Must-play Games: Grand Theft Auto IV

It's probably the biggest game this year. The hype has been incredible, and the results are in. According to a news report on the Internet Movie Database, the highly anticipated Grand Theft Auto IV has taken in US$500 million on its first week on the shelves, more than any movie in history has made in its first week. The amount translates to an opening week mark of 3.6 million game units sold.

The April 29 opening day sales alone were phenomenal- tracked at US$310 million- beating the US$300 million record set by Microsoft's Halo 3 for the Xbox 360 last year. Read the rest of this article on my other blog, "Renzie's Rants and Raves."

Check out Adam Sessler's review of Grand Theft Auto IV on this G4TV clip taken from their signature gaming show, X-Play.

Here's a game you should be playing right frackin' NOW. Grand Theft Auto IV is only available on the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3 (for now at least), so if you don't have either console, now's a good time to get yourself one. Sell an internal organ if you have to. Then sell another body part to get Grand Theft Auto IV.

I've already raved about how much I've loved its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. And by all indications, it seems GTA IV holds true to its promise to deliver a game just as kick-ass as the last one.

Gotta have this game. Period.

Cheers, everyone!

Welcome to the Wonderful World of Gaming.

That's right, welcome to my world.

Welcome to the world of a 34-year-old self-professed geek- who, by day, slaves away at a regular job and does business like most radio executives, but by night, hunkers down in front of yet another PC and dives into role-playing games.

That's right. I work hard so I can play. I work to pay my monthly World of Warcraft fees. I work to check out Datablitz (the local gaming software retailer) to see if the new game I've been waiting for is already out. I buy gaming merchandising when available. I get other people to play. And now, I'm blogging about it.

This blog- Renzie on Gaming- gives you my personal perspective on games, gaming gear, games marketing, and the gaming industry, and how the gaming industry affects the rest of the world. My personal perspective, ladies and gentlemen. Ultimately, this is all about what I think, and what I care about.

You're all welcome to stick around and poke around if you like. I even encourage you to leave a comment or toss around an idea or two. It's all cool.

See you guys around. Cheers!

Everybody Wants To Rule The World: A Review of World of Conflict (PC, 2006)

This post originally appeared on another blog, "Renzie's Rants and Raves". Since late January 2007, I've decided to create a blog focused entirely on games and gaming, so I thought I'd move this post here instead.

It's probably one of the best real-time strategy (RTS) games I've played in quite a while.

In fact, I'm not a huge fan of RTS games at all- that is, the usual resource-gathering, base-building, army-amassing tedium that seems to plague most of those that ever came out. I don't mind, really, if there's a fresh new concept, a compelling storyline, or stunningly impressive graphics. Fortunately for me, World of Conflict had all of that, and so much more to deliver.

Imagine if you will: what if The Cold War played out differently? What if, instead of The Berlin Wall going down, the USSR strikes out at Europe, effectively starting World War III? As the US sends the bulk of its troops to aid its NATO allies, the Russians make a daring sneak attack on the North American continent from the west, capturing Seattle and pushing inwards.

You play the role of a Captain on the day of the Russian invasion- scrambling to organize an effective resistance in the face of a relentless foe.

This you notice as they drop you down into the game- it's instant action. No you don't need to build bases and gather resources- you play right away with the units you have at the start of the game, and gain additional units as you capture strategic points, or accomplish certain missions.

Later on, you'll be able to call in air strikes, artillery bombardment, airborne drops or aerial recon- again, depending on the mission/storyline, and your accomplishments.

Come to think of it, there have been other RTS games that were pretty much along the same lines- Mech Commander, and to an extent, Dawn of War. But it doesn't matter when you get sucked into the game so deeply that it slipped your mind that, yes, you have work the following day, it's 3AM but you HAVE to do this ONE LAST MISSION...

Yes, it's that engaging.

Heck, World in Conflict has even successfully torn me away from World of Warcraft. So that's already saying quite a lot.

Pros: World in Conflict has so much going for it- a great story, amazing game design, stellar graphics, a game engine that works well, and stunning visuals. I personally love the voice-acting of all the characters in the game (Alec Baldwin narrates in between missions, btw), and the fact that it featured two of my favorite songs: Tears For Fears' "Everybody Wants To Rule the World", and Whitesnake's "Here I Go Again".

Cons: Nothing I can think of right now, other than that the entire single-player campaign only took me a few days to finish.