GTA IV is... different than the other GTA's.

For one, I actually sat down and played this one start to finish. Finished it tuesday of this week. I've never done that with a GTA before, so it must have been something special.

Two, being that Niko is constantly in a moral dilemma with what he's doing. To him, it comes down as his only way to survive, and even then he has an issue with it. Combine that with the ingame choices you get to execute/walk away from a couple of targets you have in the game, you get a character that resembles probably the best anti-hero of the series.

Its good to see it get some positive media attention, after all the negativity R* is used to.

Komrade_Kayce

@Raziel Dune: He wanted it more ghetto?? He should give San Andreas a try then!

excel_excel

As far as the car controls go, I like being able to actually drive this time. Although it is a bit of hassle to switch control schemes as often as the GTA franchise (Don't get me started on drive-by shooting in San Andreas for Xbox), the changes for the driving in GTA4 make it possible to drive like you're sober.

Zero_Beat

Calling it a "carnival of violence" only makes it sound more fun.

TheDoomer

@YUYU: When he was with the real gang, he didn't actually kill anyone, steal cars, etc., I guess?

I liked his last idea -- make revenge MMO's out of other RL scenarios. There's someone or some group we'd all like to go after. Me and my BFF have always wanted to lead a gang to whack Martha Stewart.

Evil Tortie's Mom

His suggestions sound great. Personally, I think some kind of gang campaign would be awesome for multiplayer, and not necessarily limited to only an MMO.
Create factions that players can work with and earn ranks -- but at a slower pace than "gang wars" to allow for more organization.

Arttemis

@excel_excel: BA ZING!

but seriously does that mean he likes it? ;)

Raziel Dune

"a carnival of violence, deceit, and cruelty that makes you slightly nauseated after playing for only a few hours"
HEY!! thats what I feel like after a few hours of Halo 3 online!

excel_excel

*A real gang, I mean.

YUYU

So basically he... likes it??

Im not sure. :S

flukielukie

If he got nauseated after only a few hours with GTA, how'd he handle running with a real one?

Just sayin'.

YUYU

I seem to remember reading about this guy in one of those 'popular economics' books. 'Freakanomics' I think it was called.

This guy (pretty sure it's the same one) went to the 'boss' and offered to pay him if he let him hang around and let him see how the gang was structured.

Wrote some pretty interesting things if I remember correctly, about how the whole thing was organised like some coporation.

I also remember him saying that he thinks they only trusted him because he wasn't white, and if he was he reckoned they probably would have killed him.

Good to hear he's still alive I guess.

evilboy

@evilboy: I missed that.

Vibhorsir

Is this the same guy Freakanomics?

Vibhorsir

@Evil Tortie's Mom: That's what he wants you to think

YUYU

Yeah but there's a difference between the two.

One lands you in prison, and the other gives Jack Thompson another gray hair.

Covert_Knight

for a second there, I thought it said Scientologist. and I was about to make a tom cruise joke.

Grimmjow Jeagerjaques

[en.wikipedia.org]

Yeah, this is the same guy mentioned in Freakanomics. Awesome dude.

PratzStrike

"remember he's writing for a Slate audience."

hmm, I guess you don't read slate very often.

hermes520

Poverty and Gangs. It is remarkable how often the two coincide.

I_fit_in

I thought Carcer City was more like Pittsburgh or a city close to New York given the report in GTAIII.

I also thought that - as I clicked the abridged article name in the RSS feed list - that he thought it would be less sensational than the other games in the series. In which case I recommend he wait for the San Andreas edition...

Frank

the way i read it, professor venkatesh is saying that gta4 is LESS sensational than the portrayals of gang activity promoted by "most cops, politicians, policymakers, and even academics."
the head-line kind of makes it seem like gta4 is actually not sensational at all, which is strange since it is a blockbuster piece of entertainment.
he's saying that gta4 is more accurate to real crime than how other mainstream sources portray it, but still sensationalized. real crime cannot be sensationalized because it's actually how it is, im pretty sure thats the definition of real.

buttpwner

Not to pick but blowing a helicopter out of the sky while in a boat using a rocket launcher seems pretty sensationalized to me.

That point aside, I thought the game did go for a very realistic feel. It felt at times like that would happen in that scenario, as law enforcement is much more aggressive, as are your allies.

kylo4

@buttpwner: Right... he's basically saying that the cops and media have gotten so paranoid in their portrayals of crime lately that GTAIV actually seems mild compared to what we're being told by these other, more respected sources.

That doesn't mean GTAIV is less "sensational than real crime". It means its less sensationalistic than the portrayal of the crime problem in mainstream media and from official sources. Two very different points there.

The ironic thing is that this point is hammered home repeatedly in the game itself, with Weazel News and whatnot focusing so heavily on terrorism and crime, and this vague undercurrent of anti-immigrant feeling running through all the crime stories on the radio and on the Liberty Tree.

badasscat

I always thought of Carcer City as similar to Detroit. But maybe I only feel that way because I'm from that area. And when I say "area" I mean the suburbs north of the Metro area. That burnt out industrial look of Manhunt always felt oddly familiar.

Anyway, I get the feeling that Sudhir never got that far in the game. That's the only explanation I can come up with, because there's no way someone can finish "Three Leaf Clover" with out thinking it's 11 different kinds of excitement.

GunSavior

Is this the same guy mentioned in the book, "Freakonomics"?

PissedPS3Fan

This post's headline is more or less antithetical to point made by Sudhir Venkatesh. He is saying GTAIV is more representative of real crime than is typical of popular culture, not less.

'It's still "a carnival of violence, deceit, and cruelty that makes you slightly nauseated after playing for only a few hours"'

Yeah, I found that quote a bit baseless and sensational, as well. There is obviously violence, but cruelty and deceit? Vacuous word-filler.

Leviticus

I've always wanted to see the 3D Carcer city, it's the hub of crime in GTA, pretty sure it's supposed to be Chicago too.

I think the man has got a point too. GTAIV feels a lot more realistic although when he syas it gets nauseating I think he was talking about all that fuzziness in the graphics and that horrible popup that makes a whole piller pop into view just as you hit it.

MasterDex

Gamer finds GTA IV less sensational than "GTA: SA"

The missions were the worst part of GTA:SA.

And of course they focus on what they're good at.. the missions. Leaving out a ton of other stuff.

Scuba Steve

@Komrade_Kayce: "GTA IV is... different than the other GTA's."

I didn't realize how true this was until just yesterday. See, I just came back from a visit to Montreal to see the fam, and unfortunately, due to some scheduling difficulties, I had to leave my copy of GTA IV with my brother. Last night I sat down to play GTA: SA.

I had never realized just how wooden and crummy the animation, driving, etc are until I went from playing 4 to playing the other ones.

As I sat there, playing, I couldn't believe I had once played through the entire game. Make no mistake, I still fucking love SA for the sheer over-the-top qualities of the game; it's just that until last night, I really didn't get what people were saying when they said the animation was shit.

Fuck, is GTA IV ever great. I want mine back, dammit!

PlayerX

Maybe if GTA IV was more sensational than "real crime" then maybe we would see more of a decline in violent crimes.

godzira

@PlayerX: Agreed. After reading your post, I just fired up GTA:SA on my PC to see exactly how the new GTA4 mechanics have changed my perception to the older titles.

At first, when my game loaded and I ran outside of CJ's house, the game didn't seem very different at all. The landscape still looked decent, and considering over half the cars in my game are modded to higher quality realistic versions, they looked fine as well.
The driving, however, is ridiculous. I hopped in a car and found myself stopping from full speed in a mere several yards, and ended up crashing into building after building as I began using the hand break and turning entirely too early.
I used to think the game was somewhat accurate (I don't know how), but now it just looks like a video of the Keystone Cops, with cars taking turns at 200% speed.

I really look forward to getting a PC version of GTA4, though, just like I have been with all previous GTAs. My computer's been in need of an upgrade for a while, and maybe that will finally cause me to take the plunge.

Arttemis