Bad Habits - Passion of the heist - November 23 2005

These are just two among hundreds of strange and vile missions I must carry out in Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City. My mom has just put a bounty on my head. She didn’t think I was a tough guy, at least not enough for her bloody taste. Her hit men come after me with machine guns and black cars. I kill them.

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Next on my agenda: I must drive eight prostitutes to a protest march.

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I was playing this game over the Thanksgiving holiday when I encountered a real-life mom who asked me if such games contribute to child violence. She had just seen a TV drama in which kids played a similar game, then ran out and copycat-murdered people.

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I argued that the TV show was just as much fiction as the game is. But I understand her point. This is a madly gruesome game. But for players, it also happens to be one of the best games of the year, just as its predecessors were: Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

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What’s more, Liberty City may be the best game available for Sony’s handheld game system, the PlayStation Portable. And that gives well-funded gamers a new reason to buy the too-expensive, $250 PSP in a season when the video game rage is Microsoft’s new Xbox 360.

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So, why would anyone in his or her right mind want to play as the morally bankrupt bad guy in Liberty City? Three reasons:

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First, GTA games last dozens of hours and have incredibly addictive game “engines.” In other words, game designers made it just hard enough but satisfying enough to carry out the main action: carjacking cars, trucks, cop cars, taxis, buses and even armored cars and then riding on streets of huge and finely drawn cities.

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Two, Liberty City is directed as splendidly as are good movies. Cinematic parts show a godfather-type who gives you orders in his office, and the camera angles, lighting and set designs reveal character development and striking images.

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And three, dialogue nails society constantly. You hear it from pedestrians who walk past you on the street and on radio stations you can tune into while driving cars and motorcycles. One DJ interviews an egocentric and philanthropic rock star and interjects, “You’re a rock and roll singer with messianic delusions.”

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Game detractors never talk about the reasons why Grand Theft Auto games are so popular and well-reviewed. That’s a pity, because instead, GTA games are derailed for their violence (perhaps for good reason, perhaps not); the publicity helps sales; then other game makers ratchet up their violent games.

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Studies show games do make kids more aggressive and agitated. But in my experience, what makes me go a little nuts is not that, but the level of difficulty in a game. If I am immensely frustrated by not winning a game, I toss my hand controller on the ground. That’s true for a Mickey Mouse game as much as it is for a GTA.

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That said, would I encourage a kid to play Liberty City? Not likely. But I would definitely recommend it to gamers who want to play a fantastically addictive game that riles me up when it takes me four tries to blow up a building full of Mafioso. Frustration is borne of trial-and-error. Violence just makes me go, “Eww.”

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thegamedork@creativeloafing.com

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Doug Elfman is an award-winning columnist who is also the TV critic at the Chicago Sun-Times.

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New To You — Used Game Of The Week

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We Love Katamari should make parents happy if they’re opposed to bloody games. It’s also one of the best-reviewed games of 2005. Critics love the concept and wacky action. You play as a prince from another planet, and you roll around a sticky ball on Earth, picking up little items, like starfish, and big ones, like cows.

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You then send the ball, once it’s a giant wad of stuff, to space, where it turns into a star. It’s bizarre, cute and now a bargain in used-game stores, going for $20 and less.

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It’s available for PS2. It’s rated E for fantasy violence.