After a year of patiently waiting, Playstation 3 and PC owners will finally get the extra episodes from Rockstar’s blockbuster, Grand Theft Auto IV. Both episodes, The Lost and the Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony will be available in disc format and as downloadable content on the Playstation Store and Games for Windows on March 30. The retail copy, which has both episodes on one disc, will be share the title of its Xbox 360 counterpart, Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City
When it was announced that Rockstar had signed a deal with Microsoft to bring the episodes to the Xbox 360 alone as a timed exclusive, gamers worldwide were extremely disappointed. Gamers understand the premise of competition, but many of us are starting to grow up (or are now getting old in the case of this writer) and our fanboyism is waning. We’re starting to not care about exclusives, because we feel that it hurts the industry as a whole when companies pay for exclusivity. Rockstar did what was prudent for them at the time. When Microsoft comes waving a wad of cash in front of you, it is hard to resist. Nevertheless, the episodes are on their way now, and Sam Houser, president and co-founder of Rockstar Games, is excited for us all.
It’s been a long time coming, but we are proud to finally deliver Episodes From Liberty City for the PC and PlayStation 3,” said Sam Houser. “We appreciate the patience of our PlayStation 3 and PC fans worldwide, and we look forward to putting the games in your hands this March.
The controls are pretty simple to grasp. The left analog stick controls the ships direction that it is travelling, the right stick controls which direction it is facing, much like every other dual stick shooter. However it’s not as fast paced as a game like Geometry Wars is. Shooter is more methodical and makes you think about your movement more than your shooting. Firing your weapons is done by hitting either the R1 or R2 buttons. A simple tap of either button will fire a single shot, as fast as you can pull the trigger. If you hold down the button you will get a stronger missile to fire. The more of these you let loose, however, the faster your heat gauge will go up. If the gauge gets too high, you burst into flames and the only way to save your ship is to hope that you land in a nice cooling puddle of water. Missiles aren’t the only manner of weapon you have at your disposal, though. In later stages you find ways of equipping your ship with water and magma “suits.” As the name would suggest, you can shoot either water or magma as your primary weapon with each respective suit. These will help you in solving the many environmental puzzles within Shooter. Along the way you will find gems and scientists to pluck from the cave floors. This is done by simply tapping either the L1 or L2 buttons. Doing so will send out a grappling hook like tool that will pick up said person and place them safely in your ship. Later, you can use the hooks to do other tasks.
The game looks very slick. Granted, it is very simplistic, much like the other PixelJunk games, but it still manages to portray the stylized feel of their previous titles. The fluids in the game are where Shooter probably shines the most. Everything flows the way you would think it would in real life, making it easier to pick your targets in the game in order to solve puzzles. The bosses are very large and for the most part fun to interact with, though as I said before this game really isn’t all that hard. Music doesn’t really play as much a part in this release as it did in Eden, but it’s still here, however muted it is. The sound design is pretty fun as well. Weapon fire, environmental noise, even the screams of the people you are trying to help all subtly add to the overall feeling of the game. Few things in this game make you feel as helpless as when you fire a rogue shot only to hear a scream off screen, and know that you just killed someone completely on accident that you were supposed to have rescued.
