Monday, April 28, 2008
Alright. I know I said that I wouldn't post until after Prelim 1 was over, but you know what, this is so important it basically overrides all my other priorities. What, you ask, is so important that I would ignore my studies just to write about it. Well, this: I have it. "it" being the already legendary king of open world games, Grand Theft Auto IV.While I haven't really played the game yet[heck, it's still in its plastic wrapping], the reviews and comments about it have been overwhelmingly positive, with all reviews giving it nothing less than a 9.5 out of 10. It even got a perfect 10 from ign.com, which hasn't given out that score for nearly a decade now. So why give a 10 to GTA IV, you might ask. ign's answer: Grand Theft Auto IV is the best game they've played for the past 10 years. It has a great story, is genuinely funny and has characters you'd actually care about. It is definitely the best in the series, and a definite Game of the Year contender for 2008.
Gametrailers.com had their own set of praises for GTA IV: "Grand Theft Auto IV is finally here, and it brings the dawn of a whole new generation of open world games with it. It is the sex, drugs and rock and roll of videogames. It is hilarious, has characters you can relate to and has a storyline that can hold up to most major action blockbusters these days. The story is so good it deserves and Oscar nomination." GT then ended their review with this phrase: "Few games are able to deliver on the hype, but this is one that does."
Yes, I am really excited to rock GTA IV right now, but no, I can't because of the on going prelims. If you have me on msn, you'd know that I was doing a countdown for GTA IV. Now maybe I need to do a new countdown, one for the end of Prelim 1. Meanwhile, I am going to start uploading all my GTA related pictures with this post. These won't be ripped from game websites, they're gonna be my own. Check back later for more. See you in about a week everyone.
My virgin copy of GTA IV [it's in like 3 layers of plastic wrapping] imported all the way from the UK. The box art is pretty cool and the pop up title text[like those words on a gift card] is lined with foil. Sweetest box art ever.
posted @ 11:52 PM
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Tuesday, April 22, 2008
Ok hi once again everyone. I know I didn't post stuff that i promised to post. But I don't think you'd care much anyway. Next week, awesome stuff WILL happen. Yeah well, it is the start of the Prelims, and thats pretty awesome because we'll be able to leave school early, but I'm talking about much bigger stuff. Be excited for the Iron Man movie, and be a megaton more excited for the biggest game of the year, Grand Theft Auto Iv, which finally emerges onto store shelves next tuesday. It's gonna be BIG. Like, HUGE big if you know what I mean. The excitement has finally hit me. Full out on the face. A sledgehammer blow. One of love. Ok now I'm just not making any sense. Alright, hush people, we've got to be dramatic here. Ok, here we go. [Clears throat] This is it. We've waited years, then it became months, weeks, and now, it's down to the final hours. The strong that have stood waiting patiently will crumble during these hours, dying from starvation of AWESOMENESS. Just ask me, I know, having nearly perished myself last year while I was enduring the final MINUTES to the launch of a little game called Halo 3. It's gonna be tough.Alright, pretty cool speech huh? I'm gonna put up a quick overview of what you can expect of GTA IV, courtesy of 1up.com.
* Niko Bellic has done some bad things. He's a drifting merchant marine lured to America by the promise of false dreams, which are inflated by his cousin Roman -- a man who is best described as "sketchy." It's a setup that's typical of the previous GTA games (ne'er-do-well arrives on the scene with grand plans, and crime ensues), but as Niko's story unfolds, it does so in a manner that's considerably more focused and restrained than what we saw with Tommy Vercetti in Vice City or CJ from San Andreas. The script is penned by Rupert Humphries and Dan Houser, and rarely do they stray from their goals: believable and likable characters, a solid, traditional crime story, and the usual splash of irreverent social satire. It's the opposite of San Andreas' massive sprawl, in terms of both geographical landscape and plot ambitions.
* Rockstar are true masters of the videogame cut-scene: They're framed and blocked with proper film techniques and interesting camera angles, the animation is completely natural (never too slow, jerky, or overexaggerated), the voice acting is properly emotive, and they're just the right length.
* Niko may be the main character, but Liberty City -- and the life it exudes -- is the star. Many new elements are at play that go beyond the usual pedestrian foot traffic and wisecracking radio DJs -- this time, it's a cross-referencing multimedia assault. Driving around the city, you might hear a radio spot for WEAZEL News mentioning that the bridges and tunnels remain closed due to a terror threat. During your first visit to an Internet café, The Liberty Tree's website has an actual story with more background info on the closures. Then you spot a banner ad at the bottom of the page for a social networking site called Craplist. Perusing the "women seeking men" listings, you find a post, reply to it, and set up a date for Thursday night. And while you're checking e-mail, your pal Brucie has located another car you can boost for him for a quick afternoon's work.
* The missions, characters, locations, Internet, radio, television, dating...everything bleeds into each other, and the new cellphone gives you a new sense of mobility and flexibility that bridges the game's story with the roaming, make-your-own-fun chaos that made GTA famous. Plus, if you're so inclined and not in any particular hurry, you can take a full-length real-time cab ride anywhere in the city while looking out the windows and listening to the cabbie's preferred radio station. You know, see the sights.
* You'll likely notice the same graphical "quirks" that the series has dealt with since the jump to 3D. The same filmlike, grainy framerate exists and usually holds steady, but it can momentarily dip when things get frantic. There's some long-distance graphical fade-in as well as some street-level hazards that appear only after you hit them. Traffic will be nonexistent one second, then three cars deep when you rotate the camera back around, and then completely disappear when your wanted level gets to two or three stars (which is oh-so-fun when you desperately need a getaway vehicle). But even these problems have been "upgraded" in a sense for GTA4: An artistic application of filters hides some of the uglier character models, there's more types of cars to choose from, and overall, the feel of the city trumps any of the shortcomings we're familiar with by now. But you'll be able to see that in the screenshots and eventual videos.* As previously mentioned, GTA4's story is focused. So much so that you won't be seeing any amusing yet totally out of context missions like invading top-secret government alien research bases. There's a lot of driving, following, shooting, and evading as you do your freelance work around the city. But that's not to say there aren't climactic moments or centerpiece events -- they just seem a little more spaced out along the lengthy campaign. It'd be silly to call this more "realistic," but it's definitely more in line with the genre's representations in television and film.
* The oft-maligned mission structure, where death or capture at any point of the process means restarting from the beginning, is partially redeemed by the cellphone: You still have to start from the beginning of the mission, but now you can skip from jail or the hospital immediately to the starting point. And to help placate those with restart fatigue, Rockstar threw in some different character dialogue for the second try (if you have to try for a third time, your accomplices will suggest that you all be quiet and just listen to the radio until you get there). It's still frustrating to fail a mission in its final stages due to random traffic interference or lucky cops, but that just appears to be the nature of the open-world beast.
* And, oh yes, the shooting. Pulling the left trigger halfway on the 360 controller lets you aim a weapon freely, while a full pull locks on to the closest enemy or nonplayable character in your camera's view. It's still not perfect since there doesn't seem to be much of a priority system in place that determines what enemy poses the more imminent threat, but the bonus is the new cover system, which gives you enough time to settle down your shot and lock on to your intended target.Yeah, I know. It's gonna be pretty goddamn awesome. Ok, this will probably be the last post I do until after Prelim 1, but before I go, here are some tips to prepare yourself for GTA IV:
1) Alright PS3
2) No matter what system you'll be roking GTA IV on, get a cooling fan or your machine will probably DIE.
3) Oh, and make sure to set aside some time the week of April 29. You'll need it.
posted @ 5:52 AM
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