While the new games are much more technically impressive, they seem to be suffering from the same problem as movies... As they get more expensive to make, the people making them get less willing to take chances.
I wasn't as impressed by Half Life 2 as the magazines. It looked great, and gave the impression of vastness with big landscapes, but as soon as you tried to do something the designers hadn't intended, it was obvious you were being herded down "tunnel" just like in the 500 FPS's that came before it.
There are a lot of ripoffs in the old games too, but most of the breakthrough titles were extremely original. I guess since from now on games will always be designed by a committee instead of an individual, we're going to be stuck with mostly derivitive games, just like we're stuck with derivative movies.
The oldies have something for me that works for my situation... time.
I have a young kid, and don't have 2 hour blocks of time to sit playing games very often for now. A 15 minute game of Robotron on the cabinet works out great. The PSP also now gives me the chance to do the same thing while not tying me down to the room with the cabinet. I've been playing Untold Legends, but its a real time burglar.