Well, that was uncomfortable *spoilers*

@yummylee: Yeah, I figured it was gas too, but I had no reason not to try all of them once, because I'm a cold, heartless monster, based on the responses of most other people to this scene. I did that one last, I should say. I did the pliers first, because (for whatever reason) I thought he was going to pull a fingernail off. Then wrench (blow to the knee, no testicular attack), electricity, and finally waterboarding.

Even if this was more personal than all the wanton rampage and destruction that happens during the course of the game, I still think killing is worse than torturing, so long as the person is left in a condition where he'll (mostly) recover.

Now that I think about it, if you really didn't want to hurt the guy, you'd be best off waterboarding every time, because then he'd still have all his teeth and no broken limbs. Maybe some electricity too... I'll have to remember this...For, eh, purely...No, I can't make a joke about it. Well, I can, but I won't. Even though RockStar did (and I was one of the few people to "get" it).

I didn't find it that bad. Pretty gruesome but no more so than any of the other shit this game has you commit. It's just depicted in a more up-close and personal manner. Had me wincing a bit but I find it weird that everyone's losing their shit over the sequence to the extent that they seem to be. Maybe I've just watched too many horror films or something.

I'm honestly surprised it only happened once. After all, the introduction of Trevor shows him basically sodomizing a girl so she can have her drugs then threatening to rape her boyfriend - then killing him instead.

Trevor is the embodiment of every "anti-hero" in western cinema doing the absolute worst shit possible and somehow getting away with it. The torture sequence, considering so much of the other things Trevor does and says, is low hanging fruit. And if I recall correctly, GTA IV also had a torture sequence based on a scene from Boondock Saints (although I could be wrong about that, been a while); Red Dead Redemption also had some pretty fucked up stuff, especially violence against women.

Rockstar doesn't pull any punches with stuff like this and I think GTA IV, Red Dead Redemption, and GTA V are all the better for it.

I have also watched many a movie that is filled with some nastiness. I sat through fucking Martyrsfor one thing, and many other such 'extreme cinema' sorta flicks. But it's all about the teeth... for whatever reason the empathy part of my brain begins lighting up whenever teeth are involved. Even if the guy's a total scumbag who probably deserves it--from a karmic standpoint anywhoo--like with the curb stomp scenes in American History X and The Sopranos.

@oginam: so having sex with a girl is sodomy now? Jesus, what will this forum think of next?

Wait, you can use the same tools more than once?! I gotta replay that mission.

I didn't feel uncomfortable, disgusted or anything... is it wrong to say that I was laughing out loud the whole mission?

I dunno who else would actually get this, but Trevor and Michael have a very Sabertooth/Wolverine relationship.

lol... I could kinda see that, actually.

So far, I found this to be the most interesting mission in terms of premise. Not that I felt good about doing the torture, but I like the cause and effect dynamic it brought to the table. I remember reading Splinter Cell: Blacklist was supposed to have a similar scene, but was removed because someone wrote an article of how uncomfortable it made them feel. I wonder if that's why Rockstar made/kept that scene in the final product.

@alecofthewest said:

Maybe you should look up the definition of sodomy because that's exactly what happened; also, the point was more that she was doing that in exchange for drugs. I originally wrote "raping her" which isn't legally correct but when the party exchanging sex for goods/services is incompetent, impaired, or otherwise "forced" into the decision it may as well be rape.

It wasn't that bad. Wimps.

EDIT:

Here, this was worse (Last of Us spoilers)...

You know...I've gone through the whole spectrum of emotions with this scene and I think I've come to the conclusion that it's the best part of the game. Ignoring the heavy-handed "hey, torture is BAD!" dialog after it's over, it feels like it's the only true satire in the whole game that isn't delivered with the tact of an episode of Family Guy. I also think it's the only time when the game is being honest with you.

When I finished GTA V, it felt like a loose series of terrible events which lead to...nothing. Sure, I definitely had fun but nothing really happened, the world wasn't bettered by your actions (obviously) and no one learned anything. Sort of like...torture. As the game makes abundantly clear to you, torture is an incredibly ineffective means of gaining information and is really just for the sick satisfaction of the torturer. GTA V only feels like a means to satisfy the game's "torturers." At the end, all three of protagonists (and the player) feel like they've won but looking back at the events of the game, what did they really do?

I don't know if i was uncomfortable doing it, but I did feel bad doing it.

That didnt look like anal sex to me...

just saying...

it's probably good that there's so many pussies out there, but this didn't bother me at all. it's a game, he did withhold info so whatever.

gore and other horrible things on the internet make me feel sick but not this.

I guess I sort of cringed? I mean while I felt bad for the guy, I wasn't like, "THIS IS SO HORRIBLE". The self torture scene in Heavy Rain felt more "real" and nerve racking than in GTA V in my opinion.

Honestly, while I was kind of thinking "Ouch... Wow." That's about as far as it went, and what I was thinking after when the mission was over was, "Darn, I wish I had tried all of the choices".

I did it in the same order except Trevor swung the wrench at his arm and not the knee. It's pretty cool to see that there are different scenarios.

I didn't really feel anything during the course of the torture scene. Maybe it's because I'm desensitised, or maybe in the back of my head I know it's not depicting a real torture scene, even if it's interactive. If you showed me real footage of a man having his tooth ripped out or kneecap busted, I would probably be grossed out.

Didn't bother me at all and I drove responsibly to the airport afterwards.

Scene wasn't a big deal. Thought it was cool how it played out actually, with him giving Michael bits of info so he could figure out his sniper target.

It wasn't bad that's why. But that's the state of gamers/journos nowadays. They want to throw a fit about everything to create controversy.

Right, is it weird that that is also how I feel about this scene and peoples reaction to it?
We've been torturing, murdering, raping, blowing up peoples houses and crashing cars in video games since forever.
But eeeverytime it's a GTA game, oh dear lord no, think of the children. Oh the humanity

Game or not, I think it's normal to feel bit uncomfortable in that scene. I personally don't drop moral or empathy even when it's just a video game, at least to some point. Which is bit weird, I can accidentally drive over some random NPC and go "Whoops hehe" but I don't exactly enjoy killing them on purpose. Same goes with pets and animals in video games, I try to avoid killing them as much as possible.

lol

Well, this thread has certainly gone places. Being called a pussy, and even a few more implications that I'm a hypocrite and that I created this thread purely to create controversy. Splendid!

Bunch of pussys. Didn't bother me at all. Watch Saw, play one of rockstars previous games manhunt. This wasnt shocking or controversial it was so unbelivably fine i cannot believe it's even getting attention.

@j12088: Not everyone enjoys mindless violence, even if it's just a game or movie. In GTA's case, it actually had something to do with story..unlike oscar nominee movie you mentioned. You calling other people pussies for not enjoying it pretty much enforces what kind of people I thought would enjoy SAW movies.

Funnily enough I kinda like some of the SAW movies... Well, OK, it's actually just the first one. I enjoyed the others in the moment when I was in my teens, but to this day I think the original SAW still stands on its own as an effectively chilling horror movie. Plus, it's the least ridiculous in terms of gore and crazy Tom & Jerry traps.