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Thursday 19 April, 2012
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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