GTA 4 has arived

I must say I’m surprised: i didn’t expect it to live up to so many expectations and yet everybody who’s seen it seems to give it the thumbs up. But while that means a lot of people like the gameplay what does this mean for the artwork? Well, I have yet to play it, but from research so far this is what my intuition has to say: GTA 4 may not end up being one of my sweethearts, but I can certanly respect it.
"Why not"s:
- it has a urban ordinary environment, it doesn’t stimulate my creativity or imagination with original settings or unique society (i’m talking things like some surprising races, giving rise to interesting phylosophical questions through their varied ways of thinking)
- cars. and cars again. and vehicles. and then gadgets which are basically vehicles… well, not only am I not a big vehicle fan but it is a very repeatin structure
- drive, kill, drive, kill… minigame, drive, kill
- it seems to have done some sacrifices for the censors

but wait, I’m actually not here to criticise the game, because like I was saying, though I don’t see it as an absolute artsy game I do think it has some great values and a lot of stuff that inspires my respect. So, onto "Why yes"s:

+ a lot of content, a lot of value, a great polish
+ music! a ton of it! great radio stations! that’s artwork, that is. It may not be music I like (90% probably), but that doesn’t matter, what matters is that that is content. True content. Not generated, not recycled, not replayed, a fresh experience! And that will give a large group of people a large dose of satisfaction. 10% for each of us means a lot of niches covered… which is AMAZING!
+ sure, the world may be unoriginal, but you can do a lot of stuff in it. And because of it’s openness you can get creative and "make your own story", at least in little personal ways
+ things sound really good from the story point of view. It gives me great hope to hear that the story stands up to movies…
+ though I’m not very multiplayer-ish the idea of playing a "deathmatch" in which a whole city could be the weapon… well, that’s a dream come true. Well, actually for it to be that it would have to be a game in which you could actually end up playing a political strategy game influencing territory wars or reputation hits until you get to your enemy… but hey, even just the thought of running away from your friend in a 3 wheeled car only to set up an ambush for him where 20 cars fall on him sounds surprisingly exciting (i liked the touch in the vid where the fall of a guy triggered an alarm. shows attention to detail).
+ a lot of content but with easy difficulty. No useless dying. Easy… awesome!!! Even so, what to others is easy may prove hard to me or some… but I’m hoping… there’s hope… In a sea of games that "challenge" with impossible difficulty, repetition and frustration this would be sooo great

So… GTA 4… I’m happy a lot of people will be playing it. Hoping Rockstar will be rewarded for their great attention to detail and fuel an industry wide investment in open worlds until one of these will end up conquering my heart with a shockingly original universe (things like The Dosadi Experiment or Pandora universe pop to mind), a dramatic hero self-expressing in matters of fate, destiny, choice, morality… and artwork that stimulates one’s mind to simply make up stories. I’m not talking medieval recreations like Assassin’s Creed, but fictional worlds, worlds in which you could for example mix in some impressive architectural elements (artwork in Two Thrones comes to mind) with biological environments, races, things like stories from Oblivion and Morrowind, Shivering Isles, Soul Reaver… aaa… the dream. Yeah, sure, the critics will say this game is a GTA ripoff, and it may not get it’s polish (aka budget), and unfortunatelly for the developers it will probably not be the comercial success that GTA 4 will be (from what I can tell most people just like stuff they can relate to as oposed to artistic stuff), but I’m hoping the developers will get a warm feeling in their hearts and the love of the (I hope) millions of art lovers out there. It may be a silly hope for art to be created/enjoyed like that… but as John Lenon so brilliantly put it: "You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one… I hope someday you’ll join us… and the world will live as one ".