Going in to my time with Star Wars The Force Unleashed, I figured the best the game could do was recapture the fun of playing Star Wars: Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II on a console.

While The Force Unleashed pushes the graphics and, to some degree, the AI, forward, the experience of playing Unleashed was, as I had hoped, fairly similar to the hours of time I sank into Dark Forces II.

The game was enjoyable, at times a blast to play, but nothing that is going to shake the rock solid formula crafted by Dark Forces II.

Note: This is excerpted from a review I attempted to write, but pulled back as I didn't complete the game. Some of you asked if I was willing to share my opinion of the game anyway. Last week, Brian reminded me of the strict conditions we have to do a full review, which are as much to protect the site's credibility as the writer's. But he also said that impressions are still fair game if the game hasn't been completed. I haven't, probably won't and with that caveat, here are some thoughts on The Bourne Conspiracy. It is not a full review and it's a month after the game's release. Take it for what you will.

From the Good Ideas Division at Rockstar Games comes new Grand Theft Auto IV branded swag that's sure to get the game violence wonks in a lather. Popular Mechanics bloggers were on the optimal end of an aluminium baseball bat recently, something they wanted to show off. No word if that's fake blood or just sloppy calzone eating. Now, the mailman has already come to my house, but perhaps Rockstar has dispatched these via UPS or DHL. They always run a bit late.

You know, I actually live in a sketchy neighbourhood, Rockstar bat-givers. If I'm assaulted by a local vagrant, you'll have my blood on your hands. Just a thought.

GTA IV Baseball Bat Moves Gaming Violence From Couch to the Streets [Popular Mechanics]

Wait, Saint's Row 2 has a plot? I thought it was all about shooting liquid waste at people and all things Gary Busey... go figure.

Zero Punctuation The Escapist]

Over at GigaOM, Wagner James Au argues that the mammoth launch success of Grand Theft Auto IV is "the beginning of the end" for the next-gen. If a launch that universally successful can't budge hardware sales - and GTA IV really didn't - then "drastic changes" may be to come, says Au:

Expect to see games made for lower budgets, targeted at wider audiences (ones that aren't fixated on high-end 3D graphics) and delivered over broadband with a micropayment program in place. Don't expect a follow-up to the 360 or PS3 anytime soon, either. In other words, the days when so-called "next-gen" gaming reigned supreme are coming to end -- instead, the industry's future will be shaped by games like Rock Band.

Grand Theft Auto IV players logging in today for their daily fix will be greeted by a quick little patch that addresses several small issues in the game on both the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Highlights include increasing the frequency and reliability of leaderboard updates on the PS3 version, fixing Cops 'n Crooks so that players can no longer earn ridiculously high scores, and my personal favourite - fixing the countdown timer for multiplayer matches so it no longer resets every time a new player enters the game, causing the assembled players to call said newbie names I cannot repeat in this space.

Other than that, a few quick fixes to address hangs and such. Hit the link for the full skinny on the newly polished GTA IV experience.

GRAND THEFT AUTO IV PATCH [Rockstar Games Social Club]

There was a time in the development cycle of Grand Theft Auto IV that Niko Bellic had a cell phone that could play music, MTV Multiplayer reports, but the option was cut.

"Some people on the team didn't like the music/mobile phone idea for various reasons, but they went back and forth on the idea until the very end," Rockstar spokesperson Darlan Monterisi explained in an e-mail on Tuesday. "This is VERY common. We do it in every game we make. We still prefer the balance of music in car and the ambient world's noise on foot, but we are constantly reviewing this stuff."

I wonder how much having a mini-stereo with you at all times would have changed the experience? It must have been something that the Rockstar folks thought would have had quite an impact to remove it. Why else would they cut the thing entirely instead of allowing gamers to go out and buy a phone with the feature in game?

Actually, I'm still surprised at the limit of phone tech in the game. I was expecting that the phone, because it plays such an important role in the game's interface, would come in a lot more flavours and that at least one of the was going to support video capture. Maybe next time.

GTA IV Cutting Room Floor [MTV Multiplayer]

UPDATE: the above is claimed to be the first nine minutes of gameplay in Metal Gear Solid 4.

Since we were tipped to both the unboxing video and the opening sequence around 6 pm Crecente time, we've been flooded with tips to other videos. The above, uploaded within the past hour, was cut to fit YouTube's 10 minute requirement.

After the jump, video of someone unboxing the 80 GB PS3 Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle four days before the street date. It's 5 minutes in a single take so, looks pretty legit. Also after the jump, another video showing the MGS4 intro/start menu video.

Plenty of high praise has flowed to Metal Gear Solid 4, but N'Gai Croal offers a different take in his latest posting over on Level Up. The game, like others, makes timely use of Private Military Corporations (read: mercenaries) to create an environment players want to explore and a story they want to advance. But MGS4's true point lies in its "war economy", which governs or responds to the choices made by players.

Any game must "radically simplify complex systems", and MGS4's gun-launderer character, and fluctuating price of unlockable weapons and equipment does just that as a representation of a mercenary economy. And that, N'Gai reasons, makes a statement about the inherent amorality of war fought for profit just as much as cutscene dialogue, no matter how well written, where gamers are most conditioned to look for what was on the game creator's mind.

That's not to say MGS4 now goes into a pantheon of great allegorical commentaries on war and greed. It's a video game, so whatever message comes out is necessarily refracted through your experience of playing it. And it is a hell of a lot of fun. But N'Gai's point is that the "war economy" with which you, as Snake, must do business make it thought provoking, in addition to being an entertaining game at the top of its genre.

I Need a Hero, for Hire [Level Up]

Your first thoughts may be that the Metal Gear Solid 4 marketing juggernaut maaaay have gone a step too far this time. The offer? Buy a gunmetal or regular MGS4 bundle in Japan and (while stocks last!) you get this...bag. It's one of those cotton, canvas-y type bags that you all should be using to throw your groceries in instead of plastic bags. Which may sound boring, but seeing as it's big enough to hold a PS3 box in, it's also mighty practical! After all, most gaming trinkets are just junk to clutter your shelves with. It's nice seeing one you can not only use on a day-to-day basis, but is environmentally conscious to boot!

ＫＯＮＡＭＩ、「MGS4」いよいよ来週発売!最新トレーラーを公開 [Game Watch]

In 2006, Metal Gear Solid 4 looked pretty great. In 2008, it's still looking great! But also...different. While we've touched on these changes before, the above vid is a showdown between the game's 2006 trailer and the finished version. Gone is the fancy lighting and bonus rendering passes, in its place not only an increased level of detail in the character models, but a game that you'll actually be able to play next week, as opposed to some pie-in-the-sky "target render".

Grand Theft Auto IV is a fantastic little game, but we'll admit that it was lacking in one thing—the ability for fire liquid sewage at pedestrians. At least, that's how the marketing team tasked with pitching Saints Row 2 is hoping we're thinking, as the violent, Volition-developed sandbox game is taking on GTA IV feature for feature, with Saints Row 2 definitely coming out on top in the poo-flinging department. We'll admit that barnstorming, cage fighting and smashing faces with guitars looks like it could fill a fun afternoon, but you'll have to judge for yourself.

A pretty blonde mob princess, bound and gagged, is taken kicking and screaming raw-throated curses out of the trunk of the player's car. Tied to a chair in the hideout of the gangsters who hold her hostage, the player's asked to snap a photo to send to her Mafia father.

She screams muffled protests through the rag between her lips, the image on the camera phone screen reflecting her tormented, terrified eyes. As the player centres her face in the frame, she offers a desperate moan, a wracked sob.

"Smile for daddy," the player tells her.

Click.

Is Grand Theft Auto IV an expression of hate towards women? Are those who enjoy it misogynists?

Feminist interest blog Feministing certainly thinks so - though not because of this mission scene from later in the game. At the time of GTA IV's launch, Feministing poster Samhita came across a video called "Ladies of Liberty City: Very Bad Things," created by IGN. The video featured sequences of the game edited together by IGN, and all of these sequences depicted violence, with sexual overtones, toward the prostitutes and strippers in the game - such as soliciting a prostitute and then running her over with your car to get your money back.

LucasArts and Day 1 Studios is getting ready to release their terraforming shooter Fracture this fall, and they're rolled out the newly updated website for the game to help get the hype train started right! Along with the standard videos, screenshots, and developer blogs, the site is launching a brand new community-oriented Wiki site that will allow fans to interact and access exclusive content meant just for those who care enough to hang about and their friends in the gaming press.

You can visit the newly updated site at http://www.fracturegame.com, and be sure to tune into GameTrailers TV tonight on Spike for the premiere of the new Fracture trailer. Hype machine away!

People of Stockton, California! Do not play Grand Theft Auto IV! Do not!! It's turning local residents batty. According to the Stockton Record:

"My son Peter was never really aggressive, but once he got into video games, 'GTA' being one of them, he started to push, hit, talk back, and just become a different person," said Stockton parent Greg Within, 46.

Stockton's Mark Wellis, 19, said he was involved in an altercation a week after he purchased "Grand Theft Auto IV." At the time he noticed that he had become less sensitive to violence.

Wellis doesn't completely blame the game for his violence, but it did affect him.

This is the stuff of Pulitzers.
GTAIV Criticized [Recordnet via GamePolitics]

Don't look so surprised. THQ have announced that they're pushing the release of Saints Row 2 back a couple of months, "due to product quality and marketing considerations". In other words, due to "oh man, that GTA IV is pretty good". Originally due to ship in August, the game is now slated for release on October 14. You may be finished with GTA IV by then. You may even care by then.

THQ delays 'Saints Row 2' by nearly two months [Reuters]

For two-player military teamwork that stops just shy of having the main characters make out, nothing quite beats Army of Two, and this Thursday they'll be a bit more landscape for your team to play on as EA announces the free Veteran Map Pack for the Xbox 360 and PS3, sponsored by the fine folks at Pontiac - When you need a car, you might buy a Pontiac.

The pack features two new maps for co-op, a subway station in Kiev controlled by a dangerous militia, and SSC headquarters, where they can finally take down Dalton, the man responsible for framing them, who might possibly make his escape in a Pontiac...your escape from the everyday driving experience. Along with the co-op maps, players can also go 2-on-2 with the China Canal Lock map online, with all four fitting comfortably in most of Pontiac's line of luxury sedans.

Pontiac, Pontiac, Pontiac. Not nearly as funny when we do it, is it? Head for the mountains indeed.

The pre-launch days of Grand Theft Auto IV were interesting to say the least. Even more so for Australians and Kiwis who, much to their chagrin, discovered they'd be receiving a censored version of the game. NZ recently earned the right to make use of its R rating and sell the unmodified game, but Australia is still living with the consequences of its silly classification system.

We heard all sorts of stories about what was removed from our version - everything from guns and anuses, to stuff not involving guns and anuses. Regardless of what was real or not, Rockstar couldn't be bothered telling us exactly what to expect.

That's why we have people like reader Mick, who went to the trouble of comparing the Oz GTA IV with an uncut copy to find the differences. I can tell you, they'll definitely come as a surprise.

Not that I ever sniped myself mind you. I like to think of it as surprise, long-range, precision brain removal. Those other guys? Dirty, dirty snipers.

Radical Entertainment senior producer Tim Bennison recently talked to Gamasutra all about Prototype, elaborating a bit on its New York City-based "open world thriller" and promising ongoing evolution throughout the game that goes beyond what's been done in open-world titles like GTA in the past:

"I don't know if I'm right about this, but I think it's the first open-world game where not only the player evolves over time - which is pretty standard - but so does the world. The world is not the same at the beginning as at the end of our game. Even in a game like Scarface or GTA, the world is really the same. You've changed, and you've built your empire and whatnot, but that's it."

Gametrailers got up the second installment of its look at the Metal Gear franchise. This 20-minute clips picks up in 1995, eight years after the first Metal Gear, and five since the Japan-only release of Metal Gear: Solid Snake. Hideo Kojima has heard about this new "PlayStation" console and its capabilities, and sets to creating a sequel that will take full advantage of it ...

Metal Gear Retrospective -- Part Two [Gametrailers. Here's Part One if you missed that.]

What Konami event would be complete without a healthy dose of Metal Gear Solid 4? And a healthy dose it was! After a short talk about the series in which Kojima proudly announced "Metal Gear Solid 4 is Complete" we watched as he played through the first forty-five minutes of the game which, while fascinating, was a bit lengthy given the time of night and the non air conditioned room.

During the announcements we were told about the PS3 MGS4 bundle which has been confirmed to contain a gunmetal grey PS3 with matching Dual Shock 3 controller and the MGS4 limited edition version of the game. Once the gameplay started we were treated to the most fantastic MGS news of the evening, a brand new secret weapon. CAUTION: If you make the jump you will hear about this new secret weapon. If you don't want to know about it, read no further!

Glenn Beck, star of the previously posted "Stupidest Anti-GTA Vid You'll See Today", recently had Focus on the Family founder Dr. James Dobson on his CNN show to bemoan the disintegration of the institution of the family. The family, Dobson and Beck agree, is under attack from every direction, from politicians, from MTV and, of course, from Grand Theft Auto IV.

GTA IV has some problems. Some of them are yet be fixed, and are peeving a lot of people off. Not good. Then again, some of them are yet to be fixed, and are so broken they're bringing people nothing but joy.

Not even two weeks since its release and the ingrates at Kombo.com already have eight things they want to see in Grand Theft Auto from now on. Everyone has an ultimate GTA experience list, and I'm betting that GTA IV represents someone's wishful thinking from the Vice City days (the controls represent mine). But some of these have already been introduced.

Mr. Juandrful over at Kezins.com has pieced together a backstory on Niko Bellic, in a VH1 "Behind the Music" kind of biography. Counterintuitively, I should put up a spoiler alert here, because although it's all about stuff prior to his arrival in Liberty City, naturally it draws on dialogue and events in the game, which you may not have played yet. Mr. Juandrful also says some of this was built on "inside info" about Niko's past, given to him by Rockstar.

Anyway, spoiler warning, don't click the link if you want to get Niko's backstory through the game for yourself. Otherwise, if you want a quick read that humanises the character, go for it.

Behind the Game: Niko Bellic Before GTA IV [kezins.com]

So, Brian's 70-year-old dad took on GTA IV and took quite a liking to it. Others his age are not as enlightened or -- shocker -- willing to try new things, and so the series might require further explication.

Helpfully, here is a FAQ (a FAQ? an F-A-Q? how do I do this) from 23/6 to break down the choices and consequences and action and intrigue that make all the young folk shine shoes and save up their penny-candy money to buy it.

So Niko's got a ticket to San Andreas, does he? No wonder, at these crazy prices. Reader Timmy spotted this billboard while cruising around Bohan, advertising cheap flights to Los Santos for only $US 299. Now, this is most likely just some cute inter-series referencing, but hey, if any of you want to keep on speculating that San An will be the setting for the next instalment in this generation's series (I seem to remember Vice City travel ads in GTA III, for example), go right ahead.