Obligatory GameCrush Post

I’m not sure if GameCrush is trying to be a gamer dating site (like SoulGeek or World of DateCraft) or a way for awkward gamer guys to pay girls to play games with them, and I’m not going to find out because the site’s down due to an overabundance of sign-ups. No word on whether those would-be beta GameCrushers are lonely guys or broke girls.

Here’s the press release:

SAN FRANCISCO – March 23, 2010 GameCrush, now available in public beta, introduces an entirely new interactive social gaming experience allowing gamers to meet, match and pay to play online games with other users (PlayDates). GameCrush is the only online service that allows gamers to choose a companion to spice up their favorite online games. Both Players and PlayDates define the experience they want- either “flirty” or “dirty”, choosing from some of the most popular console titles and casual web-based games. To register for free, visit www.gamecrush.com.

On GameCrush, players can find their perfect PlayDate through browsing their profiles and chatting live with them. Players can then purchase a live one-on-one private gaming session, complete with two-way video and text chat.

Designed to appeal to female and male gamers alike, GameCrush offers games to suit a variety of tastes, from casual web-based games to the hottest console titles like Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2, Halo 3, Gears of War 2 and Grand Theft Auto IV. Initially games are available on GameCrush’s own exclusive video-enabled gaming platform and on Microsoft’s Xbox LIVE network. In addition, GameCrush will soon be available for platforms such as Sony’s PlayStation 3, World of Warcraft, and other online gaming environments.

GameCrush delivers comprehensive social tools that allow PlayDates to post profiles complete with picture galleries, video clips, blogs and text chat.  PlayDates can make up to $30 or more per hour while having fun playing online games.  After a game session is completed, Players rate their gaming experience, and top-rated PlayDates are rewarded with enhanced site promotion and additional benefits.

Popularity: 1% [?]

Preview: GTA’s New Downloadable Content

New game site AngryGamers (warning, some NSFW language) has a preview of the new content for the latest Grand Theft Auto series. They say:

GTA IV was one of the best games of 2008 and is getting some nice DLC on February 17th, well for Xbox 360 owners anyway. This is the Microsoft hyped Xbox 360 exclusive content that was promised back before GTA IV was even released.

But after a slew of new games (AngryGamers mentions Gears of War 2, I thought more along the lines of the newish sandbox game, Spore, and the latest WoW expansion, Wrath of the Lich King), is anyone still playing GTA? Are you? Are you excited for the new GTA content, or too busy with your new games to care?

Read the rest of their thoughts at GTA IV Lost and the Damned Preview – Game previews, 360 previews, PS3 previews, Wii preview – Angry-Gamers.net.

New content for GTA4 will be available on February 17th, 2009.

Popularity: 8% [?]

Driving Games Teach 6-Year-Old to Drive!

  Ok, Grand Theft Auto gets a lot of trouble for encouraging kids to violence. I don’t really believe that videogames encourage violence, I think if someone’s going to actually commit crimes because they saw that in a game, well, they’ve got more problems than gaming!

But this kid was clearly influenced by GTA in some way:

A 6 year-old boy in Virginia missed his school bus so he decided to take his parents’ car to school. During his time behind the wheel, he passed some cars, made a couple of 90º turns and ran off the road a few times. He eventually crashed after driving almost 6 miles, but suffered only minor injuries. His parents were then charged with child endangerment when it was found that his mom was asleep during the incident. The funny part of the story was that he told police he learned to drive while playing Grand Theft Auto and Monster Truck Jam.

So mom was asleep and the little boy just hopped in the car without her noticing? I think we can use this as a valuable lesson about not leaving children unattended.

As Playfeed points out, this little boy must really like school!

Via Boy Tries To Drive After Playing Video Games | Playfeed

Popularity: 11% [?]

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories Review

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was the first game in the all time famous GTA series on the PSP. There are small issues in the game but, it is a great game if seen from the PSP perspective. The game was released by Rockstar in 2005 just after the launch of PSP. The game takes you back to 1998 and allows you to play the character of Toni Cipriani who has just returned from abroad. On his reuturn he starts working for a crime family . After that you will be taking over different gangs, managing deals and all the stuff that Criminal can do. In this game you can drive vehicles from cars, bikes, boats to airplanes. The game is actually a remake of the original GTA 3 with the addition of bikes and a few new areas. The game gives you the freedom of roaming around the open world environment at your will. In the beginning only a small area is opened but as you will progress further in the game new areas will be unlocked. In the end i would say that this game is a must for every PSP owner.

Score: 9.0 out of 10

Popularity: 10% [?]

Confusion on GTA

GTA Grand Theft Auto is a Series Engine Gameplay. Many people get confused and go on Renaming the Games as GTA I, GTA 2 GTA3 GTA4 for SA and then 5 for the updated mod and so on.

Well the Sequence is somewhat like this.
GTA3 has a Same core and the first game out was Liberty City with not so Good Graphics and Rendering and it was of course old tolday.
then Comes Vice city, this one is GTA 3b not GTA IV!!!
after Vice city Comes San Andreas (ONE OF THE BEST PLAYED TILL today with lots of New MODS and stuff)

and this year in 2008 comes GTA IV and is Available only for PS3 and Xbox360.
So next time Please rember the Naming Fashion.

Popularity: 2% [?]

GTA: San Andreas Hitting Xbox next week

It seems like we’ve officially hit the holiday video game surge, and Microsoft isn’t taking that lightly. As if next week weren’t going to burn our wallets enough with games like Fable 2 and Far Cry 2, Xbox Live will be getting one old and one semi-old favorite added to the list of games. The most interesting of these is probably Portal: Still Alive, which is essentially a standalone version of the hit title bundled in Valve’s Orange Box, but with some added bonuses. The XBLA version will include the original game, plus 14 extra challenge maps and six advanced maps for your extended enjoyment. The game will become available for download on Wednesday, Oct. 22.

Before that though, Xbox Live subscribers will be treated to an old favorite that once turned the term “hot coffee” into a dirty sexual innuendo. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will join the Xbox Originals to remind you what GTA was like before impressive physics and online multiplayer were introduced. It was a simpler time, when a man could get his character eat enough fast food to turn into a waddling mass of gangsta flesh; a time that Niko Bellic wouldn’t be able to replicate. Also, bicycles! GTA:SA will be hitting Xbox Live on Oct. 20.

Source: news.filefront.com

Popularity: 3% [?]

GTA: Chinatown Wars Features Drug-Selling Minigame

Few days ago a news came that Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars , which is the upcoming DS GTA game from Rockstar’s exceptionally popular crime series, will feature a drug selling mini game where players will be able to earn money pedding six different kinds of narcotics around town. 1up.com reports that unsurprisingly, this isn’t going over very well with anti-drug organizations. According to Gamepolitics British tabloid The Sun, a member of the charity Drugsline condemns Rockstar’s use of illegal narcotics.
Darren Gold, on behalf of the Drugsline organization, said,”"Anything using drug-dealing as entertainment is sending out the wrong message.Glamorization doesn’t help our work trying to educate kids of the dangers of substance misuse.”

Popularity: 2% [?]

Coolest Girl in School

A controversial new video game for girls implies that stealing, sexual dalliances, drug use and gossiping pave the path to teenage empowerment, with the express objective being to “lie, bitch and flirt your way to the top of the high school ladder.”

Coolest Girl in School is billed as the young woman’s answer to Grand Theft Auto, the hugely popular series in which players steal cars, kill police officers, and indulge criminal impulses. The girl-centric role-playing game puts a magnifying glass to the darker side of school life, with participants encouraged to experiment with fashion, drugs, sexuality, cutting class and spreading rumours in an effort to win.

Full story here.

I think calling this game a girl’s version of GTA is an attempt to attract hype and controversy to this new game. And… I don’t see it as anything new and shocking, just another failed attempt to market a second-rate game to girls.

Popularity: 4% [?]

Hot Coffee

Why all the controversy with the “Hot Coffee” easter egg on Grand Theft Auto?

It’s a game about running people over. You can beat hookers to death. You can go postal at restruants… they are even old ladies to shoot. But there’s a cheat that allows sex — with your girlfriend, no less — and now the game’s off the shelves.

Ok, I completely understand the AO rating. I even understand Wal-Mart and so forth refusing to stock it. And I think Rockstar’s excuse about “leftover content” is up there “my dog ate it”.

I just don’t understand the lawsuits parents are bringing against Rockstar, because they feel misled by the game’s labeling and packaging. It wasn’t rated Everyone or even Teen, GTA already had an M because of the hookers and, oh yeah, graphic violence. So parents bought their pre-teen sons a game about beating people to death, but didn’t want him to see boobs? What kind of morality is that? It’s ok to run people over and shoot bystanders, as long as no one has sex?

I’d expect the kids to grow up and get laid, rather than grow up and beat people to death (Unless they’re turned violent by those evil videogames and that metal music).
Hey, parents, you know there’s this thing on the computer where your son can see naked girls? It’s called the internet. Personally, I’d much rather have my teenage son watching pretend porn than shooting up pretend bystanders, but I was raised by crazy hippies!

Porn or games or the combination of the two isn’t the problem. Bad parents are the problem.

Pretty unbiased article here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4671429.stm

Popularity: 2% [?]

Student Films: By Us, For Us, Embarass Us

Q: Is Michael Highland (shown right) (a) a 10-hour a day video game addict or (b) the darling of Brown’s Ivy Film Festival?

A: He’s both — but with the glasses, missing biceps, and the unkempt facial, cranial and chest hair peeking up out of his collar, we’re gonna say 10 hours a day of gaming is lowballing it by about 6 hours or so.

Titled “As Real as Your Life,” Highland’s multimedia 10-minute film is a personal story about how playing video games becomes a surrogate existence. For example, when hearing helicopters in the Philadelphia area, Highland said he will react defensively like the animated character in the video game Grand Theft Auto.

“Life” imitating “art” — good for you, Michael, ignore our thoughtless scare quotes. And we have our guess about your real life “time laid” stat but we’ll keep it to ourselves in honor of the new pope.

Video games inspire student’s lauded film [Daily Pennsylvanian]

Popularity: 2% [?]