Turn on the TV and you have every chance of seeing some pundit attacking Grand Theft Auto IV. With the game being released a week ago, the usual moral crusaders are up in arms about the bad values it teaches and the terrible things players are “encouraged” to do in the game.

I will never hold GTA up as a franchise steeped in morality, because it’s not. The game portrays, just like its tagline, how “good things happen to bad people.” You spend your time working for scumbags and criminals, doing terrible things for money. It’s NOT a game that celebrates the good side of life — nor does it have to.

That said, however, playing Grand Theft Auto IV has been an interesting experience for me. Since I made a career out of writing about games, I’ve been far more aware of GTA’s so-called depravity, and have spent a lot of time in Liberty City thinking about what developer Rockstar is trying to say, breaking down some of the seedier aspects of the game and deciphering what the player is expected to feel as he plays.

I think of the game’s less savory features — murder, female degradation, drunk driving — and I have to wonder, does indulging in these elements of GTA IV really say a lot about the game, or the player? Just how much sin does Rockstar actively encourage, and how often does it actually dissuade you from being a bad boy?

Hit the jump to find out how Grand Theft Auto IV can be just as much Angel as Devil. (Warning: Very minor “spoilers”)

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Courtesy of Rockstar Games

As we’re sure you’re aware, this week sees the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, the highly anticipated latest iteration of the popular violence-based, sandbox-style video game series. This time, the action is set in Liberty City, a living, breathing replica of New York. Dan Houser, Vice President of Rockstar Games and co-writer of GTA IV, spoke to Vulture about building a nuttier, dirtier Gotham.So the gaming industry has changed a lot since the last GTA …
Yeah, fuck all this stuff about casual gaming. I think people still want games that are groundbreaking. The Wii is doing something totally different, which is fantastic. We’re hopefully going to prove that there’s also a very big audience for people who want entertainment in another form, who think of games as being a narrative device that can challenge movies. We always said: We’re not going release a large number of games. They’re going to have the production values of movies. They’re gonna be about themes that interest us whatever the medium, instead of the weird, special video game–only themes that too many people make — orcs and elves, or monsters, or space. We felt you could make a good game and have it be about something we could actually relate to. Or aspire to.

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Konami and Kojima Productions’ Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots is easily one of Sony’s most prized upcoming titles. Though fan anticipation can already be considered at a fever pitch, the console maker said when it announced the game’s June 12 launch date in February that the online portion would benefit from an online beta test, beginning in the latter part of April.

That April launch date turned out to be earlier this week, but the beta didn’t stay up long, thanks in large part to the massive interest surrounding the game. However, after a week of tinkering, Sony said today on its official blog that the Metal Gear Online development team has patched the beta client and servers are now back up for play. To compensate for the delay, Sony has said the beta period will now extend to May 11.

“Initial problems were caused by the extraordinary numbers of customers trying to log in to the site in order to create a Konami ID in order to take part in the beta test,” Konami’s MGO team said in a statement. “In response, we have increased server capacity, as well as created a separate Konami ID registration site specifically for customers wanting to take part in the Metal Gear Online Premiere Beta test.”

To help alleviate server strain, Konami also said that it has instituted a play queue and that players may be forced to wait for an open slot in the servers during peak play times.

via gamespot.com

Grand Theft Auto needs no introduction to anyone remotely familiar with video games. But for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 entry in the series, Rockstar has upped the ante, creating a startlingly realistic reinterpretation of New York City as backdrop to a violent crime epic. In it, damaged goods Serbian war vet Niko Bellic ventures to Liberty City in search of closure, all the while coming to terms with the harsh realities of The American Dream. People die, others find happiness, the dream fails to deliver on its promise, and players join Niko on a journey through a world where everyone is flawed, where it seems everyone is consumed by their own obsessions.

It’s a brutal ride for almost everyone in Niko’s journey from off the boat yokel to mass murderer, but what is the Grand Theft Auto IV experience like for the player?

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What we heard: It’s no secret that Sonic the Hedgehog has been a bit off from his heydays of running the 40-meter dash in .7 seconds flat. Recent years have seen the blue streak headline in sequels or one-off installments that for one reason or another fail to live up to Sonic’s side-scrolling adventures on the Genesis. However, even though its little blue mascot is down, Sega hasn’t shown any signs of counting him out. Not content with just breaking bread with former archrival Nintendo with Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games and Super Smash Bros. Brawl, Sega commissioned preeminent role-playing game aficionados BioWare to create a Sonic-themed RPG for the Nintendo DS.

With Sonic once again rising to prominence, Sega’s Team Sonic may be readying its iconic hedgehog for a comeback tour. Following a trademark filing for Sonic Unleashed with the United States Patent and Trademark Office, forumites who frequent ESPIOKaos discovered a plethora of screenshots on Sega’s press site, which were subsequently plastered all over myriad sites before Sega realized its gaffe. The leaked screenshots quickly found company with a video containing what appears to be in-game footage taken from the actual game. In it, Sonic appears to be running on rails through a variety of colorful 3D environments.

And then the Internet happened. Sega enthusiasts The Sonic Stadium kicked off the rumor mongering, saying “Sonic Unleashed will be the next Sonic ‘canon’ game, if you will, intending to follow on from Sonic 06’s Iblis disaster (in more ways than one), hence the weird unimaginitive [sic] dark creature git in the screenshots this morning. You see Super Sonic attempting to stop Eggman once more, but a new trick up his sleeve results in Sonic having to deal with a rather unnatural curse. A werewolf. Sonic has to fight a werewolf alter-ego of himself.” The Sonic Stadium also said that a brand-new face will be added to the franchise’s roster.

The Sonic Stadium then passed off the rumor torch to German Web site Sega On. There, a mysterious Sega employee known only as “Dennis” apparently “confirmed” that Sonic Unleashed would see a multiplatform release on, at least, the Xbox 360 and Wii. Game On then extrapolated on this info thanks to an inside source, saying that Sega would make its big reveal during a Gamers’ Day in May, and the game would be added to the holiday free-for-all this November. According to Game On’s sources, “SEGA is launching SONIC UNLEASHED with A HUGE production budget.” The site noted that development teams from Japan, the US, and Europe will be assisting Team Sonic with the allegedly massive undertaking.

Although a lot of information is floating around about the project, it is important to note that absolutely none of it–save for the screenshots pulled from its press site–are from Sega. All other information is attributed to nebulous “sources” or lack attribution outright. Some information, such as Sega Unleashed having some kind of “werewolf” mechanic, appears to ring true based solely off of the released images, but the game remains unannounced and therefore any info is far from set in stone.

The official story: Sega had not responded to requests for comment as of press time.

Bogus or not bogus?: Not bogus that Sega has donned its warmers for Sonic Unleashed, as evidenced by the patent filing coupled with the leaked screenshots and video. As for specific details about the game, all else runs the gamut of utterly fabricated to plausibly speculative.

War rages on in the fourth edition of Activision’s acclaimed war game. For the first time in the series, Call of Duty moves away from WWII to the modern battlefield. Armed with an arsenal of advanced and powerful modern day firepower, players are transported to treacherous hotspots around the globe to take on a rogue enemy group threatening the world. As both a U.S Marine and British S.A.S. soldier fighting through an unfolding story full of twists and turns, players use sophisticated technology, superior firepower and coordinated land and air strikes on a battlefield where speed, accuracy and communication are essential to victory. The epic title also delivers an added depth of multiplayer action providing online fans an all-new community of persistence, addictive and customizable gameplay.

Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare Game of the Year Edition includes a token to download the Variety Map Pack, a series of four multiplayer maps exclusively for Xbox 360 video game and entertainment system from Microsoft.

Details on the latest Sims sequel have finally poured out of Electronic Arts, though most of what they revealed does little to differentiate it from previous The Sims games.

The game looks fantastic (owing mainly to its “brand new engine that has been in development for nearly three years”) but the other key points that EA highlighted in revealing this information such as the “Character Creation” system and “Realistic Personalities” sound more like evolution instead of revolution.

Most impressive was the revelation that the neighborhoods in the game will finally be seamless. In past games you had to endure loading screens any time you went somewhere other than your home, but EA says The Sims 3 will let you wander freely around the community.

The Sims 3 is scheduled for a worldwide PC release in 2009.

Images courtesy Electronic Arts

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