Last weekend, the day before I hopped into Susan’s car and drove 15 hours from Oklahoma City to Tempe, Arizona for a training class, I bought the new PS3/GTAV bundle. For $260, you can get Grand Theft Auto V (which retails for $60) and a new, 500gb PlayStation 3. I still have my 60gb launch PlayStation 3 in the den, but Mason has had it tied up with Call of Duty for months. I brought the new PS3 with me to Tempe (along with a spare HDMI cable) and hooked the console up in my hotel room. Mason (who is 11) told me that some of his friends are already playing GTAV and wanted to know if he could play my copy while I was out of town. After all, “it’s just a game, Dad!”
In the game’s opening training sequence, you will learn how to control your character by participating in a bank robbery. Your first job will be to point your gun at hostages to get them to move into the bank’s vault. You point your gun by holding down L2 on the controller. If you accidentally hit R2 you will shoot the hostage, at which point one of your accomplices will shoot you and you will fail the mission. I did that. After restarting, I retaliated by shooting my partner first. Again, I failed the mission. On my third attempt, I took cover behind a desk and opened fire on everyone in the room. 45 seconds into Grand Theft Auto V and I had already gone on my first murderous rampage.
Also within the first 45 seconds you’ll hear your first f-bomb, and your second, and your tenth, along with a few mother f’ers thrown in for good measure. Unlike some movies where they don’t introduce nudity until the second or third act, less than a minute into the game it has been made painfully obvious that this is not intended for kids.
Eventually I did rob the bank as I was supposed to, which led me to a shootout with cops. During this phase I learned that shooting cops in the leg or torso isn’t very effective because they can still shoot back at you while lying on the ground, bleeding. Head shots are key here. After shooting those copes, more cops showed up. I shot them too. I should note that to walk, sprint, take cover, aim, and shoot requires more buttons than all video games previously released combined. My gangster name is Fumble Fingers. Whenever I meant to take cover, I jumped around like the time Curly got ants in his pants. Whenever I tried to shoot I somehow put away my gun and began punching at air. It’s a wonder I was every able to shoot all the cops in the head, but eventually I did.
Then I hopped in a getaway car, got hit by a train and died. Mission complete.
In the next mission I played as Franklin, a street-wise thug. My first mission as Franklin was to repossess a car and follow his friend Lamar through city streets.
I have spent years erasing the n-word from my vocabulary. I don’t like hearing it, and I would never say it (unless I was in my car alone listening to old gangster rap). Franklin and Lamar however looooovet the n-word. This is what the next five minutes of the game sounds like:
“N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD N-WORD.”
The next mission teaches you how to drive. It also taught me how to hit pedestrians, sideswipe cars, and ploy into motorcyclists.
With that mission out of the way it was time for my next awesome mission, which was to change Franklin’s clothes and go get a haircut.
I must admit, after having already acquired a taste for blood, playing dress up with Franklin seemed a bit lame. Instead of taking Franklin to the barber shop as instructed, we stole a city bus, rammed police cars until the cops shot out my tires, abandoned the bus for a cement truck, and caused mayhem until I was forced off the road into the ocean. I was able to make it back to the shore, where a police officer promptly shot me in the head. Good night, Franklin.
From a technological standpoint, Grand Theft Auto V is simply amazing. I read somewhere that the city in GTAV is bigger than all the other games combined. It is truly wonderful technology; I’m just not so sure we’re using it in the name of good at this point. I’ll write more as I work through through the game.
Historically I do not like GTA games (aside from the original top down arcade style ones). But I beg of you not to judge too harshly. This one, while vile as all hell, has an agenda. It’s very subversive, but as more of the story unfolds it has a deep seated moral core that I found very well placed, if not hidden (only to allow the less discerning player to just cause mayhem). I do agree that no one should EVER let their children within a thousand miles of this game. Yes the controls have a pretty large learning curve, I found it infinitely more playable then all of the ones before it, plus the genius move of giving you three characters opens the door for a more RPG element. In other words while playing as Michael I never participate in wanton slaughter because it just seems out of place, but when I’m in that mood I just switch over to Trevor and all bets are off. This is the first game in the GTA franchise I’m comfortable calling a masterpiece.