1. This really depends on the game. Certain games you can hardly notice any dip in framerate. That being said, I'm a big proponent of 'work within the confines of the hardware' which means don't over-tax the hardware just to push out slightly better visuals. This is one of the things which bugs me most about the PSP, where a lot of games that I've played have noticeable lag.
2. No, I don't think this is much of an issue at present.
3. Patching is more good then bad I'd say. Before the days of the internet games shipped with bugs as well, just play any of the old Sierra games and you'll know what I mean.
4. What bugs me mostly these days is the differences between multi-plat versions of a game. For example, I picked up NHL09 for my PC because of the 360/ps3 reviews and yes I should of looked at the PC review, but I had no idea that EA would willingly ship out a severely nerfed PC version. This sort of thing is occuring a lot lately and I find it extremely lazy and frustrating.
The only teeth strong enough to eat other teeth.
