Blizzard has announced that Diablo 3 is on the way!
And from the looks of it, this is going to be one of the most visually rich dungeon runs you've ever been on!
One of my buddies mentioned this to me last night on World of Warcraft, but I had not gotten an opportunity to check out the official site until this morning.
If you're a fan of the Diablo series, I'd definitely recommend giving the website a look - Blizzard has released a large collection of screenshots (which I've got hosted here as well, in a gallery at the end of the post), as well as some wallpapers, concept art, lore, and a lot more. It's a great way to kick off what looks to be another triple-A title.
I'm a big fan of multiplayer dungeon-run games like Diablo and Dungeon Siege, and though I like the pre-made levels available in these types of games, I've always reserved a special place for those that can generate dungeons randomly as well. Random dungeons give the player a sense of discovery that's simply not possible when they run the same levels over and over, and I love the idea of working my way through a dungeon that nobody else may have ever seen before. From what I have read about Diablo 3, this game will include this feature and that, coupled with the amazing graphics and the classic Diablo gameplay, is just about enough to get me to put in a pre-order right now.
Hopefully we'll be learning more about the world of Sanctuary soon - I'm especially looking forward to a release date. The fact that Blizzard is posting job listings for Diablo 3 on the website makes me believe we won't be playing this anytime really soon, but seeing as the game is far enough along to deliver these amazing screenshots, it couldn't be that far off, right? Maybe a holiday release? Please?
In any case, I'm going to have to round up my current batch of unfinished games and get through them so I have time for this... but then Spore will be out later this year, as well as Gears of War 2. And possibly C&C: Red Alert 3. And then there will be more updates to Team Fortress 2. And the World of Warcraft expansion.
Ah, well... sleeping was always such a waste of time anyway, right?
In all my excitement over the Spore Creature Creator and trying to fit my game playing/creating time into the remainder of the day, I nearly forgot that Valve had announced a Team Fortress 2 update, along with the release of a new character vignette!
Meet the Sniper is another brilliant clip introducing the playable character classes from TF2, this time, quite obviously, for the sniper. The short video follows the sniper around his "workplace" as he guns down and machetes enemies, drives his truck, and... talks on the phone with parents (who, by the sniper's own admittance, don't like his job).
The camping scene and the ending are also fantastic, but I won't ruin it for you - watch it for yourself, below.
As I mentioned in a previous blog post, these videos are the result of a fantastic promotional campaign for Team Fortress 2 by Valve. They shine with the kind of polish that can only be obtained via confidence and respect for one's work and considering how great of a game Team Fortress 2 is, and continues to be with each class update, Valve has a lot to be proud of.
I've yet to play the updated flame-thrower, but I'll be sure to report back here when I do.
And for one last note - don't forget to download Firefox 3 if you haven't already. It's hardly been 24 hours since its launch, and the new browser has already been downloaded over 7 million times! That number seems a bit bloated, but - wow! Congratulations to Mozilla - there's no doubt their little browser is a big hit.
After having read about countless people playing with the Spore Creature Creator (and watching the number of creatures added to the online database jump by the thousands with each page refresh), I finally got a chance to try it out myself... and it's pretty fun!
I also made this goofy blue dragon.
I haven't had a chance to give this a really lengthy go-round, but from what I have played so far, it's intuitive, easy, and fun. Taking your creature for a test-drive as you develop him is awesome, and the features the team has built into the game for taking pictures, creating videos, animated avatars, etc. is great. I'm still going to reserve final judgment for the final release of the game, but just from this small taste, I think Spore is going to turn out great.
As with the Mii channel on Wii, half the fun will be to see what kind of creations people can make that resemble existing creatures. I've already seen a Murloc creature floating around, and it was a pretty damn good recreation.
Anyway, I'm going to get back to playing around with this, as well as working on my YYG Competition 3 entry - be sure to try out the Creature Creator though and let me know what you think!
There's much ado with Marty - here's the low-down on what I've been up to, and what I've got planned for the week.
YoYo Games Competition 3
I've been bouncing around an idea in my head for the third installment of the YYG game competition a while now, and I think that when I get home from work today, I might just start putting together an engine. The idea I have is for a puzzle game, and is somewhat basic in design, but even with simple rules, I think that a complex and fun game can be created. I'll be posting more about this later in the week depending on how things turn out. About the only thing I'd like to give away for now is that the graphic style I have in mind is akin to something like Out of This World. And it's probably going to have robots in it.
Reflect Games
I know, I keep saying that I'm working on a site update, and nothing comes of it - well, there is actually quite a bit going on with the beta version of the new site, and though I've been off the project again for a few weeks, I'll be dipping into it again soon enough. I've also got a few things to sort out with the Reflect server code itself, so I might be re-writing that too - if the problems the Adrenaline team has been having with it turn out to be a Reflect issue.
World of Warcraft
Despite my best efforts not to play that much WoW, I put in a fair amount of time with the game this weekend... and now I've got my epic flying mount, which makes traveling around the game, mining, and questing a lot more enjoyable. For anyone outside of the Azeroth loop, much of your time in the game is spent traveling to and from where you need to go... so the faster you can get there, the better. There are a multitude of solutions for this - mages can make portals to towns (like Diablo), you can pay for rapid transit from town to town via flying beast, and eventually you can buy all sorts of mounts of various breed and speed. An epic flying mount is about the fastest ride you can buy, and combined with my Paladin's Crusader Aura, gives me a speed increase of 456%. Needless to say, this makes traveling around the World of Warcraft a lot less time consuming, and the game much more enjoyable.
I'm now currently waiting for Blizzard to unlock a new set of PVP gear for purchase, so I'll probably be spending a bit less time playing until then.
Web Work
I've also been helping out my buddy "D" to get his gaming news blog off the ground. I've re-skinned it and added a lot of cool plug-ins and customizations to help the site look its best. Check out DLB-Network.com to see how it all turned out.
The Rest
There's not much else going on for me at the moment - my girlfriend is out of town for most of the week. I finished my lunch-time book a few days ago, so I have nothing to read today (I'll probably just listen to the radio). And I'm not sure what I want to eat for lunch... hmm.
Anyway, that's all. Who else is working on a game for the next YYG competition? Post a comment, I'd like to hear from ya! And as always, thanks for reading.
This weekend I tried my hand at 6 Xbox Live Arcade games, and here's the lowdown on each one. Are any of them worth your time, or for that matter, your money? Read on to find out!
I kicked off my game demo bonanza with Assault Heroes - a top-down shooter that throws waves and waves of enemies at you as you progress from one place to another. As the name implies, this is the second game in the series, and this time the assault heroes are given a new locale, a few new vehicles to drive around in, and new enemies to dispose of.
For anyone who's played Geometry Wars (or the first Assault Heroes, for that matter), the controls will be easy to pick up. The left stick moves your character around while the right stick fires your weapon. You're given a single button for switching weapons, and a single button for entering and exiting vehicles. Play is a simple matter - fill your enemies with bullets while avoiding being filled with bullets yourself.
Visually, Assault Heroes 2 is a treat. There's oodles of bad guys, tanks, buggies, helicopters, explosions, and collapsing buildings, all on an exotic background of snow-covered mountains, rain forests, space, and more. Though it was, at times, slightly hard to follow all the action on my SDTV (and sitting about 10 feet away), I could usually follow my character and all the bullet tracers well enough. I don't think I would have had any troubles with this if I had been playing the game on my computer monitor.
I always kind of wanted to buy Assault Heroes, but since the game is best enjoyed with multiple players, and none of my friends seem to own it, I never did. I'm afraid that the same fate will befall Assault Heroes 2, but if you've got interested friends, I'd definitely recommend it.
Though I wouldn't call myself a Sudoku master yet, I do enjoy the logical challenge presented by the typical Sudoku puzzle, both on paper and in games. For those of you who haven't really gotten into the whole thing, here's a brief explanation.
A typical Sudoku puzzle is a grid of 9 squares by 9 squares, broken into 3 rows and 3 columns of 3 by 3 grids. Each 3 by 3 group and each row and column in the the overall puzzle can contain the numbers 1 through 9 only once. The puzzle has a few numbers inside it when you start, and from those, you use logic to determine where all the other numbers should go. It might sound a bit confusing at first, but it's easy to get into, and hard to quit!
Like most other games of the casual persuasion, Buku Sudoku is big on bling. The presentation, while not the greatest I've seen, is mostly strong. The game comes dressed in a variety of themes, and plays soft background music in the menus and while you play. In my first game, I found the song that the game defaulted to (a kind of Asian-ish thing) somewhat annoying, but the second wasn't so bad. The few themes I saw looked good, though you're probably going to be looking at Sudoku grid most of the time anyway.
Gameplay was just as you'd expect - you put numbers on the grid, and the game tells you if your input is correct. The controls in the game were passable, though I would have preferred a different way to change / enter numbers. I think I might just be spoiled by the touch-screen implementation in Brain Age (DS), though.
Overall, Buku Sudoku would be a good buy for someone looking for thousands of puzzles (and who really likes Sudoku). The demo didn't seem to have any major flaws, except a few flubs in presentation and control. I might purchase this someday when I've got nothing else to do, but for now, I'll continue working on the puzzles in Brain Age.
The best way I can describe TiQal is by likening it to Lumines - the two are essentially the same game. Puzzle pieces of various colors rise from the floor, and your job is to counter this by dropping similarly colored pieces to make groups of 4 (2 by 2), which are then wiped from the play field after a certain amount of time. You can score combos by adding to the stack of squares that are already marked for demolition, and the game is over if you let the stack get too high. The few differences between this game and Lumines include a more forgiving failure system, puzzle pieces that don't come in duo-colored squares, and a Mayan theme.
I liked TiQal's graphics, mostly. Some of the transitions between story and play areas were a bit dull (I don't really care for sliding large graphics on and off the screen), but the backdrops were vibrant and I liked the effects. My only squabbles were that block colors are sometimes a little too similar, resulting in a few accidental missed combos, and that the backgrounds are a little bright in some places, making it hard to discern what's going on in the play area. These problems may have been related to my viewing arrangement, but for a puzzle game, it's important to consider these things.
As a minor fan of Lumines, I felt TiQal was a decent enough game to borrow so heavily from the game. If I didn't own Lumines already, I might have been more interested in purchasing TiQal, as I liked the gameplay and the presentation (despite how over-done the whole Mayan theme thing is with casual games).
Probably the most stylish game I tried out on my Xbox Live Arcade trial weekend, Ikaruga is the anticipated shoot 'em up (SHMUP) direct from the Japanese arcade scene. This game is a great example of what you can get when you cross tried-and-true play mechanics with "next-gen" hardware, and like many current SHMUPS on the PC, you'll find yourself (and probably others) mesmerized by the action as you blast your way through the waves.
Ikaruga is cinematic and stylish at once, and everything has a very sharp, clean look to it. The backgrounds you fly over as you battle are breathtaking, and enemy ships will weave in and out of elements below you before making their way to the foreground. Ships and bullets are fun to look at and easy to distinguish. Even in playing the trial game, you really get the sense that the developers of Ikargua truly cared about making sure every last bit of the game was as polished as possible.
One unique twist that Ikaruga carries over similar games is the polarity system Treasure Co., Ltd. have employed. Each enemy you face, and all the bullets they fire, are of either red or blue polarity. You can change your ship's polarity at will, which allows you to absorb bullets of the same polarity and do extra damage to enemy ships of the opposite. This adds a very interesting depth to the game, whereas an impossibly navigable array of bullets can turn into a field of super-weapon in the blink of an eye. As would be expected, this also ads a bit to the learning curve, but once you get used to it, you're good to go.
I enjoyed the feel of the game, and the simple controls made it easy to get into. Controlling the ship with an analog joystick is a little strange after using a keyboard on PC SHMUPS, but I think I will get used to it.
I've not yet bought Ikaruga, but once I give the trial game a few more plays, I might just throw the MS points down and take the plunge. Ikaruga is one of the best (and only) Japanese shooter experiences you can find on the 360, and for fans of SHMUPS, it simply shouldn't be passed up.
Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One [Link]
Out of all the games I tried out this weekend, Penny Arcade Adventures is probably the one I spent the most amount of time with. It's also one of the larger games available on Xbox Live Arcade, as well as one of the most expensive (1600 MS Points, or $20). For those not deterred by the price, however, there's plenty of good fun to be had.
PAA follows the hijinks of the Penny Arcade web comic protagonists, Tycho and Gabe, as they romp through a 1920's era city named New Arcadia, kick robot butt, and attempt to solve the mystery behind the destruction of the town. The game employs a simple RPG style of play, where you move around the world via entering and exiting different panels (like a comic book), fights begin when you encounter monsters, and each character waits for action meters to fill up before he can attack, use items, or use a special ability. When you're in the overworld, you can smash garbage cans and chest to pick up special items, and as you play you collected experience points, which level your character and make him (or her) stronger.
Fans of the comic and newcomers to the series alike will find a lot to enjoy in PAA. The graphics are done in a comic-outlined style very reminiscent of the Penny Arcade comic (and other web comics in general, I'd say), the audio is good, the RPG elements are light, but still interesting, and the humor is great. It's really fun game to look at overall, and the production values that go into a more expensive Xbox live Arcade title are evident.
Right now I've got a few more games on deck than I like, so I'm holding off, but I'll definitely buy Penny Arcade Adventures at some point in the future. I like the RPG play, as well as the presentation of the game itself, with the cartoon graphics, comic-panel level design, etc. Though I'm not a regular Penny Arcade reader, I usually find the comics funny, and the humor Hothead Games has injected into the game is similar, which is definitely a plus.
It's slightly disappointing that, as harsh critics of the video game industry, the guys behind Penny Arcade couldn't have come up with a better overall game, but what's here seems solid enough to warrant a buy for me. If the episodic adventures get better as they progress, we should be in for some great times ahead with the PAA crew.
In an attempt to round out the multiplayer trivia options found on Xbox Live Arcade, Hidden Path Entertainment has unleashed Wits & Wagers, a game-show type game where you and a group of other players take a stab at answering questions, and then vote on the answer which seems closest to the truth. Expectedly, it's a test of both your wits and your wagering skills.
To be fair, I didn't spend as much time with Wits & Wagers as I probably should have to give it a decent write-up, but what I did get the chance to see was fun, though slightly dull. In order to make answers to trivia questions all conform to one type of answer (to make them easier to compare for wagering), each answer is numeric. Once the question is posed, players are given a short time to dial in a number by pressing up or down on the left stick, to indicate all sorts of data, from years, miles, weight, and more, all depending on the nature of the question. Answers are ordered from high to low, players place their bets, and the real answer is revealed. Points are awarded to the player who came closest to the correct answer without going over, and to the players who wagered wisely.
I was distracted by my girlfriend at the time (she was trying to get me to get up off the couch and go outside, I believe), so I wasn't able to concentrate much on the questions... I did have some fun with the avatar system though. Using one of the analog sticks, you can make your on-screen avatar throw it's arms and body around to dance, wilt, cheer, etc. Simple, and stupid - but fun, even with a group of computer players moving spastic around with me. I imagine this, along with the rest of the game, is a lot more fun playing online, with a group of friends.
Like Assault Heroes 2, I don't think I'd purchase Wits & Wagers unless I had a small throng of friends ready to buy and play along with me. It's got some neat quirks, but it all seems just a little too simple for me, unfortunately.
Final Thoughts
History has taught me to expect less from the offerings on Xbox Live Arcade, so even though there were a few games in this stack that didn't quite fit the bill, I'd say that overall, I was pleasantly surprised. There's definitely some good stuff up there (and they'll be easier to find once Microsoft starts de-listing underperforming games).
I'm not sure when I'll be doing another Arcade roundup, but I enjoyed this one and hope the next few weeks of games raise the bar in quality like these games have. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to try out some new games yourself!
Despite my having a girlfriend, a job, working on the Reflect Games website update, helping a buddy with his new blog, considering entering the 3rd YoYo Games competition, trying to finish GTA4, and various other real-world obligations, I've also started putting in a little bit of time on World of Warcraft again.
In my defense, it wasn't an idea entirely my own. My brother, Spencer, had a lot to do with it. He's just as addicted to games as I am, and his boredom led him to persuade me to play some WoW with him again.
"I'm thinking about playing WoW again," he mentioned to me one day. "I want to start a new character on a friend's server."
Being bored with my pre-GTA library of games, I expressed some interest. Soon, we had a plan set; we'd blaze through the game as the fantastic duo of warrior and priest. I'd beat the hell out of monsters while my brother made sure my health level was maintained. This is surely a strong combination of might against just about any type of foe... well, except one. Computer hardware failure.
Spencer's computer seems to be suffering from either a bad power supply or a heating problem, as best I can tell. After getting our characters rolling up into the bulk of the game, his computer began crashing WoW every few minutes. He's re-installed the game multiple times, and I've torn his computer apart and re-assmbled it, but the problem persists. He's due for a hardware upgrade though, so when that day eventually comes, the adventures of Ismashya and Autzen will continue. In the meantime, however, I was left with an active WoW account, and not much else to do.
I started an alternate character (a hunter) and began the game anew. After only a week I had leveled to 42, and already had my first mount. But leveling began to take longer, and I started looking upon the higher levels with envy. Every visit to a capital city reminded me that there was an entire world of upper-tier players riding around on their flying mounts, making ridiculous amounts of gold, doing player-vs-player activities, and raiding the high level dungeons.
I tried playing some of the battlegrounds (special PVP raid battles) with my hunter, and while I had fun and got a taste of the party the higher level players were having, it wasn't the same. I had to wait over 30 minutes to get into matches sometimes, and finding others to quest with was virtually impossible. Azeroth is a big place, and with most people on the server playing upper level characters, I was left to fend mostly for myself.
So did I persevere? Did my lonely hunter (and mountain lion pet) conquer all and become one of the elite of Warcraft?
Of course not!
Instead, I dusted off my long-dead level 69 paladin, grinded to level 70, and began partaking in all the upper-tier goodness a guild-less player can. I got my flying mount. I've battled the battlegrounds (with players who have alarmingly large amounts of health compared to me). I made over 1000 gold over the weekend. And I've started trying my hand at some of the daily quests.
I'm sure I'll get bored of it again eventually... especially if my brother can't get his computer running soon. But for now, I'm having some fun with it, and I'm still spending plenty of time with my girlfriend, on my own projects, Grand Theft Auto 4, and everything else, so I see no harm in it.
In the meantime, if you run into a companionless paladin (whose name reminds you of bite-size pizza) mining the earth of the Outland or getting slaughtered in Eye of the Storm, it might just be me.
Just about every day, I find a little time in my busy day to sit down with my Nintendo DS and get a some quality hand-held gaming in. And while I've yet to finish Phantom Hourglass from Christmas, I recently picked up a used copy of Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney, in order to see what all the fuss was about, and further diversify my library of DS games. Turns out that there's not a lot to object to - public defender Wright's got a pretty fun game on his hands.
The game plays much like you'd expect from a defense attorney pseudo-simulation; you are presented with a series of trials in which you help Phoenix carry out his duties and have the defendant found not guilty. This is accomplished via a combination of pre-trial detective work and courtroom shenanigans. There is a lot of reading to be done as you work your way through interviews, witness testimonies, and the courtroom process. Those who take the time to actually read all the text are rewarded, though - sifting through the details carries the obvious benefit of helping you solve the cases, and you'll enjoy the game more, as it is very well written.
The presentation of Ace Attorney is excellent, and the graphics and music really fit the game's writing style well. All the characters in the game, important or not, are brought to life in a sharp anime-like style, with a sprinkle of animation here and there. The backgrounds all have a painted quality to them as well. I especially enjoyed the courtroom / lawyer segments. The mix of the written drama with the expressions of Phoenix and company are great, and had me laughing and booing at all the right points. The musical score, while slightly repetitive at points, is also very well done, and help move along the story at the appropriate times.
I'd estimate that at the time of this writing, I am about 95% finished with the game, and though I found most of the game fairly easy, I did stumble on a few sections. In my opinion, this is where Phoenix Wright truly shines, though. Throughout each trial, you're asked to present key evidence or to answer important questions at certain points. Each correct answer moves the story forward, and inches your client closer to vindication, while each wrong answer results in a penalty from the judge, which can only happen five times before the trial is over and the defendant is declared guilty. Sometimes the solutions are obvious, and sometimes they take a lot of thought, but I appreciate that Capcom actually tried to make you think and use logic to solve the crimes... it's something that more studios could afford to do these days.
Once I'm done with Ace Attorney, I'll probably try to find a copy of the second installment of the series, or maybe even jump to the third. I've really liked this game so far, and if you're not afraid of doing a little bit of reading on your DS, I highly recommend it. Phoenix Wright is a quality game, and aside from the Mario and Zelda staples, it's probably some of the best gaming I've done on my DS.
And now, for one last law-themed promotion: It'd be a crime not to play this game!
Oh, and in completely unrelated news, I've been interviewed by Complete Indie Gamers... check it out!
I just wanted to make a quick post to point out a new feature, an upcoming addition, and to talk about what's in store in the coming months for my games and my web endeavors. I've got some neat stuff planned, and I hope that there will be something for everyone here when it's all said and done.
User Registration at Marty Blog
This was actually a request of a friend of mine. I've now opened registration up on the blog, which means that, if you so choose, you can now register as a Subscriber, login, and have the site remember your user details for when you post. Frankly, I should have done this sooner. You can still comment without registering though, so if you're not the type who likes to register, everything is just as it was before!
Games On the Way
If you've read up on the archives of this blog or poked around a bit, you've noticed that part of the reason why I created it was to replace my old games site with something easier to maintain and with broader use. You might have also noticed that, while my examples have made the jump from old site to new, my games haven't - but I aim to change that soon. Within the next week or so I'll be adding a special page to house my games, with better descriptions, control explanations, etc. so don't forget to check that out (especially if you haven't played all of the games yet!).
Reflect Games Site Update
It's been a long time in the making, but I am slowly moving closer to releasing the new version of the Reflect Games website. The changes are a mixed bag of functional and aesthetic improvements, and will include a friends list, credit store, highscore page, improved stats and profiles, and a lot more. Though all the new features will not justify the amount of time it's taken me to finish, I think the site will look more professional and will offer more reasons for people to create and use Reflect accounts. I'll post more about this when I draw closer to the update.
Cross-Site Mayhem
My buddy Dandri, the guy who requested registration here, currently runs the Official PlayStation 3 blog at MySpace, and is looking to expand his operations to a whole new site this summer. We've been talking about doing some cross-site promotions, and since we both have extreme opinions about certain aspects of the gaming world, we thought it'd be interesting to do some interviews and other things along those lines, so keep your eyes peeled for that stuff as well. Again, I will post more about this as the details emerge.
What About Game Maker?
Depending on when the upcoming YoYo Games Competition 3 is announced, and exactly what they decide to do with the user-created theme, "co-operation," I might just be entering. I liked that they gave developers more time to work on games for the second competition, and I've got a couple of ideas that might prove to be fun if they work out correctly.
I'd also like to be getting in more Game Maker in general, but with the Reflect Games website revamp, Grand Theft Auto 4 (aswellasothergames), my job, and my girlfriend, I've not had too much time lately to work on anything significant. Hopefully I'll be able to turn that around this summer, as I finish the website and the games up. I've got a few small projects I've had floating around on my computer for a while that I am considering just releasing the source code for as well.
In any case, I'm trying to get things rolling a little more swiftly than they have been, and to get things out the door. I'll be publishing more What's New with Marty to show my progress in the coming weeks / months, providing there is anyway.
If you've got anything to add to my to-do list, feel free to let me know with your comments - my head hasn't exploded yet!
Yeah, yeah, I know - right on the heels of my "CGI Trailers are Trash" post comes another about how great a new CGI trailer is... well, this is a bit of a different case than what I brought up in my other entry, so I'll hear no complaints.
So in case you've not heard about or seen it already, Valve has released another Team Fortress 2 character vignette, this time for the scout, and I remain both impressed and excited for them. To date, we've seen videos for the soldier, heavy weapons guy, engineer, demo man, and scout, and my only complaint so far is that we've had to wait so long in between each video.
If it means that we will continue to see such high-quality stuff, however, the wait is fine with me. In contrast with the ridiculous marketing materials I complained about in my last post about CGI trailers, I feel that these vignettes show that Valve truly cares about their Team Fortress 2 project. The visuals are rendered with expertise, the dialog is genuinely funny, and the voice acting is excellent. Most importantly though, they maintain the same attitude and style of the game, and they don't insult my intelligence by trying to masquerade as actual gameplay footage.
Well done, Valve. I'm looking forward to future character profiles!
If you haven't seen the previous character highlight vignettes, I highly recommend watching them. They're instant classics, whether you play the game or not!
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.
