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Friday 23 July, 2010
My friends always tell me that there is no such thing as 'childhood' to me because it took me 19 years and half to try Taco Bell, and I still haven't been to a lot of fast food chains. But I was encountered with Play Station 2 to play GTA: San Andreas today, and I think this is one big part of my childhood that I have missed.
I thought this game would include a lot of cars just running into each other and drivers beating each other up because their cars got hurt and whatnot. But it wasn't - Lego Star Wars being the only video game I have ever played (on XBOX), I was worried about the amount of time I would have to put into this game in order to tell myself, "I have successfully played GTA: SA (SA) today and I will continue this tomorrow". Also, as a psychology major, I assumed the protagonist (CJ)'s personality and the story line of the game based on two things: his mother recently passed away, and he gets arrested soon after that. Such major events in one's life is likely to cause the person to behave in ways that he or she has never had in the past. However, I must say I was quite wrong.
I believe race is one major issue in SA. Graffitis can be seen very easily throughout the game, and the characters wear baggy clothes that some people might call "typical" of a specific race. The characters reminded me of a bunch of gangs living in one big community - they are all very built, wear similar clothes, and do similar activities on daily basis. Now, with the fowl language being mixed together with characters, I find SA to be quite racist and stereotypical. What if this game took place in a typical White neighborhood? Chinatown? Different country/continent?
The game itself was challenging for me because I have never played anything on PS2 before so it took me a lot of time to figure out which button does what and stuff. But I thoroughly enjoyed the game as I started to recognize different symbols of the controller and I hope I get to experience it some more the next time I play it.
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