GTA V: my first playthrough in first person (CW for mentions of extreme violence)
I'm sure that some of you may have heard of a certain computer game franchise called Grand Theft Auto. If you haven't, then it's basically a series of games which allow you to commit wanton havoc in a city, such as stealing cars and driving down the road blowing up hapless civilians on their daily commute to work. Now, you might think a game series that allows you to essentially commit acts of domestic terrorism is going to be pretty controversial. You'd be right. The games have been considered inspirations for various people committing various crimes from auto theft to assault to murder, and so various media watchdogs have come out in favor of it being banned. However while the series as a whole is controversial, there are some games which have garnered controversy for specific things such as gameplay elements: for example, GTA IV (incidentally, not the fourth Grand Theft Auto game, but the fourth numbered one) gives the player the option of getting drunk with friends and then driving under the influence. The non-profit organization MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) were unimpressed with Rockstar Games' decision to implement this as a gameplay mechanic, since they felt it was inappropriate to glorify drink driving. I obviously agree that drink driving is a terrible thing to do, however I also recognise that there's a difference between doing so in real life and doing so in a game.
Also, I'd hardly say the game glorifies it. Whenever you are drunk in game, the camera wobbles all over the place and you can barely walk two feet down the road without falling over. If you get into a car while drunk your character will loudly say something to the effect of "wow I'm pissed, I probably shouldn't be driving". If you ignore this and start to actually drive, you will find yourself swerving all over the road and crashing the car more often than Jeremy Clarkson in a three wheeled van. And if you still continue to try driving even as you slam cars out of the way and bounce helpless old grannies off the bonnet, any police officers who see you will immediately start trying to arrest you. So you now have to escape the police while completely fucking shitfaced. And it's not like the driving controls are easy to master even when you haven't been downing shots all night.
Anyway, I went on a bit of a tangent there. I was late to the GTA franchise since I never played it growing up because, well it's an 18 rated franchise which allows you to (depending on the game) dismember people with chainsaws, blow people's heads off and have sex with prostitutes (and then if you're an evil bastard kill them and steal the money back... yeah, not really a fan of that). The first GTA I played was GTA V back when it was still new. A friend got it for a Christmas present, and since I'd just got my PS3 we decided to give it a shot. We didn't do much story other than the first couple of missions, we just drove around causing havoc for shits and giggles.
Since then I've played most of the games in the franchise with the exception of the original PlayStation titles because they're expensive and look pretty damn annoying to play. That being said, the one I've played the most is GTA V. I've beaten the story mode.... probably like nine or ten times since I bought it back in 2015. Most recently I got the Xbox One version since that had a bit more single player content and a lot more multiplayer content (even though I don't care much for the multiplayer). However what I was most interested in is the new first-person mode. I quite like games which let me drive in first person because it feels more real than seeing the car from behind. I'm approximately half of the way through the story mode, and... the driving is a hell of a lot harder. I'm constantly crashing the damn car, and the problem is that I can't really judge how wide the car is. What makes it really noticeable is that in the original third-person camera, I'm actually pretty good at driving. The hilarious thing is, in first person I'm actually a lot better at riding the motorbikes. In the original third-person, I always seemed to struggle a lot more with bikes, constantly smashing into cars and going flying. Here though? I'm dodging, weaving, and generally being pretty good. I guess I just need to ride more motorbikes in first-person. Pity the game doesn't typically give you the option though.
Also, I'd hardly say the game glorifies it. Whenever you are drunk in game, the camera wobbles all over the place and you can barely walk two feet down the road without falling over. If you get into a car while drunk your character will loudly say something to the effect of "wow I'm pissed, I probably shouldn't be driving". If you ignore this and start to actually drive, you will find yourself swerving all over the road and crashing the car more often than Jeremy Clarkson in a three wheeled van. And if you still continue to try driving even as you slam cars out of the way and bounce helpless old grannies off the bonnet, any police officers who see you will immediately start trying to arrest you. So you now have to escape the police while completely fucking shitfaced. And it's not like the driving controls are easy to master even when you haven't been downing shots all night.
Anyway, I went on a bit of a tangent there. I was late to the GTA franchise since I never played it growing up because, well it's an 18 rated franchise which allows you to (depending on the game) dismember people with chainsaws, blow people's heads off and have sex with prostitutes (and then if you're an evil bastard kill them and steal the money back... yeah, not really a fan of that). The first GTA I played was GTA V back when it was still new. A friend got it for a Christmas present, and since I'd just got my PS3 we decided to give it a shot. We didn't do much story other than the first couple of missions, we just drove around causing havoc for shits and giggles.
Since then I've played most of the games in the franchise with the exception of the original PlayStation titles because they're expensive and look pretty damn annoying to play. That being said, the one I've played the most is GTA V. I've beaten the story mode.... probably like nine or ten times since I bought it back in 2015. Most recently I got the Xbox One version since that had a bit more single player content and a lot more multiplayer content (even though I don't care much for the multiplayer). However what I was most interested in is the new first-person mode. I quite like games which let me drive in first person because it feels more real than seeing the car from behind. I'm approximately half of the way through the story mode, and... the driving is a hell of a lot harder. I'm constantly crashing the damn car, and the problem is that I can't really judge how wide the car is. What makes it really noticeable is that in the original third-person camera, I'm actually pretty good at driving. The hilarious thing is, in first person I'm actually a lot better at riding the motorbikes. In the original third-person, I always seemed to struggle a lot more with bikes, constantly smashing into cars and going flying. Here though? I'm dodging, weaving, and generally being pretty good. I guess I just need to ride more motorbikes in first-person. Pity the game doesn't typically give you the option though.