SPLICED GAMING /
ISSUE 01
REVIEW / GTA V
the first things I did upon starting the game was
break into the Los Santos airport to steal a plane
and just fly around the map. It took almost an hour
(in real time) to do so. I gawked at the beauty, the
changing weather, the sunsets, the cityscapes, it
was breathtaking.
This is not to say that the game is without its
issues however. I may come off prudish here, but
ot only is playing as the
I found the rather blatant sex scenes scattered
three characters an entirely
throughout the games somewhat off-putting.
unique experience from each
The GTA series has always been renowned for
perspective, but being able to
swap at any given time (except
its sexual humour, hooking up with prostitutes
on solo missions for obvious reasons) allows you
and so on, but it was always done with contextual
to spend as much time as you like causing chaos,
style and wit. This just feels like: LOOK SEX IT'S
swearing at stock brokers or even hallucinating
SO HARDCORE WHOA! This is also the first
with hilarious results. Even more impressive is
time I've actually seen an exposed penis in a game,
that each character is as fun to play as the other,
so fair's fair, and while the sex is in-your-face, it’s
from straight-laced dreamer Franklin to fat,
also pretty vapid in a sense, because it's always
therapy-abusing former bank robber Mike to the
prefaced by amusing situations or commentaries,
psychotic, sociopath, redneck Trevor, each has
or ruined by circumstance. It does however
their own entrancing story that weaves across the
feel pretty misogynistic because it's always the
other characters timelines so flawlessly that you
woman that's made out to look dirty. In fact, the
barely even notice the transitions.
female NPC's in the game just seem to be there
That's actually what gets me... Everything
to be annoying, disloyal, decorative or damsels in
about GTA V is big, from the map (which is 5
distress, which is decidedly old-fashioned for a
game that's so progressive in so many other ways.
times bigger than Rockstar's cowboy epic Red
There's a particular scene in the game that
Dead Redemption) to the violence, to the story
many gamers and critics have found completely
itself; the sprawl that is the fictional state of San
unnecessary and particularly off-putting, and
Andreas is simply mind-blowing in scale. One of
without giving away massive spoilers, it cannot
be skipped and will more than likely leaving
you feeling at least a little sick
GTA V is the first game of its franchise to afterwards. You'll need to make a
judgement call on this yourself, but
feature animals. In fact, Franklin's adoptive
you are left with the distinct feeling
pet Rottweiler Chop can be downloaded onto
that this was not strictly necessary.
your smart phone and walked, bathed and
N
played with like an old-school Tamagotchi
which actually affects his in-game behaviour.
Very nice! How much?
90