Angry Gaming 04.02.07: Start Spreading the News

Posted by Damian Sarcuni on 04.02.2007

Why we love the new Grand Theft Auto IV trailer.

Welcome to Angry Gaming, the bird flu to the gaming industry's…bird. I am your hate master, Damian Sarcuni, and I caught the local bug going around the neighborhood, but it hasn't given me a sore throat which is all that matters. The heavens!

Before We Begin



I've had a few emails lying around and I've been meaning to present them for awhile now. I'll link to the articles each one concerns with. We start off with Dan Belenkov, who has something to say about the costs of gaming:

Damian;

I tend to read your articles, often out of boredom. (Wow, what a backhanded way to start an email. I assure you, there was no offense intended.) Sometimes I agree, sometimes I don't. Didn't agree with your Dead Rising article, mostly because if I wanted subtext, I would watch Romero's film. For me, the game was entirely about wish fulfillment. But almost always, the goal is reached and I'm entertained.

However, in regards to the in game advertising article, I find it interesting that you didn't bring up something that had been bothering me regarding the adverts: if the developers are making side cash from advertisement (which I have little problem with, for now...) then why are the new generation games retailing for $60, sometimes more? And the Greatest Hits versions are now $30, which, while not too bad, is not proportional to the previous generation's $50 new, $20 greatest hits. Combine that with the almost offensive cost of the PS3, I have to wonder: where is the money going? Would love to see some of that come back to us, the consumers that made the media popular enough to warrant advertising.

Just my $.03 on the topic, as I find it is worth more than the typical $.02 usually given.

Thanks for reading the column. Interesting point you bring up about the price increase in games. I always assumed that it was due to next-gen games being more expensive to develop, but if that's the case I would think that Burger King would have charged more for their promotional games. It's especially annoying because up until now we've been spending the same $50 for cartridge games that we do for disc media games, and there was no price drop there either.

As crazy as this sounds, I'm going to go out on a limb and say the increase comes from inflation and shipping costs. When CD's and DVD's were the major media for games, developers made up for the cost of inflation due to the reduced overhead development costs. It's been awhile since then and gas prices have been rising, along with the costs of delivering games (which might explain why Burger King had no problem shipping to their own stores). Or the game industry might just be filled with greedy slobs, as in the case of the PS3. Great food for thought though.

Next up is Colin Pigeau, who comes bearing more cheese for us to chow down on:



My boys and I used to have mad Tekken duels. I had Tekken 3 in university residence, and there were tons of sessions. Then Tekken 4, and even more sessions.

I of course eventually got left behind in skill, because my buddies all lived together in a house and played all day (no hyperbole) against each other, getting better through competition, while I lived alone. It's hard to keep motivated to keep up when all you have is one player.

Anyway, it was around this time that all sorts of anti-cheap rules were suddenly put into effect, and they of course only benefited the one or two guys who really had all the combos and moves down. In an effort to get rid of a cheap victory when energy was very low, there were no more low hits allowed. I knew a fair few combos, and if I finished anyone with a combo that had at any point included a low attack I was cheap. I guess it's too hard to block low.

Throws were also out, presumably because they're unblockable. Of course, no one brought up how you could get out of them with one button press. Tekken has some of the best throws around, and they're tricky to do, but now they're cheap too. And I was really good with King.

And for all these little rules, the guys always calling your throw cheap, or not passing the controller along when they get hit with a low attack, these were the same guys that would just cheap out any move you try to do with a short jab. F'ers.

But at least we all agreed that Eddy was too cheap to use.

Peace
CP

Tremendous. In my opinion Tekken is a relatively balanced series, except for the odd boss characters and annoying comic relief characters (namely Gon and Dr. Boskonananasonovabitch). My sister spent many a day whooping my ass with Jun in Tekken 2 simply by performing the same button mashing combo over and over. I thought the game was incredibly cheesy, until I found that Kazuya's spinning uppercut reaches right under Jun's double roundhouse kick. So in the end it was my fault for not seeing that sooner.

I have to say though Colin…you got played. I've never heard of a low attack being cheesy, and if someone is able to master the more in depth combos in the game, they would have to be aware of that fact. I think you friends pulled out that rule just to frustrate you, or at least to avoid the midget characters. If I was there, I'd probably pull out a simple Hwoarang air juggle to shut them up, or just put the pressure on them with Lee's infinite kick combo. As far as Eddy Gordo, you CAN block his entire low/high combo mix, but it takes forever and a player using him can just go right back into it before you can counter (unless you use Xiaoyu). So yeah, there is no reason to waste time there.

Start Spreading the News



New York, New York, it's a hell of a town. Profits is up and arrests is down! I've called myself a New Yorker since birth, growing up in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. Some days I'm proud of that title, other days not so much. New York City has been the setting for some of the most epic stories ever told, regardless of the media format. That's certainly understandable. The city is so huge and densely populated that a person could go through an entire day living as an action adventure hero without anyone else even noticing. It stands to reason then that video games would be no different and would also use the New York City as their setting as well. The city that never sleeps has appeared in countless video games since Spider-Man scaled the Empire State Building in his Atari 2600 outing.

Yet growing up in the city as a gamer, one quickly notices an unavoidable fact: no game developer has portrayed New York accurately. From Parasite Eve to True Crime, even video games using exact maps of the New York City streets have failed to capture the true essence that drives the city. There's no 6pm outbound traffic rush in games. There's no skeptical New York attitude. There's no records of the social system that keeps a city like New York moving. Most importantly, game developers have missed out on some of the best locales that New York has to offer, and that's a shame.

Now, Rockstar games has once again stepped up to the plate, with Grand Theft Auto IV. This week, gamers got their first glimpse of what is to be one of the most anticipated games of our generation as it brings one of the most heralded series in the free roam crime game genre. If you haven't seen the trailer yet, take a look here.

As you can clearly see, the game is set in a rendition of New York City. Since the MetLife building has been replaced with a logo reading "GetALife", we can assume that this version of NYC is meant to be a farce version of the real one. That's really not important overall. If Rockstar wants to try and create more in depth, unlicensed version of New York City (their first attempt at this was arguably Liberty City, introduced earlier in the series) then that is their prerogative.

I think there can be no mistake, if only from the number of historical structures presented in the trailer that this is meant to be New York City. Rockstar has just bit off quit a bit, and come October 2007 we will see if they can actually chew it. Rockstar has a tall order to fill with this version of New York they present to us, and we couldn't be more excited. With next generation power and years of video game development experience under their belts, there is a big chance that Rockstar may be the first game developer to do a proper rendition of New York City. As New Yorkers, we would now like to present to you some little known factors about the city that Rockstar seems to be aiming for, and hopefully they will hit their target. GTA IV is looking good so far, and we now present to you some of the real dirt of New York's underground we hope to see placed in this game.


Let's Get Racial



We can tell from the GTA IV trailer that the main character is a European immigrant, and from his accent I'd place him as Russian. Already, Rockstar has committed themselves to one of the most potentially realistic racial commentaries ever seen in a video game. If they pull it off, I'll applaud them to no end.
Shortly after the death of John Gotti Sr., the Italian mafia's hold in New York started to slip. Part of it was due to a lack of leadership, but part of it simply came from age. Many of the Mafioso's and wannabes who had a stranglehold on New York City operations in the past were getting on in years. Many Italians migrated out to Staten Island, and radio disc jockeys here in New York lovingly dubbed the area "Staten Italy".



Meanwhile, over in Brighton Beach, Brooklyn (which is a mere stone's throw away from world famous Coney Island), Russian immigration hit an all time high. The areas in Brighton Beach had always been predominantly Russian, and as far as I know most of the businesses there had been left untouched by the Italians. That changed however with John Gotti's death and the Italian migration. With the Italian mafia gone, the Russian mafia moved in and set up operations out of Brighton Beach. They quickly expanded into the Coney Island tourist section (the rest of the area remains mostly Black and Spanish to this day) as well as parts of Bensonhurst. There, the ushered in a syndicate that is rumored to be far more violent and dirty than the Italians ever were.

Now is the time for Rockstar to take a good hard look at the going on in New York's often racially segregated neighborhoods. With their choice of main character, setting, and time frame, GTA's proud developers now have an opportunity to commentate on the social standings, class system, and racism that exist throughout the New York City boroughs. This can easily be done in the same was as GTA: San Andreas's commentary on the urban lifestyle. Everyone in New York knows this is happening, but few have the gall to talk about it outside their own homes. The important question here is: does Rockstar have the balls?


New Locations

If you look up certain urban exploration websites, you will find that Rockstar has an absolute plethora of locales available to them that even many New Yorkers don't know about. GTA IV doesn't even NEED an exact free roam version of New York City. True Crime: Streets of New York, Die Hard Trilogy and The Godfather already attempted to make that feature work, with lesser degrees of success.



Case in point: The Freedom Tunnel. This tunnel runs underneath New York City's Riverside Park and West Side Highway. Currently owned and operated by Amtrak, The Freedom Tunnel runs from New York's midtown area all the way to upstate in the country. The tunnel has a biography so unique; it would be a shame if Rockstar passed up using it in their game.



The tunnel was originally owned and operated by the city of New York, but was abandoned in the 1950's. Around the 1970's, several homeless men formed a sort of underground society, often being referred to as the "mole people". Rumor has it they drew electricity from the train tracks and lived a perfectly normal lifestyle underground. This group of homeless men, women and children was led by "Freedom" Smith (whom the tunnel is named for) and a man only known as "Sane". Freedom and Sane were actually accomplished artists and drew murals (not graffiti) on the walls of the tunnel dictating various political commentaries. When Amtrak purchased the tunnel, they reached an agreement to provide this community with housing above the streets of New York. And just where does my fascination with this tunnel come from you ask?



BOOYA!! Yes I went into the tunnel (I won't comment on the circumstances) and explored its interior. There I found all sorts of things including Freedom Smith's murals; Sane's resting place, and an offside generator room that housed torn pages of a journal which described a very odd and near undecipherable sexual and romantic relationship. Truth is stranger than fiction sometimes, and in this case Rockstar has everything to gain by including interesting locales like this. Who cares if they are constantly accessible in the game? They are interesting and can make for a compelling story. There is so much more beneath the NYC streets than above them, and its all Rockstar's to use now.


Hard Times



Rockstar loves controversy, no? We have already seen the incident of September 11th, 2001 portrayed in books and movies. For the sake of storyline, it wouldn't surprise me if Rockstar was ballsy enough to place these events in the game. So long as our protagonist isn't the one flying the planes, I could easily see this being a powerful and useful plot device.



There is so much more going on in NYC as well. Not too recently, a city transit authority strike gripped the cities populous and caused a social incident the likes of which we may never see again. How about the shooting of Sean Bell and his friends, which has also stirred outrage and debate amidst New Yorkers? There is no reason that Rockstar can't use these as plot devices (much like they used the L.A. riots in San Andreas) and with a little tasteful writing these events can really open gamer's eyes as to the reality of crime and society in New York City.


The Anger

Rockstar games made quite the bed for themselves, and now we get to see them sleep in it. I give Rockstar a lot of flak for some of their more controversial games and development choices. Still, I have to give them credit. A free roam New York City crime game cannot be easy to design, and other developers have surely shied away from this task in the past. I personally believe Rockstar WILL use some of the devices I listed here, and I have to applaud them for at least trying. But can they pull it off? Until we know, embrace the hatred.