Movies and games, especially the newer games, can get the same amount of emotion, actually. A lot of it comes down to how the player relates to the character, and how the player connects through the storyline. Games like The Walking Dead and The Last of Us (PS3), can do this really well. Voice acting, cinematic and player animation all contribute but will not be as much as the experience that a player feels.
I rarely play video games, surprisingly, but from the games I have played, I only felt for the characters that grew from the beginning. There has to be a growth that the character goes through that the player goes through, too.
BTW, there is a big difference between expression and emotion in media.
The expression of a character creates the emotion, but the emotion is not subjected to only character expression. Cinematics like music and lighting are the fundamentals of emotion. But what can deliver it more than cinematics, is the lack of it. Sad and sorrowful sequences can be deliver using music well, hitting all the right notes and keys that can jerk a tear, but sequences that are left with the base noises and lack music leave room for the mind to process.
Fast paced shooters, Call of Duty, Battlefield 3 & 4, etc. have very little room for sorrow, or any emotion because that would prevent the player from taking risks. If one goes through a level that is emotionally tragic, and ends off on a fast paced, high flying note that causes a drastic change in tone, it’s going to seem fake.
I feel as if you could portray a character, be it cartoonish or realistic, in an emotional stressful situation, like in a movie, by creating a growth. I’ll contrast Despicable Me to my favourite game The Last Of Us. As Gru in the cartoon evolves in the film, his decisions seem more rational, and you back up his decisions in your own mind. In The Last of Us, Joel and Ellies relationship progresses at the exact same rate as the player, but it extends throughout the game play and especially the cutscenes to further the emotion to a film-like structure.
Concluding, I rarely play fast paced shooters, I play 3rd person story games (The Last of Us, Beyond: Two Souls [many ps3 exclusives…). They give me the best feeling because it feels like an ultra, super long movie.