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Whiskers1389's Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2)
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| [January 21, 2009 10:46:05 AM]
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This morning I continued my adventure with San Andreas. Just as last time, I decided to run around and do my own thing, seeing as how this was more pleasing to me in the past. I spent much of the time trying to find ways to get on top of buildings, in order to jump off them and see if CJ would die. Another task that took up a lot of my time was trying to find a way to cross any of the bridges that lead to another island. However, I was unable to accomplish this feat, sadly.
All in all, my experience with Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was an interesting one, especially from a moral standpoint. The game, while somewhat realistic, does have a distinct line between what is reality and fantasy. Although many of the concepts used in the game are based on real life events, the manner in which these events are completed in are oftentimes very unrealistic. However, I can also see how the similarities may cause a problem with a younger audience, and due to this, agree with the game's mature rating.
On more of a morals based note, I came to find that there are many universal morals throughout the game that cause specific outcomes to ensue. One, of course, is that killing is bad, and will usually lead to more trouble for the characters involved, depending on the surroundings. For example, if CJ randomly kills a passing pedestrian, other pedestrians are most likely going to flee in terror for their lives. However, if he shoots a gang member, in the vicinity of other gang members, he will most likely be attacked by the other gang members. This moral dilema of fight or flight is portrayed fairly well during gameplay. Furthermore, if CJ does kill the person he is shooting at, the police will quickly join the scene and try to arrest CJ, just as in real life. However, a decision then must be made to either give in to the authorities, run, or attempt to kill them. This choice then affects the upcoming situation and will lead to multiple possibilities. All of these variables prove that even within the game, the moral value that killing is bad is still upheld, to some degree.
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| [January 21, 2009 12:02:49 AM]
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Today I decided to try and test some of the limits within the game's systems. I spent the entire 45 minutes driving all over the map, stealing any car that appealed to me, looked for cool jumps, shot/killed random people for no reason and found this enjoyable. In fact, in comparison to my first time playing, I think I had more fun just messing around then actually playing the game. This is a bit disheartening for the story writers, seeing as how the point of the game is to complete the story, and the other missions and tasks are, for the most part, inconsequential. I think this is a major flaw. Due to the way the story mode drags on in the beginning of the game, I quickly became fed up with repeatedly doing simple, boring tasks, that really did nothing to advance the game. I mean seriously, why is it necessary to have a mission where you change the character's hairstyle and get him some food? I understand that the developers wanted to get these basic concepts across to the players early on, so that in the future they would know those options were available, but there has to be a better way of doing it. Integrate the tutorials into a specific mission's story. The hairstyle change could have something to do with trying to confuse a rival gang of your identity, or something along those lines. As far as the food, I think it would have been much more effective to just tell the players that food restores health, and not have that as part of a mission at all. It was these ridiculous missions that caused me to choose to just roam free the second time I played, to see if I could find a more entertaining way to play the game.
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| [January 18, 2009 05:48:03 PM]
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I began playing San Andreas today. The game begins with some cutscenes, then places the player on a bicycle. I had to ride the bike, following some other AI characters for a period of time, until arriving at the destination, which was a group of houses a few miles away. After this short quest, my character, CJ realizes that he is in his old neighborhood and goes into his old house. He meets up with a few friends during some cutscenes, then the story continues. The next mission allowed me to choose a hairstyle for CJ, as well as have him eat to refill his health bar. The next mission has CJ "graffiti tag" a few buildings around East Los Santos, which was rather boring to me. At this point, I was hoping that some action would be coming soon, seeing as how the game had me doing uneventful tasks up to now. Luckily, the next mission was more to my liking. CJ and Ryder go to see their friend B-Dup, but find out he's a Crack Dealer and decide to go after other like him. Controlling CJ, I was able to fight and kill multiple drug dealers at a house down the street from B-Dup's, then repeated the actions at another house in Idlewood. It was at this point, that I had to quit playing the game, due to time restrictions.
I had not played this game in years, and had forgotten how different it is from GTA 4, which I had been playing over the summer. Obviously since San Andreas is a PS2 title, the graphics are extremely less impressive than the 360's GTA 4 graphics. However, I did realize that the controls in San Andreas are a bit easier to learn and adapt to than in GTA 4. Overall, the I had a fairly good experience with San Andreas, for the 45 minutes or so that I played it today.
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