… when such an historic, worldly significant day like this

…just makes you think, immediately, of this…

Originally posted here

~

[I will probably get in trouble if certain people read this blog. But here it is anyway]

A bit of context, just to get it out of the way early on: I tend to take my gaming addictions a bit far sometimes, and I absolutely love open world games. GTA III had me hooked like a junkie as I enjoyed the exploration and sightseeing within Liberty City; taking my time doing missions in order to fully appreciate it all, the wonderful digital city: soaking it in, the geography, the design, the personality. These virtual escapes then followed with Vice City, San Andreas, and of course, GTA IV. Oh the time and sick days spent on that one.

None of that intense… Read More

Back in the day before Xbox 360 Achievements (and now PS3 Trophies), completing certain tasks in gaming were only done to attain a level of accomplisment and pride that existed at the very core of video games. After all, why else would we even bother playing anything in the first place if there was no sense of success or closure in what we did, especially given that memory cards weren’t around a while back and if you died it meant starting all over again from the very beginning and you had to challenge those deformed freaks in Rock Paper Scissors in Alex Kidd again (and lose, repeatedly) until your child self wept?

“Pompous” comments regardless, there’s a reason why Volition, the developers of Saints Row, are feeling so confident even if they delayed the release of the upcoming Saints Row 2 to steer clear of the GTA IV effect. Having played through Rockstar’s epic twice and enjoyed every minute of it, I needed another sandbox hit of some description between now and the release of the much-awaited DLC and so decided to opt for the budget Saints Row, a title I had been previously sceptical of. My reaction is “wow”.

Now pardon me if you’ve heard similar comments elsewhere (especially from Glassadam’s brilliantly honest blog), but it seems that, with GTA IV, for every advancement Rockstar made… Read More