Yes. TLDR version - They hold your hand too much, they have less content than past games, they fail to use advanced technology to enhance gameplay unlike 2000s PC games, they don't innovate, there is less literary influence now than in the 2000s, physics have gone backwards, sound processing has gone backwards, AI programming has gone backwards, prices have gone up versus the 2000s, multiplayer has been destroyed in AAA games (no more hosting your own dedicated servers), modding is disappearing especially included SDKs, role-playing games have little to no role-playing now, the vast majority of games in the majority of the most popular genres are worse in almost every way now.
F.E.A.R. is a particularly excellent example. The AI is
much more advanced than most other games especially now, and it still has the best combat AI of any action game overall. F.E.A.R. isn't alone in that regard; Half-Life 2 and other Source games, S.T.A.L.K.E.R., Call of Duty (yes the original), the entire Unreal series except maybe UT3 (don't remember its AI), even Return to Castle Wolfenstein and the original Half-Life have above average AI by today's standards.
Then F.E.A.R. also has more advanced sound processing via DirectSound3D 3D HRTF and EAX environmental effects, and it is actually technologically superior to 99% of FPS games in the most important ways for a game focused on shooting/combat: AI, physics/destruction/ragdolls, particle effects, dynamic lighting and shadows (almost all of these are dynamic while most of these are static in today's games, and this is a game that relies a lot on lighting especially for atmosphere), sound.
Might want to check out my related thread on this. Lots of good F.E.A.R. examples with video footage.
http://www.overclock.net/t/1641796/what-are-your-thoughts-on-the-reduced-content-and-dumbing-down-of-aaa-games
As Trippen Out suggests, the attention span and IQ of most gamers is lower now than in the 2000s and 1990s, and games (especially AAA games) cater to them. I am a millennial by the way so I am embarrassed for my generation.
Hell if you want to talk hand holding, THE BEST examples I can think of would be to compare the RPGs of today to some of the elite RPGs of yesterday such as Fallout, Fallout 2, Planescape: Torment, and Arcanum: Of Steamworks and Magick Obscura.
Put it this way: RPGs are meant to be nonlinear experiences that let the player do what they want, approach and handle situations how they see fit. Yet RPGs today railroad you into one or two paths to complete a quest, and give you objective markers telling you exactly where to go and what to do. While some of these classic RPGs like the ones I named will simply give you a quest saying, "Find the lost city of Vendigroth" and nothing else to go on at first. A key difference here is, your quest journal in these classic RPGs is written by your character in the first person, so it is entirely reliant on what your character knows. But quest journals today are written by a God-like invisible figure giving you more knowledge than you should know.
These quests in a modern RPG like Dragon Age: Inquisition or Mass Effect: Andromeda (calling this an RPG is embarrassing to RPGs) usually consist of just going to a marked location and killing everything, or going to a marked location and holding a key to interact with something, or a mix of the two. And any role-playing is minimal. While quests in the classic RPGs I named involve actual thinking and intuition, role-playing and much more involved dialogue, carrying out investigations and following up on leads with no invisible figure helping you, more content in the quests and more role-playing and less repetition. No hand holding. Not to mention they are less linear; a simple locked door won't stop you in Fallout, Fallout 2, or Arcanum since you can blow it up and skip portions of quests in this type of situation.
Put it this way: using PvP shooter genre as an example, it took superior games (more content rich, technologically advanced, mechanically distinct) like UT2004, Quake 4, Battlefront II (the real one from '05), Battlefield 2, Battlefield 2142, and mods for all of these to satisfy 2000s gamers. They complained about UT2003 having too little content because it had less than UT99, when it actually has several times more content than 99% of PvP shooters today, prompting Epic Games to release UT2004 which is nearly unparalleled in content! They complained about Garry's Mod having too little content at launch. We went from Rainbow Six 3 to Vegas and Siege. 2000s gamers had quality standards. Now today, gamers are satisfied with anything, but mostly simplified children's games since they are overwhelmed by additional content...
