Owen's Facebook App Determines Which GTA Star You Are

Hey, Facebookers! Ever wondered which Grand Theft Auto protagonist is most like you? Probably not, but if you're wondering how a lily white nerd like me could find his virtual equivalent to be star of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Victor Vance, maybe then you'll try out weekend editor Owen Good's Facebook app "Which Grand Theft Auto Character Are You?" It's quite revealing, as I always thought of myself as a street dog vendor or TW@ internet cafe employee and this is the sort of stuff I take as gospel. Mr. Good has promised, as a sort of concession for my Kotaku-style app pimpage, that all flaming be directed in his direction.

Which Grand Theft Auto Character Are You? [Facebook]

Sonic Is Strange Brown

Classical Gaming: A Roman Retrospective

Gaming Into Adulthood

This site is full of win: Game Music Jukebox. You should really give this a look. More than 120 video game soundtracks. Double Dragon. Marathon. Mass Effect. Hitman: Blood Money. Lots of stuff from 8-bit synth to full symphony scores. And not just the title track, but the full score, broken out by tracks.

Maybe not everything, but definitely a lot and certainly something to tickle your nostalgia fancy. Looks like they update it, too, last one was April 29.

I'm listening to the Metroid Theme now, Brinstar to be exact. IMHO, best score for an 8-bit game ever. I want to make it into a ringtone, I just need to pick the right refrain.

Just saw this on Reddit so, the buffering might be a little slow on some of the larger tracks as people go to it.

Reliver Your Favorite Games Through Music [Game Music Jukebox]

The Difficulty of (Games') Difficulty

Mr. Juandrful over at Kezins.com has pieced together a backstory on Niko Bellic, in a VH1 "Behind the Music" kind of biography. Counterintuitively, I should put up a spoiler alert here, because although it's all about stuff prior to his arrival in Liberty City, naturally it draws on dialogue and events in the game, which you may not have played yet. Mr. Juandrful also says some of this was built on "inside info" about Niko's past, given to him by Rockstar.

Anyway, spoiler warning, don't click the link if you want to get Niko's backstory through the game for yourself. Otherwise, if you want a quick read that humanizes the character, go for it.

Behind the Game: Niko Bellic Before GTA IV [kezins.com]

The other day my co-worker Sander (he used to work at 1up) lamented his complete inability to finish Mass Effect. Likewise, I'm simultaneously interested in finishing Bully and completely uninterested in playing it. We were playing these titles when our Xboxes RRoD'd, Sander's in late January, mine in March. It is now mid-May.

So here's a question I wanted to put to the gaming community here: How important is momentum to finishing or playing a game? I'm wondering if, in the timeline of developing, we've reached a tipping point. The 50-hour gaming experience is upon us. In sports simulations stretching an entire season, it can be even longer. How, if at all, can a developer create and sustain momentum in players to complete something that long? Because these campaigns are only going to get longer, not that it's necessarily a bad thing.

But for now, the question that we here can answer: Is there a period of time where, separated from gaming (a week's vacation, a borked machine, a ton of work or school obligations) you're just unable to get back into it?

I know Bash had a TUD on Friday, but I'm curious here, so Tell Us, Dammit! In the comments after the jump.

And now for a value-added post, if you're a Devil May Cry 4 Special Edition owner, and live in the U.S.

There's an offer out on the Internets for a swell DVD case for the animated series DVDs included within. You also get $5 off your purchase of Vol. 2 of the anime. The Right Stuf International is taking the orders on behalf of publisher ADV. The site has the details and everything you need to order. It's $3.99, but clearly, this thing pays for itself.

Devil May Cry DVD Case/Insert/Coupon Offer [Anime Superstore]

Talking Club Penguin, Disney, and 'Emergent Play'

I know a lot of you have memories of your mom surprising you for the holidays or your birthday with a game or, better yet, a console, or a birthday party at the local arcade or mini-golf. That's one of the best things about moms, when you're a kid; when they come out of nowhere, without a word of begging, pleading or conversation, with the coolest, bestest, most non-Mom thing ever in the world.

My brother and I both have an elephant's memory. We often astound our parents with perfect recall of years, dates, things said going back 25 years or more. I know Pac-Man was the only game that ever really amused my mother. But sitting here, racking my brain, I cannot ever recall her playing a video game.

So, Brian's 70-year-old dad took on GTA IV and took quite a liking to it. Others his age are not as enlightened or — shocker — willing to try new things, and so the series might require further explication.

Helpfully, here is a FAQ (a FAQ? an F-A-Q? how do I do this) from 23/6 to break down the choices and consequences and action and intrigue that make all the young folk shine shoes and save up their penny-candy money to buy it.

So this video game. Is it like pong?
No. It's called a "sandbox" game.

A who?
A sandbox game. That means it's not strictly linear and the player has some freedom of movement within the game.

Is this e-mail you're talking about?
No. E-mail is different.

I think Sen. Ted Stevens was a consultant on this outreach initiative.

Grand Theft Auto IV: FAQ for Old People [236.com]

And to wrap things up today, here's "The ABCs of Gaming," from a t-shirt design contest at Shirt.woot.com. The contest closed this week. The latest on the site shows another shirt claiming 2nd place in this derby so, who knows, maybe it won. I'm sure the ordering information will follow.

For now, take a long look and see if you can name all 26. I can name about 19 offhand. There's a spoiler solution after the jump.

The ABCs of Gaming [shirt.woot.com]

1Up has a running feature on worst-ever box cover art. It's been about six months since the last installation so they drop another dozen or so for us to laugh at. Yes, Okami's watermarked box makes the list. So does the Orange Box. Remember, just because it's bad box doesn't make it a bad game. In fact, a good game triumphing over bad packaging is ... even gooder!

Some of these are so bad they look like LOLz. Utterly incongruous text over the graphics. Like someone developed a game and then they retrofit whatever art was laying around because they ran out the packaging budget. Pure Pinball? That looks more like a concept for Fox Force Five or something.

The Worst Video Game Box Covers, Part 4 [1Up]

If Nintendo Made Halo 3

Sociologist Finds GTA IV is "Less Sensational" Than Real Crime

Academics vs. 'Gaming' Academics: Let the Snark Begin

The Tactile Side of Games