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johnnyowens's Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas (PS2)
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| [January 21, 2009 11:31:30 AM]
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I wrote another log that didn't seem to successfully save itself, so here's what I had in that. In another play of the game, I stuck with the story line to play the game as the game tells you to play it. I realized soon in that that may have been a mistake. Doing that exposed me to the issues in the characterization and story line.
Most of the dialogue between characters are completely useless, saying absolutely nothing about what's actually happing, just that "Hey, we're gangstas." There are entire conversations near the beginning of the game before and after missions that don't matter, that don't say anything, they just involve racial slurs, vulgarity, drug use, and gang mentalities.
There is no motivation behind any of these characters. All of your friends once you land in Los Santos are gang members. This is never really explained, it's just accepted. They are stereotypical characters that have no depth beyond the common stereotype. The agreement that the game makes with the players at the beginning of the storyline is as follows: "These are your friends. They are poor. They live in the ghettos. They are in a gang. They are criminals. You should have seen this one coming. "
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| [January 21, 2009 11:25:24 AM]
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After spending some time exploring Los Santos, I noticed how much time and effort they spent on giving the players more options, and more ways to play. Although, none of this new freedom seems to really matter, because the free play of running around, stealing cars, killing people, evading the police, is still there, with almost no change whatsoever. The only big change they made was in the wrapping.
As you run around the world, especially if you are going with other characters in the main story line, the entire scene is amazingly vulgar. CJ seems to have a cursing problem, because he swears whenever he's bored. To me, this did not convey gritty realism, pushing the boundaries into a real world of thug life, but rather seemed wholeheartedly unnecessary. It seemed like the flood of vulgarity and racial slurs is all for its own sake. A lot of the dialogue, rather than feeling real and raw, just seems forced and laughable, and the choice to begin cursing up a storm was simply for publicity, which is something I would not put past Rockstar Games.
The game wants to be controversial, it wants to be talked about, and it wants to push boundaries. But all of the boundaries that it pushes past Vice City are not involved in the gameplay at all, and are just force-fed to the players for shock value. When I first played it years ago, I was shocked by that. As the game went on, I because desensitized to the situation, and came to the realization that the wrapping of vulgarity and racism is just there to take your attention away from the serious issues in my personal enjoyment of the gameplay.
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| [January 20, 2009 07:36:16 PM]
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I started playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas right from the beginning, and I found it a very different experience than before. I played the game back when it came out, and found it to be a pretty good game. In hindsight, I would have to say that I was wrong with my original assessment.
The first thing that I noticed was the visuals. By today's standards, the game looks abysmal, the hands are simply jagged edges with textures, the entire area seems dull, dry, and lifeless. It's just a large field of brown. Even back in that time, there were games that looked far better than that. Every time you look at the game, you kill all chances for real immersion. Maybe I'm jaded from modern graphics and prettier looking sandbox games like Saints Row 1 & 2, but just looking at it reminds me that I'm playing a game.
The sound scape also seemed lifeless. As I rode my bike around town, I heard almost nothing of the surroundings. It just seemed so strange when a car pulled up next to me, and it's honking was the only sound playing. There is almost no ambient noise outside of a car. The city as a whole just seems lifeless and dull.
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