GTA In The GTA

This is how dumb I am. It was only a couple of days ago, that I noticed this huge freakin’ thing was hanging off one of the buildings in the neighborhood. As you might expect, there are a lot of jokes flying around about Grand Theft Auto appearing in the Greater Toronto Area which translate to the title above.

I figured it was appropriate to include since I had to walk past the damn thing on the way to the store to collect my copy of Grand Theft Auto IV. I have now been plugged into the PS3 pretty much non-stop since I came back with it, and the verdict is… There is virtually no chance that any other title is going to win Game of the Year awards. It’s freakin’ GTA, but it’s also huge, detailed, and endlessly, ENDLESSLY funny. I’m spending more time surfing the in-game internet and watching the TV than I am actually playing the game proper. I totally freakin’ LOVE this game, and even though I normally err on the side of caution when talking about picking up consoles purely for one title… this one might be justified.

Officially Getting Stupid

So last week we got Rock Band 2. On Saturday we got LittleBigPlanet and just today I brought the above home.  Hailed as the sequel to a much beloved PC series, or, for the less game-lore savvy, “Oblivion with guns,” Fallout 3 is a massive, MASSIVE game that makes the Grand Theft Auto series look like a 3 piece treasure hunt in a nursery school sandbox, the scope of this game is nearly epic in size.  I really wish developers would stop putting all the really good stuff into this insane October/November/December Christmas avalanche, because there are so many other quality games I’d really like to get as well that are going to be ignored right now due to simple lack of time.

Tomorrow

I could have gone to a midnight launch of one of the local big retailers to pick up the game (as many around the continent are doubtless doing) but since I’m a big fan of the little vintage game store I have discovered, and since waiting a few more hours won’t kill me, I decided to support my local small business and just wait it out. They’ll be getting the game tomorrow, like everyone else, and I feel much better about giving them money rather than handing it over to some disinterested teenager who knows squat about the gaming industry.

But man. Finally. Grand Theft Auto IV. Feels like Christmas Eve. I almost can’t believe it’s been four freakin’ years since the last one.

Also, we watched Alien vs Predator: Requiem. It rocked, in that good/bad way. Plenty of R-rated death! Whee!

Less Than 48 Hours

I’m all in “Christmas mode” now as the release of Grand Theft Auto IV is now getting painfully close. I really love this series, having been stupid enough to get 100% completion on all three previous games on the PS2. I have no intention of breaking that tradition with GTAIV. It’s not often in the life of a console that a game this huge comes out. I’m savoring the anticipation. And, in true Rockstar fashion, leave you with yet another taste of the cosmopolitan wonder that is advertising in Liberty City:

Calgary Joins The Jack Thompson Brigade

I was greatly amused–and somewhat annoyed–to hear about Calgary actually getting a mention in the gaming press today. Looks like they’ve jumped on the Jack Thompson “murder simulator” bandwagon, and are warning parents of the dangers that upcoming Chaos Engine Grand Theft Auto IV can pose to innocent “youtz” as Jay of Jay n’ Silent Bob fame would call them. In the news story they ran in the Sun, the police have this juicy quote:

“From the Calgary Police Service perspective, we see these types of video games as a grave concern,” he said. “Because of the lack of consequences and even reward — (youth) don’t understand the impact violence can have.”

He said parents have to be aware of what children watch or games they play.

“In some cases, those very games may be training grounds for people to commit criminal activity,” Brookwell said.

Man, if it isn’t comics, it’s Dungeons & Dragons, and if isn’t Dungeons & Dragons, it’s videogames. But then (he said, showing his Edmonton roots) I guess you gotta’ expect that from any city that names their hockey team “the Flames.”

Relaxed Friday

The Wife got invited to a student art show from the seniors at the Sheridan art program. We tottered over to Queen Street West to check it out, then went home and finished up watching the last few episodes of the Blue Planet: Seas of Life documentary. I’m now nursing some minor guilt over eating sushi after watching their “LOOK AT WHAT WE’RE DOING TO THE MARINE ENVIRONMENT! HUMANS ARE BAD! BADBADBAD!” episode, but I’m sure this will pass. If Neil-O can eat sushi, it CAN’T be wrong, right?

Horror Drought About To End

On the Japanese Playstation Store, Sony put up a demo for a game hitting Japan in July, which is doubtless bound for an English translation. It’s called Siren: New Translation and is actually a PS3 remake of a horror game released on the PS2 back in 2003. Like a lot of horror games, there’s a zombie thing of sorts going on here, except that one of the key differences is the characters are gifted with a psychic “zombie vision” where they temporarily jump into the viewpoint of the zombies. This seems to jump up the scare factor once you realize that the silhouette in the dark the zombie suddenly started madly running towards is YOU. I tried the out the demo, which was mercifully brief and came out of it screaming at least twice. This game is going to traumatize children for YEARS if they get their hands on it. Up until now the PS3 hasn’t had any really decent horror games, but with Silent Hill 5 coming in September and now this, it looks things are shaping up for a pretty decent Halloween this year.

More Old Friends

Met up with another old friend from university today who was visiting from Edmonton, henceforth referred to as the Free Spirit for her oh so bohemian ways and lifestyle. Haven’t not laid eyes on the girl since like… oh… 1998, it was bizarre to see that when I met her and she met me we were both thinking, “Yup. You’re still the same.” Except for the part about me no longer being psychotically bitter about being doomed to die single. And the part about her finally settling down into a less chaotic lifestyle. But other than that, it was like no time passed, which is always freaky when that happens. Then she mentioned that one of the other people she was visiting in Toronto was another veteran of the university days who had also taken up residence here and shall henceforth be known as the Head Doctor, since… well, that’s what he does.

We met up for lunch and I took her back to the apartment because she had apparently read this very blog with interest about the Miracle That Is Rock Band but had not had a chance to actually try it out. We rectified that. She surprised me in two ways; first, she felt a lot more enthusiastic about the drums than the guitar, and second, when she took the microphone to try singing, she did not in any way, shape or form, hold back. That little frame of hers just belted it out and freaked me out for a couple of seconds because I’m not used to seeing her holler like that, but holler she did. Then she ratcheted it up to hard and scored something like 98% on her first try. So, okay… the girl can sing.

After that we went down to–where else–Bloor and met up with the Head Doctor and a few other people I may or may not have seen during my university days, but never interacted with, although there was a general air of “You look reeeeeal familiar” on both sides, though admittedly that could also have been simply because we’ve seen each other around Bloor before.

All in all it was a pleasant day. Always fun to meet up with old friends, especially when they’re just as insane as you remember them being.