I found GTA IV still a little cartoonish to make me regret occasional bouts of homicidal lunacy; running down pedestrians in my Land Cruiser or battering some poor sod to death with a baseball bat was just too much fun, and I think the more 'realistic' physics and tone of the game in some way actually, kinda, worryingly, contributed to that. Ironically however, I think that's a good sign for the game, if those 'activities' weren't fun, the game wouldn't be as good as it is.
The gravity in the game was gained more from the characters and their storylines than the faceless, nameless, characterless human ten pins that littered the streets of Liberty City. I cared what happened to Niko, as I cared what happened to Roman too, or actually almost any other character that R* decided to establish and then, through their writing and cinematic flair, embellish. The average citizen was there just to be part of the backdrop, like the walls that flake and the windows that smash when bullets blaze in and through them the people who wandered around were there to add nothing more than a bit of colour to the real story.
When that changes, when these sprites are given some meaning (where do they live, where are they walking to, where is their family/friends, what is their job and where is their office), then, maybe, I'll feel a little bad about putting them down with a swift swing of my bat. Until then, they're still effectively holographic ghosts, walking from nowhere, to nowhere, only to disappear as soon as Niko turns in the opposite direction and speeds off, as innocent civilians are mowed over during their endless, pointless trek.
Journey however, now, that was a game that made me care. I never left my companion, and always tried to help.
Pretty sickening how people reacted to be honest, though I think a majority of people have been able to make a reasoned and logical response to this. From a personal point of view though, as I've gone through approx. 20 years of gaming the importance of gameplay has taken a secondary role to narrative, the gameplay can be addictive, but if I'm not invested in the story/characters or a goal greater than 'enjoy the immediacy of this action' I inevitably stop caring about the game as a whole. That said though, it's been time since I cared about the story in a game, most are poor shadows of movies/novels that I have access to. I think that'll change though, the industry's going through an interesting time.
Problem is, even when they do tell me something good i don't trust what they say, and why should i? Everything they seeminly touted about the PS3 and what it would do for me was pretty much hoopla, they've comitted the cardinal sin to devoted and hardcore gamers; lied and treated them like second rate customers. Perhaps they'll learn from this, but they shouldn't have had to in the first place.
hoppie's comments