The greatness of Rockstar

So having looked at the negatives of Fifa 12 last week, I thought I would cast a positive eye over a company called Rockstar.

If you can, try and name a game which they have made which isn't at least "good"..

If you are thinking 'I don't really know any of their games apart from Grand Theft Autos' - then visit their game page:

http://www.rockstargames.com/games#/?page=1

Why am I pointing towards Rockstar as a company to lavish praise upon?  Well let me quote Dan Houser, the vice president of the company:

"It's in our DNA to avoid doing what other companies are doing."

This sentence should be used by every single developer.  At no point should a developer say 'hey, that model is doing well, we should use it as a template.'.  It's perhaps a sad indictment of the games industry that this happens so often, even with already large, successful companies. 

So, Rockstar.. Formed in 1998 by a few English developers (Sam Houser, Dan Houser, Terry Donovan, Jamie King and Gary Foreman) with the drive to do something a bit different. 

Grand Theft Auto, the original game, released in 1997 for PC.  Moderately successful, turned very successful thanks to a few nut cases who wanted it banned for it's over-the-top violence and gang land themes, essentially giving the game lots and lots of free publicity.  From its top-down view it was a virtual world where criminal activity was actively encouraged, accepting missions from going to phone booths around the now very similar city of Liberty City.  Breaking the law in ways such as running over pedestrians and cops, shooting innocent people or gang members or doing the missions, sparked a 'wanted level'.  The wanted level was - and still is in my opinion - pretty revolutionary.  The more crime you commit, the more stars are given to you, resulting in tougher forces clamouring for your head.  The world itself was a sandbox, from the very first moments in Liberty City, you could travel anywhere within it.  At the time, there were very few games which weren't 'off the rails' - a term given a game if you have very little choice in where you go or what you do.  Just a few points on what separated this company from the rest of them..

What have they done since this 2D masterpiece?  Well, it got a lot more exciting in 2001..

3D was the next wall they had to climb over in order to keep up with the new hardware out at the time - better PCs and consoles which were much more powerful than the last generation, the PS2 and the Xbox.  They did it and it's still a game which sells buy the bucket load on the handhelds and smart phones.  What's even more incredible is how good it still looks 11 years after being released. 

How good was/is the game?  According to Metacritic, this and 'Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3' are the 2 highest rated PS2 games of all time with a score of 97/100.  The game shifted 12 million copies (2007) and is widely accepted as being far in front of the curve. 

So, they've got the sandbox world pretty much perfected as much as the hardware would let them, did they stop?  No, they didn't..

Manhunt, released in 2003, is nowhere near as popular as GTA, it sold 1.7 million copies, but what it did do is shock.  The game is based on stealth and brutal murder, using pretty much anything you can find.  The story is of a guy who's been given the death sentence, but gets freed by an unknown voice, coming into the room over the speakers.  He gives you a 'second chance' but in order to survive, you must defend yourself against groups of people who would much prefer you to be dead.  All this, whilst being filmed as a 'snuff movie' for the rich. 

So what? - You're saying.  Well whilst not being revolutionary, it did bring to the table a new level of violence and gore to the games industry.  A level in which hasn't really been surpassed, even by its successor, Manhunt 2.  Why didn't they try to reach new heights of goriness?  They did, but censors turned the game into a hypnotic, twisting, twirling dance floor whenever you 'executed' someone, because it was so graphic..

So hopefully the last couple of paragraphs have shown that Rockstar are a company which try and break down walls which, until their games had come around, had not been broken.  So, we get to the current generation of consoles and hardware.  Are they resting on their laurels?  Not really..

As well as one of the most realistic game world ever created (GTA IV), they go and develop a game set in the old west - Red Dead Redemption.  Again, it's a huge, blockbuster hit with gamers, selling over 13 million copies and averaging 9/10 with reviewers.  The Western genre until this point, had never really been done.  There was 'GUN' on the PS2, which in my opinion, was a really solid game released at the end of the PS2s life cycle.  So what set RDR apart?  Is it the huge, sandbox world?  The personality of locals which vary from town to town?  The sheer amount of things to do within this often barren, yet beautiful world? 

None of the above would be my answer.  I found the most enjoyable thing to do on this game is to jump on a wild horse, tame it and look after that damn horse as though it was your own damn child.  Now, I don't normally get sentimental about anything within a virtual world, but Rockstar being Rockstar, made the horses so realistic, with muscles popping in and out, depending on whether they're tensed or relaxed, that each horse has its own unique property and personality.  It was as close to perfect as perfect could be.  After playing the solo campaign and riding one horse through about 17 hours of it, it got killed by what I like to call 'an arsehole'.  I was so sad my horse had been killed in such cold blood, I used every single round I had in my impressive arsenal, to shoot the guy over and over and over again..  Thankfully, I had the foresight to capture him with my trusty lasso and hog-tie him before doing this, taking him to the most remote part of the world and giving out my own rough justice...  It's a cold place the west..

Next?  L.A Noire, a game which again, has been hugely successful game, selling over 5 million copies on all formats.  A detective game where you play an upcoming detective who works his way up the police ladder.  Different in the way it's not about running and gunning.  You have to search the crime scene for clues and interrogate potential criminals based on what you have found.  What's so revolutionary?  It's the faces!

Using revolutionary (I know, you're getting more bored reading that word than I am typing it!) face capturing technology, of real actors; you rely on reading the people rather than the game.  No other game has used this and it tells.  You have to rely on your intuition to determine whether the person you're questioning is telling the truth, or holding information back from you.  For a game to demonstrate this level of the 'real world' is staggering and awesome, let's hope more developers use it in the future.

I think it's time to start wrapping this up..

So, Rockstar..  A company who I hope to have demonstrated do not rely on past glories to sell new games.  A company who keep trying to push the boundaries of gaming, which is a good thing not only for themselves, but for us, the consumers.  A company that will try and make a wide range of games, be it sandbox world games, racing games, shooters and action/adventures.  But I think the most important part of their psyche is that they will not rush games.  GTAIV - released 2008.  Yes, they have released downloadable content, but it's still set within the same world..  The beautiful thing is the release of GTAV, which has just been announced for sale in.....

TBA
(To Be Announced)

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh, how refreshing.  It's glorious, we don't know, which means they don't really know either..

Why is that so good?  Because they're not rushing it.  It will be done when it is done.  Have you ever given someone a deadline which resulted in the final product being sub-standard?  I bet at some point you have, I know companies such as Infinity Ward, Treyarch, Dice and EA Sports have.  That's exactly the point I'm trying to make I think games today are suffering because of these silly deadlines..  Yearly versions which are basically 'tweaks' of last years game, but with small and often pointless alterations.

So let me say 'thank you Rockstar' - for being different.

Please, please, please, never change and keep pushing those boundaries.

If you got this far, have a great day and thanks very much for reading,

Mr.C