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-It's one of the few games that lets you play as an anti-hero if not an outright villain, a refreshing change of pace from the overdone stereotypical good guy saving the world gig....
-performs as a great stress reliever
-the deep involving story
It's just that, While there is a fairly linear storyline, You can deviate from the story and just spend hours driving around, Exploring, Or Shooting things? (Though, I don't really approve of this aspect!)
In honesty, the same question could be said about various games with many sequels. Pac-Man comes to mind. What's with all of the Pac-Man games? All you do is go around in circles, eat pills, eat magic pills that allow you to eat ghosts all the while listening to repetitive and annoying music....
Could somebody please explain the appeal of these games? Is the U.S. becoming a nation of wannabe car-jackers?
Playing GTA makes me as much of a carjacker as playing .hack//G.U. makes me an animal abuser. (Kicking Chims, anyone?)
Seriously, just because I love to hijack a car, take it into the most populated area, drive over a bunch of innocents, and then jump out to collect the various cash they leave behind, jump back into the car, cheat to get my wanted level back down, and then jump ontop of the highest and most secluded roof so no cops or such can get me while I snipe away IN A VIDEO GAME does NOT make me a twisted and sick individual, and it does NOT mean that I am going to do this in real life.
Video games provide an escape from reality. In real life, most people aren't going to keep their cars unlocked. In real life, your wanted level doesn't go down after a few minutes of driving. In real life, you won't simply walk out of the hospital after being riddled with bullets or being in an exploded car.
My basic point here is, just because you do it in a video game does not mean you're inclined to do it in real life.
The GTA series has compelling stories, exciting gameplay, and a sense of humor that most other games don't come close to. The worlds are amazing, filled with secret corners and niches and short-cuts, and you're rewarded for taking the time to get to know your city. You get to be the character in a movie about the underworld, basically playing the equivalent of latter day pirates, existing on the fringe of society in a place with its own rules, its own rewards and its own punishments.
Playing GTA is like watching Scarface or Colors, except you get to be the actor in the role. You get to visit part of the world that you otherwise couldn't visit. I'm a big, hairy white guy. There's no way that I could really know what it was like living in Compton in the Reagan era. But in San Andreas, I can walk the streets and hear the gun shots and sirens in the distance - or even right down the street in front of me. I can go into Ballas territory, unarmed, for the first time and feel the adrenaline rush as I roll back to the Grove and safety. I can feel the frustration when the cops set me up and run me out of town. I see "old friends" who have lost their minds on crack and want to get back at those who got them hooked on it, who ruined the neighborhood I "remember".
If you don't like movies like Scarface or Colors, if you don't like movies and stories that tend to celebrate outlaws like Billy the Kid or Jack Sparrow or the Corleones, then you won't like the GTA games. But if you like compelling stories, exciting gameplay, and a world that is wide open for you to explore, then these days you can do no better than the GTA series.
Location: Los Angeles, which as I understand was once upon a time ago part of the United States of America
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For those of you who partly answered that the game lets you explore the world, what do you think of the MS Flight Simulator series? You can do quite a bit more exploring, without murdering people.
Location: Originally Fayetteville, Arkansas/ now Seattle, Washington!
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I don't know about you guys, but my favorite hands down is GTA: San Andreas. CJ is the man! LOL hes sooo funny....and you know, thats one of the reasons I love to play it. "I need this more than you (akward pause) I think!" CJ says after he picks up the cash left behind from the guy he just shot with an uzi. The game has a great sense of humor, and its great to just mess around driving randomly, taking different cars, etc. Which I think is one of the most attractive features of the game, free roaming fun
Location: Originally Fayetteville, Arkansas/ now Seattle, Washington!
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Prince of Lombards
For those of you who partly answered that the game lets you explore the world, what do you think of the MS Flight Simulator series? You can do quite a bit more exploring, without murdering people.
The flight sims are quite complicated, not near as casual as GTA. Also, It always seems to me that the graphics aren't very good on the ground level of the Flight sims lol, so one place tends to look like another. All in all, time consuming, a steep learning curve, not very exciting gameplay etc. Not to say i don't enjoy them sometimes though
I don't play a lot of video games, but I am a huge, huge, huge sports fan. Thus, the majority of the games I play are sports games. I own NBA2K8 and Tiger Woods 08, two very fun games to play, but after awhile, it's the same thing over and over again. The games like Forza, super realistic ones get boring after awhile because, well, it's too super realistic and you're just making laps around a track.
My friend, very much so addicted to video games told me to try out some first person shooters (FPS), because the 360 specialized mostly in FPS's. I bought Rainbow Six: Vegas and I liked it. Did the mission, but now that I'm done with it, I can't do anything else. I don't want to do the whole story again on Impossible, because I pretty much suck at video games already, and the extra 'Terrorist Hunts' are literally impossible for me. This has turned me away from these FPS games.
I also tried the Orange Box, another FPS. Not my thing...and with one part left which should take me no longer than 3 hours at the most, I can't even bring myself to finish the game. Attacking aliens = not much fun to me. Same with third person shooters, like Gears of War. I'm not really into the whole shooting thing for no reason either.
Not a fan of RPG's. I can't sit still and read through the whole story or whatever, and I get antsy easily.
GTA appeals to me because it's a little bit of everything. The map in GTA4 is MASSIVE, I mean it's HUGE. It's almost like driving through a mid sized American town like a Madison, WI (the game is modeled from NYC), and you can do whatever you want. If you want to just drive a car around and dick around, you can do that. The soundtrack in this game is so awesome, it's like literally driving around the city, with your hood down, flipping channels (they have the Reggae (Marley), Jazz (Coltrane, Thelonious), Rock (Smashing Pumpkins, Stevie NICKS!)) and just chilling. See, it's not like Forza or Gran Turismo where the controls are ultra sensitive, yet it's realistic enough where you can't seriously expect to go 160mph and make a sharp turn...
If you want to do some missions, you can do that also. Not to give much away, but you need work and there are a few sources for work. You're trying to collect debts owed, so it's not like you're shooting necessarily, you just gotta get the job done to get your money.
If you want to try something new, you can actually now date girls. Yeah, I was surprised too.
See, to me, the game doesn't have to be totally violent. Yes, later in the game you have to start using genade launchers and such to do your missions, but you can be non-violent, and do all those missions, cruise around in cars, chase suspects, etc. I'm definitely not addicted, but I really, really really enjoy playing the game.
Flight Simulator is a little too boring for me. My baby bro (he's 21, don't worry) LOVES it, but he can sit there for hours playing that game. I need some action, and when he does too, he loves GTA, to cruise around in cars and go on long police chases. I mean, it's just fun.
I can't really express anything more to you. I'm not going to tell you to rent it or buy it, and I will admit, it does bring out an unsavory group of teenagers, but I find the game extremely fun, funny with a great storyline. I've played it since the first GTA, when I was a teenager, and have since played GTA2 also. I used to just cruise around in the car without doing missions, going on chases, but 4 is so much more...
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