And, as for all the MGS4 talk... basically if video games ever evolve fully into their own medium as art...
MGS4 is more likely to end up on a list of worst games then best games.
Why? Well think objectively. What is MGS4 most acclaimed for? "It's just like watching a movie."
Name one movie that is widely acclaimed because "It's just like reading a book."
Or a book widely acclaimed because "It's just like a TV show."
A game that is just like a movie does not play to the strengths of the medium and unnecessarily constrains itself. The fact that something is considered good because it copies another form shows either a limitation in the medium as a whole so far, or those judging it.
In the future most games seen as great almost undoubtedly will be be ones with no story, ones whose story are contained almost fully in the game play and ones who have very well done procedurally generated stories.
The almost complete lack of procedurally generated stories surprises me quite honestly. I could think of a number of ways you could pull it off and be and tell stories and be extremely effective.
