Play-by-Play: Grand Theft Auto IV

My GTAIV special edition just arrived at my frontdoor. As promised I’ll be posting my thoughts on the game as I play through it at regular intervals. I just need to set up my surround sound speakers that also just arrived, then I’ll jump into the game and let you know what I think. If you’re wondering I’ll be playing the PS3 version of the game.

Last Updated: 14:56

Play-by-Play is now finished

13:40 - Finally the sound system is set up, lunch is out of the way and I’ve completed the HDD installation required to play. I’m watching the opening cutscene now, and have to say I’m pretty excited about what’s coming.

13:50 - So I’ve seen a little bit of the city and some cutscenes. With all the hype surrounding the game it’s hard to know where to set your expectations, but this game really does seem to deliver what the hype promises.

14:10 - Spent some time learning about the phone in the game. The calls and text messages seem to be a great system. Done some more driving, it takes a little getting used to at first. The handling is more realistic than previous GTA games from what I’ve experienced so far.

14:23 - Just flicked through the radio stations. From first impressions it seems like another great mix of different styles as well as familiar and less familiar artists. When leaving a car, you can hear the radio playing still through the car which is a nice touch.

14:29 - “Great, a strike!” So now I’m playing a bowling mini game. It’s kind of fun, although I hope you don’t have to do it too often or it could get repetitive.

14:42 - I just had a choice of two ‘missions’ to do, and by doing one you can’t do the other, which effects the outcome. It seems really natural, and the phone allows you to be informed about such things which is good. In other news, I just saw a policemen chasing someone on foot, shouting over his radio things like ’suspect does not have a vehicle’. Their are a lot of these touches, like men with clipboards checking off boxes outside a factory, which really make the game seem really deep. Oh, and naturally I won the bowling.

14:56 - So now you haven’t just got the GTA humourous radio stations, but now television channels! Just watched some San Andreas footage advertising a Las Venturas poker tournament. It’s great. I’ve been introduced to hand to hand combat and it’s much more complex than before, with a good parrying system.

15:15 - Haven’t gone any further with the story for now, but have just played darts. Again, it’s a fun little mini game. The interaction between characters is really strong in this game. When playing mini games the characters encourage each other and make comments relating to how well the other is doing. When dating in the game the characters have a short conversation after each date, which helps develop them and gives you the sense that they are getting to know each other.

So far the scale of the game seems huge. I’ve yet to even pick up a gun yet and I’m really enjoying it. The presentation is great: the graphics, the sound, the cutscenes. All of it comes together to build a fantastic first impression. I’m going to carry on with the game now, but this is the last entry of the play-by-play. I hope you’ve enjoyed reading my thoughts on the game, leave any questions in the comments.

First Impressions: Metal Gear Online Premier Beta

[Disclaimer: These are my first impressions of a game currently at the public beta testing stage. As such, this does not represent the final retail version of the game as it is still in development.]

As I never ventured into the world of online gaming with my PS2, this is the first online Metal Gear game I’ve played on a home console (although I do have experience of the multiplayer in Metal Gear: Portable Ops on the PSP). My first thoughts? Found it slightly weird at first, but now - it’s great. While the controls are awkward in places and the beta features some unfinished graphics, it is an excellent team based multiplayer, blending in stealth with the 3rd person action genre.

At the time of writing, the beta has three playable maps. Blood Bath is a small, square arena with three levels. It offers close and frequent combat with little option for stealth. Groznyj Grad returns as a location from MGS3 and is by far my favourite of the maps. It is large, good for sniping and then theirs the best part - ‘manpults’ (check out the official trailer for Metal Gear Online to see one in action, it’s the bit at the end). The most recently added map is Midtown Maelstrom. It is a middle-eastern setting with long alleyways that the two teams start at either end of. Their are also a few elevated positions.

The beta also comes with a variety of game play modes. You’ve got your standard deathmatch, team deathmatch, base capturing mission and capture the flag (just with a frog!?) like mission and then you have the exciting sneaking mission. When you jump into a sneaking mission match you have your standard two teams, red and blue, but one person is randomly chosen to play as Solid Snake. Yes, you can play as Snake in the beta. Snake’s mission is to retrieve three dogtags from other players by knocking them out and searching them for their tags. Meanwhile the two teams search for snake, aiming to take him down. Not an easy task considering Snake is equipped with his ‘octo-camo’ making him all but invisible when inactive. The two teams also fight against each other, creating a three way battle, similar to that promised in the single player portion of MGS4. If enough people are playing the sneaking mission (11 or more), then someone is chosen to aid Snake as the small Metal Gear Mk II, zapping unsuspecting players unconscious.

A big feature of Metal Gear Online is the SOP system. You ‘log in’ to it by pressing triangle near your team members. You are then linked in to them, seeing a red silhouette of them (including through walls) and are alerted if they are killed or knocked unconscious with a line indicating where they are in relation to you. If used properly, the system can greatly aid teamwork. One game I played had me and two team members all sniping from different locations in the Groznyj Grad level. We could all see each other, and were able to help out should we be alerted to one of us getting attacked. When searching below for a target, we would use the pre made voice commands to alert each other when we saw someone from the opposing team. Using our SOP link we could see where each other were aiming thanks to a red line. The others could then follow the line from the spotter, see where they were aiming and help take the enemy down. Moments like that really get you thinking about how fun it could be when played well.

As I mentioned before, my only real criticism is the controls. To get to a first person view, you have to press L1 to go third person, then triangle to go first person, which is too slow for my liking, particularly as I’m not a fan of the third person view. The weapon/item select menu system is standard for the Metal Gear Solid Series. It works fine in single player as the game pauses when you select your weapons, but obviously this can’t happen online and it just seems to take to long in the heat of battle. I had some issues using the choke mechanic, where I would often release the player when trying to aim my handgun and use them as a shield. Their are some anti-aliasing problems at the minute, as well as poor gun textures in first person view - hopefully issues that will be sorted by the time the game is officially released.

The game also features a skill system, allowing you to specialise your abilities, from improved weapon skills to better SOP sharing abilities. Rest assured that both cardboard boxes and oil drums feature in the beta. It’s surprising how often they actually work, as you watch enemies walk straight past you. The Midtown Maelstrom level offers large bins to hide in, allowing you to poke your head out for a sly shot.

If you’re a fan of Metal Gear you should enjoy the beta (and eventually the full game). Fans of team based multiplayer should also like it, providing they can get used to the controls and game mechanics. I do offer one warning though for those who want to try it. If you start playing after playing a lot of COD4 like I have, it will seem very slow at first, but you will get used to it.

Incoming!

Right now is a great time to be a gamer. Over the course of the next few days (and already, in fact) a few things are released, two of which will be covered on Turn on the System. They are:

Metal Gear Online Beta

The rumours are that the beta has finally launched in Europe and the US. I’m currently downloading the 1.02 update, and will be having a look as soon as that’s installed. My first impressions of the beta will be posted on the site in the next few days, so keep an eye out for that.

Grand Theft Auto IV

Apparently something big is happening on the 29th of April? That’s the rumour anyway. Look out for my thoughts on the game which I’ll be updating periodically on Tuesday (providing the release of GTAIV doesn’t break the postal service…). I’ll try my best to avoid any major spoilers, but they may crop up - consider yourselves forewarned!

Whichever games you’ll be playing this weekend/next week, have fun and don’t get too stressed out over deciding what to play! Now, the MGO beta or double xp on the new COD4 maps…

New Playstation Store Released

Today saw the release of firmware update 2.30 for the Playstation 3. This latest update includes improvements to the audio decoding capabilities of the PS3, but also the new and improved Playstation Store. The Store now works as an application installed on the machine, as opposed to the old web page that would be viewed using the browser.

The store was something that definitely needed improving. The main issue for me was the speed at which it could be navigated. The pages took a while to load and were then difficult to get around, not the best advertisement when trying to sell your products. Buying items off the store wasn’t too bad though, although I don’t think I’ll ever like the ‘imaginary money” systems used in modern console stores. If I’m paying by card, why can’t I just do it directly(!?!).

The new store has done well at keeping the things that worked well and changing those that didn’t. It loads quickly and the store top has a good category list. Moving from page to page is quick, and now you can go back a page at any time by hitting circle (did anyone else keep forgetting to use L1 instead of O in the old store to be confronted by ‘Do you want to leave the browser?’). The basket/checkout/paying system appears to be exactly the same as before, which works fine for me.

However, it is far from perfect as things stand. The items are still listed in the same categories before, which sometimes to me don’t seem like the best way the items could have been sorted. For example, if your looking for a game like MGS4, do you look in action/adventure or shooter. I wouldn’t describe it as the former, but a shooter - not really. Although the benefit is it does keep down the number of options by not including every sub-genre imaginable.

This isn’t the major issue though. Going into the store and the items load in their individual boxes, but the images that display them ‘at-a-glance’ either take forever to load or just plain don’t. This means that when searching for Guitar Hero III song packs you have to check every game item individually unless you wait for the images for all the items to load (provided they actually do). Hopefully this is something that will improve now the new store is available to everyone, perhaps in the next firmware update, although I think it’s something that could probably be done without requiring one.

The new store is a welcome, and much needed, improvement. While it still has some issues that need to be worked out, it’s still much better than it’s predecessor. Hopefully we’ll see it updated again soon, perhaps with in-game XMB support as well? Hey, it’s worth a try!

10 Things You Can Buy For £180 or Less That Aren’t Rock Band

• A Wii
• An Xbox 360 Arcade
• A PSP
• A DS
• 2 Playstation 2’s
• 4 Copy’s of GTA IV
• A Real Guitar
• Several Acres of The Moon
• 18000 Penny Sweets
• My Respect

Seriously, don’t pay £180 for Rock Band. I don’t care how good a game is, it’s still not good enough to justify that price, especially compared with the US.

Ratings Review Reviewed

Today saw the release of a report into the UK’s system for rating video games. The review was called for by then Prime Minister Tony Blair last year. The review calls for an overhaul of the current rating system. If you don’t want to read the full 224 page report in full (come on, who wouldn’t!), then the BBC’s news item can be found here.

Psychologist Dr. Tanya Byron (of TV fame) has said that she wants games to use the same ratings as films, rated by the BBFC. This seems quite logical, especially as one of her stated goals is to make a system that is less confusing to parents. The PEGI rating will remain on the back of the box, but it seems like giving full rating power to the PEGI system would have been a better option. Looking at my recent game purchases, the PEGI rating seems to sum up the content well. For example: Call of Duty 4 for PS3. It has a 16+ rating, citing language and violence as the reason. This gives a simple but accurate summary of any potentially objectionable content as well as a suitable age to match.

The problem as I see it is down to the parents. Having not grown up in a world where video games were so popular and numerous, they are, naturally, not familiar with games. So surely it is not about bringing games ratings to a level that is clearer to adults by using something familiar to them, but to educate them in the way current ratings work as they reflect games content better. While I don’t agree that because it’s a game violence, sex references etc. are worse than if they appeared in a film, but games clearly are different in content to films. Children shouldn’t be playing unsuitable games, and parents should be taking an active responsibility in ensuring this. Games have the PEGI website on them, which explains the system in depth on top of the explanation contained within the manuals. I also believe that people working in game stores have a responsibility to help parents in purchasing, and allowing their kids to purchase, suitable games.

Once again it seems as though the industry has been singled out, when a little education really would go a long way. The industry does try hard to protect children, this can be seen with the way parental controls can now be used on current generation systems. But again, their is little education about these things, and the industry itself, alongside the government, needs to further promote such features and educate parents on how to use them.

If you are a parent who wants to learn more about the content of games, then I recommend you head over to www.whattheyplay.com, a new site made to help educate parents about what their kids play.

Hello and welcome!

Hello and welcome to Turn on the System!

This is a blog about games from the point of view of a UK gamer. I’ll be blogging about games, mainly looking at news stories as they develop and potentially other things as well. This is very much a ‘blog-in-beta’ at the minute as I play with designs and the general feel of the blog, so expect changes over the next few days.