Rockstar Games recently unveiled the trailer to “Grand Theft Auto IV,” one of the more feverishly anticipated titles in gamers' ADHD-addled memories.
The video reveals that the game's grizzled Eastern European protagonist will lie, murder, cheat, murder, steal, murder and listen to eccentric radio DJs in Liberty City, an environment meticulously modeled after New York City.
The trailer takes on a traditional “calm before the bloody firestorm” form.
Busybody pedestrians criss-cross their way through Times Square in all its billboard-covered glory. The Statue of Liberty and Chrysler building loom over the sunny landscape. The game's immigrant anti-hero ruminates on the tabula rasa offered by the big city.
And every frame looks flawless. As arguably the first major cross-platform next-generation release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, “GTA IV” will provide both systems - particularly the less tested PlayStation 3 - with something to show for their portly price tags.
Graphically, the game's trailer bursts with promise for both systems. The trailer's sunset shots of the Manhattan skyline and the lattice of shadows cast by Coney Island's Cyclone are rendered with the photographic quality of a Fellini film.
But without a glimpse of any action shots, it remains difficult to predict how picturesque the game will appear as Boris McMafia guns down tourists on 5th Avenue.
“GTA IV” also gives Rockstar Games an opportunity to overhaul a franchise that since its third installment has been fueled only by “bigger and better” ambitions to the point of near absurdity.
“Vice City” and “San Andreas” were no doubt worthy successors that widened the cinematic scope of the series and introduced features such as property ownership and stamina upgrades that added strategic depth. Their “Scarface” and “Boyz in the Hood” worship spawned stories and characters that verged on the parodical, but both titles were nonetheless praised as envelope-pushing.
“Liberty City” and “Vice City Stories” were little more than lifeless stopgap titles designed to tide gamers over as the developers slaved over their next-generation game plan. But the two most recent releases in the franchise may have whet appetites for urban destruction even further.
The demand grows for a game as pioneering as “GTA III,” which spirited the series from its origins as a simple car-stealing game with a bird's eye perspective to a third-person sandbox of surly personalities and infinite possibility.
Gamers may savor that revolutionary quality again in “IV's” New York City setting. Unlike “Vice City” with Miami and “San Andreas” with Los Angeles, “IV” appears to actually lift several landmarks and structural details from the city that inspired its terrain.
For New Yorkers, the experience should be surreal. Imagine playing a video game that demystifies Auburn by allowing you to freely roam through the prison or drive a car into Falcon Park.
By bridging the virtual environments of video games with those of our everyday lives, “Grand Theft Auto IV” may bring the franchise back to the forefront of the medium's evolution.
Staff writer David Wilcox reviews video games for The Citizen. He can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
The trailer takes on a traditional “calm before the bloody firestorm” form.
Busybody pedestrians criss-cross their way through Times Square in all its billboard-covered glory. The Statue of Liberty and Chrysler building loom over the sunny landscape. The game's immigrant anti-hero ruminates on the tabula rasa offered by the big city.
And every frame looks flawless. As arguably the first major cross-platform next-generation release on the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, “GTA IV” will provide both systems - particularly the less tested PlayStation 3 - with something to show for their portly price tags.
Graphically, the game's trailer bursts with promise for both systems. The trailer's sunset shots of the Manhattan skyline and the lattice of shadows cast by Coney Island's Cyclone are rendered with the photographic quality of a Fellini film.
But without a glimpse of any action shots, it remains difficult to predict how picturesque the game will appear as Boris McMafia guns down tourists on 5th Avenue.
“GTA IV” also gives Rockstar Games an opportunity to overhaul a franchise that since its third installment has been fueled only by “bigger and better” ambitions to the point of near absurdity.
“Vice City” and “San Andreas” were no doubt worthy successors that widened the cinematic scope of the series and introduced features such as property ownership and stamina upgrades that added strategic depth. Their “Scarface” and “Boyz in the Hood” worship spawned stories and characters that verged on the parodical, but both titles were nonetheless praised as envelope-pushing.
“Liberty City” and “Vice City Stories” were little more than lifeless stopgap titles designed to tide gamers over as the developers slaved over their next-generation game plan. But the two most recent releases in the franchise may have whet appetites for urban destruction even further.
The demand grows for a game as pioneering as “GTA III,” which spirited the series from its origins as a simple car-stealing game with a bird's eye perspective to a third-person sandbox of surly personalities and infinite possibility.
Gamers may savor that revolutionary quality again in “IV's” New York City setting. Unlike “Vice City” with Miami and “San Andreas” with Los Angeles, “IV” appears to actually lift several landmarks and structural details from the city that inspired its terrain.
For New Yorkers, the experience should be surreal. Imagine playing a video game that demystifies Auburn by allowing you to freely roam through the prison or drive a car into Falcon Park.
By bridging the virtual environments of video games with those of our everyday lives, “Grand Theft Auto IV” may bring the franchise back to the forefront of the medium's evolution.
Staff writer David Wilcox reviews video games for The Citizen. He can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 245 or david.wilcox@lee.net
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