Let’s take a moment to calm down from the after effects of the GTA IV release - a moment to finally catch our breaths away from its monolithic presence. For only after we bring ourselves down to earth, an intelligent discussion about the game can finally be had.

Oh wait, I apologize. It seems as though that has already happened. The game was supposed to be the “game of the generation,” yet sold about 2.5 million copies in a week in the U.S. While those numbers are considered remarkable in most cases, they don’t quite live up to the standards set by games such as Halo 3, which sold more copies in a smaller amount of time on a much smaller user-base. Even more disappointing was that the notion of GTA IV being a system seller was shattered by the fact that both the PS3 and 360 sold dismally in the month of its release, and the Wii had yet another incredible month despite not being related to GTA IV at all.

These sales figures are boring and fairly pointless, but they do reveal something interesting: GTA IV seemed much bigger than it actually was. This statement has multiple meanings, nearly all of which are true.

After reading Mr. Finklestein’s review, I found that he didn’t say anything wrong and did a good job of justifying his score. I completely agree with many of the points he makes, especially the effect of the physics engine. But the fact remains that he gave the game an A+, a score that I could never see myself justifying. As a result, I must become a foil to him.

In the various 10s and A+ grades that GTA IV has rolled, many reviewers, including our own Mr. Finklestein, claim the game is especially deserving of such a score for its introduction of a scale we’ve never seen before and the new experience that scale brings to us. Again, this is all true and that aspect of the game should certainly be lauded, but I do not believe that is a good enough reason to justify such a high score. I believe that while the game does present us with something jaw-dropping and new experiences, its new features are just not utilized.

The mission structure of the previous games was carefully designed around the city and offered variety through the location of the missions, as well as the different gameplay additions that were exploited within them. This gave all three of the previous 3D GTAs a unique feel. Nearly every mission of GTA3 was unique due to its brand new 3D perspective. Vice City had asset missions that made you feel like you were controlling the major businesses within the city. San Andreas had the turf-warfare that made you feel like you literally owned the city. Despite a few missions in the second half of the game, nearly all of GTA IV’s missions can be replicated in the previous games.

Actually, let’s take that further. Nearly all of GTA IV’s missions were replicated in the previous games. Of course the problem here is that IV is the one doing the copying. The formula of ’shoot up a warehouse, engage in a car chase, and evade the police’ is starting to grow stale. With GTA IV being the “new,” one would think that mission variety would be great, or at least attempt to diverge from previous games. And no, the cell phone and internet do not count as varying mission structure. It’s still ‘go to point A to receive a mission and go to point B to perform it.’

GTA IV seemed much bigger than it actually was. If you were an inhabitant of New York City (as I am), you would realize how small the game world actually is. The game represents all the boroughs of NYC (except Staten Island because, as my roommate eloquently put it, “fuck Staten Island”) and a part of New Jersey. But if we were to scale the game to real world levels, the entire landscape of the game would hardly occupy 10% of Manhattan alone. While I realize that we’re not even close to being capable of scaling down an entire city to the game world, it is disappointing nonetheless, especially when the amount of cars and pedestrians is severely minimal compared to real life.

I guess we should have seen this coming when it was announced GTA IV was not as big as San Andreas. I welcomed this announcement because I hated all the barren parts of San Andreas that you were forced to drive through. Little did I know they were referring to more than just the map. It seems that a majority of the features the series had built up from GTA3 were completely removed from IV. No asset building, no RPG-esque “leveling up,” no sense of control over an entire city when the game is done. Even the amount of side missions has been drastically reduced. In short, the environment may have evolved into “next-gen” but the gameplay devolved with it. Indeed, GTA IV seemed much bigger than it actually was.

But it did seem bigger, didn’t it? We were all tricked into thinking it would be gigantic. This would make Rockstar the masters of illusion, like the illusion of defining this generation, or the illusion of watching TV on your TV. The illusion of levitating a woman off the ground and breaking her neck. The illusion of having friends in a game world. Or perhaps, the illusion of living in a lifelike city and blending in realistically.

Yes, the one point where I agree with Mr. Finklestein is that Rockstar abandoned “the city is your sandbox to do anything you want in” formula and opted for a more realistic approach to the sandbox genre. The downside of this is the several flaws mentioned above. The upside is the experience of realism that we all crave to varying degrees. The AI of every NPC is better. Cops don’t stop chasing you just because they you entered a garage they saw you go into. You can’t get in tanks and demolish the entire city because that’s impossible to do anywhere in New York City. You hang out with friends in bars and diners, call the cops for help, call the paramedics for health, and hail cabs just like you do in real life. You care about Niko like you would yourself (more so than any other character in the GTA series).

However, this is still all just an illusion. The search radius makes sense, but the fact that cops will search for me for hours, days, years on end for punching some guy as long as I stay in the radius does not. Neither does escaping the cops simply by going 100mph down the freeway after killing hundreds of people. And why do they only focus on me during a large scale gunfight? Why do hot dogs and hamburgers replenish health? Why are friends and girlfriends satisfied if you take them to the same place every time? Why am I still able to survive shooting myself with an RPG? Why do I have the unique power of pulling my weapons out of thin air? Why is taking cover behind objects so awkward? And why the fuck can’t I control my own movements precisely? Why is it actually worse than the previous games?

I can basically see the series going one of two directions from here. It can revert back to the last-gen GTAs and refine the formula that IV has started, keeping all of the new gameplay additions and adding on to them to eventually dwarf GTA IV in terms of content, much like San Andreas dwarfs GTA3. Using the more powerful hardware, Rockstar could reproduce the previous experiences and maximize them to their full potential, making you feel like a king again with an endless supply of income and rare cars. I feel that this would be fairly easy and I would be in favor of it, but the second direction, the much harder one, would be to take the realistic elements from IV and add on to them to reshape the entire series; to make the game and world more authentic and believable. Niko, one of the better protagonists of this generation, and the best of the series (especially compared to “Am I fucking 8 years old? C.J.”), is a very good place to start.

I don’t know what direction the series will take, but I know that I’ll be anticipating either one. The one thing guaranteed to come out of sequel is polish. The true hard part, coming up with the formula, has already been done. Rockstar just needs to modify it to fit their interests. And I still can’t say that a GTA game has ever left me disappointed. GTA IV was a wonderful game and the multiplayer, which I haven’t even mentioned until now, is nothing short of incredible, but GTA IV’s actual size and impact in and on the industry can only be determined by its successor.

I will admit that I was a bit harsh in my review of Triggerheart Exelica (THE). After playing it several more times, the game has opened up for me. I have not only become much better, but I’ve learned several strategies in tackling the hardest part of the game. But my opinion of the overall quality of the game remains unchanged.

My review was primarily about the immense difficulty of the game. But this attribute is shared by many games. The problem lies in the way the game presents the difficulty, in the sense that it does not prepare you for it. The simple menu and option screens let you select your character/ship and let you adjust other options but there is no foreshadowing of what you’re in store for. Before you know it, you’re under fire from all directions with bullet patterns that cover the entire screen. This rather nonchalant way the game carries itself is what really irritated me. In other words, the game either does not know or does not seem to care how difficult it is. This makes the game frustrating and boring.

In order to clarify my sentiments, I must unfortunately go into detail about something completely unrelated. If you read my Omega Five and Triggerheart Exelica reviews, you’ll see I’ve gained quite a bit of interest in the shmup genre. For this reason, I took the liberty of obtaining many shmups that are dubbed classics by the shmup loving community. How I obtained these games is irrelevant, inconsequential, and another word staring with i. As I mentioned in my review, THE is a bullet hell shmup. These type of shmups put the emphasis on endurance and pattern recognition. Unfortunately, most of the games I obtained did not fit into this category and comparisons of Strikers 1945 or Raiden to Triggerheart would be fruitless.

But one game, DoDonPachi, makes a perfect foil. DoDonPachi is referred to on Wikipedia as “the most manic shoot ‘em up yet” and that it has established “many of the conventions of this subgenre.” These comments are positive for a reason; DoDonPachi does the genre right. Right from the beginning, there are three fairly different types of ships to choose from and two different shot types for each ship. This is preferable to the two superficial ship types in Triggerheart.

But I said the biggest problem with THE is that it does not understand the genre it’s in. DDP, on the other hand, clearly does. The ship weapons are modeled to look as though they are blasting the living shit out of something. The laser weapon on the ship looks like a steady stream of lava that pours down a waterfall of oblivion onto enemies. The purple diarrhea weapons of THE pale in comparison. And the enemies of DDP are interesting and unique. Their appearance actually justifies the fact that they can cover the screen with bullets in interesting patterns. Triggerheart is filled with rather generic looking enemies like squares that for some reason have the ability to shoot walls of bullets that are literally* impossible to navigate through. The colorful and frantic art style of DDP also compliments the endurance and pattern memorizing nature of the game. In comparison, THE’s art style is bland. I would also mention that DDP’s graphics also excel past THE’s in the technical sense despite it being nine years older, but that is an observation having more to do with bewilderment (seriously, how is that possible?) than development and design. Oh, and I guess I just did mention it.

I think the biggest mistake I made in my first review, aside from the crude and unnecessary comparisons, was the omission of mentioning that THE has an easier difficulty. I think this difficulty is essential for players new to the genre or the game. The amount of bullets are reduced significantly making many the parts of the game much more forgiving. And since THE seems to be caught between genres, the fewer amount of bullets seems like a better fit.

Unfortunately I have not mastered this game yet as I did Omega Five. Part of this is because I still don’t have complete mastery of the anchor and the knowledge of when and how to use it. I can clear the first level on the default difficulty setting without dying, but completely fall apart on the second. But I can definitely see myself doing a one credit clear on Easy sometime in the near future.

I realize that this was drastically different than my original review. But that is because I feel drastically different about the game. Playing it more, understanding it more, and having something to compare it to has really lessened my ignorance. I also realize that this is not exactly 28 days later. But with Ikaruga coming out next week on XBLA, I figured my audience was entitled to something more honest and credible.

*The word literally is being used correctly here. The only way to survive these parts of the game is to kill the enemy making the wall of bullets. This is best (and can only be?) done with the anchor, although it is still very difficult.

By: Jay Aphale
Review: Halo 3

The enormous impact Halo 2 had on online console multiplayer is undeniable. The matchmaking system, sending voice clips, the party system, and an array of features for custom games were truly groundbreaking. So would Bungie do it again and not only make the leap to but instead define “next-gen” online play?

Well, not exactly. Don’t get me wrong, Halo 3’s multiplayer is remarkable and there are several improvements from Halo 2. But it seems that they could have just done so much more. For example, let’s talk about the matchmaking playlists. Well there are only two types: ranked and social. The ranked playlists are the same as the Halo 2 playlists that did not end with the word “training.” Oh, and there’s also less of them. Yes, Halo 3 actually contains fewer options for ranked matchmaking game types. Where’s the Team Hardcore? And how can there not be a Big Team Battle ranked playlist? Why are we forced to play by ourselves or in teams of four in order to rank up?

Well, to add variety, there’s also the social playlists. These offer more of a variety to gameplay, except again, there were more in Halo 2. What happened to Team SWAT and Action Sack? It seems like with everything you choose, you’ll only see Slayer, CTF, Assault, Oddball, and King of the Hill. I want to see some Pit of Joy action or Schwatgun CTF.

If you want to really see what Halo 3 can offer, it needs to be done in custom games. And custom games are still not joinable through matchmaking, so you have to rely on your friends list. Since you need at least six people to have a pretty good custom game, you’d pretty much have to rely on five other friends being online at the same time. This really doesn’t happen all that often, and forces people to play all those repetitive matchmaking playlists.

But maybe I’m being a bit too harsh. The Forge feature is actually very interesting. Although the system is very limited, there are a lot of unique things that can be done which result in quite a few humorous and memorable moments. But again, it would have been so much better if there were publicly joinable custom/Forge games.

The saved film feature is probably the best part of the experience Halo 3 brings to the table. Even if you can’t really rewind, it’s a great way to hone your skills as well as watch your favorite moments. The fact that every film is automatically recorded and stored temporarily makes it even better.

And in the end, it’s still Halo multiplayer, that incredibly fun console multiplayer that most other games can’t even come close to reaching. So we pretty much do get what we expected. The disappointment comes from the fact that we didn’t really get anything unexpected.

BioShock does do the whole “emergent gameplay” thing better than any other game that’s ever tried it, giving you true sandbox gameplay, although in a not quite sandbox environment. It really does give you options on how to fight throughout the whole the game, but after playing a lot of Halo 3 for the last week, which has truly masterful enemy AI and set-pieces, going back to the battles Rapture has to offer just feels weak, with the exception of the Big Daddies. The way they throw you around the room still feels great, but every other enemy has limited AI in comparison, and doesn’t offer much of a challenge, unless you include the ones later in the game that have a ton of health, but that isn’t interesting at all.

Where the game really falls apart though, and I didn’t touch on this in my original review, is in the last quarter of the game, after the plot twist. The reveal is still amazing, but after that the game goes quickly from rollercoaster to carousel; there really isn’t much until the final cutscene of the game. It’s cool to see what too much Adam can do to a person, but the boss fight at the end is a disappointment from a gameplay standpoint, as it doesn’t use what the other successful enemy encounters in the game did.

BioShock is still a very memorable experience, and more importantly, an original one, and I don’t at all regret giving it the score I did, but there are some tarnishes on it that take some time to see.