I can't comment on Fear, not having played it, but Perfect Dark has absolutely lame achievements. 10 points for beating the entire campaign. Play 10/100/1000 matches of any given game type. Get 10/100/1000 kills on certain game types. Etc., etc.

NHL 09 has lame achievements, too. Stuff like "get a shutout online while you are playing as the goalie for the entire game." I pretty much hate all online achievements, but something like this takes the cake.

NHL 08: beat someone ranked in the top 100 in the world. How are you supposed to even play them? Also, "score on a penalty shot." Doesn't sound hard, but I've had the game for about 2 years, and in that entire time have had a grand total of 1 penalty shot, even with settings maxed for them.

Far Cry Instincts Predator. 70% of the game's achievements are online, which (apart from the fact I hate online achievements) is an absolute joke since there is literally never anyone playing online. Kinda hard to get x amount of kills if there's no one to kill. Stranglehold is similar, though at least with that there are sometimes people playing it (and the number required is much less).

Lost Odyssey's "get 100% of the items in the game" achievement. Simply ridiculous.

Any achievement that requires a certain # of hours played (DOA 4, Command & Conquer 3, Far Cry, etc.), online or off.

Any achievement that requires an overpriced expansion/map pack/etc. to be paid for (Crackdown, Stranglehold, Lost Odyssey, Ninja Gaiden 2, etc.)

Any Tom Clancy game's list, and the emphasis they put on multiplayer. Not just GRAW, but RSV, too (Splinter Cell's isn't as bad).

I haven't played it, but Mega Man 8's achievement list looks simply ridiculous. There's stuff like "beat the game 5 times in a row in one day."

I don't get the hate Oblivion gets from some people; then again, I don't get the hate, say, Halo or Gears of War or Metal Gear Solid or (insert any given popular game here) gets.

So, to your question. I love both Oblivion & Fallout. I'd have to say I prefer Oblivion simply because I like fantasy better than sci-fi (especially post-nuclear sci-fi). For those people saying the Witcher - it's a fantastic game - one of the best RPGs in years - but not better than Oblivion. But all three games are excellent. Basically, it comes down to which genre you prefer (fantasy or sci-fi), and if you're including the Witcher, how open-ended you like your world (the more you do, the more you'll like Oblivion or Fallout; the more structured you like it, the more you'll like the Witcher). If price is a factor, then Oblivion is obviously the way to go, as it's the oldest of the three.

Well, duh. By the very definition of the word "grow," every system's base will grow in '09. If even one person buys any given system in '09, that system will have "grown."

Now, if the question is whether or not they stay ahead of Sony - that's an entirely different ball game, and that mostly depends on three things. 1) When/if Sony cuts the price of the PS3. Right now they're getting shelacked, mainly because it's so pricey. 2) If so, how much they cut it by. $50 ain't gonna make much of a difference, but if it's $100 or more... 3) As always, exclusives. At the moment, it appears as though Sony has a slight upper hand for next year (God of War 3, Uncharted 2, Killzone 2, etc., compared to the likes of Halo Wars and Star Ocean) - but of course, that could potentially change (say, for example, Mass Effect 2 comes out as 360 exclusive - which is by no means a certainty - or, say, God of War gets pushed back into 2010). After all, only a small percentage of what's coming out next year has an actual date. And many of those games that do have dates will end up being pushed back, anyway.

I think that unless Sony gives a significant price cut to the PS3 soon, they will lose this generation of the console race (that's not to say they won't make money; after all, Ninty did with the cube, and they ended up in 3rd last gen). This is simply because with each passing month that the 360 is $200/$300 and the PS3 is $400/$500, Sony loses falls further behind. There comes a point where a lead becomes insurmountable. As for the Wii, it's probably there in terms of having first place locked up, or close to it, anyway.