Grand Theft Auto

The most interesting part of Take-Two's 2012 fiscal year earnings conference call covers what was—and what wasn't—said regarding Grand Theft Auto V.

The new trailer for Grand Theft Auto V was revealed this week.

According to the trailer, the protagonist is a bad guy trying to get out of the life. Guess what? Things didn't or aren't working out. Cue music, explosions and car chases.

The GameStation is back with a sequel to its clever Mario Brothers/Grand Theft Auto mash up. This time, there is a new Don, a Don-Key Kong, stepping on Bowser's turf. Who does he call for help? The Brothers Mario of course.

At first I couldn't see Donkey Kong and Mario as enemies going up against Bowser. That was until I realized that, historically speaking, Donkey Kong and Mario have been enemies from Nintendo's beginning. I guess years of watching them pal around in Super Mario Kart, Mario Tennis and Super Smash Bros. skewed my view.

This particular video really hits its mark. Part tribute to Super Mario Bros., part tribute to Grand Theft Auto and completely awesome. As an homage it captures some popular Nintendo catch phrases and mixes them in with altered non-Nintendo catch phrases. My favorite part of the video though is that frequent sad sack and third wheel, Luigi, is particularly badass. Though clearly the second in command in The Brothers Mario, he's not the pathetic, attention-seeking sibling we see in other fan videos.

Escaped the Police, but got a Little Banged up Along the Way

HIGH The first few hours of story.

LOW The driving.

WTF Driving into a barrier on an overpass, being thrown through the windshield, falling six or so stories, and still walking away.

It's like a profane version of Triad Election on the Nintendo DS

HIGH Losing a maxxed out wanted level by smashing cops into every bridge abutment in sight is surprisingly entertaining.

LOW The end of the story feels rushed and isn't even remotely satisfying.

WTF The bisexual stepson of the triad boss keeps trying to get me to have a threesome with him—and another dude.

Is the game industry in a state of arrested development? We present our take on Heather Chaplin's incendiary GDC presentation. Plus, the proliferation of co-op, the viability of OnLive, and lessons learned from Leisure Suit Larry. With Chi Kong Lui, Mike Bracken, David Stone, and Tim Spaeth.

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Topic and Game References:

• Final Fantasy 11
• OnLive
• Resident Evil 5
• Heather Chaplin on "Burned by Friendly Fire: Game Critics Rant" GDC 2009 Panel
• Fable
• Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars
• Madworld
• Gears of War 2
• Leisure Suit Larry

Please send feedback and mailbag questions to podcast (at) gamecritics (dot) com.

Picked up Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars on DS a couple of days ago. Tim Spaeth from the podcast was raving about it, and if I'm not mistaken, I believe the words "game of the year" were in there somewhere. I hadn't originally intended on picking it up, but after hearing his praise I decided to take the plunge since I had a little extra trade credit on hand. In terms of production it's certainly got everything nailed down tight and I am impressed by the ability of programmers to pack so much onto the DS, but in all honesty, I got quite bored of it almost immediately.

When I gave Grand Theft Auto IV the insultingly low score of 85%, quite a few people suggested that I had some kind of a secret grudge against the game that kept me from giving it the glowing adoration that it so obviously deserved. Well, I'm finally ready to admit that yes, I did have a secret predjudice against the game, one that I'll reveal through the medium of crudely-edited video:

I doubt I can be much clearer than that.