Categories
Enjoyed

DOH Chronicles: Cluckin’ Bell

There’s been a number of posts already done about the overlap of GTA IV and the reality of New York City, such as Serious Eats’ series on the restaurants of Liberty City.

But let me share my favorite restaurant joke, one that not a lot of people might have found because this doesn’t actually register on the map.

Once you get to Algonquin – the Manhattan of GTA IV – head to the corner of Wardite Street and Exeter Avenue. It’s up on the northern part of the island, right by the Tw@ internet cafe. If you don’t want to drive or grab a cab, take the A, C, K, or J to Frankfort and walk the last block.

DOH'd Cluckin' Bell 1

Looks like a regular old Cluckin’ Bell from this side. (Cluckin’ Bell, for those unfamiliar, is an amalgamation of KFC and Taco Bell.)

DOH'd Cluckin' Bell 2

But wait – why can’t you go in? What are those signs on the window?

DOH'd Cluckin' Bell 3

That’s right, folks. The “Liberty City Institute of Food Hygiene” has shuttered it. This seems oddly familiar.

I’m grateful that Rockstar’s HQ is in the city, because they captured so many details about the city so well.

(With apologies to the Eater crew for the title of this post.)

Categories
Debated Puzzled Over

Take Two’s Fifty Million Dollar Hat

Moneyhats. The phrase is frequently thrown around in gaming circles when it comes to exclusivity deals; the origin is [a Penny Arcade strip](http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2000/10/23) from October of 2000:

These sorts of deals are becoming more and more commonplace, and this week has had a whopper of one: Take Two announced that the “episodic content” for GTAIV will be exclusive to the Xbox 360.

Never keep Occam’s Razor far from you. As GAF user sangreal [discovered](http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=6754804&postcount=375) in [a transcript of the recent Take Two earnings call](http://seekingalpha.com/article/38017), the simplest solution still is the most worthwhile one:

*Evan Wilson – Pacific Crest Securities*
>Thank you. And as it relates to the deferred revenue chunk associated with the episodic content on X-Box 360, you can see that $25 million of that moved into short-term deferred. Could you give us any sense of when that’s going to hit the P&L? Will we see $25 million at one time and then the second 25 or will it be a slow bleed?

*Lainie Goldstein – Chief Financial Officer, Take Two*
>The first 25 is for the first episodic content package that’s supposed to go out and that is in March of ’08. That’s why it moved into current because it’s in the next 12 months. The second 25 will be for the second episodic, the episode, and that will be later in fiscal ’08.

Repeat: These two exclusive content packs cost Microsoft a combined $50,000,000 to secure.

I am obviously in the wrong business.

Categories
Disliked

Welcome To The Downward Spiral, Folks

Sims 2 content “worse than Hot Coffee”

Miami attorney Jack Thompson claims cheat codes make EA’s life sim a pedophile’s paradise by showing genitalia; calls for ban on T-rated game.

You give them an inch, they want a goddamn mile.

On an aside: This is my 1000th blog post. I was hoping to save it for something a little more introspective, but here we are.