Farewell Grand Theft Auto

Yesterday, or...today...on Sunday I took back GTA4. After playing through boring levels and an uninteresting city, I traded the game in for Saints Row the Third, which is only a little better. I'll be posting my thoughts on Saints Row soon but until then, I have got to work on my level for the game I'm writing. Good night.

GTA 4: Going back

If you've read some of my previous entries, I've expressed my frustration with the highly-rated Grand Theft Auto 4. I'm going to list the sources of my frustrations and, most likely, the reasons for my returning of the game tomorrow.

1. The world is too big and boring- I've been given a large playground to play in, too bad there isn't much to do. Besides shooting pigeons and buying ammo and clothes, I haven't found anything to really hold my interest. Why can't I collect cars and store them in a garage? To be honest, I don't find any of the cars really appealing. To me, a car's a car.

 Another problem comes from the city itself, or it's lack of personality. I can walk for miles and not find one secret or something of interest for me to do. If you're going to make a big city, fill it with secrets, collectables, hidden goals. I want to find hidden stories and jobs, that's what makes an experience unique to each player. Some will find the secrets, some won't, that's the fun.

2. Theft is boring- If I were steal someone's car in real life, not that I would have the guts to do so, what do you think is in the car? For starters, they will have a spare tire, I can sell that. There's probably a GPS in the car and a radio. Both good items to hock on the street. Sunglasses, maps, pills, groceries, cell phones, and all sorts of personal effects. I want to go through people's stuff! The car could be full of junk or full of treasure, either way is fine. I want my theft to be more in-depth.

If I were to take someone's wallet, what do you think I would find? Besides cash, I would have different cards: credit cards, debit cards, club memberships, coupons, maybe a social security number, all kinds of stuff! The same can be said for a cellphone, there's numbers of all sorts of different people and places. That's what I want, the ability to play around with people's lives. Maybe mug someone and take their credit card. Then use it in a shopping spree until the card gets canceled. Or maybe if I keep the spending low enough, they won't notice twenty dollars going out of their pockets every few days. How about their cell phone? Maybe I look up the girlfriend while her boyfriend's in the hospital (see Stewie's lemonade stand from Family Guy). Maybe I call up the guy's number to the yacht club and get myself a membership to the club.
The point is: I do this BECAUSE I CAN. I do this because I have the ability to do so and giving players freedom to do even pointless things can be fun. Not everything has to be about money.

3. The characters are boring- In the twenty or so hours I've played GTA 4, I've only met criminals. Criminals that are self-destructive, stupid, selfish, or have delusions of grandeur. This is all good and fun but does everyone in this town have to be a jerk? I'm not saying that I want to work with a saint, I DO want to interact with someone who has more of a personality beyond coke addict. And for God's sake, does everyone in this city do blow? I've been taking jobs from five different people, at least three of them can be heard or seen sniffing something, obviously coke, during cutscenes. I understand that coke is edgy, but as with any edgy or cool concept: when everyone does it, it's no longer cool. And I swear, one of those people I work with is on steroids or something. Not everyone in the lower class is on some kind of drug Rockstar.

4. Not enough weapons- When I play in a sandbox game what do you think I want to do? I want to cause chaos, and I can't do that until I unlock all the weapons. Yes, I know there are cheats (Really? Who uses cheats in games anymore?) but that takes away one of the achievements (trophy in game for accomplishing certain tasks) in the game. I can't have a lot of fun with a pistol, a Molotov cocktail (which is really expensive, what the heck?), a sniper rifle, and a submachine gun. Also, there's only two variants for each type of weapon. Now GTA is not Call of Duty where each weapon is unique in someway or another, but I still want a whole bunch of weapons to have fun with. Even if there are similarities, I want to carry a whole bag of weapons around with me. I want a whole variety of armaments.

5. Controls are bad- I had a heck of a time trying to figure out the cover mechanic (this game was clearly made for the Xbox) the cars slide around like their on ice, and the climbing is just a travesty to watch.

6. Graphics are bad- Just like the title says, the graphics are just bad. I know this is an older game, and a lot of my complaints have already been addressed but these are things that should have been fixed long before the game was released. Rockstar had better bring their game with GTA 5 because I'm not sure if I will even consider getting the game. Maybe the Saint's Row series will have more of what I want.

GTA flop

I'm bored with GTA, it's not the fun game I thought it was. For starters, the current number of weapons is limited. For a game that challenges you to beat the main story UNDER thirty minutes is asking a lot out of me to only use a few weapons in the game. Another problem stems from the lack of things to do in the city. Take Jak 2 for example, yes the city was small in comparison to GTA but there was something to do in every area, even if that meant a simple fetch quest or race. A third problem comes from the slow pacing. I want to get to the good stuff, the car races, the extra activities, the fun stuff. Right now I'm still doing odd jobs for people for bout a thousand dollars, It's a step up from when I did stuff for one hundred dollars but I'm still not rich. Where's my mansion? Where's my collection of cars? Where the stuff I can purchase besides ammo and clothes? I want to collect stuff and decorate my house! Are you telling me that I can't do that stuff in a game that received universal acclaim?!? Another problem for me comes from the city itself, I feel dirty just walking around. When I play Sleeping Dogs, I feel immersed in Hong Kong, not crummy. And yet another problem is the graphics. Why does everything look like crap? My final problem is with the story. What do I care about Nico our intrepid hero? Why do I HAVE to be a bad guy, can't I do something nice too? It may sound weird but balance is what makes an open world game fun for me.
I'll give this game one last chance Sunday, after that, I'm going for Saints Row.

Numb

I just haven't felt the passion I've had for videogames since I beat Skyrim. Maybe I'm just getting older or maybe I'm bored. Either way, it better end soon or I'm going to the doctor.

The Unseen Nightmare

This is a short story by an ally, that's what he would call our relationship, and fellow writer Jay Squared. I thought I would post it for fun.

Jim gathered his thoughts as he waited for the doctor. His mind drifted back to Lashkar Ga. Back to Afghanistan. He thought of Bravo team. Jim had been in Afghanistan for one tour already and had signed up for another one. He wasn't in the Marines for the fame or the "job training" that military ads promoted. He wasn't qualified as an engineer even after his final tour. At least this is what was printed on his papers. Jim was in the Marines for money, plain and simple. College was unaffordable and his G.P.A wasn't up to par. So the Marines seemed like a decent choice. Jim had always been unable to make discerning choices. What school should he attend? Which girl should he date? Where was he going in life-that was the big one. But Jim left those decisions to his parents, to the girls, to his job coach. Jim's life never felt like his own, he was simply in for the ride. Like a man in the front seat of the roller coaster, he couldn't control his life, so he would enjoy the ride. And if a problem came up, there were plenty of rails to keep him on track. That's what made the Marines appealing, follow your orders and you'll live for a few more hours. But that didn't help Bravo team. Didn't protect them from the that suicide bomber disguised in one of their uniforms. But those rails saved him though, only him. Yes those regulations they drilled into Jim until he began to weep protected him, but not his eyes. In an instant, Jim went from a 20/20 to a 20/200 in three seconds. His regiment got the worst of the blast. In a way, and this is what knotted his stomach, Jim was glad he was behind his team during the blast. Thankful that the shrapnel that had ripped through his teammates had only punctured his eyes so he was spared from witnessing blood and chunks of flesh flying at him. He could feel the blast though. Oh yes, he still drifted back to being thrown against the Humvee and his uniform coated with blood. His camouflage mixing with the blood, dying his uniform to a disgusting reddish orange. The smell of smoke mixed with wet iron. He drifted back to Lashkar Ga every night for the last month and a half. He filled his days in the hospital with multiple showers to wash off that imaginary gore. Some nights he would wake in a cold sweat and bolt out of bed. He would stumble his way to the shower in his room. If he fell, he would crawl as he bruised his hands and knees trying to find the threshold to the bathroom. Jim would spend the rest of the night with the shower on, sometimes with his clothes, sometimes without. The nurse would find him soaked in a fetal position the next day in a fetal position. His clothes transparent and hugging his skin as the ice-cold water pelted his body. The nurse would attempt to rouse him from his slumber which would cause him to jolt awake screaming. Sometimes he would lash out at the personnel and have to be restrained but the conclusion was always the same. He would carried by orderlies if he was aggressive, to the bed as he bawled his eyes like a lost child. A lost child. That was what he felt like for the past six weeks. Lost in a world of darkness. But his mind was a different case. That last screen of his friends disappearing into a fire ball the size of an SUV engrained into his eyes before they went dark. On some really bad nights, he could see their faces. Some of them had enough time to allow shock to spread on their faces, some caught between fright and confusion. But the worst were the dreams when they were smiling at him as the fireball grew in leaps and bounds. Bravo team had become Jim's family, his brotherhood. They were the fraternity he had always dreamed of joining when he went to college. That was the plan for Jim. Learn what he could, enjoy the friendship, and enjoy the friendship he missed out in Columbus High. In an instant, that hope was taken from him by a man with C-4 strapped to his groin. And that loss was burnt into his eyes.
Jim was shaken from his musings by the doctor's baritone voice.
"How are you feeling today private?"
"Fine." Jim answered.
It was a lie and they both knew it. Jim heard a sigh that accompanied Dr. Wendell whenever he was frustrated. The two of them had played this game since Jim had been admitted into Dr. Wendell's hospital.

No luck

So far no luck in finding a game to hold me over until the Elder Scrolls Online. I tried GTA4 and was bored out of my mind. Honestly, I felt dirty. Like I was wading in a pool of stagnate water. I'll give the game one more chance tomorrow or it's going bye bye. Impress me Rockstar, you have yet to do that with your gamecube graphics.

Dream project: RTF

I'm finally working on the project I've been thinking about for nearly...oh about 5 years. I've had this project on my mind since college first started. RTF, I'm not going to tell you the title so you can steal it, has been a cornerstone in my life. What's great about the paper I'm writing is that it helps to really nail down some key parts like character names, locations, and what I really want out of a game like this. I want this to be my masterpiece, my Lord of the Rings, my Dark Tower, my Discworld, my Cthulhu Mythos! The problem is that I don't know if I'm mature enough or ready to make the story. How should I put this? I realize that there is merit in being experienced enough to write something at the magnitude that I want but I also know that the...inexperience of a writer can be a benefit as well. I look at how Stephen King's work, which I still enjoy, has degraded to a point. Maybe "degraded" isn't the right word. Stephen King seems to be leaning away from the supernatural rawness that I enjoyed in his earlier works like "Pet Semetary" and it doesn't strike the usual terror in me. I think he may be so used to the process that he may have lost some of his mojo, so to speak. That's not to say that he's totally lost it, "N." was a fantastic short story. I've heard that every writer has only one story but they tell it several different ways. I can see that to a certain extent, at least I can see the connections between their stories. I want my story to wow people, to offer a new (or just my own, I'm sure someone has already said what I have to say in some format) point of perspective. I hope to figure this out soon. Actually, this is why the story I made for the game is actually a prequel. The story that's been with me is not the story in my game. But I think that I can use this as practice, and as a training level/flash back episode. I can make a game out of this or a story, kind of reminds me of how the Halo universe has games and books. And games based off of books!