GTA Creators Push Limits With Manhunt

Thanks to IGN PS2 for a new, screenshot-toting preview of Manhunt, the forthcoming "brutal urban videogame" produced by the developers of the Grand Theft Auto series. This previously secretive, potentially controversial title starts you, completely defenseless in Carcer City, where 'the Director' has sprung you from Death Row and "...populated [the city] with psychopathic gangs hired for the sole purpose of finding and slaughtering" the player. The piece muses that this "third-person perspective stealth game" seems to be "...much darker, more disturbing... than Grand Theft Auto, which offered seasoned comic humor and parody to counter the bloodshed and chaos."

Comments

Survival Horror...Made From PEOPLE

[Babbster]

This is a great idea for a game. While it's clear that the stealth elements are lifted from the many stealth-based games that have come out since Metal Gear Solid, the game sounds like it's shooting for more of a Resident Evil meets Escape From New York aesthetic - except that you're fighting the living instead of the undead and you probably don't have to rescue the president. Given the descriptions of how enemy detection is going to work (by hearing them), I'd imagine that there are going to be a lot of enemies standing still, sitting, etc. right around a blind corner. As long as the control isn't handled like Resident Evil (mush), this sounds like a game I could get into.

I will note that I certainly hope that they have enough system overhead left to provide real-time DTS sound (something the Playstation has to do in software, as opposed to the Dolby Digital 5.1 in hardware on the Xbox). They mention in the article that they haven't decided between Dolby (Pro Logic, I presume) and DTS, but it seems like a no-brainer if you've got the resources available - if you're going to have a game where sound has a lot of influence, being stuck with one matrixed back channel would be sad, especially since Rockstar did a pretty good job with the DTS in GTA:VC.

As far as controversy goes, that's just inevitable and I'm sure it will be welcomed by Rockstar/Take Two's marketing department since they can save money on advertising. While we've been killing humans in video games for years, the ever-increasing fidelity of said killing is going to continue drawing the ire of the "parents should be able to ignore their kids' hobbies" lobby, desipte the fact that every uproar ends up selling more games.

In short, I'm looking forward to finding out if Rockstar can redeem themselves in the controversial game arena (outside of the GTA series) after the debacle that was State of Emergency.

Controversy...

[Gothic_Walrus]

It's already apparent that this, much like GTA3 and Mortal Kombat before it, is going to make overprotective parents and bored Congressmen wig out and try to ban video games as a whole. Just remeber: the rating system is there for a reason. A lot of people I know could care less about the ratings, but games like this aren't meant for seven year olds. If people ignore the ratings and buy the game for their kid themselves (as most parents would have to do, considering its rating), they can only get mad at themselves for being irresponsible and not checking the game out prior to purchasing it. In any case, the bottom line should be:

You should be monitoring what your kid does in their free time. If you're offended by the game, don't buy it for your kid. It's that simple.

Re:Controversy...

[clambake]

You should be monitoring what your kid does in their free time.

Spoken like somebody who doesn't have kids.

Likewise, spoken by someone who SHOULDN'T have kids.

One man's trash is another's Sunday afternoon

[Chartreuse_Zergling]

I'm going to take the bait and ask what "is" wrong with that, from an ethical standpoint? I think killing is killing whether done for duty, profit, or fun. Killing is bad. Simulated killing, however, lacks the real-life consquences of suffering and death. What's the difference between playing as a gangster in a crime sim or a playing a soldier fighting a "justified" war, i.e. Desert Combat? The virtual motive?

Granted, I'm not saying that a serial killer sim would be fun, in reality serial killers tend to be pyschopaths and focus on weaker victims. And there are already games that allow behavior similar to a serial killer, like Postal2 and GTA3. However, acting uber-violent in these games doesn't add to the gameplay or help you complete the game, aside from maybe gaining extra points.

There maybe existential ramifications in guiding a make-believe character in a make-believe world, but you do the same thing as a spectator when you read a novel or watch TV.

Games don't help people become better axe-murderers. They already were.

Rockstar v. Miyamoto

[superultra]

I hope that the games.slashdot crew is well versed enough that I don't have to go and link to a gazillione interviews with Miyamoto on why GTA3 and its kin aren't great for the industry. Manhunt only proves that violence without purpose in games is only escalatory. So Manhunt sells billions of copies. What subject content does Rockstar tackle next? There's not much left beyond the prison brutality espouged in Manhunt's (now defunct) promo website.

Meanwhile, in the other corner, we have Miyamoto who's busy making the Amelie-inspired Pikmin 2 and a revamp of Pac-Man. I think this represents the beginnings of a rift in the gaming industry. Rockstar and everyone trying to copy them on one side, and luminaries like Miyamoto, Spector, Wright, etc on the other side; essentially, people who see purpose-less violence as self-defeating.

Here's the paradox: if GTA3 and Manhunt are "art" as nearly every video game enthusiast espouses, then it does - as art is prone to doing - affect the way we think. If that's the case, then why not examine it? I am by no means suggesting that games like Manhunt should be legislated, but I think it's extremely naive of gamers to assume that GTA/Manhunt does not change our social consciousness. Shouldn't we then be concerned about its effect, be it good or bad?

Every Manhunt/GTA-esque game casts a vast shadow on the game industry that obscures gems like Pikmin or Viewtiful Joe or Animal Crossing. Those are the games that should be on the forefront of the industry, not GTA or Manhunt. "Everything is permissible, but not everything is beneficial." Merely because we can makes games like Manhunt doesn't mean we should.

MANHUNT PREVIEW IN GTA!!!

[AlexMax2742]

1. Start up your PS2/PC with GTA3/GTA:VC
2. Find the cheat codes for you resepective ssystem that enables 'Pedestrians have weapons', 'Pedestrians riot' and 'Pedestrians hate you'
3. Enter cheat codes
4. ???
5. Profit

There you go. And you didn't even have to wait for an official demo/release.