GTA IV anybody playing?

[PuppetMasterKuruku]

GTA is a great series. I've been playing it since GTA2 on the Dreamcast. Nope, I haven't played GTA IV though, but I want to. I don't have a 360 or PS3.

There will always be people panning GTA. I personally think it's one of the greatest game series around. Back when I originally got into programming, my ultimate goal was to make a game much like GTA. After a few years, I eventually gave up, but when I heard from a friend about GTA and borrowed his GTA2, I was shocked that somebody made exactly the game I always wanted to play. Eventually, somebody at school pirated the PC version and spread it all over the network, and we'd all play 6-player on the LAN. Good times.

In GTA, you can have the fantasy of going around doing things that you'd very much never do in real life, but sometimes wish you really could do. I suppose maybe you have to have a violent side for that sort of thing. It's not without merit for other reasons. GTA III had a huge, open realistic city. The in-game radio was large, and there were some funny jokes in there. Even better, many of the in-game products were cross-referenced, such as by the people on the talk show radio talking about a product in a radio commercial.

Just turn the corner of the street, punch a random person, and trick him into punching another person and you can create a riot. You can even make gangs fight cops. There were a lot of missions to do, and hidden things to find. You could also practice flying the Dodo, which in GTA III was a veritable pile of garbage, as it's wings were cut off. Unlike Mortal Kombat, which was a notoriously unbalanced projectile-fest of a fighting game, there is a lot more to the game than just being violent for the sake of being violent.

It's a darn fun game, underneath all that violence is a well-made game, and me and my roommate like to play San Andreas and just go around doing stupid crap. Like, I'll have him cover me in sticky bombs, and I'll fly with a jetpack as high as I can and then detonate. You can also have one guy on top of a car throwing molotov cocktails everywhere, funny as hell. I guess it's dark humor, and I can't expect the people here to appreciate that. My friend has a Katana, but it's not like either of us are tempted to grab the thing in the middle of the night and cut off somebodies head in an alley for fun.

Some people though, they'll see GTA and can't imagine how anybody could enjoy causing mass-destruction and chaos across an entire city. I personally think it's funny to see somebody with a flamethrower in the game destroying everything in sight, or to fly a helicopter around a residential area and chasing people with the blades. It's just so absurd and insane, you probably won't see a guy with a rocket launcher standing on top of a fast-food restaurant fighting off the military in real life. A mass drive-by killing 2,000 people doesn't happen every day, and going into the game's gym and having a guy teach you new moves, only to end his life using those same moves, is just priceless.

Umm, does that make me a bad person? Ahh, who cares? GTA is fun, violent, open-ended, and just a blast to play if you enjoy it.

I've been playing GTA III again because of wanting to play GTA IV. I didn't like San Andreas' gangsta theme, but the game's world is fun to explore with a large variety of different areas and a lot of new things. Vice City is probably my favorite, Tommy Vercetti was cool, the story was the best of the three, and the 80's atmosphere, right down to all the cars and songs on the radio, was great. Definitely my favorite city in the series, too bad they didn't introduce swimming until the next game, because it's real weird that nobody in this particular installment can swim. :/

Daichi, GTA is NOT just a means for middle-aged men and teenage boys with no girlfriends to pretend that they're big bad criminals banging hookers and speeding around in hot cars. I don't know if my argument has helped you see some of the game's appeal, and maybe you're not the sort who could ever enjoy this kind of game (I also enjoyed such things as Doom, Redneck Rampage, and Postal back in the day). I should note that even a fan of GTA like myself can be a compassionate human being and not a murderous, violent minded guy who wishes he was in the mafia or the 'hood or something, hence why I'm a fan of Astro Boy and Unico. I'm a fairly respectable and intelligent person as well, at least when I want to be, and I've made several good arguments, hopefully this is one of them.

You should consider retracting your statement. Have you spent much time playing any of the GTA games, or just hearing the controversy? You should try to give it a little time, the game doesn't force you to ruthlessly mug and murder innocent people begging for their lives and have you doing women you pick up off the streets every two minutes to progress through the game. Besides that, the bystanders are depicted as being shallow, ordinary people on daily routines wandering or staggering around mumbling about things, it's not like they're real individuals, like somebodies uncle or grandma who is out shopping before celebrating somebody graduating from college.

The game usually doesn't have you go on any missions that involve harming innocent people anyway, you're usually fighting the enemies and gang members of whoever you're working for. The game doesn't totally reward you for being a murderer, people will fight back and the cops will try to put your rampage to an end with significant force, calling in the army and tanks if your deeds are so catastrophic that such a thing becomes necessary.

GTA is a legitimately good series. Most game sites have given III, Vice City, San Andreas, and IV very high reviews. It's not just some garbage murder simulator, and a lot of work was put into making them, despite the fact that the PS2 games have dropped in price substantially. Daichi, after reading what you said, and your insulting remarks on the series, I've lost some respect for you. In fact, I could easily take your remark as an insult toward myself.

It's true that children shouldn't be playing these games. I get pissed off every time I see a young child using swears or playing violent games and talking down to people in online games. I played Mortal Kombat and Doom at a very young age, but somehow I ended up moderately fine. Kids nowadays are doing all sorts of crazy stuff. There was once a time where I would have loved to be in a job where I would take care of young children, and teach them to be loving, to be themselves, and to think for themselves and not let people oppress them. Nowadays, I can't even trust kids who aren't even in the double-digits to not be little demons. In the news recently, a 7 year old drove off with a car, and his defense was that he "likes to do bad things" and thinks he deserves "no video games for a whole weekend". See, in my day we got beaten. I'm still afraid of my parents to this day, they planted the seed of paranoia in me, and I haven't seen them in years.

Maybe it's not the right thing to do, but for some kids like that it's probably not a bad idea. However, I'm an adult and if I want to run around in a virtual city committing crime, doing deeds for the rich and powerful people of the cities' underworld, and go on a virtual genocide on all humanity in a city, I should be allowed to do so without censorship and bans, much less people looking down on me like the scum of the earth.

Ah, it's time for me to mellow out. In the end, nothing that happens in life really matters, and all we can hope to do is enjoy life, and the most we can do is change the future, but we can't really change the world, or change how people are. Don't hate on what people like. I say the same thing to people who hate anime, or animation in all forms. You're never too old to enjoy anything, that's a philosophy I'll probably take to my grave, and one that my parents were whole-heartedly against.

[cybotron]

Hey..
Thankx I'm having a ball!

[tonigirl1000]

Thanks, please give me one of those sweet games series if they still exists. hugs

[jeffbert]

Long ago between DOOM & DOOM II, there was RISE OF THE TRIAD; at the time, it was the most violent game, & included guys begging for their lives, who would shoot you if you let them live. It had 'cheat' codes that allowed you to get a bullet's eye view, and see eyeballs bouncing around after the RPG exploded.

Prior to these, was BLAKE STONE, an outer space version of WOLFENSTEIN 3D. It had 'informants' whom you could kill, but I believe you lost points if you did.

Then there was Shadow Warrior & Duke Nukem 3D; both had females in various situations, the former had them bathing behind waterfalls, & if you tried to peek-- The latter had them being eaten by monsters, and if you were close enough, you heard them begging for death: "Kill me, kill me!"

I also enjoyed DARK FORCES, but could never get through the prison level, I just could not figure out how to open the door to Boba Fett, & became frustrated.

For me, the controls became too complex, what with having only one arm, & I stopped playing after these games. Even then, I used an analog joystick because it had buttons all over it, & 2 mini joysticks [I know there is a name for these, but forgot it] that allowed me to cycle through weapons without using the keyboard.

While it is obvious that these games are very violent, intelligent adults should not confuse the 'people' in the games with real people. On the other hand, children are acquiring social behavior through the games that they play; hence, they should be kept from this type of game. irate:

[tonigirl1000]

Thanks, Jeffbert- pray you the very best and thanks for being a friend here. From your information on those games, still rather play the clean games. hugs