omg stop calling me

One of GTA IV's most fundamental failings was the story's emphasis on people I didn't like. Whether it was Rockstar's intention or not, the "friends" you acquire and often work for throughout the game, were quite realistic...primarily in the sense that I ended up dreading their calls and wishing they would all fuck off and leave me alone so that I could enjoy my car-crashing frivolity. Just like real life.

Of course also like real life, if I started to feel bad about neglecting these friends and agreed to go bowling with them yet again, they would find some way to make the entire process horribly difficult and would manage to be the other side of the city from me, despite not living there nor having any reason whatsoever for being there.
And then they'd have the cheek to bitch about me not reaching them in under an hour.

Playing through the game again, I find myself hunting down all those random encounters you have with strangers throughout the city...and enjoying them a hell of a lot more than my dealings with the "main cast".
Not only are these little encounters short, but the stories are diverse and the characters are well-written. And, a rare thing these days, I couldn't always predict what was going to happen in these mini-stories...a far cry from the main plot's "drive here, engage in inevitable shootout, escape" mission formula.

And so that's my thought for the day; GTA IV should have ditched its main story, and had all the missions emerge from the city itself in that trendy "emergent gameplay" manner that seems to be all the rage at the moment.

Oh, and on an unrelated note...Lady Isolla of Suno, from Mount and Blade, came to me with a most unsettling problem recently.


I think she may have been stoned.

- Nick Brakespear