I am playing on the 360 and will empty the cache. BTW it that something you should do before every session or just when switching games or something? For the audio I will try tweaking the volume settings. Just seemed to me there was more and better discrete sound effects in “Oblivion” and the ambient effects like wind and rain also seemed better again maybe just a volume setting issue.

The look and variety of the county side depending where you are in “Oblivion” makes exploring fun. So far Fallout 3 is gray rocks and gray buildings and nothing interesting to collect. In Oblivion it was cool to clime to the top of a mountain just to check out the view.

I love open games like “Oblivion.” I generally don’t like being on the rails but most games out there are made like that which is why I generally prefer games that at least give some latitude like “Mass Effect” or “Bioshock” and of course the king “Oblivion” I guess I comes from my days of RPG playing before there were and “canned” adventures and each of us made and ran our own worlds giving people free reign to travel and do whatever they wanted as long as they didn’t get killed.

Well, I loved Bioshock, but there really only was one major choice in the game...

Bioshock does restrict you to one quest line at a time but you do have the freedom to wander around and engage certain enemies on your own terms. It’s also a quick learn, easy interface that lets you pause the action while deciding what to do but without taking you out of the game play as much. I also like the way really important things to interact with are highlighted so you don’t have to spend half an hour searching for a damm com station just so you can get into Rivet City. I didn’t like that aspect of “Oblivion” either but at least there were more interesting things to look at while searching. “Bioshock” is also a quick run through like “Gears of War” so being more constrained is less annoying.

Havent played any console games recently but looking forward to possibly getting Heavy Rain.

I did finish the latest Professor Layton on my DS. I love those types of games.

Heavy Rain? That must be the prequel to the game I just saw at Best Buy.

You are full of witty comments today Mark.

Oh, thanks for reminding me I have that game. I still haven't played it! Sick!

I wish I had the money to be playing video games like this family.

Some people have all the fun eh?

I agree Grunt. I still go back to Oblivion now even though it's years old (still haven't finished expansions) but every time I play Fallout waiting for the love people keep telling me will eventually come, I get bored and quit. I also tired of the VAS system and tried to play it twitch style but unfortunately it seems designed so that although it may be optional, you burn through so much ammo without it that you will never survive. Admittedly, I'm a much better shot in real life than I am with a game controller so I'm already disadvantaged without it.