Expecting another evolution of Xbox in 1-2 years is naive. It won't happen---I say this assuredly.

Current gen systems will outspan previous iterations. Video Games are big players in the entertainment industry now. What we've seen with Halo 3, COD 4, and the Wii is a perfect indication of Video Game culture indoctrination into main-stream society. It isn't a niche hobby anymore. Games are HUGE on multiple levels. They're popular sure, but they also suck up a ton of resources. AAA Titles have budgets like Summer Blockbuster Bay films. Dev teams consist of some 200+ people not 2-20.

Some of the biggest games, in fact, haven't even been given release dates. (Alan Wake, APB, etc) I predict that some 2-3 years from now we'll still be playing our 360's and PS3's---middle-aged women will have lost interest with the Wii-altogether I think 2-3 years from now there will be another Wii, simply because the gimmick will have lost most of its' appeal. Unfortunately, my crystal ball shows a small area of the 360 being transformed into Wii-arm throwing-controller wiggling mockery. But this will be short-lived or at least over-looked. (MS just doesn't do "casual" very well).

True, both are RPGs but they're radically distinct in flavor, execution, etc, etc. Mass Effect plays more like a tactical third-person shooter. Oblivion plays out however the player wishes---it's more flexible in this regard. In general Mass Effect is more narrow---this isn't a bad thing---this line of focus makes for a superior narrative. The dialogue branches in Oblivion, generally the whole good/evil, fame/infamy direction was underdeveloped in comparison.

All in all, I think it would come down to style/atmosphere preference.

I'd say ES4, simply because of it's size, scope, and tailor-made gameplay.

For all of those still helplessly and hopelessly defending GTA IV. I suggest you go back and replay it and when you do, keep track of the missions that involve: Go To Point A and Confront Guy X. Oh No! Guy X is running away. Chase guy X through scripted area. Kill Guy X. Repeat. It's insultingly monotonous.

While you're at it I endeavor you to find anything meaningful about the story. It's typical Rockstar caricatures. No More.

If GTA IV wasn't such a monumental disappointment how can one explain the constant supply of used copies at stores like Gamestop?---seriously my local retailers will only give $4-5 for a trade-in now.

Sure there are other disappointing games that readily come to mind (Alone in the Dark, Deus Ex 2) but none of comparable scale.

I'll be unoriginal and give a nod to GTA IV. It is the quintessential letdown. So, in a list, here's everything they did wrong.

-Story was typical. An immigrant tale with obvious sympathy. A rags to slightly better rags evolution we've seen or heard about countless times, what's original or compelling about that? It was a serviceable narrative. It is more or less a glorified revenge story. Thumbs down.

-Politics. Leave Politics out of my games. I don't want rich men, I'm looking at you Sam and Dan, telling me what to think. GTA IV is interactive propaganda. It sickens me. (Yes, I'm aware the others had political commentary but it wasn't thrown in your face---not only that but the time was particularly vulnerable. I personally find it appalling that Rockstar's CEOs funded Obama. Odd too---Clinton and Lieberman are liberals who HATE games and have a lot more power than dear ole Jack.)

-They took the sand out of the sand-box. The Gas out of the engine. Liberty City, was, in every sense of the word, beautiful. It was the most interesting character, no doubt. But there wasn't anything meaningful to do there. Who wants to take fake friends out bowling when we don't want to take real friends bowling? We could play darts? Seriously, who plays darts? why? We could shoot pigeons---admittedly though, I had fun with this.

-The controls both on foot and in vehicle. In my 16+ years of gaming I've never had a hard time controlling a character and I've played A LOT of games, good, bad, and ugly. Niko controls with the same grace sober as he does in the drunken mini-game. He can scarcely walk a straight line. THAT and why should we have to hold A to move at a reasonable pace?

-Finally, the achievement list. True, this isn't a big deal for some but it does affect gameplay for a big percentage of the 360 community. GTA IV had a dull, predictable, often frustrating list. Collect all 200 hidden packages. Complete all stunt jumps. Win X amount of multiplayer matches. This is just lazy. Saints Row 2 provided a far more refreshing list and a more gracious GS distribution to boot.

I'm forced to play the bad guy here. There was nothing particularly earth shaking in GTA IV, save, for the nauseating amount of pulse and detail of Liberty.

It feels like interactive propaganda for one-this kind of bias is off-putting and childish.

Niko moves with all the grace of a drunken one-legged bovine-seriously it's a pain to move in a straight line in this game. (That and we're forced to hold a button to move at a reasonable pace, Liberty is a beauty and all that but staying in awe-struck tourist auto-pilot is a real hassle.)

I've been driving now for seven years and I can confirm that hitting a curb at roughly 7 mph will not pinball your car or force you into some marathon roll. (Odd how "Rolled Over" was still such a pain given these exaggerated physics)

Mission variety is non-existent. Each follows a tired formula of Drive here (with or without a timer) , Kill bad people here, or more often chase this guy to this point and kill him at that point. It's all very cinematic---that part of cinema that is very predictable, boring, rehash from summers past.

The story is a by the book, cut and paste rendering of a rags to slightly better rags tale that is all too commonplace given Rockstar's track record and obvious ethical sympathies. (Funny how my Niko by game's end had over 900k-not bad for an immigrant, he's making more than me and 98% of Americans-tragic, I know)

I'm certain I'm the only Gamespotter that will argue the opposite, but, alas, it must be done.

Games aren't getting easier, per se. Like any technology it gets better, obviously with age, this applies to Video Games (I'm a 21 year old gamer and can safely and accurately sum that today's games offer, by and large a more wholesome entertainment experience, others may be blinded by nostalgia to suggest otherwise). The NES suffered from a controller that was not designed for human hands, a lack of storage, etcetera. Save points, however, do not serve ONLY to reduce difficulty, most games now (while still short) cannot be beaten in one (healthy) sitting, so for convenience, We save and return later. It's a natural technological transition.

Even without our picture perfect high visual quality setups, our lightning fast reactive devices, in a sentence, even without using technology as an "excuse", Difficulty in gaming has been shifted to other more culturally prominent areas, namely Multi-player, so you elitists out there (who oddly always have small gamerscores) go tackle the high score on gh3's "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" or go toe to toe with GRAW's number one team.

If this still isn't enough argument for you, I suggest you go after achievements-the 1000g and tell me then, if games are "too easy"; seriously these topics are getting old.

Submit your GT when you have the following:

The Full 1000G on GH3, Ninja Gaiden 2, Devil May Cry 4, GRAW, Forza Motorsport 2, Facebreaker, F.E.A.R., I could go on and on but you get the point. Good Luck!

This is now such a laughably exhausted topic that I am proposing this be my final comment on like threads.

Games are no easier now than they were last generation or for that matter the generation before that. Fact is old school games suffered technological issues that made for a kind of artificial...shallow..difficulty. We struggled with a controller that was not designed for "human" hands; buttons that would stick or wouldn't respond at a time when they visually should and perhaps the cheapest of tricks; no save points.

Obviously the Tech advanced and so too did the nature of the games.

This is all blind nostalgia and most of the complaints are unfounded.

As for the trend of No Show bosses, I say Good Riddance. Many of them became obligatory...an empty feature. I never understood the concept or logic in games like Devil May Cry or Ninja Gaiden where in Cutscenes you're one bad mother; eating and spitting out bullets, absorbing punches and teeth like their hugs, then at the moment you take control you fall down dead at the slightest poke or nudge....It makes no sense!

Though if you still lust for frustration, try the suitably titled mode "Insane" or Psychotic" in your next game. Or if all else fails go online and test yourself. This seems to me the growing mentality.

This lack of trophy enthusiasm I think is a plus for the PS3; After killing my achievement lust on 360 ( at 45000+) I feel finally as "free" as I once was.

There was a time where I refused to play certain games (which I may have liked) simply because I deemed the achievement list "frustrating" or the full 1000 unattainable. I went so far at one point into obsession that I removed friends on the lone basis that they had an achievement I didn't!

Trophy support, like the achievement system, instills in the game community a sort of caste system. (A gamercard in this sense is a lot like a wallet). This, I think, is bad news.

I prefer gaming at its' purest.

I actually found Saren more formidable on Hardcore than on Insanity, for whatever reason.

The combination of Liara, Wrex, and the Spectre Gear made his end timely and rather anti-climatic.

Keep moving is a generic truth...and it works here.

I found Singularity and Hammerhead rounds invaluable.

Everyone has a definition of what "hard" is so...

Instead of pointing you to some long abandoned thread of some sort I'll try to help you.

The trucker, from what I remember, will follow a predetermined path for a predetermined amount of time. Initially charging you he will make his way up a hill, (slowly) turn around and charge you again, it was in this time frame that I noticed, for me, the best opportunity for progress. (Note: you need only break the windshield). Focus as much fire on the driver's side (obviously) and take advantage of his time on the hill. It's generally safer and beneficial to you to shoot at a time when his offense is on hold. Stay always within a position that allows you to damage him, either from the side of the driver's window or the windshield.

It's pretty straight-forward but can be frustrating, nevertheless.