"Is 'Grand Theft Auto IV' the greatest writing of the century?"

I honestly think the writing in GTA is witty and humorous. It has the gangster thing but always throws bits of humor that makes sure you dont take the game too seriously.

 

Best writing of these last 9 years? No, all they do is adapt stuff from popular culture.

 

I think it is some of the best writing in video games, ever.

Better than a lot of current films.

DD

 

Only played GTA 3 very sparingly. If the theme is consistant, I'd say it does appeal to the hip "attitude" of the times... Dry, biting, outright silly, vicious, a bit smug, but all in fun.

To say we look back on video games as stories in and of themselves outside of movies and books...We already kind of do that. I could tell you the ending to Splinter Cell before I tell you the ending to the last Oscar winner for Best Picture.

But there's still a bit of choose your own adventure to games. Not everyone will reach the ending. And you dont reach a "frustration point" in a novel too much. So while it might be on par, kinda doubting we take video game writing that seriously...BUT, it might be more difficult to actually make a book character playable and interact in the story setting than it is to keep their story plots simply on paper?

 

Good? Definitely? Incredible? I agree but some will disagree

Greatest of this century? Hell no

 

I was prett disappointed by GTA IV honestly. I have always loved the series and San Andreas may be my all time favorite game.

This year I got GTA IV and was pumped, but they I quit playing it within the first week. It was just boring imo. I recently picked up Saints Row II and LOVE it. It may be my favorite game from this past year

 

el oh el.. at the very idea.. of the proposed.. absurd question..

 

There is better writing in video games, let alone of the century. GTAIV did have some solid writing. They did a fine job of adapting themes from movies, culture, and made it original enough at the same time.

However, the writing of Bioshock is more original, and creates better, more well developed characters.

The writing of Mass Effect is at least as good, because it fits the game idea of making it more like a movie with the different camera angles and the way that dialogue is set up.

 

I did not think it was that great. I played it through, enjoyed it for the most part, but I don't understand the hoopla about the GTA series. I guess it's just not my cup o' tea.

 

Look, I didn't play it for various reasons, and probably wouldn't just because I don't dig on the current trend of gratuitously glorifying gang life and criminality, but .... come on...

Really?

I guess I'm not qualified to comment on how great the writing is, but I'm also guessing that the writing has as much to do with GTA's popularity (Secret "Naughty scenes?) as the articles do for Playboy.

 

I agree. GTAIV was decent but can't hold a candle to Bioshock's narrative. Also have to put the MGS series in there (especially MGS3 & MGS4) for better writing than GTAIV.

 

I love these series and will continue to buy these games. GTA4 is great fun and very funny. I am a bit of a ADD game player so this game style fits my personality perfect. I haven't beat it yet becuz I have kids and that being said, I have only limited times I can play it.

 

Same here, I still play Saints Row 2. I like it more than GTA IV.

 

From spending some time on GTA message boards around the time of release for GTA4, I think this is a common situation. The gamers who judged GTA4 on the assumption that it was going to be like San Andreas, but set in NYC, were ultimately disappointed. They didn't like how a lot of the extraneous and crazy stuff was eliminated and slimmed down for the sake of more realism (wacky vehicles, no planes, tougher combat, etc and so on). SR2 definitely plays more like San Andreas with all the crazy stuff you can pull off.

 

I completely agree, i find myself captivated by the story line. Feeling for the character etc.



I never really cared for Bioshock, although I can see how some would love the "story".

Another game I enjoyed the storyline too was Call of Duty 4. The final scene on the bridge was intense.

 

Is that game any good? Is it as corny as the first one?

I remember when the first one came out and i bought it. The gangs seemed really silly and unrealistic and before one of the missions during a cut scene this guy says "One of my n*ggas is in trouble". Now, i wasn't offended by the language but the way he said it sounded so unreal that it was disgusting. It felt like watching one of those 90's sitcoms where the dad gets made over into the cool 'hip hop guy' and he attempts to use slang and he embarrasses his kids. I never finished the game and just returned it.

 

I love it dude. Its one of my favorite games of this year. I personally liked the first but this one has a ton of significant improvements. The side missions are much more fun and do-able, cooler guns, easier to navigate, the best gps I have seen in any video game, etc. THe game is still kinda corny but it is supposed to be. It is wacky and funny. Some of the stuff is hilarious, but it gets a lot more serious towards the end. It is better than GTA IV imo

 

I loved the COD 4 story line, prolly my favorite of all time. However, I got very bored with the GTA IV story line pretty quickly