Actually, what this shows that there is no connection between violent crime and GTA. The trend of blaming video games for violent crime is rubbish.

I’ve been trying to find something on this for a while, but this picture was actually encountered on a random stumble to http://www.kobrascorner.com/images/vgame-graph.png.

Hunter

Publisher: Activision

Developed by: Paul Holmes and Martin Walker

Genre: 3-D Adventure, Strategy

Year: 1991

Hunter is a game that takes you into a world where mayhem and destruction can reign free on your enemies and in whatever form that takes your fancy. Having first played this on my Amiga I’ve been hooked ever since and it’s the main reason I’m a big fan of games such as GTA. Playing it through again brings back some great memories and is certainly a welcome addition to my games collection. Hunter can be classed as a 3D adventure, strategy game, developed by Paul Holmes and Martin Walker (music) and released in 1991 by Activision.

Hunter lets you play three different scenarios; MISSIONS, whereby you receive an objective and deadline to complete, once you have completed your mission you return to HQ to receive more orders. The objectives become subsequently harder and the time shorter to complete each mission. ACTION, your man in the field is given a long list of enemy targets, it is then up to you to use the map and log book to locate each target and destroy them. Once again you are racing against the clock to finish the list. Finally the main scenario, HUNTER, is the trickiest of them all. You must track down and kill the enemy General by collecting clues from civilians, bribing enemies, and by using a number of objects, vehicles and weapons to help you succeed. The deeper you go into enemy territory and the closer you come to completing this scenario the harder it gets, you are racing against the clock and options can become limited if you aren’t prepared for battle!

The game is controlled via mouse and keyboard or my preferred method mouse and joystick. The joystick controls the directional movement of your man as well as firing weapons, it also controls stop and start in vehicles and moving them around (point to note, there is no reverse). The mouse comes into play with the strategy side to the game and is used in the selection of weapons and sundry items needed to progress. You will need to use aerial observation units, parachutes, maps and radar, or maybe you just fancy slipping into your newly acquired enemy uniform. Both control methods are easy to utilise and when using the mouse to select from the popup menu the game conveniently pauses.

Hunter has great game play interlaced with simple graphics (as with many other great retro games) and makes the most of its sweeping landscapes and 3D environment. Greens, oranges and blues make up your basic air, land and sea colours making buildings, vehicles and people easy to indentify. Vehicles are well drawn and conveniently placed at your disposal around the map, whether it’s a car, tank, helicopter or bicycle (less said about the windsurfer the better) you’ll be glad of the free ride as walking can be slow and tedious. Vehicles run smoother and faster than you would expect and each have their own unique uses (cars are nippy and tanks are slower, but can also take some serious missile damage). Helicopters are easy to fly after the initial trauma of take off but are a bugger to land, especially if in a rush, best to put down in a safe area and walk the rest of the way!

The variety of weapons and sundry items is impressive. You can use a number of explosives to destroy targets or just have some fun generally blowing stuff up. The player can use land and timed mines, sea to air missiles, bazookas, 80mm shells, grenades and all the while carrying your trusty sidearm. Aerial observation units and radar help you scope out and assess the landscape and can be useful in finding people, buildings and vehicles. The food and money collected is used to bribe and gather information and the enemy uniform to breeze into enemy territory without a care in the world.

Apart from the title screen Hunter relies solely on sound effects to create its ambience.  Across the landscape the player can hear gun fire, explosions and roaming vehicles, or a sultry seagull flying overhead, destined to make you its own special target (why else would it be following me…). The maps, a different one for each scenario, give the game a sense of vastness when you begin your mission, and in its quieter moments, especially when dusk has fallen (use flares to light the way, or turn the brightness up on the monitor), can be a little creepy and lonely without anything else around you. Hunter has few drawbacks, if any. Walking everywhere will cost  you time and time is of the essence in Hunter so by the end you’ll be thankful for that enemy disguise, extra fuel can, or the fact the soldier who arrived to work that morning forgot to lock his bike up to his guard tower.

Hunter is a game (for its time obviously) with the freedom and almost limitless possibilities of any of today’s titles that fall into the sandbox genre (think GTA, but slower, and with simpler graphics). Hunter is a classic and still fantastic to play, its open environment and vast maps make it challenging, fun and atmospheric. This concluding sentence from Amiga Power (Aug 1991) really summed the game up for me and my own experience of playing the game back in the day. Jonathan Davies wrote in The Bottom Line “Hunter was a real all rounder, there was something for everyone in there, all wrapped up in a believable 3D world you can get lost in for hours.”  You can read the full review here on Amiga Magazine Rack.

The only music in the game comes from the title screen, listen to it here  Hunter Main Theme.

To give you an idea of the game play check out the first mission (in the MISSIONS scenario) being played out. This video is over 6 mins and just gives you a feel for the game play.

I thought we were past this as a nation. “Media family values” champion Jack Thompson was disbarred from the Florida legal system a while ago, and a report from Gamasutra.com says that The National Institute on Media and the Family – NIMF, if you want to mock them – has shut down after 14 years of operation. NIMF has been extremely critical of the video game industry over these past 14 years, giving an annual “report card” of the video game industry, and I honestly feel nothing over them shutting down. They have been completely irrelevant to my life throughout their existence. This organization was never discussed around the dinner table, with praises sung by my parents, or Halo-induced rage from me. I doubt anybody in my family or circle of friends has ever heard of this group. In their 14 years of life, they accomplished nothing, except help draw attention to the “Hot Coffee mod” in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, garnering a boost in sales for Rockstar Games. They have always been irrelevant.

If they’re so irrelevant, why in the Hell am I talking about them? Well, why are all 9 of you asking questions? The answer is this: after seeing the fall of Jack Thompson, and seeing Joe Lieberman become the joke of Congress that he is, I assumed we were past this “video games are evil” kick as a nation. This has been done before, first starting with comic books, then cartoons like Road Runner and Bugs Bunny, then movies like “Natural Born Killers,” followed by television shows like “Jackass,” and finally with video games like Grand Theft Auto and Doom. So, I was led to assume that the video game industry has withstood the onslaught of “family-first” groups that have attempted to stare down so many other forms of media that are “ruining our children and our nation.”

Apparently, I was wrong. On GamePolitics.com, a study was performed by the Swiss groups Pro Juventute and Track Impunity Always(TRIAL) to “raise public awareness among developers and publishers of the games, as well as among authorities, educators and the media about virtually committed crimes in computer and videogames.” In other words, to count how many human rights violations exist in video games, and the consequences that are presented to the player. Shockingly, in the first person shooters with highly cinematic tones taking place in combat environments, there were quite a few violations of the International Humanitarian Law with little to no consequence.

Hold on, you mean to tell me a video game isn’t a realistic portrayal of life? Huh. I thought if I ran over some hookers and the police start chasing me, all I have to do to lose them is get my car repainted for a couple hundred bucks. Even if the cops watch me go into the paint shop. In the car I used to run over the hookers. Just like in Grand Theft Auto. Obviously, children should not be playing these M-rated games. In the end, it falls on the parents to guide their children in the right direction. If they allow their kids to play these games, their needs to be parental guidance involved, instead of relying on “family values” groups like NIMF.

I played some violent video games as a teen, I’ll admit. My parents watched me play some of them. They would ask questions, like “why are you shooting that guy? What’s the reason behind this?” And I would explain to them, and I made sure they knew I could tell the difference between fantasy and reality. I have had “concerned mothers” explain to me that the violent first person shooters I played as a youth influenced me to join the military. Of course, I told them no. The recruiter influenced me to join the Marine Corps, not a video game. In the conversation between my recruiter, my parents, and myself, the topic of video games, guns, violence, or the media didn’t come up once. College money, outstanding training, a secure job, and discipline were the topics discussed. Now that’s influential.

Semper I…don’t wanna die.

The DevilGeek

Heute ist sie endlich gekommen, meine PS3 Slim(120GB).  Ich war noch einer der glücklichen der sie um 238€ bei Amazon.de bekommen hat.

Nach 1 1/2 Jahren Pause war es jetzt wieder an der Zeit sich eine Konsole zuzulegen.

Heute habe ich mir dann auch gleich GTA IV gekauft und ein Arbeitskollege hat mir die Blue Ray Transformers 2 geborgt. Bin echt schon auf die Blue Ray gespannt, man soll ja einen deutlichen Unterschied zu einer “normalen” DVD bemerken.

So und jetzt muss ich zocken .

On s’en rappelle tous avec émotions : quelle joie nous ressentions lorsque les revues spécialisées divulguaient les codes secrets des jeux vidéo. Ces combinaisons de touches invraisemblables permettaient de tricher en toute impunité et profiter des jeux en profondeur.

Sans réussir à le prouver, je pense que l’apparition des cheating codes faisaient partie de la stratégie des éditeurs de jeux. Ils participaient à la notoriété et au plaisir ressenti de certains opus, parfois trop difficiles ou quasi impossible à exploiter dans leur intégralité.

Mon ami Alex m’expliquait que seul 20% des joueurs avancent vraiment dans les jeux, les autres restent souvent bloqués au début (cela ne pose pas nécessairement problème, un jeu comme GTA se jouent autant au premier niveau que dans les niveaux avancés…). Un code permet simplement de débloquer une situation, continuer à jouer et éventuellement devenir fidèle à une sage (GTA, Fifa, Final Fantasy…)

Au passage, je serais curieux de tomber sur une étude démontrant l’impact des vies dans les jeux vidéo. Elles ont vraisemblablement contribué à angoisser les joueurs vis-à-vis de la mort > “si je peux mourir et ressusciter ad lib dans un monde virtuel, notre impossibilité à “gagner des vies” et à les dépenser dans la vraie vie dramatise profondément mon rapport à la faucheuse”. Mais c’est un autre débat…

La mythologie des codes a la dent dure. Certains développeurs et nerds continuent à les faire vivre à travers des petits secrets intégrés aux programmes, aux sites web ou aux jeux vidéo.

On trouve par exemple le Konami Code sur certains sites (essayez au moins celui-ci grâce à la page WP ci-avant qui donne une liste des sites dotés de cette fonction).

Il existe en outre des easter eggs sur certains sites. “L’oeuf de Pâques” s’inscrit dans la même lignée que la Konami Code (à quelques nuances près). Il débloque des bonus ou des fonctions cachées.

Exemple dans Doom :

Exemple dans Excel (oui oui!) :

Que nous apprennent les Konami Codes ou Easter Eggs? Que lorsque les gens/consommateurs/clients ont l’occasion de creuser un lien avec un produit ou un service via une petite manip réservée aux fans, l’interaction devient magique.

On devrait évidemment y penser plus souvent pour les marques, qui réussissent dans les meilleurs cas à dialoguer, parfois créer des expériences, rarement faire participer les gens.

L’agence Goodbye Silverstein and Partners y a pensé. Le dernier opus de la fabuleuse campagne américaine Got Milk? est totalement fou.

Visant à valoriser le lait auprès des jeunes, l’agence a eu la bonne idée d’intégrer un Konami Code à sa campagne : il offre un mini jeu rigolo. L’intérêt n’est pas dans le jeu en lui même mais dans la relation que le syndicat du lait US créé avec ses clients.

Offrir l’opportunité de découvrir quelque chose est formidable, presque mystique.

Quelle marque vous a fait découvrir quelque chose récemment?

Le sel dans les céréales ne compte pas…

Do not install the new patch for Rockstar’s GTA IV for pc.  This patch caused nothing but problems with my computer.  When it installed the setup actually deleted a lot of fonts right out of the Window’s fonts folder, so a lot of programs suffered from missing texts.  Online play doesn’t work(well it doesn’t unless you update either).  Lets just say I payed $50 for this !@#! game, and then Rockstar !@#!s up the online play and doesn’t want to !@#!ing fix it.  Good job Rockstar.

Lá venho eu trazendo mais um nome desconhecido pra vocês, né? Pois é, a figurinha da vez é Patrick Brown, um designer gráfico australiano de apenas 24 anos. Tem-se pouquíssima informação sobre ele na internet, o que é uma pena porque esse cara já devia estar com o trabalho dele bombando por aí.

Artista bastante conhecido no Deviant Art (popular comunidade virtual artística), Patrick é simples e direto descrevendo seus interesses em seu perfil no site: “estou aqui para me tornar um artista melhor, apreciar arte e mostrar o meu trabalho ao mundo. Então o Ogro faz a boa ação do dia e ajuda o digníssimo rapaz em sua empreitada, postando auqi na Caverna alguns de seus trabalhos.

Seu traço é inconfundível, moderno e ousado. As cores também são sempre muito bem trabalhadas. Toda a obra de Patrick Brown tem um caráter impactante e dinâmico. E o aspecto mais interessante de tudo é que os temas de suas ilustrações são sempre ícones da cultura pop, sejam de filmes, games ou quadrinhos. Entre os retratados temos Wolverine, o Exterminador, os personagens do game GTA, Coringa, Dexter, entre muitos outros.

Last time I listed a brief history of GTA franchise showing where it started and where we have come. As I said I am not going to review the games, given that GTAIV was released over a year ago and I have not played any of the expansions to the game there is really no point.

Why has this franchise done so well?

Well like all the best games out there the GTA franchise works as well as it does because it removes you from reality for as long as you wish it too and you can be someone different, and lets face it, who hasn’t want to run around like a madman with a ak…. I mean be someone different but without having to suffer any of the trauma as a result.

The first time I played GTA I knew it was different. For a start the graphics were shit, Ridge Racer came out two years before and had superior graphics. The reason I say the graphics were so shit and feel I can get away with this is because like all the best games out there it proved you don’t need the loveliest of graphics to win an audience over, simply amazing game play and this game had it. It wasn’t a racing game and it wasn’t a FPS, it was something in between and the majority of us lapped it up.

The reason for this I feel was because it was one of the first games I remember where there was no set pattern. What did you have to do in Ridge Racer? Get a mass amount of first places to move on. What did you have to do in Street Fighter? Beat other fighters one by one. In GTA the goal was to move to another island. Not exactly an amazing goal and really very straight forward but its how you did it. Get enough cash together and you progressed. You could do this in one of two ways. Kill people and do very silly things in cars or do missions. You had the choice. Killing people and doing very silly things in cars was quicker. Missions were more honest. You had that choice to make and I think most people may not have done the missions.

For a couple of years this was the main game, top down view and that is how it stayed until GTAIII came alone and suddenly everything changed.

When it was announced GTAIII was coming out in 3d with a real breathing city myself and many friends who were hopelessly addicted to the original GTA thought this would ruin it and take away what was so good about the game to begin with. Thankfully we were proved wrong.

Now you had real people, real storylines, cars that looked amazing, real streets, real parks. In short our minds were blown. It looks crude today but when GTAIII came out it really did change everything. Missions were provided that meant something. Storyline lines felt like they are been scripted by Michael Mann or Martin Scorsese and you could honestly see people like John Travolta or Ray Winston playing parts in the games, in a way this gave credibility to the extent that games have started winning awards, who honestly thought that would have happened 20 years ago?

So, you have realism but again why is this such a big thing? Why did this make the franchise as well as it did? Personally I feel its like movies. You don’t go in to see films Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels or The Godfather because you are a gangster you fo to see them to take a peek behind the curtain to see what that world is like and anyone who says that these games (and or movies though for some reason movies can get away with a lot more without being slapped on the wrist) are the down fall of society and makes people into unstable people who will go around doing this sort of things are just nitwits who need to understand that if someone cannot see the different between fantasy and reality should probably be looked after because they may not be completely there to begin with. I don’t mean that to sound horrible to anyone with any kind of an illness, what I mean is that if a normally “rational” human being has spent half there lives looking after sick people suddenly plays a violent video game and thinks “that’s good for a laugh”, they may not have been entirely sane or rational to begin with.

But that really is a entirely different subject altogether and not one I will discuss now.

I am going to leave it there for now, I didn’t mean this to be a three party article but I have more to say and I realize this is starting to get quite long.

The Ontario Writers’ Conference is thrilled to announce that they will be featuring Science Fiction author Robert J. Sawyer as both a Keynote Speaker and a Workshop Facilitator for our 2010 conference.

Sawyer will lead the Workshop: Science Fiction as the Literature of Ideas during the morning of the conference. He will also be featured as the Keynote Speaker at the gala dinner which will close out the daytime festivities and lead the attendees into the evening Festival of Authors.

ROBERT J. SAWYER BIO: Robert J. Sawyer, the “Dean of Canadian Science Fiction,” is one of only seven writers ever—and the only Canadian—to win all three of the world’s top awards for best SF novel of the year: the Hugo, Nebula, and John W. Campbell Memorial awards. As both a futurist and a science-fiction writer, Robert J. Sawyer is very much in demand as a speaker. He’s given keynotes and talks all over the world, including at the Library of Congress in Washington and the Canadian Embassy in Tokyo.

Rob’s specialty is extrapolating today’s scientific, medical, and ethical concerns into the near future, and making the radical changes that are forthcoming understandable to any audience. Called a master of “bold scientific extrapolation” by The New York Times, Rob opens up people’s minds about cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, stem-cell research, and nanotech, exploring the societal impact they are going to have.

Don’t miss out on the opportunity! Visit the conference website now to learn more about registration.

It’s not too late to take advantage of the Ontario Writers’ Conference Early Bird Registration Discount.

Visit the site here: ONTARIO WRITERS’ CONFERENCE

To see the May 1st, 2010 Ontario Writers’ Conference Schedule, visit this page: 2010 SCHEDULE

You can register online and pay through PayPal. Visit our REGISTRATION PAGE for full pricing details and step-by-step instructions for registering.

The 2010 Ontario Writers’ Conference will take place at DEER CREEK GOLF & BANQUET FACILITY in Ajax, Ontario…only minutes from Toronto.

The Conference is a full day of workshops, panel discussion, blue pencil sessions, round-tables, keynote speakers, author readings and fantastic dining. Register now!

EARLY BIRD REGISTRATION DEADLINE IS DECEMBER 15th, 2009. REGISTER BY THE 15th TO RECEIVE YOUR DISCOUNT AUTOMATICALLY.

Last month two expansions were provided to Xbox 360 users in one package on the form of Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.

Being a PS3 owner I have not been privy to this but that is not why I am here, I am not here to bitch of how Rockstar screwed Playstation owners, mainly because it has been done to death and also I intend to get it when I get my Xbox in the new year.

No, what I want to discuss is how after 12 years this series is still going strong. What I will say though is I am not going to discuss the games themselves; it would take too long, just the series as a whole.

As you can imagine with the shear number of games this will be split up so in this part 1 will be the history.

First of all before we go on lets quickly take a look at where we have been and what we have had:

1997 – Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto is released under the creation of DMA (soon to be Rockstar North) and Take Two Interactive. It is a top down view and would be next to Carmageddon very controversial.

1999 – Grand Theft Auto London ‘69

Essentially the same game but with some extra graphics to indicate it is set in London.

1999 – Grand Theft Auto London ‘61

Essentially the same game but with some extra graphics to indicate it is set in London.

1999 – Grand Theft Auto 2

Grand Theft Auto 2 is brought out, the graphics are improved, an introduction is put in place, gangs are introduced and more islands are produced.

2001 – GTAIII

Grand Theft Auto III (Grand Theft Auto would no longer be referred to by the full title in general but by GTA) , GTAIII was arguably the biggest game in Rockstars history. Not only was it the first game in 3d which obviously had a massive impact but storylines were introduced properly and missions had a point (previously missions were there but you didn’t really care about them) it was also one of the first games that crossed all platforms, Playstation 2, XBox, Windows, previous games had been limited to the Playstation 1 and Windows and occasionally the Game Boy Advance.

2002 – GTA: Vice City

GTA: Vice City. Not an expansion or a sequel to GTAIII but a game that used the engine of GTAIII and became a whole new game in its own right. GTAVC was based in the 1980’s and unlike the previous games with date prefixes  the date did mean something. GTAIII also had no official date attached. it was assumed it was set in a modern day New York City. Vice City had a clear time scheme and a clear location. New stories were brought in and more characters.

2004 – GTA: San Andreas

GTA: San Andreas, based on the same engine of GTA III & Vice City this game was the biggest game made so far. GTAIV is big but not nearly as big as GTA San Andreas, it has never been confirmed just how big the map is in the really world but that it is meant to be huge.  Again, the graphics were slightly improved; more options were provided such as haircuts, tattoos and changing of clothes. Some still see this as the best GTA game ever made.

2005 – GTA: Liberty City Stories

GTA: Liberty City Stories, essentially a expansion but not at the same time. This and VC stories allows you to take the role of someone who was met in the original game and play as that person.

2005  – GTA: Vice City Stories

GTA: Vice City Stories, essentially a expansion but not at the same time. This and LC stories allows you to take the role of someone who was met in the original game and play as that person.

2008 – GTA IV

GTA IV was to quote a phrase “a whole new ball game”, the graphics were the main thing to be changed. A whole new engine was developed to exploit the power of the Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and of course the expanding hardware of PC’s that will always change. Of course a new story was developed.

2008 – GTA: The Lost and the Damned

The Lost and the Damned was very much the same as GTAIV and rather like Liberty City Stories, a new story but same engine as GTAIV.

2008 – GTA: The Balled of Gay Tony

The Balled of Gay Tony was very much the same as GTAIV and the same as The Lost and the Damned, a new story but same engine as GTAIV.

Well that is a very brief run down of the history. Next time in Part two I will discuss what the series has done and why we love it.

Liebe Ehemalige unserer Gestaltungsklassen,
wir laden Euch ein zu einem Ehemaligentreff im Cafe del Sol ( http://www.cafedelsol.de/).
für Freitag, den 22. Januar 2010.
Wir vermissen euch

Yeah, einfach geiler Tag. Aufgestanden, in die Schule gegangen und dort in GmK gechillt und SMS geschrieben mit Jessi Ke. und Jessi Kö. DD. Doch dann fällt mir ein das ich kein Rollerschlüssel mehr hab! Scheise! Ich frag kurz, ob ich raus darf. Ich renn in die Garage und tata!!! mein Schlüssel steckt noch puh D. Wieder hoch. Dann in NWT Vertretung Herr Schramm und Kurzidim gehabt. Herr Schramm is voll chillig. Kurze auch, aber den kenn’ ich ja schon etwas länger. Dann in der 4. Stunde in Bio VB gegangen und Joshi hat mit dem Desktop Destroyer scheise gebaut.  Dann noch Französisch und der Schultag is rum. Nach Hause, NWT Ordner noch was ausdrucken und Englisch n’ bissl lernen. Hoffentlich kann ich des morgen. Um 15.00 runter zu Lasse Ladekabel vom HTC abholen, da mein Handy für 192€ verkauft wurde. Ab nach Wernau zu Chris und Maxi. Wir gehen natürlich wieder Dönerfuddern. Auf dem Weg zum Döner geh ich mit Chris noch zur Post. Ich wollte des Ding halt verschicken, ganz normal und hab gedacht, dass da so ne Kiste dabei ist. Dann fällt mir ein das ich meinen Schlüssel schon wieder stecken lassen hab’. Scheise. Zurückgerannt und tata!!! noch da! Wieder zur Post. Die Tusse hat den Absenderbebba auf die Verpackung vom Handygeklebt. Toll das Handy kann jetzt jeder rausnehmen. Dann frag’ ich ob sie wenigstens kurz nen Klebeband hätte damit ich das Paket ganz zukleben kann. “Ne, ich hab keins”. Toll! Musste ich doch echt so ne ganze Klebebandrolle kaufen damit ich das Paket zu bebben kann. Dumme Kuh. Dann zum Döner und fetten Döner mit Schafskäse reinziehen. War wieder voll chillig. Maxi wieder mit genommen und bei Maxi dann Splinter Cell und GrandTheftAuto gezockt. War geil! DD Maxi is übelster Cheater. Naja, nächstes Mal fick ich euch auseinander D. Dann um 17.45 nach Hause gefahren und wieder Englisch gelernt. Heute habe ich 84 SMS verschickt. Rekordverdächtig D. Aber mit Aldi Flat is ja au noch saubillig.

Let it rock! muss noch englisch lernen

Este é o blog do Grupo Tático Aéreo do Estado do Amapá (GTA). Nosso objetivo aqui é mostrar para o público nossas atividades e opiniões. Vamos postar fotos e informações de nossas missões, artigos e matérias de interesse.

Com nossos colegas de profissão do Amapá de de outros Estados, pretendemos trocar informações e experiências, a fim de aprimorar o nosso trabalho e o de vocês.

Esperamos que este espaço se torne uma fonte de informação não só para aqueles que se interessam pelo trabalho do GTA, mas para todos que queiram saber um pouco mais de segurança pública.

Utilize-o!

You can now sign-up for the Ontario Writers’ Conference e-Newsletter. Simply go to the following link, enter your email address and click on the Join Now! button.

OWC NEWSLETTER SIGN-UP

Agent was revealed at Sony’s E3 conference and announced that it will be exclusive to the Sony Playstation 3 platform from prolific developer Rockstar Games in the form of Agent.  Besides a cool looking logo and a simple summary that the game would be a spy story set in the 1970s no other details were given. And of course in typical Rockstar fashion it’ll be quite some time before we see any media or learn new details on the project.

But the sharp eyes at the Superannuation blog have found some interesting info on Agent which shows that the project has been around for awhile. It seems that development on Agent has been going on for longer than we thought as the resume of a 3D modeler lists the game as a PlayStation 2 and Xbox title. The resume also lists the game as a Rockstar San Diego project which is interesting since the game is now being developed by the GTA team at Rockstar North. It’s unclear why development on Agent stopped when it was being developed on the PS2 and Xbox and why Rockstar decided to start things up again on the PS3.

The other interesting piece of info Superannuation dug up sheds some light on a potential environment in Agent.  Once again the info comes from a resume of an Environment Artist who lists his duties on Agent as being part of a team sent to Cairo to capture over 10,000 reference photos for the game.

This info is particularly interesting as it shows that Agent could be an international affair and it may be somewhat ditching the typical Rockstar format of sticking to one key sandbox location. Obviously this may not be the case as the Cairo trip was when Rockstar San Diego was working on the project so who knows what we can expect and what changes have been made since Rockstar North have taken over the project.  So if Rockstar did add Cairo locations in Agent that would be cool and unique due to the landscapes over there.

Okay, for those of you not in Houston, Grand Theft Auto-mentality has reared its sometimes-ugly head in real life. A guy by the name of George Theobald is accused of stealing a Range Rover, getting into a fender bender in a busy shopping center parking lot, then hitting and killing one of the other vehicle’s occupants when she got out to check the damage. (Read more at http://bit.ly/Fzmat.)

Kill frenzies only happen in video games, people! Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m just waiting for someone to blame Grand Theft Auto, Saint’s Row, or, heck, even Modern Warfare 2. After all, they’re hit games, two of the three are about stealing cars and other crimes, and one was just released to a veritable fuster cluck of hype. The thing is this: Just like the omnipotent “they” blamed music for the rash of school shootings in the late ’90s and early ’00s, video games have become a scapegoat. But here’s the facts:

• Theobald is almost 40, and while that doesn’t preclude him from being a gamer, his record, which stretches back to 1987, just might. Also, he’s definitely past that age when peer pressure is a marginally accceptable excuse for bad behavior.
• Hitting a person and killing her when you were just in a minor, low-to-no-damage accident with her car is a jerk move. All the more so when you consider that there are plenty of witnesses and you saw the person get out to check the damage.

You have to wonder why anyone would try to run from the scene of a double accident. (I don’t know if that’s a real term, but it seems to fit.) What could you think at a time like that? “I got their attention with that first hit. Now, let me pin a person between the cars and see if they notice if I run”? Dude! I don’t think that’s going to fly.

What about you? What instances of complete video game jerkery have you seen enter real life?

While kicking back brews and shooting the breeze with my pals, the glow of the TV showing whatever game we’re interested in holds our gaze.  And that’s what it’s all about with us men, so they say.  We’re “visual creatures” allegedly.  Our eyes are too big for our stomachs, and our stomachs are the way to our hearts.  Wait, I got off topic…

Oh, yeah.  During said television events, especially of late, companies have been promoting the hell out of two video games: Left 4 Dead 2 and Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City.

And all I think upon watching these previews is how much more like movies video games are becoming.  I have Unchartered 2: Among Thieves and it’s better than any action picture I’ve seen in a long time (The Dark Knight notwithstanding), and it makes me laugh…

Haven’t we as a public (well I know I have) been bitching about how much movies are starting to look like video games?  I could give two shiitake mushrooms about James Cameron’s Avatar or Robert Zemekis’ A Christmas Carol*, and they’re really no different from the games.  Except for the fact that I partake in one and watch the other… Hmm…

Perhaps men aren’t just “visual creatures” after all… We’re touchy, too.

*I do want to see 2012, and it’s as heavy a CG feast as Avatar.

Rockstar Games entwickelt den fünften Teil der GTA-Reihe. Dies bestätigte Rockstar Games-Mitbegründer Dan Houser in einem Interview mit einer englischen Zeitung. Laut Dan Houser macht man sich Gedanken über den Handlungsort und dann erst über die Charaktere.

Miałem okazje chwilkę pograć w GTA: Chinatown Wars na PSP i muszę przyznać, że jestem pozytywnie zaskoczony. Moje pierwsze wrażenie? Zdecydowanie lepsza grafika, lepsza animacja, lepsze sterowanie (gałką, a nie krzyżakiem). Niestety wszystkie minigry które tak świetnie sprawdzały się w wersji na DSa, tutaj wypadają blado. Szerszy opis oraz recenzja wkrótce pojawi się na blogu.