Dude, so Giant Bomb is now a Thing.  This is hella RAD. 

So, I have been playing a heap of Bad Company,  NFS:MW and COD4.  All great games in their own way.

But I do have an observation about NFS, in fact it probably applies to all "nefarious" driving games.  They clutter up the goddamn city with barrels, cones, huge chunks of concrete, other cars, and such as.  Now, sure, they are going for realism...but whatever man...either you make it real with car damage etc and blown engines or just !@#$%^& go crazy.  No middle ground.  In the middle ground lives mediocrity.

Also, I love the psychopathic "quick get in the way of the speeding gangster with a Mac-10" mentaility of all the civilian cars in the GTA games.  Dicks all hell of swirving in to your path for no good reason.  Creating frustration to add difficulty to your game is a bad move.

Whilst  a on the subject of GTA I am just going to right out and say it.  Not a huge fan of GTA4.  Now, sure, they do a heap of rad things.  The combat is much more focused, and easier, now.  The cover mechanic is useful, if somewhat broken.  The characters are just as 2 dimensional as ever ( this -is- a good thing) and the "ambient" dialogue is rad too.

But it does have problems.  Driving is jacked.  Either make it realistic or make it unrealistic.  Don't make it broken.  The story is, contrary to the opinions of most dudes in the know, the stuff of melodrama.  I just do not see it's brilliance.  It's no Moby Dick, no Heat, no LA Confidential, no Aeneid.  I just could not bring myself to care about the characters.  Niko is just such a stooge...Give me CJ any day.

In ungame-related news, I am in possession of a DVD of The 36th Chamber of Shaolin that features "directors commentary" by The RZA.  How awesome is that?  !@#$%^& Awesome.