Grand Theft Auto
I offer this an explanation and apology for why there will be few blog posts in the coming weeks. Fewer hours spent with friends and family. And an increased number of times I reach for my weapon rather than discussing matters calmly.
Here’s the thing: I’ve never even played I-III. I’m more Tower Defense than blood-soaked crime epic. But through whatever subconscious memetic programming, I feel absolutely compelled to buy it and play it. Dude, check out the trailer
Because you’ll ask, I have a PS3
- The trailer is age-verified, but I’m not sure how or why. Considering I have Amazon Prime turned on, I obviously have a credit card, so it seems strange to ask for a birthdate. ↩
43 Responses to “Grand Theft Auto”
Leave a Reply
RSS feed for comments on this article.
Get a Gravatar. They're free and work on lots of different sites.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:09 am
prepare to say goodbye to society. oh and yes…you do need to play I-III
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:13 am
You’ve seen what World of Warcraft can do, so be ready to put your work and social life on hold over the coming weeks (or months).
I know I am.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:15 am
GTA I & II are really incidental and unnecessary, they’re practically a different game. Grand Theft Auto III is when the franchise, for all intents and purposes, started. While there does seem to be an ongoing storyline starting with that one, it’s unnecessary to know it when all you want to do is blow up cars and kill hookers.
That being said, I wasn’t a huge fan of Vice City, but San Andreas and the original were very good games.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:23 am
Perhaps this video game will lead to another script like WoW did for The Nines.
Personally, I’m a fan of the Rainbow Six Vegas series. Check out its trailer on Amazon.
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:30 am
For some reason it feels a bit odd to know that you play GTA John, haha.
I played the first two 2D-games a lot when I was younger and lost a few hours to GTA 3 but I haven’t really been convinced by GTA IV yet. I’m mostly playing Call of Duty 4 on the 360 at the moment but I need a new game soon so we’ll see if GTA manages to lure me in!
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:16 am
John,
Have you thought of writing a game? The GTA games tend to have sharp writing on the radio stations, not so great writing on the dialogue; game writing in general is pretty much a wasteland (exceptions would be Telltale Games and whatever Tim Schafer is currently working on). I don’t know if you’d see it as a step down from screenwriting, but I think the industry could use you.
I notice that the games you’ve written about so far have not had strong narratives (Tower Defense, World of Warcraft, and to some extent GTA are a bit like Dungeons and Dragons: you create your own game experience and story). Are there narrative-heavy games you’ve enjoyed in the past?
Also, you can see the trailer in high definition (WMV) here.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:17 am
As long as we’re pimping our favorite games, if you want a good afternoon killer, John, check out Portal from Valve. Will only take about 3-4 hours to play through, but it’s brilliant, and has enough bonus/advanced stuff once you’ve finished the game to make it worth the $20.00…
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:18 am
But the Waterford crackpipes are such high quality. I wouldn’t smoke my crack out of anything else.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:35 am
@Charlie:
Played through Portal. It’s sensational. The developers’ commentary is great, too.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:36 am
Hi John,
If you want to try another great Rockstar game, Bully (Scholarship Edition) is highly recommended.
Another open-ended GTA-type game, where you play a kid in a prep school.
Colorful, well-fleshed out environment, with great characters and missions.
I am utterly impressed, most of all, by the writing. The quality of the dialogue beats a fair number of movies I’ve seen.
April 22nd, 2008 at 10:42 am
It’s all about the sports games, John (NBA Ballers came out yesterday!).
Anyway: came here to see if you were talking about what I read in EW this week, John Favreau mentioning the polish you did on the Iron Man script. Any insider-y stuff you can possibly share?
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:19 am
Seriously? GTA IV? Respect -1, Mr. August!
(I’d buy a Dual Shock though. You want your hands shaking when you go postal on civilians. For your conscience.)
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:34 am
There’s one game and one game only - HALO.
Nothing compares.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:35 am
@ 6′9″:
I really liked the Iron Man script, and Jon, so I was happy to help out during a tumultuous period pretty close to production. Small things that needed to get done, but nothing deserving credit. I haven’t seen the movie, but my expectations are set really high.
April 22nd, 2008 at 11:58 am
I wrote a script, then recorded GTA Vice City gameplay for the actors/locations. I found a free text-to-speech engine so they could speak. No humans were used (aside from me).
http://youtube.com/watch?v=3DxaKpU1Uas
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:34 pm
I used to play GTA when it was still a bird’s eye view 2D-thing… very funny in comparison to today’s GTA games. The last GTA I “spent time watching” was GTA 80s - it was a way cool… it let you upload your own music and everything is very 80s in a somewhat Miami Vice style.
April 22nd, 2008 at 12:53 pm
John,
I’m glad you wrote about this because I wanted to email in a question about whether you’d consider penning a script for a game. As Mr. Dessem already asked about that, I’ll just agree with him that the industry does indeed need someone of your caliber to spruce up the games of the world. ( I say that as a consumer of games, and not just as an old friend. )
I personally, am looking forward to the multiplayer for GTA IV as well as the
single player campaign.
If you hadn’t heard news about what multiplayer is like, you can read about it here.
April 22nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm
John,
Sorry to hear about your retirement.
Looking forward to your comeback.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:05 pm
This is completely fine with me, John, since I’ve already reserved my Special Edition copy and will be too busy to read this blog.
As for those hating on the 2D versions, they were fun as hell. Not as open or technologically advanced, but fun nonetheless. And if they weren’t any good, there would be no GTA 3 or 4.
This game looks incredible, though. It’s already got people calling it the best game ever.
I guess my copy of NBA 2K8 is about to get pretty dusty.
April 22nd, 2008 at 3:14 pm
This GTA trailer is much better. The UK version. Check it out, John.
http://youtube.com/watch?v=V1Zc1mCNFpE
April 22nd, 2008 at 5:00 pm
john-
i’m sure you’re very busy these days
but a couple hours spent with GTA: San Andreas before Tues
would help familiarize your with the GTA world/gameplay so you can hit the ground running…unless starting totally cold is one of the things you like about gaming
And, yes, you should get the Dual Shock.
You’ve earned it.
-tm
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:08 pm
Based on your posts about Warcraft and Dungeons & Dragons, I would have figured you were into The Legend of Zelda type games. More epic, fantasy adventure & a little less molotov cocktail in the face.
April 23rd, 2008 at 3:22 am
Way to go, John!
I hope you are a fan of the Metal Gear Solid saga too, because the fourth chapter will be the killer application for the PS3!
And if you are not, I suggest you ti give it a try, for the sheer narrative power, if nothing else.
And yes, the fact that you own a PS3 makes you more awesome than ever un my eyes.
Cheers!
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:27 am
Enjoy John. You will never write a word again.
I fear buying it. I’m already mainlining Gears Of War. Wait until GOWII comes out later this year. I just want to take the time now to apologize to my newborn son.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:07 am
You and everyone else but me, it seems. I steer clear of the GTA games for probably poor personal moral reasons (hey, we all need to have some morals, and I don’t have many left to talk about). Do provide us with an indication that you’re alive now and again, and maybe let us know what your view on the writing is.
There seems to be a greater focus on brain power when it comes to a lot of writing for games lately. Before you disappear into the void, John, could you point out other games that you’ve played that you thought were well written?
(My personal favourite in recent years was Okami, which was brilliant and looked marvelous.)
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:15 am
By all estimates, this should give me approximately 16-24 hours of a head start on John August, thanks to the immersive worlds and rich game experience that is GTA.
Speaking of which, John, have you heard of a game called Jewel Quest? I hear it’s quite thrilling…rubs hands together
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:30 am
John,
Two words.
Lego Batman.
April 23rd, 2008 at 11:45 am
Never mind GTAIV I just played Desktop TD for the first time and lost two hours of my life. It may have been two years. My kids look older.
April 23rd, 2008 at 2:54 pm
Welcome to GTA World, John - guess this is the last post we can expect from you for a while! I don’t have a next-gen machine yet (still on the PS2 due to financial issues) so I’ll have to grind my teeth and wait. You should check out GTA: Vice City though - it’s got a wonderful vibe to it, excellent cast and jokes, and there really is nothing like flying a helicopter casually to the sound of Wang Chung’s “Dance Hall Days”.
@ Kevin Arbouet - oh yes, I cannot wait for Lego Batman. Or Lego Indy. The Star Wars games set me wanting to watch the movies (original trilogy, natch) again in a way I haven’t felt since I was six.
As far as I’m concerned, every movie & TV show should be done in Lego. My own personal vote - Lego Deadwood.
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:05 pm
Honestly, I loved Vice City a lot. Then I went out and bought San Andreas when it came out and TOTALLY lost interest in a few days.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:40 pm
Be careful, John.
Vice City sucked up so much of my life that I’ve vowed never to own a GTA game again…
Have fun, and don’t forget to see the sun in person once in awhile…it gets mighty easy to just watch it from a window when you’re killing hookers.
April 24th, 2008 at 7:09 am
If you’re the kind of person who finds rumble actually adds to the majority of your gaming experience, then you probably want to pick up a DS3.
I’ve always found rumble to be a gimmick myself, with few exceptions. MGS1, and maybe racing games (but too much can actually mess up your hands like some kid in England did).
I usually turn off rumble because I don’t need something extra screwing my aim up.
As for GTA IV, get ready to say goodbye to your life and work for a few weeks. And my god, multiplayer (Cops and Robbers, especially) sounds amazing.
I wouldn’t bother with the other GTA’s unless you want to get a feel for the series, but a lot has supposedly been changed/improved in IV, so you’re probably better off just waiting for GTA IV. Once you get into IV, you probably won’t be able to go back.
It recently dawned on me, that games, more so than movies, are able to do big budget, mature, and adult-oriented situations that mainstream films shy away from or can’t do because of the ratings system/market minds. GTA IV could be a great example of this, if they manage to pull it off.
April 25th, 2008 at 3:22 pm
I too can’t wait for GTA IV. It’s going to be amazing.
IGN.com gave it a 10/10 !!
April 25th, 2008 at 5:36 pm
As someone who enjoys your writing and finds your blog helpful, I hope you remember one of the messages behind The Nines.
April 25th, 2008 at 10:32 pm
I have no idea what a Waterford crack pipe is. So I googled it and found… this post. Something to do with Amy Winehouse I guess.
April 29th, 2008 at 12:11 pm
So John, how’s the game? I know asking you to break away is probably not realistic right now. lol
April 29th, 2008 at 3:27 pm
I played a few hours of GTA4 today, and I’m pretty impressed. The scale and attention to detail are really amazing. If any PS3 GTA4 players (including our host) want to challenge me to some writer on writer violence, my PSN id is Whither. C’mon ya’ll!
I’d be interested to see a post and discussion in comments on the merits of the narrative. One critic I read said it’s The Godfather of video games. I think that’s outrageous. It doesn’t hold a candle to The Godfather in my opinion, but so far there have been a couple scenes where the writing and voice acting have been, well… really exceptional as far as video games go. Much better than the tell-don’t-show, heavy-handed, and over-acclaimed BioShock, at least.
There’s a scene relatively early on where the protagonist and a woman are talking about how their pasts altered their views of God that surprised me with its subtlety and poignancy — for a video game. And the protagonist is fully three dimensional (and not just in the graphical sense)! That might be a first in video game history, excepting a small number of RPGs.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:30 pm
Played GTA IV all day today.
I’ve already wasted enough time on this post. Talk to you in about a month.
April 29th, 2008 at 10:52 pm
@Samuel Axon:
I’m with you, man, great writing for a video game ≠ The Godfather. I’d be down for some multiplayer with other writers, though I’m still getting the hang of single player (the physics of walking feels very different than the last GTA). My PSN name is Joe_Gillis.
April 30th, 2008 at 2:03 pm
I played it last night for a few hours. The braking controls are obnoxious (for Xbox 360, anyway), and being that I started the game, and had a date and took her bowling (in the game) all with $7 in my pocket, whilst obeying traffic laws so as not to freak her out… well, it feels a little too close to real life.
April 30th, 2008 at 3:58 pm
It’s really effin’ good. I’m only a tiny ways in — I went on the same bowling date.
I kind of hate Roman’s car. But otherwise, it’s really impressive.
May 1st, 2008 at 1:31 am
John:
There are a gazillion other cars in the game! Just steal another one!!
By the way, I love how you REALLY have to look two ways before you cross the street. I’ve been subsequently mowed down a total of 5 times.
May 1st, 2008 at 8:19 pm
I made it into Manhattan!!!