Waffle Squadron Omega

San Diego was a buzz last night as if some top name super star had just touched down and only a few select people could meet them. Secret gaggles of otakus moved about the streets in something that brought back feelings reminiscent to the gang meeting scene from The Warriors and I was somewhere in the middle of it all.

I showed up to the lot of the Gamestop about 20 minutes from my house at about 1130 hoping to quickly pop in and get back home in time to tuck my daughter in. I failed miserably, blocked by 50 more dedicated otaku who had set up camp at the store long before and only looked to gain more strength as the time grew closer for the store to open. One kid (he looked about 17) had been out front of the store long enough to complete a downloaded psp version of Final Fantasy….VII!!!  A 13 year old kid two people in front of me was on his cell phone coaching his dad to come out an vouch for his purchase while holding a camcorder. The rest of us spent our time thinking up violent reactions the possibility of being filmed.

Finally at 1200 on the dot the doors swung open and with the proclamation of this 13 year old bag of retardedness claiming “the ultimate gaming experience has begun”  I was on my way to being one of the first to smuggle my way into the great cesspool that is Liberty City.

What a filthy, violent,  disgusting, morally questionable, blood wrenched night that turned out to be too. In other words, yes people GTA IV truly is all they hype it to be and then some.

As I play the game more expect to hear plenty but here are a few quick tidbits you may or may not already know about the game:

• After the first load for each mission, you won’t even notice a hiccup between indoors and outdoors transitions everything is seemless
• The game uses the same engine as the new FORCE UNLEASED so that means cars that really move like cars and people that really do fly (with a little help that is)
• The dialog is amazing. Its on par with any ganster flick or better yet the best quotes from your favorite Quinton Tarrintino flick
• When you shop in stores for clothe, you literally walk the isles and pick items from the racks and hangers
• Cars take realistic damage, including blood splatters from pedestrians meeting your bumper
• Liberty City is not just big this time around, ITS FUCKIN HUGE!!!
• Six axis controls for the PS3 can control your bike, reload your weapon and a number of various other tasks but does not feel tacked on. In other words it actually works here.
• You will have to make a lot of decissions on who your friends are and who to help in a bind. Missing call or failing to help out someone in time will affect your game play later on. For instance pissing off one friend may cause the price of guns to go up or down depending on the friend.
• There are some dating elements to the game.
• There is multiplayer and it is awesome. Won’t spoil to much but I will give you three hints for what to expect “16 player deathmatch!”
• Jack Thompson hates this game so much he requested the arrests of Gamestop, Walmart and your parents.
• Make a sandwich because the initial load will take a while
• Make some popcorn because the opening plays out like a full featured movie, hidden credits and all!
• Oh and the aiming for guns and whatnot doesn’t suck anymore
• Take note of this important fact, all the info I just gave you I learned in the first 45 minutes to an hour of the game. barely 1% of the damn thing. = )

Enjoy guys and gals and remember…. its not what you steal but who you steal it from that counts!

the hype, that is. For GTA IV. It’s coming out in about a week and a half, and I’m starting to get that tingling, “Ohmanit’sgonnabesoawesome” sensation in my abdominal region. The various multiplayer modes sound like a lot of fun. CounterStrike-style last man standing shoot-offs, racing (with or without weapons), etc. And did you hear that Ricky Gervais is in it? He does a three minute act in a comedy club, and besides doing the voice for it he also did the mo-cap. Also, did you read about how the DLC on the 360 will be entire cities? They use an SAT kind of analogy: the planned DLC is to GTA4 as San Andreas/Vice City was to GTA3. And (the recent) GTA games have always been good times. The early reviews coming from Europe seem to indicate that the good times are still to be had. Possibly even better times than previously experienced.

We’ll see in early May if I end up with the same feeling GTA3/VC/SA always gave me a few weeks in. I’d inevitably play to a point where I’m stuck on a mission from every mission source. Unable to move the story forward because I can’t drive across town in 5 minutes without scratching up my car or whatever, I resort to the sandbox stuff. Trying to see how long I can last against an ever increasing onslaught of cops/SWAT teams/whathaveyou. Soon, I even get tired of tossing grenades into the line of cars at a red light and I never play it again. However, the various multiplayer modes may keep me entertained for longer, and I may even end up “Keeping It” from GameFly if the DLC turns out to be worth it. Time will tell.

I just saw this on Digg. Yikes.

http://www.popgive.com/2008/04/when-someone-is-nintendo-fan.html

Here’s a sample of the madness:

Here’s the new video I’ve been promising off and on. As I’ve noted previously, this is more of an animation test than anything else, though I do hope you find it funny/awesome. It’s technically Waffle Squadron Omega - Season 1 - Episode 0, but it doesn’t really have much to do with the overall story. I figured I’d throw some WSO references in there anyway, though. That way, years later when we actually have a few WSO episodes out there, people can look at it and say, “Hey! Space Jersey!” or whatever. Anyway, enjoy!

Click here to view a less crappy version than the YouTube window below.

Here’s the text of the newspaper article:
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