Hot Game 2009

Given the endlessly bad press it receives, you’d almost think Grand Theft Auto was the ruin of Western civilization. But while its hooker-beating and indiscriminate violence come up every time some culture critic wants to rag on digital entertainment, gamers have their own reasons for liking it. Reasons like limitless freedom, unfettered exploration and infinite possibilities for running over old ladies at high speeds. And with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, you’ll get more of that stuff than most people can handle.

Giving players three full-sized cities to go nuts in, San Andreas is the biggest chapter in the urban car-crime series, as well as one of the most convincing virtual worlds ever created. As former gangsta Carl “CJ” Johnson, you’ll explore the massive, fictional state of San Andreas, a California/Nevada hybrid complete with analogues of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas, with miles of countryside and small towns in between. It’s all supported by an epic, misison-based storyline that takes CJ and friends from fighting lowly turf battles to pulling jobs for the CIA to planning a massive casino heist. And then, as the game winds down, they’ll finally go gun-to-gun with the people behind CJ’s misfortunes.

Until then, the gameplay is classic GTA, which means players are generally free to do as they please in a big, open 3-D world. Any vehicle you see can be taken for a joyride, and thanks to GTA’s mix of tongue-in-cheek mayhem and fine-tuned controls (when driving, at least), this is a hell of a lot of fun even when cops are chasing you around town (and they will, the second they see you doing something illegal).

The rest of the action still revolves around shooting or beating folks, and this is a little less enjoyable thanks to an auto-aiming system that locks on to the nearest person, rather than the nearest threat. Is there a gang member shooting at you from across the block? Too bad! You’re locking onto that old lady behind you, whether you want to or not. And since she’s behind you, CJ will just point his gun straight up until you turn him around. To be fair, San Andreas adds a first-person-style control scheme that makes aiming a little easier, but it still gets clumsy in firefights with squads of enemies.

Mass Effect is a science fiction action-RPG created by BioWare Corp., the commercially and critically acclaimed RPG developer of “Jade Empire,” and “Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic.” As the first human on the galactic stage, you must

uncover the greatest threat to civilization. Your job is complicated by the very fact of your humanity, as no one trusts you and you need to find a way to convince everyone of the grave threat. You will travel across an expansive universe to piece the mystery together. As you discover and explore the uncharted edges of the galaxy, you come closer to an overwhelming truth – learning that the placid and serene universe you know is about to come to a violent end and that you may be the only person who can stop it! In addition to the main story arc of the game, players are be able to visit a large number of uncharted, unexplored planets which are side quests independent from the main story. At any time during the campaign, a player can choose to explore one of these planets and have an opportunity to discover new alien life, resources, ruined civilizations and powerful technologies. Talents and abilities are upgradeable and advanced talent options become available at higher levels. Weapons and vehicles are customizable to include various effects, abilities and upgrades using the “X-Mod” system. Each character class have unique talents and abilities which increase in power as the player progresses through the game

Did you feel that the ending wasn’t satisfying? Did you find yourself becoming bored at higher levels? Here are your answers.

Bethesda’s post-apocalyptic RPG, Fallout 3, is an amazing game to be sure, garnering near universal praise and game of the year honors from such outlets as Gamasutra and IGN. Just like every other game out there, however, it’s by no means perfect and for fans of the series, Bethesda has a lot of questions to answer. The most common of which being, “What was up with that ending?” MTV’s Patrick Klepek took three of these common grievances and laid them out to Fallout 3 executive producer Todd Howard.

Criticism the first is an odd one, being that when judged as a first-person shooter, Fallout 3 comes up short. Howard’s response is curt and to the point: “Agreed.” I hadn’t heard of this one myself, as comparing Fallout 3 to Halo would be like comparing Grand Theft Auto IV to Gran Turismo. Just because you get to race cars in the two games, it doesn’t mean that they should be held to the same standards.

The second criticism is one that a lot of players feel quite strongly about, which is that the ending isn’t very satisfying and, when compared to previous Fallout titles, it doesn’t quite stack up. “Based on the feedback I’ve seen, most people are pissed off that it ends, not the ‘ending’ itself,” levels Howard. “That’s another thing we’re changing in ["Broken Steel," the third piece of downloadable content due in March]. We really underestimated how many people would want to keep playing, so that’s probably the last time we’ll do something like that.”

For those unaware, completing Fallout 3 renders your current game essentially useless as you can no longer continuing playing with that character unless you made sure to hold on to a previous save. Reversing this decision via downloadable content opens up a whole other can of worms, specifically for PlayStation 3 owners. While Xbox 360 players have downloadable content to look forward to and PC users can easily modify their game to go around the ending, PlayStation 3 fans are essentially boned with neither option being made available to them. To be fair, its not as though these gamers weren’t given proper warning, as word came as early as July 2008 that Fallout 3 DLC would not be made available for the PlayStation 3 edition of the game.

The final criticism is that V.A.T.S, the auto-targeting system found within the game, is boring once your accuracy rating makes for easy head shots later in the game. Howard responds, “Depends on what you find entertaining. I like to blow people’s heads off, so, well, it never got old for me.”