Like the rest of the country, I’ve become hopelessly addicted to Grand Theft Auto IV. It’s not often that I turn my Xbox on at 2am and still see TEN people online all playing the same game. In fact, if I’m honest, its not often I turn on my Xbox AT ALL, recently, but that is another story altogether. There are many tell tale signs that someone you know is addicted to GTA IV, including ignoring significant others, lack of sleep, calling in sick to work and developing an incredibly poor diet of junk food. Lucky for me, your intrepid journalist, I am already a single, insomniac, unemployed male currently living on a diet of Rustlers sandwiches and “2 for £2″ cans of Relentless, so the signs are currently unnoticable. Either the GTA addiction will finish me off, or diabetes.
I’m addicted to the single player game. I’m addicted to the multiplayer game. Most importantly, though, I’m addicted to the “moments”.
I’ve always been a big fan of gaming “moments”. Now, before you start firing off coments about the death of Aeris in Final Fantasy VII, or the ending of Metal Gear Solid 3 being gaming “moments”, I’d like you to shut up for a minute. Sure, they are landmark events on the average geeks gaming life, but genuine “moments”? To me, moments are unplanned, unscripted and unique events that happen when playing a videogame. The kind of thing that has you holding your breath with tension, laughing until you cry and above all else, has you boring the fucking life out of everyone you know for weeks after, as you recall your war stories.
OBVIOUSLY, a sandbox environment has far more scope for these wonderful random things to happen than say, a Mario game, but that is why I love GTA IV so much. The multiplayer is one huge, “moment-creating” machine! A single play session with a few friends will create the kind of stories that will irritate everyone you went for a drink mere hours after you were stood on the back of a boat, a good friend behind the wheel, while you shot several police helicopters out of the sky in front of the Statue of Liberty. Do they want to know about these things? No, probably not - some of your friends simply won’t have a vested interest in your online multiplayer exploits - but will you tell them anyway, hoping that maybe, just maybe, they’ll find it as interesting as you found it exciting at the time…
I think I’ll be hard pressed to find a game as entertaining as GTA IV for quite some time. The single player is like the best crime-based action movie you’ve ever seen. The multiplayer? Well, I’m sure the Kane and Lynch developers are gutted that their firefights were nowhere near as thrilling as being trapped behind a burning car in Liberty City, providing covering fire for one of your friends as they try and pick you up in a stolen helicopter. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if Michael Mann, director of semi-legendary crime-thriller Heat, isn’t slightly upset with the fact that a random event within a virtual world sometimes ends up far more compelling than some of his classic gun battles. Providing, of course, if he has an Xbox Live Gold Account.
So, feel free to tell us all about your favourite moments so far in Liberty City. We’re all friends here - we’d love to listen.
Nexus
May 2nd, 2008
The last stand in the cabaret club lastnight. Absolutely fucking epic. Cars barricading the entrance, Andi on the roof covering with rifle fire and rockets and a fuck-ton of police. Six stars? Achieved.
Matt
May 2nd, 2008
Cops and robbers- doing 100 plus down a long straight taking more bullets than was healthy… The car sets alight and I swerve to the left hoping to throw them off as I leap from the car- immediately having my body thrown against the corner of the crossroads’ building as my car continues past the intersection - coming to a crunching halt as it hits the back of a van - split seconds later being rammed from behind by the pursuing cop car. Before I even hit the ground after bouncing off the wall around the corner a massive explosion has engulfed the road, and I calmly dust myself off and hotwire the sports car parked 3 feet away from me.
You’re damn right Andi, this game has moments coming out of its ears.
Monkey Rimmer
May 2nd, 2008
The Time: 01:10am approx.
The Location: Burger Shot
The Good Guys?: Digitalburnout and Monkey Rimmer
The Bad Guys?: 2 x Helicopters, 3 SWAT Vans and more Police and Squad Cars than we had RPGs and Molotovs for.
Body Count: F*CKING HUGE!!!!!
After performing a Pulp Fiction style entrance to the Burger Shot, I wandered around the ‘restaurant’ executing every last motherf*cking one of the customers, while Mr Burnout picked off the first Police Officers to arrive on the scene. Once everyone inside the Burger Shot had been shot, all holy hell broke out. 30 mins, a few respawns and a whole lotta laughs later, we finally grab ourselves a Squad car and head off in a hail of bullets to cause mayhem elsewhere in Liberty City.
GOD I LOVE THIS GAME!!!!! Although going to bed at 2am after playing GTA IV since 18:00 is NOT a good way to start the following day at work sat infront of a computer…… still good fun though!
Andi
May 2nd, 2008
Yes! Moments like the above are amazing, as they are completely unique and unplanned, yet are just as exciting as the most insane scripted events. You can talk about the same amazing cutscene all you want, but EVERYONE else will have had the same experience.
Surrealist
May 8th, 2008
I have to say, some of my best moments in gaming recently have been in Halo 3. The single player and multiplayer both offer scope for amazing situations… Although I can’t remember any right now…. Damn.
Muhammad-Oli
May 10th, 2008
Not so much a moment, but for a real kick, turn off the lights in the room you’re in, turn the sound up (surround sound if you have it), get a chopper and fly it over the second island to be positioned above the fake Time Square…
Then take the chopper up to the highest altitude it can manage. This should be almost the top of the fake Empire State Building. Make sure you’re above Time Square and then jump out of the chopper.
Man, my heart skipped a beat, its the same ‘oh my god’ feeling like free-falling for real (I’ve bungee jumped) and man its cool when you hit the ground. Instant death, but so worth it.
Pete
May 11th, 2008
VAL KILL-MORE!
Lloytron
May 12th, 2008
I had a ‘moment’ like this when I worked out how to take out a police helicopter with one shot, beautiful
Onizuka
May 14th, 2008
A gaming moment for me was in Legacy of Kain Defiance where you run down the corridor as Raziel and you hear ‘MALIK!’ been shouted, and you realise you are in the intro of Legacy of Kain Blood Omen. Proper goosebumps. Even when I think of it.
Also the ending of God of War II, gave me shivvers knowing there will be another one lol!
Also for GTAIV moments. Only 1 for me so far and that is while I was shooting at someone in a car which he was heading straight to run me over, I rolled out of the way Morpheus style and switched to my uzi to drill the guy as he hand-braked to turn around. AWESOME!
Muhammad-Oli
May 14th, 2008
Well I went online on GTA for the first time last night, and man, what an experience!
A few moments were the games I completely kicked ass in. There was one Deathmatch game on Happiness Island where the majority of people had 12+ deaths, but I held my ground and defended my area and came out at the end of the game having been killed only 3 times. That was pretty cool cause those guys are hard-out and alway manage to have better weapons than you somehow…
Andi
May 14th, 2008
Onizuka, you’ve just reeled off a bunch of cutscenes, spoilers and all. Did you read the article?
Andi
May 14th, 2008
Being blasted literally hundreds of feet into the air by a helicopter’s blades and landing over the other side of the river, surviving SOMEHOW.
Muhammad-Oli
June 7th, 2008
I had a good one yesterday! I was doing the getting cars for Stevie side-missions in GTA IV and I was getting the Coquette and had completely thrashed it, so I aimed for a pay-n-spray and went for it.
Then suddenly, after a fairly heavy impact, a message came up saying something like “The car is thrashed, try again”. I was like “hell no!” So I put my foot down and kept driving, and to my horror it caught fire! And I was still ages from the pay-n-spray…
I kept driving and I must have looked ridiculous to all the in-game pedestrians, driving along in a flaming car. The trip seemed to drag on too. I must have been a few blocks away, but going very fast. I slammed the car into the pay-n-spray with probably only a few seconds to spare, and I hit the back wall! I was like, “shit!” as I expected it would blow up on impact, but I was lucky! The door came down slowly, and I was finally hopeful. I had thought that even if I fixed it, it probably wouldn’t recognise it as the car Stevie wants - not after it had told me I had failed.
The garage door opened, and I was safe! And to my surprise up came a message: “You have found the car for Stevie. Take it to his garage”. Man, I was so happy! Screw doing it again!
Vivek
June 7th, 2008
On a mission aint gonna name, names. I was taking cover behind a saloon car (low and wide) blind firing rockets at cars near my targets. After a lengthy battle. The car I was taking cover behind blew up, and I wasnt mad lol.
I sat there like a dazed bunny, watching everything slow down and go into black and white. I love the physics system and how after the smoke cleared parts of the car rained from the sky. Brought a tear to my eye.