AAA studios stopped taking risks and being more creative a long time ago, especially after the cost of development got so insanely high. They don't want to fail, shut down, etc. It's why I loved Death Stranding as much as I did when it first dropped. It felt like the most unique and risk taking AAA title we had seen in a LONG time. It felt like a breath of fresh air, even if it wasn't for everyone. I feel like the sequel did the same as well, if not even more so.
The result is a bunch of games that are safe, pretty similar, etc. The most "unique" things you'll see in them in a small mechanic or two to make them stand out, but then everything else just kind of feels like a been there done that kind of thing.
The AA and indie market has been the complete opposite, where you tend to see more unique and creative titles being released there. That's something that has always been the case, but it continues to as well.
That being said, while some of the games in that list may be considered "safe" or "the same", I still think a number of those games are actually solid. I mean, they cater to their previous players, as well as new ones. You can't expect AAA studios to just completely rewrite everything when it's existed in their previous titles. They just need to improve and build off of it. Make it look and/or play better, add more content, etc. If there's any kind of improvements anywhere and the game is a solid experience then I think it's safe to say that they will have accomplished their goal.
Yeah, I don't understand that one at all. It looks like GoT, but more/better, kind of like what you'd expect from a sequel. But I guess you know, women bad, or something, I don't know, lmao. GoT as a title had some unique properties, but as a whole it too felt like a pretty safe title IMO. So, seeing a pretty safe sequel doesn't really seem like a stretch. It's the same experience, but there's more. You know, kind of what you'd expect in a sequel. It's not suddenly going to be first person or add some kind of wild mechanics or systems that didn't exist in the previous game. They want to cater to their previous fans, while maybe acquiring some new ones.