Game Diary - July 14th 2008: A Cop's Funeral.

I've decided to start a game diary, as you've probably guessed by the title of this post. It's going to be similar to what Stephen Totilo does over at MTV Multiplayer. Basically I'll document the games I play daily (although it may not be every single day, a boy has got to rest!) and add a few thoughts about the games as I play them.

*Spoilers ahead*

Today I've played about three hours of GTA IV. I know I'm taking a long time to actually complete the game but I really want to enjoy every minute of this virtual recreation of NYC and not rush my play-through.

I've just got passed the mission where you have to decide whether to kill Derrick McReary or his cop brother Francis McReary. I find it hard to make choices in GTA IV and I put that done to how emotionally attached I can become to some of the characters. It's an excellent story and because I have to interact with characters (such as taking them out for a drink etc.) I feel like I get to know them like I would in a book. I like the McReary family - especially Packie even though he can be a bit of an idiot. Anyway, this time the choice was a no-brainer for me. Francis had threatened to reveal dirt on Niko if he didn't follow his orders to kill Derrick and I was taking any of that crap. Plus, I kind of felt sorry for Derrick as the drugs and snitches had pretty much ruined the guy. I pumped one in Francis' head and there was one less cop in the city.

Next was the funeral scene. This is the second time GTA has included a funeral in the story (the first was at the beginning of San Andreas where Carl attends his mother's funeral) and in both cases it ends in a shoot-out. I felt like I was part of the family when I was helping Packie gun down the guys so the rest of the family could make their escape.

It's good to see that your choices in a game will have different ramifications down the line. I don't know what happens if you kill Derrick instead but I felt that killing Francis, while obviously wrong in a moral sense, was the right thing to do.

I'm loving every second of the GTA IV experience. You may not be able to have as much fun in the city like you could in previous GTA games but I think the superb storyline more than makes up for that.

Next up: I'm going to see GTA IV through to the end but I'm also trying to complete Gears of War with my brother. I know it's been out for ages but I've only just got around to buying it.

Morning Coffee - July 12th 2008

Well, since it's a Saturday you're only getting a few links this morning. With E3 coming up there's no shortage of news and speculation but, hey, it's a weekend and we're all allowed a break.

Here's your Lot:

• MCV interviews the legend that is - and one of my favourite gaming personalities - Sam Houser of Rockstar Games.
• 'Fanboy' is now part of the Merriam-Webster dictionary. Oh lord, I fear for our safety as a species.
• Kotaku examines...erm...why developers make female characters boobs so big (using the example of Soulcalibur's Ivy, which is easy to see why).
• Finally another interview. This one is with Newsweek writer N'Gai Croal (of Level Up). Thankfully they don't get into that Resident Evil 5 crap.

I'm damn well looking forward to E3 next week - no matter how insignificant it's got these days!

Amazing GTA IV Fan Art!

Just when you thought the GTA IV posts had ended I hit you with another one. This time around it's worth it just to appreciate this lovely fan art created by Patrick Brown.

Pictures like these just make me wish I could draw myself.

You can check out his other GTA IV creations and the rest of his gallery over at deviantART.

Releated Posts: A few GTA IV Impressions.

New GTAIV Site Now Live!

Just a quick heads-up that the upcoming Grand Theft Auto IV now has it's own fully fledged flash-based site.

Flash-based annoyance aside there's a tonne of new images and a few videos showing off the new environment and it's characters. There's also a map of Liberty City (where you can click on points of interest) which is likely the final design.

It's good to see some new stuff and it only gets me even more excited for the game. Roll on April!

Welcome to Liberty City. - Rockstar (Via Kotaku)

GTA IV Release Date Officially Confirmed.

After months of speculation Rockstar has officially announced the release date of, by far one of the most - if not the most - anticipated games of the year, Grand Theft Auto IV. Emails sent out to newsletter subscribers showed a date of April 29th 2008 above a picture of lead character Nico and the title. The release will be simultaneous worldwide for both the Playstation 3 and Xbox360.

It's great to finally get a proper release date and, hopefully, the previous delays will only make a better game in the long-run. I suppose the only annoying thing is that it comes just before my finals!

There's a nice interview with Rockstar Games Vice President of Product Development Jeronimo Barrera over at MTV.

Stupid News of The Day!

Or rather it's my attempt to actually post something this week and not actually spend a great deal amount of time writing. Yes, I've been a bad blogger but university work and...um...Team Fortress 2 (it works now) must come first sometimes!

Rockstar are supposedly pissed at the 'Grand Theft Scratchy' section in the upcoming The Simpsons game.

"I was always under the impression that when you do parody, it's a sign of respect... If we make fun of Grand Theft Auto, we're not going to hurt the sales of Grand Theft Auto... But yeah, we've definitely had some reactions - we've had to pull stuff from the game", The Simpsons lead designer Greg Rizzer revealed to us in an interview earlier this week. - CVG

Isn't Rockstar being a bit hypocritical here? The GTA series makes parodies of everything but when it comes to someone making a parody of their game it's not allowed? Also I was under the impression that parody is legal in the USA.

It's probably just some lawyer who doesn't know much about the content of either game but, still, it's the principle of it all. Won't somebody please think of the children?

EA upsets games companies with The Simpsons - CVG (Via Kotaku)

Grand Theft Auto IV Trailer.

In about ten minutes the first GTA IV trailer will hit the web (courtesy of the handy countdown on the Rockstar site). Let's hope it's actually worth waiting for, I had no idea this was coming today until I followed a handy link.

I'll update this post as soon as I see it but, for now, hit this link and watch as time slowly ticks away...

UPDATE 1, 23:03: Ok, so the timer's ended but the site's getting hit pretty hard at the moment so it's impossible to view it. I'm just getting a 'connection timed out' notice.

UPDATE 2, 23:43: Been there, done that. It's a bunch of city shots and some Russian guy. It seems to be based heavily on New York (Statue of Liberty, Brooklyn Bridge, MetLife Building (renamed to Getalife), St. Paul's Cathedral, Grand Central Station etc.) . It might end up a bit like Liberty City but, who knows? Maybe it'll be like GTA: London and try to be true to the actual real-life city.

I'll embed the video just as soon as I get the Game Trailers video back up (I closed it by mistake and now can't get back on).

UPDATE 3, 23:48: Here's the YouTube GameVideos.com Version:



It doesn't do it much justice though so check out the HD version on the earlier Game Trailers link.

UPDATE 4, 23:55: Seems like Gamespy is agreeing with me on the New York front.

UPDATE 5, 00:02: Ok, people are saying it's Liberty City again due to the boat with Liberty City printed on it (it could have come out of Liberty City though) and the apparent presence of the Liberty Tree.

It's a bit disappointing in that sense; using the same old setting. They better do something good with it.

UPDATE 6, 00:36: IGN have their impressions up.

UPDATE 7, 30/03/07, 13:29: I've replaced the YouTube version with a higher quality GameVideos.com version.

Other locations:

• HD Torrent.
• Game Videos.
• The Game Trailers one again.
  
• Gamesradar.

GTA IV Trailer - Rockstar.

Bully Star Likes To Kiss Boys!

With all the talk about Bully (Canis Canem Edit in Europe) giving kids ideas to give their classmates wedgies, nothing controversial has come out of the game so far. After viewing this video your thoughts on the game will remain much the same as ever - in that there's clearly nothing bad about the game at all.

It's no Hot Coffee, it's two boys kissing. Since the game is rated T and clearly states the game contains 'sexual themes' any uproar about homosexuality in Bully will pretty much show how pathetic most arguments against the game are. If I was younger two boys kissing wouldn't prompt me to turn gay and it wouldn't offend me either.

Yup, what do ya know? Some teenagers are gay! It'll be fun to see if anyone will create a scene over this but, for now, I give another point to Rockstar for being so damn good at their jobs.

(Via Joystiq)

Bully To Be Renamed.

In a move full of irony Rockstar has effectively been bullied into changing the name of it's upcoming controversial game Bully to Canis Canem Edit (Latin for 'Dog Eat Dog'), in Europe.

There's been no confirmed reason for this, although it's pretty obvious it's due to pressure from politicians and various anti-bullying groups - let's not forget Jack Thompson there.

Rockstar has said that the re-printing of cover art will not interfere with the games October release date.

Wikipedia points out that as of yesterday the 'Official sites Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive carry no reference to the name change and still refer to the game as simply "Bully".' Although it has to be said that since the same change does not affect the US of yet these sites are primarily aimed at the US market.


Bully in name change shock - Games Radar

(Via British Gaming Blog)