MGS3 isn't exactly free-roaming, but there are a lot of different ways to do things, and the whole game feels really organic and open-ended... MGS2 is sort of the same way but not as much. Neither of them have legitimate free wandering though.

And please don't get any lame GTA ripoffs. Please.

Funkyhamster

MGS 3 is the definition of linear. The levels aren't even that big.

....

Just Cause

True Crime LA or NY

Morrowind (on the XBOX only)

Jak (and Daxter) 2 & 3

Mercenaries

Sid Meiers Pirates (on the XBOX...I think this was on the PS2 too)

Simpsons Hit & Run

Roadkill

I think Gamespot had a changing of the guard....alot of people left. The new management obviously wants to make publishers (their advertisers....customers) happy.

I read books for life changing experiences.... I play games for funXXMadManVII

I agree. Games are escapism, and can never be as deep as a book.

You can get caught up in a game - stay up too late or play it too much, but it's not like you take much into your real life, other then less time.

All the good ones, and some bad, were mentioned, but these are two you should try:

XIII

Auto Modelista

Both are flawed, but if you are interested in the cel shaded thing, definitely give them a try. They apply cel shading to interesting genres, and are both dirt cheap right now (either of them would be free off of Goozex (100pts))

Your writing isn't bad, but you stick to the first person too much. Given that you have a topic - the focus should be on that, not you, the author.

Get rid of all the "I's" everywhere.

It's good stuff no doubt, but really should have been there from launch. The 360 launched a year earlier and had both of these features from the start.

It was good and beautiful for the time. The problem is that DICE is now a part of EA. Microsoft owns the license, but would need to put it in the hands of another developer.

My guess is that you will never see this series again, because MS created it mostly to sell the original XBOX in Europe. Now that the 360 has universal 3rd party support, it isn't really necessary.