Thoughts On GTA V

I’m soooo looking forward to GTA VI which should (hopefully) come out next year. I’ve always been a fan of the Grand Theft Auto series. GTA V has been an absolute blast and my favorite, by far. San Andreas a far second. I never played the entire game all the way through up until a few days ago.

There were some missions that seemed impossible and that I had to skip. Though, I might go back and replay them to see if I can do better. However the one with Michael having to try to save his son on the boat is damn near impossible since you have to drive and shoot which I could never do well. Other hard missions were the Strangers & Freaks with Mary-Ann. The other one that was difficult was when Trevor had to ride a bike on the train. The mission on the dock I also had to skip since the snipper controls are different and I didn’t realize you had to hold in a button in order to zoom. They should really have one set of controls so you always know what to do.

Anyway, after beating the game it’s pretty cool as Dr. Friedlander gives you some notes. Here were mine:

Some thoughts about these notes:

• I did try to help people when a random event popped up. But most of the time I would have to kill them for the simple act of stealing someone’s purse or wallet. I don’t believe in capital punishment to begin with; much less for a stupid offense like some burglary. There’s no way to like just shoot the person in the leg then they drop the wallet.
• I got Michael laid a lot after his wife cheats on him. And when she and the kids left, he was going to prostitutes every night. So that’s where “voyeuristic” and “feels need to buy sex” comes from. The first time I played GTA V I had Michael be faithful and Trevor and Franklin get the sex… this time it was the opposite. I didn’t want Michael to get back with his wife, honestly. He was more free spirited this time around.
• I’m not sure about the “prone to random outbursts of violence” comes from since that would definitely be Trevor 100% but not the way I played him. Trevor when I played him this time around was an honest, nice guy. He loves Patricia… I liked that relationship. I still have him call her. He liked having sex with the realtor’s wife. And it isn’t my fault that I have to play the Rage missions with Trevor. I suck at them anyway.
• “Keeps the car stealing to a minimum” was me this time. Whenever I played GTA before I would carjack every time. This time I stole vehicles when they weren’t occupied. And I actively looked for my car around when switching. I was thinking about the trauma a carjacking would be to the victim. Much better to just come out of your house or restaurant and find your car missing.
• I tried to pick up and help the random events. While Trevor, if the dude seemed creepy or the one with the dude cheating on his wife, I took them to the cult. Other than that, I did pick them up and help them. I’m kind of disappointed I must have played the one hitchhiker wrong since she could become a girlfriend or at least a “lay.” The other random one was Trevor picking up another criminal which became a contact but I never saw her come up when choosing people for missions.
• I totally dig the “avoids strenuous exercise” because that’s totally me anyway. In the missions I preferred to do the easier way instead of guns-a-blazin.
• This time I collected all the space ship parts and all the letter scraps. It was a lot of fun finding out where they were and getting them. Thanks to the IGN website with the map! Good luck trying to collect everything without it. It would take you a lifetime. And I love the switching between characters cause it was so easy to get into a weird place, get the piece, then switch to another character without going through the work of getting yourself out of it.
• I think everyone probably has “maniac” and “mister.” Honestly, is it realistic to play this game without doing that? And I always restarted the game if I was on my way to somewhere and accidently killed someone while driving. I hated having innocent blood on my hands. Now, when on a mission, all bets are off. Sorry a lot of people (and cops) get killed that way. You just have to.

I’m still going to play around more with GTA V. I’m not on GTA Online nor do I really want to try it. My cousin says it can get really difficult since you’re playing with other people and I know I’m not the best player… I’m actually surprised I was able to beat the game since I hadn’t played video games hardcore since I was a kid and the last time I played anything was GTA V the first time I played it when it first came out like 10 years ago.

I might buy San Andreas and play it again. I’m surprised I was able to finish V so quickly, honestly. I thought it would have taken me at least a few months… I guess that’s the luxury of being retired so I can spend more time on it than just an hour or two every other night :)