Rockstar Games - Top Of The Charts

Are Rockstar Games the most consistent game developer out there? Some of you may believe EA or Treyarch bring out the best games, but can it be argued that Rockstar games have not released a bad game?

Grand Theft Auto, Max Payne, Red Dead Redemption and now L.A Noire. For many of you, your favourite game may have just been mentioned. All of these games have an open world, free roaming settings in their games, which gives the player a sense of being there and more control over their player, be it John Marsden from Red Dead or CJ from GTA: San Andreas.

They are not however free from controversy. All of the GTA games have caused controversy at some point or another, but it is nothing compared to what came about when the game Manhunt was released. The game was linked to the murder of Stefan Pakeerah, 14, by his friend Warren Leblanc, 17, on the 27th of February, 2004. The game was subsequently dropped by GAME and Dixons. As well as being removed from these stores, it is completely banned in many countries, including Germany, Ireland and New Zealand.

Controversy aside, Rockstar's figures do not lie. GTA is considered by many as the best franchise in the gaming industry, with its sense of freedom and 'no-good attitude'. It has generated perfect or near perfect reviews and scores on almost all of the games, and has sold over 100 million copies worldwide. The GTA series was started in 1997 and has continued to grow ever since that day. In my opinion the best installment is San Andreas. IGN has San Andreas at the top of their 'Greatest Ever PS2 Games' http://bit.ly/mwtNaq. I may have to disagree with them there as I believe NFS Underground 2 is. Rockstar though are not satisfied with bringing out a few top level games and have just released L.A Noire.

Based in post-war LA, which is a perfect recreation of the real-life post-war LA. It has the same recognisable HUD as its predecessors and the same feel to it. Some aspects have been changed though as you control a Cop and not a Serbian War Veteran as in GTA IV. You cannot simply wreak havoc and get police chases because, well, you are the police. Civilians will always jump out the way of your car as well so running them over is out of the question. The Xbox 360 version recieved a 91.3% rating by GameRankings, which is obviously a good score.

I believe the reason why Rockstar always deliver great games is because they do not have the contract to release a game every year as with Call of Duty and many sports games. They have all the time they want to create a perfect game and have done on many occasions. With L.A Noire set in a 'real-life' L.A, Rockstar have gone the extra mile in bringing what is great about their games into action. Making them perfect. What the future holds i do not know, maybe another GTA game. Lets hope so because it is guaranteed to be a hit.

Last Weekend of the Premier League

With only 1 team relegated (West Ham), that means there are another 2 up for grabs. Blackpool seem to be doing there best to take one of those places after having an amazing start to the season. Wolves are extremely erratic, having beaten Chelsea and Liverpool this season, they cannot seem to string wins together. Charles N'Zogbia is single-handedly helping Wigan, Birmingham and Blackburn have just been sucked into the battle although they have a good squad of players.

Blackpool, Wigan and Birmingham are all on 39 points whilst Wolves and Blackburn are one 40. With Blackpool away at the Champions Man United I fear for them and their mercurial manager Ian Holloway. Birmingham face Spurs whilst Wigan go to Stoke. Many possible outcomes are available but I believe Birmingham's stay in the top league may be over. As I previously mentioned Charles N'Zogbia is saving Wigan on his own and if he plays well against a downhearted Stoke Wigan may well stay up.

At the top Man United will be presented with the trophy at the end of their game vs Blackpool. Chelsea are virtually guaranteed 2nd. Arsenal need Man City to drop points at Bolton if they are to reclaim 3rd having been in the title hunt not too long ago. A massively rejuvenated Liverpool squad can benefit if Spurs drop points and take 5th having been 18th earlier in the season. As for the Golden Boot, Berbatov and Tevez top the charts with 20 each whilst Darren Bent and Robin Van Persie are on 17. Tevez looks to be the player who will win it as Berbatov may not start again for the Champions.

DJ Campbell of Blackpool said, "I'm trying to let the lads know it's not a nice feeling to be relegated". Whether this will fire up his team remains to be seen. By 4pm on Sunday they will need to be or it would have been a short stay in the Premier League.

End Of The Road For This Bunch Of Lakers?

They struggled to overcome the Hornets, eventually winning 4-2. Then got cleaned up by an inspired Dallas Mavericks squad. Are this group of Lakers finished?

Dallas looked more like the 2-time defending Champions and before the play-offs they were being written off completely. Dirk Nowitzki and his Mavericks kept the Lakers under 95 points in all 4 games. Showing that not only was their defense top notch, but the Lakers offense was second pushing on to third rate. The 36 point blow-out in Game 4 to complete the sweep was the story of the series. Dallas were immense and the Lakers awful.

After Game 4, former MVP Kobe Bryant was asked. "How shocked are you at being swept?". He replied with all that was needed a simple 'Very', with a look of a defeated man on his face. In stark contrast to the Lakers and Mr. Bryant. Jason Terry of the Mavericks said. "We're locked in and all have the same goal". The unity and good performances was what won it for them and as if to prove that the Mavericks
bench scored 86 points in Game 4. The final score Dallas 122- 86 Lakers. Yes the Mav's bench matched the output of the Lakers whole team!

Speculation that Laker coach Phil Jackson will retire at the end of the season may have dispirited the Lakers, but to be the 2 time defending champs and getting swept in the Conference Semis is embarrassing. What was also embarrassing was how they lost their discipline, when they knew that it was all over. Lamar Odom was ejected for rasing his elbow to Dirk Nowitzki and Andrew Bynum was ejected for an awful foul on JJ Barea. Barea was inspired throughout the series and it was not the first time a quick, energetic PG had terrorised the Lakers this year. Chris PAul of the New Orleans Hornets. was causing major problems but did not have enough of a backup cast to bring his team past the Lakers. Barea however not being the starting PG evidently did have the players around him to cause major problems to the Lakers.

Without the 11 time champion coach Jackson and with Kobe advancing in years will the Lakers crumble? The uprising of the Clippers and Blake Griffin will also disturb the Lakers camp and fans. Dallas however will be looking forward to the Conference Finals, having slaughtered the Lakers, they will feel they can beat anybody now.

Miami vs Dallas in the Finals. Miami to win.

NBA End of Season Awards

So... The end to another 82 game schedule for 14 teams, whilst the other 16 travelled onto the Playoffs.

The Toronto Raptors finished at a poor 22-60 but promising ends to the season from DeMar DeRozan, Amir Johnson and new boy James Johnson have given me hope for next season. The top draft pick is in our sights after finishing with the 3rd worst record in the league. The honour of the worst however went to the Minnesota Timberwolves, who ended the season losing 15 straight...

Enough ranting about bad teams and onto the Title of this post, the NBA End of Season Awards. Although the All NBA teams have not been released yet, all of the individual awards have.

MVP: Derrick Rose (Chicago Bulls)
Becomes the first Bull to win it since a well known player called Michael Jordan. At 22 he becomes the youngest ever winner. Dwight 'Superman' Howard came in second as he carried a very lackluster Orlando Magic team through to the Playoffs yet again. 2 time reigning MVP LeBron James could only score enough points to finish third and what would an MVP race be without the presence of the ever-green Mr. Kobe Bryant. In my opinion D Rose is more than worthy of this honour. He managed to keep the Bulls on track whilst his supporting cast was getting injured, most notably Carlos Boozer and Joakhim Noah. By keeping them on track he guided them to the best record in the league, this nobody would have predicted at the start of the season.

Rookie of the Year: Blake Griffin (LA Clippers)
Slam Dunk Champion, All-Star, numerous records broken. Blake Griffin's rookie year has not been quiet. He was unanimously visited ROY behind John Wall (Washington Wizards), only the 3rd person to do this in the history of the NBA. He had people talking about his scoring, his rebounding, his Clippers reaching the Playoffs and these two monster dunks on the Knicks http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S2VLEGtRuz4. I am 100% that Flight 32 or Quake Griffin as he has been called will be even better next season and the LA Clippers will make the Playoffs within the next 2 seasons.

Most Improved Player: Kevin Love (Minnesota Timberwolves)
To put it simply, he was unbelievable this season. Posting MVP calibre numbers most nights, he has not helped by the fact that he was on the worst team. 53 straight Double-Doubles.Only 3 other players managed 53 across the whole season. He is the first player for 29 years to average at least 20 points and 15 rebounds a game. When he posted 31 points and 31 rebounds he came the first player to do so in 29 years. To prove he was the 'most improved' he was the only player to rank in the top 10 in biggest jumps from the previous season. PPG went up 6.2, RPG was +4.4 and 3p% was up .089%. An easy decision to make, now all he and Michael Beasley need are other decent players on their roster.

Coach of the Year: Tom Thibodeau (Chicago Bulls (again))
Thibodeau tied the record for most wins in as a rookie head coach with 62 and led the Bulls to their first Divisional Title since the Jordan era. He is only the 7th coach to win the award in his first season. The Bulls defense was what made for their success, Thibodeau drove them to top 3 defensive stats and they were second in points allowed at 91.3

Sixth Man of the Year: Lamar Odom (LA Lakers)
Odom was a catalyst for the Lakers to achieve another playoff season. Starting Centre Andrew Bynum was out for most of the season and Odom could come of the bench more often than not and provide a spark that would win the Lakers many games. He averaged 14.4 PPG, 8.7 RPG and ranked 19th in Double-Doubles. All of this came after coming of the bench more than he started. Jason Terry (Dallas Mavericks) could have won the award for a 3rd time in a row, but that would have been too monotonous.

As for the Playoffs now, Bulls and Hawks are tied at 1-1, I predic the Bulls to go on and win that 4-1 maybe 4-2. OKC and Memphis are also tied at 1-1, OKC will win that in 6. LA Lakers are seemingly in trouble at 0-2 vs the Mavericks, this series will go the full 7 and the Mavericks will win 4-3. Miami Heat and Boston Celtics. The Heat are up 2-0 and Boston isnt showing any sign on resistance, maybe a sweep is on the cards but 4-1 seems the most reasonable result. Although I have just tried it is too hard to predict the Winner, but I think it may go to Dallas, if they overcome the Lakers, if they do not, the Trophy will be heading to South Beach, Miami.