The Full Circle: 360 News Report 04.25.08

Posted by Joe Roche on 04.25.2008

After weeks of anticipation it's the final weekend before we're all going to be running rampant through the streets of Liberty City. With less then four days to go before GTAIV hits store shelves we've got a few stories about the Take Two game that will leave you with a bad taste in your mouth. If you're not a GTA fan we've got some Burnout: Paradise news, as well as some JRPG downloads to look forward to, and a chance to work on the next Halo project. It's a fat free edition of The Full Circle as your old friend Joe prepares for the last finals he will ever take.



I'm going to have to apologize ahead of time this week because we're a little light in The Full Circle. If you're a college student right now is finals and I'm in the middle of a stretch of 5 finals in 9 days to close out my Law School career so I'm a bit consumed with other things right now (when you factor in the additional weight of moving next week). Luckily with the specter of Grand Theft Auto looming over everything this week most of the information comes out related to that.

I was playing Rainbow Six Vegas 2 the other night online when Xbox Live went out, I believe it just now (Thursday afternoon) came back fully according to Microsoft themselves and I must admit that I'm nervous for Tuesday. With all the hype surrounding the online fun to be had in Liberty City I'm afraid that we'll have a lot of angry people around 12:30 am Tuesday morning who can't online to shoot pimps with their friends from MySpace.

I've got my pre-order all paid for and even though I don't think that I can in good conscience (read: my fiancé will never speak to me again) wait outside the store starting at 10 PM to pick up a copy of the game I know where I'll be first thing in the morning. Until then it's a steady diet of Terrorist Hunt in Vegas, until the insanity of GTA finally hits.

Jack Thompson Is Back



Hey everyone remember Jack Thompson – he of the unsubstantiated hatred towards a graphic sex scene in Mass Effect which naturally never existed? Well with the upcoming release of Grand Theft Auto IV he has once again returned to our lives by calling the head of Take Two Interactive Strauss Zelnick a "porn and violence peddler to children" who is responsible for the death of policemen around the country including "three policemen in Alabama" who were killed by killers trained on Grand Theft Auto according to Jack Thompson.

Did he make this plea on 60 Minutes? Nope.

NBC Nightly News? Not a chance.

Christian Conservative Radio? Close but no cigar.

Nope Jack Thompson, the beacon of righteousness wrote a letter addressed to the mother of Strauss Zelnick directly or indirectly holding her responsible for her son being a man who feels no shame in peddling violence and pornography to children. Nothing says moral superiority like writing a letter to someone's mother and holding them responsible for the death of police officers in Alabama. Jack Thompson is a class act all around.

I take personal exception to this entire situation because as a hopefully soon to be member of one state's Bar Association, Jack Thompson gives lawyers all over the country a bad reputation (well worse then the reputation already is). Currently in Florida he has disbarment proceedings being decided against him, and as early as one month ago he was forbidden from turning in documents to the court with his signature on it. I'm not entirely sure anyone has written to Jack Thompson's mother about her job raising a soon to be disbarred embarrassment to the legal profession but if you'd like to get a hold of Mr. Thompson his contact information wasn't that hard to find:

Address: 5721 Riviera Drive, Coral Gables, Florida 33146-2750
Phone: [phone]
Email: [e-mail]

Grand Theft Auto is one of those game franchises that will get blamed by the Christian Conservatives for all the violence in this country. These are the same people who flock to see a torture movie like "Passion of the Christ" and quote scripture laced with more misogyny and violence than all of the video games on all of the platforms across the universe combined.

As a person of faith (regardless of how you define that term) and a lawyer (almost) I am personally offended when Jack Thompson intends to speak on my behalf. I refuse to hold Strauss Zelnick responsible for school shootings, just as I refuse to hold Kobe Bryant responsible for all hotel rapes or Cormac McCarthy for all serial killer hitmen with bad haircuts.

Grand Theft Auto is rated MATURE. If you're a parent, and you have any sense at all, Little Timmy won't be playing GTAIV on Tuesday when the game comes out; he'll be playing baseball outside because he won't be allowed to purchase the game. When I was a kid I couldn't play games that showed people killing other people – my parents didn't win any awards for taking an interest in what their kids were doing, they were just doing their job. Forget about the fact that GTA doesn't make you a cop killer; if you were that concerned about your kids playing the game just watch what they put into the machine.

I'm sure somewhere Strauss Zelnick is rejoicing about this dope because even though Jack Thompson wants the world to turn away from GTAIV by making this public proclamation and drawing attention to the game he has done a better job of advertising FOR the game than any thirty second spot during Monday Night Raw could have.

Grand Theft Video Game



There is a hint of irony in this next situation. Apparently both a PAL version and NTSC version of Grand Theft Auto appeared on the interwebs in the past few days allowing hundreds of thousands of people to grab a copy of the game online through torrent sites or other computer lingo places a week ahead of the official release of the game.

When I started to see opened boxes with pictures taken of Gamestop employees handling GTAIV merchandise you had to know that this was going to happen. I find it a bit fitting that a game which allows you to steal any vehicle that you come across would become victim of internet piracy but I really hope that the loyal six reads of The Full Circle would refrain from downloading the game in this fashion and instead just pick up their pre orders at midnight like you had originally planned.

I understand that sometimes you get upset with games costing $60 (I don't know exchange rates but I think in Australia you wind up paying roughly $4987 per game) that wind up being nothing more then rehashed themes and pretty background settings. BUT this isn't Viking or Monopoly from EA Games we're talking about here – this is Grand Theft Auto IV, a game that has been garnering PERFECT score reviews from the advance press. I think it's safe to say that your $60 will be well spent on this game, so be a dear, spit in the face of Jack Thompson and buy GTAIV when it comes out like the rest of us law abiding citizens.

Burnout Paradise Goes Dark



Still recovering from the massive mess made of that Bogart release Burnout fans? Well strap in for some good news because coming with the August release of the Davis update you'll be able to travel the world on 2 wheels instead of 4 for the first time in Burnout history. Criterion announced the other day that they would be adding motorcycles to the game when they release their August update which will also include the ability to race under the cover of darkness, as night racing will be introduced as well.

I'm not a big Burnout fan – I understand the appeal of the game I just never got into it myself, but might I ask why night was never an option before this coming August? I mean is there a reason why Criterion just never got around to adding the night option to the game or is it one of the world's great mysteries that remains unsolved to this day?

Operation Darkness to Tide You Over



So you're tired of Call of Duty 4, Rainbow Six Vegas 2, and Halo 3 but we're still a four days away from the release of GTAIV. If you're looking for something to try out the demo for Operation Darkness is now available on the Xbox Live Marketplace. This game is a strategy RPG set in an alternate universe where you must do battle with mythical creates and the many minions of Hitler. Basically it's Medal of Honor with unicorns and dragons. If that sounds interesting to you then you might fire up what is hopefully now a fully functioning XBL Marketplace and download the demo to try for yourself. There is something comforting about knowing that in the end you can kill Hitler with a fireball from the heavens that makes this game at least marginally attractive to some of you people killing time over the weekend before the hooker killing on Tuesday.

Found Odyssey



Maybe you don't want to try Operation Darkness but you still want your fill of JRPG goodness – well you're in luck because downloadable content for Lost Odyssey should be available through the XBL Marketplace as you read this. This particular slice of downloadable content will be 200 Microsoft Points (roughly one Dixie cup of gasoline) and include "a new dream sequence and a few new items. "The Shattered Bond" will allow plays to experience a new dream, the "Killer Machine" ring will give extra protection against magic-powered weapons and the "Memory Lamp" will let players re-live previous dreams."

I haven't played Lost Odyssey yet but I've heard great things – although I must admit that this DLC seems a bit of a reach. I know that Japan has been getting more DLC for the game and maybe this is an effort to let the American market in on the fun but is anyone out there who is still playing this game excited about the potential to experience a new dream, or re-live previous dreams? Seems like a pretty hefty price tag for a relatively small amount of usable content.

Join the Team



MTV Multiplayer who seem to be on the pulse of a lot these days found some interesting job postings on the Microsoft careers page recently for Director, Producer, and Game Engineers to work with Peter Jackson concerning his development of a game in the Halo universe. Microsoft was quick to point out that this collaboration was announced at X06 in Barcelona, Spain which is true – but it's interesting that the job postings were with Microsoft and not Bungie.

After Halo 3 came out there was a lot of noise that Bungie planned on moving away from the Halo Universe for the time being and that appears to be the case with this game as they will have a hand in the production but will not directly oversee the project. I guess if you're an aspiring game engineer this is your chance to have a hand in the next edition to the Halo pantheon.

THE WEEK AHEAD



04.29.08 Grand Theft Auto IV

Anybody hear anything about this? No? Yeah me either.


05.02.08 Iron Man

I've downloaded the demo for this game and have never hated something so much in my entire life. Has anyone else tried to play this game? I realize that with the customization and the other options for the suit that will be available in the full game the demo might not be the best representation of what to expect but – holy shit, the flying is horrendous and the controls were driving me insane. I actually love the Iron Man/Tony Stark character but seemingly releasing this game the same week as GTAIV, and having it be a movie game in addition makes me believe that we'll be forgetting about this before anyone even notices that it happened.


In Closing :

I admit this was a short week and I apologize for that. I'm sure that most of the college aged readers of 411 Mania will agree finals is the worst part of the year as you try to learn four months of material in a few days because you were too drunk/hungover/disinterested to pay attention during the semester. I'm moving next week so I will leave you in some more then capable hands and return the week after that rested, relaxed and ready to disappoint you some more with another edition of The Full Circle.