The folks at Games Radar decided to reshoot the title sequence for the movie The Naked Gun using clips from Grand Theft Auto IV.
And in the spirit of the current political season, the makers of Saints Row 2 [coming later this year] offers the following clip that compares and contrasts their product with GTA IV. Mmm...sewage trucks.
Now that Grand Theft Auto IV is out, I've been wondering what the next big video game will be. Spore promises to be big if only because the game's designer, Will Wright, has a history of making games that are massive hits [e.g., SimCity and The Sims]. I am extremely excited about Fallout 3, first because the teaser trailer was astonishing and second because the game is being designed by the same team that made Oblivion.
There is a third game I've added to my "okay, this could be cool" list: Mirror's Edge. Scheduled to be released around the same time as Fallout 3, Mirror's Edge is a first-person action-adventure video game that focuses less on shooting and more on interacting with the in-game environment. The following trailer from GameTrailers.com shows you gameplay footage of what Mirror's Edge will look like.
The second video deconstructs the trailer, pointing out some things you might have missed.
Color me intrigued.
Take one of the most beautiful video games ever made (a game that holds a particular place in my family's heart), add a soundtrack by Dvořák, and re-render the game's landscape using the absurdly powerful CryEngine and you end up with the following. I defy you not to be moved.
After carefully considering the positions of McCain, Clinton, and Obama, I am prepared to endorse a candidate for President of the United States: the weighted companion cube.
The weighted companion cube will never threaten to stab you. The weighted companion cube cannot speak. In the event that the weighted companion cube does speak, the Enrichment Center urges you to disregard its advice.
Sounds like the perfect candidate to me.
One of my favorite things about the Grand Theft Auto games was the in-game radio stations. I have fond memories of driving around Staunton Island listening to "Non piu andrai farfallone amoroso" from Le Nozze di Figaro on Double Clef FM, driving around Little Haiti listening to Talk Talk's "Life's What You Make It" on Flash FM, or driving along the railroad tracks in Flint County jamming to the southern national anthem--Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Free Bird"--on K-DST.
Over the next month and half, the folks at Rockstar Games will be unveiling the 16 radio stations that will be built into Grand Theft Auto IV. Snippets from two in-game radio stations are available today. The first is IF99, an international funk station that plays classic funk songs from West Africa, the U.S., and elsewhere. The second is Vladivostok FM, a Eastern European community radio station that plays popular music from Russia, Belarus, the Ukraine, and beyond.
Yeah, this game is going to rock.
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Well, I finished BioShock yesterday. Hands-down this was the best Xbox 360 game I've played since Oblivion. And it looks like the reviewers agree: Spike TV just awarded BioShock game of the year.
In fact, I think I am going to play BioShock one more time from the beginning ... only this time I'm going to harvest the Little Sisters instead of saving them. >:)
Now that I no longer have to read any journal articles or write any research papers--at least until classes start up again in late January--I am free to catch up on my video game-playing. The first game on my to-do list is one of the three best-reviewed Xbox 360 games of the year: BioShock. Our friends at GameTrailers offer the most in-depth review of the game, although it should be noted that because BioShock is rated "M" [which is kind of like a movie rating of "R" for violence], you may be asked to prove you are old enough to watch the review.
While GameTrailers' review is certainly in-depth, it is no where near as entertaining as the one Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw posted back in September. Since Croshaw uses some foul language in his brilliantly hilarious review--imagine combining Dennis Miller with a sedated Louis Black--I'll let you hunt down Croshaw's review on your own.
Well, I guess I will have some more time to spend on my blog: my Xbox 360 is displaying the infamous "ring of death" meaning the Xbox has left me and moved on to the console graveyard in the sky.
The worst part -- besides the fact my Xbox is now one of the countless Xbox doorstops out there -- is that my console is only a few days out of warranty ... which means I get the distinct honor of paying Microsoft another $130.90 to get my console repaired.
Sigh. Rest in peace, Xbox 360.
Manufactured: April 6, 2006
Purchased: May 9, 2006
Died: June 26, 2007
The rest of 2007 is pretty well planned out for me. I am getting married next month, I start my doctorate at USC in August, and [I hope] GTA IV comes out in October. But what about 2008? Well, I think I may have found an XBox 360 game to occupy my time: Fallout 3.
Interplay's Black Isle Studios started working on Fallout 3 ages ago ... and then Interplay went bankrupt. So Bethesda Game Studios -- makers of Oblivion -- picked up the license and started redeveloping the game. Fallout 3 won't be released until Fall 2008 [at the earliest], but Bethesda released a teaser-trailer yesterday that you MUST see. Twice. Click on the image below to see the trailer.
