2000REVIEWOFTHEDECADE200120022003200420052006200720082009
TUE 29 APR, 2008
Grand Theft Auto IV hits the shops GTA IV shifted a massive 3.7 million units on the first day of release, and went on to become one of the best-selling games of the decade. Henry Northmore looks at how an Edinburgh-based games design company produced a worldwide phenomenon
G rand Theft Auto IV is an almost perfect gaming experience: expansive, intelligent and hugely entertaining. Developers Rockstar North made a pivotal change in moving into a 3D environment for GTA III (2001), a change they honed on Vice City (2002) and San Andreas (2004) but only perfected as they graduated to the next generation consoles with IV in 2008.
Scotland can justifiably be very
proud of Rockstar North. As the creators of Grand Theft Auto (as well as Manhunt) they punch well above the international market and produce intelligent, multi-faceted and mature art. their weight
in
Some may scoff at the term ‘art’ when applied to videogames, but they’d be wrong to do so. Not only do videogames offer a level of interactivity beyond any other medium, but also the character
truly development of a protagonist such as Niko Bellic in GTA IV is as vast and complex as in many novels. Rockstar were innovators in creating a interactive environment where heading to the local pool hall, listening to hour upon hour of quality radio or surfing the in-game internet (as seen in GTA IV) is as rewarding as completing mission objectives. And this is just the tip of the iceberg in what is one of the most fully realised artificial environments ever created.
Furthermore, Rockstar created a new (and now much imitated) narrative style of gameplay that gave the player more control over their character’s fate. Their ‘sandbox’ approach to the game world meant that playing was no longer a linear experience but open-ended. The result was that you could script the destiny of your own hood in a wonderfully stylized, gangster movie-influenced setting – an experience of authorship that some politicians and elements of the press confused with the vicarious enjoyment of violence. ‘I think our distance and objectivity is essential to our ability to distort and satirize US culture,’ explains Leslie Benzies, President of Rockstar North, pointing out the many layers of humour and irony within the game.
To their credit, Rockstar North have never treated their gamers as idiots and their commitment to depth and accuracy in building their (admittedly adult) themes was always going to ensure the game’s success both critically and commercially. GTA IV is a truly phenomenal piece of programming – the benchmark for the next generation of videogame art.
What we said then . . . ‘GTA IV is arguably Scotland's most remarkable technological achievement since John Logie Baird and the television . . . The best game in a decade.’ ●●●●● The List, 8 May 2008
2008 2009
SEPTEMBER
AUGUST SEPTEMBER
APRIL
JUNE AUGUST
Canongate Books
Edinburgh-born
Glasvegas release Susan Boyle appears
build on the success Chris Hoy
of 2001’s Booker Prize-winning Life Of
Pi by publishing Barack Obama’s Dreams Of My Father.
becomes first UK Olympian for 100 years to claim three gold medals at one
games in the Beijing Olympics. He is awarded an MBE at the end of
the year.
debut album Glasvegas. They are nominated for the Mercury Prize, Best New Act at
the Q awards, and win the
NME’s Philip Hall Radar Award.
on Britain’s Got Talent. Despite
finishing second in the competition, she gains worldwide
fame, achieving more YouTube views than President Obama’s
inauguration.
Carol Ann Duffy is named Poet Laureate. She is the first Scot, the first female,
and the first homosexual to be awarded the
post.
Booker Prize-winner James Kelman slams the current state of Scottish literature,
criticising the celebration of
‘fucking detective fiction, or else some kind of child writer’, in swipes at Ian Rankin
and JK Rowling.
26 THE LIST 3–17 Dec 2009
BEST OF A DECADE
Our countdown of the very best cultural artifacts from the last ten years; the greatest films, novels and albums
FILMS
1 Dogville (Lars Von Trier, 2003) 2 Che Part One and Two (Steven Soderbergh, 2009)
3 Fish Tank (Andrea Arnold, 2009) 4 The Son (Jean-Pierre and Luc
Dardennes, 2002)
5 Hidden (Michael Haneke, 2005) 6 14 Months, 3 Weeks and 2
Days (Cristian Mungiu, 2007) 7 The Assassination of Jesse
James by the Coward Robert Ford (Andrew Dominik, 2006) 8 The Death of Mr Lazarescu
(Cristi Puiu, 2005)
9 The Man Who Wasn’t There (Joel and Ethan Coen, 2001) 10 Adaptation (Spike Jonze, 2002)
BOOKS
1 Cormac McCarthy – The Road
(2006) 2 Ali Smith – The Accidental
(2005)
3 Dave Eggers – A Heartbreaking
Work of Staggering Genius (2000) 4 James Ellroy – The Cold Six
Thousand (2001)
5 AL Kennedy – Paradise (2004) 6 Louise Welsh – The Cutting
Room (2002)
7 Philip Roth – The Plot Against
America (2004)
8 Michael Faber – The Crimson
Petal and the White (2002) 9 Steven Hall – The Raw Shark
Texts (2005) 10 Zadie Smith – White Teeth
(2000) ALBUMS
1 Arcade Fire – Funeral (2005) 2 The Knife – Silent Shout (2006) 3 Radiohead – Kid A (2000) 4 Bon Iver – For Emma, Forever
Ago (2008)
5 The White Stripes – White
Blood Cells (2001) 6 Franz Ferdinand – Franz
Ferdinand (2004) 7 Animal Collective –
Merriweather Post Pavilion (2009)
8 Yeah Yeah Yeahs – Fever To Tell
(2003)
9 The Streets – Original Pirate
Material (2002) 10 The Delgados – The Great
Eastern (2000)
■ Read The List writers’ retrospective reviews of all the films, books and albums on our lists, plus watch film clips, read excerpts, download Spotify playlists and lots more online at www.list.co.uk/bestofadecade