Look at This Picture [Update II]

Can't say fairer than that, can you?! It'll probably change soon, but as of 27th of April 2008 at 20:46 (GMT+1) and based on 12 reviews, it's 100/100, 10/10, top marks all round etcetera (at least on the Xbox 360).

[Update] It's now dropped to 99 with another 5 reviews added, but still with none of the reviews dropping below 95, it's an amazing feat. Not long left to go now!

[Update II] Ten more reviews and it's still at 99. I don't know whether to feel relieved because I wanted this game to be this good, or cry because I haven't got it yet.

GTA IV Released!

The countdown clock has gone and GTA IV is now available to purchase, at least in theory, as it's pretty much sold out everywhere, much to my dismay as I haven't got my copy, yet. Play.com said they'd posted my copy on Friday, then sent me an email saying they'd only posted it today.

Oh, well. Shit happens. Still, I bought myself a spanking new and really rather awesome 26", widescreen HD TV last night and am currently playing through my back catalogue of Xbox 360 games and checking out the upgraded pictures. It certainly makes a difference when compared to a 4:3, 21" SD TV. Some of the games are letterboxed when viewed on a non-widescreen TV and sometimes the HUD can be hard to read. So no more squinting when trying to see how much life Urdnot Wrex has left when playing Mass Effect (which looks so much better in HD).

With all this said, Xbox 360 games look good in SD anyway, so an HD TV isn't essential, but it's definitely worth getting one to see the games as they were meant to be seen.

Poll Results II

The second ever results from a poll on GOOF! Woo. Here they are. Everybody who voted owns a Wii, but all of you own at least one of the consoles I put in the poll, which is rather irrelevant seeing as I didn't add a 'None of the above' option and forgot portable consoles like the DS and the PSP (which I don't care about). Pretty much all the relevant info I could get from that poll.

I didn't vote twice this week, so all in all a more successful poll. Make sure to vote in the next poll soon!

GTA IV Prospective - Cancelled

Sorry. I felt that there would be no point, seeing as all the reviews are popping up on your internets thick and fast.

So, instead, read all the reviews, they're from people who have actually played the game, and watch all the videos!

GameTrailers go GTA IV Mental

Fancy watching all the GTA IV goodness you could possibly get in video form? Then head on over to GameTrailers.com and take a gander at all the HD hi-jinks going on. GTA IV video after GTA IV video. It's almost too much to bear. The best thing is that it's all real gameplay footage. Running at real-time, with someone actually playing the game. Even though all of GTA IV's trailers have shown footage of the game running at real-time, this is the first time the actual game has been shown, HUD and all.

I, myself, have decided to not watch these videos, as I'd rather wait for the actual game before I first experience all these delights, but if you're dying to see some real GTA IV gameplay footage, then go for it.

Personally I'm just going to watch the review and leave it at that. Okay, maybe one or two. But definitely not the whole lot …

Euphoria - Coming To a Game Near You

Meet EuphoriaMan (as I've dubbed him). He's awesome. Look at his little eyes. He's the unofficial mascot for Euphoria and appears in their tech-demos to show-off just what Euphoria does. Below is one such tech-demo. Euphoria develops the concept of ragdoll physics by adding natural behaviour patterns to in-game player-characters and non-player-characters (NPCs). Basically, what this means is that when you interact with a Euphoria powered character, they act just like they would in real-life. Beat them about the head and watch, point and laugh as they collapse to the floor holding their bonce. If they fall, they'll try to grab hold of anything near them, including other NPCs, to stop themselves dying. They have self-preservation in spades.

What they also do is react to where about their person they are shot. Shoot them in the arm and they'll drop whatever weapons they're carrying. Shoot them in the leg on a flight of stairs and they'll tumble down just like they would in real-life, trying to stop themselves, but inevitably succumbing to the effects of gravity and a bullet stuck in their femur. None of it is scripted, either, as it uses the CPU dynamically and should therefore make each and every interaction unique.

Brilliantly, the Euphoria engine has been incorporated into GTA IV and will help add that real-life behaviour that creating such a game entails. So, watch the following video and imagine it all occuring within Liberty City, feel your anticipation for the game doubling and then weep because you can't have it for another couple of days. It's also being utilised in Star Wars: The Force Unleashed with seemingly stunning effect.

The question, though, is will Euphoria actually add anything significant to games? It's hard to see why it shouldn't, but what's definite is that it certainly won't detract anything. It also screams of next-gen technology, certainly something not to be scoffed at.

Coming Soon - The Team ICO Retrospective

As brilliant as it is, for those of you who are getting a little sick of GTA, I've decided to go off on a complete tangent from it and get away from all its modern day America, real-world, violence-driven, gun-toting, testosterone-fuelled, car porn, sex-action for my next captivating series of articles.

So, let's go for a fantasy game, let's go for a game without guns, let's go for a game that hasn't sold 70 million units (but should have), let's go for two games, actually, both made by the same developer but not sequels and not franchises. Can you guess what I'm aiming at (because the title and the pictures obviously aren't clues enough)?

Games that could possibly be described as complete polar-opposites to GTA; ICO and Shadow of the Colossus.

So keep watching, peeps, because soon my Team ICO Retrospective will be posted and all shall be right with the world once more.

It also gives me the excuse of playing them again! Yes!

GTA Retrospective V - Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

• Game: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
• Console: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
• Developer: Rockstar North
  
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Released: 2004

Massive. Huge. Monstrous. Just some of the words used to describe the size of GTA games, they somehow seem redundant when describing just how big GTA: San Andreas is. The game-world is roughly 5 times the size of Vice City's and it seems incredible just thinking about the step-up Rockstar has made from its previous titles to this magnum opus. When comparing the game to its predecessors, it seems silly calling them huge, because if they were huge, then what is San Andreas? 'Supermassive'? I'm not taking about how big the game world is, though, or even how long it takes to complete the main storyline, even though that, in itself, is a huge task. I'm talking about how much content this game provides the player.

When you first play the game, every time you continue the main storyline the game gives you something new to do. The very first mission you're given is to escape from an enemy gang's territory on, for the very first time in a GTA game, a bicycle. Not long after that, you're given a spray-can and are tasked with daubing your gang's tag across the game-world. Keep playing and you'll get the girlfriend mini-game, the burglary mini-game, low-rider racing, low-rider 'dancing' and more. All this in just the first few hours. What's notable is the fact that most of these things are completely new to the GTA series. Every GTA game added its own innovations of some sort, but San Andreas went above and beyond the call of duty in every respect.

GTA: San Andreas has you playing as Carl 'CJ' Johnson. Having seemingly run-away from his home city of Los Santos, Carl returns for his mother's funeral after a phone call from his brother, Sweet, telling him that she was killed in a drive-by shooting. When he returns he is immediately pounced upon by the crooked cop Tenpenny (voiced by none other than Samuel L Jackson), who threatens him by seemingly framing CJ with a cop killing. A cop who was close to outing Tenpenny as corrupt, coincidentally. When he gets home, he finds his former gang in disarray and pledges to help retake the streets of Los Santos for the Grove Street Families, thereby avenging his mother's death. Events conspire against him, though, which leads him to the different parts of the state of San Andreas.

So even though the first part of the game seems to be ripped straight from 'Boyz N The Hood', most of the game takes place far away from this ghetto setting. There's a countryside, replete with country bumpkins and small townships, farms, a mountain, large expanses of land, forests and everything else you'd expect from such a place. Hours can be whiled away exploring or just enjoying the scenery, becoming one with nature (albeit of the digital kind). Then there's the next two cities (San Fierro and Las Venturas) as well as the desert between them, which holds just as much as the countryside.

San Andreas also adds RPG-like elements to the game, but in its own way. Gorge yourself on Chicken Bell or Pizza Shack and you'll get fat. People will comment on your fatness, too. Calling you names and such, which you can respond to. Want to lose that weight? Go running, go swimming and stop eating so damn much. Simple and just like real-life (although at a slightly more accelerated rate). Want to tone up, get some muscles on them bones? Use the weight-lifting machines or dumbbells in the the various gyms dotted through-out San Andreas. You can upgrade your stamina, too, to make CJ run or swim for longer. Every weapon has different levels, making each weapon easier to use and allowing you to strafe the more you use them. Your driving ability gets better as the game progresses too, be it on bicycles, motorbikes or cars. You can also customise CJ by giving him different hairstyles and even more clothing options than Vice City which merely allowed you to wear different suits. You can even give CJ's skin a make-over and tattoo him, whether he likes it or not!

There are murmurings by some that GTA: San Andreas was too big. Can a game be too big? Certainly, if it becomes a chore, but there's something about San Andreas that grabs your attention and keeps you held until you complete the game, at least for your first play-through. As with every iteration of GTA, some of the flaws from previous titles are repaired, such as the aiming-system, which works remarkably well compared to past versions, but some flaws return, like draw distances and pop-up and the game can be incredibly glitchy. Sometimes you can drive through parts of the city that haven't loaded properly, but it's understandable, what with the game having to stream it all off the disc as you play it. The volume of activities in the game more than make up for such piffling issues like that, though.

GTA: San Andreas might give you the impression that it's trying to do too much. There is a hell of a lot in there, but most of it is optional. The racing activities, the gang-territory side-missions and such are there if you want to utilise them but you don't have to if you just want to complete the game. It makes things a little easier if you do these, as it gives you money to replace weaponry should you die (Wasted!) or get arrested (Busted!) and lose your arsenal, but you can still complete the main missions without touching the optional elements of the game. Completionists will have an absolute riot with this game and so will casuals, as it favours different types of gamers, those who jump in for the occasional burst and those who spend hours finding every little thing.

After playing GTA: San Andreas, you're left thinking that this is what Rockstar North imagined the game being, or at least becoming, when they first started work on GTA III. This was what they set out to create the moment they even thought about making a 3D GTA game. San Andreas is incredible. The story is compelling, each of the cities are completely unique, the characters are incredibly well rounded, the voice acting is superb and the game can look absolutely beautiful at times, especially at sunrise or sunset in the countryside. The soundtrack is probably the best yet in a GTA game, defining the setting and era of the game almost perfectly.

This game marks the end of the GTA III era and does it in style. It's still GTA III, but it's been refined and improved. So, the baton is passed to GTA IV. In five or so years will we see GTA IV's San Andreas? Just how big and just how good will it be? For now, though, we've got IV to look forward to, regardless of how many sequels the game could have or how good they could be.

Coming up: The GTA IV Prospective, just in time for the game's release.

Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV

Zero Punctuation Lays into SSBB [Update]

Yahtzee, you large-testicled stallion, what have you gone and done? You've only gone and bashed a much-loved Nintendo game!

But Yahtzee knows what he's done, as the man is a fupping genius. If you've ever held even the slightest contempt for Nintendo fanboys, or at rather a loss as to how or why Nintendo are popular, then take a look at his review of Super Smash Bros. Brawl for the Nintendo Wii. Chances are you'll agree with every word of it. If you are a Nintendo fanboy (in denial or otherwise) then you're pretty much going to disagree with every single thing he says.

However, the former will probably end up laughing their tits off, whilst the latter will probably end up on their favourite forum spewing bile about the man. However, he's quite prepared for it, and could probably give it back, too, inhisowninimitablestyle, no less.

[Update] Not an update about this story, but rather that (should you care) Super Smash Bros. Brawl has finally been given a release date in Europe. That blessed day is the 27th of June, according to the Official Nintendo Magazine UK website.

"So if you had any plans for the final weekend in June you should cancel them now and get ready to play what is set to be one of the finest fighters of the century!"

I can see myself still playing GTA IV, to be honest.

T3h Rezultz R Inn!!!"!!1!

Itz offical! Grnad theft orto FOR iz gonig to b buyed bai evryb0dy! 60% ov peeple r pre-odered, the r3st r guna buy it on relwase dai!! Srsly! Luk @ t3h polll >>! U cna't argyou wit dat!

Maybe not. Despite my first ever poll not being as successful as I had wanted it to be, I have garnered a little bit of information from it: hardly anybody visits my blog. *crying emoticon*

So, thank you to the 3 people other than me (I voted twice) who used the poll, and here's to the next poll which might get a little more action. Push its button, people!!

GTA Retrospective IV - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

• Game: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
• Console: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
• Developer: Rockstar North
  
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Released: 2002

You can imagine the board meeting at Rockstar when they were wondering where to go with the next GTA game - there they all are, sitting in their Skull Thrones™, sipping their newly drawn virgin's blood and having a cash-money fight when all of a sudden Little Timmy, the work experience lad, chimes in: "Imagine GTA set in the 80s. You know, with an 80's soundtrack. Neon, lycra, spandex, baby blue and pink everywhere, with Bros pumping out of the radio and everybody out rollerskating. It'd be awesome."

*awkward silence*

After they'd come back from sticking poor Little Timmy's head on a spike outside Rockstar Towers, Dan Houser (the Vice President, no less) addresses his slavering pack of barbarian programmers: "I think Little Timmy was onto a winner, actually, but let it be known that it was my idea and not some snot-nosed little git who interrupts my blood-sipping session! Although, let it be known that I never mentioned Bros. I mentioned Scarface, I mentioned Goodfellas and I mentioned Miami Vice." He said it and it was good and GTA: Vice City was born.

To differentiate the game from GTA III, Vice City was set in a sunny clime, rather than the wet and windy of Liberty City. Look, palm trees!

Released merely a year after GTA III, Vice City took GTA to a bygone era, an era some love, some detest, but most can never forget: the 80s. What seemed like a strange idea at the time became quite possibly the best GTA game released and, at the very least, the most unique. But what Vice City did best is capture the 80s perfectly. The soundtrack is spot-on, with tracks by A Flock of Seagulls, Michael Jackson, Judas Priest and Mr Mister amongst others (including some of the Scarface OST) to really capture the sounds of the 80s, as cheesy as that sounds. It's almost like a tribute to everything about the 80s, only one where you can bludgeon hookers to death.

GTA: Vice City still did what each sequel before it had done and that's improve and add to the gameplay. The lock-on weapon system was much improved, yet still not without its issues. Bikes were added, as were helicopters, and for the first time, players could buy property and make money from it. Also new for the series was a proper leading man, with a name and a voice. Tommy Vercetti, voiced by Ray Liotta, was the GTA series' first proper protagonist, and he came with his very own personality and back-story. Vercetti used to work for the Forelli Mafia family in Liberty City before going to prison for 15 years for his involvement with fifteen contract killings. When Vercetti gets out, the Forellis send him to Vice City to act as a buyer in cocaine deals. When he gets to Vice City for his first pick-up, he is ambushed, his bodyguards killed and both the cocaine and the money are lost to his attackers. He gets away, however, but is tasked by Sonny Forelli to retrieve the money and the cocaine and to kill whoever it was that set him up.

The above screenshot just screams 'EIGHTIES' at you.

GTA: Vice City was heavily influenced by Scarface and the mansion Tommy comes into ownership of about a quarter of the way into the game is almost a direct copy of Tony Montana's mansion, including the famous upstairs office where Scarface comes to its thrilling climax.

GTA: Vice City was incredibly well received. It garnered almost universal acclaim and, as of March 26th 2008, has sold 17.5 million units, according to Take-Two Interactive. Vice City is seen by some as the defining point of the GTA series, much more-so than its predecessor. It shows that Rockstar can pull off setting, story, gameplay and size in one easy bound. The fact that it was made in not much over a year goes to show just how talented the people over at Rockstar are. However, the next game would build on Vice City's success in more ways than one.

Coming up: GTA grows to the size of an entire state in GTA: San Andreas

The Legend of Zelda Introspective - Part I

• Developer: Nintendo
• Publisher: Nintendo
• First game: The Legend of Zelda (1986)
  
• Latest game: The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (2006)
  

Anybody who knows me in real-life knows how much I love the Legend of Zelda. They probably think that as I run a blog about gaming, I would post non-stop articles about Zelda. Well, I would have done, but a certain other game is coming out soon, and I was rather busy looking forward to that to be concerned with games I've already played (unless they're other GTA games). Not only that, but I've been a little off with the Zelda games since I first completed Twilight Princess about a year or-so ago.

Don't get me wrong, Twilight Princess is a really good game, but I can't really see where the franchise is going next. Since Ocarina of Time came out, fans have been pushing for another Zelda game of its ilk to be churned out by the mighty Japanese company. The Zelda fanboys were counting the hours that such a game was released. When Twilight Princess was unveiled (as merely The Legend of Zelda) at E3 2005 there was a collective orgasm from them all. I have to admit, that even I splurged a little when I first saw it. Even now, when I watch that video, I get a shiver down my spine as the crowd roars as they first see Link on horse-back, holding his sword aloft, galloping through Hyrule Field to meet the baying hoard of boar-riders. It's the way the music builds to a crescendo and just as Link is revealed the crowd explodes with cheering and clapping, one guy shouting "oh my God" at the top of his lungs. I defy anyone who likes Zelda even in the slightest to watch that video and not get a tingly spine.

Before that, and after Ocarina of Time, Zelda fans were treated to two 3D Zelda games. Majora's Mask and Wind Waker. Even though some revere Majora's Mask as the best Zelda game, the masses stick with OoT. When Wind Waker was revealed, it received probably the exact opposite reaction to Twilight Princess, just a polite smattering of applause, and then the uproar on various forums. Most of the fans weren't happy, some embraced this new look, but most derided it, dubbing it Celda because of the cel-shaded cartoon-like graphics and condemning it to rubbish-ness before they'd even played it. This was the Zelda game the fans didn't want. The fans had wanted Ocarina of Time on a next-generation console with next-generation graphics, an incredibly dark storyline and a much more grown-up attitude. They got next-gen graphics, but they never expected the cartoon visuals. It was then pretty much certain that any hopes of a 'mature' Zelda game were out of the window. Zelda had gone all 'kiddy'.

At its core, though, Wind Waker is still very much a Legend of Zelda game. It has everything that has become synonymous with the Zelda games. Link, Princess Zelda and Ganondorf are all present. You traverse an over-world as well as explore the obligatory puzzle-laden dungeons in search of the mysterious item held by the last boss. You collect items and such to help you progress through each dungeon, as well as get to hitherto unreachable areas of the overworld. It was also a pretty good game, too, with certain moments that reminisced upon Ocarina of Time placed especially for the fans. It reeked of a game that wanted to please fans, but made the fatal flaw of dumping their beloved world under the sea. Wind Waker has the biggest game-world in a Zelda game ever. It's just a shame that about 85% of it is water and nothing else. This was by far a greater disappointment than the cartoon look. Not only that, but prior to the final dungeon, the game set you off on a labourious treasure hunt that made the game feel incredibly unfinished. This left a sour taste more than cel-shading ever could. But if it weren't for Wind Waker, Twilight Princess wouldn't have gotten the reaction it did at E3 2005 and wouldn't have been the game we eventually got.

So, what did we get? We got a very good game indeed. Wind Waker was improved upon in every respect. The developers had pretty much gone back to Ocarina of Time for their inspiration. With Twilight Princess, Nintendo had given back players what they wanted. Twilight Princess, for all intents and purposes, is a next-generation Ocarina of Time. Of course, it's not a remake, but it's not too far removed from one. However, to dub Twilight Princess as merely 'Ocarina of Time with a face-lift' would be incredibly harsh, as Twilight Princess really is an astoundingly accomplished game. For one thing, it's absolutely huge, with the main quest alone taking a good 50 or-so hours to complete. Not only that, but it never once looks ugly. Every single part of this game is stunning to look at, and some of the art direction makes you wonder why you need consoles as powerful as the Xbox 360 or the PS3 when a GameCube game can churn out graphics that are this good. There are dozens of cut-scenes, as well, each of them animated to perfection and every character displaying bundles of personality, despite the lack of voice-acting in the game. Controlling Link is never a chore, either. He moves fluidly about the game world, whether on foot or horse-back.

But still, it's not better than either Majora's Mask or Ocarina of Time. In both these games, the lands they are set in (Termina and Hyrule, respectively) both seem a hell of a lot more in peril than the Hyrule in Twilight Princess. The Hyrule in Ocarina of Time sees Ganondorf trying to obtain the Triforce to give him God-like powers and rule over the land with absolute tyranny. About a third of the way through the game, Link travels to the future and sees Hyrule Castle Town in ruins, a town that he explored in his childhood. This is an incredibly hard-hitting section of the game, as, instead of the children and dogs playing, people bartering at stores and such, the town is infested with zombies and completely deserted. Hyrule Castle itself has been transformed from a beautiful, white tower-laden building into a black Gothic death-house hovering over a sea of molten lava. Majora's Mask's Termina has the threat of being destroyed completely by the moon crashing into it. In comparison, the Twilight Realm, to me, seems more like a mere annoyance than a matter of life and death.

With all that said, there are moments in Twilight Princess that tug at the heart-strings. When Link battles to save Colin from King Bulblin, you set out on Epona to get him back. This is one of the stand-out moments in the game, as for the first time in a Zelda game, you fight at high-speeds on horse-back, culminating in a joust like set-piece on a bridge above a seemingly bottomless chasm. When you defeat King Bulblin, the following cut-scene makes Link seem like a bona-fide hero. As anyone who loves Zelda knows, Link is by far the most important character. It goes without saying (quite apt, seeing as Link never says anything himself). As the game goes on, however, the spotlight is seems to be transferred to Midna. During the final battle, Link seemed more like a side-character to me, despite the fact that I was controlling him. Ganondorf and Midna seemed to ignore Link completely. Link is left on the side-lines while Midna and Ganondorf get on with it. The hero role of Link was thrown out of the window, which left me feeling somewhat ignored myself.

Maybe this is the reason why I'm feeling a little disenchanted with Zelda. Perhaps it has nothing to do with what a Zelda game is or what a Zelda game does, but merely how Twilight Princess disappointed me in its latter stages. It's really quite confusing. If it is for this reason, then it's easily remedied by Nintendo. In a Zelda game, Link is not the be-all and end-all, but he is incredibly significant. There hasn't been a Zelda game without Link. Much more important than Link, though, is our link to him (pun intended). As with most character- and story-driven games, we see the world through the main character's eyes. We become incredibly associated with them, or, at the most, we actually become them (in the game, at least). When this character becomes significant, we feel significant. When this character becomes insignificant, we feel insignificant. This is what bugged me more about the final parts of Twilight Princess.

However, what if it were the fact that I am bored with what a Zelda game is and what a Zelda game does? What if it is a little too set in its ways? What if the formula has become staid? What if the Zelda franchise needs to be shaken-up a little? I'll ask those questions and more in Part II of The Legend of Zelda Introspective.

Part II

Quake Wars Just PWNED You

If you like your trailers to show more information about the game than most previews, then watch this trailer. If you like your trailers with non-stop in your face action, then watch this trailer. If you enjoy laughing, then watch this trailer.

"Geographical locations!"

Opinion - Rainbow Six: Vegas 2

• Game: Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2
• Version: Xbox 360
• Other Consoles: PS3, PC
  
• Developer: Ubisoft Montreal
• Publisher: Ubisoft

Tom Clancy's got a lot to answer for. How come the majority of his games turn out rather good? When he sticks his name in-front of these games, does it automatically assure quality? Probably not. I'm not actually sure why his name is stuck in-front of all of these games, or exactly what he brings to the table when these games are made, but whatever it is, keep doing it, Tom. Keep doing it.

Sequels in the gaming industry today are big business. If you want to have a chance, you've got to create a franchise. To create a franchise, you've got to get the first game right and the people will want the sequel. People want sequels because they give them the chance to play more of the game they loved, but with improvements. Or, at least, that's the idea. You see, Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 keeps much of the original game intact without tinkering with it much at all. If there ever was a game that defined the old adage 'if it ain't broke, don't fix it', then surely this is that game. Not only that, but its also a franchise within a franchise. If you then add the fact that its from the Tom Clancy branded series of games, you could say its a franchise within a franchise within a franchise.

Why RSV2 differs only slightly from the original is obvious, as the original Vegas game worked and worked well. But rather than improve upon the game by making more gameplay changes, they've simply added to the game to get a richer experience and to give the fans of the original more of what they loved. Ubisoft Montreal have added their Persistent Elite Creation (P.E.C.) system to the single-player storyline, as well as keeping it in the online multi-player. This gives those gamers who preferred the single-player to the multi-player an added incentive to play with and against thousands of other gamers online with RSV2. P.E.C. is basically an RPG-like levelling system, where, the higher the level you are, more weapons, armour, clothing and accessories are available to you. That doesn't mean someone who is ten levels higher than you has more powerful weaponry per-se, as its more of a status thing. If you come across someone who has a weapon or armour you haven't yet unlocked, chances are he's better at the game than you, or more likely, that he has less of a life than you and plays this game constantly. P.E.C. gives you an added incentive for repeated plays of both the single- and multi-player aspects of the game and as we all know, replay value in a game FTW. It's also well balanced, as if you play it on a higher difficulty setting in single-player mode and you'll level up quicker. Play it on 'easy' and you'll probably level up thrice, at the most, by completing it.

The story doesn't follow-up the story of the first Vegas game until the last couple of levels. For most of the game, you'll be playing parallel to the events of the first game. Without going into too much detail, terrorists have invaded Las Vegas and are causing mayhem and destruction, taking hostages, killing innocents and blowing up buildings, blah, blah, blah, you know the drill. The story isn't too important. It's there for you if you want to get involved, but with only a few cut-scenes through-out the game, it's not something that will drag you in and keep you involved. What will, however, is the way the game plays. It really is quite satisfying to play. It does what most FPSs do well, throw hundreds upon thousands of easy to kill enemies at you. Instead of going all Rambo on them, you have to clear rooms of them one by one. To do this, you place your team at the door which opens up one of five options.

• Open and clear: simply open the door and clear the room of enemies.
• Flash and clear: throw a flash grenade to stun enemies, making it easier to kill them.
• Breach and clear: blow up the door to kill any enemies directly behind the door.
• Smoke and clear: pop a smoke grenade which literally clouds your entry.
• Frag and clear: throw a frag. grenade into a group of enemies.

Different rooms call upon different situations. If the room contains hostages, don't frag and clear, otherwise you'll kill the hostages. Don't breach and clear otherwise you'll startle the enemies, who may kill the hostages. Open and clear might be effective, but flash and clear is your best bet, as the enemies literally won't see you coming. It never gets boring. You can even rappel down walls and breach in through windows.

There are, however, some issues with the game. At points, the frame-rate can become very choppy. It doesn't happen often, but when it does, it's very bad. The cover system works very well, allowing you to line up your shots before peeping around the corner and firing your gun, but there were a couple of times when the game wouldn't let you lean up against a wall, or lean around a corner. Both of these issues, however, are few and far between and never really detract from the enjoyment of the game. There can also be instances where textures take sometime to appear when you start the game, but this only ever happens when you load a checkpoint from scratch; it never happens for the rest of the time you play the game.

All in all, Rainbow Six: Vegas 2 is a very solid and very fun game. The controls are nearly faultless, the set-pieces are well executed and the story is wrapped up satisfactorily. If you've got the first game, you'll love this. If you haven't, you might like the multiplayer, but it might be a wise option to play through the first game before setting out on this one, especially if you want to follow the story.

The Legend of Zelda Introspective - Coming Soon

I'm going to go out on a limb here and predict something: by the end of this year, Nintendo will announce and/or reveal their next Legend of Zelda game. I have no sources, I have no clues and I certainly have no idea of what it might be like or when they might reveal it. It is a mere prediction. Perhaps a hopeful one. I'm not saying that I have a third eye in the top of my head, or that I'm Isaac Mendez, but I'm quite good with my predictions. Most of them, I never say out loud, but when they do come to pass I'm left wondering why I didn't tell someone about what I foresaw. I'm not saying I can predict the lottery or major news events, but more like the mundane things in life, like 'I bet these chips taste like shit.' Maybe I'm just over-lauding my 'psychic abilities'.

Back to the issue on-hand, then. One of the reasons I hope for this announcement is that I have a Wii but rarely ever play it. I want to use it like I do my Xbox 360, but there's just not enough games out that pique my interest (as well as the fact that you can't get Achievements on Wii games). A brand new Zelda game, though, would have me punching children in their faces for a copy of it. The thought of a new Zelda has so far stopped me from selling my Wii.

So, to celebrate my glorious and hopefully accurate prediction, I am going to post my Legend of Zelda Introspective series. Unlike my GTA Retrospective series, I am looking deep into my feelings on the Legend of Zelda, rather than look back at its past games in release order. If you're not too sure of how this is different, then perhaps it's best if you shut up and wait for me to post it. I'll post it as soon as I finish it, which should be very soon: by the end of this year, I will post my Legend of Zelda Introspective - Part I.

How about that for a prediction, eh?

GTA Retrospective III - Grand Theft Auto III

• Game: Grand Theft Auto III
• Console: PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC
• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Released: 2001

While the original Grand Theft Auto was a revolution in gaming for the whole industry, GTA III would become more of a revolution of the series, but would have just as much impact as the original when it was released. You see, even though the move into 3D seemed the next logical step for GTA, Rockstar pulled it off with aplomb whilst using the rather restrictive technology of the PS2. To squeeze this massive 3D world out with nary a loading screen to kick you out the game (okay, maybe two, when you loaded the game up and when you traversed the bridges to a different island), Rockstar, instead of just trying to get the best looking game out onto the shelves, sacrificed the best graphics it could muster from the PS2 for a free-flowing game, all set in an absolutely massive game world. Never before had such a massive and rich game-world been delivered. Grand Theft Auto is all about freedom, and never more-so had a game given this to its players than Grand Theft Auto III.

At its heart, GTA III was still very much your typical GTA game. Everything you could do in the previous titles was there. Steal cars, shoot guns, evade police, etc. There was even a top-down camera angle à la the original game (seemingly, this was for those who preferred the original games, or, as I like to call them, mentalists). Everything and more. Hijack a taxi and you could then start a mini-game where you could drive around Liberty City and pick up fares. Get them to their destination within the alloted time and you got paid for your services. This mini-game was the basis for a whole game -- Crazy Taxi -- yet here it was in a game that let you do this and much more. In Crazy Taxi, if you got bored, you couldn't just get out of the taxi and blow it up, or drive it off a cliff with your passenger trapped inside just for a laugh or just because you could. Also, if you hijack an ambulance, you could search for patients to take to the hospital. 'Jack a cop car and you could take out criminals trying to muscle in on your territory. 'Jack a fire engine and you could put out fires from the safety of your truck thanks to the roof-mounted hose. All of these mini-games earned you money for completing each level of them and they got increasingly difficult with every level, in true gaming fashion.

Also, for the first time in a GTA game, your character had a back-story and the game had its own discernible plot that revolved around your character, even though he never talked and apparently didn't have a name (however, there is some speculation that his name is Claude). The game opens with 'Claude', his girlfriend, Catalina (who would make an appearance in GTA: San Andreas along with 'Claude') and an accomplice robbing a bank. Catalina then betrays 'Claude' and shoots him, leaving him to die. However, 'Claude' doesn't die, and gets arrested. Whilst being transferred, an attack on his police convoy aimed at freeing another prisoner sets him free along with another prisoner named '8-Ball'. With each other's help, they flee the scene, with 'Claude' driving the getaway car because 8-Ball is unable to, seeing as his hands are bandaged up. To thank 'Claude', 8-Ball introduces him to Luigi Goterelli, who owns the night-club 'Sex Club 7.' Luigi sets our hero off on various menial jobs, but 'Claude' uses these to rise in power with the various gangs of Liberty City and to eventually get revenge on Catalina.

GTA III garnered a lot of controversy when it was first released, as have all GTA games since. Most notably, though, was GTA III's introduction to the series of prostitutes. Bloody violence comes second to sex in the controversy stakes, despite the fact that we're all more likely to experience first-hand the delight and pleasure of sex than we are to come across a gun-fight racked with bloodshed or to see someone cut someone else's head off with a sword. Without getting into too much detail about the game's controversial issues, the fact that the inclusion of hookers in the game caused more uproar than the fact that, in the same game, you can blow someone's head off with a shotgun is really quite baffling, especially when the act of sex is never shown and is only ever implied.

Despite all the controversy, GTA III burst the series into the mainstream. Its predecessors were popular, but were far more underground that the third title in the series. As of March 26th 2008, GTA III has sold 14.5 million units according to Take-Two Interactive. An astounding figure. It has also influenced a fair few games since its release, but we'll save that for another day. Needless to say, the impact of GTA III is still being felt today, whether from the game itself, or its sequels.

Coming up: we get our 80's on with one of GTA III's aforementioned sequels: GTA: Vice City.

Part I | Part II | Part IV | Part V

GTA: Chris Tucker

Press play and get ready to laugh (unless you have no sense of humour at all).

GTA Retrospective II - Grand Theft Auto 2

• Game: Grand Theft Auto 2
• Console: Dreamcast, PlayStation, PC
• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Released: 1999

Released two years after the original GTA, GTA2 continued the top-down perspective introduced in the first game and carried on the game's basic formula, but set the game somewhere in the future, giving the game a sort of neon-punk feel. There was also only one city called 'Anywhere City', its location was quite indeterminate. The game still had three levels, but all of them were 'districts' of the same city, rather different cities altogether. Firstly, there was the 'The Downtown Area', then came 'The Residential District' and lastly 'The Industrial District'. It makes the game sound like The Crystal Maze, but it isn't. Obviously.

As with the original GTA, to get to the next level, you had to amass a certain score. The scoring system gives you points from practically everything you do. Smash into a car and you'll get 100 points. Blow a car up and you'll get 1000. The main way to get points, though, was to do the missions that awaited you at phone boxes. What GTA2 introduced, though, were rival gangs, and a karma like system based around these gangs. Each of these gangs were given its own meter in the top left-hand corner of the screen. These showed your standing with each of these gangs. If your meter was swaying to the left, they weren't too pleased with you. If it was to the right, they were loving you. To gain respect from each of these gangs, you had to do missions for them. However, each gang was always trying to out-do each other, and doing missions for one gang may see you facing off against another gang you've been trying to get into bed with. This gave the game a bit more strategy, as piss one gang off a little too much, and they'll try to kill you as soon as they see you. This means you have to pick your missions more carefully, and try to balance each gang's missions. You can do this or not, but the game would be a lot easier if you did.

As you can see from the screen above, the graphics were improved for the game, with added lighting effects and higher resolution textures. This gave the game quite a nice-but-gritty night time feel. The cars still looked like toys, but decided less-so thanks to the game's more futuristic theme. The radio stations were all present, but were added upon, with more songs and radio stations than before.

The game also had a short movie made for it, of which an edited version was used for the game's intro sequence. Also, if you want to play this or the original GTA, you can download them, completely free and completely legally, here.

Rather than being the next big step in the GTA series, GTA2 is more of an evolution. It carried on what GTA did very well and improved upon it. The graphics were improved, the depth of the game world, the missions, the cars, everything. However, GTA fans dared to dream of a 3D GTA, and they would get their wish 2 years later.

Coming up: GTA gets a three-dimensional make-over with GTAIII.

Part I | Part III | Part IV | Part V

Play.com To The Rescue (for Rock Band fans)!

Still smarting at the fact that Rock Band is going to cost you an absolute bomb? Well, Play.com, the ever-cheap internet store, might well soften the blow for you. The Rock Band: Band In A Box (Instruments Edition) has a recommended retailer's price of £129.99, however, Play.com have chopped a big old 23% off that price and are offering it to you for £99.99 with free delivery. That's a penny under £100! Awesome! It still comes without the actual game, though, which is going for the rather run-of-the-mill price of £39.99.

Compare this to the fact that Amazon.co.uk have taken a paltry tenner off (8%? Pah!), without free delivery, and you've got yourself a stone-cold bargain if you get it from Play.com (the better option being that you smuggle one in from America).

This might even spark a price-war if Rock Band becomes popular enough. It's pretty much guaranteed that the supermarket chains like ASDA Walmart and Tesco are going to go for another round of price oneupmanship, if that's the case.

But, for now, I know where I'm getting my Band In A Box from. It's cheap(er) and I don't have to cart the fecker home on the bus.

Disclaimer: I don't work for Play.com, nor do I have any sort of affiliation with them, I just think Play.com is awesome. If you don't like it, go buy Guitar Hero Aerosmith, you loser!

Want GTA IV on Release Day?

Then you'd better get your arse in gear, as it's looking pretty unlikely that you'll be able to just wander into your favourite games emporium on the 29th and walk out with a copy of the game without having pre-ordered it first.

According to Joystiq, Play.com are saying that GTA IV is already the best selling title on the PS3, Gamestation have stopped taking pre-orders altogether and GAME are telling their customers that any copy of GTA IV pre-ordered after April 6th isn't guaranteed to be available on release day.

You've probably still got your chance to get your game on release day, but act fast people!

Rock Band Gets a UK Release Date

May 23rd 2008. This is the good news. The bad news? Are you sitting down? You have to buy the actual game software seperate from all the instruments, although the instruments (guitar, microphone and drum-kit) are available together in their own 'Instrument Edition'. The actual game will be around the £40 mark, whereas the 'Instrument Edition' will cost a whopping £129.99. For those of you with a cacklulator, that's £170. Which is US$340. Consider this: in the USA, this game cost a mere $150 and that's with the game included.

The fact that we're getting exclusive tracks is completely beside the point (and not only because they're not that exclusive). Held to ransom? Not so much. Bent over a barrel and taken roughly? Yep.

Also, it's a timed Xbox 360 exclusive, so the PS3 and Wii owning Rock Band wannabes are getting an even harsher deal.

For shame, EA.

GTA Retrospective I - Grand Theft Auto

• Game: Grand Theft Auto
• Console: PlayStation, PC
• Developer: DMA Design
  
• Publisher: BMG Interactive
• Released: 1997
  

The original Grand Theft Auto is the game that started it all. The game that pretty much innovated the 'sandbox' style that influenced dozens of clones and quite possibly became the most important game ever made. Developed by DMA Design (which would become Rockstar North), Grand Theft Auto (GTA) - originally named 'Race N Chase' - was released on the PC and PlayStation in 1997. At the time, it was hard to imagine just what this low in tech but high in prospect game would do to the industry and what it would become in 11 years time.

The game was viewed from a 2D top-down perspective, with your main character appearing as a tiny sprite and cars looking more like toy cars than the authentic looking, thousand plus polygon cars of GTA IV. The game also featured quite a strange control method; 'up' was forward, depending upon whichever way your character or vehicle was facing and consequentially to that, left was always left and right was always right. The top-down view allowed the developers to create a massive game world for you to commit any type of crime you could imagine (or, at least any type of crime you could actually do in the game). Pedestrians were bumper fodder as well as cannon fodder. Every vehicle in the game was yours to drive whether it had someone else driving it or not, and each vehicle had its own radio, which would allow you listen to different songs from seven different radio stations. All these features introduced in this first GTA game were incredibly pioneering and became synonymous with the series, improving upon these advances with each game, making each new chapter in the saga of GTA seem more like real-life than the last (if in real-life, you could actually get away with it all).

The guys walking in a line are Buddhists. If you run them all over in quick succession, you get a load of bonus points.

The first GTA also introduced three cities that would all get their very own games; Liberty City, which was based on New York, would get GTA III and GTA Liberty City Stories. Vice City, which was based on Miami, would get GTA Vice City and GTA Vice City Stories. San Andreas, which was based on San Francisco, would get GTA San Andreas. What is notable is that San Andreas in GTA San Andreas is a state, as it housed three cities: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas), but in this game it was merely a city. In fact, none of the cities' original layouts would survive the transition to 3D. In the original GTA each of these cities were the game's levels, and would serve the player as such. To get from one city (or level) to the next, you had to reach a certain score. To get this score you would have to employ tactics in true GTA style: cause havoc, steal and sell cars, or just do missions. This gave the game a much more arcade type feel than its successors. The game had no story to speak of and you could pick one of eight different characters to play as: Travis, Kat, Mikki, Divine, Bubba, Troy, Kivlov and Ulrika. It didn't detract anything from the game though, as doing anything you wanted, anywhere and anytime, as you see fit, gave the game a lot more freedom than any game before it.

GTA also got an expansion pack in the form of GTA London. Set in the 60's, this was the first game in the series to utilise a licensed soundtrack to add to that authenticity the game deserved.

This was what your character looked like, a million miles away from Niko Bellic and the like.

Even though the game had a lot of violent content, it was all very tongue-in-cheek. You could punch passers-by in the face or merely taunt them by burping or farting. 'Gritty realism' is a something this game would reject in favour of unadulterated, and rather immature, fun. It really goes to show the farcical nature of the some of the controversy over this game.

The game also introduced the 'wanted level' system of gameplay. Even though you could do anything you wanted to, it came at a price. Mount up a succession of crimes, be it kicking the crap out of pedestrians, car-jacking, hit and runs etc., and you would release a pack of baying police officers to either haul your ass in to the nearest police station, or 'take you out'.

Despite its humble beginnings, the GTA franchise would practically know no bounds in the years to come, going from strength to strength, city by city. Literally. GTA tore the gaming community a new one with its freeform gameplay and controversial content. The gaming world would never be the same again, and this was just the beginning.

Coming up - we take a look at the next game in the series: GTA II.

Done!

It only took me three days and having to start the blog from scratch -- which was probably avoidable, but meh -- but I've finally sorted the layout (expect it to change little by little over the coming weeks). Now, there's nothing left to do but post, post, post, post, post things about gaming and that. Starting with my promised GTA Retrospective series, or at least that's what I'm finally going to start doing, so if you get anything other than my much-vaunted-yet-undelivered articles, then don't moan, at least you're getting something. It's funny, I wrote that as if there is actually anyone out there reading this (if you are leave a comment, pwease!!). Ho-hum …

I'm Having a Bit of a Shocker

I'm having a bit of trouble with my layout at the mo. I wasn't going to post updates of the site, as no-one reads them, but as it's stopping me from posting the GTA Retrospective, I thought I ought to.

You will get the GTA stuff soon. Just give me a bit of time! I've employed an expert for this matter. ^