Where did all my cheat codes go?

Everyone's noticed by now that cheat codes have been pretty much wiped from the gaming genome. I haven't heard of a title with in-game cheat codes for this console generation (i'm sure there are a few I just don't know what they are). The only devices that remain are just "saves" which do occasionally provide cheats, but they don't give you full control over your cheating abilities as the old devices did.

Prime example; Resident Evil 4 on the Wii. I have issues with ammo...i don't like being extremely limited on it like the way it is in RE4. Attempting to change that, I tried to find a hacking device. At the time, EB Games listed an Action Replay awaiting release in a few months. I checked back a couple months later and the listing was completely gone, and one hasn't been released yet. Instead I bought the Action Replay Max Saves or some bullshit, which lets people upload save files to the codejunkies website and download them to a disc to put onto the SD drive it gives you. Instead of getting infinite ammo like I should have gotten, I got 999 rounds in my pistol that would eventually run out, and for whatever reason I couldn't enter the cheat twice.

Pardon me, but that's a load of F*@!

I'm aware that one side of the argument is that some people don't like cheating. Ok, thats fair. Another side is it prevents cheating in multiplayer games. Ok, I can see that too; but there are still ways around that. Why the hell is it that cheats were completely abandoned with this console generation? For lots of people cheats are FUN! Don't believe me? Two words for you.

San Andreas

And not even just San Andreas, but other GTA entries as well. GTA is one of the best screw-around IP's on the market, San Andreas was the most fun for me. Some of the most fun things about that game though are brought about by cheats!!! Who hasn't jumped out of a Jet over a city and tried to open their parachute before splatting onto the pavement. From Samurai swords to car mods, the hacks left the game open for a bit more, giving it a lot of replay value.

And honestly, I haven't met one person who beat the last mission of that game without cheats.

So really, I fail to understand why cheat codes have been kicked to the curb. If it's still about that online bullshit, then heres an idea.

Lets use an Action Replay and a 360 for this. Obviously the cheats could unintentionally give an unfair advantage in online play. What if the Action Replay created it's own Xbox profile when it first boots the disc. This profile would automatically be cutoff from using XboxLive; that takes care of the multiplayer problem. If you wanted to use AR for one of your games, you would have to use the AR Profile. So if you wanted the gamerpoints or whatever, you'd have to beat it legit still. I think that'd be a pretty fair trade to have cheat codes again, I really do.

There is a always another way around, you just have to look for it.