To: Crecente From: Luke Re: Interviews, Interviews, Interviews
Say, did you know GTA IV is now on sale? You may have noticed. And I don’t know about you, but I’m suffering from a nasty case of GTA fatigue. Both literally and figuratively. Seems all I’ve done over the past two days is either write about GTA IV or play GTA IV. Don’t get me wrong. The game is amazing. It’s the ice cream of this season’s gaming menu. But a man cannot survive on ice cream alone…
Here’s what you missed: Wait, GTA IV Is Locking Up? 360 GTA IV Is Region-Locked GTA IV PS3/Xbox 360 Comparison Video Halo, So Pretty Immigrant Welfare Group Criticises GTA IV Konami Adds Stuff To Metal Gear Online
Lines, lines, everywhere are lines.
Good morning and welcome to Grand Theft Auto IV’s official launch day. The game is, as Rockstar just emailed us to say, now available worldwide. So far, from what we’ve seen, had tipped to us and read elsewhere, it looks like the game’s various overnight launches were mostly problem free. Sure there was the occasional bit of shoving, and boredom, but nothing serious.
Down on the Wii version of Ghostbusters, are you? Think it’s too casual, too cartoony for your tastes? That’s because you’re not in possession of all the facts. Red Fly – the dev team behind the Wii/PS2 version of the game – have said that in the Wii version, you’ll be able to wirelessly connect your DS to the Wii and…use it as a PKE Meter. For real! As real as a full-torso apparition! And just as amazing. Ghostbusters allows you to connect DS to Wii as PKE meter [VG247]
During my marathon session with Grand Theft Auto IV earlier this month I played through the game on an Xbox 360, then switched over to the PS3. I couldn’t notice much of a difference visually. The 360 seemed to have a bit more pop-in, but also seemed a tad cleaner looking, but I only noticed the latter by going back and forth between the TVs, which were set up side-by-side. Really, I didn’t see anything of huge note. Now you can see for yourself how they compare.
Web clearance joint OverStock Dealz are, *ahem*, overstocked with 360 HD-DVD drives. You’re no doubt aware why. So they’re offloading them for the ridiculous price of $US30 a pop. I only post this because, well, $32 is a steal, and with HD-DVD movies also at rock-bottom prices there are worse ways to blow a rainy weekend than stocking up on obsolete high-definition movie discs and indulging in the shiny future that never was. MICROSOFT XBOX 360 HD DVD Player [OverStock Dealz, thanks Rob!]
What’s that you say? GTA IV’s only been out for a few hours, and already the internet’s decided that both the PS3 and 360 versions are broken? That’s what many forums – as well as many of our readers – would have you believe, with reports of the game locking up during/following the game’s first cutscene, an error so severe you apparently have to unplug your console at the wall. Shades of Bully on 360, perhaps? Maybe this is a problem, maybe it’s a squeaky wheel getting a whole month’s worth of grease at once, who knows. Not us. We’re asking Rockstar. And until we hear back from them, you all should remain calm.
Mario & Sonic, Brain Training, Wii Play, yes, yes, this all looks in order. Business as usual. Oh, except for that top-selling game. Wii Fit it’s called, you say? Hrm. That’s new. Though glancing at the other Nintendo games on these charts, and then at the British chats over the past 18 months, one surely can’t be too surprised to see it debut at the top, hrm, eh, what?
1) Wii Fit 2) Mario Kart Wii 3) Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (Wii) 4) GT5 Prologue 5) Brain Training 6) Sega Superstars Tennis (Wii) 7) Game Party (Wii) 8) Pro Evo 2008 (Wii) 9) Mario & Sonic at the Olympics (DS) 10) Wii Play
[British Individual-Format Sales Carts courtesy of ChartTrack]
This won’t be terribly useful to Americans or PS3 owners, but anyone in Europe looking to score a cheap imported copy of GTA IV (or anyone in Australia looking to score the uncensored American version) should know that the 360 version of the game’s been region-locked by the publisher. I only point this out because, over the past twelve months, nearly every single major 360 release has been region-free, meaning Take-Two joins MTV (ie Rock Band) as two of the last publishers to still make the decision to restrict the international sale of their games. GTA IV: Region locked [CVG]
It’s not “legit” in that its licensed by Nintendo or anything, but since most of Nintendo’s patents relating to the NES lapsed between 2003-2005, it is guaranteed to be lawsuit-free. This is the FC Mobile, a handheld gaming system selling for $US40 which plays real NES carts. Like, the ones you have in that dusty box under your old bed at your parent’s house. No modding, no dodgy imports (console excepted), no hassle. Oh, except it runs on AA batteries. Guess that’s a slight hassle. FC Mobile Portable NES, Because One Screen Was Once Enough [Gizmodo]
What makes a great game launch? Some would say simply getting a highly coveted game like Grand Theft Auto IV into the hands of hungry gamers is enough, but to some of us a launch night means more than that. To some, big-name game launches are like mini gaming conventions, where we can swap stories, bitch about the way the store is handling things, and speculate on how much sleep we’ll be losing over the next couple of days. Or, it can just be a line of people waiting. I attended two different midnight launches at GameStop tonight and got a healthy dose of both sorts of events, just 10 miles apart.
