Grand Theft Auto IV unleashed

There are many happy people out there today. They’re happy because the long wait for the next Grand Theft Auto is over. GTA 4 is now available for the Xbox and Playstation game consoles.

Developed by Rockstar North, and distributed by Take-Two Interactive, GTA 4 is the ninth release of this hugely popular title, and the first of its “fourth generation”. This reworked and ‘new’  generation of GTA’s features a new environment (modeled on NY city) and has graphics and gameplay that the gaming magazines and review sites are giving their highest scores. (Some have called the game “nearly perfect”.)
IGN rated the game a 10 out of 10 in nearly every category, and awarded it its Editor’s Choice… and a reviewer says, “Every facet of Rockstar’s new masterpiece is worthy of applause.”
It is Rated M (for mature).

* This will put parents in a tough spot– your kid will want this game.. really, really badly.

You may have heard of “Grand Theft Auto”.. the name may be ringing some bells. Why? Because Grand Theft Auto (particularly the title San Andreas) is the poster child for video games being too violent, leading to the erosion of civic morality, and being a cause of the increase in crime.
Grand Theft Auto has been called a “murder simulator”.. and “How to be a gangster 101”. When some ultra-Right winger calls for the banning of video games, they invariably trot out Grand Theft Auto– San Andreas as their cause célèbre… and point out that in the game, you gain points for killing policemen.

* If you’re a parent, and you have a kid not old enough to buy this game themselves, and they’re begging you to get it for them, they will show you articles about how Rockstar has changed its ways and toned all this down in GTA IV. Such as, “it’s gone legit. Oh sure, you’ll still blow up cop cars, run down innocent civilians, bang hookers, assist drug dealers and lowlifes and do many, many other bad deeds, but at a cost to main character Niko Bellic’s very soul. GTA IV gives us characters and a world with a level of depth previously unseen in gaming and elevates its story from a mere shoot-em-up to an Oscar-caliber drama.” (from IGN)

Folks, I have not played any of the GTA series; they simply haven’t appealed to me. I am not going to label it “good” nor “bad”. I will tell you this, GTA 4 is expected to set new records for game sales.

I am not going to tell you how to raise your child.

I am not going to speculate, nor debate, whether there’s too much violence and realism in video games.. and whether or not this has some detrimental psychological effect on those who play them.

I am just going to say this: in this particular instance, there are very good reasons why there’s a “Rated M” on the box.

Today’s free link: for those of you who need to replace the expired “trial” antivirus, and want a free replacement, Avira AntiVir Personal Edition is a good choice (if for some reason you’re not happy with the new AVG, for instance).

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved. post to jaanix

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Blu-ray disc “wins”, X-Box owners lose

It seems appropriate for me to take a moment to discuss the things in life that really matter. Today I’m going to talk about how gigantic corporations affect your life.. or, maybe not.. I haven’t decided yet.

All over, in all the info-tainment media (those folks who pass themselves off as “the news”) has been the headline that Blu-ray has won “the format wars”. (Yes, folks–there’s been a format war going on this whole time!) The info-tainment geniuses, future-predictors, and PR shills (aka “reporters”) also tell us that it was Target’s announcement of its decision to stock only Blu-ray that ended the war and sealed HD-DVD‘s fate.
Wrong.

The fact is, Microsoft recognized that their Halo 3 blackmail got just about as many of their mediocre Xbox 360’s sold this Christmas as they were ever going to sell, that nobody was buying the HD-DVD “add-on” box, and are (probably) pulling out of the competition.. In essence, surrendering to the PS3 and the Wii (Sony and Nintendo). It was Microsoft that was keeping the HD-DVD format in the picture, so that it could compete with Sony’s PS3 which was enormously (outrageously?) expensive because it included a (proprietary) Blu-ray drive, and MS figured they needed a Hi Def drive too.
The real winner — and the sales figures tell you why — was Nintendo and the Wii (fun, affordable, and not crud.) And, (this is a hoot) the PlayStation 2 sold more units last Christmas than the X-Box or the PS3.

So yes, folks, there was a “war” being waged, but it wasn’t a disc format war, it was a game console war.

Why should you care about any of this? Well, let’s review a little: HD-DVD and Blu-ray are both laser-written disc formats.  For the computer user, this primarily means storage (recording); and for the movie watcher, this means making sure you bring home “the ‘right’ kind”.

Let me first deal with the folks who care because it is what the movies they buy/rent come on, and get them out of the way. Have you asked yourself, why are you even dealing with discs? Can’t you get “Premium” Channels? (I realize some can’t.. or won’t.) Is pay-per-view too convenient? If you have broadband, there’s also IPTV. There’s TiVo. There’s Netflix and iTunes. Before very long, all entertainment “content” is going to be provided “on demand”.. movies, your favorite shows, the “news”, all of it. Download and view, or watch it “streamed”. The discs are already obsolete. You’re going to be storing your shows on hard drives.. if you aren’t already. When On-demand reaches us adequately.. we won’t even store it at all.

For computer users, the keyword is “storage” and (1st generation) Blu-ray can hold 50 Gigs to HD-DVD’s 30: a no-brainer. HD-DVD allowed me to “skin” my face over Harrison Ford’s so I can make it look like I’m piloting the Millennium Falcon??? Pleeeease.
But since we often need to backup more than 50 GBs, and you can get 750GB hard-drives for much less than a Blu-ray burner (which also write faster)…
The technology could have and should have come out 5-7 years ago.

All the media attention to this topic adds up to much ado about nothing (including this article). Both formats were obsolete before they even got started. And I blame the gaming console… and I think it’s worth repeating– the older PlayStation 2 out-sold both of the newer consoles!
Who knew Target had so much power?

*To any dedicated journalist out there: I wasn’t referring to you, but to those other guys.

[update: I read that last month in Japan, the Wii sold 331,627 consoles, the PS3 89,131 (¼ as many), and the Xbox… 14,079.]

Copyright 2007-8 © Tech Paul. All rights reserved.

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