ESA Sues Chicago Transit Authority Over Advertising

The latest update in the CTA's decision to ban certain game ads is the ESA announcing they've filed a lawsuit against the CTA over the matter. The CTA has responded saying that the ban coincides with their ban on tobacco and alcohol products.

So a couple of things here. Let's remember that this all started when Fox News got into a tizzy and decided to kick up a fight about it. I live here in Chicago and there certainly isn't any public outcrying about the ads. The backstory here is that there was a week of violence which made the press and the ads were a convenient way for Fox to get a little more filler.

Chicago has a problem with violence. A GTA IV ad here or there isn't going to change that. It does, to a certain extent, make city officials defensive though, so while I think the CTA is very clearly in the wrong here - I also don't want to make it sound like they're unfounded. There's real cause for concern, especially in some communities, and steps should be taken. This just isn't one of them.

First and foremost we need to remember that the CTA is an organization with deep financial troubles. They've gone through periods essentially threatening riders with "Doomsday" ads about shutting down services if they don't get more cash. To complain to the public about not having any cash and then going down a route which probably not only reduce ad revenues but will probably cost taxpayers thousands in legal fees is simply idiotic. It's feel-good politics, but bad governance.

The claim that the ban is inline with banning tobacco and alcohol ads not only defies logic in general, it won't hold up in court. It's the same distinction that the state tried for limiting the sale of mature rated games to minors and the state got their teeth kicked in for it. And let's not forget that CTA allows R rated movie ads, like the kid friendly Dark Knight with all its animated puppies and whatnot. Oh no wait, that was Bolt, Dark Knight stabbed a guy in the eye with a pencil.

Eventually lawmakers, Fox News, and self-righteous nutjobs like Thompson will realize that while video games might make for a decent scapegoat culturally - they suck as scapegoats financially. Sadly, they probably won't realize this until a couple more increases to some lawyers' bank accounts are made.

Steam Offers GTA IV Refunds

Faithful readers know my opinion of Steam, so naturally I was bit surprised to hear that they're offering refunds (on a case by case basis, apparently) of Grand Theft Auto IV because the darn thing is just too buggy.

Considering Valve fought me tooth and nail to refund a product that would do nothing but display a black screen and crash, that has to be some pretty serious quality concerns. I pondered at one time if Rockstar would even bother with a PC version of GTA, considering the franchise has done so well in recent versions on the console. Did they just go the ultra cheap route to try and maximize their profit and get burned?

Probably.

Game Play: GTA IV, At Story's End

We're not technically at the end, end, but rather still trying to make our way through the very last mission (or, by it's length and difficulty - what we assume is the very last mission).

The story of GTA IV marks high water point for at least the franchise, if not the genre and even the industry in general. That's not to say that this is wonderful Pulitzer material or anything, and the game could learn a few lessons from previous story heavyweights like Knights Of The Old Republic. Name the decisions Nikko makes don't feel like they hold a profound effect on the narrative as a whole.

This might be a premature assumption as we still haven't played terribly much the branches, I admit, but to bring it back to KOTOR terms I get the impression that Nikko's choice is, in reality, between the Dark Side and the Dark Side (this analogy, by the way, fits even better when you get to some of the end dialogue with Roman).

That said, Nikko's story of hate, anger and revenge has some serious depth. It's brought out not merely in the overall story but in Nikko's bellowing cries at his victims. Rockstar embraced the fact that Nikko excels at walking into a crowded room and walking back the only one alive. Nikko isn't some faceless action hero - he is punishment in motion.

This, however, swings wonderfully into emotional breadth when Nikko is occasionally quieted. Or at times when he's trying to come to terms with himself while talking to Kate. I won't spoil it here (although I feel like we're the last people to finish the game) - but one of the best moments in the game doesn't arrive with an assassination ... but after.

In other news, the HDTV purchase has been ordered, which might be an excuse to play the game all over again.

Some GTA IV Mechanics In Brief

One thing that keeps impressing me about Rockstar is their ability to evolve their GTA franchise by removing old mechanics, adding new ones and updating some that remain. While this was certainly notable with San Andreas (and not nearly as much with the various side stories, with GTA IV they've taken the game to a whole new paradigm.

The next gen graphics, for instance, allow the game to have a more "realistic" feel. Powerups no longer float and rotate (as they have in about 80% of every 3D game to come before) - but sit and glow on the ground. The mission markers no longer glow with huge circles but rather small yellow errors. And of course, we have the waypoint path finder - which marks the "shortest legal path" between you and your driving goal.

And oddly, except for that last one, these are probably the least successful updates in the game. It's nearly impossible to distinguish weapons until you've picked them up and it's much easier to miss the mission markers from a distance now.

Of course we have next gen hardware now which means we get next gen physics now. This is easily my favorite as launching a SUV over a railing, rolling three cars over as you careen and then bouncing off a building is fun.

Anyone who just read that and thought "what's fun about a car accident simulator" - wait til the end.

With the new physics we also get more complicated driving mechanics. Keep cars from fishtailing and turning at high speeds certainly takes more practice than any previous edition of the game but in the long run I'm willing to put it down as a plus. Car chases remind me of the classic Driver chases more than any game thus far.

The new wanted systems has gotten a lot of talk at first blush. What's interesting I think is that for all the changes - the end result is about the same. Sure, you can avoid one star easily by driving real fast in a straight line. Is that any different than just being able to jump into a pizza joint? One star was always a joke to shake off, and two stars not much more so. Avoiding three stars and above can be a subgame on its own, as it should be.

We also get the most vastly expanded set of combat controls in the history of the franchise. Niko is far more capable of using cover, blind firing, moving and aiming, aiming at body parts, etc., than any of his predecessors. The end result here is that Niko feels a lot more the badass everyone seems willing to hire.

And everyone wants a piece of Niko. While typing this, The Girl got three text messages and two phone calls. The whole social networking can be overbearing at times (Roman especially seems to enjoy calling when you're in the middle of a high speed chase) - but also quite hilarious. Just watching how different character react to getting drunk with Niko is a comedy show on its own.

The fact that Niko can then turn around and drive drunk has turned the "murder simulator" fight into "drunk driving simulator" fight (partly because I think people outside the gaming culture are realizing the joke that Jack Thompson really is as a lawyer and "expert"). The thing is that this argument is just as ignorant as the previous one. The game doesn't reward you for driving drunk any more than it rewards you for flipping cars over or running down pedestrians. The fact that you can do something in a game doesn't mean that the game encourages, trains or gives you point for doing it. Especially in a game like GTA IV where you can do all those thing and pick up a hooker without it having anything to do with the main game itself.

In this way, GTA IV resembles its protagonist Niko Bellic - who in the words of his cousin is a "miserable sociopath". You can bring your ethics to the table if you want, but they're just your ethics and the game doesn't really give a damn. It didn't ask you to bring anything at all. But if you do so, make sure you take everything into account. Like that the game warns you about driving drunk, that you can take a cab and even a miserable sociopath like Niko seems to remember helmet laws for the most part. The truth is that the detractors of the game seem mostly to wring their hands over the fact that the game doesn't punish you enough for these acts - but unable to verbalize in any way that doesn't make them look ridiculous that what they want is a big alert window saying "Driving Drunk Is Bad".

If playing a PSA was in any way fun, I might even see their point. But it isn't, and I don't. Being a miserable sociopath, on the other hand, clearly has some entertainment value because otherwise GTA IV wouldn't have the financial pull of Fort Knox.

And more to the point - no GTA game has ever harmed anyone. Sorry there, BatJack, but you had your day (days in fact) to prove your point and now you're getting disbarred. This case is closed and it's time to move on.

To finish up that note though, I think Niko might be the best character the series has ever produced. CJ from San Andreas was something of a hip hop action hero. Despite being a thug, thief and overall gang lord - you still got the impression the CJ loved his mom, hung with his homies and was generally a good guy with which you could share a forty.

Niko, on the other hand, is a broken down soldier who thinks everything is crap and meets his enemies and friends the same sly grin that insists he could snap you in half. Roman pegs him - he is a miserable sociopath but in being so it makes him feel more realistic and three dimensional than a lot of previous entries into the field. Niko has a past and that past clearly haunts him even when he's not talking about it.

Time to go - The Girl just lifted an armored van to take Little Jacob home again. She might just have to call that lawyer chick for a favor again before the day is through.