Games Cheats and Reviews

Gamer Limit writes "The Tom Clancy series will always have a special place in the video gaming section of my heart. While the modern monoliths of GTA IV, Bioshock and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare often frequent my hard drive, there exists a small collection of games that are never removed."

Electronic Arts is in the process of shipping BioWare’s Mass Effect 2 to stores nationwide right now, and based on the 30+ reviews that have already been filed by critics, the epic RPG is now the second highest rated Xbox 360 title ever, according to Metacritic. Technically, Rockstar’s GTA IV is #1 with a score of 98, while Mass Effect 2 is tied for second with 2K’s BioShock and Valve’s The Orange Box compilation.

Of course, as extra reviews come in over the next few days, it’s possible that Mass Effect 2’s final rating could change, but either way it’s clear that BioWare really outdid themselves this time

According to upcoming cover from French PC Jeux magazine, GTA IV The Lost and Damned is heading to PC. (See cover’s bottom for announcement)

Grand Theft Auto IV is being questioned as whether or not it is too big for its DLC to be successful.  A game that clocks in at 20+ hours is a rarity when most games pull in the six to eight hour mark.  GTA IV is one of the rare time consuming games left on the market.  There was a lot to do in Liberty City, not to mention all of the mindless roaming, side missions, and the main story line to tackle.  Was it really all too much for gamers to handle?

I never finished GTA IV.  I didn’t finish it because I never really got into the game.  The story never really grabbed my attention.  It certainly was not due to the games size.  However, prognosticator extraordinaire Michael Pachter believes that the size of the game is to blame for the less than stellar sales of the downloadable expansions:

“Ben’s right that the DLC disappointed, but I suspect that the reason is that GTA games are so massive that a substantial majority of the GTA audience hasn’t finished the core game, so they don’t feel especially compelled to buy the DLC,” Pachter said.” — VG247

Review scores for The Ballad of Gay Tony were high.  Everything I read on this DLC was positive and pointing to a must own DLC pack.  Was it advertising that just didn’t work?  Was it the fact that gamers really didn’t finish the core game and saw no point for the DLC?

I just have a hard time swallowing the fact that the game was so big that people just didn’t finish it.  Perhaps it was due to GTA IV losing its shock factor that caused gamers to not finish this game.

What say you reader?  Did you finish GTA IV?  Did you get the DLC packs that have come out?

GrE writes, "Grand Theft Auto IV is being questioned as whether or not it is too big for its DLC to be successful. A game that clocks in at 20+ hours is a rarity when most games pull in the six to eight hour mark. GTA IV is one of the rare time consuming games left on the market. There was a lot to do in Liberty City, not to mention all of the mindless roaming, side missions, and the main story line to tackle. Was it really all too much for gamers to handle?…"

Rockstar has released a new title update for Grand Theft Auto IV, now available for download.

GTA IV’s first Xbox 360-exclusive DLC episode, The Lost and Damned looks to be headed to PC.

That’s if any attention should be paid to the Achievements that’ve just popped up in the latest Games for Windows LIVE update

While great on their own, bringing The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony together makes for an impressive package that rivals GTA IV itself while completing the story it began. The missions, gameplay tweaks and parallel stories make this a must-buy for fans who haven’t already downloaded either add-on.

If you haven’t downloaded either add-on yet, then you might want to consider picking up Episodes from Liberty City, which collects them both on one disc that you don’t need Grand Theft Auto IV to play. It doesn’t offer any new features over the downloadable editions, unless you count a static game-select screen as a "feature," but if you lack the time or the bandwidth to wait for the lengthy downloads, or just don’t have GTA IV, this is the best way to get your hands on them.

PlayStation 3 owners visiting ToysRUs.com may have had a brief thrill today when they saw PlayStation 3 box art for Rockstar’s supposedly Xbox-only Grand Theft Auto IV expansion disc on the company’s site. Just an error, according to Rockstar.

Nico @ PS3Blog.net writes:

An article in Zeenews states that Chirantan Patnaik, a 26 year old private equity broker, spent a massive 40 hours and 20 minutes playing GTA IV on the PS3 which may sound quite sad at first, but it is an impressive mental feat to pull off. The 40 hour marathon started from 10:00 am on September 4th and ending at 2 am on September 6th. The safety guidelines for the record allowed him to take a 10-minute break after every hour, but Patnaik said he only took four breaks throughout the entire attempt . The previous record for playing GTA IV was 28 hours 1 minute which was set late last year.