A few rumors started floating around following Rockstar’s brief announcement of Grand Theft Auto V. Thanks to the trailer that came out yesterday, one of the rumors was shown to be true. Grand Theft Auto V will take place in that universe’s version of L.A., Los Santos. You will get to explore the world’s beaches, surrounding hills, and countryside during the efforts of your character(s) to make money. You can even do some site seeing at landmarks such as the “Vinewood” sign.

The press release says Grand Theft Auto V  is “the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created.” Adding to that, Rockstar founder Sam Houser says, “Grand Theft Auto V is another radical reinvention of the Grand Theft Auto universe,” but they apparently left those parts out of the trailer. Hey, but at least they’re bringing back the online multiplayer. You’ll probably see your standard deathmatch stuff and some co-op missions, which could be where the multiple playable characters rumor comes from.

What changes (if any) do you expect Grand Theft Auto V to bring to support Rockstar’s claims?

As for characters, it seems as though you are going to play as multiple people throughout the course of the game. Whether or not these multiple characters are played through DLC, like Grand Theft Auto IV‘s Episodes From Liberty City, is still unclear, but it seems unlikely that we’re already getting info about the DLC that’s planned for the game.  Hopefully this info will be enough to whet your appetite until November 2nd, when we get the trailer.

Also, if you’re wondering why Grand Theft Auto V was announced on a seemingly random day, there’s one humorous theory out there. It’s the three year anniversary of the disbarment of Jack Thompson, a political activist who has campaigned against video games (most notably Grand Theft Auto), and this is Rockstar sticking their tongue out at him. So if that’s the case: well played, Rockstar. Well played.

Let’s go back to GTA for a minute. There is no denying that the worlds they built in each of those games since GTA 3 are rich and immersive. The problem with them is the fact that you have to do so much menial crap the entire time you are in them that you never get to experience the world fully. Want to drive around and listen to that great song from the 90’s that you loved? Can’t, have to stop and eat before my player gets faint and passes out. Want to stop in at the local strip club and experience the nightlife? Sorry, I don’t get reception in there, and I really need to take this call. By putting in such small tasks for the player to do, the developers have torn down this great immersion that they have worked painstakingly hard to create with the environment itself.

The solution? Create this amazing environment, and go with just the basics as far as gameplay. In an open-world game, this should be as simple as drive, shoot, and walk. In a platformer, it should be move and jump. Don’t make the player stop at every sign to read it or force them to slow down because the character has been running for too long. In a way, this relates back to my article condemning innovation. Making the player do something so mind-numbingly dull isn’t an innovative way to build immersion. It is innovative to do it through a great and unique environment that will suck the player in and keep them playing until four in the morning.

I would like to be clear that I am not saying that every world has to be a ridiculously detailed landscape of perfection. No, it just needs to be interesting. In fact, going too far in the detail direction can hurt the immersion in the same way that too many details in gameplay can. If there is a light to turn on or a door to close at every step you take, the player will be taken out of that game. Like I said before, just make it interesting. Take Limbo for example. That world isn’t too detailed, but it sucks the player in. By creating something that we haven’t seen before and committing 100% to that world, the developers created a feeling of dread, a sense of curiosity, and a bit of wonder in players. There is a middle ground that developers have to work with in creating these worlds, but so often they seem to miss.

I don’t know if I’m prepared to state definitively that better immersion can be achieved through environment than gameplay, simply that it is better to have more details in one than the other. However, I don’t know if a developer has found a way yet to create better immersion through gameplay. We keep adding more and more, and it seems that is what takes players out. With the success of the Wii based largely on its games’ simplicity, I think that gamers and non-gamers have made it clear that they don’t want more to do. I mean, just imagine if every time you played a Mario game you had to really fix a toilet or hit up a fast food joint to keep his body in poor physical condition. It would be just as depressing as our actual lives.

I think we’re all adults here, so I feel confident that I can safely make a statement regarding a certain aspect of Mafia 2’s content without getting any giggles from those that would be easily amused by words like nipple or foreskin. The statement I’d like to make is a simple one. Mafia 2 needed more topless women and more male frontal nudity. Oh come on, I said no giggling! Let me explain.

Mafia 2 is a very mature game. Given its subject matter and the time period in which it is set, players would expect heavy doses of violence, drugs, foul language, racism and sex. The game owes a great deal to Scorcese films like Goodfellas and Casino, and for the most part, does a great job at handling many of those “not for the faint of heart” themes with an air of sophistication and maturity. Violence is intense and often graphic, but not glamorized. Racist remarks are used to show the appropriate ethnic tensions and distrust of the era and are not just thrown in haphazardly. Weighty stuff, indeed, and it’s all done quite well…except for the sex. Anything remotely sexual, developer 2K Czech has handled with all the finesse of an elephant trying to walk through a tulip patch without squashing any flowers.

Now, before I get into why this is important, let me start by saying that this is not a soapbox speech on how ridiculous it is that our culture is fine with portraying the taking of life but not the making of life. We’ve all heard that one before, and it doesn’t completely apply here anyway. Instead, the problem with Mafia 2’s mishandling of sexual content that I’d like to address is that it creates moments of broken immersion within an otherwise beautifully painted mural of its subject matter. Additionally, the insincerity of the game’s sexual content also keeps it, and by extension gaming in general, from being taken seriously as a legitimate narrative medium capable of delivering a full variety of adult oriented themes in an appropriate and fearless manner. Looking at a couple of examples, you’ll quickly see what I mean.

[WARNING: SPOILERS] The remainder of the article will deal with some plot details for Mafia 2. While I think they are fairly minor, I don’t want to be blamed for not warning you.

Mafia 2 takes place over the course of a couple decades, and like most gangster stories that span many years, we get to see the protagonist, Vito Scaletta, do some time in prison. And we all know prison isn’t a very nice place. Of course Vito manages to make some enemies, and in one particular instance, finds himself in some hot water, so to speak.

The scene goes something like this: After being forced to clean some rather nasty urinals, Vito is ordered by the guard to strip down to take a shower. While in the shower room, a trio of unfriendly inmates wishes to intimately acquaint themselves with your character. The situation begins to look grim as the men surround you, and you start fighting in the hopes of avoiding this humiliating violation. However, in the midst of this terrible scene, you, the player, notice that something isn’t quite right here. Something’s a bit off. Then it hits you: These men are all wearing boxer shorts in the shower.

Because of this laughable and illogical visual, the player never gets to feel truly exposed or vulnerable. They are emotionally protected by that little bit of fabric. They never feel the heightened levels of insecurity that a similar scene from the film American History X delivers, and they never get fully taken in by the primal nature of the ensuing fight like they would by the movie Eastern Promises when it portrays two exposed men fighting for their lives.

This was a moment in which the nudity would not only have taken the scene to a higher level of emotional immersion, but also would have been completely appropriate to the narrative context. No one showers with their shorts on. To portray otherwise is so nonsensical that it only serves to remove the player from the reality the game is trying to create. Immersion broken.

The other major mishap happens directly after Vito is released from prison. He meets up with his buddies for a celebratory night out on the town. So where do they go? To a house of ill repute, of course! The boys refer to it as a “cathouse,” and the conversation on the way to the establishment leaves no room for error in guessing why you are going there. Once inside, the place looks like an upscale strip club. There are stages with women dancing, girls sitting all around you and hallways and doors that presumably lead to places where “transactions” are made.

It’s a wonderfully busy and alive scene. But again, as the camera pulls back, you notice something is not quite right in this den of sin. Every one of the working girls, even the ones dancing on stage, is clothed. Now it could be argued that this was a more modest era, but I don’t think that’s what was at play here. The girls are dressed in highly revealing lingerie that looks like anything you might see today. The dress isn’t used to indicate the time period here at all. Instead, it just looks like another instance in which the game isn’t willing to take that extra step. It’s nudity that would have made complete sense and would not have felt gratuitous. Without it, the scene just doesn’t ring true and, again, immersion is broken.

What’s more alarming about this scene is that the developers do depict a highly sexual act, but it’s done for laughs. While Vito is sitting around talking to his buddies, you can’t help but notice a head bobbing in and out of the bottom of the frame as your friend is “orally serviced” right in front of you. Without describing it, just know that the act is portrayed humorously. So rather than have the nudity that made sense for the scene, we get what appears to be the result of childish designers leaning over to each other during a development meeting and saying, “Hey, you know what would be funny right here…?”

Let’s also not forget that the game features nude Playboy centerfold pictures as collectibles. These are actual photographs of nude women. Viewing them stops the action of the game, or has to be done from a separate menu outside of the main game. So these images don’t technically exist in the game space. They are simply for the player and add little to no narrative value to the game other than a passing connection to the time period. But realistically, their inclusion makes as much sense as if a game set in the 90’s featured centerfolds from the 90’s in it as collectibles. How is this ok, but contextually relevant sexual imagery is not?

If these choices were made due to issues with the ESRB, then both the developer and the ratings board are at fault. Shame on the ESRB if they wanted to censor portrayals of sexual imagery that were more than warranted by the narrative, and shame on the developer for not sticking with the authenticity of their vision and fighting for their content. This could have been a landmark opportunity to make sure a game’s narrative integrity remained intact.

Now, if 2K Czech made these choices of their own accord, then the blame is solely with them. The choices to censor the game in the moments I described are not only artistically gutless, but extremely immature when viewed in light of other sexual content that does appear in the game.

It’s these types of misguided directorial choices that keep games firmly planted in the lowbrow column of entertainment, and shines a negative light on those that create them. As I said before, these problems wouldn’t be such a big deal for Mafia 2 if the entire game was a little more tongue-in-cheek like Grand Theft Auto. However, the thematic mishandling of sex here shows such glaring tonal inconsistency that it really is hard not to notice. It’s time to grow up guys. We can’t beg to be taken seriously as an art form at every opportunity, and then do stuff like this. Respect your product, respect your narrative and respect your audience. Doing that will make sure that when it comes to being taken seriously, we won’t have to beg.

Video games have always been a love of mine. And as such, they have also always been a hate of mine. I guess I shouldn’t say always. It started more around college, when I started playing even more games and diving deeper into video game culture. Gaming with my roommates was always fun, and I was moving forward with a love of gaming that I don’t know if I had ever had. Once we all parted ways and I was living with my girlfriend, things started to change. Because we all scattered around the city, we didn’t get together to play games nearly as much as we used to. Okay, no big deal, I did have tons of single player games to play anyway. This is where the trouble started. It started to become apparent to me, playing these single player “story” games, that the state of gaming had become extremely stale. Every game seemed to be filled with the same beefed up main character, the same alien-infested worlds, and the same mindless shooting. I don’t know when it happened, but the video games that I once knew and loved had become very boring and frustrating to me.

It was around this time that Aaron and I started talking more and more about our anger with the industry. I compared it to the toiling comic book medium and spouted on about how video game developers, and possibly the medium itself, were incapable of telling a good story. I didn’t know if I was just bored and in a funk or if I had actually started to outgrow my favorite hobby. I seemed to become increasingly out of touch with fellow gamers who were eating up Halo, Grand Theft Auto, and a slew of other games that I had little interest in. This only added to my frustration with the medium, as I not only aimed my anger at the games themselves but also the people who consumed them.

At this point I had become almost completely disenfranchised with video games. I think that the tipping point came with my frustration with game journalism. Nobody seemed to be having the same problems that I had with games. Everybody was moving along like sheep, and I couldn’t take it anymore.

I had hit the point of hating pretty much everything about the video game medium. Video games had become a bad relationship for me. But, like any relationship that’s worth saving, I knew that I had to work on it. I started looking at everything that I absolutely hated about video games and began thinking of ways that they could be made better. Aaron and I started discussing solutions to problems we saw, and Pixelosophy started to slowly grow into what it is today.

As my friend Tyler Durden said, “It is only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” This is exactly what happened to me with games. I had hit bottom and had nowhere to go but up. And it was by my own choice, too. I knew that I still cared about games because I hated them. There is a saying that goes something along the lines of indifference being worse than hate. If you hate something, you still at least have feelings for it. If you’re indifferent, you’ve lost the ability to even care about it. Thankfully I hadn’t hit this point, and out of my hate for the status of the industry, a renewed interest was born that I don’t think will fade anytime soon.

So, I started thinking of whether or not this happens in other games. Another game that I have been playing recently sprang to mind. Little Big Planet allows the player to give a facial expression to their on-screen character. They can either make him be happy, sad, angry, or scared, and all to varying degrees. It’s odd, but after completing a rather tough portion of platforming, I would find myself putting a smile on the face of my character. Or, if I had died time and time again, it wasn’t uncommon for me to put on the angry face. The weird thing about it was that the face on the character was pretty much the face I was making. I was able to have a shared emotion with my character.

The thing that I find most interesting about this is the fact that such a simple mechanic can make you feel closer to your character. Because I could make the character feel what I was feeling emotionally, and then express that through a facial animation, I felt like I was that character and vice versa. It may seem far-fetched, but try it sometime. If you think I’m talking crazy, let’s look at the flip side.

Have you ever walked towards the camera in Grand Theft Auto? What face was your character making? Chances are it was some pissed off blank stare as havoc was being unleashed behind him. Why? You, as the player, are having fun running around blowing up cars and killing civilians, so why isn’t your character? Do you not share the same interests? Does he find what you are forcing him to do to be mundane and senseless? Does he not agree with all of this violence? Maybe you don’t have as much in common with him as you thought. This example can be found in many other games. How often does Marcus Fenix crack a smile? Hardly ever since he’s too busy murdering alien scum. So, how are you supposed to enjoy yourself if your character can’t even find something to be happy about?

Now, obviously the difference in these games is the fact that the player can’t control the facial expression of the character. But why not? It seems like it would be a simple mechanic to implement in games. Imagine those same scenes from Grand Theft Auto, this time with a slight smirk on your face. Or as Marcus Fenix, you give yourself a brief look of anxiety as you get ready to enter a room full of Locust. Small touches like this would make you feel a little bit closer to your character because you know in that moment, they are thinking what you are thinking and feeling what you are feeling.

To be completely honest, I don’t know if people would use player-controlled facial expressions if they were in every game. Maybe I just use them in Little Big Planet because it’s different and I find it fun. But I think it would be an interesting experiment. If it would close the gap in player-character relations then why not give it a shot? Until then, we’ll all just have to smile while we game because it makes us game happier.

April 13th:

• Splinter Cell Conviction for the Xbox 360 in both Standard and Collector’s Edition flavors.
• Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City for the PS3 and PC
• Attack of the Movies 3D for the Nintendo Wii
• Family Game Show for the Nintendo Wii
• Flip’s Twisted World for the Nintendo Wii
• Dawn of Heroes for the Nintendo DS
• Sea Park Tycoon for the Nintendo DS
• Blood Bowl for the PSP

A lot more than last week, both in the “quality” and “shovelware” departments. Release dates courtesy of Amazon.

Tom Bissell was an acclaimed, prize-winning young writer. Then he started playing the video game Grand Theft Auto. For three years he has been cocaine addicted, sleep deprived and barely able to write a word. Any regrets? Absolutely none

All in all it’s an interesting read, but that is not my sole motivation for sharing it with you. Make no mistake, this is the product of addiction, not video games. I imagine there are similar stories involving competitive Shuffleboard. Before you call your congressman, please keep that in mind. Now that that is out of the way, it’s a pretty riveting story that deserves your attention.