The Grand Theft Auto series is unquestionably great, however, unlike other games (Unreal or Half-Life 2) it isn't very moddable. As far as I know, the developers never opened up any of the GTA engine to allow modders to work their magic. Still, in the past entries into the series, there has been one way to get user generated content into the games. Of course, that way is through the mp3 channel on the in-car stereo.

The mp3 channel always bothered me. First, it took forever to figure out what songs worked there, and what songs didn't. The first time I played GTAIII on my PC, I loaded up a ton of mp3s into that channel, and it was disastrous. Just as I finally hijacked a car to screetch away from the cop cars and helicopters on my tail, I would switch on the radio to hear ... My Funny Valentine?! So I quickly paired down the selection to include only the most uptempo tunes. The only remaining problem was the fact that this was the only channel on my radio without a DJ and without commercials. Many people might not notice this, but it nagged at me. In a subtle way, it took me out of the game. The mp3 channel made the game less immersive.

Of course the obvious solution is to make an mp3 of your music with embedded commercials and DJ prattle. Short of this, you could download one by someone else, and when I undertook this project, I was surprised that nobody else had created a custom station for the games. After completing it, the reasons for this are blindingly clear.

First, lining up all the bands for the station was a painstaking process. I listened to hundreds of crappy bands and sent emails to about 50 bands who were good enough to be included. Of these, about half responded, and about half of those were eager to be included in this type of project. The funny thing is that I expected 'worse' bands to be more interested in being included, but it turned out to be just the opposite. Only the really good bands had their act together enough to recognize the opportunity for free publicity. So the resulting list is incredible. Every single one of these bands is worth listening to, and I honestly love every track here. The track listing looks like this:

00:26 - Triggers - Louis Party
03:15 - The Rooftops - 5th and Hope
05:55 - We Are The Fury - Venus
09:52 - The Bombers - Nobody Calls it the Big Apple
14:21 - Annabel - Bouquet Mines
18:31 - Teeth of Mammals - Who Are You Now
24:14 - The Libertines - Bad Memories Burn
29:31 - Kingsfoil - Bear in the Attic
34:02 - The Turnbull ACs - Killer of the Kent County Kids
37:52 - Stem - Like You
42:53 - The Vinyltones - Numb on a Monday
45:49 - Aaralyn - Your Voice is Not an Instrument
50:10 - Beware Fashionable Women - Rock Bottom Remix
53:28 - Beware Fashionable Women - I'll Be the DJ

The other major problem is the script. The built in stations are amazing. You can tell that they're big budget productions because the script is spot-on. The satire is biting, and the humor is whimsical. I knew right away that I wasn't going to be able to do comedy. Working alone, with no budget, I wouldn't be able to write something that competes with the other stations. So I decided to keep the script minimalistic. I would say a little bit about each band, and make just enough in-game references to make the station feel like it's real. So I made up a monthly concert series at an in-game bar. I wrote traffic updates using in-game locations and streets. It was tricky, but I think the result works.

So after a month of hunting down bands, and polishing up the script, I finally finished it. Originally, I was aiming for a two hour run time, but I missed that by half. The production runs for 60 minutes, and every track is hand-picked to be perfect for high-speed chases.

Without further ado, here's the download link: Download WLCI, an Independent Radio Station for GTAIV (54Mb)

Also...

For those of you keeping score, this is also the last piece in my year of new music on every Monday. Thanks for listening. I will be doing a full retrospective next Monday.

UPDATE:

I just read this over on Kotaku: "Is there an option for custom soundtracks? No, the game's radio stations will have to suffice. Xbox 360 owners can still stream music from their hard drive or an iPod, but music played via the Xbox 360 Guide will continue to play over cell phone calls and cut scenes. If you're just going out for a stroll in GTA IV, it's still an option."

That's a little bit disheartening. That's basically what I was most afraid of while going in to this project. Still, custom soundtracks will be available through Guide on the 360 (and XMB on the PS3), and I assume the PC version of GTAIV will support the mp3 channel.

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