"Grand Theft Auto IV" by Rockstar Games

When there is a lot of buzz or hype about something, one naturally gets curious. Is there fire behind all that smoke? Such is the case with GTA4.

Years back, I played a previous version of GTA. It only took an hour or so to realize I hated it so I took the game back. (It is the only game I have ever taken back.) Weak graphics, boring open-world pixelated mahem. Hitting people with a 2x4 so I can steal their car and then run pedestrians over? It just wasn’t the game for me.

GTA4 has improved the graphics and is competing with Bethesda (of Oblivion and Fallout3 fame) to create the most advanced virtual world. That is interesting in and of itself but not terribly compelling. However there is also a lot of talk about "parody" and "satire of American culture". The 1up guys are talking about the compelling story and the depth of the social statement GTA makes about the immigrant experience and our culture. They even say that this GTA is less of a nihlistic shoot-em-up and more of a "chase game". And they talk about how you get drawn into the characters such that the randon violence seems jarring and out of place, even upsetting.

So it is looking like Rockstar is going to get another chance at my disposable income.

But the talk has me reflecting on a familiar topic: what is fun?

"Crackdown" was one of my all-time favorite games because I got to blow things up for good. I committed crimes to stop crime and it was fun for me. I always play super heros because I don’t want to hurt people. I don’t want to be the master criminal mind or be a virutal serial killer. Those things are not fun for me.

All games have a game mechanic and most games have a story but few games have both that appeal to me, especially the story. I play some games to escape into a fantasy world for a while but that fantasy world needs to be fun. "BioShock" is a terrific game with a well thought out story but the world is totally bleak and depressing. When I am trying to relax after a stressful day at work, Rapture is not the first fantasy destination on my list.

But given the prevalance of sadistic movies like Saw, clearly there are a lot of people who want pointless and arbitrary violence as entertainment. Different people define fun in different ways.

Is GTA4 going to be a piece of satircal high-art? The kind of thing Jonathon Swift would write if he were alive today? Is it The Colbert Report on a cartridge? I am not holding my breath. The series has always truck me as uniquely Russian -- able to find "humor" and entertainment in the kind of nihlism and violence that most people find abhorent in the real world. Is the series a morale comedy that points out the flaws in our culture or is it one of the many factors contributing to those flaws? I suspect the later more than the former but, hey, maybe its fun.