Wedding Update

Now then! I thought that title would get your attention! I will talk about the wedding later, but as per my last couple of blogs this one will be about technology or more specifically gaming. The fact that I have been playing “Grand Theft Auto 4” (GTA4) over the last couple of weeks has sparked this off so lets get straight into it.

This game has been in the press a fair bit recently, mainly in the US on scaremongering religious TV channels deeming it the Devils’ spawn. These channels seem to think that it will no doubt lead to multiple copycat killings, beatings, stabbings, drunk-driving and general naughtiness. I don’t know how the journalists over there have got the balls to say this as the yanks seem to be doing a good job of all of the above without any encouragement from a video game.

So what is this, this Grand Theft Auto game. Well for those that don’t know it’s one of the biggest video game franchises about, with 8 stand alone games in the series (so why is this one called GTA 4??) and sales totalling more than 70 million copies world-wide (thanks to Wikipedia for this info). The first game was a pretty basic top down view driving game, which I remember playing at Ben’s house most Saturday nights after Picasso’s night club but that’s another story! After a few sequels it’s morphed into an absolutely huge, free roam, “sand box” game. The “sand box” moniker is a term that’s used to describe the non-linearity sections of a game, where you can ignore the plot and just go off and do what you want. Now GTA4 is a classic example of this as there is quite a detailed storyline with set missions which introduce (introduce?? – no one will understand that except Stew!) characters at set points in the game. But if you just want to go off and cause some mayhem then you can.

The game is set in a fictional city, called Liberty City, but everyone knows that it’s really New York. The game area is absolutely mammoth, even with only half of it unlocked, and pretty much everything you see you can go and explore. There’s burger bars, bowling alleys, pubs, cabaret clubs, Internet café’s, Laundrette’s, everyfink! You have your own mobile phone and you build up contacts throughout the game, you have radio stations that you can tune into whilst driving, you can watch tv in your apartment, you can go and buy clothes from shops, you have even have your own in-game email that you have to check. You can even download ringtones for your in-game mobile phone!

Now this all sounds well and good, but is it just a gimmick or is it fun to play. Well I have to admit for the first couple of hours of gameplay it is a bit overwhelming getting to grips with all the controls, mobile phones, emails, characters, but it’s designed in such a way that you don’t have to learn everything in one go. Still, I couldn’t help feeling that the game was a bit overrated. In one incident I was driving around and went for a drink and a game of a pool. Now I was sat there thinking why don’t I just go out in REAL LIFE for a drink and a game of pool??!??. This takes me back to one of my previous posts and the youth of today. How the internet/PC revolution has changed their lives forever as they can do everything and anything in a virtual world from their own bedroom. Oh yeah, there’s even strip clubs in GTA4 where it’s $50 a dance from a virtual stripper, errrmmm apparently.

Anyway, as I as was saying, I must admit that after a while the game definitely does live up to all the hype. The main character Niko Bellic (who is Serbian, but sounds more like Borat from Khazakstan, it’s nice!) is well acted, and he even has a “shady” history that gradually gets unveiled. Everyone who’s into games these days knows that things have moved on from Horace and the Spiders on the ZX Spectrum and they are full-blown productions, some of them rivalling Hollywood blockbusters, with the amount of design, marketing and hype that goes into them. It’s the attention to detail that wins me over for this game though, just silly little things, that when you’re playing it you think that’s nice. If you “borrow” a motorbike that you find with a helmet Niko puts this on and when you finish and walk away, after a few steps he takes the hat off and throws it to the floor. When you crash through some dustbins little bits of paper fly up in the air and then gradually float down again. This game has different weather conditions; when it rains the roads become really slippery. The inhabitants of Liberty City are so detailed it’s almost like you’re actually living there. In some games where there are a cast of many there are only a limited number of characters and they start “repeating” after a while; I’ve not seen the same person twice on the streets in GTA4 and I must have seen thousands of different pedestrians.

I don’t think games are quite there yet, when it will be an all encompassing “life” that you can live and do absolutely anything you want, and to be honest I’m glad as I still like getting out and about, going to restaurants, going for a walk, etc. You have to draw a line between real-life and games, although Michelle will probably comment that I am living more in Liberty City than in Hull City for the last couple of weeks!!

Well that’s it from me. Oh yeah I did mention the wedding didn’t I? Well, it’s looking likely to be sometime in October 2009 but there’s no date or venue confirmed yet. Watch this space!

Adios,