Dìaz examines the art value of GTA IV, prompted by exultant commentary from the games press that calls the game on par with or exceeding film triumphs like Scarface and The Godfather - and, in an editorial well-supported by factual comparisons, he finds it comes up short:

What else is the new GTA not? Well, despite all the critical adulation over GTA IV's characters and purported subtlety, this isn't a game that is nuanced or subtle. Like the pulps that are part of its narrative DNA, GTA IV operates in broad strokes, crude characterization and over-the-top stereotypes — this is a game where a shotgun to the head is the height of discretion. The GTA series made its name by being "hard-core" (or, if you prefer, tasteless) but the latest game certainly ain't half as hard-core as even Steven Seagal's "Out for Justice." (Check out the final corkscrew-to-the-head death match.) Hell, GTA IV ain't even half as hard-core as some of its predecessors.

Dìaz says he is actually a longtime fan of the series, and that it was GTA III that truly broke ground with its gameplay, and he seems to suggest that other installments since then have largely been more of the same. I'm a fan of GTA IV as much as anyone else, but I find Dìaz's criticisms hard to disagree with, particularly this one:

Compared with Tommy and CJ, GTA IV's protagonist Niko Bellic is somewhat of a milquetoast. He's more of a reluctant hero in the classic tradition. I mean he ain't exactly a boy scout, having been a human trafficker in the immediate past, and his descent into hits for hire is pretty swift but overall he's a moral improvement over earlier GTA leads. Perhaps this is why the critics call him more nuanced, but in my estimation Niko isn't nuanced; he's just boring. You don't play GTA because you want to roll with a Niko. You play GTA because, for a couple of hours, you want to be a Tommy Vercetti. So before you start measuring a game to "The Brothers Karamazov" maybe you should measure it up to its earlier iterations. You might actually see something.

Maybe the attempt to add film-style nuance to GTA IV didn't especially serve the format, especially as it brought the character story into conflict with the gameplay.

'Grand,' but No 'Godfather' [WSJ via Level Up]

Psychologically, it's better if the customer is begging for the product.

At informal online currency marketplaces, thousands of users helped turn the QQ coins back into cash by selling them at a discount that varies based on the laws of supply and demand. Traders began jumping into the QQ coin market as an opportunity to make a quick yuan off of currency speculation.

State-run media reported that some online shoppers began using QQ coins to buy real-world items such as CDs and makeup. So-called QQ Girls started accepting the coins as payment for intimate private chats online. Gamblers caught wind, too, and started using the currency to get around China's anti-gambling laws, converting wins in online mahjong and card games back into cash. Dozens of third-party trading posts sprouted up to ease transactions, turning the QQ coin into a kind of parallel currency.

Tencent Holding Ltd, the designers of the QQ coin, are trying to clean up the mess as quickly as they can because out of all the governments in the world, China is probably the one you don't want mad at you.Kim Phu

QQ: China's New Coin of the Realm? [WSJ]

It doesn't strike me, as a marketer, that it would be fascinating for someone to open the packaging.

And like that George Harrison's nerd cred goes out the window. But, it is fascinating! From the color of the twist-ties to how the cables are packaged, I want to know everything that's in the box. EVERYTHING. Brian Ashcraft

Unboxing Article [CAG]

Judging from the video, there were quite a number of higher-ups present for the demonstration. I'm not sure who all is in the audience, but I noticed Paul Steiger, the paper's managing editor and a gamer, as well as Tom Weber, the paper's Pursuits Editor. Who I think was creating the abomination... I mean creature.

OK, here's the deal. Will's gotta ski, right? So the next time you're visiting lovely Colorado, swing by the Rocky Mountain News so we can make some Spore snow bunnies. Brian Crecente

Update: The geniuses at the Wall Street Journal managed to include the wrong embed code for their video of Will Wright's visit. To watch it go to the site.

Another day, another mainstream press outlet singing the praises of the Wii. This time it's the Wall Street Journal's Walter J. Mossberg. Who? Trust me. Dude's a big deal. Wired once said of him "few reviewers have held so much power to shape an industry's successes and failures" and that he "makes or breaks products from his pundit perch" so people pay attention when Mossberg talks personal tech.

Mossberg (and his team of testers) don't say anything new. PS3 is expensive. Wii is cheaper. PS3 looks great. Wii is fun. PS3 is for "hardcore gamers with deep pockets." Wii is for "casual game players."

But more damning than his ho-hum reception to games and sour taste from configuring his PS3?

None of us felt that the game graphics, or the Blu-ray movie playback, were superior enough to the Xbox 360's graphics and DVD playback, to justify the PS3's heftier price. None of our four volunteer testers said they'd buy the PS3 at $600.

Bummer! Will the "Mossberg Effect" take its toll on Sony? Michael McWhertor

Battle of the Boxes: PlayStation 3 vs. Wii

The Wall Street Journal has an interesting story up outlining the challenges facing the Playstation 3 as we near the start of what will likely become one of the most heated consoles wars to date.

Besides the obvious, delays, costs, technological set-backs, Sony's also facing a pretty major challenge from its once faithful third-party developers.

I think that Michihiro Sasaki, senior vice president of Square Enix, summarizes the issue best.

"We don't want the PlayStation 3 to be the overwhelming loser, so we want to support them," says Michihiro Sasaki, senior vice president of Square Enix. "But we don't want them to be the overwhelming winner either, so we can't support them too much."

He goes on to say that while he's planning on developing the "most advanced Final Fantasy game" for the PS3, they still haven't decided which console will get Kingdom Hearts, once a Playstation mainstay.

It's kind of fascinating to watch the game developers try to tinker with the console balance of power through strategic game release. I suspect, it could very easily blow up in their collective faces. I've always held that the more consoles there are out there the better off the entire industry is. In nosing around this topic, I get the sense from the big three console makers, that they feel the same way: None of them want to see the others fail so miserably they leave the fight, they want to be first out of three.
Brian Crecente

Problems for PS3 Could Bring Other Sony Setbacks [WSJ, password required]

"The popularity of Microsoft's new Xbox 360 has been a mixed blessing for retailers and the $25 billion video game industry in general," says The North Korea Times. (Yes, you read that right.) The article goes on to quote a Wall Street Journal story about the Xbox 360 and the decreasing sales for the current generation systems. While I'm trying to read through the lines to locate the "Die Capitalist Pigs" subliminal message, the questions come a floodin'. Pinko reporters read the WSJ? Do people in North Korea even know what a video game is? Aren't they more concerned with things like getting food?

Baffled, I've bookmarked this site. Twice.