So, I’ve been playing GTA IV for a little more than a week now, and it’s as fun as I hoped it would be and more.

Doobie got us a Playstation 3 as a thank you gift for letting him stay with us while he found an apartment. Obviously, that wasn’t necessary, but it was very cool of him, and I was so stoked to come home from Germany and find the apartment cleaned from top to bottom and to see a new Playstation 3 still boxed up in the TV cabinet.

GTA IV deserves the hype it’s been getting. Niko Bellic is a badass. The textures and the lighting are amazing. The interactivity of the world has to be experience to be fully appreciated. The story is compelling and better than most movies. And above all, the gameplay — physics, combat, driving, shooting, missions, etc. — is just brilliant.

Beyond the regular GTA awesomeness, just a few “Wow!” moments so far:

• Building up and maintaining relationships with other characters. Some are girls Niko dates. One girl has all new furniture with the tags still on, and she asks a lot of weird questions. One night while I’m playing, Rebecca is in the other room and suddenly yells, “Michelle’s a cop!”
• Escaping from the cops, hauling ass in a fast car along Middle Park, fleeing on foot through alleyways and inside buildings, desperate to get outside the cops’ zone of pursuit, whatever the cost, finally losing them and completing the job.
• Using the in-game web and e-mail. Including reading emotional emails between Niko and his mother, setting up a job interview to do an assasination, and reading about Niko’s exploits in the paper.
• Listening to the radio. I especially love the DJs on Radio Broker, the hipster station. “Somebody caught you smiling and it wasn’t ironic.”
• Playing with other real people in multiplayer. So fun to play a game with other real people, running around the airport, armed only with rocket launchers, trying to annihilate each other.

This game is amazing. I’m a total GTA “fanboy” like millions of other people. If you have GTA IV on Playstation 3, hook it up online and call me (in game). My PSN ID is bionicbrian.

Posted May 12, 2008 | ∞ | File under: gtaiv, video games

Good news. I ordered GTA IV for Playstation 3. Do I own a Playstation 3? No. But that is a secondary problem I will figure out. I am obsessed with this game.

Thankfully, as of Tuesday, I will be in Europe for the two weeks until its release and will be busy with seeing parts of the world I’ve never seen and not browsing the interwebs for the latest previews and screenshots. But I am expecting it to be waiting in a stack of mail for me when I get home.

I am particularly excited about the multiplayer aspect of this game. The single player would be enough to occupy my time for months, but the multiplayer might have infinite replay value — much like PvP in WoW, except way cooler.

Some preliminary reviews are out and the concensus is 10/10, or “this game is fucking awesome.” Can’t wait.

Posted April 16, 2008 | ∞ | File under: gta, video games

GTA IV is coming out in less than a month now. This would be the game that could get me to fork over the money for a next gen console — if Uncle Sam hadn’t raped my wife and I on taxes this weekend, and if we weren’t going to Europe in a few weeks. But even with our savings depleted, I think I could eat Ramen noodles for months if I could do so while playing this game. Or I’ll just go to Jesse’s apartment every day and watch him play.

IGN has a long interview with Rockstar’s Dan Houser and Aaron Garbut.

Posted March 31, 2008 | ∞ | File under: gta, video games

Good news, everybody! I won teh WoW. I dinged 70 and immediately ran to buy my flying mount. I did a flying victory lap around Shadowmoon Valley then joined in on some battlegrounds and was immediately steamrolled by epic’d Hordes.

I had planned on hitting 70, getting some awesome gear and enchants and being so awesome that I could keep my whole team alive in a battleground despite waves and waves of epic Hordes smashing everyone, but now I am not sure I’ll do that. I don’t think I’ll drop WoW completely just yet (even though I won), but I think I’ll practive piano for a while.

Posted March 24, 2008 | ∞ | File under: video games, wow

In my last post I mentioned how cool my drinking hat is. Well, I just got a way cooler piece for my head: the Helm of Lupine Cunning.

Posted February 13, 2008 | ∞ | File under: video games, wow

Check out the hat I have in WoW. In addition to its armor and stats, note: “Use: Reach into the hat for a drink”. That’s an alcoholic drink. That makes you tipsy. And does nothing else. Nice hat, that.

Posted February 11, 2008 | ∞ | File under: video games, wow

I was joking with Doobs last week about how DJ Hero would be waiting for a player to play the song, then for the DJ to just replay it. It would be a DJ Hero loading a song then sitting back for a few minutes while it played, then loading another one, etc. Haha. Maybe there’s even a “digging” mode where you have to seek out obscure records, elbowing out the competition. Plus, you’d have to monitor the crowd’s pleasure and adjust the set. Anyway, I’m sure the clever people at Activision are working on it. But until then, there is someone out there who went ahead and made a turntable controller for Guitar Hero. Very clever.

Posted January 8, 2008 | ∞ | File under: video games

Got some more “nice phats,” as my brother Davey calls them, from one Maraudon run.

Satyrmane Sash. Sweet belt with Stamin, Intellect and +Spells.

Rotgrip Mantle.  Some good Intellect on this one.

I’m at 48 now. I’ve been in the battlegrounds a little. I do well enough, but I still get beat down by some of the top twinks in there. I am at or near the top of the damage meters even without awesome, expensive, enchants or trinkets. I am debating whether I could scrape enough to spend on enchants, since really, my characters is not a twink. Specifically, I really want the +40 damage on the staff, but large prismatic shards cost a fortune.

Posted December 26, 2007 | ∞ | File under: video games, wow