Playing Games: Grand Theft Auto IV

Another game I borrowed from the UM library this long weekend was Grand Theft Auto IV.  I didn't know much about the series except from reading Kiri Miller's Jackin' the Dial article last year about the radio station selection aspect of the game series. I think having played Red Dead Redemption and then seeing a couple hours of GTA IV, I better understand what Rockstar games are all about. I'm going to keep my eyes on them in the future.

Having just seen the beginning of the game and doing a few missions, I definitely don't have an indepth view of these games. What did strike me as interesting musically was how early in the game the choice of radio station is presented to the player. I doubt I'd played for an hour before the instructions about how to change the station came up onscreen. My initial reaction was that there were too many choices, though if I'd played for 60 hours, I might've felt the opposite way!  Interestingly, in Red Dead there's obviously no radio to change, so music is fixed in location: a man playing harmonic along the road, or the piano in the Armadillo saloon.  In GTA IV, if you're in the car, music is possible.  This represents a totally different interaction between music and player-- which, of course, is part of the reason why the ability to change stations is presented so early. As I learned from Gianna Cassidy's research, player performance and enjoyment improves with the right music choice!

I understand from reading on wiki that it's possible to use the in game cellphone to mark-- or, if you've set it up, even email-- yourself notes about the music you like that you hear in game. Brilliant!  For games that use source music, this is a great chance for increased sales, synergy, and a way for the game music to interact with the player outside of the game.

Do you know of other games with a similar "one-click music purchase" feature?  (I know it takes more than one click, but so does Amazon!-- you know what I mean.)  If so let me know below!