ugachaka :: Jacob was here

photo credit: William Hook

Yes, I caved. I bought Grand Theft Auto IV. I am a victim of the hype.

Not that I am disappointed. Now that I have an Xbox 360, I finally own a system that will play a GTA game. Previously, I have only owned Nintendo systems where the hallowed cars thefts and gun battles were not welcome.

Impressions will have to come later because the past several weeks have kept my Xbox cold, my Wii gently humming and my sleep hours low.

Rockstar Games made a game where you act out murder, and it is getting banned places. Shocker.

Manhunt 2 has now been banned in Britain for all the stalking and brutal slaying. I mean, come on Rockstar, there’s not even an evil crime boss telling you to do it like Grand Theft Auto.

Murder-sims beware. Kind of a bad direction to go in the first place with all the HD realism these next-gen days.

With BioWare’s roleplaying masterpiece “Mass Effect” coming to the Xbox 360 sometime in the future, advertising people are watching and thinking.

The Gaming Insider over at MediaPost points out the possibilities of using “choose-your-own-adventure” style gameplay to monitor what’s hot with gamers today. The example Josh Lovison uses is a racing game where players could assign points to their vehicle and advertisers could see where point values were distributed to see what consumers want in their cars.

The problem with that is that no one is going to value safety in a racing game or evaluate their racing car in the same way they would when they go to the dealership. A man that places all his points in speed and acceleration may be buying a minivan to tote around his three kids when he gets to the actual car dealership.

This idea seems like a bad direction for advertising since it will be unpredictable. I think a more fruitful direction for advertisers to look is in sponsored games and in-game advertising. The Burger King games have been a huge sleeper success being as cheap as they are. Advertisers would be smart to take a game like Grand Theft Auto 4 and sponsor the in-game advertising. Making the game cheaper for gamers would make it a guaranteed top title as well as give them hours or exposure since gamers would see logos over and over again as they steal cars and beat up gangsters.

Using the gamer platform for research would only work for a small few game concepts and not give much valuable insight to what people actually buy. Gaming is a place for escapists and not a huge playground for realists unless we are talking casual games.

After playing through the demo of Crackdown, I have to say that it is an incredibly refreshing to finally see a game combine both character power-ups like an RPG and shooter gameplay. Even in the demo, I got my agent’s agility built up to the point where I could jump 20 feet in the air and scale buildings in just a couple of jumps. It was like a Superman minus the horrible result most of them have been over the last several years.

The lock-on feature was very necessary since it is a third-person game. It would have been nice is the demo had actually told you that it was possible sooner. I spent the first few minutes of the game running around in circles trying to land hits on the gang members. It is also a little strange how the game sometimes has gang members jump on you and start shooting, and sometimes they just drive right past you through an intersection without a peep. I think there is some element of the game where you can be either on high alert or relaxed, but I didn’t get to figure out how to control it much in the two plays of the demo. The timer on the demo cuts you off after your agent gets to a certain ability level and a 30 minute timer begins.

I just might have to put the game on pre-order and not just because it might give me a chance of being a Halo 3 Beta tester. Crackdown has a new feel even though the game is really a combination of True Crime and Grand Theft Auto. The story is fresh and power-ups add a great element of the game to keep it new. Every time my agent powered up, I spent several minutes checking out my new abilities. Being able to play co-op games also adds a cool twist on the game. You can pair up with more powerful agents to help you defeat the toughest bosses or just find someone on your level so that you don’t feel like you are worthless. Check out the demo if you haven’t already.

Dated: January 31, 2006

The Los Angeles city attorney’s office filed a lawsuit against Rockstar Games Tuesday over the Hot Coffee mod–or modification–for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. The mod allows players to view sexual scenes the lawsuit claims Rockstar hid from the Entertainment Software Ratings Board. Installing a patch unleashes the adult content. Rockstar must be bypassing laws to get this content to children. Don’t you know all concerned parents buy M-rated games for their children and allow them to install X-rated patches on them? Can parents handle anything themselves these days?

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