My Take on the GTA V Announcement and Some Speculation

A few days after I posted my tribute article to the 10^th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar Games announced on Monday that they were developing a new Grand Theft Auto game, called “Grand Theft Auto V”. Obviously, I was very excited to hear this news, and it gave me something to look forward to. I’ve made it no secret that GTA is my favorite video game series of all time, and I cannot wait to see what direction Rockstar will be taking for this adventure.

There isn’t too much to speculate on GTA V, other than the logo. Looks like something out of a 5-dollar bill, in my opinion. That could be a clue right there, the 5-dollar bill there represents money, so money could be a bigger factor in this GTA game than in previous GTA games. I frequent the GTA forums quite a bit, and there is also speculation as to where the location will be set for this game. If the logo is anything to go by, the setting could be a place where money runs the city. My bet is on Las Vegas to be the setting of this GTA game. In fact, I will take this one step further. If anyone remembers GTA: San Andreas, the three major cities were Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). I am fairly confident that the location of this new GTA game will be in a redesigned version of one of those cities in San Andreas. How confident am I? I will say 75%, but like all speculation, I could be wrong.

Of course, a lot of the game won’t be revealed until the first trailer comes out on November 2 (Wednesday). In the trailer, we would probably get an idea on the setting of this game, the main character of the game, and also have a basic idea of the plot, among other things.

One last issue, why did Rockstar have to call this one GTA V? The transition from GTA 2 to GTA 3 and from GTA 3 to GTA IV was massive. We went from a cartoony, top-down styled GTA 2, to an open world, sandbox styled GTA 3. We also went from that same open world; sandbox styled GTA 3 to a graphically robust, beautifully atmospheric GTA IV. What I am trying to say is that the change between GTA IV and GTA V won’t be that much of a massive change as the other two transitions. Of course, I could be wrong in what I have said, or the game could be a lot like GTA IV. Who really knows?

So, let’s wait until the first trailer comes out, then the speculative fun really begins…

The 10th Anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3

This Saturday is a major milestone for one of the most influential and revolutionary games in our generation. Saturday marks the 10^th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3, a game which brought the open world sandbox genre to the forefront of video games. It was a game that sparked an absurd amount of controversy with its violence, and had parental groups clamoring for the game to be banned. It was a game that, let’s face it, changed the landscape of video games for the better.

Obviously, one of the biggest selling points of Grand Theft Auto 3 was its open world, where it gave you the freedom to do whatever you want and please. It has been done before (ex: Zelda), but what set the open world of Grand Theft Auto 3 apart was that it mimicked real life. There never was a game before GTA3 that portrayed a real life world as well as this has, and to have this world open to you for your pleasure was absolutely brilliant. Want to go steal a car? Go right ahead! Want to punch a pedestrian in his head? Who’s stopping you! Want to run over some gang members? Of course! At the time of its release, the possibilities were nearly endless.

The first time I ever played Grand Theft Auto 3 was when I was 10 years old and went to my cousin’s house to spend the night. There I saw my cousin playing Grand Theft Auto 3 and awestruck at what he was playing. So we started playing the game and doing the missions and it was all extremely fun. We were killing the gang members, running from the police, and then shooting the police. I have never been so entranced by a game like this before, and it is a direct reason why I consider the Grand Theft Auto series to be my favorite video game series of all time and the most influential series as well. The first time I ever owned a Grand Theft Auto game was back in 2003 when I bought the Grand Theft Auto Double Pack for my Xbox, which had both GTA3 and GTA: Vice City. I consider it one of my happiest video game purchases ever.

Just yesterday, I went back to play Grand Theft Auto 3 just so I could get that feeling of nostalgia from the 10 years that this game was released. Obviously, this game did not age well, because the graphics were pretty blocky (what did you expect?). Other than that, this game still continues to put a smile on my face and I still experience a thrill in going around shooting cops, running people over, and speeding down towards a ramp where I fly off into the water and drown. Grand Theft Auto 3 had an impact on my life more than any other game I have played. It is, hands down, the most influential game in my life, and the most influential game of the new millennium. 10 years on, you will always be in my heart, and you will never leave it.

School Update

I head off to school in a couple days, so I don’t know if I will be updating the blog as often as I was during the summer, or at all. Obviously school will be my first priority, so writing for my blog or any others as a guest is out of my immediate plans, but if I do have some free time to write a blog post, I could probably do that.

I always used this blog to get some nagging thoughts out of my head, and to comment on the events around me, locally and globally. To be honest, I was shocked to see that so many people came to check out my site and that it got so many views. It was successful, that’s for sure.

I want to thank everyone out there for checking out this blog, commenting on the posts, linking it to other sites, and such. Without you, the reader, this wouldn’t be possible.

Like I said before, I don’t know if the blog postings will be affected. I could still be posting 2 blog posts a week, but I doubt that much. I have to be focused for school.

Cheers all, and have a good day.

Canada vs. St. Lucia: Post-Game Thoughts

Last Friday, I went out to BMO Field to see Canada start their campaign for the 2014 World Cup against St. Lucia, one of the Caribbean minnows of CONCACAF. Overall, the night was incredibly fun, despite my obvious drunkenness. Thankfully, Canada won the match 4-1, but I won’t be talking about Canada’s performance in the match (leave that to the media). Rather, I will talk about what I noticed while sitting in the south end watching the match, from a supporter’s perspective.

The first thing I want to talk about is the crowd. Overall, the crowd was very pro-Canadian, compared to other Canada matches that took place at BMO Field, where the away fans typically outnumbered the home support. There were a few St. Lucia fans around, but they were in very small bunches. My rough estimate on the St. Lucia fans that attended the match is around 500-750 people, out of the total number of 11500 people in attendance. Most of them congregated in the north stands, but there were a few St. Lucia fans all around the stadium. With that said, I was happy with the Canadian presence at this match, especially in the south end.

One thing that got me angry was the conduct of some of the St. Lucia players during the match. There was an unusually high number of St. Lucia players falling down and acting like they were injured. I counted at least six or seven stretchers coming out onto the pitch during the match, and they were all for St. Lucia. Obviously this was nothing more than a tactic by St. Lucia to waste time, especially when the match was tied 1-1. Still, this drew out the anger of the Canadian fans, and the insults were flying towards the St. Lucia players.

The thing that impressed me the most at the match was the atmosphere from the south stands. The east stands were decently full and the west and north stands weren’t as full as the east stand, but the south stands were the place to be for the match, it was very packed. It wasn’t just the supporters sections of 112/113/114 with the chants and songs, the rest of the south end got into it as well, which was awesome. There was a sense of unification in the south stands at the Canada match that you don’t get when going to a Toronto FC game. In terms of atmosphere, I would much rather go to a Canada match than go to a Toronto FC match. I remembered getting home after the match and watching the same game I was just at, and I heard the Canadian supporters sing their hearts out loud and clear. This was incredible.

I would love to go to the other Canada matches taking place in October and November, but I have school. Still, the match on Friday was quite the crazy match to go to. I was bummed to not meet anyone from Twitter, but it was still a great night.

Some Thoughts over the Weekend

The above picture says it all, really. On Sunday, I watched Manchester United absolutely destroy Arsenal by the score of 8-2 at Old Trafford. Wow, 8-2, that’s like a hockey score right there. Let’s start with United. Complete performance from the team, every attacking player was firing from all cylinders. Rooney had two pinpoint accurate free kicks along with a penalty for his hat-trick. Young had two outstanding shots bending straight into the side of the goal, breathtaking stuff. But I thought the critical moment of the match came when Arsenal were awarded a penalty while United were up 1-0. Up stepped Robin Van Persie, he shot the ball near the bottom-left of the net and United goalkeeper David de Gea bent down low to make the stop. It can be argued that Van Persie took a poor penalty shot, but that was a good save.

As for Arsenal, I’m not going to repeat what so many of the media have already said about Arsene Wenger and his squad, though I am getting pretty sick of constantly hearing about their problems. The media have always talked about it since near the end of last season. I don’t need to be repeatedly reminded about how Arsene needs to spend money and trying to get more experienced players and strengthen their depth. I already know this.

Switching gears to UFC last Saturday night, there is no denying the dominance of Anderson Silva, who retained his Middleweight title by beating Yushin Okami in the second round. After watching that fight, I kept thinking to myself “Who next?” Who can possibly stop this guy? I don’t think anyone can right now.

Apparently there was also the MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night? Umm…I didn’t watch it. It's pretty much a costume party nowadays...

That’s all I got to say…