Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV is finally going to be released. The initial review over at ign.com gave GTA IV a 10. A perfect 10. The last time a console game got a 10 was nearly a decade ago (Soul Calibur in 1999). What does this mean?? Simply put, GTA IV = (all sorts of awesome)^(epic*legen--wait for it . . . wait for it . . . wait for it . . . . . . . . . dary).

From what I've been able to gather from reading the seven page review, it seems that every single aspect of the game is a paragon of greatness. The single player has been revamped with an engrossing story that can very well suck you in. In fact, I'm willing to bet that this story will be better than the majority of stories found in the rest of the movies for this year (or the next, or the one after that, or the one after that, etc.). One does not need to look any further when trying to find further evidence to contradict Roger Ebert's ignorant, prejudiced, and utterly asinine remark that video games can not be art. Put GTA IV in a cage with any movie out there. 99.47% of the time, GTA IV will eviscerate the movie.

Another impressive aspect of GTA IV is just the city and all the little details added to it (watching someone rear end a woman because he was too busy gawking at a chick on the street and then getting out of the car to make sure the woman is ok is one of the examples that ign gave). Liberty City is as close to a living, breathing city that you can get short of going outside into a city. Everything is beautifully rendered and pushes the 360 and PS3 to their limits (which is saying a lot). In addition, the inclusion of Rockstar's RAGE engine and NaturalMotion's Euphoria engine makes for some stunningly realistic physics and AI.

The feature that is something that is completely new to the series is an honest to God multiplayer mode also makes its way onto the game. No more having to wait for the PC version to come out and then downloading a mod (or playing on a tiny PSP screen)--no no, you can start wreaking all sorts of havoc in Liberty City right out of the box. Having access to a whole city (and along with it, many things that go boom) to do whatever you want with whomever you want. Anything and anyone. Sometimes, I wish Rockstar would've done this sooner--but who cares now? It's finally here and the wait was definitely worth it.

In one of the video reviews, the reviewer says something along the lines of "Even if GTA IV costs $300 I would still get it." I believe him. If I ever do end up getting a "next-gen" console (probably a PS3--yeah, I'm a PlayStation fan boy), it will solely be because of GTA IV. I for one am willing to pay $460 for it . . . now if only I had that much lying around somewhere . . .

DotA

Ahhh, yes, Defense of the Ancients. DotA is arguably the best custom map for WarCraft III--I would even go as far as to say DotA is to WC3 as CounterStrike is to Half Life. In fact, it is not uncommon for someone to purchase WC3 and TFT solely for the purpose of playing DotA online. Many other custom maps out there have tried to be as good and as popular as DotA. Few have succeeded.

On the surface, DotA may seem like a simple enough game. I mean, for the vast majority of the time, all you do is control one hero. One. One is a lot less than the forces you control in a regular melee game--which usually number in the dozens. Not to mention, all you have to do is go from one side of the map to the other and destroy the opposing faction's main building. So why are so many people out there drawn to DotA if it's so bland?

Balance. Balance is what brings players back for game after bloody game of DotA. The number of available heroes to choose from number over six dozen. The number of items that can be equipped on said heroes also number over six dozen. And, to top it all off, everything is (mostly) balanced. There is no overpowered hero that everyone will want to choose. There is no overpowered sword of truth that everyone will try to obtain. DotA, after going through countless iterations, still manages to be a game based more on skill than luck. And what makes it so damn fun is that because of the huge number of heroes and items, no two games will play out to be exactly the same. There is no set "build order" to follow in the early game. There is no fail proof strat to build towards for the mid and late game. Rather, DotA manages to be a complex, multi-dimensional game that emphasizes a player's skill. If only there were more games out there like DotA.

Viva La Revolucion

Project Revolution, a.k.a. Starcraft 1.5, is a mod for Warcraft III that will basically allow you to play Starcraft on the WC3 engine. And we're not talking about the custom-made maps that use the models that are already included in WC3. No, no, no . . . we're talking about real Starcraft. Everything from the unit models, to the animations, to the sounds, and even the interface has been made to look like Starcraft. Just think of it as Starcraft in 3d.

Keep in mind that this is project is one that was/is undertaken by fans and not by an actual company. It's pretty impressive what can be done when there is a lot of passion for something (oh, and also free time would help too). Project Revolution is also by no means the first mod to come out looking polished enough to be a game developed by an actual company. Perhaps the most famous example of such a game would be Counter-Strike. Originally developed by two fans of Half Life, Counter-Strike became immensely popular--so much so in fact that Valve eventually teamed up with the creators and turned it into a stand alone game.

With so many talented programmers out there that are not officially part of any gaming company, I can't help but wonder how many awesome hardware/software we're missing out on. For instance, there's this one guy who recently wrote some software for the Wii that allowed it to have head-tracking capabilities. He made a video of it demonstrating it and at the end of the video, he says: "So if you're watching this and you're a Nintendo lead game developer . . . I wanna see more games!" What he should've said was "So if you're watching this and you're a Nintendo lead game devloper . . . I want a job!" I think the gaming world would be much better off it the latter was true.

If RL Was A Game

So I was recently reminded of the news story about some kid who uses what he learned from playing World of Warcraft in order to save his sister and himself from a moose attack. After reading, I naturally wondered what would happen if real life took on gaming properties. This is what I have concluded:

• Everyone will have an athletic build and walk around in bitching outfits
  
• Acquiring and wearing body armor automatically makes everyone target your armor first--no cheating and aiming for the head until the armor is gone!
  
• Carrying around health packs/first aid kits is generally a good idea because they can be used to treat anything--it doesn't matter if you just suffered multiple paper cuts or multiple gunshot wounds . . . you WILL be good as new
• If you take out someone, their friends will start a man-hunt for you, but then ADD will kick in and they'll go back to doing whatever it is they were doing--never mind the fact that their friend is unconscious/bleeding/dying/dead
• It is possible for farmers to be growing crops of gold
• Physicists have already invented a way to access an alternate dimension and have given said technology to almost everything that can be killed/looted; just go kill a small rat and loot it--that Barrett M107 you just procured is irrefutable proof that there is an alternate dimension out there
• Everyone will be an expert in all sorts of weaponry . . . pistols, SMGs, rifles, swords, crossbows, you name it
• Giant complexes/mansions will be raided daily for the phat lewtz that lie within
• Mushrooms will be the new steroids--making everyone bigger, faster, and stronger
• Earth will become a war zone--aliens, zombies, vampires, Nazis, werewolves, cultists, and even enraged/crazed animals will turn Earth into a battlefield . . . apparently, everything and their grandmothers wants us wiped out of existence
• Princesses are a dime a dozen and most of them will probably need rescuing
• Any hard encounter (finals, sports games, dealing with the mother-in-law, etc.) will always turn out to be an epic multi-phase affair
• Traffic signals/signs will be ignored 100% of the time
• An ice cream truck that can transform into a robot is something to run away from (despite how delicious ice cream is and how cool robots are)
• A lvl 70 can pwn a lvl 20 in the face--not like now where a 70 year old will get pwnd in the face by a 20 year old
  
• The cake is a lie

What a twisted, crazy, yet strangely enticing world that would be . . .

Tauren Marine

Meet the Tauren Marine. The new shock troops of the Terran in Starcraft 2. From what's been shown, a handful of these guys seems capable of destroying anything and everything. I guess it must be something in the water in Mulgore.

Speaking of Starcraft 2, things are looking amazing for that game. I recently re-watched the Protoss and Terran gameplay trailers and now I'm even more impatient for Blizzard to release the game. After all, it's about time.

But can anyone believe that it's been ten years since the first game?? I mean, that's almost 50% of my life!! And, despite the age, Starcraft is still incredibly fun to play--My friends and I still LAN with Starcraft! Take into consideration that over the past ten years, there have been hundreds, if not thousands, of other games that have been released. There are dozens of other great RTS games to LAN with, dozens more FPS games for us to whet our appetites for first blood with, and yet, we still come back to Starcraft. And, to top it off, we are not a bunch of fanatical Starcraft fanboys (playing the game when the rest of the world has clearly moved on). The rest of the world is also coming back to Starcraft.

What does that say about Starcraft as a game? Simply put, it is one of the (if not the) best games ever made. The attention to detail that Blizzard put into creating the Starcraft universe in conjunction with just how balanced the game is makes it a paragon of how other games (especially RTS games) should be like.

Now, if only Blizzard would release Starcraft 2 next week and if only the Tauren Marine were actually real--never mind the fact that it would be horribly op and imba . . .

Buying, Selling, and Trading in Azeroth

With its sunny beaches, snow-covered mountains, lush forests, and unique deserts, there's something for everyone in Azeroth. It wouldn't be a bad place to visit either . . . that is, if it weren't inhabited by orcs, elves, demons, undead, and the like. Yes, Azeroth exists in a game--in World of Warcraft to be exact. However, just because it's a game doesn't mean the principles of the real world do not apply to the virtual world. In fact, there is a thriving economy that exists in WoW (granted, the economy is based on a bunch of 1's and 0's but hey, so is ours with all the financial databases today). Now, I'm sure there are many interesting things that can be said (and probably have been) about the auction houses in WoW, but what I'm going to talk about now is another aspect of the economy in WoW--the profession system to be exact.

First off, in World of Warcraft, characters can choose to learn professions or tradeskills (such as mining, blacksmithing, jewlcrafting, tailoring, and even engineering). However, each character is limited to learning only two professions out of the ten available. This means that by learning professions, the characters are basically specializing in something. Adding another layer of detail to the profession system is the fact that not everyone can make the same things (meaning not every blacksmith can make that really big sword or that really cool helmet). The reason being is that the patterns/schematics/recipes for things that can be made have to be found (and naturally, some of them are harder to find than others).

So what does all this mean and how is the related to economics? With thousands of players per server each specializing in something, it doesn't take much for trading networks to spring up between players in the game. The traders are the players with professions. The sellers are the players that are selling raw materials to the traders (such as selling iron ore to a blacksmith). The buyers are the players that wish to purchase the good that the trader can make (like a really big sword). Generally, the network would involve a lot of sellers and buyers, and very few traders. The abundance of sellers almost guarantees that the trader can purchase all the raw materials for a low price. And, after crafting the good out of the raw materials, the number of buyers eagerly waiting to get their hands on that rare good (that really big and shiny sword) means the trader can choose to sell to the buyer that has the highest value (and thus would pay the most for it).

The means in which the trader goes about selling the item is also something interesting to note. The trader can run an impromptu auction via the chat channels, having buyers message him with their values and selling to the buyer with the highest value (a first price sealed bid auction if you will). Or, the trader can put the item up for auction at the auction house. The auction house works basically like a first price sealed bid auction but with two twists: 1) there is a time limit and 2) the player who posted the auction can have the option of setting a buyout price (like the 'buy it now' feature of eBay). The more interesting of the two differences is the time limit. Because the auction will end in a set amount of time and because it is a first price sealed bid auction, the time limit actually encourages bidding at the last second (or sniping).

So, despite the fact that World of Warcraft and other games exist in the virtual world, the fact that the games are played by humans means that economies and economic principles from the real world will inevitably spring up and be apparent within the virtual world.

Umbral Sect > Illidan

One of the games that I am really into is World of Warcraft. Even though I'm taking an extened hiatus from it, I still keep myself up to date on the happenings of WoW. Anyways, so I visit my guild website (Umbral Sect of Gorgonnash) this morning after about a week of not checking up on them(due to being somewhere in the Smoky Mountains for spring break) and lo and behold, I find that they downed Illidan.

Now, who cares? After all, Black Temple has been out for several months and many many many other guilds out there have laid waste to everything that moves inside BT. However, Umbral Sect finishing all of the current raid content for WoW brings to mind a very interesting point: how a band of (relative) strangers can come together and surmount near impossible odds.

Consider what it means to complete the entire raid content in WoW (or any other MMO for that matter). A group of forty (pre-Burning Crusade) or twenty-five (post-Burning Crusade) players that have probably never met each other in real life must get together online and coordinate with each other in order to kill really big and nasty things. While this may not sound all that hard, I assure you, it is much easier to get a highschool football team to reenact every scene in High School Musical. Every single member of the raid must know his/her role (what to do, when to do it, where to move, where to stand, etc.) for that specific fight. One single mistake, one tiny accident, one lag spike . . . that's all it takes to wipe the whole raid and force everyone to start the fight over.

Another point to consider is the sheer amount of hours put into this. With 10 million active subscribers, and assuming everyone plays for only four hours a week (this would be a uber conservative estimate), a total of 2,080,000,000 hours would be expended (that's 86,666,666.667 days or 237,442.922 years) per year to grinding levels, farming mats, raiding, PvP'ing, etc. Just imagine everything that can be accomplished in this world if all of that playing time was applied towards something productive . . . on the other hand, all work and no play is a very bad thing ;)

But I digress . . . anyways, grats Umbral Sect!!