Nick Hide
Nick has been playing videogames for 20 years. He believes games are as valid an art form as music or film. They are interactive sculptures capable of profound emotional impact, so it really annoys him when games come out where you can mug old women.
Wednesday 30 April 2008, 2:33pm
The gunshot heard around the world
It was the greatest armistice in history. Battlefields across the galaxy fell silent. The winds of a thousand worlds blew unfelt past vast piles of discarded weapons. But in one place -- a dirty, crowded metropolis -- a noise exploded into life. It was something like: "ScreeeeeeeeLCPD!Getoutofthevehicle!Ratatatata."
Grand Theft Auto IV is, in the words of Radio 4's Today programme (no kidding), 'the entertainment event of the year'. It will make more money than any movie, album, tour or TV show in 2008. I ponied up my cash yesterday like everyone else and dashed home from work to play (well, before the football kicked off, anyway).
Most of my Xbox friends list were on it -- the rest must've been out of the country or something. Seriously, no one's playing anything else. We're all getting to know Niko Bellic and his laughably scuzzy low-rent gangster pals. Some took the day off work. Everyone at CNET and on Facebook Chat wants to know what I thought of it. That's an event -- when something invades every conversation you have.
What do I think? I think Niko's a dead ringer for Jason Statham. I don't know yet whether it's worth universal 10/10s, but I do know it's the most densely satirical, ambitious and dramatic game of its generation. It's funny and brutal, like a family picnic with the Simpsons and the Sopranos. And I want to play it an awful lot more. After the football.
Articles by Nick Hide
Survey: Asus laptops more reliable than Apple, Sony
Crave US warranty firm SquareTrade has researched laptop failure rates and found that Asus is the top of the pile. Bad news for HP though
CNET UK's games console reliability survey: 60 per cent of Xbox 360s have broken
Crave We commissioned a survey of UK gamers to find out how reliable the different consoles have been. The results don't reflect well on Microsoft
Intel settles with AMD for $1.25bn
Crave The rival chip manufacturers have settled their bitter legal disputes in a massive deal that also sees them sharing patent rights for the next five years
OpenOfficeMouse has frankly preposterous 18 buttons, joystick
Crave With 18 buttons, 63 profiles and an analogue joystick, the OpenOfficeMouse by WarMouse is set to be the most customisable peripheral ever. And the most insane, by some distance
EMI Abbey Road Live: Instant gig recording
Crave The major label has announced a new service that will sell recordings of gigs, mixed and mastered at the gig itself, and sold to fans as they make their way to the car park
Sony BDP-S760 Blu-ray player: Super bit-mapping reality enhancer
Crave Sony's new top-of-the-range Blu-ray player, the BDP-S760, is jammed full of exciting new features such as Wi-Fi Internet access and multi-channel headphone mode
Nokia Booklet 3G hits US: Hands-on verdict
Crave Nokia's Booklet 3G netbook has arrived in the US and our chocolate-voiced NYC colleague Dan Ackerman has one in
IT execs: 'UK will never create a tech giant'
Crave Leading British IT executives believe the UK doesn't have the skills, economic environment or governmental help to make a global giant like Google or Microsoft
