Open World Comfort.

Open world games are my preferred means of gaming escapism. There’s nothing as riveting as a fully explorable environment, that can be interacted with at your leisure, without your personal liberation’s being negated by the restrictions of being ordained as the world’s obligatory saviour. Running errands that supplement my deficient finances and my proficiency in stealing anything that isn’t nailed down. Commodities that can be sold off for a modest price, to merchants with a curious business strategy of trading my worthless goods for coin, with an exchange rate that would cripple most businesses that seek to make profit. Refining my wanting aptitude for combat, as I engage with a low level enemy, thrusting my blunted sword into its knees repeatedly, forgetting all of the advice listed in the tutorial, that would have allowed me to dispatched this enemy in half the time.

Ever since I discovered the premise of an open world game as a kid, I’ve been fascinated by the conceit. Though the pervasive intrusion of senility obscures much of my formative recollections of playing my first open world title – though it was probably Pokemon Yellow – I do know that it was GTA: Vice City that I played most. Navigating those drug trafficked, money laundering, pedestrian splattered streets, as I profligate capitalism is as fresh to me now as it was 20 years ago. Replete in all the nostalgic whimsy that allows what is a rather conservative sized city, to evoke an inflated recollection of its diversity in my mind. Despite it’s age and subsequent progression of the series since, it’s devilishly stylised setting and enduring soundtrack makes Vice City as anarchic as any of its follow ups. Though its concerning how much better I am at traversing a fictional city, than I am my own!

Every open world offers something different. GTA depicts an ambience with a more sardonic tone, volatile environment and fluent personal autonomy than say the limited, carefully sanitised lands in the Pokemon series. Some games have a vast and diverse ecology, with an expansive mythology and disputed lore that can be theorised independent from the game. Much like Skyrim. A game that revels in the deviations of player prerogative. And that also still amuses me with the cavalier patrols, that regard the sudden death of one of their own with such indifference. With the exalted virulence of the wind being an amusing stooge for my veiled assassinations. And yet despite the comparative themes, comprehensive mythology and similar setting, Skyrim is a completely different experience to another Fantasy dominant game in the Witcher 3.

But that’s the beauty of them really – the uniqueness. Some have better combat. A more engaging story. But if the environment is rich and compelling, many of these other elements that are necessary for the majority of linear standard experiences, are kind of perfunctory.

An Inherent Vice….City

Decisions, decisions. What does one do when faced with a such a privileged, consumerist predicament? Such as purchasing a remake smeared in perfunctory veneer that gives the impression of something refined, but ultimately winds up looking like someone has fired Homer Simpsons makeup gun at it? The remastered GTA trilogy couldn’t be more nostalgic for me if it came packaged with Power Rangers and Turkey Twizzlers. Nostalgia is an absurd affliction really. One that manifests as a powerful recollection of memories that can also contort those lucid, biased evocations. Like convincing you that the Chuckle Brothers were funny. When it comes to Vice City, a game that fully capitalises on that nostalgia, I’m not sure an updated version can live up to such wistful standards.

My appreciation for Vice City was somewhat tarnished when I attempted to play and subsequently rekindle some of that fading nostalgic whimsy a couple of years ago. With the antiquated controls being a harsh reminder of the game’s ageing mechanics. Not that the targeting system was anything methodical in the first place, but coalesced with the PS2 graphics and character’s awkwardly gesturing their hostile intent with boxing glove hands, does diminish the spectacle of a crime drama somewhat. But the setting, tone and character’s were as endearing as I remembered. So, if the new trilogy collection can renovate these deteriorating facets, which looks unlikely judging by what I’ve seen, while retaining the same vibe and aesthetic of the original, as well as populating the barren City with a few more low rendered pedestrians, then this might be an cash-grab remaster worth investing in. With the one notable caveat: the retention of the music.

My biggest concern is that licensing for the various 80’s tunes has lapsed, thus compromising the diverse, quintessential tracks that gave Vice City its arresting ambience. The soundtrack was such a salient representation for establishing the games tone, that if Rockstar is unable to retain the licensing I just don’t think the game can replicate that sense of nostalgic catharsis adequately without it. Even a condensed playlist would jeopardise the whimsy.

Chances are, if you never played the original game, you aren’t going to be bothered by a few, if notable omissions. But for those of us that experienced this, probably at an age you shouldn’t, I think any alteration to that original soundtrack is going to severely undermine your sentimentality.

That Time I Stopped Playing Computer Games.

Finding time to engage with games with the same habitual servitude you nurtured as a bored, obnoxiously lazy teenager is somewhat mitigated by other discernible less interesting necessities as you get older. Such as work, social engagements or, you know, your children! The pursuit for a sustained period of quality gaming becomes not just a challenge but can for many prove to be inextricably harried by the retinue of interferences that come with being a responsible adult. Managing your finances, paying bills or working overtime certainly isn’t the engaging, fun adult alternative to your “TV game thing”, but a priority we endure to benefit our lives and family. As prevalent as you’d like it to be, at times computer games can sometimes feel like an extraneous waste of valuable resources as well as time.

I’ve previously alluded to the importance of gaming in my life on several, elongated occasions, highlighting the comfort I receive from engaging with them even for brief sporadic periods. But there was a time in my life when I thought I had outgrown this wearisome extremity of juvenility. That employment was somehow an end to such childish associations. “Silly rabbit, games are for kids.”

I was in my late teens, working a 9-5 job Monday to Friday, squandering every penny regularly with evenings down my local pub with friends drinking, playing pool and courting fair young maidens. By which I mean bombarding them with innate chat, vomiting flattery all of them with all the charm of a dozing blob fish, and in some cases just vomiting. The majority of our time was dedicated to having a good time and hopefully in the process attracting female company. Now someone of my introverted disposition found the latter very difficult to achieve without the stimulating assistance of the former, which as you can imagine has variable degrees of failure. Now my intentions were always noble. There was no salacious intent of my part to merely engage in sexual pursuits with women I barely knew to flaunt some arcane perception of masculinity. That my virility was somehow indicative of the number of women I’ve slept with. I was genuinely trying to find a partner that I could eventually settle down with. And I was vindicated in this pursuit when I met my current partner some 11 years ago now. But because so much of my time as well as finances were occupied by socializing, gaming became superfluous.

“One of the many games that got me back into gaming”.

When I did find reasonable time to absorb myself back into games, I found that I just couldn’t engage with them with the same enthusiasm I used too. Rpg’s that I would have devoted entire weekends too, that ostensibly necessitated a prolonged engagement didn’t generate the same persuasive captivation that had once consumed my life. I figured this was just one of those things that happens, a necessary step in maturity that afflicts us all. And for a good year or so I didn’t really play anything. That is until I purchased a PS3.

I had accumulated a reasonable sum of money working overtime and spending less time, and by extension money on going out, favouring nights in watching movies with my girlfriend. Educating her on the glaring movie omissions in her life such as “Back To The Future” , “Jaws” and “Raiders Of The Lost Ark.” So I took the plunge into the rapids of the PS3 merely out of curiosity, which happened to be conveniently boxed with GTA IV, a series staple back when I was a kid.

“Sometimes safe and familiar is a good thing!”

It’s fair to say that I wasn’t entirely blown away by it. The sardonic humour was absent, replaced instead by an obnoxious cousin with all the charisma of an attention seeking mollusc. The satirical depiction of modern culture felt bereft of any significant charm. Liberty City itself was a bland, colourless vicinity that utilised 50 shades of Grey before it became synonymous with a more salacious connotations. And the overall vibe of the game just felt sterile and really rather cold. If it hadn’t been for the fact that I had spent so much on the PS3 I probably would have given up on games once again. Thankfully the saving grace of “Ratchet & Clank: Tools Of Destruction” saved me from premature resignation.

Though not my favourite in the series, it did provoke enough familiarity with the series I’d known to remind me why I used to love playing games so much; for the fun. That was it, the catalyst, the end of my abstinence. I was hooked again! It wasn’t long until my collection of PS3 games expanded. Whether it was sequels to firmly established franchises like “Devil May Cry” or “Resident Evil.” Unfamiliar games like “Uncharted”, “Elder Scrolls: Oblivion” or “Red Dead Redemption.” Everything felt fresh, exciting and fun. It was comparable to meeting up with a friend you haven’t seen since school and immediately bonding as if you hadn’t since them since Science class that morning.

Now my relationship with games is far more amicable. I’m neither absent nor consumed with sating a 10 hour marathon run on Skyrim. The Nintendo Switch certainly enables me to continue gaming in a far more efficient manner and the PS4 is as always the favoured nocturnal activity. As a result of both age and circumstances I’m still a gamer, able to talk (write) for hours about even the most trivial of gaming culture, but still productive enough outside of that culture to work exceedingly long hours and spend precious free time with my daughter and girlfriend.

Perhaps I have matured……a little.

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Have you ever stopped gaming for an extended period? If so what, if anything got you back into them? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.

The Crazy World Of GTA: San Andreas.

Due to a lack of available resources and creative dissonance I felt a influencing compulsion to indulge in some powerful nostalgic proclivities. Now I just have to decide what? Well PS Store has a fine selection of classic PS2 titles remastered with high definition ratio to satisfy my current nostalgic mood. Ah, GTA: San Andreas; the memories, the glory, the feels. One of the most supporting advocates for adolescent indolence. Many an hour/day/week/month were exclusively dedicated to inciting racially motivated violence in suburbs where you couldn’t even trust your own adoptive family. Gorging myself on fast food, just to watch in fascination as my ever expanding stomach swelled so much that it prompted a very graphic expulsion of half digested food and stomach lining to project from my mouth. Occasionally assisting the hood with any number of vacillating errands that only I was adequately qualified to deal with, apparently! And of course engaging in amorous vehicular trysts with women who’d satisfy your carnal desires by writhing up and down on the passenger chair while you both stare blankly out of the window. So it’s no wonder I feel vindicated in popping their pixilated heads under my newly appropriated car. Yes reminiscing about such churlish endeavours is enough to provoke any man-child into purchasing a classic game, at only a fraction of its original retail price. Yet its funny the details your deceptively scrupulous mind can invariably be when you recollect something you regard with such profound affection. How it chooses to discriminate against the faults, yet preserves the good with such diligence. Because I forgot just how hilariously glitchy this game truly was. Not in a bad, this game doesn’t work kind of way, but more of a “how did this ever make it through product testing” kind. So for your viewing discomfort is a series of failures perpetrated by the developers as well as myself. Particular an incident with a rather cumbersome combine harvester which actually gathers momentum quicker when upside-down. Enjoy.

Why GTA’s Controversy Makes It So Alluring.

The most significant allure of gaming has always been escapism. The ability to manifest vicariously in a rudimentary world without the repressive boundaries of law and regulations. These are the required extremities of reality that enables humanity to sustain a semblance of moral equanimity, providing a safe moderated environment for communities to feel secure. For most of us committing a felony, however trivial are notions we wouldn’t dare consider in the real world. We are aware of our limitations in a civilised society and are dependent on the continued complicity of these rules to enforce stability. Which is why the absence of such measures provokes such shock, particularly when the circumstances are so unspeakably loathsome. Unfortunately the same outrage is often erroneously remonstrated against some inherently violent games, with a similar resentment applied to “Grand Theft Auto”. This particular series is in no way exclusively affiliated with media controversy, as many games that depict any kind of salacious content are adjudged as a corruptible influence on encouragable youths, which is like blaming performance enhancing drugs rather than Lance Armstrong for cheating. If someone crashes their car because they were speeding you blame the individual, not the vehicle for enabling them to drive so dangerously?! You can’t plead innocence when it was an entirely intentional decision, especially one bred from your own selfish volition. Call of Duty has been reproached for glorifying modern conflicts and war in general. Manhunt apparently encouraged a teenager to murder his friend, seemingly at the behest of an inanimate object. But there’s something more sensationalised about detailing the harmful influence an inert product has on an a kid, than the explicit behavioural deficiencies of one unstable individual that shouldn’t have been playing the game in the first place.
Gaming appears to ignite a very singular ignorance, with the media littered with heinous instances perpetrated by individuals with questionable psychological standings. Generating political interventions into matters that they don’t really understand. You then have inconclusive studies that suggest that these violent computer games “might” permanently afflict the fragile mind of a youth, but probably not. It’s hard to determine for certain that it doesn’t contribute at all, but when an incident does occur that can be attributed to a game, movie or television show – however tenuous the connection – it’s so highly publicised because of its unique severity that to me it’s blown out of all proportion. But any erstwhile censorship that is then applied to such content in an effort to regulate the distribution to under age consumers, only makes such games more enticing.

 

 

“Now why would anyone have a problem with throttling a pensioner? Just decreasing the surplus population! “

I purchased my first ever copy of GTA from a rather dubious retailer, that sadly went insolvent around 15 years ago. I was probably 11 or 12 years old at the time, when disclaimers and 18 certifications on a game were somewhat of an advisory stipulation rather than a law that you had to abide by. It was the original, top down view for the PS1 and I loved it. Played it for days. Not because it was violent or destructive, but because there was a free flowing environment for me to interact with, either positively or negatively. I was playing this series totally oblivious to the controversy surrounding it. Even at a young age I wasn’t concerned with the violence because I could discern between what was real or make believe. Here was a game that relished in exerting freedom, creating an affluent depiction of crime and rewarding mischievous behaviour. You could be considerate to pedestrians lives or callously run them down with a chuckle, before being pursued by cops that shoot first and read you your rights while you lie in a pool of your own excrement. Sure games are dictated by their own maniacal rules, the dutiful caveats of virtual reality like invisible walls, but rarely is that due to litigation or the enforcement of the law. Personally I don’t relish killing innocents or necessarily condone the reprehensible acts that you are encouraged to perpetrate in order to survive, but that’s kind of the point. GTA has always enforced a world without limitations, where you decide just how bad you can be. There’s something so effusive about severing the directorial shackles of mundane life that bounds us. To be uninhibited by the strict regulations of reality and embrace a skewed adherence to the formalities of perceived reality and just go a little bonkers.

 

“Despite its age and cumbersome controls, Vice City remains my favourite in the GTA series.”

The so called controversy so often affiliated with games like this just makes them more alluring. And I mean how violent is it really? I’d argue that Super Mario is an inherently violent game, encouraging children to stamp on defenceless animals and rescue women from castles who are no more than plot devices?! The Goombas don’t even have any arms to defend themselves! And if someone decided to start imitating that, by jumping on the heads of old men at bus stop you’d say that they were one stick short of a bundle. What’s the point of playing GTA if you can’t indulge in your subverted sociopathic inclinations? If you are that concerned with moralising artificial deaths then a world where Donald Trump can be elected President must terrify you (it does me too). I think anything that encourages cognitive and creative versatility can only be therapeutic for the mind. It’s cathartic to exercise the freedom to act out scenarios you couldn’t – and wouldn’t in reality and revoke the confines of social civility. To act without sustained retaliation and inhabit an alluring persona you would never want to be for more than a fleeting period. Some would call this unhealthy or even dangerous, a negative conciliation of exposed brutality that amalgamates into an encouraged hostility towards others, outside the confines of a fictional world. I call it fun. Nurturing that slightly anarchic inclination that is a rooted psychology buried deep below the surface in all of us.
The visceral intensity is one partial factor that attracts me to games like GTA. Shattering the conventions of normality by letting you be as good or as naughty as you choose, allowing any pent up frustrations to release gradually in an environment that doesn’t hurt anyone. But I also tend to gravitate towards games with robust environments. A fully interactive world that can be traversed and explored at my leisure. That to me represents the fundamental principles of a perfect game. Investing hours of time dedicated to exploration is rather time consuming, so rather than confining myself to one arbitrary errand I’d like to just takes some time out, explore, and perhaps run down a few hookers. And an open world game provides me with a versatile platform to engage in those primal instincts that have been dulled by the arbitrary exploits of my boring day at work. I can understand, for the uninitiated that is, how being confronted with public victimisation of the citizens, depicted so blatantly in GTA may seem horrifying, especially when flaunted as a viable alternative for entertainment. The violence could be considered gratuitous or even vile, if it were real. But it isn’t. It’s a work of fiction, like a book or film that depicts similar fictitious scenarios. And it’s GTA’s rueful attitude towards controversy that has allowed it to maintain its popularity, despite its contentious place in modern culture. If you’re discerning with genres or applying limitations then that just seems like compromise rather than expression.

For all of its scrutiny, its harsh satirical themes and graphic tones, GTA continues to be a rewarding series with more heart and soul than many AAA games on the market. Long may its explicit violence, abundance of (somehow?) concealed weaponry, reckless driving, diverse range of playable characters and, above all, vehicular thievery continue.

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What is your favourite GTA game? Let me know in the comments below. Cheers.