Gearheads of War

So I don't really have ADD.  It's more just the kind of thing that everyone seems to have that has grown up in the MTV generation.  

Why am I writing about this? Simple.  I haven't been able to get into GTA IV just yet.  Before you go grabbing the pitchforks and the torches and get ready to show up at my front door to tar and feather me, I'll just say that I'm not qualified to say much about GTA IV simply because I've probably only played about six percent or so of the game.  I haven't even got to a point where I have a firearm yet.  Life has just been really busy lately and combine that with the fact that my daughter was sick Monday and Tuesday, it's meant really very little time where I could play GTA.

But my initial impressions of the game has so far been, "What's the big deal, it's another GTA?"  Like I said, you have to take what I say with a grain of salt so far just because I'm not very far into the game, but they've basically taken the concept of all the GTA's of the past and refined them, given them a nicer polish and put them on the new platforms.

Don't get me wrong, I've loved GTA games in the past but I've never finished one.  Part of my issue with the games of the past has always been control and I don't find that much has changed in GTA IV, at least in terms of control over the main character and the vehicles.  I wound up talking with Zoso about this over AIM and his reply to me was, "Just wait until you get like five hours in.  It really gets great."

That's all well and good, but I have a wife and a daughter and a full-time job.  I need my games to grab me by the balls immediately and not let go.  People can continue to criticize Gears of War for the lacking story, but that was a game that seized you by the gonads and didn't let go.  Call of Duty 4 was the same way.  I don't know whether it's because I have ADD or whatnot, but I have little patience for games these days that don't immediately give you some action.  The story could get remarkable down the road, but I'm just not the kind of gamer who loves to "put the time in."  I remember Shane Bettenhausen once saying about Zelda: Twilight Princess that the game got awesome after the first couple of dungeons.  I just don't have the time to wait for games to get awesome.  Design a freaking game that grabs me from the beginning.  I mean, you don't typically say, "Hell if you sit through the first crappy hour and a half of this movie, the last hour is just amazing!"

Like I said, take my criticism of GTA with a grain of salt.  I haven't played multi-player yet and I've barely scratched the surface of the single-player.  But I don't see why people are dropping such remarkable scores on it yet.

By the way, I know a lot of you guys like Yahtzee. Check out his blast back at some of the Nintendo fanboys out there.  It's a thing of pure beauty.