Grand Theft Auto

[Alfons]

But by the smallest imaginable amount. They don't want to push it on too far or else there won't be anything left to add to the next update. I imagine them sat around deciding which tweaks to put in now and which to hold back so they can spend the next year relaxing without the pressure of having to think of anything new.

see Luka's answer above...

 

[Ach!]

GOOOOOOOAAAALLLL!

 

[don_quixote]

yeah, i mean they're easy to download. but i don't think they have a massive cultural impact in the same way playstation ones do. i could be wrong there though.

only football manager nowadays. half-life as well i guess, but that's on other consoles isn't it? most games on them also have console versions now. oh yeah the fucking sims.

and football managers 'cultural impact' is debatable. but this was one of the most replied to guardian blog posts ever:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/blog/2008/nov/14/championship-manager-joyofsix-football

doesn't really influence music or anything else though does it? but my god the amount of young men who you can talk to about it and happily discuss norwegian 20 year olds - see the article.

 

[don_quixote]

also, can't believe no-ones mentioned 'computer girls' yet

 

[jd_]

Sports games actually often go through quite dramatic changes to their mechanics. Much more so than first person shooters or things like that. I don't know football games so well but baseball and basketball ones, golf, boxing, hockey, whatever, they are always totally changing everything. I guess because they are more concerned with trying to convey the experience of these physical actions than they are about follwing the tradition of other games. I mean like nobody wants to learn to aim a gun in a new way, they are more interested in a new context/new rules for where they shoot them, but something like taking a free throw is pretty up for grabs. And certainly they'll go over massive overhauls the next round of consoles when (I can only assume) everyone will incorporate some form of wii like motion controls.

 

[luka]

motion is the way to go, wiis a bit unsatisfying though. i want the full body suit!
can't wait for the that to happen. hopefully we have enough energy left in the planet to fuel it

 

[Ness Rowlah]

Well seems like the UK sales numbers for 2008 are out. These are software sales (so does not include consoles etc). According to The Times,
* films on DVD: £2.34 billion (-0.4%)
* games sw: £1.9 billion (+23%)
* music: £1.33 billion (estimated, -10%)

I guess we'll see musicians make the switch to write for games only (like Thomas Dolby did with ringtones -http://www.engadget.com/2005/01/25/thomas-dolbys-new-gig-ringtone-producer/).

 

[petergunn]

i also credit GTA (in part) for turning american djs onto house and other dance music. my guess (possibly utterly wrong) is a lot of the posters on the low bee forum and associated sites came to dance music through this route.

no.

i mean, c'mon!

just b/c you guys stole house music from the US doesn't mean we're all sitting around here wallowing in our ignorance waiting for a video game to show us the light... house never stopped being played... and there have been (were? (-sniff-)) tons of dance record stores where house/hip hop are side by side... Rock and Soul is still that way...

but, seriously, who music directed those games? Tim Sweeney from Beats in Space did GTA3, right?

 

[luka]

dunno, never heard of him.
i hardly think its heretical to suggest dance music is more mainstream in the uk than in the us. i'm not talking about hipsters like yourself.

 

[petergunn]

dunno, never heard of him.
i hardly think its heretical to suggest dance music is more mainstream in the uk than in the us. i'm not talking about hipsters like yourself.

NOW, NOW DON'T GO POINTING FINGERS!

yr point wasn't that dance music is more mainstream in the Uk than the US, it was that american DJ's learned about dance music from GTA... the former is true, the latter is just silly... as if there hasn't been a continuous and active dance music culture in the US for the last 30something years...

 

[BareBones]

fuck me, the number of hours of my life i wasted back in the day playing championship manager, taking chelmsford fc to the top of the premier league. hurts thinking about it. haven't played any of the nu-school management games where you actually watch a fifa-style game being played rather than get those text boxes flashing up ("bakayoko steps up to take the free kick....") but i can't imagine they could ever match the ecstacy of having the flashing "GOAL!!!" text come up as you nicked a winner in injury time of the fa cup final.

...not that it has anything to do with music though.

 

[owengriffiths]

A real obvious connection that GTA has with music, that I dont think anyone's mentioned yet. It is the only game to have dozens of licensed tracks rather than an original soundtrack. Years ago when I found out the 3D GTA games had so many famous songs on it's radio stations I was very surprised, didnt think it was possible for them to fit it all on one CD. The record royalties must seriously eat into the games' profit margins. Compare that with the first game, all the tunes were done in house, but they pretended they were done by 'real' bands.

 

[BareBones]

san andreas had way better music than GTA4 i thought... though i loved the inclusion of terry riley in GTA4. There was a question about GTA4 on university challenge this week - when the guy correctly answered there was, predictably, much sanctimonious tittering from all involved, "no no, i dont play it myself, i simply read about it while researching my thesis on troglodyte pop culture"

 

[Mr Jeg]

A real obvious connection that GTA has with music, that I dont think anyone's mentioned yet. It is the only game to have dozens of licensed tracks rather than an original soundtrack.

Not strictly true, although it was definitely influential in terms of the sheer amount of licensed music involved. licensed soundtracks are pretty much de rigeur in computer games now, have been since the start of the decade - and GTA definitely played a big hand in that. more due to the innovative and imaginitive way the game presents the music in radio format, complete with banter & ads, rather than the lifeless 'ipod on shuffle' soundtracking of most games.

 

[mixed_biscuits]

Music rarely survives appearances on computer game soundtracks with dignity intact.

Maybe GTA is an exception in this regard - partly because it chooses much music that is considered naff and helps redeem it.

Other games take hip music (eg FIFA 09 and MGMT) and strip it of all context and cool.

 

[matt b]

"think gta is unique in the way it leaks into real life"


This happened to me the other day- turned a 90 degree corner far too fast and started driving on the right hand side of the road, before remembering I am a fucking 37 year old adult.

I'm well back into computer games

Oh this thread is in the music forum. Ahem:

I'm not impressed w/ GTA IV's music though- I only listen to The Journey or the Jazz station

 

[owengriffiths]

The new GTA for the DS is pretty good, but the music is generally unforgettable and quite low in the mix anyway. I sometimes turn the sound off and play a CD instead. which incidentally is something I did all the time in the early 90's. Nirvana's Nevermind & Now vol. 27-31 toasted my favourite super nintendo racing game. I've tried to do this with modern games where you have the sound effects on and the music off, but it always sounds disjointed with one sound coming from the television and another from a hifi in the other side of the room. I think the Xbox lets you play MP3's over the games and I'm curious whether it works well.

 

[matt b]

I think the Xbox lets you play MP3's over the games and I'm curious whether it works well.

Yeah, you can do that on PS3- turn game music down and play your own music.

Sometimes struggles to play a whole album though, instead favouring a 'repeat one song' approach

 

[matt b]

I have to say, careening round liberty city at high speeds, creating havoc whilst listening to Duke Ellington is (despite initial reservations) a joy and one of my musical moments of the year.

I haven't been out much.

 

[luka]

reading the comments on this reminding me how formative the GTA series was on peoples tastes. GTA was like John Peel or something for a lot of people.