I know you said you were after something set in the present, but I'm going to recommend the Fallout series anyway. :P There are a few Sci-fi elements in it such as some energy-based weapons, but for the most part it seems to fit the criteria you posted - it's an open world game, you can recieve quests from various NPC's (as opposed to having them automatically given to you after meeting certain in-game conditions), there's no fantasy elements to speak of (as far as I'm aware) and the game's setting isn't *too* far ahead of our own time. Well, mostly. :P

Alpha Protocol dosen't feature an open world, but it's a modern-day RPG. The game got a mixed reception when it first came out, so it might be worth seeing what other people said about it or watching some gameplay videos first before you go for that one.

There aren't many others I can think of off the top of my head at the moment.

Edit: The Yakuza series would be a good choice too. None of the games feature open-world exploration to the same degree as the likes of Fallout, but the opportunity to explore is still there. Side quests are acquired by speaking to certain NPC's, and the series is devoid of anything fantastical.

A lot of my favourite soundtracks are those of the Ace Combat games. Ace Combat Zero's stands out in particular for me thanks to its Spanish influence.

[QUOTE="campzor"][QUOTE="Alchemist3001"]Resistance: Fall of Man, Resistance 3 and Killzone 3 all come to mind. You might also want to try out Rainbow Six: Vegas 2, if you haven't already done so on another platform.AmnesiaHaze

Then again Haze, R2's co-op is definitely worth a try. That's where most of my R2 playtime was spent.

I suppose it's 'okay' - it certainly isn't the best split-screen co-op I've seen, but there are worse split-screen co-op expieriences around to be had. I had a lot more fun with Resistance: FoM and RS:V2, especially the latter - split-screen Campaign is great fun. :P

It used to be the case that I would read through the manual first, but given that most game manuals you'll now come across tend to be only a few pages long, I usually just go for the Trophy list instead, then followed by playing with the options.

Tales of Graces f. I haven't actually opened it yet though. :P

The Xbox would probably be my favourite. It had quite a few interesting exclusives.

Hour of Victory

Even in the absence of ultra-lightweight tanks and teleporting troops, Hour of Victory would likely have been mediocre at best. It didn't help that the console version's aiming wasn't the best around, and the fact that the plot was somewhat lacking in consistency.