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    Grand Theft Auto V

    Game » consists of 21 releases. Released Sep 17, 2013

    Rockstar returns to the fictional state of San Andreas with a crew of three criminal protagonists who work together to pull off a series of high-profile heists.

    My accidental mental breakdown (spoiler-free?)

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    xxizzypop

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    Edited By xxizzypop

    I realized an interesting thing as I was playing, something I never really intended to do -- I projected a sort of breakdown on Michael in the way I feel I'd react to the situation. Once he hits a rather low point in his story and is alone for awhile, with work for a heist that needs to be done sometime shortly after yoga is introduced, I got a random urge to just call Franklin and Trevor and try to hang out. They answer but blow him off pretty much saying 'Yo, don't we have work to do?'

    Michael kind of rolls with it, but I found that personally, I was a little fatigued on story missions at that time and didn't really feel like doing them. I drove around a little, found a rad car, stole it, pimped it out. But I was still just bored of bumming around the city -- that's when I realized there was a yoga point out in the middle of the desert, off on the right hand side of the map, amidst a ton of black. So, I started driving along the freeway. I kept on it and realized that my GPS point led me to massive cliffs with no way of getting up. But there's a hitchhiker. I pick her up and bring her back to Sandy Shores, hearing her out and acquiring another potential heist member. But I still haven't seen the yoga point. So I turned around, went back to the outskirts of the city and ran off the freeway, hitting the mountains and desert. The car was fast but terrible for the trip, but it looked rather amazing. The sun was setting, the coast looked grand. It was all fairly beautiful. I got out to admire it, and a mountain quickly came out of nowhere. I jump back in the car and flew, but accidentally took it over too steep a cliff after too much damage, and the damn thing exploded.

    Michael emerges from a hospital in Sandy Shores, and I am now convinced that it is my destiny to reach this yoga point -- I need to know what's different about it and why the HELL it's become so difficult for me to get to. I get the urge to see what kind of hair Michael can sport at the barbers, and find I'm really drawn to shaving him bald. While I'm on the customization spree, I decide to check out the tattoo parlor for the first time in the entire game, and get him entirely inked. Then I stop by the discount shop, picking up clothes that are fitting for a desert trip. I walk out and steal a motorcycle and take off once more. I'm barreling through the desert, leaping hills at breakneck speeds and taking jumps over dangerous cliffs, and finally, after what seems like a million distractions and potential deaths via trees and fences, reach the point.

    I park the bike and get onto the mat. Michael pops out the music and begins the yoga routine. Nothing is different, but it feels weirdly authentic, out in the middle of nowhere against the backdrop of yet another sunset. He finishes up and I feel weirdly accomplished having finally reached my goal. Out of nowhere, a hiker appears, says something passively dickish and walks away again, entirely ruining the vibe. He ruins my accomplished feeling and it feels like he intruded upon a serene sort of moment -- naturally, he was not allowed to walk away for this.

    In the end, I had Michael hop back on the motorcycle, looking like he'd had a breakdown, bombing down the freeway back to the city once more to do the work that I'd blown off, while I was ultimately unfulfilled and as listless as before.

    It was a weird, nice, personal touch that I never intended to add to the narrative or craft the scenario in my head -- I hadn't realized that it was playing out until I had finished the next heist that it was happening. But instead, it ended up accidentally creating extra depth for this character that I was playing, while surprising me that the game had let me imitate how I'd approach major personal crisis as a social support structure fails; with absolute reckless abandon, no regard for life or health while pursuing an asinine and artificially important objective, that even attaining wouldn't really accomplish anything.

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    emfromthesea

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    Ha, that's interesting. Cool roleplay.

    I did something somewhat similar, but not to that extreme. When he reached a low point in the story, I gave him a beard and had his hair grow out. He'd always wear messy shirts and shorts. He was a broken man, the way I played it.

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    xxizzypop

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    @sunbrozak: I forgot I threw a beard on him out in the desert and he didn't just come with it. But yeah, he hit a very Max Payne in Brasil kind of look in his moment of despair with me, which is kind of amusing thinking about it now, considering his special ability and penchant for alcoholism. And I was surprised that there was any kind of roleplay at all -- I was kind of just doing things and realized after they were done: oh shit, I was doing that?

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