Grand Theft Auto IV Release Impressions

Yes, indeed this is a blog about controversial video games and none are more controversial than the Grand Theft Auto series. Obviously, you know that the fourth edition (that's not right, it's more like the sixth, seventh if you count London, disregarding the PSP games) was just released and that I have already played it through quite a bit. I'll get back to playing it shortly, but I needed to mention a passing few of the thousand political mentions the biggest video game release ever has gotten. (Just scroll down the main page at gamepolitics.com and you'll get far too many)

MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) has come out against the drunk driving in GTA IV. The producers had predicted that aspect of gameplay would come under fire, even though it really shouldn't. I've experienced the drunk driving once and it was so incredibly irritating (especially if cops chase you down for it) that every time since I just called a cab to get back home. Yep, I learned a lesson from Grand Theft Auto IV about drunk driving. Case closed, moving on.

Barack Obama casually mentioned GTA in a vaguely negative way that was pretty consistent with his past remarks that kids should study more and play less video games. Yawn, moving on.

Not too surprisingly, the mother of a slain NYPD policeman was fairly upset about Grand Theft Auto. The linked article there also mentions a man who says there are no consequences for a shootout in Grand Theft Auto, which is ludicrous, but at least not so bad as the dumb people who think you get points for stabbing old ladies.

Sorry, but that's quite enough of that right now. I've got to get back to playing this game and chances are that you do too. If you're curious, my PS3 ID is kingpenguin1029, in case you miraculously find me playing online multiplayer or want to friend me. Hasta luego.

Jack Thompson Letter to Take Two Chairman's Mom

Just read this letter Jack Thompson sent to Take Two chairman Strauss Zelnick's mom. Clearly, this is all in continued protest of Grand Theft Auto IV, but we'll all get tired of this sort of thing within the next week before it's finally released.

Afghanistan May Ban Video Games

In a rather long line of "via"s going through at least GamePolitics and Bloggey Kong, I've heard tell of a potential video game ban in Afghanistan through some new, very restrictive legislation. Among other things such as billiards, dancing women on the telly, and pigeon-flying, video games would be included among banned things in the new legislation. It's not... erm... good. But I'm no Islamic moralist, so that's just my opinion.

Completely unrelated: Richard Quest, that crazy preppy guy on CNN who always seems like he's got a natural high going? It wasn't natural!

Europa Universalis: Rome Released (For Real)

Despite my odd post-April Fool's Joke earlier, I have already downloaded and installed Europa Universalis: Rome to play later tonight. I plan to have a review here pretty quickly. I'm very excited to begin that tonight, as I've always been a fan of Paradox Interactive's grand strategy games. Not really a lot of news here, but be on the lookout for the first of a series of Legal Arcade reviews.

Paradox Announces New Project: Europa Universalis Mario

The players asked for it and Nintendo said yes, so Paradox Interactive has finally announced the next big project in their strategy wargaming series, Europa Universalis: Mario. Set in the Mushroom Kingdom, Mario and his various Yoshi and Toad-like troops will square off against the Koopa forces and a hidden locked Wario nation. Nintendo and Paradox together have announced that Mario is finally going to star in the absolute last genre of game he hasn't yet been in (talks with Microsoft over a Mario flight sim have recently broken down) and complete his conquest of the gaming culture. Clearly, that above won't be the real cover of the game but is just something I whipped together with the GIMP. Here, however, are some real screenshots of the game, which have apparently been kept secret all the way through its alpha stages, with a demo ready to come out in the early summer. You'll have to click them to get a really good look.


I'm personally very excited and I can't wait to get a better look at this. I don't typically divert my blog just to get worked up about a specific game, but this one looks terrific.

Play the News Game.com

Ian Bogost recently pointed out www.playthenewsgame.com, an interesting predictions site he describes as basically like fantasy sports with the news. Ranging from Oscars picks to the Pennsylvania Primary, there are lots of little "games" that tell you everything about a current situation then allow you to share your opinion and make a prediction from several different sides of the story. I find that they tell the actual stories of the news very well and can summarize points of view nicely. The opinion and predictions after you've read what's going on serve community functions, like a point system for each player. After you've earned enough points from playing, commenting, and accurately predicting, you can move up their ranks from citizen to politician, and eventually up to president. Anyway, it's neat and useful, though not exactly a game like you might expect. It definitely matches people who want to read the news more than someone looking to play a game online, as you'll see when you've played through one. Anyway, I'm recommending the site, as you can go there to get a nice perspective on the potential Take Two takeover.

Introducing R. R. White

Here you are, I'm introducing my new guest poster here at The Legal Arcade. His name is Richard White, and we've been talking via email for a while about our new partnership for the blog. He's finally agreed to send me a few essays, and you'll understand his position on gaming pretty well after reading just a word or two. Anyway, his first essay for this site is on suggestions for a potential Grand Theft Auto V, so I'll just let you read his email to me.

On 3/19/08, Richard White wrote:
Here's the first of my essays for your site. I do hope your readers enjoy.
Grand Theft Auto IV is nearing its release next month, a day which will live in infamy for my sort. Surely, Rockstar Games will have had enough with controversy and they'll tone this game down from the previous editions, but that's likely only a vain hope. Here I've prepared an essay for some suggestions for a more family safe Grand Theft Auto V, given that I will likely never see the day that series is successfully kept away from children.

Suggestions

• Content labels for every separate mission would be a real help to parents. Everyone knows about the grandma-beating that the freer parts of the game allow you to do, but the really bad stuff happens in missions, like forays into adult stores. This would allow parents to struggle through these missions for the children and explain through lies the storyline development in said mission.
• Despite having its own controversy, I found Bully a very safe alternative to Grand Theft Auto. Some weapons like the spud cannon and super slingshot should make the series transition to keep the streets of Liberty City clean from blood. Also, kissing should give your player a health bonus instead of being with a prostitute.
• Humor in Grand Theft Auto should be restricted to obscure references to films only adults would even want to see. For instance, Niko should make a little dance with his potatoes on forks as Charles Chaplin did. Whoever the main character will be in Grand Theft Auto V could be Woody Allen. This is obviously eccentric, but it really would remove one major reason for kids to play the game.
• Jail time cannot be immediately over after major crimes. Getting "busted" should force you to sit the PS3 down and do something else until the next day, when your character will receive a lethal injection.
• Get rid of the Adults Only rating. No game with that rating can every truly be released, so why not call it Mature and change the current Mature rating to something else? That way the rating system can be opened back up before game companies ban the release of the new Mature-rated games.

Well, that's really enough for now. Tell your readers to email their sarcastic, malinformed comments and questions to me at my legalarcade.com email. That way they won't clutter up my real inbox but I can still check in every now and then to change some minds.

R. R. White

Clearly, he'll provide a very different point of view to this site. Several of these seem almost silly they're so off, but I can really agree with his suggestion for the Adults Only rating. Right now, Adults Only is a lame duck rating that can never actually exist in America, so it needs to be shuffled around somehow. As you read there at the end, email any comments you have to rwhite@legalarcade.com so he can learn a thing or two. I gave him that special email so that you can send whatever sort of email to him you want and it won't obstruct his normal email address. I'm really excited about having him as a new guest poster, and I'll be sure to post the rest of his essays as time goes on.