Entropy

As the days count down to the biggest gaming release of the year (imho), the GTA IV previews and features are piling up. 1UP.com has a new information, with some nice screenshots on the maturity on the gaming franchise and what we can expect.

If — for the purposes of the standard preview preamble — we were to liken the Grand Theft Auto series to the U.S. primary education system, it breaks down quite conveniently. So what the heck, let’s do it. [Continue at 1UP.com]…

Its time to get in the internet waiting line, in just a few hours the Rockstar Social Club will be opening for pre-registration, 12 days before the launch of GTA IV.

But this Rockstar Social Club to coincide with the release of Grand Theft Auto IV intrigues me. Online leaderboards (for single and multiplayer), a virtual police blotter, wine, cheese … what doesn’t this social club have? Well, the answer is a catchy single like “Rumors,” of course. But that’s not going to stop me from signing up later in the week … or from asking our readers to come up with a catchy pop single for the Rockstar Social Club. Read on at Destructiod …

A seperate Destructoid post has some actual details on what will be included (aside from cheese) for the GTA IV launch –

GTA IV, the first game featured on the Rockstar Social Club, has
exciting features beyond multiplayer leaderboards, including:

* LCPD Police Blotter — A virtual map and tracker of single-player
criminal activity logged in Liberty City from the aggregated data of
millions of connected players - showing the most dangerous areas of
town, most commonly used weapons and more.

* The Story Gang — This special single-player leaderboard recognizes
players who complete Niko Bellic’s main story arc of Grand Theft Auto IV
- The leaderboard ranks players according to the total amount of playing
time it’s taken to complete the story, as well as a historical rank by
who has completed it first.  Members of this club will receive special
online widgets and merit badges marking all of their in-game
accomplishments.

* The 100% Club — Watch to see who will be the first to complete 100%
of the game. The first ten people to be identified on the Social Club as
reaching 100% will be sent an ultra-rare commemorative ‘key to the city’
to mark their accomplishment.  In the future, the 100% Club will then
carry a historical leaderboard showing rankings of who has completed
100% of a game in the shortest span of playing hours.

* The Hall of Fame — This area will dynamically recognize those
singularly elite players who have reached the top of the hill on various
statistical leaderboards, and will also contain a personal awards
display of special in-game landmarks and successes in Social Club
competitions.

* The Liberty City Marathon — A ranking of special physical milestones
achieved in the game - from the amount of miles walked, driven, or swam
- to the number of bullets fired and stunt-jumps jumped.  There will be
additional special marathon-based competitions in the future from this
area as well.

Now as you know, we never post videos here but wow. This really was epic failure. A warthog fell out of the sky, and crushed this poor dood.

Image from Wikipedia

If your GT5 Prologue won’t connect to the servers (every time you start it) it almost definately means you haven’t applied the update. I had it happen to me that it didn’t offer me the update because I hadn’t applied 2.20 (PS3) yet - there are various ways this could happen, but to repair it follow the steps below –

1. Exit the game
2. Go to your Saved Data on your PS3
3. Delete (or read below) your GT5 save file
4. Start the game again
5. Download the update

If you really don’t want to delete your save game, you can copy it to a flash memory stick; then delete it and copy it back afterwards.

Other tips are to go to Options, Networking and change your NAT type to 2 (from 1) and to Clear the Cache in the same menu. However, I found only the steps above worked for me.

Image from Wikipedia

In a great April Fools prank (I hope) World Of Warcraft has the Bard class up; which is played Guitar Hero style with your pimped out Guiter-Keyboard.

The deeds of every great hero inspire countless songs of triumph, virtue, and epic adventure. But although a hero’s glory endures in song, the creators of those songs are seldom remembered. After ages spent singing of the heroic exploits of others, the bards of Azeroth are finally stepping into the spotlight on their own terms, proving once and for all that while just about anyone can pick up a sword or cast a spell, only a true hero can vanquish evil with the power of ROCK!

Its very well done, so go enjoy it

Image by photo_by via Flickr

The Gran Turismo series is one of my favourite and is a game I make sure I buy as soon as I can. The latest release in the series is the build up to the final GT5 game. I got it last night and after playing it a bit I must say that I am impressed with what they have done so far.

The gameplay is true to the series and the graphics are unbelievable. I’m still busy working my way up the classes and will post a more complete entry once I’m done so you know what to expect if you are looking to buy it.

The one thing I am sad about, and this might be my own fault not googling it before buying it - you can not create private online games. This is said to be released during the course of development and will feature in the final release, but this still makes me sad.

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