Browsing through the pages of my local paper, the Daily Echo, which covers the Dorset area in the south of England, I came across this little piece. I saw the title, and the pic of GTA IV, and a sigh of deep apathy filled the room, expecting yet another GTA-bashing article by a person who hadn't even played the game or was too idiotic to see the satire. However, I was pleasently surprised to see this:

'A Grand way to kill time.

To help while away hour after hour of sleeplessness, I was fortunate to have some pretty good company.
Grand Theft Auto IV.
Yes, the target of some of the world's most vocal moral guardian's chagrin is back and it's as addictive as ever.
Despite many countries being in dire financial straits, the game sold more than 3.5 million units in its first day, and grossed more than $500 million in its first week.
In addition to the commercial success, the game has also become the highest ranked video game ever as rated by the world's critics, but these will not be the facts that make the lasting headlines.

Instead, we'll get fine, upstanding and open-minded moral guardians such as MP Keith Vaz and American attorney Jack Thompson blaming it for every murder, assault and robbery that occurs in the wake of its release. If they could, they'd probably blame it for global warming too.

Had these upright crusaders had the nous to actually play the game before reaching for their pitchforks, they'd find that beneath the superficial violence of the game, there's actually an intellectual and scathing satire on the very values our heroes are purporting to uphold.

But I guess there aren't any headlines in that...

- Steve Court'

It may only be a small article in a local paper, but it brightened my day a little to see someone in the media bothering to look at what the game is, and not just following the trend of ragging on the game without even having played it.

I can't find the article on their website, but some of you may have better luck finding it than I.
bournemouthecho.co.uk/news/columnists

And for those who needs pictures to grab their attention, behold!

First things first, this is my first blog, so please excuse any ineptitude that may or may not manifest itself. This is something I've been thinking about for a while, and I wondered what others thought about this issue.

Recently, I've been thinking of the current crop of consoles as being pretty dissapointing. With the GC/PS2/XBOX cycle, I could name at least 1 game a month I was really interested in, whereas this generation, it seems to be more like 1 game every 4 months.

Looking at the releases for the current cycle, I'm a little underwhelmed. For the PS3, the only game I'm truly hyped is Metal Gear Solid 4 (before anyone flames me, I'm sure that if I had a PS3, I could find some more games I would want, this is just the only PS3 that really appeals to atm). For the X360, things like Dead Rising and Bioshock look cool, but the rest seems to be a pile of generic 15/18-rated first person shooters (again, feel free to correct me!). And for the Wii, well... need I go there? Aside from fairly rare gems like No More Heroes, Okami, and Zack and Wiki, I'm stuck relying on re-iterations of Nintendo's tried-and-tested first-party titles. There seems to be an almost criminal lack of true innovation this generation, or, if there some innovation, the game turns out to be shite in almost every other aspect.

Now, I'm aware that these consoles still have a few years left in them, and I'm hoping that I'm proved wrong, but lately, I'm far more satisfied with my Gamecube and PS2, and hunting down over-looked gems I may have missed the first time around. For example, I could sit and play MGS3 all day, replaying it over and over, and not get bored of it. I can't really say the same of any of the latest games (aside from how MGS4 is shaping up :P).

So, D-toid, what's your opinion of the current crop?