Hell, I'm still working on 2007 games, never mind 2008.

...I've finally decided to write some more coherent thoughts on "Game of the Year" Grand Theft Auto IV.  Please, don't spoil anything I don't already know.

• 

  "Why am I driving this idiot around again?"
  The first two hours of this game felt like Crazy Taxi: Little Russia.  I realize the point of this, like most early missions, is to teach you a new mechanic (in this case, driving in a way that doesn't cause thousands of dollars in property damage, amusing as that is) and to familiarize you with the city, but it wasn't terribly interesting.
• Little Jacob.  Oh, Little Jacob.  He immediately comes along and spices up your life by giving you a gun and telling you to whack some fools who are encroaching on his little op.  Fun stuff.  I really do need to spend more time with him, doing shit.  He's awesome.
• On the other hand, I could've stood to have had a tutorial in fistfights a little sooner than the Albanian loan shark mission.  At one point, I tried to jack someone, got counterjacked (?), and challenged to a fight.  Not really knowing what to do (and the manual being useless), I actually got hospitalized.  Dammit.
• The relationship with Michelle has filtered the game through the lens of the least shady person in the mix, at least so far as I've seen.  You know Niko's gotta lie through his teeth about being mixed up with Jamaican dope dealers and low-level Russian mobsters, and you know it can't last forever, because he's going to dig his ass deeper and deeper.  I loved his denial of knowing anything about Vlad after whacking him hours earlier (more on that in a sec), but it was going to get unbelievable if Michelle didn't start to smell bullshit soon, and sure enough, she did.  Now that I'm in with Elisabeta and Playboy X and Dwayne and them, she's not even hiding her concern.  This isn't going to last much longer, I can feel it.  Probably just as well; she made fun of all the nice shit I bought downtown.  If she knew how much that plaid shirt and stonewashed jeans cost...
• So, Vlad.  God, what a dick.  When I met him, I had no idea that I was going to be able to off him so damned soon, so I just gritted my teeth and played along with his bullshit.  But when he set up poor Ivan, I decided enough was enough, Vlad has to go.  I let Ivan live, because both Vlad and Ivan said that he'd been set up, which is generally a sign that someone's getting screwed.  Now, I was ready to off Vlad for that, but apparently it took Vlad sleeping with Mallorie for Niko to reach that point, which struck me as really weird.  I dunno if that's tied to something specific in his character, or what, but either way, Vlad was dead, I got 5 G, and everyone went home happy.  Well, except maybe Vlad.  I don't think he was too pleased with the outcome of that, but fuck it.
• Faustin and Dmitri.  I got the impression as their story went on that one of them would have to go, just seeing how their dynamic fell apart.  I can see why Faustin was the obvious choice, both for the writers and Niko, but I can see where he comes from, in a way.  He became a hard man because he had to in order to survive, and Dmitri would probably have died without him long ago.  By the same token, though, he was a prick to his wife and daughter, and getting more and more unstable, to the point of making you drive a friggin' bomb all the way to South Bohan just to make a point.  What happened next, though, I had no idea about, and I'd definitely like to see where this particular story thread goes.  Is Mr. Bulgarin "that special someone" who stabbed Niko in the back?  Stay tuned, I guess.
• The Lost.  For a gang that's going to wind up being part of an expansion pack, so far they don't seem too relevant.  I'm sure there'll be at least something more from them than one random (annoying) bike chase and shootout, but after reading the "news" report on the "Internet," I suspect it may be more of a late-game, Alderny thing.
• I want to like Brucie, I really do.  But his first mission, where I have to chase this Lyle Rivas dickhead halfway to Vice City really got on my nerves, to the point where I quit playing for about a week.  I think I'm a better driver now, so we'll give it another go at some point (and see if I can steal him some more cars), just as soon as I'm done making nice with all the butthurt whiners in my address book.
• That reminds me, I had a lot of patience with the relationship system initially, but as more people start bitching that I'm spending more time on story quests than rep grinding, it's starting to bug the piss out of me.  It doesn't help that the minigames are all kind of assy.
• Other stuff I don't like: missions with no checkpoints.  Not even a checkpoint mid-chase or anything like that; just a checkpoint at each cutscene.  I'd really rather not avoid the cops after jacking their ride for the umpteenth time just so I can "find" this Rivas motherfucker yet again.
• I already know about the Dwayne vs. Playboy X choice, and that kind of sucks, but I'm very interested in seeing where their stories lead.  I may surprise myself, I dunno.  Playboy X pays well, and shooting a whole ton of dudes in the face is an attractive prospect.
• The train is soooooo sloooooow.  That is all.

A friend of mine recently expressed interest in taking my old Xbox off my hands, since I'm probably never going to use it again, despite my own strenuous objections to the contrary.  (His most recent console is a GameCube.)  So I figure I might as well find out what a fair deal is (then proceed to sell it at half that anyway, because I'm just like that).  So here's what I've got:

• One Halo LE green Xbox.  Here in Canada, though, it came with ESPN NHL Hockey (at least at Future Shop), which I sold to EB long ago.
• One matching green controller.  I'd bought a spare at the time, but after using it once or twice, it seems to have vanished into the ether.
• One DVD remote with receiver.  Hey, I used my Xbox as a DVD player one winter after season one of Doctor Who (great season or greatest season?) came out.
• All my saves, for whatever that's worth.  They can delete them if they'd like, or take advantage of my mediocrity to get a head start.
• 007: Everything or Nothing, with its embryonic Achievements in the form of Bond Moments, and which I really should've spent more time with
• Burnout 3: Takedown, the best Burnout game (fuck Paradise)
• The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay, which I almost finished but got stuck on coming back from the caves.
• Crimson Skies: High Road to Revenge, which I deeply regret not finishing and would very much like to see on Xbox Originals at some point.
• The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Game of the Year Edition, which I think comes with some sort of built-in expansion.  I dunno, I played an hour, forgot to save, died, and gave up.
• Lego Star Wars II: The Original Trilogy
• Max Payne
• NHL 2K5 and 2K6: 2K5 caused me to sell 2K4, while 2K6...eh, didn't.  Dunno why, but I could never get 2K6 to "feel" right.
  
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, which I gave up on early on because of the shitty combat.
  
• Project Gotham Racing 2
• Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy, another game I almost finished but somehow neglected.
• Second Sight, Psi-Ops's "special" cousin.
• Soul Calibur II
• Super Monkey Ball Deluxe, which was fun for about an hour before I realized I'd had my fill of SMB playing the first two games on this friend's 'Cube.

So the console, controller, remote, saves, and 15 games, most of them quality.  My first thought was $100 for the lot of it.

Okay, what the hell am I going to do with 7000 MSP?  With my recent acquisition of Rock Band 2, obviously importing Rock Band 1 songs and buying a bunch of DLC is up there on the list, but I've also got some Arcade games to consider.  I'd get Uno simply because I really do play that by myself (what?), and Braid because I'm pretty sure it's going to be awesome, but...what else?  Geometry Wars 2?  Penny Arcade Episodes 1 & 2?  What else am I missing here?

For the record, songs under consideration below:

• George Thoroughgood - Bad to the Bone
• The Cult - She Sells Sanctuary
• Deep Purple - Space Truckin' (The drums would be killer on this, I'd think.)
• James Gang - Funk #49
• Rush - Closer to the Heart
• Rush - Working Man
• Rush - Moving Pictures [album] (Yes, I'm Canadian.)
• Boston Pack 01
• Metallica Pack 01
• Police Pack 01 (Though I'm not huge on "Can't Stand Losing You" - Sting writes creepy shit, yo.)
• Classic Rock Pack 01 (I'm torn - I'm only really big on "Message in a Bottle" but I don't mind the others, particularly)
• Jonathon Coulton - Skullcrusher Mountain
• Best of the Who (I really need to familiarize myself better with some of those songs.  Off to get Live From Leeds, I guess...)
• blink-182 - All the Small Things (Oh, high school...)
• Lynyrd Skynyrd - Gimme Three Steps
• Wolfmother - Joker and the Thief

And albums I really need to listen to before I make a decision on:

• Judas Priest - Screaming for Vengeance
• The Cars - The Cars
• Megadeth - Peace Sells...But Who's Buying?
• Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood

So apparently I was a very good boy this year, because I got Rock Band 2 for Christmas.

Wow.

There were some other games, which you can see if you expand the image, but...wow.  Hope everyone had as good a day as I did.  Merry Christmas, everyone.