Take me down to the Liberty City!!!

Where the blood runs red and the bodies are plenty!!!









You might have noticed a little lack of updates, and truthfully this review was supposed to be up about a week ago. My time playing GTA IV has been most addicting. Remember when I mentioned a while ago my obbession w/ RPGish games? This isn't quite as bad, but it's been taking up most of my free time with the running and shooting and robbing and... bowling.

Grand Theft Auto IV is an immersive, expansive experience. In between the driving, the shootouts, and the intrigue, it's almost too easy to not notice just how realistic your surroundings are. Looking at the whole of Liberty City from the air or from the highway, it's truly marvel just how detailed the environments are. Granted, it's a lot less populous than the real NYC, but it's still a good play to have some mayhem.

All that said, the action in the game is intense. While most missions consist of find guy, fight goons, kill guy, several missions are reenactments of famous movie scenes. The one that stands out the most is Three Leaf Clover, which is almost bullet for bullet a recreation of the robbery sequence from "Heat". It's a thrilling mission, and for me the highlight of the game so far.

While many critics are quick to heap massive amounts of deserved praise onto the game, GTA4 is not without flaws. It takes a good couple of hours to get to any missions where you shoot anything. It's a really slow start that almost turned me off of the game completely. Fortunately things picked up right when they needed to, and it's been a hell of a ride since. I'm almost done with the story missions, and after I'm done it's off to the various side missions. Driving is also a bit frustrating, especially with the cheap cars that handle like lawnmowers on an ice rink.

GTA4 is among the top three games for the 360, right up there with The Orange Box and Halo 3. I give it a 9/10, as it's pretty damn close to being perfect. Believe the hype, and take a trip to the LC.

Shadows Over Camelot

Cooperative board games are a strange animal for some. For most people the idea of just about any game is to win over your opponents. Cooperative games like Pandemic or Shadows Over Camelot present a different challenge in that the only opponent is the game itself, and order to win the entire team must work together to overcome obstacles together. This can be a problem if your team is made up of jerks like mine usually is.

Jerks aside, Shadows Over Camelot takes place in the time of Arthurian legend with each player taking the role of a different Knight of the Round Table including King Arthur himself. Players take turns attempting several tasks, either challenging opponents like the Black Knight, questing for artifacts like the Holy Grail or Excalibur, and defending Camelot of seige engines and barbarian invasions. All the while the loom of evil advances every turn, either hindering quests or adding invaders to the board. Sometimes it feels like the game is actively trying to kick each and every one of the players in the junk while at the same time using the players loved ones as a humping post. There also may be a traitor in the midst of the players, and the only way for the traitor to win is for the entire team to lose.

The game is rather difficult for the Knights to win, even without the traitor covertly working against them. Often times the Knights are just a breath away from dying, have an army of catapults at Camelot's gate, and are losing the quests for the Grail and Excalibur. This can be pretty straining on the nerves of the players, especially if they feel like nobody's helping them on "their" quest. That said, it's a pretty satisfying accomplishment when you actually do end up winning the game, especially if you've also managed to ferret out the traitor.

This game gets a 7 of 10 VPs. It's always fun to play with the right group of people, but it's no fun at all if you get a player that particularly whiny and selfish. Still the theme, the beautiful art, and the detailed pieces all combine for an excellent and different offering for your gaming knight.

Yes that was both intentional and lame. :)