Why I Love Grand Theft Auto and Keep Coming Back For More

It's been a while since I posted, and I want to post regularly, so this is the start of my musings on the game world. Just the other morning I achieved 100% completion on GTA IV. This is honestly not THAT big of a milestone, but a statisfying one indeed (minus those DAMN flying rats!!!), and not just from the 100 gamerpoints I earned. I wanted to reflect on my experiences with the GTA series, most notably, the differences between San Andreas and IV. I started playing GTA with Vice City, and then picked up 3, San Andreas and 4. I have to say, the series gets a horrible, undeserved rap from the media who knows nothing about what they speak of. Sure you can pick up hookers, but you don't have to. You can kill indiscreetly, but you don't have to. There is no score for killing. Try telling that to Fox News though.

But that is what GTA is not. What is GTA? Unlike my brother who simply spends his GTA time in police cars chasing criminals and creating explosions, I find GTA as an expansive, story-driven epic experience. But that furthers the point: GTA is what you make it. Despite starting with Vice City, I will go chronologically, starting with GTA3. Often called the father of the modern sandbox game and an influence in its many genre-breaking forms, GTA3 was one of the first legendary games of the 128-bit era (the other notable being of course, Halo) What did GTA3 offer that other games didn't? Freedom. Freedom that is now taken for granted by the gamers of The Getaway, Saint's Row, Just Cause, Crackdown and the other numerous spin-offs that used this successful open-world formula. If you can't beat 'em, join 'em, right?

It's not exactly Final Fantasy, but Grand Theft Auto's engrossing story is the result of memorable characters that suck you in and won't let go. The eccentric cast includes psychotic girlfriend-traitor-villain Catalina, mob boss Salvatore Leone, and millionaire businessman Donald Love. It seems that each contact you meet offers something new, so even though you're making a hit for a different contractor, it seems less repetitive because the circumstances are different.

Perhaps most important in any open-world game is the world itself, and this is where GTA wins big. The game's iconic Liberty City features three-seperate islands: Portland, downtown Staunton Island, and the suburban Shoreside Vale. But that is merely the beginning. The areas within these islands are what matters. Be it the unreachable observatory, Cochrane Dam, Francis International Airport, Porter Tunnel, the Stadium, the cliffs surrounding Portland or Chinatown, each area in the game conveys a sense of atmosphere and character, adding to the idea that Liberty City is a real, thriving city with bitchy citizens and trigger-happy mobsters.

Vice City took that winning formula and switched the vibe. It traded overcast Liberty City for the sunny beaches of 1980's Vice City (read: Miami) This time around, Rockstar ditched the silent protagonist and opted for the bad-ass attitude of Tommy Vercetti, voiced brilliantly by Ray Liotta. In one of my favorite additions, Vice City added motorcycles to the mix, making it oh-so-easy to perform flips. My favorite memories of Vice City involve the amazing 80's soundtrack, shooting from helicopters, racing stock cars at the stadium, shooting up (and then owning) the mansion and driving along the beach in a BF Injection dune buggy. And who can forget the memorable commercial for Vice City featuring the song "I Ran"?

Perhaps my favorite iteration of the series is San Andreas. I'm not sure. It really is a tie between SA and 4. What do I like about SA? Practically everything! While I was at first skeptical of the gangbanger theme, I felt that they portrayed it without ruining the experience. Especially in the non-gang themed majority of the story. While I appreciated the winding story that made you feel as if you truly moved up in the world, I REALLY appreciated the fantastic voice work by legendary actors such as Samuel L. Jackson and a show-stealing performance by James Woods.

But when you get into the gameplay of San Andreas, what you find is an enormous, ambitious chunk of land. A state. THREE CITIES. Perhaps the one thing I miss most in GTA4 is San Andreas's countryside. Everything in GTA4 is so densely packed, and sometimes it is nice to chill in the country or the desert, and still have the city. Because you don't just have Las Venturas, San Fierro and Los Santos (go ahead and guess which cities they represent if you haven't played) you have memorable areas such as the Sherman Dam, Area 69, small towns around the map, and the abandoned aircraft graveyard.

Again, I loved the 90's soundtrack and vehicle selection. While you had standard fare, this time the developers went truly all-out with the inclusion of gimmick vehicles and planes. You had seaplanes, stunt planes, fighter planes, passenger planes (including a ginormous jumbo jet) and regular planes (why not?) But you also had a monster truck, a hovercraft, bicycles, a go-kart, a lawnmower, a tractor,and a combine harvester. But on another note ...why no jet-ski? Seriously Rockstar, I'm waiting!

This sense of expansion and anything-goes is what I really miss from Grand Theft Auto 4. Perhaps, it doesn't really fit in with the darker, more realistic mood of the story in the way it did with some of the silliness of San Andreas. Nonetheless, I miss it and hope it returns in the next major installment.

Does this mean I hate GTA4? Absolutely not! GTA4 still has memorable locales, it is just different. Everything is so densely packed together and I strongly felt that the confines of the story do not do a good enough job in showing you all there is to see in Liberty City. (Although this is most likely to make any DLC feel new). But the density of locations not only feels realistic, it makes finding new areas feel more like a meaningful discovery. Beautiful coastlines, swimmable pools, a skatepark, an enterable skyscraper, and many other sights go unseen in the campaign, and as much as I hated the tedious flying rats, I felt they provided a good way to see the new and improved Liberty City, it's just that I would have preferred the old-school finding versus shooting and attracting cops. I also miss diving, driving tanks, and flying planes. I miss the driving school.

I wished there were sidequests other than the annoying friends. The mini-games were fun: the first couple of times. I love being able to program cheat codes into my phone and multiplayer is a welcome enhancement. I love GTA4 and I love San Andreas for what they are: two sides of the GTA coin. Each is a very different game, and there is room to appreciate each one.

The Pistol Runthrough: Calypso Casino, Part 1

Here is the latest update to my R6: Vegas feature. The first three parts of the Calypso Casino. Starting next update though... all the videos will be in 16:9 widescreen.


Part 1:




Part 2:




Part 3:

The Pistol Runthrough: Mexico, Part 3

We're back for more R6 Vegas! Actually right now I'm all the way up to Fremont Street. Here's the third and final part of the Mexico level in my Pistol Runthrough, Hooah!


Part 6:



Part 7:



Part 8:



From now on, I'm going to post these like crazy to catch up on what you've missed, stay on the lookout, keep the comments coming and show your friends :)

Logitech G5 2007 Review

After experimenting with this new mouse for a few weeks now, I feel I am ready to give you all an accurate look at how Logitech's latest offering in the mouse department.

So what is the Logitech G5 2007? Its obviously a mouse made by Logitech in 2007, more specifically its an upgraded revision of the Logitech G5. The original G5 was the main, corded model in its latest gaming-oriented product line: the G series. The G5 introduced a number of new features improving on Logitechs previous MX-Gaming series. The G5 featured a customizable weight kit so that you could change up the weight of the mouse to your liking. It also featured a sleeved cord of rope, so that the cord doesn't pull on the mouse the way a corded mouse normally would. Perhaps the most celebrated change of all was the switch from optical to laser and a sky-high DPI of 2000.

The G5 was not all rah-rah though, and one seemingly small oversight was enough to keep gamers cradling their beloved MX518's. That feature was the lack of a second thumb button. That feature was enough to keep ME from grabbing a G5 the first time around, once you are used to having that functionality around, the lack of it just feels wrong.

The G5's revision mostly just added the second thumb button and a new black-and-blue tiled grip surface, but some other, more minor fixes were made. Supposedly, the laser-sensor has been upgraded to track better on more surfaces. I have found personally that the G5 tracks best on smooth, even surfaces such as a wall (however impractical) or more realistically, your table surface. I was prior using a Razer Mantis control surface, a rough mousepad. It made for good tracking on my prior optical mice, but it made the tracking on the G5 go crazy and I could only get good tracking on my pure white table that I use as a desk.

The Logitech Setpoint software has also been updated, allowing you to configure the sensitivity of the control axes independently. You can also overclock the USB port by forcing a faster USB report rate, which worked good except for 1000hz, which I could only squeeze inconsistently low response-rates out of. 500hz delivered
as promised. The difference is literally between 2ms response (500) and 1ms (1000).

As far as performance goes, the G5 set to 2000DPI just seems not to track well. It seems far too jittery no matter how high or low the sensitivity. Setting it to 1600 makes it easier to find a sweet spot-not too slow and not too fast. You can also set lower sensitivities if you're working on a photoshop cutout, or sniping.

PROS:

-When the tracking surface is right, a med-high DPI carries a precise smoothness
-Two thumb buttons
-Cord doesn't pull, next best thing after cordless
-Sensitivity LED bar so you can tell your DPI.
-Gripped surface is nice

CONS:

-Tracking surfaces are picky
-May require some fiddling with the drivers to get to your liking
-High priced for a mouse at $70, but standard for a gaming mouse
-Probably not a must-have if you have the standard G5 and are content with one thumb button.

THE VERDICT:

The Logitech G5 is a great revision that fixes everything wrong (which admittedly, was not much) with its predecessor. Kudos to Logi for listening to what gamers want to see on their mice. The G5 2007 is a solid mouse, and currently the best available mouse, even over the G7 (cordless is still not that big a deal to many gamers). If you are looking to upgrade your mouse from a model as high as the MX518, the G5 2007 is a great upgrade, but not so much so if you already have the old G5 or G7.

You Might Be a PC Gamer If...

Well, I've been watching a little too much Jeff Foxworthy for my own good, when suddenly one night I came up with this list... Feel free to distribute as much as you wish, I need the traffic :x


You might be a PC Gamer If... by CJ

-The only letters worn off on your keyboard are WSAD.

-"Roger" or "Hooah" have entered your everyday vocabulary.

-When you yell "Smoke it!" and are not talking about tobacco.

-Your keyboard and/or mouse costs almost $100 each.

-You took a computer repair class so you could learn how to swap out parts or build your own computer.

-Your computer case is a color other than beige, black, or silver.

-The choice between a mouse and two joysticks is not a choice

-Your computer has more lights than the New Year's Countdown Ball.

-Your family routinely catches you "talking to your computer"

-You have eaten dinner at your desk to play a competition.

-Your graphics card is ALWAYS up to date, always.

-Your computer has more tweaks than your car.

-Your framerate is something you brag about

-You bought a keyboard with lights so that you could frag on into the early hours of the morning

-You have a good, quality pair of headphones and know that it is the ONLY way to play.

-Acronyms such as "CS" "BF2" "ET" "UT" and "AA" have an intimate meaning to you.

-XFire is your instant messenger of choice

-You know the origins of "Boom Headshot!"

Gaming Mice

For the PC gamer who absolutely has to be able to frag his or (in my case) her opponents at the speed of light, there is no computer part more essential than the mouse. Operating as both gun and trigger, this tiny weapon can turn the tide of firefights. For us, the Microsoft Blue Mouse just ISN'T enough. No, we need the world!

My review of this mouse won't exactly be neutral. Since using a two-button Labtec mouse over 3 years ago, I have had nothing except for Logitech Gaming Mice, and keep going back for more! Have I tried Razer's mice you ask? Yes, but I find the grip disgusting-a matter of personal preference. This is coming from someone who has long, bulky hands and fingers and actually liked the original Xbox controller.

My first gaming mouse was a blue Logitech MX510. It blew me away in every possible department. Compared to a generic ass two button mouse, the pixel-by-pixel aiming was second-to-none, who cared about DPI, Polling Rate or even the texture of the mouse feet! All I knew was that this southpaw loved the right handed grip and the fact that it worked right. The mouse didn't like my new dog however, who shed hair like an old man. His snow-white hair had infiltrated the optical camera, making the mouse virtually inoperable.

Heartbroken, I ordered the six-month-old MX518. I loved the mouse, but I felt that it didn't track and aim as well as my 510. I was relieved to have another gaming mouse, though the "1600 DPI" seemed overhyped when I found that my aim had huge gaps in between. Unlike the unique pixel-by-pixel I enjoyed with my MX510, I found myself regularly just barely touching my mouse and experiencing 5-pixel gaps. I still to this day do not know if that mouse was defective or what. I tried many solutions, increasing and decreasing the polling rate, DPI, sensitivity, etc. I even got a primo mousepad in the Razer Mantis Control. Nothing worked, but it was STILL better than a regular mouse. The dog was thankfully no longer a problem and so my mouse lived on fine.

The one obstacle that had stopped me from purchasing the G5 when it was released was the absence of the second thumb button that was so integral to my game play. I had read a couple of months ago about Logitech making a revision of the G5. I had seen the beautifully crackly blue and the lovely second thumb button and wanted this mouse immediately! Rust Orange is just so ugly (though the carbon fiber was nice). Unfortunately, I found that this beautiful piece of hardware was only available in the UK, at least for the time being. Doing some more googling found me a US release date: June, 2007. JUNE?? That was how many months away? I was saddened, but continued to bare with my "Is it defective OR NOT?" MX518.

Flash forward to yesterday, 23MAY2007. The day before my graduation I had some spare cash so I decided to go out and get myself a game. I had more than I needed, I went to Best Buy with the intention of buying "Armed Assault" (which I did not get, mind you) instead, as I was showing my brother the G15 keyboard, my eyes made contact with the box labeled "Logitech G5" but my glancing eyes noticed something different... the mouse in that box was certainly not rusty orange, and not carbon fiber for that matter either. My browsing eyes snapped back: It was a mouse that was not on Newegg, not at Circuit City, and not at Fry's Electronics. It was a crackly electric blue: the coveted revision. I did a double take and picked up the box. I thought it was funny they chose not to append the name officially, and instead had a nice little "Now with two thumb buttons!" sticker. I immediately picked it up and brought it home at the tag price of $69.99.

So far it is an adjustment, it goes bonkers on my Razer mousepad, so thank god for laser! Now, (unlike optical mice) you REALLY can use it on the table. Speaking of which, it'd probably be great when I go to a motel and want to use it on the bed! I'll review it sometime soon, until then, I'm giving the G5 2007 two-thumbs up.

The Pistol Runthrough: Mexico, Part 2

This is the second part of Mexico in my pistol runthrough. So far in the game, I have gotten to the second or third checkpoint in the Calypso Casino, where I'm having a tad bit of trouble, but I'll get it eventually :P

The Pistol Runthrough, Part 1

This is the first part of my pistol runthrough. As of this point in time, I have completely finished filming and uploading the entire Mexico level. Due to Youtube's gay "copyright prevention" mechs, videos are limited to 10 minutes, making the number of videos go up significantly-the entire Mexico level is 8 vids, which I'll post in stages, as each level consists of many. The first stage in Mexico is 3 videos long, so without further Adieu, here is the first stage.

Part 1:



Part 2:



Part 3:

Rainbow Six Vegas Pistol Runthrough

So yeah, I was pretty bored, so I came up with the idea of playing through Rainbow Six Vegas--with only a pistol. I decided this was a pretty good idea for a starting feature on Operation Gaming, so I sorted out some rules:


-Difficulty: Realistic
-Pistols Only, Mods Allowed
-Grenades and Turrets are allowed.
-NO SHIELD
-Try to use every pistol at least once.

After the end of each level section, I will post a video. Good luck to me! lol

Testing 1... 2... 3....

Ok, well. This is my first blog and I will be posting my matter-of-fact opinions on gaming, (more specifically PC Gaming) and such. Without further adieu, welcome to OP-Gaming.