Archive: 22nd November, 2004: Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas / The Banter
I’m probably not going to post that many articles that I wrote for the short lived University of Paisley student paper “The Banter”, mostly because I can’t find them, and I hate the paper’s name. Still, I rather enjoyed writing this review of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, mischievous as it is.
“GTA: SA was released on the 26th of October, 2004 in the United States of America. Seven days later, I would sit from 11pm till 6am playing the game while watching the live coverage of the American election. I would complete a mission, then take the hero, CJ, to the gym, where I would participate in the boring ‘Track and Field’-esque button bashing grind, with my eyes on the incoming state by state predictions, not my poorly customized avatar endlessly lifting weights. In the end, the result was the same. The same evil white guy was president, and my character was still a black guy with annoying friends and poor taste in music. I’d bought him an eye patch, I suppose.
I don’t know if I can blame GTA: SA for the result of the American election. God knows Kerry wasn’t even particularly the lesser of two evils, and people weren’t going to somehow spontaneously vote for Nader. But the youth vote never materialized. The black vote never materialized.
Were they maybe all busy sending themselves back to 1992, when George W.’s father was still in office and the Rodney King riots would soon rip the city apart? I don’t know, but if they were, it wasn’t worth it. It’s the same damn game, people. The city is just larger and more, perhaps unnecessarily, complex. Its chock full of additions that often serve to make the game work rather than play. I don’t want to have to stat build to drive better. I just want to drive. That the series hasn’t really progressed as an experience since 2001 speaks volumes.
This is the equivalent of a Fifa 2005; new soundtrack, shinier graphics, same game. And everyone is still falling for it. Same way they fall for another evil white guy every 4 years.”
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas really is quite good, but no one can argue Rockstar were reaching a bit by that point; I’m terribly looking forward to Bully, though.
I don’t know if I’ll ever buy another GTA game. I always get caught up in the “Oooh, cool, this is going to be fun” hype and then end up playing for a couple days before I give up. I own a few and don’t ever play them any longer. I should just sell them. ^_^
Comment by Mister Raroo on September 2, 2006 at 12:57 pm