E3 2014 The Last of Us Remastered / Grand Theft Auto V - HD REMIX

It isn't just Microsoft that gets to rummage through its back catalogue for quickie prestige releases. First up Sony have a spruced up version of last-gen stand out The Last of Us ready to go. Incidentally, I wouldn't watch this trailer if you haven't already beaten the game - that spoiler warning ain't there for decoration.

Rockstar also have a max settings version of Grand Theft Auto V waiting in the wings. Initially announced as a PS4 title, GTAV has since been confirmed for Xbox One and PC as well. I wasn't a massive fan of the game, as it churned on the storyline bottomed out and mission design erred on the irritating, but I'll be damned if I don't want to play this again on my PS4. They've got us by the balls with HD re-releases!

WASTED

NickTN getting his head kicked in by Euphoria physics on Grand Theft Auto Online.

20XX's Seventh Gen Favs #9 - Red Dead Redemption

Aside from freeing Rockstar's free-roam template from dull health management, Red Dead Redemption excelled at providing an incentivised narrative. Although players likely didn't care too much about John Marston's imprisoned family, we were made to understand that our cowboy figure did. Marston yearned for their safe return. Balance for this single-minded questing was provided through the detailing of Marston as a character. He was a charming mix of grumpy, dead-pan mean and roughly hewn industrial gentry.

Marston's voice, provided by Rob Wiethoff, was a constant presence in Red Dead Redemption. He grumbled during fetch quests and yelped at danger. Success was often greeted with cheers. Rockstar San Diego crafted a hero you couldn't help but like. The studio also worked hard to make Marston's quest seem lightly absurd. There's a constant suggestion throughout that his efforts were in vain, and that his family were long gone. When an opportunity for contact finally did arise the player's feelings matched Marston's own. Both were tentative and fearful. This was Red Dead Redemption's greatest success - the player and avatar in emotionally alignment; desperate to get home, but terrified at what they might find when they get there.

GRAND THEFT AUTO V SELFIE

101 Things To Do In Grand Theft Auto V

Following the completion of his Black Ops II weapon guides, XboxAhoy has diversified his YouTube channel with videos about the history and culture of computer games. His latest is a look at the myriad of time waste features available in Rockstar's newly released Grand Theft Auto V.

BACK IN THE GAME

Video games aren't so much narrative as a managed stream of escalation. Bankrolling your own ice-cool heists was tantalising enough, but to see that idea blossom into Minigun men flanked by jet fighters inspires nothing short of salivation. Grand Theft Auto V starts cracking glass and rooting in your pocket September 17th.

UNSTRUCTURED ACTIVITY

Grand Theft Auto V's online proposition looks exhaustive. It's games as platform thinking taken to nosebleed heights. Why even bother upgrading to a next-gen console when you already have everything you need to play this?

TAKING CARE OF BUSINESS

This five minute hype reel for Grand Theft Auto V does a nice job of detailing what sets the series apart from the whippersnapper copycats. Whereas something like the later Saints Row games often feels like you're playing with a sandbox set in a 90s debug cheat mode, GTA has never lost sight of Michael Mann's methodical, electronic cool. While beating cat-headed generics to death with an oversized purple dildo has its fans, I think I'd rather have three Uncle Nobheads planning a multi-disciplined diamond heist instead.

YOU'VE YET TO HAVE YOUR FINEST HOUR

Grand Theft Auto V's character ads, giving us the skinny on each of the game's three protagonists. Michael's a former thug bored with picket fence living, Franklin's spent his life trying to keep his nose clean, and Trevor's a hayseed lunatic. Due September, Rockstar North's swansong for the seventh generation threatens to have a play area larger than those of Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto IV combined.

V

Looks like we're heading back to Los Santos for Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar's sideways glance at LA last appeared in 2004's hugely ambitious Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, a game that effortlessly juggled a mid 90s gangbanger narrative, and statewide crime sprees. Bop to the top, and you could set up home in Las Venturas, a gaudy Vegas analog. San Andreas was as close as the series has strayed to becoming a statistics RPG. Financial strategising ticked away in the background, and hero character CJ could go to seed if your caloric intake wasn't burnt off down the virtual gym. Bored gamers could comb the endless forest landscape for an elusive (impossible?) glimpse of a Sasquatch.

Will GTAV match that level of detail? This clip at least suggests the series's satirical bent is intact, at least as much screen time is dedicated to scenes of financial fallout as interactive criminality. GTA thrives in these quiet mission moments - peeling to your next objective, ears full of in-universe shock-jock speak. It's also refreshing that Rockstar North are selling the experience of interacting with a functioning fortress city, rather than just sandbox havoc. Fingers crossed Rockstar North aren't too proud to take pointers from Rockstar San Diego's Red Dead Redemption, a title that did much to de-fuss the company's open-world template. Missions were ruthlessly checkpointed, progression also eased with recharging health and a simplified gunplay system. The developers might also want to take a look at Volition's Saints Row series, which, despite a low-rent personal image, manages to present an easy, intuitive series of control systems.

LA Noire: Nicholson Electroplating

Placed deep in LA Noire's final act, Nicholson Electroplating interrupts, then diverges the established narrative with what initially appears to be total calamity. Phelps's serial story recapping is nixed mid-flow by a mushroom cloud blossoming on the horizon. Your partner briefly frets about a Soviet extinction invasion before duty instinct kicks in. Leaping into your patrol car, the two of you peel towards the devastation. The sky is black, the streets washed brown with debris, a fine rain of glittery fallout drifting down from above.

Your destination marker leads you through trauma shock LA to a row of shops being ransacked by armed opportunists. Like any good disaster cop, you pull a bead on two of the harder cases, chase them down, then coolly execute them. Unfortunately, intent soon shifts. The sky rapidly clears - turns out the explosion was sub-sub-nuclear - and you spend the rest of the case trailing pimps, with a taste for industrial espionage, on the Howard Hughes payroll. Nicholson Electroplating is a colourful enough beat, but it never lives up to the promise of its opening seconds. That teased a speculative nightmare scenario; the player desperately scrambling to restore a vague sense of order following an overwhelming atomic attack. This DLC could have been a complete genre recalibration in the vein of Red Dead Redemption's Undead Nightmare installment, instead it's just another diverting post-retail chapter.

"What the car look like?"

Courtesy of G4TV, here's ex-LAPD detective Skip Bauchman talking us through one of LA Noire's early cases. Reassuring to see a genuine cop puzzling through LA Noire's slightly confusing questioning system. Often, it's not so much a lack of hard graft policing that trips you up, rather it's an unclear understanding of how your character will contextualise your findings. Also interesting to note that Mr Bauchman approves of cases rapdily descending into violence. Here was me thinking Team Bondi were desperately trying to shoehorn in some more action for the dimwitted and inattentive.

Ten Video Games 2010: Red Dead Redemption

Aside from freeing Rockstar's free-roam template from dull health management, Red Dead Redemption excels in providing an incentivised narrative. Although the player likely does not care about John Marston's imprisoned family, we are made to understand that Marston does. Marston yearns for his family safe return, it is at the forefront of all his dealings with his world. Plainly, it's his motor.

Balance for this single-minded questing is provided through the detailing of Marston as a character. He's a charming mix of grumpy, dead-pan sour talk and roughly hewn industrial gentry. He grumbles at fetch quests, yelps at danger, and cheers success. His voice is a constant presence in Red Dead Redemption, a charismatic commentary on your actions. Rockstar have created a hero that is incredibly easy to like; although his home life is an abstract, it quickly becomes important to the player because it is important to their beloved toy.

Rockstar also work hard to make Marston's quest seem lightly absurd. There's a constant suggestion throughout that his efforts are in vain, and his family are long gone. So when an opportunity for contact finally does arise, the player's feelings match Marston's own. Both are tentative and fearful. This is Red Dead Redemption's success, the player and avatar emotionally aligned; desperate to get home, but terrified at what they might find when they get there.

Disaster Year 2002: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Rockstar North followed up Grand Theft Auto 3 with obscene speed, producing this pastel accented summer holiday. In contrast to Liberty City's docksider sprawl, Vice City is all beaches, high-rise spring-ups, and neon smog burns. The update adds missile speed motorcycles; a variety of aviatables; and a massive shipment of hysteria weaponry. Missions are structured a little looser too, players can catch a cab ride straight back into action should they fail. It doesn't quite provide the much needed checkpoints, but it's a gesture. All this topped off with a caricatured 80s time-frame that firmly locks this title in an Americana wonderland, reconfigured out of Dundee kid deconstructions of import television and scuzzy gangster epics.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is also the only, to date, installment to be rooted around a central celebrity appearance. Ray Liotta stars as Tommy Vercetti, a venomously aspirational thug clashing with his surroundings. Little effort is extended to disprove the notion that you are playing as Henry Hill vacationing in De Palma land. This doesn't work as a disconnect though, Vice City's tone is consistently referential. The game more an escalating TV stunt playset spectacular than a tome serious criminality muddle. Everything geared towards fun and sweaty excess. Players scheme and plunder with their Liotta doll to secure bankable real estate, then kick back and collect the vig. The allowance quickly rolls in, offering easier access to the bigger toys. Vice City is the boozy spend-thrift entry, dizzy from an unexpected windfall, and generous to a fault.

An Evening with Gay Tony

Spend a little time away from Grand Theft Auto 4 and you forget how to play it. An extended breather unlearns all the ticks and tricks you've amassed to cope with a control system that at its worst feels like mindless corralling. Your car spins out wildly when you attempt corners at speed. The jumble between movement and cover gets you shot in enclosed space. Helicopters often feel completely uncontrollable. This disconnect is more pronounced than ever in latest side-quest Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony. For this installment Rockstar North have decided to include a post-mission breakdown screen that rates and ranks your progress: You didn't do it quick enough. You didn't know to adhere to invisible objectives. You didn't do it first time. Your aim wasn't consistent. You didn't even try and shoot them in the head! It's not enough to scrape through missions now, your method is under scrutiny. By God I resent this! If you want to start cataloguing a player's interact deficiencies, you'd better give them a solid, flexible, interface to begin with. A steady stream of relevant (but skippable) tutorial information would be preferable. It'd be nice if you give players chasing tiny speedboats in a suicidal helicopter at least a taste of a reticule. And if you're going to insert helpful checkpoints, I think it only fair to restore weapon sets and health to the value users reached said markers at. In short, the fault had better lie with them.

Ballad Salad

Brand new trail for the next (last?) installment of a wider Grand Theft Auto 4 experience. The Ballad of Gay Tony teases neon Vice lifestylin' and San Andreas recreational pursuits, topped off with vicious calamity vehicle thugging. Previous ep, The Lost and Damned, beefed with a punchier weapon-set, Gay Tony promises a similar ambition for your rides. It's not all aces though. The anti-art stink of PR product positioning gets all up in your nose. How else to categorise that crowbarred back-alley fumbling between new lead Luis and an unnamed lady? "Remember folks, you ain't playing no gay! You're his hired gun!"

Good, Bad, Red

Trailer for Red Dead Redemption, Rockstar's Autumn dated western sandbox. Redemption follows up 2004's Red Dead Revolver, previously an orphaned Capcom project that Rockstar rescued, and reworked. Revolver was a grimy ode to 60s Spaghetti Westerns, with Morricone on the soundtrack, and a squinting Clint clone up front. Redemption appears to have leaped forward a decade to the revisionist oaters of the 70s. There's more than a little Peckinpah in this here shill-short; the industrial revolution, and shrinking frontiers hanging heavy. Who doesn't want an interactive shrine to outdated, auto-destructive masculinity? Not me, no sir. Sign me up!

An Afternoon with The Lost

Setting aside Niko Bellic's American dream, Rockstar North prop up last year's Grand Theft Auto 4 with 360 exclusive expansion pack The Lost and Damned. This first slice of episodic content focuses on The Lost, a biker gang prone to brief, violent flirtations with GTA4's main storyline. Players take control of occasional Bellic assist character Johnny Klebitz, smarting after gang control is steered away from his entrepreneurial instincts, and back into pointless smash-and-grabs, by rehab vet Billy Grey.

Brief impressions rather than a full review, I'm barely a quarter through.

Thankfuly, Rockstar North has resisted any urge to reset Liberty City to unplundered; all islands are open from the get-go. Klebitz stumbles across demolitions grade military hardware at an alarmingly early juncture too. It continues to be readily available throughout, purchased off the back of a pal's truck, who doesn't require buttering-up either. Vehicles have been added, tracklists extended, and motorcycle handling has been tweaked to something a little more tolerable. A big phew there, since bike convoying is frequent. Klebitz himself handles differently too: stout and plodding, where Niko was rapid and tumbling.



Without wishing to give too much away, storyline highlights thus far have included a hilariously curtailed piece of cat and mousing with the LCPD, and the loss of one chapter member quickly spinning out into a street level Patriot Act. Billy Grey is certainly one for brotherhood posturing and paranoid isolationist rhetoric. Follow orders. Stop asking questions. His vocal goon squad have more than a faint whiff of Saints Row 2's nondescript chump army about them - each eager to risk and die for transparent bro fibs. Klebitz has a little more ambition than that. His dry remarks taking the bore out of endless odes to 'deadbeats' and counter-culture camaraderie. The way I end up playing forms a kind of individualist text too - bikes intermittently dumped for more reliable car motoring, default weapon sets traded up, and heavies going uncalled. Who plays GTA to be in a gang anyway? It's always more fun to accomplish alone.

Bad Endings: Grand Theft Auto 4

I finished The Most Expensive Game Ever Made! about a week ago ($100 million by all accounts). It was an occasion not without event, nor near endless retries, and was compounded by my own special brand of inflexible stupidity. It was none-the-less very satisfying indeed. Certain points the conclusion raises have been whizzing round my head ever since. Not only because I managed to breeze through just quick enough to unlock a particularly irksome looking achievement, but because Rockstar remembered to pack some tail-eating revenge daisy-chains and existential fatalism. God bless 'em.

If the subtitle wasn't hint enough, I wouldn't read on if you haven't finished GTA4. Not 100% like, just the story portion. Spoilers, spoilers, spoilers. Don't say I didn't warn ya. I'm not kidding, this'll ruin everything. We pick up events in the dying seconds of story mode:

With Roman's greedy needling ringing in my ears, and my not-quite in-game girlfriend Kate's advice reading more like an order, me and Niko set off to get us some of that good old fashioned revenge. For those of you that haven't played the fourth installment of Rockstar's series, here's a quick (alright, long and meandering) story recap:

Niko Bellic (your grumpy avatar) is an Eastern European gent, quite likely involved in the Bosnian conflict whilst still at an impressionable age. Niko's platoon was betrayed by one of their number and all but wiped out. Niko knows he didn't sell out his mates, so it must be one of the two other survivors. Deductive reasoning! This is the the notional narrative thrust - to track down the chap who gave you up. A winningly vague goal, I'm sure you'll agree, that facilitates much violence / people meeting. If it was good enough for Doctor Richard Kimble, it's good enough for you. Attracted to New York analogue: Liberty City by your flighty but decent cousin's aspirational ramblings, Niko docks and climbs the criminal ladder with startling efficiency.

Along the way you are manipulated and betrayed by a speccy little shit by the name of Dimitri Rascalov (and what a rascal he is!), he even phones you up a few times afterwards on your in-game mobile to gloat. I hate him! Towards the conclusion of the story you get a choice: stow your principles in favour of money and work with The Rascal (and perhaps even complete a kind of redemption in Niko by not opting for the knee-jerk violent revenge response) or track him down to his little ice breaker hideout and exact a horrific knee-jerk violent revenge. Hmm. Decisions. Decisions. Stumbling out the strip-joint meet up, Niko dials up his nearest and dearest. Your cousin sniffs money and urges you chase it; your sort-of girlfriend tells you under no circumstances should you make the deal: "You're not the man I thought you were if you do Niko!"

So! Deal or kill?

Money or revenge?

Of course I chose the latter.

I didn't throw myself into it with any particular haste though, path junctions in GTA4 are fraught with decision anxiety - will I make the right choice? Did I make another save recently if this goes belly up? That sort of thing. Cannily foreshadowing just this dilemma, Rockstar have you catch up with the chap who actually betrayed your platoon (and left you a stumbling monster of a man) a few missions earlier - thank you shadowy CIA style connections!

The showdown you long for is neatly curtailed into nothing more than a ugly, bullying, bit of personal business. The Fink is a rambling, strung-out mess of a man. His name is Darko and he bears an uncanny resemblance to Niko when you first begin the game - same clothes, same haircut, very nearly the same face. You are only one bad decision away from becoming this man. He is hurled into you and your tag-along cousin's laps sobbing and confused from the back of a G-Man van. The location? That Michael Mann perennial: the existentially bleak airport ignore space.

After a cutscene detailing Niko's sheer fucking pain at what happened to him and his friends, you get the choice to kill the man or walk away. Grand Theft Auto 4 throws several curve balls like this your way as you play, usually they have a minute bearing on the overall narrative. That said, they can't help feeling important, mainly because of Niko. Whenever any of these decisions popped up I found myself thinking about it from the characters point of view. A word like avatar does Niko a disservice. He does not feel like a pixel / polygon extension of my will, larking about a sandbox city; he feels like a chap I'm trying to help and steer right. Would Niko do this or not? Would Niko shoot this unarmed, drug addict or simply walk away. Niko's cousin Roman is disturbed by the proceedings and urges you to just forget about it, show mercy. Is there a right decision? If I make the wrong one will the game steer down a irreversible track of doom? Am I doing right by Niko? There's a real weight of responsibility at play whenever you find yourself making Niko's decisions for him.

I ended up shooting Darko. It gave me no satisfaction to do so. I wanted to because I felt Niko would feel he had to; survivor's penance / guilt and all that. The action of doing so though, was anti-satisfying. It does not fill a hole. You are not content.



Turns out, it does not advance the plot in any specific direction. Darko does not figure in a side-strand of repercussion if spared. The repercussions are nil, no swelling triumph music plays out to affirm your decision. No congratulations. No end. Nothing. You're just left with 'why?' Why did I kill Darko? It just felt, in a fraught little instance, like the right thing to do. If you've played the game, maybe you felt different. Maybe you felt Niko would let it go, and try and forget about it. Darko's presented as the sub-human perennial: The Junkie. A derelict. I've heard tell that your make-shift family of friends congratulate you for being the bigger man should you spare him. My path: Niko just wanted to be alone with his thoughts.

Executing Darko is important to the themes of the narrative, if not specifically the direction. In killing Darko I grasped at what I felt Niko wanted, his long-lusted after revenge. In my actions there was the rejection of the carefully cultivated plot whisker of redemption (most explicitly realised through your near relationship with good Catholic girl: Kate). I remembered the past. Your next major plot decision is to work with or against the guy who betrayed not only Niko but the player too. Rascalov. Remember him? Animosity is compounded. This time a trespass not committed in some distant corner of pre-game time, but a couple of hours ago to my considerable chagrin. Plus! This particular dickhole has guns too. And likely an avalanche of well armed bodyguards. He'll put up a fight. Not like Darko, crying and shitting himself as I loomed over him, gun in hand. There might be some sense of satisfaction. He isn't some barely-there needle monkey, he's a snappy little devil with a buzz-cut and a considerable chip on his shoulder. Fuck that guy! I'm not going to work for him. Niko and me are going to kill him. We're going to transplant our long lusted revenge onto him.

And we do.



After cutting a swathe through his personal bodyguards we corner him in the bowels of his ship. He hides behind a box and throws peek-a-boo shots our way. Words are exchanged. Eventually he pops his head up for a gander and we are able to clip his (extended) life away from him.

This choice does have repercussions. Whole game altering ones. Shortly after the completion of the above mission you are asked to attend your cousin's wedding - the Star Wars celebration ending. Roman lives the closest approximation to a 'normal' life. He has money problems, love rivals, and has a crush on a woman who works for him - now his bride-to-be. This is were Grand Theft Auto 4 careens in two distinct, awful directions. One of your immediate circle of friends is going to die. If you listened to your-not-quite girlfriend Kate and took the path of revenge, she catches an angered Italian mob-boss' bullet - meant for you. She dies silently (relationship unresolved!) and you vow revenge. Alternatively if you listened to your greedy (but nice) cousin and took the deal, a bald Agent 47 alike pops up and attempts to slip some lead in your kidneys. One over-excited special forces disarm and an accidental discharge later and Roman is silent and gone. You vow revenge. Revenge is unavoidable. There is no redemption. Niko gets to create another revenge target, facilitated through his actions, and off you go to annihilate them. Sound familiar?

This particular thread of experience is just about were I can see why GTA4 is scoring 10/10s everywhere you care to look. There is no 'good' ending, there is only Bad and Catastrophic.



In the post credits load screen, Niko mumbles:

"So, this is what the dream feels like? This is the victory we longed for..."

A medium pushes onward.