About a month ago I attempted to start playing the latest addition to the Grand Theft Auto series - Episodes From Liberty City. The game just didn't appeal to me. I wanted it to (or I wouldn't have attempted to play it), but it just didn't. Perhaps it was due to the boredom it incurred on me with the ridiculously dull opening title sequence - message to the producers, I do not enjoy watching a poorly animated man walking through Liberty City for 5 minutes simply hoping that something relevant to the storyline will happen.
As it turns out, nothing did happen. That's aside from the loss of 5 minutes from my life at least. That ticked me off. Anyway, so once I'm actually into the game, I start to realise how little changes there have been since the base pack, GTA IV. It really is just more missions to what is already a pretty lengthy game. I know it is only an expansion pack, but I would have hoped for at least some changes in gameplay. I think my problem is that I feel if Rockstar are going to invest time and money into making a new game, I would rather them make something that is actually new. I may be wrong, there may be elements to the game that have changed, but I simply don't see how a game can cost £35 and not be completely different to what has come in the past.
However, this may give a false impression of my opinions on the Grand Theft Auto series. The first game i played was GTA 2. It was completely different to anything I had played before. That may have been because I was about ten years old playing a game about gangsters, but still, even then, I knew that the game had something. The graphics were poor (that can be forgiven seeing as the game was released in 1999) but the gameplay was brilliant. Simple but effective. I had it on the PC. It was bird's eye view and you used the arrows to manouver the character; plus one button to shoot, one button to jump. That was pretty much it. Yet every day I came home and all I wanted to do was play it. I can remember very little about the story, but I don't think that matters too much. GTA2 was brilliant.
Then came GTA3. Again, I had this on the PC, it had a similar control system to GTA 2, but a completely different look. It was the first of the 3D GTAs and personally, it remains my favourite. This game came out when I was eight, but I never actually played it until I was about twelve. And I'll admit it, I enjoyed the sensation of sitting myself on top of a nice tall building, out of the reach of the police, taking peoples' heads off with a sniper rifle and watching the blood spew out as if it was coming from a broken fire hydrant, just because I could. But that, contrary to what many members of the media would like to think, does not mean I'm then going to go out and repeat my actions in real life. The reasons for that are threefold - 1. I do not have the mindset of a murderer. 2. You get no reward for doing it in the game. 3. None of the buildings where I live are tall enough.
No, I don't think these games are as good as they are cracked up to be, but I'm still glad to have them there for when I want to vent out frustration to innocent members of the public. It's either computerised prostitutes or you. Your choice.
Personally, I think the games have very little effect on the human brain. Either you have the mindset to be a murderer or you don't. One game will not change that and at no point in the game does it claim that killing innocent civilians is a good thing to be doing. I'm sure you would agree that these games do not create an increase in crime from gamers... right?
Microsoft announced its financial results for Q3 of fiscal year 2026, including an update on its gaming Xbox business and more.
Not looking good. Hopefully Asha Sharma is able to turn Phil’s disaster around.
To me it's still quite remarkable how they can cash-in 5.3bn in revenue in a single quarter, since their hardware is basically dead.
The stock mark is what makes Microsoft remarkable, They have convinced every institutional and retail investor to just keep piling money into them. Like many big tech giants they are just a big growing pyramid scheme. As long as people keep dropping money into ETF's that cover the market Microsoft will always be liquid. At the same time it is completely stifling innovation and competition. People need to start being more discreet in how they invest their money as it's killing the system.
Riiiiight because people will just flock back to them for one or two games per year.
15+ years of bad performance is what they call irreparable in business. It is time for them to sell off the assets and get out of entertainment.
These declines are on the back of extra revenue received from releasing games like Forza horizon 5 on PlayStation. So I’m being sarcastic here when I said they should go back to exclusives. Killing off a revenue stream from Ps5 sales will only make things worse
The charity event will be streamed live from Gamescom in August.
Thanks to the slip-up of an artist working on the title, we now have more evidence that a new Injustice game is in the works.
I agree 100%.
The story in GTAIV was worse, the RPG elements were taken away, the driving mechanics in GTAIV meant that you would slide out doing 20kph... I played GTA3 on PS2, and then I played GTAIV on pc maxed...and in my opinion it didn't look any better than GTA3 did...what does that tell you.
They just pump out sequels and offer nothing new, but people keep guying the $#!+, GTAIV will be my last GTA game.
Cursed by over-hyping, people wanted the over-the-top gameplay of san andreas, allowing plane flights, jetpacks and more, while some wanted a more realistic approach to take place with the game. I have loved the GTA Series for years and years and I can see I will continue to do so for years and years...
I wouldnt say that , Rockstar tried something new with GTA by making the story and character more relatable and the game more realistic , but the fact that they took out all the mini games and everything that made the past GTA games fun took away from the games appeal , its a good game just that media hyped the hell out of it and gamers were left with a bad taste by buying into the hype