In a great wee story carried by todays The Scottish Sun, some sad Jambos are moaning that the designers of Grand Theft Auto IV have used the game to have a dig at Heart of Midlothian Football Club. They claim there are characters based on Hearts players as well as Jambo overlord Vladamir Romanov.
The game features a Russian money lender named Vlad (sound familiar?) who falls out with Roman - an Eastern European, suspected to be based on Roman Bednar the ex-Hearts striker. Rumours of a bloated, bitter, alcoholic politician named George appearing may be only rumours.
Hearts fans also claim the baddies wear maroon in the game. Don’t all baddies wear the combination of blood and faeces that makes maroon? It seems to me the game would be unrealistic if the bad guys were to wear anything else.
The person quoted in the Sun said “The references are really subtle but they are everywhere. There are too many, it can’t just be a coincidence.”
It’s quite possible too. A good few Hibbies worked on the game for Rockstar North, more than likely loads more than the number of Jambos. As we know, Hibs fans are more likely to work in cool industries like music, art, game design etc. whereas Jambos have a propensity towards working for the Cooncil or Scottish Widows.
True or not, it’s another great wind up for our paranoid friends from Gorgie.
These are obviously good guys, the one on the left even has a new away top.
May 25th, 2008 at 2:45 pm
hehe so true, you sumised what i thougt about this.
May 26th, 2008 at 7:43 am
thanks for the picture sharing
interesting article
May 29th, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Wow, this is one of the best easter eggs I’ve ever seen in a game. Thanks for the article, I would have never realized this myself.
June 18th, 2008 at 12:19 pm
You have very deep insight because I have never noticed that.
July 2nd, 2008 at 1:01 am
Hah! There might be some connection, but I highly doubt the North American producers took directly from that influence.
There’s bound to be a lot of generic and coincidental references throughout the game, however, with the whole Eastern European underground thing being revived in pop culture.
July 3rd, 2008 at 10:58 pm
Jack, the game was made in Edinburgh, Scotland.