I don't understand all the hate. I can't wait for this GTA
I'm a dad gamer. Been playing games since the 80s. My first console was the Atari 2600. I've been around the digital block. For me GTA was when games grew up. The earlier games, running over hari-krishnas etc, yeah, they started off being all about transgression and taking risks but as the franchise grew the writers grew with it, and as a young man into literature, particularly with San Andreas and then into later installments, I felt like here was finally a game that was saying interesting things about contemporary life. GTA 4 and 5 can be called derivative, because every character arc and plot point could be seen already having being done in some movie or book (they are best enjoyed as comic satire imo), but all of it, the scale, when you think of the amount of work, the amount of human effort to put it all together, it's like being able to walk around inside a novel the way you can step into in a cathedral. The depth and scope of that, of trying to capture everything about modern American life and say something about it, was for me what made it art. The little things. The empty feeling of a fast food outlet at four in the morning. The feeling of a sunset enjoyed in the wilderness. One of my favourite feelings in GTA 4 was traveling through the city in a taxi cab in the rain, looking out the window. I personally cannot wait to see where they've taken things this time. And yeah 80 seems like a lot, but it's a gigantic project. And I can't wait to experience it.