Posted on 05/08/2008 11:45:55 AM PDT by AreaMan
The game is getting incredible reviews.
http://www.metacritic.com/games/platforms/ps3/grandtheftauto4
Supposed to be one of the most impressive games ever created.
Also, can you get the character to interact with others besides punching them in the mouth? Between that and buying food, the actions seem to be limited.
I used the game to teach my kids about the realities of crime.
See, it’s easy to make a quick buck doing this two-bit crime, but watch.. If you want to get out of the trouble that two-bit crime caused you, you will now have to kill Mr. Police officer. Uh, oh, now you have to kill more. NOW YOU HAVE LOTS of COPS after you, and look they aren’t arresting you they are shooting to kill. That’s the way it works kids. Crime pays, it pays in more trouble than you want to deal with.
I can’t possibly be the only person who has done this.
Do the bad guys win more or the cops in the latest versions? I played the very first version and being the bad guy and bad at games, I was always killed.
Plus I wandered all over the map looking for a parked car before I realised I was supposed to steal them. So I might not be your best source on the franchise :0)
In contrast, those "great games of the past" (care to name some? does anyone play them now?) were accompanied by such non-masterpieces as Liesure Suit Larry (moral corruption with a grin), Zero Wing ("All your base..."), and lots of really really truly forgettable (please, please forget) stuff.
Games like GTA are a symptom of a deep problem in the post-modern west.
It's true, as the apologists say, that playing violent games or watching violent movies won't cause someone to go out and commit violence. It's also true that to look at today's youth and the violence that they seem to embrace is to look into the abyss. The abyss of morality, of ethics, of self-reflection, of the post-modern.
While I can't in good faith call for the censorship of games like GTA, I can morn the loss of the traditions and morality that once would have made its existence unthinkable. And to those who think I'm being melodramatic, I hear in the background of their smug assurances of worldliness, the sound of fiddling, and Rome burning.
Sorry, but that sounds an awful lot like someone with little understanding of Western culture.
The same England that produced Shakespeare also produced John Ford and elevated bear-baiting to royal sport. And her Golden Age was just around the corner.
Elite!
No, you’re right. About the earliest games I can remember really enjoying were the Wing-Commander series (with cut -scenes starring Mark Hamill!), Resident Evil and others from that period.
Wait till you go too a bar in the game and come out drunk as a skunk,I never laughed so hard,trying to control the character is nearly impossible.
“If you’re a believer,
read Ephisians 5 and 6 and get back to us with the answer to whether you should play GTA”.
...thanks for the heads up on this passage from the Bible. I went ahead and googled it. It has been a long time since I’ve read this. Refreshing.
bttt
'Reaper'
Personally — I don’t buy it. I am an occasional video-game player, and though I have not played GTA ... I have played some violent games with definite adult content (God of War, for instance — a game that I cannot recommend highly enough). I am a conservative, a Christian, etc., and I just don’t buy that this particular video game (due to crudity, lust, whatever) is much of a concern for an adult mind. Children are a different situation entirely.
The analogous situation, to me, would be movies. I watch relatively violent movies, where foul language is fairly common, and occasional nudity/lust is certainly not unheard of. Among my favorite movies of late is The Departed — the language is consistently objectionable, and the movie is a general bloodbath ... but, like GTA, it is a genuinely good movie. Gladiator, Braveheart, Saving Private Ryan, 300 and The Patriot were all bloodbaths. All are still entirely worth seeing. Despite my movie preferences, I remain the strong Christian conservative I was before viewing them.
I simply don’t buy that people of otherwise strong morality can be unwantingly corrupted by movies, video games, or even the occasional adult feature (which my wife and I have been known to very occasionally partake).
Weak moral conviction or weak marriages might be succeptible — truly strong values are likely not. Like money, “corrupting influences” do not destroy morality in men — they may simply expose deficiencies that were always there.
H
I learned a long time ago that if I have to question whether I should do something......
I probably shouldn’t do it.....
That stated, I don’t always listen to my own advice......
I scrolled about half way down and read all the negativity about games and such, but I’ll comment anyway...
GTA is a riot... All of them... I play them now that I have won them all, just to see the extreme depths of the games program.
Coming from the era of pac man and space invaders, and then picking up a game where you can steal cars, do drive by’s, hit jumps and do barrel rolls in cars and trucks, is cool. Am I now a mind full of mush because of it? No. I ain’t no different than before I picked up a PS2 controller.
For all the naysayers around here that say this is “Bad for someone” is down right silly...
You don’t wanna play video games, don’t play. Although this author set him self up as first person, he is still sending a message. A message that I for one think is a waste of time...
Ah, but the object is to over-analyze, find it guilty, then work to eradicate it completely, because if someone who's got the fear o' God in him can be led astray by a game, can we possibly take a chance with those who didn't have a good Bible teacher?
IOW, we've got people who don't trust themselves to make good decisions, so they can't trust anyone else to do the same.
Kind of like quake but there is a great deal of driving of every different sort of vehicle, the games are mostly set in an urban jungle type of environment, and it’s a huge parody of tv/movie/rap culture.
Excellent and insightful essay.
Huh boy I sure hope you never get ahold of Bible Black if you think grand theft auto is bad.
I have a very strong stomach and certain parts of BB made me feel ill (posting details would get this post deleted). It should be noted though that its a very different kind of game than GTA and its an Eastern Game rather than a Western game.
In any case I had fun with the grand theft autos and I’ll probably pick this up at some point, people should stop making philosophical commentaries on games and just pick them up and enjoy them.
Personally I play video games to kill stress, and while I’ve killed countless thousands of computer characters over the years I’ve yet to kill a real cop or to deface private or public property or pick up a hooker and run her over for taking my wallet.
Games never lead children down a bad path unless its a child’s only form of guidence. In most cases though children wh oare raised by video games would end up going bad or crazy anyway, in earlier times televsion would be the culprit, or comic books, or the communists (The only valid corrupter on the list).
Pick up grand theft auto, if you don’t like it then play Hello Kitty Island Adventure.
That thing flying over your head, that was my point.
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