When playing Rock Band, I had the wired headset out ready in case someone wanted to talk with me online. My wireless one has been acting up lately so I keep the wired one around. My kid likes to watch me play but I turned around one time and saw this: 

 

The boy's going to be alright. 

Arriving in the land of purple mountain majesties, Niko Bellic doesn't come equipped with any Rock Band instruments, but that doesn't mean Liberty City isn't a musically-driven town, an earful experience.  There are over 200 tracks to flip through across a rather mind-boggling spectrum of genres, and it's natural to gravitate towards our own real-life tastes when it comes to selecting what Niko essentially listens to in the game.

So it makes a lot of sense when my particular version of Niko listens to a lot of rap music.  A quintessentially American concoction, rap conveys truth, delusion, anger, and promise, frequently appropriating pre-existing and emerging elements, sounds, and textures, then remixing them, remodeling them, and finally revealing them once again in the artist's own image.  That’s the essence of rap music.

And this process, this creation of rap music speaks to the trials and tribulations Niko faces as well.  While his cousin Roman's optimism keeps alive the ideals of what the United States purportedly stands for from an immigrant’s perspective, Niko himself is waking up from this oversold American dream, seemingly within minutes of his arrival.  Early on, Niko begins the arduous and unexpected process of stripping down his hyperbolized, smoke-and-mirrors concepts about what America is, chewing it and digesting it during a downward-spiral series of firsthand observances, and then reconstructing that selfsame American dream into what it truly is for him, recognizable only by him, reformed and revealed by his own hand, not the fanciful letters from his cousin. 

And sometimes (not all the time; I don't want to oversell this idea) the rap tracks playing on 102.7 The Beat and old-school hip hop channel The Classics 104.1 manifest the spirit and intent of that GTA IV journey.  To me at least.

So when Niko is blindsided by a betrayal from a respected, well-liked, and trustworthy individual, in a backstabbing worthy of a blood feud … and Nas is on the radio reassuring Niko that “War Is Necessary” … those are the moments that begin to transcend any average videogaming experience.  It just nailed it for me.  Personalized it for me.  Carved out that particular episode for me.

Perhaps, when you play through the above scenario, you’ll be tuned into The Journey radio station, and Philip Glass’ heart-palpitating string and brass ensemble, “Pruit Igoe,” will narrate your scene (that’s the anthemic song heard on the debut GTA IV trailer).  Or maybe Lonnie Liston Smith on the IF99 channel will bathe your day with funk-laden irony as he explores what might happen were there “A Chance For Peace,” when you already know there’s no longer any chance for that.

Those are the sandbox possibilities that leave me absolutely floored.  Not that, yeah, I can pick up a hooker, beat up a hooker, and take my money back from a hooker.  That’s all well and good (if that’s your thing), but it certainly lacks the nuance I’m describing here.  I’m looking at the myriad aural variables that accompany the myriad tactile variables in Liberty City, even on otherwise common occurrences like the loose-leaf description above.

In one other scenario, after I’d been on a first date with the obsessive-compulsive but nonetheless sweet Michelle, my car silently idled outside of her apartment to the tune of Special Ed’s “I Got It Made.”  And at that moment, there was no better song I could’ve turned to on the radio.

"Yeah, so after only three dates, I totally hit that."

 My wife gave me a strange look.  I'd been building up a strong case as to why GTA IV was worthy of an actual purchase (she accepts that I'm a frequent renter, but casually seeks justification whenever I earmark $60 for a video game).  But, despite my arguments that it brilliantly unfolds the fresh-off-the-boat, immigrant-out-of-water, post-millenial terrorist-striken bloody-nosed American Dream experience, it was still possible I'd just said something wrong.  And when she'd retreated to the reading room for the rest of the night to finish Ender's Game ahead of me (she knows I hate it when she does that with books I've been promising to finish), then it only confirmed my suspicions.  Saying "I totally hit that" in reference to a videogame fictional girlfriend I'd only fictionally dated three times, on a game I'd owned less than 24 hours, was apparently crossing some line of marital fidelity I'd previously attributed only an infintesimal amount of importance upon.

 But my wife made it passive-agressively clear that this seemingly minor indiscretion on my part would not go unpunished.  Just a few minutes ago, she came into my Man Cave, set the book down on the corner of my desk, and said "I'm done" before walking right back out.  She shut the door.

I don't necessarily see a connection, but tonight I'll probably go and drop $150 - $200 on lapdances at the Triangle Club before I crawl into my very, very cold side of the bed.

Cat Lovers everywhere rejoice, as you can now join your fearless feline companion and his Halo 3 Legendary helmet by Finishing the Fight with a matching adult sized Master Chief Helmet.  Urban-Collector is now offering pre-orders for the Deluxe Halo Master Chief Mask Helmet.  If so inclined, you can get a variety of Master Chief gear based on how much you want to spend.  I think John is looking hard at the Master Chief Collector's Costume for a measly $699.  Check out both images after the jump:

 

 

Do you like the Xbox 360? Do you have a smartphone? Want a blade system for your smartphone? Then head over here and check out someone's work on recreating the blade setup on their mobile phone along with all the files necesarry for you to do it yourself.

 

Ever since the 360 decided to segment their install base by producing one SKU with a HDD and one without, I've questioned if this decision would come back to being an issue for Microsoft. Lately, we're seeing one extreme though on the PS3 where Capcom installs a huge amount of data on the hard drive so that you would get a smoother playing experience. The installs produce a much better gaming experience in terms of waiting a lot less than the 360 version but it costs a lot of space. 5 gigs, while not that big of a deal on a computer, is certainly a lot worse on a console. Granted, you could put any size hard drive on the PlayStation 3 to ease this burden but the process is still a little bit more complicated than unplugging the current HDD and plugging a new one in. For that I wish Sony wouldv'e gone with a more simple method of accessing the hard drive like the 360 or even the PlayStation 2 but I digress. 

Developers can't count on a 360 owner having an HDD so they can't force an install like PlayStation 3 games.  With games coming out these days with higher resolution textures and more video, the 360's starting to suffer from the long load time effect that makes gaming on that console a little annoying. Capcom games are one example but Mass Effect might not have suffered the texture pop ins and long elevator rides if the game could've used the HDD to cache some of the graphics. And I'm sure Chuck would appreciate the quicker loading of the cut scenes from Lost Odyssey. Coming from the PC side of things, I've always found long load times annoying as I just want to load up a game and play. That's not to say PC doesn't suffer some of the same effects but it's not as prominent as the console area since you can install a lot of the main files on a PC. 

In my opinion, the answer isn't a huge install or none at all but some place in between. For 360 owners, developers should allow an option of caching some data on the HDD when they first boot up the game. That way those that do have the HDD can benefit from the faster loading and seeking times of the HDD over the slower DVD drive to get through parts of the game faster. For the PS3, follow the PC side and ask how big of an installation do you want on your HDD. Some PC games let you install a minimal, normal, or full installation (including FMV) and I think this option would be a great way to curb the large Capcom like installs if you don't want it but still want to take advantage of the HDD to speed up some things.

The HDD can be used in both systems to benefit gamers. It doesn't change my opinion that Microsoft made a poor decision in not putting an HDD in every system but developers should still program their games to take advantage of it better if you do have one in place. 

"The PS3 is also a Blu-ray player, priced very affordably, and many early adopters of Blu-ray are using the PS3 precisely for this purpose," said Serene Fong, analyst with ABI Research.  "Microsoft's Xbox 360, which uses the HD DVD format, will see a very negative impact in terms of console sales."

I find it funny that some people think MS should've built the 360 with an HD DVD player. They think if MS would've done that then HD DVD would have have had a better chance or even win the format wars. Personally, I don't think Microsoft cares about the format.. First and foremost, they want to succeed as a gaming console whereas Sony has more at stake having their hand in not only gaming but multimedia. In my opinion, MS is thinking digital distribution all the way and thats what they want to focus on. The add-on was a way to keep the 360 from being caught with a dead format and of course to make the console cheaper to produce. Before all this, the majority of folks were glad MS decided to separate the HD drive from the main console. I still feel they made a smart decision. In the end, it doesn't matter which format wins as long as there's one left.

Dear EA,

I need to be able to pull this off in NHL 09

Thanks,

 ->Chuck