Best game title ever

Coming this fall. Enough said. Has anyone finished The Lost and Damned yet?

Running Heroin with the DS!

Curl up on your couch and sip some egg nog as you crack skulls of the yakuza in Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars; coming this winter, announced yesterday at E3. This was probably Nintendos' biggest win of E3.

Tue, 15 Jul 2008 - Rockstar Games is proud to announce Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars for the Nintendo DS™. "This is a game that will deliver a rich, fast-paced and intense 'Grand Theft Auto' experience that will be truly unique to Nintendo's handheld platform," said Sam Houser, Founder of Rockstar Games. "Rockstar Leeds, along with the team at Rockstar North, has built upon a decade of progressive design on Grand Theft Auto, and has created something fundamentally fresh and immersive."

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is an entirely original entry into the critically acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, and brings a new level of interactivity to its sprawling open environments. With the use of the DS touch screen, players will navigate their way through the streets as they uncover the truth behind an epic tale of crime and corruption within the Triad crime syndicate, delivering the unprecedented amount of depth that has become a true trademark of the franchise.

Developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with series creators Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars will be available on the Nintendo DS™ in North America and Europe this winter.

www.rockstargames.com/chinatownwars

Inspired by the bank robbery mission in GTA 4

The best scenes in Heat.

THQ Part 1 Man visits hotel, plays games, eats sandwiches: Saints Row 2

So last Thursday, I got to go to the THQ holiday press junket. This was my first time at a real game industry event. So it was kind of exciting. I was with a friend who was properly invited I was his plus 1 if you will. However they did have my name written on a piece of paper, this is also the day I became a "freelance blogger," which is a low rung on the ladder of "fake writing career," but it is a start none the less. Enough of the child like wonder, let's get down to the nitty gritty, Saints Row 2, Destroy All Humans, Baja, and Deadly Creatures. These were the biggest stand outs at the showing.

Saints Row 2, has huge shoes to fill. I actually played the first Saints Row, and enjoyed it. The story was retarded and so were the characters, but that is not to say it wasn't satisfying by any means. Where GTA 4 seems to have gone down a more sarcastic road of realism and pop culture cynicism Saints Row is more like the Spike TV version of things. Good for them I suppose, Crackdown was fun, and who didn't like the Getaway series? Mercenaries, I loved Mercenaries!

They take some shots at the big guy and at themselves in this trailer, but I think it gets the message across.



If you noticed in the trailer they show everything that can't be done in GTA 4. flying planes, blowing up trains (which was possible in the first Saints Row, and not in GTA 4), character creation, airplanes, and what look to be some more rural areas. I asked if they still had character customization, and they do. The most fun part of Saints Row 2 was the ability to make characters look like your friends.

For one reason or another they got Gary Busey to do some short spots for Saints Row 2. Here is one on a sadly missed weapon from GTA 4.

The first 24 hours in Liberty City.

Why is GTA 4 so hard to play? Is it because most of the world got their GTA start on Playstation styled controllers? Is it because the maps are so detailed and you are having such sensory overload to the stuff going on that you loose all motor skills? It is because there is a high volume of traffic and it makes it easier to smash into things? Is it because there is no way to turn off the radio without going into the game settings and turning it down that way?

I found myself in the beginning of the game just overwhelmed, as I should expect to, but once the initial shock of, "my god I'm playing GTA 4," passed, the GTA slow burn went into effect. This is the part where they condition you on how the rest of the game play is going to go down. You are shown how to drive, shoot, fight, and all things in between. All of which has been done in series prior, however all of these things have changed slightly.

Speaking only now about the Xbox version, the controls for driving seem awkward at first. It is a different game, it is a different system. There are no real custom control configuration that can be done, it is either, "Standard," or "Classic." I opted for "Standard", for two reasons. I found it easier in Standard to readjust the camera while driving, and the, "there must a be Standard for a reason" logic. It is what it is.

So you do some real light weight mission steal cars, you have no gun, you drive around a little. This is the first 2 hours. Then I realize that stealing a car, smashing into 3 parked cars because I hit the gas so hard and spun into a hot dog truck which alerted the police is not really worth the time it would take to walk around the block to the next mission. This is a philosophy that one must subscribe to. Your character lives in a dense urban area, there will be traffic.

Then you start to drive drove around a bit and explore the map, try to get my wanted level up, had a lot of trouble finding any guns lying around in the game, general mayhem. Fun, totally fun, except for those pesky missions where they force me to drive responsibly and slow. But whatever, I live in a densely populated urban environment, right? Terrific, moving on.

Accessing the multiplayer games is incredibly easy, and inventive. You don't have to go to a
ny special online menu area, and you never have to leave the game to invite friends. It is all done with your in game cell phone. Almost too easy. I was trying out the online stuff with some friends, when through a misstep we ened up in what seemed to be a very established and very surreal Italian motorcycle race. Suddenly I couldn't hear myself think over the shouts and and animated talking of my fellow racers. For a second everything was much cooler and I wanted to know what they were saying. But that is neither hear nor there. It was nice not running into the usual friendly Xbox live chatter for once, though I am sure those Italians were making fun of my mom and telling me I was going to die of AIDS of the mouth just in another language.

The multiplayer Free Roam mode is fun. The driving seems easier, which is probably due to the fact that there is much less traffic, and you don't have to play in the crazy little neighborhood that you start out in. Playing the multiplayer made me realize something. Rockstar is expecting people to play the story mode, of course; by making the storyline game challenging in a driving and getting around aspect, more people are going to be playing online just for the shooting things, starting riots, and driving around aimlessly that they have known to come and love in GTA versions prior. So don't sweat it, you are not the only one having trouble driving in GTA4.