And the Beer Goggles Award Goes To ...

There has been a lot written about GTA IV. Maybe a little too much. There has been too much back patting. Too much love. Too much critical acclaim (I mean it only comes from gaming jounalists ... lap up the love Rockstar). There has been a scandal due to a website being given an exclusivity period with its review and an extremely "half hearted" cash for comments claim from their peers. There has been the specials once again IGN was the master of the GTA IV special. There have been the perfect review scores. 10 out of 10 being a common factor in the reviewing process (although kudos for IGN Australia who held off and provided a 9.8 out of 10 ... I mean what's in .2 of a review anyway).

However, I have to award GTA IV with the "Beer Goggles Award" for the year. For two specific reasons. Firstly, when I play the game I find things are slightly out of focus. Some have commented (but not criticized ... I mean how dare we criticize such gaming celebrity as Rockstar) on the use of filters in order to create the visual effects in game. Secondly, for brain washing the entire community of gaming journalists. Who failed to criticize the game en masse. It was as if the entire gaming world was wearing beer goggles for several weeks prior to and after the game being released.

There have been other games which would have nearly qualified for the Beer Goggles Award, but I don't think that a game has really captured the gaming world in the same way. As for visuals then The Legend of Zelda Twilight Princess is definitely up there. How do you qualify a game for an award such as this? It is simple. If it requires beer goggles for the gamer to attain a fine focus on the graphical content then a game qualifies. There are times during GTA IV when the game world goes to dusk and you are driving under an elevated railway that the graphics take a bit of a dip. Of course, playing the game with beer goggles would have meant that all of the driving would have been drunk driving and provided the bleeding hearts with a reason to cry yet again. To me the game looks much better with beer goggles. The repetition is not so bad. The characters a little more Hollywood and the game a little more challenging. Because of all things, let's face it, GTA IV is not challenging.

On to the beer goggles of the gaming journalistic community. There was another game which nearly qualified for the beer goggles award for journalists. This game was a little release called Assassin's Creed. Great game. Great visuals (no beer goggles required there). But no one in the esteemed community of gaming journalists thought that this game was just a little bit repetitive. A little bit boring. Once you have done the first assassination then you will find that pretty much every other one is exactly the same. Yes, you can unlock bits of city and you can walk around in ultra realistic fashion but that was about it. It was as though the entire community of gaming journalists were wearing beer goggles when it came time to review the game and forgot to mention that the game itself is extremely boring. Beautiful but boring. It was like going to the pub. Picking up the hottest girl there and realizing that she was born without a brain. Great for one night but not good for ongoing conversation and relationship building. GTA IV too seems to have created a collective silence from gaming journalists. Great game. Shame about the coverage.

You know you need beer goggles to play a game when everything is slightly out of focus when you play sober. While in an intoxicated state the beer goggles provide a finer focus to the game. Taking those slightly out of focus visuals and placing them back in to focus.

For the full HD experience then gaming journalists around the world recommend playing GTA IV with beer goggles.