I don’t care, and this image is largely why.  Or at least indicitave of the reason.

For those who don’t know, this image was one of the first released for the game GTA IV.  If I recall correctly, it was (in a cropped form) on the cover of Game Informer magazine several months ago.  I’m not enthused with Game Informer — it comes with my GameStop discount card — and this is an example of why I feel that way.

Now, I’ve made it clear that sexuality isn’t exactly verboten here at CotT, as our goal here is to make mature games.  But we do mean mature by that, at to us that implies a bit of class.  This image reminds me of the bad sort of porn that comes out of the traditional porn industry, none of which we find very compelling here. 

Of course, half my reaction is that this game is Grand Theft Auto IV, not “Hooker Porn IV”, where the advertisement might make more sense, although then it wouldn’t be on the cover of Game Informer magazine.  I seem trashier/more explicit images most days, and sometimes I’m interested and sometimes I’m not.  But this doesn’t make me want to play the game.

I first got involved with GTA with version 3, after a friend played it, recommended it (and, IIRC, brought a copy of it over for us to see).  I purchased a used copy (see GameStop Discount Card) and mostly enjoyed it.  I enjoyed some of the missions, which made me laugh at there ostentation.  I enjoyed the driving parts of the game, but truly hated the shooting parts.  One thing that intrigued me about the game was the way that you were kind of isolated: everyone else in the game was a generic, unfeeling character or one you could not interact with, since they were only in the movies.  Yes, there are exceptions but they are rare. 

What surprised me about the game was the way that dehumanized everyone else, which, in turn, made it okay to be this horrible person who steals cars, runs over people, and does bad things with and to prostitutes.  Ultimately, I found the most fun was trying to drive well, not running over people, and doing thigns like the taxi missions (the taxis were my favorite cars).  The cut-scenes with the different characters made it interesting enough to do the missions (and made me happy when I got to the teasingly sexual ones on the second island (I never made it to the third island, I admit)).

I didn’t play Vice City, but I did try San Andreas, which couldn’t keep my attention long enough to care.  I mean, it was Grand Theft Auto, right? Not “Paint Graffiti and Ride Around On My Bike”.  I played Liberty City Stories on PSP, one of the few games I enjoyed on my PSP — although it’s movies ate my battery for lunch.  Again, I got to the second island and it got too hard, with too many shoot-em-up missions that I didn’t like, so I sent it back to GameFly.

The image above, as one of the primary marketing images tells me that they aren’t returning to what I liked about the game.  So, I truly don’t care. 

It’s kind of sad: Girl has my Wii in order to play Okami, but none of the releases on the XBox 360 are remotely interesting.  I don’t care about GTA IV; Viking looks like another throw-away GoW clone; Dark Sector seems similar, it’s already passing out of the minds of the web.  I’ve been playing Orange Box, it’s one of the few FPS’s that I’m willing to play, but I purchased that on the strength of Portal. 

So, I’m sure we’ll play more Rock Band tonight (we’ve almost assembled a whole band!), and wait for something thats not eminently missable from the game companies out there.