Like every other white male aged 18-36, I've been playing GTA V since it first came out. I showed up to the midnight launch at 11:30, and proceeded to wait a hour-and-a-half to get the game. The collection of people who's company I was forced to keep made me question the decisions I've made in life. A few feet in front of me was one of those guys who are constantly puffing away on their e-cigarettes, which ironically is something they make fun of endlessly in the game through joke advertisements. There were people who apparently had been waiting since 4:30 p.m. until midnight for the game. Still, they would mock everyone else in the line as they left with their purchases, saying how we'd have to wait forever to get ours. Some quick math indicates that the people there first were factually waiting half-a-day, while the people there last were waiting about an hour or so to get the same thing. Still, I considered robbing them. I mean the parking lot outside is pitch black, and I've got like forty-pounds on these kids easy. It would have been in the spirit of the game.
What really blew me away about the game isn't necessarily the scope of it, or the graphics, or even the ability to play as three different people and switch seamlessly between them across an entire city. It was that they changed their clothes on their own. If you leave them alone, and play as another one of the three characters, and come back, they will be in a different part of the city than you may have left them, and they might have changed their outfit on their own. It's like they don't even need you to be playing the game, they're so independent.
The next thing I noticed was how hard it is to make a buck. I've done about 36% of the game and pulled off two major heists, and my characters are broke. They're constantly doing missions, and they don't have enough between them to buy a goddamn thing. I tried picking up a hooker exactly once, and the game told me I didn't have enough money. For a hooker. That's the saddest thing I've ever seen in a game. That's sadder even than when Aeris died. Does that ever happen in real life? Do dudes drive up to prositutes and comparative shop to get the best deal on a BJ? Who haggles with a whore? How many johns turn down hookers because of their cost? Who is that sadder for when the john drives off? The hooker, or the john?
As a spoiler, Johnny from the Lost and Damned expansion gets killed off unceremoniously in a cutscene.The dude probably has killed more guys than all three characters in GTA V combined, but he gets killed in a beatdown. There's a lot of callbacks from GTA IV, like Packie. Laslo, Lovefist, and Fernando from multiple games are in there too.
What I really like is how each of the three characters feel different. Sure, they all have the same basic stats you can level out, but they have different lives and types of missions. Michael's the 80's guy having a breakdown. losing his family and dealing with tough choices.Frankie's the rookie street hustler. Trevor's the psychopathic hillbilly meth dealer who grew up in Canada. There's more bromance than romance in this game.
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