Battleangel

Oh, yes, it’s out (HOODLUM). Unlike the previous games that could more or less be fitted on a single CDR, the game has now bloated to a DVDR. Kinda sucks for us “pirates.” GTA SA can be found on Pirate Bay among other places nevertheless. But the question is if it is any good …

As usual the PC version sports no extra content compared to PS2. And Rockstar Games have sure taken their time porting it, which is I am sure Sony’s fault to begin with. At least I assume they’ve learned to iron out the bugs from the previous versions.
Despite its grand vistas, I always considered Grand Theft Auto to be a little isolated and limited. Can’t really put my finger on it. I just don’t see it as the total success that many do. The games was always to tied up in impossible and quirky missions when you’d rather be doing something else. Like just wrecking mayhem, assassinate people, Carmageddon or play as law enforcement. Now that there are modding tools, can’t someone please make a Hill Street Blues mod? Like the old isometric Atari game from Chrysalis. Also, it always bothered me with GTA that it was a little flat, that you couldn’t just walk into most buildings (that it separated outdoor/indoor locations).

And need I say that the lack of multiplayer is a bit of a turnoff? Hopefully Multi Theft Auto (SA) will step in. At least I hear they’ve fixed many of the slowdown since Vice City and that outdoor/indoor transitions, cut scenes, high-res textures are instantaneous.

Update: Having actually played it I remain sceptical. So maybe I wasn’t in the mood to begin with. Anyway …

• Console port: Which gives clumsy controls and a simplified interface fitting for a 5 year old.
• Idiotic minigames: That are also really, really annoyingly hard to pass at times.
• Random elements: Look at a car, turn around, the car is gone, or at times has changed color.
• Graphics: Also clumsy and crude and very “consoleish.” Despite this the game still doesn’t run as well as you’d expect. After all it’s not exactly UT2004.
• Incomprehensible dialogue: Sorry, I just don’t get this gangsta’ talk. It could just as well have been Greek to me.
• Repetitive elements: Like burglary. Who is gonna put up with that for more than five minutes.
• Neverending cut scenes: Every time you enter a house or whatever. Even though the main cut scenes can always be escaped, there are those little nuisances, like when you try on clothes etc.

Having said that I still think that they have improved a great deal on the role playing element of the game. I.e. clothes, tattoos, haircuts, skills, gym training. And the somewhat expanded hand to hand fighting abilities. But the overall game feels too fast, jittery and “arcadeish”, just look at the scene when you blow up a car and it takes like 5 seconds before the police and fire dept. show up and proceedes to run people over, form a heap of cars and act generally panicky. Not that it’s any different from the previous games but you’d think they’d learned something by now.

A few things bother me overall. One being the future of PC gaming and its relation to console development and another being how depressing gang culture is (even though the game has surely exaggerated that element).

One thing is for sure though, this game, even though it has already been out on the PS2 platform for a year or so, WILL stoke the fires of censorship. Like its predecessors. And it will be cited in more than its fair share of cases and law suits. Like the apparent success of the game, don’t take it at face value.