GTA IV was Aronofsky's moment of 2008

By Robert Purchese Published 26 November, 2008

His brilliant film-brain likes games.

Screenwriter and director Darren Aronofsky (Pi, Requiem for a Dream) has said playing Grand Theft Auto IV was one of his highlights of 2008.

Speaking to the New York Times (spotted by Kotaku) about the "Moments That Mattered" to him throughout the year, Aronofsky suggested videogames had never been so accomplished.

"Looking over Niko's shoulder up at the virtual parachute jump in Grand Theft Auto IV's version of Coney Island, grabbing a dollar hot dog off the boardwalk to get my health back, then leaping into a bullet-hole-riddled Hummer and smashing through my childhood neighborhood, flying over sand dunes on Manhattan Beach and finally drowning in the sea off Brighton Beach. Thinking, Man, I wish they made this game when I was a teenager," he said.

Aronofsky's most recent work includes The Fountain, starring his wife Rachel Weisz and Wolverine actor Hugh Jackman.

Aronofsky's latest, The Wrestler, launches in the UK early next year. It centres on the life of Randy "Ram" Robinson (played by Mickey Rourke), a wrestler from the 1980s who's forced to retire because of heart problems. But everything soon goes pear-shaped when the prospect of a rematch with his old nemesis pops up.

The Wrestler's supposed to be quite good, according to some Venice Film Festival award. And apparently we're turning into Film Night 2008.

Back to games: Grand Theft Auto IV launched earlier this year and gathered perfect scores across the board. It's clearly one of the contenders for Game of the Year, a list we'll be putting together at the end of December.

Let's take bets.

Picture of Robert.

About Robert Purchese

Bertie is Eurogamer's Senior Staff Writer. When he's not hunting down news stories he's often found playing with his kids or gabbling about fantasy games and strange online worlds.

Read more articles from Robert by visiting the Robert Purchese archive page.

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Comments (30) Latest comment 3 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • siro #1 3 years ago

    You could do parachute jumps?

  • DanWhitehead #2 3 years ago

    Aronofsky is also making the new RoboCop movie, which makes him double extra awesome.

  • kestral #3 3 years ago

    The only thing that let me down a little was the lack of mid mission checkpoints, especially later in the game, and having to drive to the mission again after failing. Why not save progress after key moments (arriving, clearing locations, before set pieces)? Would be great if it was addressed in the DLC!

    Otherwise great, still have to check out multiplayer - is it popular on xbox live?
    Edited by 1 at 26/11/08 @ 10:18

  • Lexx87 #4 3 years ago

    Parachute jumps, huh?

    Anyway yes before bile fills the thread, GTAIV is awesome! New RoboCop? Awesome :D

  • DugBriderider #5 3 years ago

    I think he is refering to the fairground so there may have been a parachute ride there.
    Like a lot of GTAIV the fairground was lovley to look at but a little shallow and no missions took place there.

    Liberty city is delightfull playground, it just needs better PE teachers.

  • Les #6 3 years ago

    "Thinking, Man, I wish they made this game when I was a teenager," he said."

    Why?

  • creepylizard #7 3 years ago

    Is Eurogamer scared of good films or something?

  • Eraysor #8 3 years ago

    GTAIV was good, but certainly not the best game this year.

  • Ryze #9 3 years ago

    GTA IV is a top quality game, and the best is yet to come when its 'Vice City' and 'San Andreas' equivalents come along.

    Of course if they delayed 1-3 years then they could cram the game with more side quests and things to do.

    Why would they do that though?

  • The-Bodybuilder #10 3 years ago

    I love the fact that because this guy's a gamer, EG are now trying to sell his upcoming movies to us.

  • HarryPalmer #11 3 years ago

    The Wrestler does look awesome.

  • local_celebrity #12 3 years ago

    Handy tip for you, Rob mate!

    Next time you cut and paste a press release, try making a few changes.

  • Monkey_Puncher #13 3 years ago

    Aronofsky's married to Rachel Weisz?

    Lucky talented bastard!

  • UncleLou #14 3 years ago

    ""Thinking, Man, I wish they made this game when I was a teenager," he said."

    Why? "

    Because it's even easier as a teenager to suspend your disbelief and immerse oneself in games, life has in general fewer worries, one has more time, etc., and he'd have hence found it even more awesome than he found it now?

    I guess.

  • Putty-Man #15 3 years ago

    I was about 10 hours into GTA IV when I finally admitted that driving to point X to shoot person/people Y in a clunky manner was not much fun anymore.

    Its a really good adventure game stuck in a very mediocre 3rd person shooters body.

  • parrapa #16 3 years ago

    The star of his next film...

    "Grew up in the tough Miami area known as Liberty City."

    Huh?

  • Tetragammatron #17 3 years ago

    Must we jump for joy every time someone who's noted for something other than videogames says "I like videogames"?

    Oh and Robocop was, is, and ever shall be trash.

  • Weezer #18 3 years ago

    Bored the crap out of me after six or seven hours. Endless driving and doing bloody chores... I can do that at home.

  • Burkey #19 3 years ago

    I'm a fan of his work so its great to see he plays games. Personally I got bored of GTA4, but each to their own I guess.

  • coojam #20 3 years ago

    A man married to Rachel Weiszssz plays videogames?

  • snafu65 #21 3 years ago

    The man who made two of my favourite films, Requiem For A Dream and The Fountain, also likes one of my favourite games of the year, great minds truly do think alike!

  • bad09 #22 3 years ago

    "Aronofsky is also making the new RoboCop movie, which makes him double extra awesome. "

    WHAT??????!!!!

    Dan makes my year with one post!!! \o/

    / disappears into the internet for info.....

    / pops his head back in to shout "OI HATERS, GTA4 IS BLOODY AWESOME!!!!!!"

  • SliderNL #23 3 years ago

    Game of the Year, dissapointment of the Year is more like it. Played IT, completed it, annoyed the hell out of me and dumped it. Worst game I bought in 2008.....

  • PameBoy #24 3 years ago

    It's excellent that we have more and more of these people who are respected artistic personalities in the mainstream media singing the praises of videogames. I think it'll only be a few more years before games move into the spotlight alongside Film and TV - all the mass of controversy about games in the last few years is clearly a sign of the cultural growing pains that always occur when a brand new medium becomes part of the cultural mainstream.

    Oh, and GTA4 = Best In Series.

  • samadriel #25 3 years ago

    Robocop is fucking fantastic; may the remake vanish from existence.

  • Pulsar_t #26 3 years ago

    dissapointment of the Year is more like it

    This. I don't care about Nico but playing an ex-war criminal with a bit of pseudo-conscience is a tired cliche (great role model for the kids/goons out there though! Sheesh civilisation has come so far). GTA IV is probably the most boring crime sim ever.

  • kangarootoo #27 3 years ago

    Man, if I had come across some parachute jumping I might actually have kept playing GTAIV.

    Can someone who has finished it confirm where the parachute stuff is? A fairground ride called "Parachute" does not qualify.

  • shotgun44 #28 3 years ago

    Les, are you the most boring bloke on the planet?? Or just thick? If i could play a game that resembled where I lived when I was a teenager as it is in GTA4 that would just be really quite awesome! How can you not comprehend anything that isn't spelt out to you in a bullet point list of statistics. Jesus christ, live a little!

    PS: Because you clearly can't read between the lines... Cooking with Gordon Ramsey = Good game, poor recipe book feature with miniscule fiddly graphics. Cooking with Jamie Oliver = Poor game, good recipe book feature. Recipes in each game respectively = 35:100

  • 3william56 #29 3 years ago

    Braid will be GOTY. It make EG cry.

    Robocop? Really? Action movie remade by arty farty director. Alien3 and Hulk say it's a bad thing, but he's a talented dude. Maybe he could get with the Linger in Shadows crew and do Requiem for a Videogame.

    *I* wish I was a teenager now. Would have enough time to do justice to the mind bogglingly awesome games around at the moment, like GTA or LBP instead of crappy stuff like work (and getting laid).

    /shakes fist at ungrateful spotty young 'uns
    You've never had it so good! When I were a kid we had to play Sonic 2 on't'cardboard box in't' middle o't'road.
    /falls asleep with blanket on knees.

  • bonker #30 3 years ago

    Loved The Fountain (and Pi).

    Love Rachel Weisz too.

    *sighs*