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So, I thought I’d give Grand Theft Auto 4 another go after I tore it apart in my review. And you know what?

The game is still a fcuking piece of shit. I have NO fucking idea why the press gave this game so much acclaim.

The missions are all strictly linear, without deviation. This means that the world gets “reset” as soon as you start a mission. This may seem insignificant, but it makes GTA4 nothing more than a stricly linear progression of missions where you are nothing more than a string puppet.

In Saints Row 2 (A MUCH BETTER GAME), missions are not linear. In Saints Row 2, you can be clever. In games like this, you can bet your sweet ass that a simple objective like “kill guy Abc in building Xyz” will end in him escaping the building and driving off, where you have to follow him. I hate sequences like that, so I get clever and use my Latin/Greek-school educated überbrain: in Saints Row 2, I usually parked stolen cars in front of all the exits before the mission started, blocking the thugs from escaping. This way, I could kill them inside, and not be forced into stupid car chase sequences.

In GTA4, by contrast, you sure can park cars in front of all the escape routes, but because everything gets reset to a prescripted setup as soon as you start the mission, it’s all for naught. You are forced to play the mission in exactly the way as the guys at Rockstar set out for you - to the fucking letter. Deviation is not possible.

So, while GTA4 might give you the illusion of being in a sandbox, the sandbox is nothing more but a glorified mission hub where you play a few strings of strictly linear missions where player ingenuity is not welcome. My überbrain gets to hop up and down impatiently, brimming with ideas of more clever ways to finish a mission, but GTA4, the mother of all sandbox crime games, just won’t fcuking let me.

The linearity of missions pokes through in an even more fcuked up way too. I’m currently trying to complete a mission where some guy is holed up with a whole bunch of his lackies. His lackies are easy to kill, but at the end, he escapes the building (HOW FCUKING UNEXPECTED OF YOU, GTA4), and hops into a boat, where you have to follow him on a bike. When I started the mission for the first time, I noticed the boat and realised he’d use it to escape, so against my better judgement, I decided to move the boat into the middle of the ocean, and destroy it. Pointless, of course, as the boat magically reappeared when the bad guy got there.

Anyway, when he gets on the boat, you are supposed to jump on a motorbike and follow him along the coastline. Another linearity limitation: you must follow the exact path as set out by Rockstar. Any deviation from the bike path set out by Rockstar will make you fail the mission. After trying this for the umpteenth bazzilionth time, I got pissed off, and decided to get him before he could enter the boat.

At one point during the chase, he jumps off a building. So, I jump too, and aim to land directly on top of him. He falls down, I get up and think: I got you now you sorry fcuk. I was already waving the flag, but I was too early. As it turns out, you are not allowed to kill him yet. He was invincible. I emptied my entire machine gun on him, but he wouldn’t die. He can’t die. The guys at Rockstar do not want you to be clever or good at the game - they want you to do the fcuking impossible motorbike chase.

And then you fail the mission for the 398573495730495872349075349796760158734674363426th time, and you have to start the entire 20 minute mission all over again because the guys at Rockstar were too busy coming up with ways to make your cousin Roman AS FCUKING ANNOYING AS POSSIBLE to still have time to implement a fcuking CHECKPOINT SYSTEM. On top of that, the bad guys all magically respawn, but your own used ammo and health does not. Meaning my bank account is now empty, so I can’t restock on ammo and health, and there are no other missions currently available to earn any money.

These issues come on top of all the problems I already touched in the review. GTA4 is an utter and total piece of shit - sure, a pretty piece of shit with sparkly diamonds and realistic lighting effects - but a piece of shit still. People are so busy jerking off to the graphics that they forget that the gameplay is so utterly constrained, broken, and idiotic.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is still one of the worst games I’ve ever played. Then again, I’m the idiot here, and Rockstar is laughing its ass all the way to the bank - I paid 64 EUR for this shit.

Fiona on the original Brion version of Extraordinary Machine. She loves it, but it just wasn’t what she wanted it to be.

Fiona on why she makes music.

My Twitter followers (haha) already could’ve seen it on my Twitter account, but I’m “officially” quitting Apple (just like Adam).

I will no longer buy any of their products. I will no longer use any of their computers, mobile devices, or software.

Some Mac zealots on OSNews often think I’m an anti-Apple zealot, but I’m not. I like Apple’s products. I’ve owned (and own) a lot of Apple products. I bought my first iMac somewhere in 2004, and ever since, I’ve had numerous Macintosh machines in my home. iBooks, PowerBooks, PowerMacs, iMacs, you name it. I’ve bought lots and lots of their software. I’ve been to their press events. As OSNews’ managing editor, I have a review agreement with them.

But I’ve had enough. They treat their developers like ass. They lock down their platform to insane levels. They treat their users like shit. They actually try to enforce their silly, unlawful EULAs.

I still think Apple makes the best general purpose laptops. I still think the iMac is the best desktop money can buy (I bought one for my parents only a few months ago). I still think Mac OS X is a nice - albeit highly overrated - piece of software. Oh, and iWork is still fcuking awesome. But I cannot use their products knowing their anti-consumer and anti-developer attitude.

Apple is rotten. To the core.

It takes blood, sweat, and tears to build an image, Apple. It takes only a second to tear it down. It’s the geek crowd that got you where you are today. Lose them, and you will lose everything.

I must say that it does kind of sting a little bit. The King Of Pop is dead.

Yes, he became a weirdo freak, but he didn’t exactly have an easy life. That’s no excuse, but it is important context.

The world lost one of its greatest artists last night.

Beste. Comment. Ooit.

Wow, a blog post!

Google, please fix this!

Ordered a new computer today, to replace my way-too-loud P4 media centre.

Foxconn L10-S3 barebone, which is a mini-ITX system which comes with a dual-core Intel Atom 330 processor (2x1.6Ghz) with HyperThreading enabled. It uses Intel’s 945GC chipset, which has an Intel GMA 950 graphics processor. The motherboard has two SATAII slots and one low-profile PCI slot. The small case has two 2.5″ bays, and one 5.25″ one. I ordered 2GB of DDR2-533 RAM, and a 160GB hard drive.

Apart from the PSU, the entire system is passively cooled, no fans whatsoever. Technically, you could use boot132 to install Mac OS X on it without actually modifying the Mac OS X disk, which means you’re not circumventing any protection measures from Apple. That will be the first article for OSNews.

I’m pretty psyched about it.

BioWare talks about Mass Effect 2; Mass Effect 1 was probably my most intense video game experience ever.

Fiona Shepard is ready for the story to continue. BioWare, take your time with ME2. It should be perfect.

Sometimes, I ask myself: why do I do it? Why is the first thing I do in the morning to check the web for new stories to clear the submission queue, to try and get any really hot news out there as quickly as possible? Why is that also the last thing I do before I go to bed?

It’s not that I feel underappreciated - oh no - it’s just sad that some people have the apparent urge to deride your work every chance they get. No matter how much you improve things, no matter how much you listen, no matter how much you try to cater to their needs, there is always this small, but very vocal group of people who feel like they’re entitled to more. Like I owe them something. Like they can boss me around and order me to do things because they somehow think they “know” how to run a website.

The problem is that most of the people that read OSNews are silent readers. They don’t have an account, they don’t comment. So this small and vocal group have this delirious idea that they are a majority, because they are too stupid to realise that OSNews’ readership is much, much, much larger than the small group who regularly comments.

And me, I have to accept all their bossing, whining, entitling. I have to suck it, swallow it, and if I don’t smile while doing it, they’ll threaten to shove it down somebody else’s throat.

You know what? If you don’t like OSNews, you are free to go somewhere else. Heck, you can even start your own website. In fact, I urge you to do so. I hope it will be a massive success, that you’ll have lots of visitors.

Then we’ll see how truthfully you can smile.

I never quite understood this.

No matter how much Obama wants it, Turkey has no place whatsoever in the EU. My reasons for being against Turkey in the EU have nothing to do with it being an mainly Islamic country. I don’t give a rat’s ass whatever people believe, and a nation’s prime religion has little to do with what a country might contribute to the EU.

So, what are the reasons? First, the Armenian Genocide. As long as Turkey keeps on denying that it happened, and persecuting those that talk about it, they can suck a big fat EU cocksicle. Obama is a big fcuking hypocrite: so, we are not allowed to deny the holocaust (luckily it’s illegal here to do so), but it’s okay for Turkey to deny the Armenian Genocide? Give me a fcuking break.

Second, the situation with the Kurds. I am a proponent of an independent Kurdistan, as I am of the strong belief that every people has the right to take care of themselves, and run their own country. The way the Turks persecute, oppress, and massacre the Kurds is totally fcuking unacceptable. Again, Obama is a hypocrite on this one.

And, of course, there’s the geographical issue. Turkey = Asia. For all I care, the set up an Asian Union, model is after the EU, so that Asia and the middle east can get their fcuking act together on their own. I dont want MY tax money to go to that total mess.

That’s it. Turkey is a glorified third world country with an opessive regime, a horrible human rights situation, no free speech, and it’s not even a European country. What’s next, rogue state Israel in the EU?

The best article I have EVER read about my own country - and it’s written by an American living in Amsterdam. If you ever want to get a good idea of how a modern welfare state has NOTHING to do with “socialism”, this is it.

Charlie Sheen is fcuking awesome.

That is all.