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In_Memory's Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2)
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| [September 21, 2009 10:01:16 AM]
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Another day began with Grand Theft Auto: San andreas. I believe at one point last night I had a bad dream about just thata event. Today, however, my focus will be on the behaviors of all the citizens of the Grand Theft auto world.
In this game, CJ's life is turned around by the death of his mother. Naturally, he and his siblings are all upset about her passing. It is a very normal feeling to mourn a family member who dies. However, besides this protectiveness of family, everyone else is worth less than dirt. Constant shooting is what filled my play this time around, and it made me cringe that every character seems to place an incredibly low value on life.
I remember the first day I played, when I was first getting used to the controls, I accidentaly punched a hooker. The hooker then pulled out a gun (out of where?!) and started shooting at me! It was so outrageous that a simple punch from another would result in CJ being peppered with bullets. It is a realistic issue for a hooker to need to be able to protectt herself, but the sudden shooting was simply too much.
Everyone in this game carries a gun. Not only that, but everyone in this game USES that gun. Frequently. It is a very droll story when everyone places an equally low value on the life of everyoen around them. The chances of no one caring a mite about someone dying right in front of them seem very low, and once again, it seems in poor taste to popularize such a cold mindset and turn it into entertainment.
And since this is my last entry on this game, let me close with one hearty exclamation: "THANK GODS ITS OVER!!!" Although this game game me a few giggles, and the ability to run and jump in realistic ways was quite fun, the plot and setting of the story completely made me want to break my disc, light it on fire, then bury it five hundred feet underground.
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| [September 20, 2009 09:27:17 AM]
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I woke up early this morning,and played Grand Theft Auto so I wouldn't have to, ahem, look forward to it later on. My opinion of the game did not improve with another round of gameplay. This time, since I already spoke of beauty and ownership, I tried very very hard to focus fully on other issues. And though there are many that could easily make for a good entry, CJ's family in the game will be the focus here.
My cousin was watching me play and he stated it very nicely. "This is a good take on an inner-city family". Why, yes, dear cousin, I believe it is. The family of the main character is broken, shattered into a billion itty bitty pieces that are so small that the pieces became dust and flew away in the wind never to return. The scene towards the beginning, in the graveyard, was very depressing, because even the loss of a mother could not give these children any common ground or any motivation to stand beside each other. It is merely bicker and condemn.
I know families that are like this exist. I have seen quite a few. But, honestly, they are boring. What can be added to a plot if there is no real change in their behaviours? There will be no strain, or no severing events if familial ties are already cut. The entertainment value of this family, in terms of potential interest, are minimal.
Besides that cold-hearted view, I can also say that families like this are very sad things. I think that broken families should not be made into modes of entertainment. It seems cruel and heartless to be turning a family such as Cj's, however realistic it may be, into such a part of a game. There are instances, like if this was merely the background of a character far from the broken family, where it could create a nice basis for character development. But, this family interactions are placed in the lime-light, and it doesn't look likely (from the little that I have played, as well as based on the concept of the game)that there will be much 'development' (as in progression and growth) in CJ's psyche.
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| [September 19, 2009 05:45:05 PM]
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I would like to begin this entry with a brief statement about my overall feelings toward the game as a whole: I wanted to puke when I was playing it. Never before have I been so completely disgusted and miserable playing a video game. And although I have played very few video games, I feel that can say a lot about how this game effected me.
The topic I will now discuss is beauty and ownership. It may seem like a minor topic in the scheme of things, but one thing that a greatly value is the visual appeal of games and other forms of art. I am not talking about image quality, in this, for I know the game is a few years old. Rather, I am talking about how this game holds value on visual appeal. Meaning - they disreguard it completely.
The entire gameplay area that I discovered today echoed a poor, run-down neighborhood. The characters in this game live in beat up old houses. The streets are ruddy and the coloring of the 'nicer' parts of town tended to a dull brown. There was one mission, where I has to tag the parts of town i wished to 'run'. So my disturbing looking character was running around, getting shot at and yelled at in order to claim a menagerie of, to put it plainly, run-down hideous houses and buisnesses.
Which brings me to the ownership. For, this game puts no emphasis on making property pretty or visually enticing. For it is not the quality of the land you can claim, but the quantity. This game screams out, why bother with one beautiful arcitectural haven if instead you can fight for a plethora of disgusting, infested streets crawling with people that are ... one dimentional (but that is not the issue for this entry).
While I feel that beauty (not necessarily of a person, but of a scene) is a supreme accomplishment, this game creates a world where the appearance of a building is not even looked at. And even if this mindset echoes real-life in inner cities, I feel such a mindest, blind to the scenery and potential around them, is a shame to emphasize and popularaize.
So I will close this entry on that note, and a share my complete un-enthusiasm about tomorrow's return to this torturous game.
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