Una caja fuerte mejor que apesadumbrada

Áspero un año y hace una mitad, Nintendo se sentó en la tabla del póker con Microsoft y Sony. Cuando, Microsoft había demostrado ya su mano con los 360, y Sony demandaron sostener sobre más as que una cubierta estándar permitiría. ¿Qué Nintendo hizo tan? Lea más

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Automóvil magnífico IV del hurto

Realmente deseé odiar Automóvil magnífico IV del hurto.

Había decidido no comprarlo temprano en su bombo-ciclo. “Engáñeme dos veces, vergüenza en mí” era mi actitud. Había comprado Automóvil magnífico III del hurto y Vice ciudad debido a las revisiones que brillaban intensamente apenas de alrededor de cada uno, pero mí lo encontró tiresome, sophomoric, moral arruinado y - el peor de todos - no mucha diversión al juego. I fully expected GTA IV to be more of the same. When our Editor-in-Chief informed me he was sending it my way, I prepared for the worst.

The worst didn’t happen. I don’t hate this game, even though it has things about it — many things — that are hateful. It is, in some ways, like two separate games sandwiched onto a single disc. One of those games is the sophomoric, hard to control, ponderous and boring festival of reloaded missions that I remembered from previous editions. But the other game is a brilliantly scripted, lovingly realized analysis of the American dream in general, and New York City in particular.

The writing, dialogue, and acting in this game are beyond superb. That in itself makes the game impossible to hate. That the writers so effectively persuade players to sympathize with the characters, including the player’s sociopathic Eastern European avatar, speaks volumes. And the most important character, of course, is New York City itself. No one who has spent any time in Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan can fail to be stunned at how effectively Rockstar has distilled these boroughs to their essences: making them navigable in reasonable game time, while still preserving their character.

Little, it should be noted, has changed about the core gameplay, and when you drift away from the script, the game deadens and ossifies. The sensitivity and subtle humor of the spoken-word aspects of the game only serve to widen the chasm between the script’s high quality and the visual game’s penis-joke mentality. Apart from the missions, there is precious little to do in Liberty City if you aren’t interested in mayhem or exploitation.

The save system, as in previous games, is ponderous. A mistake late in a mission can force you to replay it from the beginning, including the pointless and boring drive from your house to where the action is. It’s as if the game is begging you to stop playing it and find something more fun to do, such as playing Mario Kart.

GTA IV is a seriously flawed game with a split-personality. The sandbox portion of the game presents a false choice between being bored or engaging in brutality. The game’s setting and screenwriting, however, contain moments of great insight and beauty. If you can accept the moral ambiguity of choosing to play a game that presents murder as inevitable and acceptable, then you will find parts of GTA IV to be entrancing.

I don’t hate GTA IV. But I still don’t want anyone to watch me play it.

E3 Goodies and tasty treats

E3 gets many kudos for gather together the representatives in the geek community to bring us the latest news so that we might know what is going on behind the scenes. After all every good geek, and even some of the bad ones, want crave the inside scoop. We must know the dirt!

Sweet Bethesda employees, we must thank you for finally imparting a trailer that actually gives us more than just a few teaser details. The lovely graphics have me craving more. The nuclear sling shot was a unique touch, maybe a bit over load, but then again with the Brotherhood of Steel in the Pentagon and the Enclave in little black helicopters hunting you down, maybe not. Fallout 3 is my first love, can you tell? Oh, sorry, must wipe the drool from my chin. Now on to the other news.

Square Enix shows us some much deserved love by announcing Final Fantasy XIII for the XBox 360. Final Fantasy in any form gets high marks, it’s hard to fail in this series. Other games you will see featured on the 360 are Gears of War 2, Resident Evil 5, Fable II and Grand Theft Auto IV.

Microsoft announced that they are going to be making available 60 GB XBox 360’s in August for the same price as the current 20 GB version, 349.99 MSRP. The 20 GB XBox’s will drop in price to 299.99 MSRP, until they are gone.

The big rumor that has been confirmed is that Netflix and Microsoft have in fact joined insofar as if you have a Netflix account and an XBox 360 LIVE account you may download. Pretty cool if you have all the elements. Pretty sucky if you don’t.

I have to wonder, did Microsoft lay all their cards on the table at the beginning of the conference too early to be the big leader early? And do they have anything worthwhile to lead with throughout the rest of the conference? We will just have to see.