14 DAY TRIAL // A lot of ink (well, keyboard strokes) is being used these days to discuss the quality of videogames as compared to the quality of other arts, like movies or literature. And the general consensus seems to be that games should become more mature, giving players more experiences based on great narrative.
Well, Dan Houser, who is the lead writer on Grand Theft Auto IV and one of the leaders of developer Rockstar, is bucking the trend by saying that he likes how the videogaming industry is now and he doesn't want to see it grow up very quickly.
He stated for the Telegraph in the United Kingdom that “I think the medium is still very young. It's not a baby, but it's still probably an infant. So everything is growing and evolving as we go along and we're still figuring out how to do stuff.” The developer especially appreciates the freedom that the relative lack of maturity offers. He said that “there's no accepted way of doing anything so that gives us enormous pleasure because we can make it up as we go along.”
GTA IV, which was one of the biggest titles of 2008, has been praised by reviewers, including yours truly, for the way it managed to pair an open world gameplay setting like Liberty City with great narrative, compared to, let’s say, Gears of War 2, which follows East European immigrant Nico Bellic as he pursues an American Dream that is part time nightmare and part time blood bath. If that's what immaturity looks like in videogames, then let's get some more of it.
Rockstar and Microsoft are making sure that they offer us more of GTA IV, in the form of at least two DLC packs. The first one is named The Lost and Damned, and is coming on February 17 for 1600 Microsoft Points. It follows the adventures of a member of a biker gang with which Nico fought in the original game.