A little-known indie project you may not have heard of

I really love this new UK GTA IV ad.

One. It’s all in-engine footage. It shows confidence in their product that they’re giving it to you straight. It also shows confidence in their audience, I think, that they don’t try to play tricks with hired actors or pre-rendered CG bits. As far as I can recall, Rockstar has always done this, so props to them for it.

Two. They keep it relevant. You’ve got Niko, the main character, walking through a multitude of locations that I, the player, will experience. Also important, the world is happening around the player character, and that living world simulation is basically THE big thing the GTA series offers.

Three. The style, direction, and that slick LCD Soundsystem track. As someone who’s obviously very invested in games, I greatly appreciate it when gamers aren’t spoken to or presented as a bunch of manbabies who desire, above all else, ham-handed ego-stroking and wish fulfillment. Rockstar makes games for adults and it treats its audience as such.

It’d be nice if the ad ended by simply cutting to a black logo screen rather than the obnoxious HAY BUY A 360, but oh well. I’ll blame that one on Microsoft.

Quick news from the Neverwinter front

NWN2 now has a beholder, and an extremely professional-looking one at that! It’s the work of Jonny Ree (that’s what he goes by in forums). He seems to be pretty committed to NWN2, so he’s one to keep your eyes on, if you’re into the NWN2 thang.

Right out of the monster manual, it looks like. It makes me wish I had cause at the moment to pick up Zbrush and, well, put it to use. I imagine that it’s a lot of fun to sculpt out these gross, lumpy characters.

Anyway, it’s really great to see another completely custom creature for NWN2. Along with WhoKilledKubrick’s Kuo-toa model, my golem was one of the first and, as far as I know, only custom creatures to be released for NWN2, and I was despairing a bit that NWN2′s custom content scene was stagnating pretty badly.

Unrelated, but sad, Games for Windows magazine is shutting down. Here’s Editor-in-Chief Jeff Green’s eulogy over on 1up. A twenty seven year history — older than me. All four editors are staying on, and will be concentrating on online content for 1up.com, though the magazine’s two-person art team unfortunately lost their jobs. The podcast won’t be going anywhere either, thankfully.

The Surreptitious Midnight Exploits of Clyde Blackravyn, 11th Generation Toreador

As I mentioned a few posts ago, I’ve been playing through Vampire: Bloodlines, which I purchased for the meager sum of $10 on Steam a good while ago. It’s been a real treat, as this is the most Deus Ex-like non-Deus Ex game I’ve played — including Invisible War. You’re skulking around modern-day LA, hacking into computers and lock picking your way into places you shouldn’t be. Like Deus Ex, it’s ultimately a flawed little masterpiece though. The game lacks a great deal of polish, with plenty of resultant awkward cutscenes and gameplay moments.

Fortunately though, what reportedly shipped as a soupy morass of bugs and instability has been transformed into a darn solid game, thanks in large part to the game’s loyal fanbase. This is something I’ll always love about PC gaming. There are two strains of player-made patches, the “TRUE” patch (warning, link is NSFW, as the patch author likes to create nude skins), which only fixes bugs and implements a few pieces of content that were clearly meant to be implemented, and a second one that fixes bugs as well as sort of refining and remixing the content. I’ve opted for the fixes-only patch for now. If I play through a second time, I’ll likely check out the other.

Here is a helpful post on the Something Awful forums, for anyone who might read this and feel inclined to check the game out.

Click here for a disparate jumble of thoughts and observations about my experience with Vampire: The Masquerade – Bloodlines.