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kinoko's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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| [February 21, 2008 01:01:51 AM]
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(GameLog 4, Part II, for CMPS 80K)
GAMEPLAY
As I become better acquainted with San Andreas, I am glad to find that some of the tedium I encountered during my first session has worn off. Having by now become used to the gameworld city of Los Santos and its surroundings, I am more confident navigating the vast urban areas and undertaking missions. In this, my second gaming session, I once again took control of Carl and helped him to become reacquainted with his home turf.
As with the rest of the GTA series, the missions that the player is asked to undertake begin as small, petty crimes – in this case, spray-painting walls with gang tags – but quickly escalate into more serious offenses such as the mass murder of an entire house of rival gang members. While killing on this scale is somewhat justified in the narrative (the victims consist largely of prostitutes and drug-pushers who are destroying the reputation of Grove Street), it is plain to see why a game like San Andreas might so radically increase public awareness of videogame violence in recent years.
DESIGN
While not necessarily innovative in its use of visuals or content, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas makes rather effective use of the PS2's capacity for interactive and immersive gameplay. The graphics, while not groundbreaking, are fairly well rendered, and do their job of conveying the gritty, urban streets of San Andreas to the viewer. The game also features some fairly decent voice-acting, and even through the characters are often stereotypical, they each add their own level of color and intrigue without deviating from the established, quasi-realistic tone for which the GTA series is known.
What the game accomplishes well, as with previous installments in the series, is the freedom and ease with which the player can navigate the surrounding city, an event that is made particularly more entertaining when coupled with the player's ability to steal cars, bikes, and other assorted vehicles. The maps featured in both the lower left-hand corner of the screen and on the options menu make navigation even simpler, and when combined with the realistic style in which the streets are mapped and laid out, make for truly effective gameplay.
Other fine details, such the ability to listen to a variety of radio stations while driving, collect a vast number of different weapons and vehicles, complete hidden stunts for bonus points, and engage in varying social interactions (most of which are threatening or deviant in some way) add further dimension and replay value.
However, while San Andreas is undoubtedly entertaining, I would not consider it a personal favourite. Although the game's liberating escapist elements make for both fun and immersive gameplay, its violent (and in one, infamous scene, sexually explicit) content means that it is suited toward a limited audience of young adult males. Also, while its characters are obviously intended to be social stereotypes, the gender roles that are presented are unbalanced and often distasteful. While I think that perhaps critics of the Grand Theft Auto series assume that audiences will take the game more seriously than intended, it is easy to see where the basis for their argument stems from.
This entry has been edited 1 time. It was last edited on Feb 21st, 2008 at 01:02:55.
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| [February 20, 2008 06:53:51 PM]
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(GameLog 4, Part I, for CMPS80K)
SUMMARY
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is an action-based crime game for the Playstation 2 which was published by Rockstar Games in 2004. Like other games in the GTA series, San Andreas focuses on an individual who is encouraged to lead a life of lesser morals in an urban setting that is rife with criminal activity. In this installment, set during 1992 in the fictional county of San Andreas, California, the player takes control of the game's protagonist, a young man named Carl who decides to return to his home of Los Santos after discovering that his mother has been murdered.
GAMEPLAY
Crime games are hardly my preferred genre, so I have mixed feelings about playing any title from the Grand Theft Auto series, let alone a game so controversial as San Andreas. Having played a little of Grand Theft Auto III in the past, however, I was well enough acquainted with the series to know what I could expect. I was happy to find that the game provided a great deal more detail than its predecessors, although the core mechanics of gameplay are essentially the same.
Although the game itself is mission-based, the open-ended nature of the Grand Theft Auto series is obviously what gives it its appeal. While the player is encouraged to the complete the story for the sake of narrative progression, the overwhelming number of interactive opportunities around the city of Los Santos offers a freedom that the player will inevitably take advantage of. Furthermore, rather than offer tutorials, the game encourages free-play and experimentation, more or less throwing the player headlong into the gameworld with little or no direction. Left to his or her own devices, the player is intended to test the limits of the character's abilities his or her self. On-screen hints do provide some direction, but they are quite easily dismissed or even ignored altogether.
While I can understand why the liberation incited by this scenario would make for entertaining gameplay, I found the lack of direction a little frustrating and even a little counterproductive, since it inspired me with little desire to progress with the actual plot.
Despite my personal misgivings, however, I did gain a small measure of enjoyment during my first forty-five minutes of playing San Andreas, which I chiefly spent traversing the streets on a bicycle in pursuit of vehicles to steal (and subsequently ruin). A cautious player by nature, I did not find the game to be very challenging in my time spent playing so far; I have not yet managed to antagonize the police force anymore than Carl did during the opening cutscenes, most likely because my character's social deviations were limited to harassment, petty theft, and minor vehicle-related damage.
This entry has been edited 2 times. It was last edited on Feb 21st, 2008 at 01:00:49.
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kinoko's Shadow of the Colossus (PS2)
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Current Status: Playing
GameLog started on: Wednesday 20 February, 2008
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