Geek Speculation

Learning the Terminal - Thoughts

2008-08-05T17:16:00.003-04:00

This is kind of a micro-post. I suddenly got this strange urge to learn Unix commands in the Terminal. After reading a few articles in Lifehacker, the argument that command line...err...commands make life easier, make computer use more flexible and that these commands can be saved and automated (this all may sound a little newbish, but keep in mind that I am also writing for geeks of the non-computer geek persuasion as well) made me think that it might be a good idea to look into.

Anyway, it is my hope that in the future, if I discover and/or write any truly useful scripts that can help with productivity, computer use or whatever, I will post them here so anyone (yes, Windows users can run CYGWIN) can use these to automate all those repetitive computer tasks that everyone hates to do. Also, I might be learning AppleScripting, so all of the Mac geeks out there that don't already know this language can find other useful ways of automating redundant tasks once I post them here.

Mac "Fanboyism" Explained

2008-07-31T12:00:00.004-04:00

I was always a PC person. I was a loyal Windows user and Bill Gates continues to be my hero to this day. For her birthday, my fiance got a PowerBook G4 and quickly became what has come to be known as an Apple "Fanboy". She would not shut up about her new laptop, but even more so, she would spend even more time explaining how inferior my PC was to her Apple.

I admit that I was starting to like the look of the black MacBooks at this time and was thinking about buying one. I liked my PC but I also wanted a laptop to use. I ended up buying one and about 1 week after buying it, almost as if it knew it were being replaced, my Dell PC broke---blue screens and everything. Hours and hours I spent reformatting, trying different flavors of Windows and Linux and swapping different hardware to diagnose my problem. But to no avail--my PC was simply finished and I was forced to be a Tiger-exclusive user.

My immediate complaint? No games! Games are made to work on Windows, not Macs. I know you can use Boot Camp but what's the point of getting a Mac then?

But thats it--I have no other complaints. However, I'm not going to write about how great Macs are or why everyone should buy one. I'm going to write about why Mac converts become Mac fanboys.

Probably the main reason why Macs inspire such a fanatical fan-base isn't due to what Apple is doing, but rather it is due to what they aren't doing. PCs strive to accomplish a very ambitious goal: to be useful to everyone 100% of the time on every different kind of computer and be compatible with the majority of the hardware out there. This goal is nearly impossible to accomplish. However, Macs look to please the casual user and their OS is designed to work with and only with their own hardware. The result? Significantly less variables to account for and thus, more stability in their operating system. Furthermore, their focus on their casual user niche has allowed Apple to design an interface specifically for casual use. In fact, up until recently, they have turned away corporate deals because their computers aren't designed for big business. To put it more simply, Apple has designed a stable system that caters to users with specific wants and needs in a computer and they have fulfilled these wants and needs very well.

This "snobbiness" that Mac users have towards PC users is simply a result of the fact that their needs are better met than those of the PC user. Since the PC and Windows focuses on pleasing everyone, both corporate users, casual users and power users, the result is that not everyones needs will be met and they are left unsatisfied. And it is that dissatisfaction in the PC users that Mac users scoff at.

There are other reasons why Apple inspires fanboyism in their customers, such as a variety of pre-bundled applications that are useful to its various types of users and as mentioned before, OSX's heightened stability over Windows. However, in the interest of not sounding too biased in favor of Macs, I am not going to get into these subjects.

What I will say against Macs, however, is that until video game publishers decide to make more Mac-compatible games, Mac users should retain some humility. Should video game publishers create more cross platform games (in Mac/PC terms, NOT console terms), then by all means, Mac users truly have something to laugh at when they see PCs :) .

NOTE: There is a great blog out there advocating video game publishers to make more Mac-compatible games. Check it out at: http://themacgamer.com/

Thoughts on Upcoming Star Wars "Clone Wars" Movie

2008-07-19T21:28:00.002-04:00

For the ill-informed, Lucasfilm is releasing an animated movie on August 15th taking place in the Star Wars universe. It takes place between "Attack of the Clone" and "Revenge of the Sith" and features all of our favorite characters in these two movies, along with some new ones.

As Associated Press' David Germain explains in his preview of the movie, this movie is supposed to take a more lighthearted tone, reminiscent to that of the original trilogy rather than the dark tone of the newer trilogy.

This is a breath of fresh air as, while I loved the new trilogy (many didn't) and I thought that Anakin's story of how he became Darth Vader adds a lot more meaning to the original trilogy (and was a story that needed to be told), the original trilogy is what we all fell in love with, so it's good to see the series going back to its roots (sorry for the run-on sentence). The movie promises to tone down Anakin's dark side tendencies and instead focus on his cockiness and naiveness - a sort of hybrid between Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, as the movies director, Dave Filoni describes.

This also interests me. While Anakin's cockiness in the new trilogy came off as kind of annoying, the lighthearted approach to this movie might make his character enjoyable and fun to watch. I'm also sure many people are interested to know Anakin's Jedi background/adventures other than his main story on his descent to the dark side.

On a side but interesting note, Hayden Christensen will not be playing the voice of Anakin, but instead Matt Lanter (who as made appearances in Grey's Anatomy and CSI) will be playing the voice of Anakin. This too is something I am looking forward to seeing. I don't think much of Chirstensen's acting and I think his portrayal of Anakin is what made his cockiness...and...well overall character annoying. So perhaps Lanter will add something more fun and likable to Anakin's character.

Germain also mentions in his article one new character, Ahsoka Tano, Anakin's padawan (!). I am very interested to know what her background is, especially what happens to her during the events of Revenge of the Sith. Does she escape Vader's wrath or does she fall from the emperor's executive order. We may not even find out in this movie.

Still, all this news sounds like good news to me and it appears that this will be the makings of a good, enjoyable Star Wars movie. I am definitely looking forward to it.

Final Fantasy Tactics is the greatest game ever and all other games suck Part II

2008-07-17T14:28:00.003-04:00

In my last post, I made this bold statement and supported not only why Final Fantasy Tactics is a superb game, but I began to review some of the more popular video game series, and explain why each suck. Instead of a lengthy introduction, I am just going to get right into it and continue with explaining the suckiness of these other games.

Grand Theft Auto (the series) - Ahh, what a perfect series to start this post with. Those of you who have read my previous post on GTA IV already know my feelings about these games. Those of you who haven't still already know what this game is about: you run around, shoot anyone you want, steal any car you want or just blow random shit up. This shitty series brings new levels to the term "redundant". In my last post I mentioned how redundant the Mario series is, but these games bring redundancy to a whole new level. At least with Mario, while the concept with each game is redundant, the content of each game themselves actually mixes it up with slightly different enemies and levels. The content of each game in Grand Theft Auto, let alone each iteration is redundant in and of itself. You can't tell me that you actually don't get bored of running around the street for hours on end watching your avatar pull a rocket launcher out of his back pocket and blow up a car. The variation of what you actually do during the game is exceedingly minimal and the game itself just finds different ways of you doing the same thing over and over again, without the relief of different enemies or scenery.

Metal Gear Solid - If I wanted to watch a movie, I would rent a movie, or go to the movie theater, or buy a Pay-Per-View. When I am playing a game, I expect to PLAY it. Not watch it, not listen to it. Metal Gear Solid (all four of them) suffers from the unfortunate problem of having a producer/director who wishes he was in the movie business. Or rather, he saw the disaster that was Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within and decided he should continue creating video games and not CG movies. The gameplay in these games are great. Unfortunately, I really don't consider something that has more time dedicated to cutscenes then game time an actual video game. This "game" has a script that is four times (yes, 4X) longer than the average movie. In the first three games, you spend so much time in the Codec screen that you could have probably spent that time writing, producing and directing a new, better game. And just when you finished rejoicing after hearing that the fourth game reduces the amount of time you spend in the codec screen, you find out that, instead, Kojima took the total amount of time you spent listening to codecs in the first three games, multiplied this amount by five and dedicated this amount of time to the cutscenes just in Act 1 (note there are 5 acts, a prologue, and one disgustingly long epilogue). Kojima was actually quoted saying that the Dual Layered BluRay disc, around 50GBs was NOT ENOUGH space for his game! The Metal Gear Solid series is fun, but they are not video games, they are movie wannabes. Oh, and for MGS 4...who wants to play as an old guy? Snake literally groans and holds his back has he crouches. That seriously takes badass points away from Snake.

God of War - Admittedly, there is more difficulty in finding fault in these two games. Primarily because the gameplay is incredible, Kratos is a colossal badass, the story-line is solid but not overpowering and the series is only two games deep (again, not counting the handheld games) so its too early to say that the games are redundant. So you know what? I'll give this series a pass, God of War does not suck. BUT, David Jaffe better bring us a consistent yet fresh God of War III.

All other Final Fantasy games - Have I mentioned redundant before in this blog? Well either way, I'm mentioning it again. Probably one of the most outstanding characteristics of Final Fantasy games is their story-lines, and oh how redundant Final Fantasy story-lines are. Thinking of buying a Final Fantasy game? I'll sum up the story for you here instead. You play a young man, around the age of 17-23, he has long blonde hair, kind of surferish or may have brown hair. He bands together with a group of about seven people and embarks on some minor task such as sneaking into a castle or blowing up something. While performing this task your pokey-headed character and friends unveil an evil plot of some androgynous-looking villain to gain ultimate power and take over the world. Every single Final Fantasy game follows this same exact story pattern with little variation. As disappointing as it is to discover that, yet again, Final Fantasy has followed this story-line template for their next game in the series, it is even more disappointing to see that their villain gets more and more feminine as each game is released without actually becoming a woman. The only exception to this rule is Final Fantasy VIII, which at least decided to take the plunge and actually make a female the main villain.

However, with Final Fantasy Tactics, there is no androgynous villain. In fact, the final boss is a woman. The sub-main boss (Vormav) is a middle aged man and by no means womanly. And what's the main evil plot of this game? Not world domination, not world destruction, just to resurrect an evil saint. They never get into detail as to what they want to do after that. So while there are some similarities between FFT and the rest of the series, there are a lot more differences that make this game stand out.

BONUS Halo - How could I forget Halo? Probably the most popular game on XBox Live, and considered a "Killer App" for both Xbox systems. Your alter ego in this game is a tin can. But this character goes by the much cooler name, "Master Chief". Oh but wait, it gets better. Who is the main villain in the series? A round 3' X 3' spherical robot with no mouth, nose or body, just a single eye and is called "Guilty Spark". For a series with a main character sooo cool, interesting, animated, you name it, so cool in fact that he's not just "Chief" but Master Chief, Bungie certainly picked a lame final boss/villain and made the bad guy even less menacing by calling it "Spark". So many options Bungie had to fix this in Halo 3, ie: Gravemind. But instead, they just plug Guilty Spark back in the game as the final villain. Booorrring.

But if you couldn't detect my sarcasm before, Master Chief is a pretty uninteresting and boring character. He has no outstanding traits that make the gamer really give a shit about the character. His name basically sums up what Bungie did when developing the character. His name, just like his creative design, lacks creativity and shows the developer's poor attempt at making the character a badass, outstanding or interesting. Two things the game has going for it: the multiplayer and the online play. Can't get enough of it. For most, thats probably the only reason they buy these games.

And there you have it. Why every other game sucks when compared to Final Fantasy Tactics. Granted I didn't cover every game. But if these games, the so called pinnacle of video games couldn't cut it, I doubt a game like Banjo Kazooie could.

Final Fantasy Tactics is the greatest game ever and all other games suck Part I

2008-07-05T12:00:00.005-04:00

Is it the story? Is it the "character development"? No. In fact the majority of my time playing this God-given game was after the main story has taken place, but right before I go to Orbonne Monastery for the final confrontation against Vormav.

How is it that a game where you never actually get to "move" your character, other than placing your characters in different squares during battle still ranks (in my mind) as the greatest game ever?

Firstly, every battle requires at least some level of tactics and skill to win. The stronger you get, the less tactical skill you need, however character skill, level, job class, equipment, etc must be considered carefully when placing a character in a certain place.

But most importantly, what makes this game so incredible and what gives it such a strong replay value is the level of customization it has. How does having a job system give this game a strong level of customization? There are 17 total regular job classes for your characters (not including special characters) and 15 character spaces (16 including Ramza, the main character). This allows for a huge amount of flexibility when designing the party or different parties you want (when in battle, you can only select 5 characters). So you can design multiple parties to cater to specific playing styles. You have have a brute strength party, a mage party and a more tactical party (such as a group of ninjas or mimes) and alternate between each of these types (or any other types you can dream of) at your will. The roles, party structure and abilities are completely up to you. Just because one character belongs to a specific job class doesn't mean they are married to only the abilities of that class. You can assign a second ability set from any other job class, a counter, support ability and movement range. What results is an almost endless array of different character (and party) customization options that really fit well into how the game is played.

I can go on and on about the other entertaining aspects of the game such as the deep and twisting storyline, the fact that the characters have no noses, the character Orlandu as well as a lot more. But I would much rather continue on with explaining why every other game out there sucks.

Any Legend of Zelda game: It continues to elude me why so many people love these games as much as they do. But what eludes me more is the fact that character battle after character battle hosted by GameFAQs (where people vote for which video game character is the strongest), Link wins every time he is allowed to compete. Here it is, once and for all, all Legend of Zelda fans may hate me for this, but this is going to feel too good to say to pass up: Link is a PUSSY. That's right, I said it, a PUSSY. Somehow, Link's androgynous character design, including his girly-looking eyes, pierced, pointed ears and green pajama of a smock jumpsuit give people the impression that he's a badass. Even more so is the wimpy moans he lets out when he falls from high ledges or gets hit by an enemy. Okay, fine. Maybe he looks, acts and sounds like a wuss. But what about his strength? Does his power and strength make up for it? Well if you consider wielding a slingshot, throwing nuts and occasionally unsheathing his poor excuse for a bow (sorry, "Fairy Bow" as its called in Ocarina of Time) or even worse, his wimpy looking "Master Sword" (what a gay name) badass, then yes, maybe it does. But for the rest of us, he sounds like a poor over hyped and overrated version of a woodland gnome.

Any Mario Ga-wait, I'm not done with Link yet. Finally in the most recent game in the series, Link gets the chance to transform into some badass fell creature when he enters into areas of darkness. But what does he turn into? A starving-looking blue-eyed wolf. The anorexic wolf from the movie 300 looks more impressive. Even his not-so-impressive nemesis, Ganondorf transforms into a huge kickass looking boar. At least he looks intimidating, but wolf-Link just looks pathetic. In fact, Link is probably the saddest game hero that could have been created. The day Link could actually take an Omnislash, Renzokuken/Lionheart or, better yet, you guessed it: a Night Sword and still stand, is the day his "HP": those pussy looking hearts will actually turn into something that shows some accomplishment for a fully leveled up character: 9,999 HP. Face it Legend of Zelda fans: Link is the Final Fantasy Tactics equivalent of a Bard with equip sword.

Any Mario Game: How many times does it take to jump on top of giant evil mushrooms and turtles while looking for the good mushrooms before you get bored? Pretty quickly I would say. Any Mario game (especially the old ones) are so redundant that I can't understand why people continue to play the game after the first level. Okay, you ask, but what about the newer games like Mario 64 and Mario Galaxy? Interesting how the second newest core Mario platform game is for Nintendo 64? And no I am not counting hand held games. Hand held games are meant for screaming five year olds to keep them quiet and occupied for a 30 minute car ride. What does it tell you that it takes Nintendo 11 years to create the next game in a series? That Nintendo needed 11 whole years to squeeze out enough creative juices to create a new game that is slightly different from the last. And it isn't really that different from the last anyway. Basically, the only difference is that Mario now runs around on round "planets" rather than flat land. I guess someone at Nintendo finally discovered the theories of Pythagoras and Aristotle. Still,the concept is the same: you are a plumber jumping on or punching turtles and mushrooms and occasionally avoiding big boulders with angry faces in order to kill an even larger turtle who kidnapped a princess. The story and concept has about as much depth as a kindergarten picture book. Taking a game, making it "3D" turning "levels" into actual planets and adding one more move to Mario's arsenal of what is now three basic moves: jumping, punching and kicking does not make a game any better or more revolutionary...just redundant.

Next post I explain why God of War, Metal Gear Solid (the series), Grand Theft Auto (again, the series) and all other Final Fantasy games suck when compared to Final Fantasy Tactics.

Metal Gear Solid 4 ruined me for all other video games...and movies

2008-06-26T13:07:00.009-04:00

NOTE: This post does not contain spoilers.

"...the heart? Good. It's filling. It's got a good taste to it" the chef says to his assistant. We are brought into what appears to be the set of a cooking show. A middle aged chef and his assistant are preparing food. It is unclear what time period this is or why they are even showing this clip. The beginning trailer is a video, not CG, like what you would expect from a video game. They are preparing odd dishes like crocodile and vulture and I can't help but wonder why they are playing this on my Metal Gear Solid 4 game. Is this some poor attempt at humor? As the chef scrapes bloody scraps of meat off the head of a crocodile, I ask myself is this some kind of nod to the meals Naked Snake feasted on in MGS3? Then, the chef pulls a snake onto the counter. Memories circulate in my head of when Naked Snake would hunt and eat reticulated pythons in the jungles surrounding Grozynj Grad. Still, I was getting annoyed that I had to watch this scene. A scene that seemed to be just delaying me from immersing myself in the storytelling goodness that Hideo Kojima has cooked up for us this time. Then it hit me. The chef called for a volunteer from the audience. The assistant handed the volunteer a large, ax-looking knife. The chef holds the snake down on the counter and says: "This is the last chapter in this snakes life".

Don't worry, that doesn't spoil anything. There is, after all, four different snakes in this series so he could be referencing any one of them (or could be just a little joke to throw the player off). And since we don't know what time period this is taking place in, he could, for all we know could be talking about Naked Snake. Still, the thought of what this could be suggesting...Solid Snake's death sent shivers up my spine...hoping that nothing would happen to him.

Anyway, I don't know what to say about this game. It was just incredible. It was very powerful, had me at the edge of my seat and had my head spinning all at the same time. The story was extremely deep and involving, yet there are so many elements and twists to it that it is impossible to absorb all of the aspects of the story in one play through.

The story answers everything. It really clarifies all of the different twists and turns that the series brought before, all while adding new twists that get you saying "holy shit" out loud about two dozen times. Hideo Kojima is truly the George Lucas of video games. And I hate to say it too, especially since I really am a loyal Hironobu Sakaguchi fan. But when Kojima gives us this as a sequel to MGS2, and Sakaguchi gives us FFX-2 as a sequel to FFX...do I really have to finish that sentence?

What about the gameplay? Well the graphics are incredible, the controls and button placement are much more logical and intuitive but all the good aspects of the previous games' gameplay were kept intact. How the game handles camo is a perfect example. In MGS3, the idea of having different camouflage for different situations was a very useful and fun addition to the way the game was played. However, changing the camo constantly proved to be tiresome and annoying. In the new game, however, the camo style is changed automatically…so you are left with a variety of camouflages and the ability to blend in anywhere, while actually changing the camo itself is automated for you. Also, if you liked manually changing the camo, there is an option for the camo to be manually changed as well.

One problem though: as much of a story whore as I am...I feel a game is nothing without a good story, there is also such a thing as too much story. I clocked about 22 hours playing this game from start to finish and about half of that was dedicated to cut scenes. A lot of the time I spent watching the game, not playing it. Not only that, but the story was so involving that it actually overshadowed the game itself a bit. I ask myself why Hideo Kojima is in video games and not a movie producer and director.

Still, the overall entertainment value of the game was enormous. The story itself warrants a strong replay value, however the usual unlockables (stealth camo, bandanna and others) also grant a strong replay value; in addition to the fact that the game itself was just a joy to play. The great thing about second and third replays with this game (like the other MGS games) is that, you already know the story so you can focus on the solid gameplay design that Konami and Kojima have brought us.

If you don't have a PS3 yet, buy one for this game. It would be a good investment anyway. After all, FFXIII will be coming out for it exclusively and don't forget it is also a Blu Ray player. I would give this game a 9.5/10--as much as I would love giving it a 10/10, the story takes over the game too much but also makes up for it by being so damn entertaining. If you don't have the $60 to buy this game, steal the money...or beg your girlfriend to buy it for you (like I did).

UPDATE: I am on my second play through now. Since I don’t need to focus as much on the storyline this time around (at least in the beginning chapters), I can focus more on playing the actual game. Now that the game itself gets my undivided attention, I change my grade to a 10/10. The gameplay really is incredible. One addition to mention that I should have mentioned before is the auto-aim feature and the over the shoulder view. When aiming your weapon, you are first taken to the over the shoulder view. This really improves upon the previous aiming system where you are immediately taken to first person view. It makes gun battles a lot more entertaining and the whole process operates a lot smoother. The auto aim feature also comes in handy. You may think that it may make the game too easy…but remember, the game isn’t a first or third person shooter-- dodging bullets and killing the enemy before they kill you is not the point of this game. But for those of you who don’t want the ease and convenience of auto-aim, Konami thought of that too. With the press of one button, it can easily be toggled off and on. The additions (and subtractions) that was added to this game has made the game operate so much more smoothly and yet still remain fresh. The options that allow you to use (or not use) these new systems that were put in place adds to the attractiveness of this game even more, since it suits a variety of playing styles. Get this game.

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull--If you think this is ridiculous, then you haven't seen the first three movies

2008-06-16T00:04:00.013-04:00

NOTE: For those of you who still haven't seen the movie yet, this post does contain spoilers.

As a child, Indiana Jones was my hero. Harrison Ford was my idol. I had a brown fedora hat, toy whip and dreamed of being an archeologist when I grew up. Raiders of the Lost Ark was an incredible movie...one that I still enjoy to this day. As you can imagine, hearing now (well a few months ago) that the new Indiana Jones movie was coming out got me extremely excited and brought back old memories of the days I used to play Indy make-believe.

What's Indiana Jones doing on a geek blog you ask? Let me address this before I go any further. Any movie that has grown men going to the movie opening day wearing brown fedoras has geek written all over it. Any movie written by George Lucas also has geek written all over it. Still in doubt? Maybe this affiliation will convince you. Harrison Ford, a living legend, action star and brilliant actor...where do his roots come from? What catapulted him to stardom? That's right, Star Wars.

When I first saw the movie, I must admit I was disappointed. Aliens in an Indy movie? That's ludicrous! Dr. Jones' latest adventure ultimately brings him to a UFO?! What a preposterous idea for an Indiana Jones movie!

Or is it? Is aliens and UFOs so out of place in an Indiana Jones movie? Movies where Indy searches for legendary and historical artifacts? Lets venture back into what these artifacts were and what they did at the end of each movie. In Raiders, Indy is searching and ultimately finds the Ark of the Covenant, a relic said to contain the remains of the Ten Commandments. At the end of the movie, the Nazis open the ark, and the power of God melts off everyone's face that looked at the opened Ark. Temple of Doom: Henry Jones has a run in with a priest who pull's people's still-beating hearts out of their chests with his bare hands. The heart continues to beat in his hands after being removed from the body. And finally in Crusade, Indiana is in search of the Holy Grail, granting eternal life to whoever drinks from the correct cup. Near the end, when faced with choosing the correct cup, a Nazi officer chooses incorrectly, aging incredibly fast and disintegrating right before Indy's eyes. Clearly, these endings are much more believable and realistic than that of the newest movie in the series.

So do aliens and UFOs really not belong in an Indiana Jones film? Maybe its the fact that in the past, Indiana Jones was searching for religious relics and this time his work led him down the Sci-Fi road that makes this ending seem out of place in the series. However, if you have gotten used to the endings of the first three movies, but for some reason can't stomach something slightly, slightly more scientifically believable, than maybe it would be smarter for you to stay away from any new movie this summer until you can. The concept behind Iron Man was more believable than God melting people's faces off for opening up a large golden box.

Out of place? Perhaps. Disappointing? Some may think so. But if and old series is going to have new life breathed into it, expect some changes to be made to make it more relevant to today.

Why I wont be playing Grand Theft Auto IV

2008-06-15T08:05:00.005-04:00

Game Informer gives this game a 10/10, IGN’s Hillary Goldstein declares this game the best game since Ocarina of Time, so what gives? Why wont I be playing the newest iteration of one of the most popular video game series ever?

Surely, you’d ask, you have seen the screenshots of the improved graphics and smoother animation, right? It is, after all the first Grand Theft Auto on the new generation of consoles. Or maybe you’d wonder if I’m ignorant to the fact that the game has incorporated a covering system during gun fights so Niko (the game’s protagonist) can hide behind any object to avoid gunfire. Or perhaps I am uninformed that the game has a new online multiplayer mode, a larger, more detailed city than ever before, or of course the more detailed and explicit interactions with hookers having sex with you in your car and strippers dancing for you. No, I am aware of all of these new elements and yet, I still will not be playing this game.

Why?

The gameplay for each game in the GTA series (since III, although II was fun as well) has been truly entertaining. Running around, stealing cars and shooting and punching whoever you want while taking on missions that essentially pay you to do the same thing is a lot of fun. Anyone can roam the city (Liberty, Vice or San Andreas) for hours just running people over with your Rhino. The attraction with this game is the shear amount of freedom it provides the player. Players can truly do anything, especially use this game as a channel to express their anger. But the freedom element is the only attraction this game provides. The game offers little depth, going only as far as offering shallow satires and parodies of the society we live in today. The story of each iteration in this series is anything but engaging, and the freedom this game provides, the “Sandbox” style can get old pretty fast. Surely, if you aren’t tired of the gameplay from Grand Theft Auto III, maybe playing two more games of the same exact style of play, only with a different avatar and voice over could certainly get tiring after a short while. It feels there is little creativity when creating these games. The GTA series is rife with lack of story, characters, character development and lack of revolutionary gameplay elements. How many times are you going to pay $40-$50 to purchase and play the same exact game with a different name? The only difference Rockstar North brings to each game is a new city name, with a larger city, more vehicles, more weapons and that’s it. While I am sure GTA IV has an exponentially larger and more detailed city, greater animation and maybe even slightly more depth to the plot, I doubt I will get much more satisfaction out of playing this game than I will get from playing San Andreas.

Ultimately, it feels as if I have been playing the same exact game three different times with slightly different weapons, scenery and characters while still maintaining the same desire to take a rocket launcher and blow apart the nearest car in sight.

Maybe this is true about all games in a specified series. I mean, the Metal Gear Solid series involves Snake (or Raiden) sneaking around in the same fashion in each game in order to avoid guards, and when necessary, tranquilizing them in the neck—to sum it up that is all the game involves. Final Fantasy constantly delivers the clichéd storyline of a group of characters venturing forth to save the world from a villain wanting to either: a) destroy the world, b) take over the world or c) both. So what makes the redundancy in these titles any different? The Metal Gear Solid series, for example never fails to deliver a spectacular storyline with a lot of twists, turns and new shocking character back-story for both new and old characters. The Final Fantasy series consistently brings lovable and memorable characters to the player and, while the basic storyline is the same, Square Enix always finds a unique way to deliver the plot. Each and every villain has the same goal yet strangely they are all unique and memorable in their own way. Further, while the battle system is similar the means to power up characters via either the sphere grid, materia or junction systems all add a different twist to the style of play, making it at least somewhat unique. These two series bring a certain level of familiarity to make each game consistent with the series, yet some distinctiveness as well to make each game fresh. The same is not true for the Grand Theft Auto series. The gameplay, characters, villains and the like are all taken out of the same cookie-cutter mold, rinsed and reused again for each game. Each game is anything but fresh.

But alas, my inner nerd will get the best of me. The slightly improved graphics, animation and increased arsenal of weaponry does add a tad bit of interest in how many different ways I can perform a drive-by this time or hit some random person over the head with a bat. And while this post is secretly what every gamer thinks when we hear that a new GTA is coming out, none of us, including myself will be able to resist the urge to buy the game anyway. I mean, come on, this time around it’ll look even cooler when I get to blow shit up!

I guess that is what really makes us buy these games—it provides us the freedom to do what we can’t do in other games without getting penalized for it. Ah well…perhaps the title of this post should really be: “What every gamer thinks about the GTA series, yet, will still buy it anyway”.

UPDATE (6/16): When Metal Gear Solid 3 and San Andreas were released, Game Informer gave MGS3 game of the year in almost every single category over GTA, despite their equal rating. Well, the most recent issue of Game Informer just came in the mail today, and gave MGS4, like GTA4 a 10/10. If history repeats itself...I can't tell you how good that will make me feel.