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stripesonfire's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PC)
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| [February 8, 2009 05:16:18 PM]
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Just finished the third 30 minute session. Started off by goofing around a bit. I wandered around killing random people or running them over and blew up some cars. When the ambulance and fire truck got there I took out the drivers and then stole the fire truck and blasted some people with water. However, I quickly got 4 wanted stars and was taken out by a helicopter and tons of police. It was fun and I imagine it is more fun with bigger weapons. I loaded my game then and played a few missions. First I had to pick up a friend from prison and we went to some Mexican dude's house who owed him money. He took off on a motorcycle and we proceeded to chase him with our own, and we eventually caught up and took him and his buddies out. Another mission required me to pick up Sweet and some girl. They were trapped by a rival family and I had to take them out to rescue Sweet. The final mission I did was to go check out my sister's boyfriend. I found a low-rider with hydraulics and entered a contest. I had to match hydraulic maneuvers with music.
The missions involving the Mexicans were interesting and definitely promoted more stereotypes. They all had that Los Angeles ghetto Mexican accent and drove low-riders. This game definitely castes these characters into certain roles and never lets them become anything else. That observation is only from a few hours of game play, but I don't expect it to change. As I've mentioned in prior logs I see this game becoming more and more violent as the story unfolds. I am sure missions will get more ridiculous and I'll be required to kill many more people. There is also no really no deterrent to kill as many people as possible. If you are caught or killed you can always just reload from your last save. And I save after every mission so if something happens to me during a mission I can always just reload.
I have definitely had fun playing and I think everything in the game is there for a reason, at least based on what I think gang culture is like. None of the games in the Grand Theft Auto series are suitable for kids because of all the violence, sex, drugs, etc. present in them. I don't think they shouldn't be made and in fact encourage it because they are great games. Parents just need to take responsibility for what their kids play rather than attack the industry for what they produce.
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| [February 8, 2009 02:21:13 PM]
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Played more of the main story this afternoon. In the first mission I had to drive my fellow gang members to get some fried chicken. We were then attacked by a group of Ballers and we proceeded to run them down and blow up their car and kill those who got out. After that I went to the gym and worked out a bit and then got some clothes with Grove Street colors (green). I was also introduced to the games weapons system by Emmett who didn't seem like he knew much about guns because he was shooting gangster style (gun held sideways) and Smoke thought he was tough shit even though it took 2 or 3 shots to hit each bottle. The next mission i accomplished was several drive-by shootings in Baller territory. I drove, while the gang shot at several groups of Baller's.
This 30 minutes of play was more focused than yesterday and the missions got a little more elaborate. I also found myself not running around and killing random people as much, only those that got in the way of my missions, collateral damage i guess. I also noticed a bunch of stereotypes. The fried chicken and gun held sideways above, clothing options for do-rags and gold chains, gangster macho talk, talk about weed and beer, etc. As I mentioned in my last log a kid could easily be influenced to think all African American's behave like this. There hasn't been a single "respectable" black character introduced in the story so far. I don't think Tenpenny counts because he seems just as corrupt as the gang members. Which, I think introduces another type of evil.
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| [February 7, 2009 03:20:10 PM]
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Starting playing Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas at 2:30pm today and started a new game. The story started at the San Andreas airport where CJ flew into town for his mother's funeral. He was immediately picked up by officer Tenpenny and his partner. Apparently CJ grew up in San Andreas and these police officers remember him. They drove him to Baller (rival gang) territory and dropped him off. The game then instructed me to get on a bike and ride back to my mom's house. When I get there I beat up some hooker's and received a knife, pistol, and some cash. I wasn't even 10 minutes into the game and already I was rewarded for killing several people. I then met up with some old buddies, friends I was in a gang with before I left for Liberty City. I completed a few early instruction missions including one where I had to go to back to Baller territory and tag over their graffiti marking territory. I was attacked several times by the rival gang as well as by police officers. I killed the gang members and ran from the cops and hid until the star meter went down to zero. The next mission required me to infiltrate a Baller crack den. I went in with Sweet and in the background a prostitute was giving head to a Baller. Sweet and I beat everyone with baseball bats. I found it interesting that after beating up the members that attacked me, I went through the rest of the apartment and beat up anyone else. All of who where high and were not a threat. There was no real reason for me to kill them, but I did anyway.
From what I gather so far the player is rewarded for completing missions and killing whoever gets in the way. It looks like there is a progressive reward system. The further I get into the game the more powerful I will get: weapons, vehicles, physical attributes, clothing, etc. In the half hour that I played the game presented me with several moral choices that had little negative results. They didn't even affect the game world besides progressing through the story. I could kill anyone and everything with little consequence and I was rewarded for it. The game is also full of sexual content. There are scantly clad prostitutes roaming every street and I am sure I will encounter another such situation as described above.
95% of the characters I have been introduced to have been black. And all fit the stereotypical description of a gang-banger. Those who have had little exposure to the world may think this group correctly characterizes the entire African-American race. I could see this game having very negative side-effects on kids who are easily influenced by the sex, drugs, violence, and race issues. I am interested to see where the story goes and how much more violent the game will become over time. I assume more so because I will unlock bigger weapons as well as the hint of a huge gang war.
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