Site created 12/15/97.		page created: 2/3/03 Games People Play by Brad Pilcher Brad Pilcher - Main Page REVIEWS Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, BMX XXX & Music in Games Few games have dominated their landscape so much as Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Amidst delays of other major titles, the sequel to the groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto III became the belle of the videogame ball. As console gaming goes, all everybody and their (sometimes too young) younger brother wanted to do was steal cars and kill hookers. Considering the near-complete immersion the game brings to the table, who can blame them? The truth is, the ground was pretty well broken with GTA3. The innovative concept of letting you roam about a fully functional world whether you were playing a mission or not was pioneered there and carried over with GTA:VC. The seedy nature of the content that really defined GTA3 and signaled the industry's shift from younger kids to more mature gamers is present in GTA:VC, but it's no longer new. The simulation like elements that allowed you to earn cash and use it to acquire new weaponry and other goodies were key to making the roaming quality of the game work in GTA3, and so they've made a comeback in GTA:VC. In short, all the essentials are old hat. What's new is the scope of the whole show, the way the designers at Rockstar Games have ratcheted up the immersion factor to new heights. The seedy elements are arguably seedier. The roaming freedom is now more rewarding with more vehicles, places to go, things to do, achievements to make, etc. The simulation elements are even greater still, with the ability to buy properties and rack up stolen cars for new prizes. Perhaps most significantly, the shift in setting to a mid-1980s Miami-esque city of sin has allowed Rockstar to expand the over-the-top nature in ways a more realistically modern environment wouldn't allow. This, as it turns out, is what brings us to the element of the game that is most unique from previous videogame releases: the music. DVD brings plenty to the table when it comes to videogame design, but the lowest common denominator is storage space. The more you can cram onto that little disc, the more you can do with a games' design. But interactive elements aside, GTA:VC took advantage of an opportunity like no game before it. Doing a game set in the 1980s would be fine and good, but not without authentic 80s tunes. Then of course, why bother doing 80s music if you're not going to do them in their entirety? DVD gave the designers the opportunity to do just that, and what we were left with was seven CDs of original 80s songs in their full glory. This kind of a concept really shouldn't be understated. Videogames have had pretty good music in the past, though not usually. But to include that much original music that so many of us grew up with and loved is an historic feat for videogames, and it's hard to imagine that being a possibility absent the DVD element of next-gen gaming. We might have gotten knock-off MIDI files otherwise, since there simply wouldn't have been enough room. DVD storage capacity let the gamers craft an incredibly engrossing title while still including all that music in CD-quality form. The sad truth is that more games could be doing this, particularly on the Playstation2. While Xbox gives the gamers the ability to rip their own soundtracks into their games, PS2 still has the storage capacity to build killer soundtracks into a world that has been plagued for years with cheesy background scores. Of course, we're not talking about simply having great music. The original Playstation's Wipeout series of futuristic racing titles managed to slip in some very pleasing original techno soundtracks. The key to DVD and music in gaming is the volume. Rockstar realized something when they went to build their totally immersive world. You need a soundtrack, and you need a big one. As more games move in this direction, and the line-up is growing long, they could take a lesson from the boys who built GTA:VC. If you fill it with awesome original music, the gamers will come. But even games with a little less ambition are slowly catching on. Take BMX XXX for example. Sure, it sort of gives you an engrossing world that you can meander through until you crash a few too many times, but let's be honest. The worlds aren't particularly huge, and you're not doing much besides sending your bike into the air for tricks. But despite the relatively limited nature of the game's scope, Acclaim crammed the title with song after song that'll fit nicely on the ears of its target audience. Of course if you don't like nu-metal or hard rock, go elsewhere. The game itself, of course could use some tweaking. The off-the-wall character of the game and its inhabitants is a nice plus, and you'll be thrilled to know you don't always have a time limit to hamper your enjoyment of the tricks-galore environments, but the game has its flaws. The many little missions can often end up being more frustrating than they need to be, with too little time or too difficult a learning curve on the more advanced tricks. Factor in a trick editor and this helps, but for those of us not old pros at this particular genre, it can get a little annoying. What's worse, however, is the general lack of weight in the game. The whole selling point is the adult nature of the game, with you playing for strip-club cut scenes and other goodies. The problem is, the game itself is a light version of better extreme sport titles. For people who bother to play it all the way to the cut scenes, they may find themselves thoroughly disappointed as well. Xbox owners don't worry, but for all the PS2 fans you'll find the actual nudity blocked out by order of the Sony suits. Bummer. On the plus side, the detriments to the games lasting appeal do not include the soundtrack. PREVIEWS Midnight Club Racing II Shows New Design in Racing Games Speaking of fully engrossing worlds that go on whether you bother to play a mission or not, Rockstar is soon to release the sequel to another of its favored titles with Midnight Club II. Slated for a February release on PS2 and a spring release for Xbox and PC, this game sort of broke new ground by creating a racing game that didn't have any tracks. Instead you were plopped into a city and allowed to snatch cars for use in illegal street racing in the wee hours of the night. It's an element that found its way into the Grand Theft Auto titles, but only sort of. In this full-blown sequel, however, you'll find yourself capable of racing through L.A., Paris, and Tokyo with 28 muscle cars and motorcycles, a new addition this time out. Also included in the sequel is some character cut scenes, which give a cinematic element of story and depth to the game. But as DVD fanatics as well as videogamers, there's one element, which makes Midnight Club II worth paying attention to amidst all the other games flooding the market this spring. For the first time I'm aware of, the computer's AI will send your opponents on alternate routes. That was one of the major downsides to this genre of gaming, despite its interesting appeal. Sure, there were no tracks and you had a whole city to play with, but the fact that every computer-controlled car drove the same route sort of made a track where there wasn't one. Not this time. Rockstar has developed what they call "railbranching," which basically allows the AI to recognize countless paths in any given city. In short, they're not locked into any one "rail," and can make intelligent decisions just like you. Until we actually see the final product, it's impossible to say if this will work well. If it does, they we'll be looking at a technological innovation that could open up a whole new field of racing titles and liven up an otherwise stale genre. If it doesn't, the game will most likely confuse you and suck, to put it bluntly. Even with the uncertainty, the allure of the idea is enough to wet the appetite of racing gamers. Moreover, it could be just what Rockstar needs to break the cycle of games that could've been great but were executed like pale mini-versions of Grand Theft Auto. As the game grows closer, we'll try to find out more about this railbranching and see how much it ties into the DVD technology. In the meantime, prepare to play a little Fast and the Furious on your PS2. Brad Pilcher bradpilcher@thedigitalbits.com Brad Pilcher - Main Page
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