Stuicide

I wasn’t able to work on it this weekend, but I really wanted to go on a Photo walk or shoot a little bit of video with my camera. Instead Grand Theft Auto IV stole my soul.
Been cranking away at that game all week long and I’ve still got a long ways to go until I finish it. The game is great and character driven. The city is huge and very alive. Different from San Andreas in that there isn’t a whole lot of “open countryside” and it’s all city. While the overall land area is more compacted, there is a lot more to drive and learn on.

The characters are great and some are painted as likeable, others as unlikeable. Every now and then you get to make a few choices and decisions which I’m waiting for them to come back and either help me or hurt me, but so far I make a difficult decision and haven’t had any consequences from it.

While a lot of people believe this game is filled with violence and debauchery, it’s not nearly as bad or graphic as it’s reputation proceeds. All of the murdering that goes on that you are forced to do is written into the story as a great narrative and story. The last mission I completed was robbing a bank with 3 other guys when it goes wrong and one of them gets shot and we are forced to shoot our way out going down streets, alleys, and even the subway before we grab a getaway car and make it to safety. While I was in a gunfight with the police while running down the street, I realized that this mission was exactly like the best scene from the movie “Heat”.

There are other great missions, one where I have to storm into a building and work my way to the top story and rescue my cousin who was being held hostage and it all ends with a slow-motion bullet shot to his captor’s head. Very dramatic and just like a million action films.

Yes, the game is violent and yes it’s for mature audiences only it is way less graphic than many other games out there, it provides an amazing sandbox to play in which is a fully alive city with traffic and pedestrians to just drive around and enjoy. Before you make your opinion on this game, give it a try, you’ll be delightfully suprised.