You know, I always try to write CRB when I happen to find myself in the mood for writing, but I guess dedication to a specific facet of something can easily make you neglect other important ones. Like posting here, for example.

Like the rest of the internet, I've got to mention GTAIV. I've been playing a lot of it recently. To be perfectly honest, this is the first GTA game I've bought and, subsequently, played this much. Initially, the freedom offered by the game is staggering. You feel as though there's so much to do that it's hard to decide exactly where to start. Because of this, most people's first impressions of the game (and really, any sandbox-style game) is that it offers a tremendous amount of freedom, far more than most other games. Gradually, though, as I became bored with a lot of the smaller details and had seen just about everything at least once, I began to forge through the main story.

It was soon after that I started to feel something I never expected to feel in a sandbox game, let alone one as expansive and genre-defining as GTA. It was the feeling of restrictiveness. Sure the game lets you go anywhere you want any time you want, but in order to move through the actual story, you have to be led through a fairly narrow sequence of events. It's true that at most points you're given a multitude of possible missions to attack, but eventually, there are some that the game is going to make you complete if you want to get to the finish line. Maybe this stands out more to me because of the sheer freedom of other aspects of the game, but all the same, the point is that it stands out.

But this is by no means a bad thing. The vast majority of videogames out there (well, big budget non-casual games, anyway) are linear in the same way. The reason it nags at my mind while I'm playing is because of the hype surrounding the game. After reading pages upon pages of critics pontificating on how incredible and open the game is, I just can't help but hold it up to a standard. The true irony, though, is that I felt a great deal more freedom when I was playing Mario Galaxy a month ago. Galaxy is a game whose structure is based on levels. Levels! That means that you go onto a playing field, accomplish x, and repeat in various other playing fields. What made it feel open and free was exactly what makes GTAIV feel linear to me. While I was playing Mario Galaxy, I always knew that if I didn't like a given level, I didn't have to do it. The way it works is that in order to progress from one world to another, all you need is a given number of stars (which are awarded for beating levels). Even though this was the case, however, I tried to beat every level as it became available, moving on only when there were no levels remaining in the world I was in (purely because the level design in this game is so darn enjoyable that I didn't want to miss out on any of them). This meant that before long I could clear a given world without beating many levels at all. Therefore, if I ever felt that a level was too hard or even simply not fun, I could skip it with very little penalty. Compare this light and breezy play flow to my problem with GTAIV and it's clear which one seems like it's offering more freedom, despite what initial impressions you may have of the two games. But really, I'm comparing apples and oranges, so maybe I shouldn't give GTAIV as hard of a time as I am.

All in all, I am really enjoying the game. If I ever get frustrated with a mission, it still has enough to do in it that I can just walk away for a while and do something else. And the world really is impressive. But like anything, the more impressive it is, the easier it is to see the faults.

Oh! Also, I made a flash animation featuring characters from CRB! It's the first one I've ever made, so it's a bit simplistic. Enjoy!