Prime examples...God of War, Heavenly Sword, etc. They take the "game on rails" thing too far. Big action scene begins, gameplay consists of you watching events unfold and every now and then you are prompted on-screen to press a single button and your character does a pre-determined animation to advance the action. It's extremely lame and if that's not dumbed down I don't know what is.
i think they are called 'quicktime events', and yes i agree, i cant stand them. i play games to PLAY them. not watch.
that new aliens game by gearbox is going to 'feature' them as well *shudder*