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Apr 18th, 2010 at 17:18:02 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
For my final day playing San Andreas, I continued to play through the missions. The next mission that I tackled was called "Drive Thru." In this mission, CJ and his friends drive to a local fast food joint to get some food, where they see a Ballers car drive by. The player then must pursue the car and kill all of the rival gang members. Once again, the mission is incredibly violent as it gives players another scenario and manner with which to kill enemies. CJ and his friends open fire out of the car at the rival gang until the car catches fire. After a few seconds, the car explodes, instantly killing all of the gang members. Another aspect of the game that promotes violence is the money that is awarded to the player after each mission, for example $200 and "respect" is awarded the player for successful completion of the mission. With this system in place, there is virtually no other way to gain respect or money without completing the missions, which all promote violence and require some form of killing in the process.
As a gamer, I have played a great number of videogames over the years, including this one. Having said this, I feel that I have become somewhat desensitized to violence, at least that which is present in games. The game itself, however, does not make me want to commit the same acts in real life. This is the fine line in the argument whether violent videogames make players want to explore such acts. One aspect of San Andreas that is relatively rare in games, however, is race issues. Much of the dialogue in the game, especially during cutscenes, features language that is racial and explicit. I thought this was an interesting facet of the game, considering race is usually not explored in other games. Another part of race that is represented in gameplay is that of the gang members. All of the gang members appear to be either African-American or Hispanic; this could certainly could be an accurate representation of gang makeup, particularly in the early 1990s West Coast neighborhoods represented in the game.
Overall, it was nice to revisit San Andreas. The game controls, both for movement and driving, are easy to pick up, and I had no problem getting around from point to point in the open world. There is a great deal of variety in the missions, which keeps the game interesting for a long time. Through these gamelogs, I was given an opportunity to further analyze the various ethics or topics like race that are prevalent in the game.
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Apr 17th, 2010 at 20:37:07 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
I continued my play of San Andreas by tackling the numerous missions that are presented to me through in-game cellphone calls. Icons appear on the radar at the bottom corner of the screen indicating where I should go. Driving controls are pretty responsive overall, but I found that the Playstation left-analog stick sometimes got me into trouble steering. As an Xbox 360 owner, I have grown accustomed to the 360 controller, so I thought the Playstation controller was a bit more sensitive. This was a minor gripe, though, as this did not completely prohibit me from successfully.
One of the first main missions ("Tagging Up Turf") has players driving around to different locations indicated on the map and spray-painting over rival gang tags. Getting from point to point was easy, and the only minor obstacle was Baller gang members attacking me once they saw me tagging their turf. These gang members would immediately either open fire on me or begin to try to beat me up. I am not an expert on gang culture by any means, but I do feel that this type of reaction among gangs is not altogether unthinkable. Giving players control over these situations does encourage gamers to take part in violent actions, as it is either fight back or die.
The second mission I played was "Cleaning the Hood," where players join up with in-game ally Ryder to clean out drug dealers that are negatively affecting Grove Street, CJ's hood. This is a pretty violent mission, as I was forced to beat to death coked out rival gang members, leaving dead bodies and pools of blood on the floor of their house. Players really have no other choice but to kill all of these men, as the mission cannot be finished unless done so. I can certainly see why many have scorned this game for its violent nature, yet the age-old argument can be made that it is still only a form of entertainment and not a promotion of such actions.
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Apr 16th, 2010 at 14:32:32 - Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2) |
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas opens with a cutscene of main character CJ returning home from fictitious Liberty City, and the player understands that CJ’s mother has been killed in his childhood home of San Andreas. He claims he must “bury his mom” as he catches a cab from the airport. On the way, the taxi is pulled over by a couple of aggressive cops who the player is led to believe have a history with CJ. They arrest CJ, then drop him off in “Rolling Heights, Baller Country,” rival gang territory.
I have played this game in the past, so I was quite familiar with the controls and the structure of the gameplay. I hopped on the bike that was left in front of me and rode off to CJ’s childhood home, launching another cutscene. The first half-hour of the game is spent allowing players to get a feel for the game, learning the controls and understanding certain aspects like driving and getting around the city. Unlike many that play this type of sandbox, open-world type game, I tend to avoid maiming and killing everything that moves, instead gaining experience through the missions that are presented to me. I didn’t get too far in the game in my first play-through, but early on there are still basic ethical situations that are indirectly offered to the gamer.
One can choose whether or not to kill innocent people as they walk by; money drops from dead bodies on the ground, but it is up to the player whether or not they want to keep murdering more people, as they can raise their police “wanted” level. If the player’s wanted level is too high, they can lay low for a while until the police stop their search. This system keeps players from killing too much at once, but obviously cannot prevent players from continuing rampages in the future. Overall, it was a nice nostalgic experience returning to San Andreas, and I look forward to my next play-through.
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jazzumpap has been with GameLog for 14 years, 7 months, and 5 days |
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