Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the GTA IV: Lost and Damned review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...


Platform: Xbox 360
Genre: Action Adventure
Developer: Rockstar North

Rockstar has produced some of the most incredible DLC to date (that’s downloadable content for you newcomers), or an expansion pack if you will. The Lost and Damned is an extension of GTA IV, and Microsoft paid Rockstar a lot of money to have it as an exclusive for their console.

You play as Johnny Klebitz, member of The Lost biker gang. You will get to meet up with Niko Bellic later on, the main character from GTA IV, as some of the missions will revolve around the story from the original game. The Lost gang are a tight group of folk. These characters are really fleshed out and captivating, especially Billy Grey, the gang’s arrogant president. Along with Niko you will come back into contact with Elizabeta, Playboy X and some other familiar faces.

For those of you who have never played a GTA game in your life, the basic premise of the series is that you have an open city to explore or destroy at your will—completing a grand array of deadly missions, involving drug dealing, murder, assassination, kidnapping, armed robbery, and of course grand theft auto—just things in general your mother wouldn’t be too proud of.

For most of the missions you will be riding with your gang, and it pays to stay in formation if you wanna converse with your biker mates. The Lost and Damned features new weapons, including a grenade launcher, pipe bombs, sawn-off and automatic shotguns. There is also new content for the virtual internet, radio and TV. The most important being the new songs for the radio, including that rocking track from the TV ad, Wild Side by Motley Crue. Between missions you can also partake in turf wars and races. These are both marked on the map in varying places. Turf Wars lets you and your gang go out and kill some dudes from rival gangs. Races are the same as in GTA IV, except now you’re on motorbikes, and you have baseball bats to knock the snot out of your opponents.

Johnny’s custom-built bike is just one of the new vehicles available. The bike physics have been drastically improved. It’s much harder to fall off now, less realistic of course, but it really helps when cruising the mean streets of Liberty City. New multiplayer modes have been thrown in for good measure—one pretty creative mode in particular is called Chopper vs. Chopper where the biker must escape a lethal helicopter.

There are some additions that might not be so noticeable at first glance but really pay off in spades; now mission checkpoints have been gracefully added in more convenient places. Driving back to the same location every time you fail a mission is long gone, and it makes it a lot quicker to get back into the action. Now Johnny’s friends finally stop calling you up on your virtual phone while you’re in the middle of fighting off some coppers. You can still call your friends out for air hockey if you wish, but more often than not you will only reach their answer phone. Getting denied in real life, fair enough, but in an action game where you’re the bad-ass hero, c’mon!

The missions overall are largely similar to the previous instalment. If you’re looking for something completely different, you’re not going to find it here. Some new gameplay would have been nice but Rockstar decided to stick to the tried and true. Of course there’s the whole new focus on motorcycle riding, we gotta give them that.

Thankfully in this update, the stuff that was taken out of our version of GTA IV because of Australia’s absurd rating system is now back in, even in the original game. Which means more blood, boo yah! Be warned though, this game also contains “full frontal male nudity”. Yes this is not a drill, in one of the cutscenes, Congressman Thomas Stubbs reveals all!

The Lost and Damned costs 1600 Microsoft points, or you can buy the code in a box from most gaming retailers, which is really a waste of cardboard for a game that you have to download! Remember: this isn’t a standalone expansion; you do need GTA IV in order to play it. All in all, The Lost and the Damned is a very meaty expansion. So if you’re still itching for some more missions and things to do in Liberty City it is well worth the purchase.

Michael Gray

Bike To Parachute

Some friends and I are set to tackle on biking from Upper Hutt to Hamilton next year for Parachute 2010. Are we crazy? Of course we are!


Please check out our Facebook page:
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=68153082896


And if you could sponsor us online, it would be much appreciated!
http://www.fundraiseonline.co.nz/BikeToParachute/

Gears of War 2 Review

I wrote a review for Microsoft's game review contest and was a winner!

You can check out the Xbox Forums here for my Gears of War 2 review or read it below...


Gears of War 2 is described as the videogame equivalent of a ‘summer blockbuster’ by lead designer, Cliff Bleszinski. And that’s exactly what Epic Games pulled off, a high impact thrill ride, blood fest, through war torn settings and is something else altogether in the graphics department.

The story was criticized in the first Gears of War for being too shallow. In Gears 2 however things are a bit more deep and emotional, especially with Dom’s new search for his wife. All the major players are back from COG Delta Squad for this instalment including Dom, Cole, Baird and Marcus Fenix himself. Some new characters are introduced also; Benjamin Carmine, Dizzy, and the spiritual Tai. Even after their assault and activated lightmass bomb on the locust underground tunnels, the locust horde kept on fighting and the war raged on. Gears 2 is set six months later, and the COG are “taking the fight to the locust” by sending troops underground in grindlifts. I cannot reveal much more about the story without giving away too much but it has much improved since the original and is a real driving force to motivate you to finish the game and find out what happens in the end.

A new feature to the Gears of War series includes riding familiar enemies Brumaks and Reavers which gives some diversity to the gameplay. New weapons include the mulcher, mortar, ink grenade and flamethrower, and bring gunfights to a whole new level. Chainsaw duels now occur when two lancers come into contact, this has you rapidly tapping the B button fending for your life. In the first game, once you were killed you were stuck waiting for someone to revive you, now there is a small but ever so handy ability to crawl around, avoiding any executions and hopefully finding a teammate to revive you. The ‘meat shield’ is one of my favourite new features, letting you grab onto a downed enemy, providing pretty decent cover when moving about, using nothing but your pistol.

The multiplayer has been criticized by many with lag and match waiting times. Luckily a recent patch has improved gameplay for most people. Horde mode, a new addition to the franchise, has you with up to four other players on the regular maps fighting waves of locusts. Playing with just yourself or with a friend is extremely challenging but a completely different experience. There are 50 waves but fortunately you can resume from the highest wave you got up to. There are different waves of spawning enemies and the locust get stronger and tougher to beat. It’s surprising how much time you can actually sink into this mode. Who would’ve guessed that bots would be brought to the other multiplayer modes? There’s nothing like honing up your multiplayer skills within the safe constraints of offline play; no humiliation, and no guilt for heading your team’s downfall.

Gears of War 2 adds three new multiplayer modes to the mix, Guardian, Wingman and Submission. Guardian picks one person from both sides as the leader, everyone can respawn but when a guardian dies that team lose the ability to respawn. Wingman splits players into teams of two and everyone can only be killed through executions (killing the enemy up close when he is down). Keeping close to your partner in Wingman is critical to your team’s survival. Submission is like Capture the Flag, except the flag is a Stranded called Chaps, also known as the ‘meat flag’. His shotgun can catch you off guard in the best of times.

There are ten maps on the disc but with the purchase of a new copy of Gears of War 2 you get the code to the Flashback Map Pack with five maps from the first game spiced up and looking prettier (or is that dirtier?) than before. Three new maps just released in the Combustible Map Pack for 800 points. So with a maximum of 18 maps, there’s plenty of variety to wreak mayhem on.

As with the first game you can play with a buddy online or offline cooperatively throughout the entire campaign. A not so well known problem, which has happened to me, was when I finished the campaign, my ‘War Journal’ which saves all my collectables, unlocked characters, Horde, and Achievement progress, was entirely erased. Such bugs, when they do occur, make the game extremely hard to go back to. Why they couldn’t find these bugs in testing is completely beyond me.

If you enjoyed the first game, Gears of War 2 has plenty of new features to make you stick around. However after shooting through countless locust you may start to get tired of the repetitive gameplay. The multiplayer, especially Horde mode is a blast and the campaign is just really fun and exciting through every turn.

By Mriceguy

ButtonMasher Avatar Photo

Here...

http://www.mriceguy.webs.com

Major Conflict In Congo

Renewed and heavy fighting in the Eastern Democratic Republic of Congo had forced the suspension of World Vision's relief and recovery programme recently. We need humanitarian relief to continue to be able to get through to the people in need in the Congo. Up to 50,000 women and children have been forced to leave their homes. The total number of people displaced is now over a million and all seeking shelter in refugee camps. The safety and protection of women and children in these camps is absolutely vital. Also children that have been captured by rebel forces, have been forced to fight for the rebel cause. Bring hope to the broken lives of these young children who have been separated from their families. Please pray for an end to the conflict there very soon and that peace efforts would be successful.

The people of Congo need our help. They are being terrorised - murder and rape are rife, hundreds of thousands have fled their homes caught between the brutal violence of both rebels and the Congolese army, without food or shelter. Only the hesitating EU can deploy an effective, neutral force in the next two weeks.

There's no military solution, but right now a neutral force in the region to protect civilians, helping to reconstruct the UN peacekeeping presence and putting real diplomatic pressure on Congo and neighbouring countries will greatly boost our chances of stopping this humanitarian crisis and starting to build a lasting peace. So sign the petition below and spread the word - it will be sent to key European and international officials once we have reached 100,000 signatures.

Sign the petition here to spread the word, they only need 7526 signatures to reach 100,000! Avazz will then send these to European and International officers.

This is the letter:

To EU and UN Security Council leaders:
We urge you to address the rapidly deteriorating situation in the Congo by supporting the immediate deployment of a neutral European force to protect civilians from rape, murder and starvation and secure humanitarian access - United Nations peacekeepers are crying out for this help, and it would provide impetus for them to play a more effective and balanced role in Congo. UN, EU and African officials should step up political engagement to strengthen the peace processes, acting as honest brokers and guarding against partisanship and exploitation.

learn more here

So please I beg you that you sign the petition, send it to friends, talk about it and make some noise. I have digged the petition, so please spread the word by giving your digg to that article here.

If you can please donate here as well:

Oxfam - Select Crisis in Congo 2008

World Vision - Select Democratic Republic of Congo

Half-Life 2 Essay

Here is an essay I did for my last Media Studies course (a 200 level paper) on immersion, play, narrative and Half-Life 2. Enjoy!

Half-Life 2

Video games, an ever popular form of new media, are often described as just mindless entertainment but there are games out there that let us experience emotions, immersion and extend ourselves in some way. Half-Life 2 (2004) developed by Valve is once such game. It is a first person shooter that feels truly immersive and toys with our emotions. Half-Life 2 as a game does extend our understanding of the self through narrative, identity of an avatar, play and as an immersive experience. The narrative tells a story to enrich and guide players through the experience. The avatar of Gordon Freeman is an embodiment of the self in as little characterization as possible. Through play the player can experience freedom and fun within the actual gameplay constraints. Immersion pulls players into the game, leaving their quiet lives on the sofa to a virtual world where the earth needs saving from alien destruction.

The story moves the player through Gordon Freeman's journey while the characters of Half-Life 2 really add the much needed contact. In the original Half-Life, Dr. Gordon Freeman was a scientist for a research facility named Black Mesa. This was until an experiment went horribly wrong and created a portal which allowed aliens to cross into our dimension and cause havoc on earth. Now set years later in Half-Life 2, Gordon must continue to fight The Combine and the alien threat. The other main ally character who accompanies you on some parts of your journey is Alyx Vance, of Black and Asian descent. Through well done facial animation and convincing voice acting I actually felt as if she really cared for my wellbeing. She is not a stereotypical video game female but brave and resourceful, although still getting nervous at times. If there was ever a video game character I could truly love, Alyx would be it. Over the next two Half-Life
2 episodes you will get to spend a lot more time with Alyx and her relationship with Gordon will become a whole lot clearer. The main antagonist of Half-Life 2 is Doctor Wallace Breen who works with the aliens against Gordon and the resistance. There is also the mysterious G-man who seems to pop up in random places over your journey watching over you and sometimes appearing as a vision. The story in Half-Life 2 is fixed but it does makes an excellent thrill ride. "In video games, when players both act the roles in the story and determine the outcome by their choices and actions, the story is at the same time working on them – changing their experience" (DeMaria, 2007:46). Although in the case of Half-Life 2, you do not really have an impact on the story unless you end it prematurely with the death of Gordon Freeman. Of course you can always restart from that checkpoint. How the narrative is delivered to the player in Half-Life 2 is all the more intriguing.

The narrative is interwoven nicely into the game itself. Narratology shows that the narrative plays its role in helping this game become what it is. Without it, players would get immediately disinterested in the world and might even consider not to carry on playing. In Half-Life 2 there are no levels, you live a continuous life although the game is divided into chapters. The narrative is really only unveiled through wherever Gordon is and through dialogue between other characters as they speak to you. There are no cut scenes chopping up the game at all, although at the start and end of the game there are parts you have no control over but it is still shown from Gordon's perspective. "Narrative material can also be provided by 'in-game' devices, more seamlessly integrated into the game-world". The original "Half-Life marked a notable development in this direction, avoiding cut-scenes or other information that has to be accessed outside the main game-space" (King and Krzywinska, 2006:45). The sequel improved on that greatly with amazing animation and facial expression, I really felt like I was inside scenes of a science fiction film. "Scenes important to the plot of Half-Life remain fully interactive, allowing the player to move around while information is relayed by non-player characters and other integrated devices" (King and Krzywinska, 2006:45). You still cannot affect the story in any way but sometimes you as a player can actually reach for more information. When you look at some props for long enough, characters like Alyx's father Eli will talk to you about a certain topic for example newspaper clippings will trigger Eli mentioning a Seven Hour War, a backstory to the Half-Life universe. Although it looks like you are free, the game is very linear made up mostly of a lot of scripted events. There are breaks where the game pauses and loads, a loading bar shown on the screen does takes away my immersion but only for a few seconds. Gordon Freeman is more than just another character; his success is your success, his pain is your pain.

You are Gordon Freeman. As Half-Life 2 is a first person shooter you never see your face in the game, only on the box. Also Gordon does not talk, at all. All these instances lead to it being easier to indentify with him as a character, you become him. Your personality is now his. First person shooters offer far more immersion than any other genre as you are looking through a second pair of eyes, the eyes of the avatar. You start off as a prisoner with no power, treated like scum by the Combine soldiers. As you escape and progress through the game you become stronger with better weapons, vehicles and a Zero-Point Energy Field Manipulator, easily known as the gravity gun, which allows you to grab and hurl large objects. In fact near the end of the game when your gravity gun gets supercharged you are easily able to fling Combine soldiers around like rag dolls. This is a huge narrative and play contrast to the start of the game. When I become Gordon Freeman I feel stronger, more powerful and also less fearful because I know there is life after death. I am still afraid of losing my life and having to restart from a checkpoint but if there was no such thing as reviving I would probably act a lot stealthier than I actually do and try to avoid danger. Even though trouble always manages to catch up with Gordon Freeman somehow. Gordon's main weapon of choice, the crowbar, is an everyman's weapon something that we could actually own in real life, which he can use to smash through obstacles and as a weapon against enemies. Not only is it an instantly recognizable trait of Dr. Freeman but the feeling of smashing boarded up doors to clear a pathway for myself, I have never experienced in any other game and yet it all feels so natural. Gordon is more often than not traveling on his own, allowing you to feel even more like a hero, able to change the world in a single day. "The figure of the individual hero, the player-character, faced with some kind of upheaval… [and] the hero is, typically, presented as a figure hyperbolically reduced to the status of lone individual assaulted from all sides, with the exception of the occasional ally" (King and Krzywinska, 2006: 173). This is akin to other media as well including films with many action heroes such as Sylvester Stallone as Rambo and Bruce Willis as John McClane, able to take on the world with their superhuman endurance. Of course the main reason people like I play games, is to interact and control the experience through the means of play.

An interactive video game allows a play-er to play and this is exactly what Half-Life 2 allows you to do. The main gameplay of Half-Life 2 is made up of shooting, driving and puzzle sequences. Ludology shows that you cannot have an interactive game without play. The term paidea is used to describe gaming moments that are unstructured and spontaneous. Half-Life 2 is "an example of a shooter in which widespread collateral damage can be caused for its own pleasure, as a mark of the player-character's agency in the on-screen environment" (King and Krzywinska, 2006:14). I often do get distracted sometimes while playing games, I might come up with a goal in mind that the game will probably not reward me for but I do it anyway for the joy of spontaneous fun. Like seeing the biggest explosion I can make if I stack enough explosive barrels on top of each other. Ludus is the term to describe game rules in which paidea is contained (King and Krzywinska, 2006:10). Which means that while I still have to follow the linear narrative I am still free at most stages to muck about essentially. In games such as Half-Life 2 "restriction predominates. The gamescape consists of seemingly endless sequences through which the player is encouraged to move in a primarily linear fashion. Some scope is given for paidea, primarily in the form of non-essential destruction of the environment, but relatively little in the way of freedom to explore" (King and Krzywinska, 2006: 81). Without worrying about where to go this restriction also aids in a little something I (and others I'm sure) like to call immersion.

Not that it's the only way but today immersion is seen to be created of course with high quality graphics, of which Half-Life 2 does have. It must have looked amazing back in 2004 as it still looks great today. "Video games as screen media texts offer visual pleasures; the attractions of Halo, Half-Life 2, or The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker are inseparable from the beauty of their graphics." (Giddings and Kennedy, 2008:17). It is nothing close to realistic, but the continuous world, along with how you can play with physics, adds the depth needed for a player like myself to escape from reality. McMahan says that immersion is made up in two levels, the diegetic and the nondigetic (2003:68). Diegetic means that you are immersed in the world and story that the game creates, while nondiegetic is the strategy and how the player likes playing the game. You really can feel emotions while playing a game such as Half-Life 2, especially fear. In the small town of Ravenholm, alien headcrabs leached onto the villager's heads, turning them into zombies. Just my luck I had run out of ammo (a deliberate game design act I'm sure), reduced to using just the gravity gun and whatever object I could find as a weapon. And even when you set them on fire they would still come towards you groaning just like in your typical zombie horror flick. Tense music and limited lighting really added to the feeling of terror. In most first person games when you die it shifts into a third person perspective of your avatar, like in Halo 3. Yet in Half-Life 2 it
stays in first person, "the first-person perspective survives lethal encounters, creating the strange impression of being able to look around through the otherwise immobilized player-characters eyes" (King and Krzywinska, 2006: 109). A red filter covers the screen to confirm your demise but your guts are not splattered across the level like in the original Half-Life. The onscreen Heads-Up Display displays the value of your current health, shield, and ammo. This does detract from complete immersion but in the case of Half-Life 2 it could be considered as information from the HEV (Hazardous Environment) suit just like the female robotic voice announcing that you have entered a toxic area. In Halo 3 there is a similar graphical interface, but it is explained because the main character Master Chief is in a hi-tech suit with an information relaying helmet. Yet the character of Gordon Freeman is never shown wearing a helmet of any kind so the icons we see onscreen, Gordon would never actually see, if he was a real person. Plus while choosing a weapon, the weapon selection icons appear in the middle of the screen. Half-Life 2 is not as subtle as Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of The Movie which has no Heads-Up Display at all but sometimes ease of use does work a lot more in your favour than just plain realism. Half-Life 2 is not an easy game to sum up in just a single paragraph; it really must be played and experienced.

Half-Life 2 is my favourite video game of all time for a reason. A simple enough premise becomes an entangling narrative with backstabbing characters along with threats to the safety of your ally friends. The design of play is contained within linear walls while still leaving the player with enough freedom to discover and destroy at their will. When we identify with Gordon Freeman as a character we are actually becoming him, making his motives our own. Immersion is a huge concept in video games but with Half-Life 2 in particular it bottles right down to it being in first person and never-ending. Half-Life 2 extends our understanding of the self as a player, a person with the ability to play as somebody else within a new story and a different world. In the end that is why we play games, to escape from reality and its constraints on our lives.

By Michael Gray

References

King, Geoff and Krzywinska, Tanya. Tomb Raiders & Space Invaders: Videogame Forms & Contexts. I.B. Tauris & CO Ltd, 2006. pp. 45, 173, 14, 10, 81, 109.

DeMaria, Rusel. Reset. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, INC. 2007. pp. 46.

McMahan, A. "Immersion, Engagement, and Presence: A method for analysing 3-D video games". The Video Game Theory Reader. M.J.P Wolf & B. Perron (eds.). London: Routledge, 2003, pp. 68.

Giddings, Seth and Kennedy, Helen W. "Little Jesuses and *@#?-off Robots: On Cybernetics, Aesthetics, and Not Being Very Good at Lego Star Wars". The Pleasures of Computer Gaming: Essays on Cultural History, Theory and Aesthetics. M. Swalwell & J. Wilson (eds.). North Carolina: McFarland, 2008. pp. 17.

GTA: San Andreas Essay

Here is an essay I did for my Media Studies Level 100 course last year on discourses and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Enjoy!

GRAND THEFT AUTO: SAN ANDREAS -

DISCOURSES IN SOCIETY

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is one of the best selling games available that plays with discourses in society. GTA: SA uses satire to reveal discourses in capitalist societies, delving into social satire and the justice society. American culture is mocked using America's obesity problem and violent gang behaviour. GTA: SA uses parody and self-reflexivity to mock different discourses in media and game culture. San Andreas deals with discourses in a variety of ways, and in the end do we all just take ourselves too seriously by adapting strictly to certain discourses at work?

Social Discourses play a role in each of our lives every day in many different situations. From how you behave in public transport to how you act at a party or talk at a formal meeting. There are expectations in play, and anything you do outside these expectations may cast you off as an outsider. Angenot says, discourses "systematically form' the objects of which they speak", (1979). With the recent emergence of video games becoming more than just spaceships on a screen, discourses have worked themselves into games whether they are reflections of our normal reality or ones created specifically for games.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is the latest game in the popular Grand Theft Auto franchise. Set in the fictional state of San Andreas, GTA: SA is a parody of American culture, featuring town look-alikes, Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). The main playable character is named Carl Johnson (CJ) and is back in San Andreas after leaving gang life, only to return much later to work with his old gang members after being framed for his mother's death. The key aspect to the Grand Theft Auto games is the sandbox style gameplay. Players experience the freedom of doing anything they want in a living, breathing artificial world.

Taylor goes to say most action games are stripped of social relevance and have no political or social contexts. And this is not just because of setting differences; a lot of so called 'real world' games may be based on real life but where is the context? GTA's satirical examination of society is a new thing in games and the only way forward if games want to stand alongside film and television as an art form. The way GTA: SA uses social satire is very much like South Park and Family Guy, using satire to criticize modern-day social structures. GTA: SA is a game, but at the same time, also a social critique.

Unger and Kingsley examine the discourse behind illegal behaviour in GTA: SA. In order for the player to gain access to cars, CJ has to jack the cars outside the view of police, as this is seen as an illegal activity. Car jacking violates the authoritative voice of the law. But in GTA it is a necessary task, and the "indirect discourse" pushes the player to move away
from the law. If the task of hijacking a car is performed a high number of times, players soon regard it as a normal thing to do in the game world. In the same way as it is normal unlocking and opening a car door in the real world. It becomes a monotonous task, even when flinging people from their own cars to the pavement, the player is just thinking about which destination they wish to head to. Game On! notes the controversy surrounding the Grand
Theft Auto games. However, San Andreas does not encourage deliberate breaking of the law. The game's difficulty is increased upon such unnecessary crimes. If a player chooses to commit crimes, the local police force will do whatever it takes to bring justice
such as car chases, roadblocks and even a following helicopter if your star rating is high enough. There are two main discourses at play; citizens abiding the law, and criminals participating in illegal acts.

Fast food restaurants have been highly criticized for America's growing obesity problem. GTA: SA shows players the implication of eating only fast food. Taylor discovers that as with the names of the cities, the names nearly resemble actual food chains, "Cluckin' Bell" (Taco Bell) and "Burger Shot" (Burger King). CJ needs to eat to restore health by eating at these places, only to gain weight which affects CJ's performance. This weight can be worked off by a number of physical activities such as the gym, swimming, running and biking. With the amount of obese people in the United States, Americans now see it as a natural part of life. So via a twisted logic, having only the option of fast food allows the player to see the full effects of eating convenience food.

CJ starts working with his old gang in Los Santos called The Grove Street Families, so a lot of the missions in the game tend to revolve around what GTA thinks gangs get up to in their day to day lives. Leonard describes the racial implications behind African Americans being shown with violent and sexual behaviour. But Carl is one of the few 'black' video game characters in existence. Denying Black characters a role in games, is racially prejudiced and shows that we are unfortunately still a 'white' dominated society. Race culture discourses are a good thing and contribute to the diversity of the planet, but why do we still have racist discourses? Discourses that believe 'black' people all act and talk in a similar way. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is not purposefully out to upset people, but to show us that race issues are still around.

Since the beginning of the series, Grand Theft Auto satirizes the media, including game culture. San Andreas is not afraid to acknowledge it is a game via subtle self-reflexivity. David Parry finds one example of this, a sign on top of a bridge in the game. "There are no Easter Eggs here. Go Away", a reference to a sign in GTA 3, that shows, "You weren't supposed to be able to get here". The game developers are talking to the player directly through these signs, changing the usual discourse of a typical game, where most try to immerse the player in the experience. Even the term 'easter egg' is gamer's jargon for secrets inside video games, not really intended for the main product. Another sign on the same bridge reads, "Bridge Facts, length – 150.7 m, height – 60.3m above sea level, 16000 polygons inc. LODs, 600m draw distance, 11 textures, takes up a staggering 1.27mb of disc space." Again GTA: SA refers to itself as a game, even using the technical discourse of game development, a parody of the realism they are trying to create.

Garrelts notes another self-reflexive moment in San Andreas; Pogo the Monkey is a fictional game advertised on the radio stations in the game. The advertisement parodies the cliché story of typical video games, ie. save the world and be rewarded. "Players save Timmy from a Well and eventually become President of the United States. Pogo is rewarded by gold coins, then moves onto diamonds and cars." Consumerism is further mocked with a variety of merchandise such as ties for men and hygiene products for women. Other advertisements reveal the needlessness of so many commodities we have nowadays; Creative Plastic Surgery is a clinic promoting odd changes to the body such as tails or a third breast. Rapidite, a DIY sex change kit,
Tropicarcinoma, an anti-tan cream made from volatile metals such as aluminum, boron and magnesium. Reflecting a capitalistic society, these radio commercials parody commercialism and radio itself.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a great example of a game using discourses in a multitude of ways. Social satire and the justice society bring to light the expectations we hold. American culture is stereotypically defined by obesity and gangs. The media and games specifically, are parodied via self-reflexivity. If only there were more people that could enjoy GTA: SA's satirical look back on society. Instead Grand Theft Auto is demeaned by people over 30 with a limited view on video games. Times are changing nevertheless, and as the gaming audience grows up, game developers will be encouraged to communicate more deep ideas through the interactive medium, like social discourses, satire, parody, and self-reflexivity.

By Michael Gray

References

Taylor, Laurie N. "From Stompin' Mushrooms to Bustin' Heads: Grand Theft Auto III as Paradigm Shift", in The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006. pp. 115 – 125.

Unger, John A. Kingsley, Karla V. "Positioning and Creating the Semiotic Self in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas", in The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006. pp. 177 – 198.

Byron, Simon. Curran, Ste. McCarthy, Steve. "Grand Theft Auto III", in Game On! From Pong to Oblivion: The 50 Greatest Video Games of all Time, Headline Publishing Group, 2006, pp. 84 – 89.

Garrelts, Nate. "An Introduction to Grand Theft Auto Studies", in The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006. pp. 1 – 15.

Leonard, David. "Virtual Gangstas, Coming to a Suburban House Near You: Demonization, Commodification, and Policing Blackness", in The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006. pp. 49 – 69.

Parry, David. "Playing With Style: Negotiating Digital Game Studies", in The Meaning and Culture of Grand Theft Auto: Critical Essays, McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers, 2006. pp. 226 – 243.

A new look

I know, this page does look quite unprofessional. I do appreciate good web design and I know how it can make or break a site, so a new look is coming soon hopefully. And maybe even a new name as that gamer is now in the dust?

Of course I should really be getting back to my last essay, an essay on the sound design of Joss Whedon's film Serenity believe it or not. The film that takes place after the television show Firefly. I haven't talked about Firefly on this blog before but all you need to know is that you need to watch it. It's only one season so go hire it, buy it, just make sure you watch it! Tell me what you think.

On that note, I know I'm quite insignificant in the blogosphere, I'm not pretending that this site is extremely popular. But if you took the time to stop by, please leave a comment or a suggestion. Don't forget to digg the reviews. I want to make this blog as awesome as possible for you guys.

Gamer who?

Okay so my domain www.thatgamer.com is now expired and no more. My venture into journalistic blogging didn't turn out like I expected. But I'm still here at www.mriceguy.blogspot.com (Gosh I sound like an advertiser!) and will occasionaly put some random stuff up like reviews and the like.

Chow for now :)

Army Of Two Review (360)

You can check out the Salient website here for the Army of Two review, click on the printed version for a closeup, or read it below...

Army of Two
Genre: Third Person Shooter
Platform: Xbox 360, PS3
Developer: EA Montreal
Publisher: Electronic Arts

Although it’s expected these days, Army of Two was designed for co-op play. You play as two best buddies, Rios and Salem, who are private contractors hired by the American military to exterminate power hungry military corporations. These two mercenaries are so hard that they can stomach a friendly fist pound after slaughtering hundreds of soldiers. Story-wise there doesn’t seem to be anything compelling; to me it felt like you were just gunning down terrorist after terrorist with a few tougher ones thrown in for good measure. But in some pretty nice places. The game’s missions occur in well known locations; Somalia, Afghanistan, Iraq, China and Miami.

The unique element of this shooter is called Aggro. This means that if one of you starts shooting up a storm, your Aggrometer will build up and you will start to glow red. This attracts enemy fire towards you while your partner turns slightly invisible and can sneak up behind the enemy. The same works in reverse if you order your partner to attract attention.

The gameplay is novel. When you get shot your buddy can come and drag you off to safety and magically heal you. Of course the AI (who are a sandwich short of a picnic) sometimes continue to drag you off hundreds of metres away even when there was adequate cover just near you. At times while you play, Rios and Salem stand back to back and shoot in a circle in slow-mo, just like in those action flicks! Sometimes you’ll come in gliding, have limited control over where you go, and have to shoot, which is fricken hard, especially with a rifle! Other nifty features are Overkill which occurs when you have the Agrrometer down on one side for long enough. If you’re glowing red you will continue at normal speed while everything else around you is slowed down. If you’re glowing blue you also go slow-motion but this helps with precision and you get 2x damage.

This is a third person shooter so you’ll be needing to find cover the majority of the time. Unlike Gears of War you won’t attach yourself to walls but instead only crouch down behind them. This has its advantages as you can easily move out from cover, but on occasion while it might look like you’re safe, bullets will spew out at you from the sides. Annoying. Until you get to China, the environments you’re in are pretty drab. After a while seeing grey concrete walls and buildings things do become a bit dull.

Several times during the story you will come across the hovercraft. Linear progression of the levels makes it not that entertaining but it does break up all the shooting sequences. Your GPS is a very handy tool with an arrow pointing out where you should go. It looks pretty cool too, like you’re walking through a blueprint. Weapon purchasing and customization is here in all its glory, although you will need quite a lot of money to pimp out your artillery. Guns including the M249 saw, and incredibly powerful M134 Gatling gun are a must for your arsenal. Also for a price the metal masks that hide the pair’s faces and can be painted with a few menacing patterns.

Army of Two does try a lame attempt at making co-op seem worthwhile by including doors that require two people to knock them down. Coop gameplay also makes sense when giving your friend a boost up on your shoulders to reach higher places. Online is two on two and unfortunately I couldn’t find an online match to try it out. Modes include Versus, Warzone, Extraction and Bounties. A huge downer is that Army of Two is bizarrely not cross-region compatible, so if you have a friend over in the States with an NTSC disc there’s no way you can play with them.

Army of Two is a pretty decent shooter but can get rather derivative at times. More fun split-screen with a friend at your side or online across the tubes. Sometimes the AI being recognizably artificial becomes more than apparent, your partner and enemies included. But you can’t go wrong with a good old terrorist hunting, blood spilling action game.

By Mriceguy

By the way the last issue of Salient has been published, so Army of Two is my last review for this year. However I may write a few reviews just for this blog before hopefully writing for Salient again next year.

If you can, please digg this article - I appreciate it! :)