these things have a habit of sucking days of my life away

I don't know, I'm not much of a fan of rockstar games anymore, in the end the story always end up quite flat

For a VERY good (and very much understimated) PS3 game, I'd decidedly adviseYakuza 3

it has everything, great story, great characters, tons of minigames, mostly free exploration and wandering, and a great brawling system

mostly the characters are some of the most likeable I ever seen in a game, really human

I've heard Yakuza was pretty good

Yeah, unless you like only space marines with stone faces and never showing a single tear

Feelings play a big role in Yakuza 3, which is really refreshing for me