May Day

I really love how this animated gif came out. You know, these things don't just make themselves. I didn't create the source image, but it took a good bit of re-jiggering to make it move. (The original art doesn't have a head/face.)

[You're welcome.]

It's good to know that people are finding some catharsis in "Grand Theft Auto IV".

Then there's this brassy 7-year-old who decided to take the family car out for a fucking spin:


Hey—why fucking not, am I right?

It's funda do bad things! ^TM

Now, a small warning to those about to embark upon a Grand Theft Auto IV journey....

You may have heard about a "freezing problem" with the game on the PS3. Firstly, there are reports of the game freezing on both the XBOX 360 and the PS3, so let's not console-hate.

Full disclosure: the game froze on me on the first day. Not during the "introductory cut-scene", like in the reports, but a number of hours in. I may have advanced through as much as 8% of the game before the thing spontaneously froze/crashed on me.

I immediately looked the problem up on the trusty InterWeb; read a report that a customer service rep told some guy to DELETE ALL THE GAME FILES from his system -- including saved games -- and just reinstall.

DO NOT DO THIS.

Wasted hours because of this. Doesn't do a goddamn thing. Just reboot your machine and try your luck again. The game's got a great "autosave" function that kicks in after you complete any mission, so you're never likely to lose too much.

ROCKSTAR is aware of the problem. Hopefully they can pin it down and get a downloadable patch out there soon.

Have I lost all the non-gamers? Are all the non-gamers gone now? Hey, it's not easy writing for the broad spectrum of silent lurkers who check out the wreckage here regularly...