Results tagged “GTA IV” from Birmingham Mail - Technobabble

The Observer carried out an interesting experiment by getting some of their arts critics to take a look at the ultra-violent and crass GTA IV on Sunday.

Needless to say the result was enough flowery and eliteist language to keep Private Eye's Pseuds Corner in business for months.

Peter Conrad, described as a 'writer and academic' who doesn't actually drive himself, began by comparing the constant movement to cinema: "The plot is an excuse for motion: cinema is kinesis.

"Hitchcock knew he was programming sensations, infecting audiences with motion sickness as his characters struggle to control runaway cars."

Clearly warming to his subject, Conrad compares the legendary GTA freeform gameplay to chaos theory: "I began as a fluttering butterfly an hour ago, and the result of my impromptu thumb-twiddling was this thunderstorm of concertinaed metal and squirting gore."

Finally Conrad asks the question on all gamers' lips: "Is this a game, or a holy war conducted by other means?"

Art critic Laura Cumming makes a bold attempt to match her field of expertise to the grime of Liberty City: "Then you notice the way that a couple of nighthawks in a diner appear to be re-enacting the famour Edward Hopper painting; or that the struts of Brooklyn Bridge, through mist, resemble an Alfred Stieglitz photograph."

I don't remember those comparisons in the Official XBox 360 magazine review!

She shows she has managed to master the difficult art of flying though - very impressive! "Swoop through its dark canyons by helicopter, watch the brownstones blaze red in the heat, witness the lights coming on like fireflies at dusk."

All tongue in cheek I suppose, but quite enjoyable - and at least it means games getting a decent amount of coverage.

Now we just need one of these luvvies to go on a game-inspired murder spree so it will get coverage in the Daily Mail too!

SO the latest 'next big thing' has arrived - and already Grand Theft Auto IV is making the news.

The BBC reports that it has already smashed through all sales records.

Not only has it beaten any previous video game with UK sales of £24 million on the day of release, but it's already been critically acclaimed with huge review scores.

I've been off work this week - but hopefully on my return a review copy will be waiting!

Mind you, there have also been many reports of faults - suggesting Rockstar might not have tested things propertly before going to release.

Some PS3 owners haven't been able to install it on their hard drives, with others revealing crashing problems on the same system.

It's not confined to the PS3 either - on the XBox 360 a 'faulty batch of disks' (according to Rockstar) mean that it freezes every time you leave the base apartment.

The slightly ironic thing is that now that consoles can connect to the internet, they're getting the same half-finished releases that PC gamers have been putting up with for years - after all why test something properly when you can get it in the shops asap and then cure the many bugs with a host of 'patches'?

One more thing - games are still somewhat ghettoised. Compare the sales of GTA IV to many cinema releases.

The simple fact is that games are bigger business than films these days. But if you look at the coverage in newspapers you would still think it was the other way around.

My own games review column in Saturday's Birmingham Mail is dwarfed by the film coverage.

But consider this - in the link it shows that top UK opening WEEKENDS(not days) for films as of 2001 was Harry Potter £16.3 million, Fellowship of the Ring £11 million, and The Phantom Menace £9.5 million. For a more recent update Spider-Man 3 took £11.5 million on its opening weekend.

GTA IV's £24 million puts it all in perspective - and shows how what used to be a genre for nerds and children is now for the mass market.