Features » Editor's Corner »

We’ve all been watching the hoopla surrounding Grand Theft Auto IV this week. Heck, you can’t avoid watching it. It’s everywhere.

Like most of you, I made my way over to a local retailer Tuesday and picked up my copy. I brought it home, sat through the 4GB install on my PS3, and then leapt in. Judging from the perfect scores that have been thrown at this game like panties at a Wayne Newton concert, I expected to be completely blown away.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t. In fact, I was amazed how much like the previous editions of GTA it was. Now, I’m not one for messing up a good thing. The truth is that I like GTA IV, just as I’ve enjoyed previous iterations of the series. The problem is that it’s receiving perfect scores for a less than perfect game.

Grand Theft Auto IV is basically GTA III with a new character, a lot more voice acting, and an admittedly stunning graphics makeover. It really does little to nothing new, and leaves me wondering if perhaps the preview copies came with some sort of awesome swag we should know about.

This is why I distrust rating systems for games. Games like GTA IV (and Halo 3, etc…) are hyped into the stratosphere, given perfect scores, and then at release are found to be good, but not the shining gem of perfection we were all led to expect. Why can’t people just be content to say something like, “Wow, this game is pretty good, and it’s fun, but it’s really just the same old GTA again. I’d give it a nine.”

No, they have to spout off about how glorious it is, and wax eloquent about its majesty, only to leave us who didn’t play it prior to release feeling somehow slighted by the actual game we receive. Therein lies the tragedy: A good game leaves the gamer feeling somehow cheated because he isn’t experiencing the rapture the previewer obviously did.

Let me reassure you that GTA IV is a good game, even an excellent one. It’s just not perfect, and therefore, not a ten.

If you found this story interesting, why not subscribe to our RSS feed to get your daily fix of gaming news?

Everybody who has ever played a video game can attest to the fact that the majority of the female characters in them are usually not horrid beasts whose appearance is so revolting that you want to gouge your eyes out. Usually, if a female character is insulting to our senses it is because they are either a zombie, some sort of enemy we are suppose to detest or they are the overly plump mother figure. The heroines, or the damsels in distress are usually pretty easy on the eyes – for a pixilated figure – and the fandom that surrounds Lara Croft, for example, can attest to this.For years on end, men have had their Dead or Alive chicks, Lara, the Final Fantasy babes, any female in Soul Calibur, and pretty much the whole gambit of scantily clad women in the RPG genre. This has always been okay with me, because I am not a prude and I understand that developers and the demographic that they cater too are mostly male. Men like to look at voluptuous women oozing with sexuality that can handle a broadsword with as much tender loving care as they would a helpless kitten. It is a scientific fact that men are stimulated visually when it comes to the opposite sex – therefore, if a game developer wants to include a female character in a game that wears nothing more than a thong, pasties, thigh-high boots and fishnet stockings – go for it! It does not offend me in the slightest.

I do however, have one request from developers: Why not make your main protagonists just as easy on the eyes as the women? I am not asking you to put them in a codpiece or have them in costumes that make them look like nothing more than a reject from a Village People casting call. I am not even asking for you to make them “really, really, ridiculously good-looking”. I just think it would be wonderful to have nice looking men who are just as easy on the eyes as their pixilated female counterparts. Handsome heroes in video games are few and far between and while Duke Nukem may be a bad ass, his resemblance to Howie Long only disgusts us to be quite honest. Solid Snake may be one of the most awesome heroes of his genre, but he is no Sam Elliot.

Because of the lack of hunky men in video games, I set out to find some that I personally though might fit the “handsome” mold. I shared my findings with some female friends who are also gamers, and they agreed with me on my selections. With more and more women taking up gaming as a hobby, if you are going to include a hot chick, make her counterpart just as hot. I have picked some of the hunkiest gaming heroes that have so far graced our TV screens, and while there are not that many, the ones I have chosen – to me anyway – are the ones who are easiest on the eyes.

Read the full article

By the time this is posted, most of us will already have a copy of GTA IV in our hands. Ah, don’t ya just love that new game smell? I know I do, and nothing is more delicious to the senses than unwrapping a video game that you just KNOW is going to be worth the wait and the cost. All the hype aside, the GTA series has never disappointed us, because we always get what is advertised - the same heaping helping of vicarious, antisocial behavior that we would never be caught dead doing in public. Every time a new GTA game is released, we know what is inside the packaging only the storyline and graphics get better every year.Another thing we have come to expect with a new GTA game, is the controversy surrounding it – and this year, GTA IV was no exception. Between the back and forth from both the EA camp and the Take-Two camp, the irrelevant lawyers sending hateful letters to corporate Mothers, and the rating debacle in Australia – this year was basically just like any other year. Full of GTA drama.

This past Friday night, I had a few of my female friends over for a little pow-wow, and while we were enjoying our many pitchers of Sangria, our topic of conversation turned to gaming. You see, I have only a handful of female friends, the rest are all male, and each section of my peer world is drastically different. My male friends are all hardcore gamers; the majority of my female pals cannot really be considered gamers, save for one. Yeah, sure, they play video games – but not on a daily basis like I do, and they most definitely do not live and breathe this form of entertainment quite the way I do.

Anyway, back to the subject here, our slightly drunken conversation turned to gaming, which eventually led us to the topic of GTA IV coming out. In my half-lit stupor, I decided to record the conversation for posterity and transcribe it the best I could for you, dear readers. However, before I get to the strange tête-à-tête between drunken women, let me give you a bit of background on each one of them.

Read the full article

Earlier in the month, Jenni Lada over on Gamertell listed eight great video game role models for women. Jenni’s main focus was on the RPG genre, and while I thought her list was fantastic I thought it would be great to compile a more comprehensive list that would span all gaming genres. Not knocking her post in anyway, I promise - it actually inspired what I set out to do with my own. So a hearty thanks goes out to Jenni for inspiring me.

Lara Croft and Samus Aran, in my opinion are overly exalted in gamer’s eyes and many other female gaming characters could and should be considered better role models than some. Usually female characters in games can be put into the same category of those Dead or Alive girls - of course, they are not meant to be role-models but are instead the video game equivalent of soft-core porn. What I would like draw attention to, are the unheralded female heroines that grace our PCs and consoles that seem to always get the short end of the stick when it comes to being adulated by the gaming masses.

Here, in my opinion are great female role models in gaming and while this list omits many that should get the acknowledgement they deserve, they can’t all be listed - so if you feel I omitted anyone, please feel free to mention said “wonder woman” in the comments section.

Read the full article

So, as a World of Warcraft player and a person who follows the gaming world fairly closely, I tend to read a lot of forums. With the upcoming 2.4 content patch currently on the Public Test Realms (hereafter referred to as PTR), the WoW Test Realm Forum (found here) is a great place to see how players are liking the upcoming content and class changes.

Judging from the forum posts I have seen, one of the more controversial changes coming in the 2.4 patch is the removal of attunements for the Mount Hyjal and Black Temple 25-man raid instances, and the introduction of gear that can be purchased with Badges of Justice that is on par with Hyjal/Black Temple drops. At first glance, the non-MMO player would wonder why this, of all things, would be a point of contention. Personally, I wonder what mindset makes players think this is a bad idea.

Read the full article