San Andreas on PC
Discussion
I bought SA on PC when it came out. Have been on the second 'island' for a while. I've always loved GTA and played every one quite extensively.
I am actually disappointed with how far GTA hasn't come in the last few years.
It's basically exactly the same as the original GTA3 of ~4 years ago but with the advantage of motorbikes (and planes?), which are cool, and gangs/changing clothes/gym/girlfriends, none of which add anything to the gameplay and are just a distraction.
However, in some ways it's worse than GTA3; my main problem with San Andreas is, the whole game has a very 'scripted' feel. Too many missions where you just have to drive somewhere, or shoot 3 people with arrows on their heads, and the rest is 5 minutes of cutscenes (which are soo badly acted), or maybe the odd 'fake' car chase where you shoot out the back of a car and can't be killed. These seem great at first but you'd never want to do them again, as you cannot do them a different way each time.
Particularly annoying because, what made GTA 1 and 2 good (not sure how many of you here ever played them when they came out) was that they were totally unscripted, but now playing GTA feels sinkingly like watching a really bad gangster movie. I personally find games centred heavily around 'storylines' are rarely as convincing as those without.
Disappointingly, also the police are a pointless distraction in the game, rather than an integral part of it. The fun in GTA has previously been in running from/evading the police, shouting at the screen and gritting your teeth as you blow up a cop car with a grenade and get gunned down sprinting away trying desperately to find a getaway car. But after 10+ hours of play, I am yet to have a real encounter with the police (except where I go after them myself, and even then it's hard to get much more than a 2 star wanted level, where the police are only capable of turning up, shouting and running each other over).
At risk of sounding like a consoleaphobe (I'm not one), it has been noticeably consolified: Whilst the missions and language have been souped-up (every sentence contains f*** at least once), the gameplay always feels like it has been dumbed down so that a 7 year-old could easily get through this game.
Yet in spite of all this, it's still an immensely enjoyable game. It really is unique and to play the game just messing around, stealing helicopters and such is very addictive and still the closest thing to freedom any computer game gives you. And I'm told it improves later in the game.
But unless they keep moving forward with the concept, I wouldn't be surprised to one day discover a new game out that out-GTA's GTA.
Russell
I am actually disappointed with how far GTA hasn't come in the last few years.
It's basically exactly the same as the original GTA3 of ~4 years ago but with the advantage of motorbikes (and planes?), which are cool, and gangs/changing clothes/gym/girlfriends, none of which add anything to the gameplay and are just a distraction.
However, in some ways it's worse than GTA3; my main problem with San Andreas is, the whole game has a very 'scripted' feel. Too many missions where you just have to drive somewhere, or shoot 3 people with arrows on their heads, and the rest is 5 minutes of cutscenes (which are soo badly acted), or maybe the odd 'fake' car chase where you shoot out the back of a car and can't be killed. These seem great at first but you'd never want to do them again, as you cannot do them a different way each time.
Particularly annoying because, what made GTA 1 and 2 good (not sure how many of you here ever played them when they came out) was that they were totally unscripted, but now playing GTA feels sinkingly like watching a really bad gangster movie. I personally find games centred heavily around 'storylines' are rarely as convincing as those without.
Disappointingly, also the police are a pointless distraction in the game, rather than an integral part of it. The fun in GTA has previously been in running from/evading the police, shouting at the screen and gritting your teeth as you blow up a cop car with a grenade and get gunned down sprinting away trying desperately to find a getaway car. But after 10+ hours of play, I am yet to have a real encounter with the police (except where I go after them myself, and even then it's hard to get much more than a 2 star wanted level, where the police are only capable of turning up, shouting and running each other over).
At risk of sounding like a consoleaphobe (I'm not one), it has been noticeably consolified: Whilst the missions and language have been souped-up (every sentence contains f*** at least once), the gameplay always feels like it has been dumbed down so that a 7 year-old could easily get through this game.
Yet in spite of all this, it's still an immensely enjoyable game. It really is unique and to play the game just messing around, stealing helicopters and such is very addictive and still the closest thing to freedom any computer game gives you. And I'm told it improves later in the game.
But unless they keep moving forward with the concept, I wouldn't be surprised to one day discover a new game out that out-GTA's GTA.
Russell
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