the lack of success with Battleborne, which imo is a fun game, they needed to put out solid release. I wish Oscar Mike was in this game though. Another great Gearbox character that needs some love.

gears 5 and borderlands 3 are just what you expect, i wouldnt want gears 5 into a witcher 3 open world game with ufos and built in car games etc they are what they are and ppl enjoy them

Because they all wanna play it safe like the movie industry. Someone like Kojima is doing something different and half the people are shitting on it.

CoD, Mario, Forza, Halo, Crackdown, all most every UBI and EA game...actually this can be said with most games. Mediocrity is the actual norm.

Would have been cool to see a FPS Gears game

All we ask for these days is to have a functioning game. Often we don't even have that.

The fans asked for more Borderlands and got a bigger Borderlands.

Fans asked for a Gears 5 with a better story and better enemies ....and the Coalition did that and more.

I don't fricking get it...

People just how the word “ambition” and “innovation” around like nonsense andndont even know what the hell it means or what they as talking about or what they even want just like the guy who wrote this article I’d love to see him go make his own game.

Agreed. Sad to see how little these games challenge their genres / the series. I know people like Borderlands 3 because its more of the same but for me thats a cop out. the humour is stuck in 2008 and yeah the gunplay is fun but the story is lacking hard.

I think Borderlands 3 did it right.

Maybe they should make a new group for games like these and call them "AA"

Gamers buy the Same stale Games Over and Over, so why would AAA developers switch up a proven formula? However, IMHO Gears is one of those franchises that doesn't need to change up that much because the gameplay has remained addicting over the years.

Apart from the obvious few gems this gen it's mostly been 360.5 or ps3.5.
I've been disappointed overall, it's been battle royal for the last 3 years, AI is still ps2 era even though we've had great AI from F. E. A.R so can be done.
This gen has just been barely 4k with same gameplay mechanics as all last gen games.

G5 is a masterpiece while B3 is a dud.

Literally 6 posts on the same page here on n4g about Legend of Zelda : Link's Awakening. Yet, these 2 of the "lack of ambition"? At least these games took effort.

Completely disagree but everybody has their own opinion.

What does that even mean? Not every franchise needs to reinvent itself. People play borderlands because it’s borderlands. Likewise with gears of war.

Im enjoying borderlands immensely and don’t care one bit for gears. But forcing change for the sake of change isn’t necessarily a good thing. Not every game has to be for everyone.

There's not much innovation left. It's become, let's do what we always do but find a way to tweak it.

Yup