GTA - Playing by the rules.

Grand Theft Auto 4 has taken up a large part of my time since I received it on my birthday. Joe and Vicki chose well. As most people are well aware, it is a hilarious, immersing game made all that much better by the sheer expanse and length that it touts.



In our household, if one of us wants to inform the others that we are going to go play GTA 4 for a while, we simply say "I'm going to go kill hookers." This usually makes me chuckle, partially because it is quite funny to hear Vicki say, but also because I have never actually sought out to kill hookers in the game.

This brings me to my main point. The game is a hoot to watch, as long as the person that you are watching is willing to just mess around and smash into everything. The stunts that you can pull off, and the things that the AI decides to do are things to behold. This type of play is enjoyable for a little while (about a week, for me), but it really doesn't get you anywhere. When actually going through the missions, we usually fall into a sort of compromised insanity, still willing to kill anyone who is in our way, but restrained significantly so as to remain hidden from the police.

The police let almost everything go without much more than a toot of their siren (which I believe is just a side effect of their attempt at honking their horn), so this means the player can still drive like a maniac.



I have found recently, that when playing alone, my game experience is significantly bettered if I add in my own set of rules on top of the loose ones built into the system. I still drive like a jackass, but I don't do anything obviously illegal, like driving on the sidewalk. It makes the game somewhat more boring to watch, but significantly more fun to play, in my opinion.

By adding in my own set of arbitrary rules, I am incrementing the game a little bit closer to real life. For example, I received a text message asking me to go find a car parked behind the old Burger Shot near the Huntington Street subway station. I decided to take the less direct way of finding the car, and hopped on the subway. It took awhile, but I found the right station and found the car behind the out-of-business Burger Shot. When I got there, a foot policeman was walking by. Normally, I could easily hijack the car and run the cop down, getting rid of my two stars shortly thereafter, but I decided to play along. Niko pretended to check his text messages while standing in front of the old store. The cop walked by slowly, telling Mr. Bellic that he should move along, and that he enjoys beating civilians. So that is exactly what I did. I put my phone away, and walked off around the corner. The cop passed, and I smashed the window of the car, got in, and pulled out into the street real nice and easy.



Yes, it sounds interminably boring, but I assure you, it was a ton of fun to actually role play in the RPG. The game has an extremely deep ecosystem, and smashing through it with a truck is only one way to see it. Obeying traffic laws can yield an entirely different experience, interesting and fun in its challenge. I recommend it heartily.

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