The Grandest Grand Theft Auto Yet

 Martin · 16 years

As promised, here's my take on GTA4. As you've probably gleaned from the title, I think GTA4 is pretty damn sexy - but we'll get to that in a minute or two. In order to set the mood, I thought I'd start with a bit of history on the franchise, and how GTA4 came to be the epic adventure that it is.

When I played Grand Theft Auto for the first time, way back in 1999, I felt like a kid who'd just found his dad's secret stash of pornography. The game was already garnering negative attention from the media, lending it all the qualities of an exotic forbidden fruit, and once I got it running with hardware acceleration on my 3DFX VooDoo 2, gaming bliss reached epic proportions.

The style of play seemed new at the time. You're a guy in the middle of a huge city, and you've got a bunch of missions to do - but you don't have to do them if you don't want to. Instead, you can just run around the city causing as much havoc as possible, or hop online and do the same thing with your friends. 'Sandbox' gameplay had finally arrived to the action genre, and the concept was brilliant. If you're not up on your gaming history, you can play the original GTA and its sequel, the aptly named GTA2, at Rockstar Classics.

In 2002, Grand Theft Auto 3 was finally released for the PC (I've never owned a PlayStation, so it was my only option). I pre-ordered the game and received it on the day it came out, but wasn't able to play it for a week... It turned out that my clunky old 3DFX VooDoo 3 video card just wouldn't cut it. After a minor hardware upgrade, I was jacking cars in full 3D, and loving every second of it. GTA3 was to GTA as Super Mario 64 was to Super Mario Bros. The action was successfully ported to 3D, and it was amazingly fun. GTA3 was the second coming of the sandbox game.

Subsequent releases in the GTA franchise were similarly excellent. Vice City and San Andreas were both beautiful, worthy successors to GTA3, with each game taking the good concepts from the last, and leaving the rest behind. Despite how great these two sequels were however, the RenderWare engine Rockstar had been using since GTA3 was starting to show it's age. It was obvious (to me, at least), that Grand Theft Auto needed something new. It needed a new engine, which would take advantage of current-gen hardware. It needed a face lift.

Enter Grand Theft Auto 4.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is a masterpiece. Almost every aspect of the Grand Theft Auto gameplay has been revamped, each with the skill, style, and expertise that only a veteran of the genre like Rockstar could deliver. If you've been looking for a reason to pick up a "next-gen" video game system, GTA4 is probably the best excuse you'll get.

At this point I should probably mention that at the time of this writing, I'm only about 20% through the game. This is both a testament to how large the game is, and a warning that I'm not anywhere near finishing the game. Judging from the quality of my first 10 hours of play though, I think it's safe to say that my opinions won't change too much.

The first thing everyone inevitably notices about GTA4 (and rightfully so) is the graphics. Gone are the boxy cars, cartoon people, and goofy animations of the past. In their place is a re-imagination of Liberty City, modeled from the real-world city of New York, and complete with realistic physics, incredibly detailed vehicles, and more life-like people. Everything casts a shadow, cars rock and bounce as if they have a real suspension system, trees sway in the wind, the ocean ripples gently, the weather / atmospheric effects are practically photo-realistic... The number of graphical improvements between GTA4 and GTA: San Andreas is so great that it would be impossible to mention them all here; I'll let the game's screenshots speak for themselves. And through all the changes (in graphics and beyond) however, you'll notice that Rockstar has still managed to retain their usual style, so while you're busy exploring the new world, you'll often have a nice feeling of familiarity, no matter how lost you might get.

The soundscape in GTA4 is as equally impressive as the visuals. Everywhere you go, the ambient sounds of urban life are present. The inhabitants of Liberty City have a seemingly limitless number of oral blurbs, and the main characters of the game banter along with each other as good as any actors in a movie. There's a ridiculous amount of radio stations in GTA4, each with their own unique set of music and oft-hilarious commercials. You can buy new ringtones for your in-game phone with in-game dollars. And you know that little "bzzt bzzt" noise your car radio makes right before you get a cell phone call? That's in there too. GTA4 is simply a treat to listen to, and the sounds of Liberty City are just as convincingly realistic as the visuals.

Once you're done gawking at the virtual city Rockstar has put together, you'll delve further into the game itself, and you won't be disappointed there either. This is where the familiarity of past GTA games comes to fruition in a more tangible form than other places; anyone who's played a GTA game before will be instantly familiar with the style of play. As you progress through the game, the city map will become populated with icons representing all the different activities you can do, and you'll have to visit these key locations to advance the story. Each visit to a mission-giving character triggers a cut-scene, after which you're tasked with whatever deed suits the whim of that person. Each completed mission pushes the narrative forward. This simple flow of events is how every version of GTA has operated, and Rockstar was smart not to fiddle with it too much. The only major changes to this formula are that you now can receive (and launch) side-missions on your cell phone, and you can retry failed missions quickly, without having to drive to the target location again. Oh, and the game automatically saves your progress, so you don't have to worry about getting killed on the way back to your safe house after each mission.

The game controls similarly to before, but with the added realism of the game world comes the added realism of not being able to run at super-human speeds or jump over cars. It may take GTA veterans a while to get used to this, but as you grow to appreciate the life-like qualities of the game world, you'll find that you won't miss these things at all.

As with past GTA titles, particularly Vice City and San Andreas, the list of extra activities included in the game is quite long. Around the city you will find various locations to buy clothes, entertainment, play games like pool, bowling, and dart, or just grab a bite to eat. You're free to use your cell phone (or one of the local internet cafes) to contact various people in the game, to hang out or to date. You can, of course, just go driving around and exploring, if you like. And if you get bored with all that, then there's the multiplayer.

Being anxious to play through the single player campaign, I've not had as much time as I'd like with GTA4's multiplayer, but I have put in a few hours and from what I have seen, it's a blast. Jumping online via Xbox Live is a cinch, and it didn't take too long to party up with a friend and find a game. There are a ton of different modes, but I've yet to try hardly any of them. Team deathmatch is my favorite of the few that I have played, and I'm sure that once I get more time to play, I'll be participating in more online hijinks.

By now I think it's obvious that I highly recommend you get Grand Theft Auto 4. It's one of the most complete games I've had the privilege to play in the last few months, and beats out just about everything that rushed into the holidays last year. Even if you're one of those people who's written GTA off as a "murder simulator," I suggest you at least give GTA4 a shot. I think you'll be surprised at just how much humanity Rockstar has managed put into the game.

In closing, Grand Theft Auto 4 isn't a perfect game on every level, but the franchise has come a long way from its roots, and even if you object to some of the content, there's more than a few things here that you can't help but like. GTA4 is a masterfully conceived game and is probably one of the best games you're going to play on Xbox 360, PS3, and eventually (hopefully) PC.

Screenshots courtesy of Rockstar Games.

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The Plight of the Pre-Order

 Martin · 16 years

If you've been keeping up with my blog, you know that I've been pretty excited about Grand Theft Auto 4. Actually, looking back on my posts, I guess I haven't written about it all that much, but you can attribute that to my intentional avoidance of all things that might reveal too much about the game to me. Yes, I want to go in with a completely fresh view of the game. To my credit, I have been talking up the game something fierce to my friends (in the hopes of having some fun people to play online with), and I went out and pre-ordered the game at my local GameStop last week.

Last night, the game went up for sale at midnight. I'd been debating on whether or not I wanted to go out and pick it up then, and finally I decided I'd just drive by the store and see how many people there were. If the line was huge, I'd simply turn around and leave; I normally have to get up for work around 6:15 AM, so waiting in line for an hour and then only playing for a few minutes is out of the question.

When I rolled by the store, I felt my judgment give way to temptation. The line looked about 50-60 long, but my gamer lust rationalized that each person in line would be anxious to the get the game, and would thus spend as little time as possible at the register. I got out of my car, and stood behind the last guy in line. After a moment I decided I'd check my wallet to see if I even had my pre-order receipt with me (even though I'm pretty sure GameStop will honor the pre-order regardless).

It was at this time that the man in front of me finished a drag on his cigarette and turned around.

"If you haven't been here since 5, you've got to go inside and exchange your receipt for a second receipt." These are the words he said to me.

"Really?" I stammered. The prospect of having to wait in not just one huge line, but now another was not something I wanted to think about. Confusion and fury were gripping me.

"Yup," came the smoking man's reply.

I took a step out of line to survey the scene, and then my judgment got a better grip on me again. If I waited in line here for an hour, I'd barely have any time to play when I got home. I'd go to sleep late, get up early, and be too tired the next day to work efficiently and, more importantly, enjoy some GTA4.

"I think this line's a bit too long for me," I muttered, and I turned and left. 60 man line and second receipts be damned - I'll be picking up my copy this afternoon on my way home from work.

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6 Sweet PC Games for $20 or Less

 Martin · 16 years

I've played a lot of PC games over the years... probably too many, come to think of it. But with all the time I've dedicated to games, I've also been able to sum up a fairly long list of titles which I think are truly excellent, and worth re-installing and playing again later on. Here's a list of 6 games you might not have played before that I think were excellent titles of their time, and still stand out among today's offerings as monuments to what the medium can achieve (and how much fun you can have).

All titles are currently available on Steam, and I've even listed their price for you. Some of these games are a real steal, and all are worth a play-through!

Deus Ex (currently $9.95) [Link]

What would you do if you were a nanotech-enhanced, monotone-speakin', super-soldier working for the NSA? What would you do if you had a huge arsenal of weaponry and specialized talents? What if you wore a huge leather and metal trench coat? Deus Ex asks these hard questions, and answers them too - with a conspiracy theory so big, you might just wind up believing some of it yourself.

Deus Ex was a revolutionary game because it took the standard first-person shooter, threw in a lot of RPG elements (inventory, upgradeable skills, etc) , and wrapped it in a nice, slick package. It's powered by a modified version of the original Unreal Engine, and is a really huge game that, thanks to the different skills you can learn, can be played in almost any style that suits you. Even a decade after it's release, the visuals are still nice and crisp, and the music and voice acting is very well done. I really recommend this game if you like the FPS / RPG hybrid games, and for $9.95, you could definitely do worse.

Sid Meier's Railroads (currently $19.95) [Link]

Ever since I was a kid I've been fascinated by trains - I still can't help but take a peek when I see one racing by my morning commute. Sid Meier's Railroads, and the Railroad Tycoon games it is based on, recreate my childhood fantasy of driving around trains all day, and throw in some pretty fun (and challenging) economic simulation to boot. If anything, it's simply fun to zoom around the game's beautiful environments and watch all the mechanical marvels make their rounds.

Like Sid Meier's Pirates, and a lot of other games from the legendary designer, Railroads has very high production values in art and sound, and features gameplay that's simple to grasp, but which gets more complex as you play. The game features a variety of scenarios which task you with making a profitable railroad company (or reversing the fate of one that isn't), all kicked off with a nice tutorial. Different missions start during different periods of history, and as you play, you can spend money on research to develop new engines and technologies appropriate to that era. Getting people and things where they need to go is the name of the game, so if you enjoy logistics simulations that aren't too heavy-handed, download the demo and give it a spin - you'll be laying some track in no time.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (currently $9.95) [Link]

I know I gushed about Rockstar and GTA a little in my Bully post, but this is a message worth repeating. The Grand Theft Auto series, particularly from 3 and beyond, have always been a lot of fun for me, and my favorite in the series so far is Vice City, a tale of crime and corruption straight from the 80's. You play the game as Tommy Vercetti, an ex-con who's just arrived in Vice City, and who's anxious to get established.

Vice City introduced a lot of things to the GTA formula that really made the game stand out among the series. Making their appearance for the first time in GTA are helicopters, motorcycles, choppers, scooters, golf carts, changeable clothes, an assortment of weapons, and a whole lot more, while still maintaining all the fun stuff from the previous game. You also get a ridiculously awesome soundtrack in the game, which is worth the price of admission alone.

I recommend playing through Grand Theft Auto 3 before playing Vice City for two reasons. First, there are many references made to characters from GTA3 (and some are even from GTA3) that you will appreciate more having played that game, and second, you'll like Vice City more knowing how much better it is than GTA3. GTA3 is $9.95 too, so for less than $20, you could buy 'em both!

Indigo Prophecy (currently $9.95) [Link]

In 2005, Quantic Dream set out to make a game that is as close to a cinematic experience as possible, and with their subsequent release of Indigo Prophecy (known as Fahrenheit in Europe and Japan), they did a pretty damn good job, even if not hitting the mark exactly.

Indigo Prophecy is played from a third person cinematic perspective, and as you work your way through the game, you take on the role of various characters as the plot bounces back and forth between the lead, Lucas Kane, and the detectives who are investigating him. The game's story is interesting, and just like when watching a movie, you'll have many questions about particular sequences that will not be answered until later in the game. Thankfully, the game world is very interactive, and for the gamer who enjoys exploring, there is a lot of interesting material to be found.

I really enjoyed Indigo Prophecy because, despite it's few shortcomings as a movie-esque style game, it was a lot of fun to play. The graphics aren't ground-breaking, but are still very detailed and realistic, and the sound and music are excellent. The story is the real catch though, and your desire to unravel the plot will give you motivation to run through large portions of the game each time you play.

At normal difficulty, the action sequences are just forgiving enough, and the few rough spots you do encounter serve as good moments for an intermission from the regular game anyway.

Just make sure you've got a good joystick, especially one with dual analogs, as many segments of the game are built with this type of control in mind.

Psychonauts (currently $19.95) [Link]

Fans of Monkey Island who want a little more action with their adventure games should look no further than Double Fine Productions' trippy action platformer (and flagship title), Psychonauts. The game, created by former Lucas Arts writer and programmer Tim Schafer, combines psychological dysfunction with psychedelic imagery and classic 3D platforming to create one of the more memorable games of this genre to date.

It's unfortunate that Psychonauts didn't receive much press when the game was launched - it truly is a unique experience that you'll want to see through to the end. The adventure follows Razputin, a boy attending a summer camp for children with psychic powers, as he delves into the minds of his peers and teachers in an effort to uncover the nefarious deeds of a secret foe. Raz encounters the personal fears of each person he makes psychic contact with, and this not only allows for some very creative and fun imagery, but level design as well. In one level, Raz walks along a twisting ribbon of road that seamlessly turns upside down and loops around itself at various places; in another he's tasked with battling a famous historical figure in a giant strategy battle. Not one level is like another in this game (or in any other game, for that matter), and that's just one of the many things that sets Psychonauts apart from the many other platform games you've played before.

For anyone looking to pick up a good action adventure game, especially on PC, I can't recommend Psychonauts enough. It's a fun little game that is smart, rewarding, and the production values are so high it's hard to ignore. Especially at such a low price!

Unreal Gold (currently $8.95) [Link]

I shouldn't even have to say all that much about Unreal Gold - it's one of those games that really kicked off a lot of big things for gamers. Unreal gave us a taste of what a truly "Epic" shooter could be, all while showcasing some awesome visual effects (for the time), and paving the way for what would later become of the most recognizable online FPS franchises.

When you start Unreal, you'll awake inside your holding cell within the recently crashed Vortex Rikers, a space ship transporting prisoners across the galaxy. You're now free from imprisonment, but you're marooned on an uncharted planet filled to the brim with the hostile Skaarj. Your only option is to traverse the land and seek out an escape, destroying everyone in your path.

Though other games, like Half-Life, were leaps and bounds ahead of Unreal in terms of presenting a decent narrative in a story-driven FPS, Unreal made up for the deficit with some amazing technology, and with some intense action sequences that simple can't be topped. Gamers who skipped over Unreal back in it's heyday will probably not be all that impressed by it's massive outdoor environments, or it's highly detailed textures, but back in 1999, these were incredible feats. Being used to the claustrophobic romps of Doom and Quake, I remember how blown away I was upon first playing Unreal - especially when my rig (packing a powerful Voodoo 2 card!) ran the game at 60+ frames per second.

The graphics were what drew me in, and the hard core gameplay is what kept me there... and what keeps me coming back for more every now and then, when I'm out of new games to play. I highly recommend Unreal Gold, even if you're not too fond of the dated graphics. It's a solid action FPS that defines the word "classic."

Other Games I Wanted to Mention

There were a few more games I wanted to mention in the main write-up, but for various reasons, didn't. These games are all good fun, and I recommend them almost as much as those above.

  • Uplink ($9.95) [Link] - Using the Uplink hacking interface, do various hacking jobs - just don't get caught!
  • X3: Reunion ($19.95) [Link] - Start an empire from scratch in this space-faring economic sim
  • STALKER: Shadow of Chernobyl ($19.95) [Link] - Discover the spoils and secrets of the infamous Chernobyl site
  • Unreal Tournament 2004 ($14.95) [Link] - Blast your friends and enemies online with an assortment of weapons and vehicles
  • Commander Keen ($4.95) [Link] - The classic id Software platformer. Save the galaxy from evil!
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Convivial Carjacking Commencing

 Martin · 16 years

Well, it's done. I got my copy of GTA4 reserved at the local Gamestop a day ago. This will actually be my first GTA game that I haven't waited for the PC release, but I think my 360 should handle the job nicely for now. If not, I'll just wait a year and pick up the PC version, which I am sure will run better, play better, and look better than either the 360 or the PS3. Ah, but who cares about that - if this game is half as fun as it looks, I don't think I'll even be thinking about all that once I start playing!

To be honest, I've been purposefully avoiding reading too much about the game, so that I can head on in with no expectations. Rockstar has blown the dust off the hype machine, and has been releasing lots of new information on their site over the last few days, and there was even a big photo of the game's city map floating around on the game news blogs a few days ago. I've yet to visit the site though, and I only took a brief look at the map (to see if it looked real, of course). Other than that, I just know a few odds and ends of technical information about the game (check out the Euphoria physics technology they're using... just turn down the crummy music), and not much else.

Well, nothing else except for multiplayer. I have actually read a bit about that, and I think that's going to be one of the best parts of the game. Rockstar finally included a fully loaded multiplayer component in GTA4, and it's looking to be capable of throwing up to 16 people in the city at once. Unfortunately, there's no co-op mission play, but between all the different multiplayer modes, I don't think I'll regret the lack of co-op much. I like the way Rockstar usually does the story-telling in GTA games anyway, so if it remains untainted by multiplayer, that's fine by me.

So yeah, I am gearing up for some fun times in Liberty City. I'm going to cut this post short, because I don't really have much more to say about this for now, other than I am pretty excited about it. Hopefully the game turns out to be good, huh?

GTA4 is out on April 29... better reserve a copy if you haven't already!

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CGI Trailers: A Complete Waste Of Time

 Martin · 16 years

The trend is annoying. It's deceptive. It's insulting to my intelligence. And sadly, it shows no signs of ever coming to an end. I am speaking, of course, about the video game industry's constant use of CGI (computer generated imagery) trailers.

My disgust for this practice has been sloshing around inside my head for a while now, but the issue really peaked for me back in 2006, when Sony unveiled supposed in-game footage of Killzone 2, which later turned out to be a CGI trailer. There was a lot of backlash over this, and I agree with all of it - it pointed out both how tempting it can be for game companies to deceive the public with CGI, and how easy it can actually be when our game systems are almost capable of producing such visuals anyway.

Imagine you're putting together an awesome movie. It finally comes time in production to get the word out and get people excited for the upcoming film. Your press agent asks for some promotional materials to show people... what would you give them? Would you create a video of animated characters and special effects, completely unlike the visual style of your film?

Of course not - it's ridiculous to even suggest it. But if you were working on a game instead of a movie, you'd probably come to the (erroneous) conclusion that as long as it's generated by computers somehow, it should pass for a good way to show off your game.

I find this trend annoying because, when I hear about a new game, I want to see what it looks like. If I watch a commercial or download a trailer, I want to see the game in action to get a feel for how it will play, how good the graphics are, etc. The last thing I want is a CGI trailer that gives absolutely no clear idea of what the game is about. What good does that do?

My other main beef with CGI trailers is the fact that I sometimes get the sense that they are meant to masquerade as real game footage, and the deceptiveness of this disgusts me. As game graphics get better and our systems become more advanced, the line between CGI and real-time rendering is getting blurrier. So not only does it sometimes seem pointless for a studio to release CGI when real game footage would be just as good, it also makes the CGI route seem like studios just want the public to think their game will look better than it does. For gamers, this isn't usually much of a problem - people who are used to viewing game graphics and computer-generated videos can usually tell the difference between the two - but it is still a very low-class thing to do, in my opinion, and just serves to confuse people who aren't dedicated game-players.

In the end, I suppose my complaints don't hold a heck of a lot of weight, considering the games industry has been in constant growth for many years, despite the rampant use of CGI trailers. Pre-rendered computer-generated videos definitely have a place in there somewhere, but I really think that publishers / developers should always try to show real footage first. I know that sometimes it's important to get PR materials out the door, in order to generate buzz for upcoming games, but if they just took a little extra time to polish existing videos and screenshots of the actual game, they'd be doing both themselves and their fans a favor.

And I'd have one less thing to complain about.

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Sonic Doom

 Martin · 16 years

Sega hates Sonic the Hedgehog.

After years of watching Sega take their greatest mascot and slowly change him from excellent to terrible, this is the only logical conclusion I can come to. Look at the last handful of Sonic games, and you'll see what I mean. Ever since his crossover into the third dimension, Sonic the Hedgehog has been a name to fear, and for all the wrong reasons.

Imagine my disappointment when I read the news that a new Sonic game is on the way - and this time Sonic Team is setting out to definitively prove that the concept can work in 3D. Feel like crying yet?

Entire generations of gamers have all but written Sonic games off at this point, and it really is a shame. The early Sonic games were brilliant - excellent level design and solid gameplay elements lent themselves to create a truly memorable and fun experience. And yet with every new release, Sega further proves to us that they now care nothing about the franchise, and I fear that this new game will be more of the same.

So why do I still hold out hope for the speedy blue Erinaceinae? At this point, i'm not really sure. I guess I just hate to see a handful of awesome games get trashed by people who've never played them, merely because their successors are utterly terrible.

Now it seems rather obvious to me, but apparently the knuckle-heads over at Sega have a hard time grasping this one, so let me write a couple of paragraphs about it. The underlying problem with all the new Sonic games is that the concept of Sonic the Hedgehog does not, can not, and will not translate to 3D. All it takes is a cursory look at the history of the franchise to understand why.

The original Sonic games were about exploration, speed, and control. As you ran around the massive levels, you got to explore many different routes, each with a unique set of traps and situations for the player. Often, even the slightest variation on your route through a level would result in the discovery of a whole new area - many containing secret power-ups or even gateways to special levels. Players enjoy being rewarded for straying off the main path, and the original games were genius in their delivery of this concept. Unfortunately, this notion is lost in the translation to 3D, because your view is no longer confined to your immediate surroundings; you can see the entire level ahead of you as you play. Other games, like the Mario and Zelda series, have found their own ways of preserving exploration in a 3D environment, but it is obviously a rather large beast to tame, and I am not sure that it could work for Sonic.

The aspects of speed and control are also hurt greatly by the third dimension. In 2D, you were running either left or right, and all you had to do to dodge obstacles was jump, spin, or try to stop. Massive speeds could be achieved because the options the player had were relatively simple, so the player didn't have to think about all sorts of button combinations or moves to avoid trouble. Simple, but effective. In the newer 3D iterations of Sonic, almost all the speedy segments are usually on-rails ring collecting orgies, which I can almost understand, given the lack of control you have in any free-roaming running environment. 2D Sonic gave you ultimate control of a fast hedgehog and asked you to use them as best you could to conquer a difficult game. 3D Sonic took away your control and asked you to conquer an easy game. Guess which one turned out to be more fun?

There are certainly many more reasons why the original concepts of Sonic the Hedgehog do not translate into 3D, but I am tired of going on about this. Every time Sega announces a new Sonic game, I hope that they'll do the right thing and make a 2D version with 3D graphics, but each time I am let down. There is so much possibility left in the realm of 2D games - and yet we move farther away from that with each new game released, for better or (usually) for worse.

One thing that does make me slightly more optimistic about Sonic Unleashed is that Sega has finally decided to stop adding weird-looking, exotic characters to the mix, and has instead settled on the three core players, Sonic, Tails, and Knuckles. Unfortunately, this is tainted slightly by the fact that Sonic is taking a cue from Twilight Princess and will now have the ability to transform into a wolf of some sort. Ah, well.

I will (ignorantly) hold out hope that Sonic Team proves me wrong this time around. And there's always a slim chance that someone from Sega will read my blog and remove all the things I find annoying in these games, right?

Right?

Well, I wrote it anyway. And now I'm going to go play some classic Sonic on my Xbox.

Update: Upon further inspection of some of the footage floating around out there, it seems like Sonic Team may have actually taken notes and done something right - the game looks like it just might be a 2D game with 3D graphics. I'm sure I'll have more to say about this when further details come to light, but for now, color me an excited shade of blue!

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Like A Rockstar

 Martin · 16 years

I must not be alone as the only person with a blog who occasionally lapses into "busy-ness" and either can't find the time or the words to write about anything. I must!

I've not written a new post in about three weeks. I'll admit it - most of this current busy spell has largely been due to my Xbox 360, and more specifically, Call of Duty 4. It's a great game, and it really is scary how addictive repeatedly leveling up your online soldier can be. But as a game player who is familiar with the crack-like properties of other electronic adventures, like World of Warcraft, I guess I can understand.

For the last week, however, I haven't really been playing much COD4. Instead, I've been running around school grounds beating up kids, causing trouble for the administration, and generally being kind of a... well, bully. You know where this is going.

Yup - I've been playing Rockstar's Bully: Scholarship Edition. I picked it up on the first day it was out, and just finished the game today with 100% completion, and 1000 achievement points. It's an excellent game, and I highly recommend it. In a day where good game design is copied in triplicate by even the most respectable studios, it really is easy to forget what makes the original ideas (and the people behind them) great.

I played Saint's Row all the way through some months ago, and though it too was a good game, it never quite forged ahead with the confidence that the GTA series had. Sure, it did take the GTA formula and improve on many of that series' shortcomings, but when it came to interesting characters and narrative, smart humor, and social commentary, Saint's always came up short by comparison. Having not played a new Rockstar game since San Andreas, this realization was lost on me - until I picked up Bully last week.

It's easy to describe exactly what gives Bully its charm. The game contains within it all the staples of any Rockstar production of the last decade. You play as Jimmy Hopkins, a bad kid who just wants to be good again, and right from the beginning, you're introduced to a handful of other characters, each embodying a different cliché of schoolyard personality (nerds, jocks, preppies, etc.). These cliques of kids act as the gangs in Bully, and anyone familiar with the way gangs have been handled in past Rockstar games will be right at home here.

Also to be found in Bully is the usual Rockstar humor and its ever-present social commentary. As you explore the school and surrounding town, you'll encounter all sorts of things that are both funny, and sometimes subtly truthful. Prefects wander the halls of the school, complaining about not being able to beat enough people. The gym teacher has a sick obsession with seeing jocks mistreat the nerds. The preppies won't be friendly to you unless you're wearing expensive clothes. Girls impressed with Jimmy's antics exclaim how they can't wait to graduate, so they can spend all day kissing him… Okay, so maybe it's not always so realistic - but the fact is, after playing a game like Saint's Row, where NPC's childishly drop the "F-bomb" continuously in hopes of a cheap laugh, most of Rockstar's efforts into injecting humor and social context into their games seems almost high brow. Bully pulls off its humor and social context well - while playing it, you can't help but wonder how many members of Rockstar's staff might have actually been bullies in their childhood, for them to have gotten the whole experience down so well, and for them to be able to find so much humor in it.

The 360 version of Bully definitely has its flaws; throughout my quest to rule Bullworth Academy, the game froze my system completely 4-5 times. But as with all slightly flawed, but nevertheless awesome games, I kept reloading and jumping right back in. I highly recommend playing this game, if you haven't played it on the Playstation 2 already, and now that I am done with it, I will hopefully have a little more time for my own game making again.

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Game Maker Games at GDC08

 Martin · 16 years
GDC08

Last Thursday, I was finally able to take off from work a few hours early and head over to San Francisco to check out GDC08!

My only prior exposure to GDC was the heavy media coverage through sites like IGN and Joystiq, and even though they usually deliver a pretty comprehensive record of the event, it's a completely different experience to actually be there. It was positively overwhelming, in all the right ways.

By now if you've followed GDC08 at all, you've probably already read about most of the crazy stuff there, like the headset that (theoretically) allows you to control games via thought power, the various presentations of motion capture software and hardware, and of course, all the game announcements. So I won't write too much about that stuff. What I do want to share is the acclaim two Game Maker games had achieved via the Independent Games Festival.

Walking around the expo floor, completely amazed at all the awesome technological wizardry around me, I eventually found myself standing in front of the huge Independent Games Festival display. Massive pillars towered before me, each containing a computer dedicated to a single game, with a huge title banner above and crowd of people below. I'd seen the IGF logo before, as it looked familiar to me, but it took me a few seconds of weaving my way through the crowd to remember where I'd heard about it, and why it was interesting to me. I stared at the pillar directly in front of me and read the title of the game it featured: Clean Asia. A quick look around the other pillars yielded another familiar name: Battleships Forever. I'd heard about both titles making it somewhat far in the latest IGF competition, but I still found it really refreshing to see two games that I knew had been constructed in Game Maker to be featured alongside other amazing games on the show floor.

It really is an exciting thing, on many levels. At the very base of the whole thing, it's great to see two independent game designers (from a community many of us are part of) see this sort of recognition. It's also great to see games made with Game Maker be taken seriously by the indie community, and the larger game development community in general. It just goes to show you how silly all the naysayers and hyper-critical people within the Game Maker circle really are.

Just being at the expo lent me a re-alignment of my compass within game development, but seeing these two games in the show was one of the highlights of the trip for me.

Overall, I had a great time walking around two of the expo floors at GDC08, taking in all the sights and sounds, and feeling even more connected to the global body of Game Developers. I only wish I would have had more time to look at everything!

Before I forget, I'd like to say thanks to Suzanne Forest from ECD Systems / Indie Game Showcase, who was able to offer many people in the area a free ticket to GDC08. I appreciate all the work ECD has done with the Indie Game Showcase, and I hope to have a new game to enter into a future contest sometime.

Thanks for reading, hope everyone had a good weekend!

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GDC08, Sandbox of God 2

 Martin · 16 years

Hey, I'm back from my blog hiatus! Miss me? I thought so.

As anyone who's followed my various exploits over the years might have guessed from my lack of posting, I've been a busy guy lately. This is partially due to my job, to my constant tinkering with Game Maker, to my spending time with my girlfriend, to a minor car accident, and to various other endeavors that will go unsaid. Don't worry though - all is well with Marty. I'm just a teeny, tiny bit tired right now, and barring some sort of spontaneous bout of sleep, I'll do my best to talk about some new stuff here before I sign off tonight.

First though, since pictures are worth a lot more words than I could (or would) ever type here, I've got an image for you:

Pretty neat eh? If all goes according to plan, I'll hopefully be able to take a little time off from work tomorrow and go check out the expo at GDC 2008. I'm pretty excited about it!

And if it turns out that I can't go, well... at least I got a chance to hit San Francisco for a while earlier in the week. And I've got some good (and legally burned) tunes, and a wireless headset for my 360 / PC gaming needs. Call of Duty 4's been a blast lately.

As far as serious projects with Game Maker go, I really haven't had much time lately to code. This is good though, because as some of you have spotted, I am actually working on a collaborative effort right now, with a fellow by the name of Mr. Chubigans. We're working on a sequel to his previous game, Sandbox of God; a sequel which is appropriated titled Sandbox of God 2. The full title is actually Sandbox of God 2: Ancient Warfare - we're hoping to enter the game into the latest YoYo Games competition, whose theme is "Ancient Civilizations." I'm working on the graphical end of things, and we've also recruited MischiephX / Ds (of Aces High Over Verlor Island fame) for music, so hopefully we'll be able to get something fun and impressive put together. Win, lose, or fail to finish, I am really enjoying this so far. It's actually quite a relief to be able to leave other important aspects of the game in someone else's hands, and just concentrate on the part I am most skilled at.

Normally at this time (9:44 PM PST), I don't feel all that tired, but tonight I feel especially exhausted. I've been putting a lot of hard work in at my job, trying to finish up a movie loop for a big expo coming up, and I've also had to create a lot of random things in a very compressed amount of time lately. I did get to see a Flash banner that I created up on ESPN.com though, so that was exciting. All in all it's very rewarding, but just the same, I am really pooped out, even with the short work week.

Another tidbit for those of you who have read my posts on my various blogs over the years - I have finally been "inspired" to get that painting job done for my buddy. It's a good thing that he's a patient guy, but I think that with my new inspiration, the trifecta of paintings that have taken me over a year to get done will be worth the wait. I'm probably going to try to get that rolling this weekend - I'll post some pics.

Well, anyway... Marty's hittin' the sack. Thanks for reading my blog, and hope to see you back here soon... I'll be posting more often again, so don't be a stranger!

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3D Design on the Cheap – TrueSpace 5 only $40!

 Martin · 16 years
trueSpace 5

My apologies for not making a larger post right now, but I have exciting news for anyone who's looking to enter into the world of 3D design on a budget... I recently found out, through an advertisement email I got at work, that TrueSpace 5 (my 3D design tool of choice) is on sale right now for only $40! For a program that normally retails around the $199 mark, that's a heck of a deal!

I know that if you really want to get a job in the industry, it's best to learn Maya or 3D Studio, but if you're not quite at that level yet, or you just want a tool that's easy to use and still powerful in output, consider checking out TrueSpace. It's a great way to introduce yourself to working and editing 3D scenes, and has some pretty nifty animation and physics features to boot. My one caveat with TrueSpace 5 is it's lack of a good UV editor, but if you don't mind using a separate tool for this (or you're planning on keeping your models within the program), then you're good to go.

Check out this link to Caligari's website for more information. Anyway, I'll have a bigger post about some of my secret favorite games soon, but I just wanted to help promote a product I've enjoyed over the years for now!

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