Arts & Entertainment

Luke Simcoe
aeditor@ gmail.com

 

 

Give me Liberty City or give me death — a lot of death

The latest GTA ganster opera immerses gamers in a violent and entertaining
quest to achieve the American dream

   
 

Piss six iterations, the Grand Theft
Auto series has come a long way from
its first meager splash into the third
dimension in 2001.

Each version gave _ subtle
improvements to the formula that
developer Rockstar Games created,

but the series has never quite made
the leap from evolution to revolution,
becoming all too comfortable in the very
genre they created. Grand Theft Auto
(GTA) IV, however, is something rather
unexpected.

Sure, Rockstar’s made all of the
requisite improvements in melee combat,
gunplay, and graphics that one expects

By Ramin Ostad, The Gateway (University of Alberta)

   

from a sequel. But this time around,
they’ve designed a game that is so much
more than just the sum of its parts by
creating something you don’t really see
in a game of this type: a society.

It all starts with character. Your
predetermined avatar is named Niko
Bellic, a literally fresh-off-the-boat illegal
immigrant from Serbia pursuing the
dual American dreams of quick money
and mass multimedia consumption in
the most vibrant, genuine, and distinct
environment in console videogame
history—Liberty City.

The town is a dream to behold;
it’s very rare that a game would compel
me to sit through a ten-minute cab ride

just so I can take in all the sights and
sounds of a virtual world.

The people who inhabit this
town all feel right, too, and behave in
human ways thanks to the employment
of the Euphoria engine, an Oxford-made
physics system that gives characters
their own dynamic muscles and nervous
systems. From a technical standpoint, it
may not look as gorgeous as it could, but
the shape and design of it all make it feel
so authentic.

That authenticity trickles into
Niko as well. Unlike his predecessors,
GTA IV’s protagonist is one deep cat.
He’s got a serious past, a lot of self-
loathing, and a penchant for vengeance
that isn’t just about some meager gang
beef. He may not be a very subtle
character, but he has just as many layers
as a ripe onion.

This is made even more apparent
through the numerous interpersonal
relationships you develop along your
path. Whereas previous games made
characters forgettable as soon as you
were done killing people for them, GTA
IV keeps you in contact with almost
everyone you meet through a handy
little device called a cellphone. As you
meet people, their contact info is added
to your phone, and you can call or text
each other to go for dinner, get drunk off

your ass, or just shoot the shit.

If, instead, you want to be a
shut-in, you can also chill at home, surf
the Internet, or watch TV. While most of
the TV and Internet content consists of
satire that ranges from laugh-out-loud
funny to disgusted smirk, the fact that
it’s there, and that there’s so damn much
of it, just adds another layer of reality to
this town.

You’ll hear radio and TV news
updates about tragedies around town
— mostly caused by you — then have the
ability to surf Internet news and see a
more detailed version of those stories
on blogs and websites. These elements
are so dense and self-referential, part of
you wonders just where this place is, and
how the fuck you get there.

Obviously, it’s not perfect — no
game really is — but there’s something
to be said for just how forward thinking
it really is. Rockstar created as literal
a 21st-century city as you can attain in
a virtual landscape, and infused it with
their special brand of wanton destruction
and cynicism.

What they’ve done here is
truly revolutionary, and like GTA III.
no one will come close to achieving a
benchmark like this again for a very long
time.

 

“We Hold On” by Rush

By Pat MacKenzie

song of
the week

Wiis you love them or hate
them, you’ve really got to hand it to
those venerable hosers from the Great
White North: while lesser bands from
their nascent era (that’s the early 70’s)
have either gone tits up or are touring the
casino circuit in an attempt to cash in on
the nostalgia of aging fans, Rush are still
making interesting and vital music.

For those of you not familiar,
Rush is essentially a hard rock-based
power trio made up of Geddy Lee (bass,
keyboards and high-pitched vocals),
Alex Lifeson (guitars) and Neil Peart
(drums). With a predilection over the

12

 

years towards pop experimentation (with
mixed results), Rush has managed to
maintain at least an intensely loyal fan-
base, if not the respect of critics.

Having said that, “We Hold
On’”—taken from 2007’s modern rock
wall-of-sound thrill-ride Snakes and
Arrows—can be taken as testament to
Rush’s staying power. But in the end,
and listened to in the context of the entire
album, the song is about the tenacity
necessary for one to endure the slings
and arrows of our deeply troubled world.
Placed as the final song on the hour-
long CD, “We Hold On” is the glimmer
of hope at the end of a series of songs
penned by primary wordsmith Peart
that do not hold out much optimism for
humanity.

And like a Shakespeare comedy,
there is always trouble creeping in at the
edges: Peart writes in a self explanitory
style, “How many times do we weather
out the stormy evenings/long to slam
the front door/and drive away into the
setting sun.” The only hope offered here
is given with the words, “We could be
down and gone/but we hold on.” Pretty
slim pickings at the end of an album

whose primary themes are war and
religious intolerance.

But in typical over-the-top
Rush fashion, “We Hold On” is driven
by a high energy, indeed optimistic and
oddly groovy propulsive force. This is a
song you can get your freak on to. “We
Hold On” bounces along primarily due
to the lethal rhythm section provided
by Lee and Peart. Lifeson’s guitar,
accompanied by Lee’s whiny and by now
characteristic and appropriate vocals, is

brooding and direct, but for the song’s
chorus, it descends into a messy wash of
chords and single strings reminiscent of
Soundgarden.

Trying to get most people to
appreciate the music of Lee, Lifeson
and Peart is a bit of a chore at the best of
times, but with “We Hold On” Rush just
might have made a song everyone can
enjoy. Well, maybe not your girlfriend,
but definitely your mom.