3 Chords and the Truth

I’ve been playing this game for 3-4 weeks now and much to my surprise it does live up to the hype. So how to start a post about a game that really is a contender for the best game ever. So I suppose the best way to satart off is with a little background information about the game and its main character.

You assume the role of Niko Belic, a hardened eastern European war veteran. Who is “conflicted” he’s very good at killing people and doing all the dirty jobs for all the biggest scumbags in Liberty City. He’s a similar main character and yet different. Previous characters have all had these similar traits of starting off in a new city trying to build a new empire or just survive. However Niko is different he has come to Liberty City on a mission of vengeance. Looking for people who have betrayed him in the past. This is different as there is some justification and reason for Niko’s actions. He’s searching for answers to why some events happened in his past. Throughout the game this becomes more apparent as this GTA is much more of a non stop killing spree as previous games have been. With the setting up business’s being removed. Also new is that you are given the chance to be compassionate in the game by choosing not to kill some of the more minor characters and low rent criminals.

The introduction of the friend system is good and bad. With it adding to the overall effect of the game and helping to establish Niko as a different character. The bad part is that if you are trying to clear missions and progress through the story of the game, you have people calling and texting you to hang out. It can be annoying and distracting especially when they call you during missions. And I’m still undecided whether its a good or bad addition to the series.

The driving and firing systems have been drastically changed as well. The driving system is greatly improved from the crazy powersliding that has been a trademark for the series to date. The system once you’ve gotten used to it is a great improvement. It requires much more tactical and strategic planning of routes while trying to get away from enemies or police. The firing system much improved with auto aim being much quicker and manual aim being easier to use. The best improvement however is the cover system which allows you to keep up the rate of fire keeping your health up. The way your victims react when they are shot is more realistic as well with the victim falling down if you shoot their legs or grabbing their shoulders if they are hit in the chest area. It’s not perfect but a vast improvement on the previous shoot once and they turn into Olympic sprinters.

The wanted system can be a bit confusing as to why you get certain wanted stars but it is much more fun than previous versions. With more thought and use of side streets and alley ways required to lose wanted levels. The spray shops are better as well as they won’t re-spray the car if the cops see you going in. The police are also more likely to “swarm” you as the wanted level goes up, going from one to three stars can mean going from one car to over twenty.

It’s one of the best games I’ve ever played.

I’d give the game a 9.5 out of 10.

It loses the half mark for just the sheer stress annoyance levels that some of the missions generate.

What’s going on there’s no Top Gear. Where is the summer season? I want Top Gear with more races between the boys and crazy challenges.

But anyway while checking the Ferrari website I notices they have a new car due for release in 2009. The “Ferrari California” and it can only be described as a masterpiece See,

This is the second car from Ferrari to bear the California name, the first a 50’s/60’s cruiser that was also a masterpiece.

Cars like these are the reason Ferrari’s are so cool. Theres a sense that they could make an affordable cruiser fro the ordinary Joe soap but they don’t want to, it’s beneath them. Ferrari’s would lose there appeal if everybody had them or could have them. It’d be like having a a Merc, they have an exclusivity of a sorts but they are fairly common. Ferrari, Lambourgini and Bugatti don’t do that there customers are the worlds elite, the oil barons and billionaires of the world.

Ferrari are my favourite car maker. Check out the website for the new California here

The question is what though, writing about music gets boring especially given that theres never really any very interesting new news. Tabloids are boring because I really don’t care about celebrities and find it very strange that people can have such an obsession with them. Especially lately when the term generic seems to describe all of them very well. I also don’t read broadsheets as I find they are too serious and generally very boring to read.

So what is there to write about, I could take a link out of John’s book and post up links and videos. But I don’t particularly like that because well I like to write. So that leaves me with commenting on various daily show videos or inventing my own news.

My own News:

Now there is an interesting Idea, what would the world be like if I was in charge and controlling the worlds media with an Iron Fist. The world would be a lot more interesting and random. For Example

Breaking News:

The world is in shock today as former president George “Duubya” Bush admitted that there never really were any weapons of mass destruction. And that the whole Iraqi war was just an excuse to give his Daddy’s friends (“Dubbya Senior”) huge oil and construction contracts. Even more shocking was that “Dubbya” announced minutes later that his brother did rig the voting in Florida during the 2000 election.

See isn’t that a lot more interesting than Bertie’s finances or who was seen out with Justin Timberland. It’d be great craic, and a fun newsroom more akin to a comedy scriptwriters club. Plus I’d have a great break room with TV, video games and free food.

Well I think thats enough daydreaming for now, it would be cool though.

What other options are there I haven’t seen any new movies in the last few weeks to share my thoughts on that have not been extensively covered and reviewed in the media (Iron Man and Indiana Jones). Some movies I’m looking forward to however are “The Dark Knight” , “Kung Fu Panda” and the new Bond movie. Also I’ve heard rumours of a new Punisher movie. Unfortunately Thomas Jane is not returning as Frank Castle, personally I thought he was great in the first one. Other movies that I think might be worth a look are “Tropic Thunder” and “Don’t mess with the Zohan”. Tropic Thunder mainly for the brilliant skit at the recent MTv Movie awards and Zohan because its Adam Sandler

So enough pointless rambling I’ll post up a new entry Saturday/Sunday about a band I’m going to see on Friday.

Voodoo!

The bookstore in town cleverly named “The Book Centre”, they have these recommended books of the month in the different categories/genres. Which allows you to but the book bring ti home and read it at your own leisure. If you don’t like the book, you can bring it back with your receipt for a full refund.

The majority of people would think that this is a system that is open to abuse, with people bringing back books whether they enjoyed them or not. But that does not seem to be the case. The idea/scheme has been running for over a year now and it’s cool.

It’s cool that the someone in the book centre is recommending these books and allowing the public to bring back books jsut because they didn’t like it.

Not a great post I know with some very bad phrasing, but I just think thats its a great idea and should be adopted in more places

Anyone know if other places operate a scheme like this?

I jut imported all this from my old blog available at http://00-rock.blogspot.com