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DecemberGTA V's First-Person Mode is Pointless
It baffles me as to why Rockstar would even consider a first-person mode for GTA V. Perhaps it was the success of open-world shooters like Far Cry 3 that inspired them to do this, which is understandable. However, Far Cry 3 is a shooter. It’s built as a shooter and the shooting is a huge part of the game’s appeal. Sure, there’s exploration, but the action is Far Cry’s appeal by far. Grand Theft Auto V, for all its gritty action and violence, is not a shooter. Its action comes from something less primal and more intelligent. If anything, this first-person shooter setup does more to pander to the FPS crowd than to thoughtfully expand on what Grand Theft Auto has always been about.
Michael is a former bank robber who is retired. Now in his early 40s, Michael is currently in the witness protection program thanks to a deal with the FIB. He owns an expensive property complete with a private tennis court and pool but shares the house with a wife who seems to do nothing but fritter his money away; his plummeting bank balance is a major influence in his decision to return to a life of crime. He also has two teenage children named Tracy and Jimmy.
Aside from BioShock Infinite , we know Rockstar parent company Take-Two Interactive is looking for major revenue booster in 2013, and with Game Informer teasing Grand Theft Auto V as their December cover just hours ago, it might not be long before a return to Los Santos finds its way onto corporate and consumer calendars al
I completely agree with Houser's stance and wish more people in both the games industry and the animated film industry would understand this point. For years now, we have witnessed Hollywood lean on famous voice talent in order to more effectively market expensive animated films - a strategy which has been adopted by the games industry; Quantic Dream's Beyond: Two Souls , which stars Ellen Page of Juno and Inception fame, being one of the most current examples of this.
But saying that this dimension is "a game-changer" is overzealous. The first-person perspective in Grand Theft Auto V constantly evokes an aura of novelty. It doesn’t fit in. Grand Theft Auto V, and the Grand Theft Auto series in general, was never built for first-person. Many of the actions benefit from a more peripheral viewpoint, as you can attackers easier and see a nearby getaway vehicle without fiddling around with the camera too much. Firefights are not the focus of GTA, nor are the driving segments. Grand Theft Auto’s appeal has always been the open-world. Moving around a city, launching off a ramp, shooting enemies, and making a clean getaway are not that valuable on their own, but the cohesion between these elements is what make GTA into what it is. The first-person perspective disjoints that synergy; it frames the firefights and vehicles as the most core elements, when they’ve only been pieces of a bigger puzzle.
I think it was really useful on the PS2-ear games for bringing these somewhat simplistic characters to life. But when we went to PS3 and 360 I think it would become a distraction if you were like, 'Well that's a famous person.' Suddenly these characters start to feel like they were alive a lot more and you need that to sell them. As long as you have good actors, not knowing them actually is an advantage in terms of bringing the game to life. I can't see us moving past that for major parts in the game.
The content of these games shouldn't matter. The greater principle at stake here is the idea that people should be free to express their ideas, a value clearly held dearly by movie-goers but not so much by the gaming community. Society has spoken about movies: we want any film, regardless of how controversial the subject matter, to be available to the public in an exercise of our right to free speech and ideal of free expression. The question remains when, if ever, will society feel the same way about video games?
Moving on to GTA V's setting - it's big. Actually, big is a completely insufficient word to describe Rockstar's new and improved Los Santos. Art Director, Aaron Garbut, explains that "When you include interior and exterior spaces together, Los Santos is bigger than the worlds of Red Dead Redemption , San Andreas and gta 5 news|https://gta5play.com/ IV combined, with room to spare." That statement boggles the mind. However impressive that fact may be, we can only hope that Rockstar isn't merely aiming for quantity, with GTA V .
Tweets about Hatred are much more skewed, and conversation about GTA V, much discussed in the video game press, seems to paint a two-sided issues. Defense of Target's decision as not censorship and a positive step toward equality were just as rampant, if not more so, than concerns over the kind of precedent their move set. Consider this, if it's not censorship for Target to pull the game, what if all retailers pulled the game? It's well within their rights, but it would achieve the exact same effect as a blatant censorship did. Thus, a de facto censorship - a universal lack of availability that's not necessarily enforced by law.