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Jul 26th, 2009 at 16:13:03 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
GAMEPLAY
For my second session I played for another hour and this time I actually tried to complete the missions and didn’t go past the story of the game. CJ is an ex-gang member coming back to his hometown to bury his mother who recently passed away. He is quickly sucked back into the gang life of his previous gang the Groove Street Families and there is a quick view of the corruption of cops voiced by Samuel L. Jackson.
My first missions were surrounded around reclaiming the hometown gang grounds from the rival gang the Ballas. Throughout the game I am repeatedly shot and wasted and sent to the hospital where I must start over again. The game becomes much more frustrating to me when I actually have to run away from gun shots. I will probably try the game with cheats eventually to make the game a little less frustrating and go quicker. The story of the game is much more interesting because the player you play is an ex-gang member who wants no part in the gang life anymore. In that sense you are given some sense that the gang life is wrong.
RACE AND STEREOTYPES
The dialogue of this game is a reflection of stereotypes of black gangs. This game includes explicit dialogue full of swearing and ethnic slurs. In all sectors of media there is a specific stereotype that is portrayed about the black gangs and this game exemplifies exactly what is. What is important in the gang life as represented by GTA is money, respect, territory and the way to defend them is through violence and having allies. This game although promoting stereotypes that may have some truth in them is obviously skewed, people are flattened by you driving over them people are constantly being shot at. The dialogue sprinkled with “niggas” seems accurate whether people agree it to be too derogatory or not. I find it hard for me to believe that anyone would argue against this. The discretion towards stealing and killing is eliminated and only adds to the idea that is not reality. Nonetheless, I feel that the game has an accurate representation of what black gang life is.
In response to the backlash of bad reviews against the games racial stereotyping all I can say is that stereotypes come from real life experiences and real life interpretations as viewed by other groups of people. There are some truths to stereotypes presented in this game but they are exaggerated. It is a virtual representation not a real life experience.
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Jul 25th, 2009 at 17:33:06 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
GAMEPLAY
Initially, because this was my first time playing any Grand Theft Auto game I wanted to get a feel for how the game worked so I didn’t really pay attention to the plot/missions. The game states that you need to take CJ to the gym and keep him energized by food. Running around caused CJ to loose energy, I had to find food. I found out that the simplest way I could make money before starting the plot/missions was actually beating up people and eventually their money would fall on the ground. As the game progressed I realized that an even quicker way of accumulating money was by stealing cars and actually killing several people at once. By doing so more money would fall on the ground for me to steal. Then while stealing a car with one star, I got arrested and lost everything leaving me to start all over again.
MONEY MANAGEMENT
Among the many ethical choices that are represented in this game what is most interesting to me after playing for an hour is the idea of how you must manage your money correctly in order to advance in the game. If you were to play this game without cheat codes, which I did, money becomes a predominant issue. The loss of money by failing a mission moves you back in the game quite a bit. Progression in the game among other things is accounted on how well you are able to manage your money. The way in which you accumulate this money and eventually complete missions is through violent and unlawful acts of killing, stealing, and gambling.
GAINING MONEY THROUGH UNLAWFUL ACTS
This game does not offer you the choice of doing the lawful or the unlawful it only gives you the choice of what unlawful act do you wish to do in order to complete the unlawful mission. That is not to say that the game blatantly encourages these acts because CJ the character you play is just a guy trying to get through the hardships of the game. Nonetheless I can see how progression is only accomplished by partaking in the gang life. I enjoyed playing Grand Theft Auto as it’s a game based around criminal life and allows you to interact and create your own criminal activities.
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JHerna50 has been with GameLog for 15 years, 3 months, and 29 days |
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