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Snaggletoofers's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2)
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| [April 19, 2012 01:20:04 PM]
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Upon my third venture into the game, I decided to actually buy some clothes (since I had ignored Smoke earlier and stuck with my whitey tighties and my birthday suit). Browsing through the choices, I came upon a “joke mask” and some green track pants. These combined together along with my bare feet, chest, and afro/beard combo, to form a new persona to play. I embodied an amalgamation of the Green Hornet Bruce Lee meets Game of Death Bruce Lee, and with a touch of a 70’s Blaxploitation action hero. No longer was a knife my weapon. My fists and my feet were my weapons. With the newly unlocked gym, I pitted my skills against the boxers inside.
Upon getting my behind handed to me, I decided to turn back to the story since punching random bystanders gets old quickly. In today’s episode, my irreputable fat friend and I needed to load up on guns from a very tweaked out man. Apparently, these guns are “older than something you’d find in a museum.” (I can’t attest to the accuracy of that quote what with all the slang thrown around) This little detail reminds me of a point I wanted to make about this game. Due to the hardware limitations (and even the story limitations), in the first few hours of this game, I’m already noticing a trend of details pulled out of nowhere. The guns function just as any other pistol or gun used in the game so far (including the firearms the police wield) yet they’re supposed to be accepted as old and therefore terrible from the characters tones. In terms of story, Smoke (I think. The fat one) mentions the leadership skills of CJ, my character. I was completely lost on what he was getting at, since for the most part, CJ had come off as someone who just followed the orders of those around him. Yeah, he’s a skilled driver (well, assumedly they don’t know that I’ve killed them on several rides home in explosions resulting from my terrible driving skills) and has a proficiency for being cold-blooded, but those traits don’t necessarily translate into leadership.
This makes me wonder what the developers think of their audience when they implement details such as these without thinking about how the rational stacks up. Should I be expected to just accept it and move on? What more can I do than just complain and keep playing? Well, I could stop playing, but what if I were needed to keep playing for other reasons than enjoyment (not to diss the assignment, but this homework is a case in point)? Would this moral dilemma be on the shoulders of the game makers who made the game or the teacher who assigns it? Perhaps it’s my own problem, as opinions of the game are relative, and from what I’m’ reading in other gamelogs, it’s a generally appreciated game among the others. Are developers responsible if they disappoint a gamer who may have paid for the game and doesn’t find it enjoyable? (granted, I didn’t pay for this one, but I have paid for games I’ve regretted) Should they have to please a minority, or just ignore it and cater to the fans? When it came to this game, making money most likely wasn’t going to be an issue as the previous iteration was a high selling one, and this one was much anticipated. As such, they probably didn’t need to cater to all crowds just to increase revenue. I guess in the end, the game is not for me, but I can see how others would find it enjoyable.
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| [April 19, 2012 02:36:20 AM]
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Second Entry, and I wish the game physics applied to real life, for I would blow my brains out numerous times over for how bored I am playing the game. This stems from the game being SOOO dated, it's ridiculous. Loadtimes are atrocious. The graphics and engine make it a level of difficulty that wears on my nerves. Essentially, I have been driven to resort to my own imagination, as the main story stands shrouded in slang and banality. It's the reason I became Irony Jack (as mentioned in my last post), but with the game’s engine, even that became tiresome over time.
As a result, I've gone straight, attempted to drive through the story (literally and figuratively) and I found out that abilities can be leveled the more you use them. Driving and bike skill increases actually make your character suffer less ramifications from crashing and provide much more control in steering (at least from how it felt). One of the main troubles I’ve been having still revolves around the long arm of the law. I can drive on the sidewalk, disobey traffic signals, crash into cars, destroy property, and sometimes even get away with murder as long as the cop shows up AFTER the person is 100% deceased, lying bloody on the ground next to me as I brandish a knife/gun/shotgun I stole from a cop. However, if I murder 3 people in a little grotto behind some buildings, the police department’s omniscience kicks in and I receive a star when no possible witnesses are around to see the secret murder spree. It’s odd that Kant’s ethics need not apply in terms of destruction of property setting off alarms for GTA San Andreas. The only time Kant applies regards the hookers who are the “property” of their respective pimps (as one has confirmed of having at one point). On top of this, any business establishment appears to house the ancient rites of sanctuary. I even committed genocide in the Binco store to steal their money so as to afford a neat shirt. Receiving one star, I walked outside. I immediately walked back inside to the same store. The friendly register woman and patrons were again alive and well. My wanted level had disappeared. Even if I had 6 stars, I’m wondering if the cops would even dare to enter the shirt store. The game’s mechanics and programming mess with its inherent sense of morality.
In regards to morality as it pertains to the story, CJ and his friends are deplorable people. They’re no good degenerates, seemingly afflicted by death only when it befalls their mother. However, one could blame it on their surroundings, which is likely a huge reason, so it’s hard to fully hate them. What strikes me as strange is their aversion to hard drugs, as if they advocate some pseudo version of the DARE program that allows weed. On top of this, they are just as lazy, showing distaste in actually holding jobs or contributing to anything other than their hood. Even then, the Ryder character shows distaste in a pizza store that presents itself as clean, so they don’t even want what’s best for their hood either. They’re essentially living their lives just as lazily and drug-filled as the crack fiends I’m tasked with beating up except they’re even worse since they aren’t in the mind altering throes of crack, and thus have a slightly worse excuse. It’s apparent from CJ’s backstory that it’s possible to escape the hood. Something about these characters has them willing to overlook their horrifyingly bad living situation solely based on friendship and a sense of community. It’s something I’ve never felt, and is certainly the strongest emotion felt from the story, but that alone struggles to keep my interest. For my next playthrough, I’m probably going to adopt another strange playstyle, another persona so as to make the story more bearable as well as devise means of creating moral quandaries on my own terms.
Before I wrap this up, I will say that I don’t quite get a racist sense from the game. I can’t speak from experience, but the major flaws and horrible personalities of these characters don’t quite fit stereotypes despite them being harshly negative role models (such as one of the characters detesting chicken, voting for a taco dinner instead). If anything, I have a problem with the humorous portrayal of the fat character who’s too busy eating his several orders to care about a life or death situation occurring in the car at that very moment. It seems a bit mean, but I guess one could say this helps define the characters in a cultural relativistic sense, wherein they are just that used to drive-bys.
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| [April 18, 2012 03:52:18 AM]
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As a general do gooder, I've always been adverse to the GTA formula since the options for doing good deeds or being heroic are limited essentially to boring side missions, which you can only even begin by stealing the appropriate vehicle (cop car/bike, ambulance) which is a whopping bunch of irony right there. This irony gave me an idea. The game began with my character arriving in San Andreas (though actually, I think the subtitle said liberty city, so I'm not quite sure if I'm even in San Andreas yet), and Samuel L. Jackson giving a hard time. This was followed by a very loud funeral and a ridiculous bike chase sequence. Now, I value story in games. This game’s story so far was proving to be more zany than tough (as the characters were seemingly trying to be). As I do with most GTA games, I eventually die, and get transported to the hospital. It is from here my focus leaves my body.
For some strange reason, the trek back to the place where the mission starts (the one after I got a pizza) looked so daunting. So, in my procrastination, my mind concocted a persona: that of the Irony Killer. See, as the irony killer, I would find the nearest hooker (they tended to carry knives), "commandeer" said weapon, strip down to nothing save my skiivies, and proceed to sneak up on and stab unsuspecting people in the neck all whilst sporting and afro/beard combination. I would continue this, running around behind houses like a madman until a cop appeared.
At this point, I would kill the cop, steal his motorbike or car, and ride off into the night to bring evildoers to justice. Rule Utilitarianism drove my actions, for I murdered my own gang members (again, for irony’s sake) as well as other game members for the greater good. Hookers fell to my cold steel of justice, as I ran like the jersey devil, naked as the day I was born, in backyards and on freeways. I even jumped on the hood of a car to ride it around, to substantiate my existence to passerbys, to make sure they know I am watching over them as they sleep. Well, maybe a few of them were innocent, but merely causalities of circumstance, lives given up for the sustained happiness of the city. The cop who would greet me was not a victim, but merely a new vessel for me to assume. With the swing of my knife, his gun became a weapon to purge those who fled in cars. I must finish for now, but perhaps I shall go along with these “friends” I have in the game, though their mere existence as gang members renders them targets. Their demise is imminent, just as soon as they are of no more use/the story lets me. Tomorrow night, beware citizens of San Andreas, for Irony Jack will be there to protect you with a blade that has tasted many a delinquent’s neck.
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