MMMman

@leonshade: @vinny_says: They are the best, aren't they? I hardly ever do side fluff but these ones were so fantastically simple and one-dimensional that I couldn't help myself. It didn't actually take that long for me either: only a few (four-five) of hours I'd say. I found that if I stared at the screen for thirty seconds and let my eyes go out of focus, then made sure they stayed that way, that I could just do them all one after another until I needed to go to the toilet or eat something.

They are abjectly terrible, I'll agree, but they are also refreshing in their terribleness.

As for the Kinzie thing; I'd already done them all up to that point so I was able to cash in all of her quests at once. If Id've had to keep going out and coming back to the ship I'd certainly have given up at that point.

@naru_joe93: I'm not sure advice is what I'm going for. I've got 'Bangerz' on and I'm just a bit afloat. Pure venting, brother.

Though thanks for the thought.

@colourful_hippie: Oh, I'm there already. It clearly hasn't made me feel any better. Any recommendations?

@colourful_hippie: What if that were not an option?

@alexander: Oh no, London traffic in rush hour is horrible; I'm exclusively a tube commuter. Having been stuck on the roads for hours at a time though, I'm glad Rockstar keep improving (they seem to, anyway) the way cars and traffic work in the games. In V the roads always look full, though it really isn't a chore to weave in and out of queues and overtake other vehicles. It certainly seems to be a step above IV, which I though was a bit too much like driving on real city streets. I think the whole 'toy box world' aspect of V is second to none and I'm having a really good time seeing what the world has to offer, not sure whether an accurately modelled macbook would make it more enjoyable though. That crazy PC scene is something I'll never get to taste unfortunately, at least not in the foreseeable future.

@brodehouse: Oh yeah, of course, stereotypes do hold a little nugget of truth about their subject. Tonya was the one that struck me as a little mean, whereas the rest of the supporting cast thus far haven't really bothered me. I think it was the combination of her voice and the explicit sexual-favour stuff that put me off the most and, as @monkeyking1969 kindly reminded me, blinkered me to the fact she is played pretty straight in reality.
I genuinely really like Franklin's aunt, probably because he's the only one who sees her in a particularly negative light. She is talked to in some pretty disrespectful ways by other characters - yes, problematic - but she seems to let it all wash over her for the most part. (I do hope nothing horrible happens to her as the rest of the story progresses.)
The GTA games are always such ensemble pieces that it would be impossible to convey such a huge number of characters without ever falling back on forms of generalisation. And besides, the series has never really dealt in characters the player was able to fully like anyway. It is strange though, I know these things have been a part of the series since it went 3D, but only now have they really started to rub on me.

@monkeyking1969: Those are really good points about Tonya that really didn't resonate with me. As a character it seems like she's played for laughs specifically, as you say, to make Franklin's desire to leave South Central appear justified and right. It didn't strike me though, that underneath all the squealing and stereotyping that she actually embodies everything Franklin isn't willing to submit to; like you say, working hard and hones, and sticking by those who've had your back in the past. Thanks for pointing out my oversight.

Does she pop up again after the first few jobs, or is that if for her?

@joshwent: That's the problem with trying to summarise lots of words with a punchy, attractive and intriguing - yet at the same time representative - title. I think this time I went punchy to try and make it a little bit contentious in an effort to get people to read 'yet another piece of writing about GTA V'. Apologies if I came across as a bit of a tabloid hack there, my bad.

You are spectacularly right in your distinction between options and agency there and, to be honest, I don't think I've made that distinction myself yet. I think my personal problem is that over the last few years my tastes have changed more considerably than I've been able to come to terms with or even fully recognise. That goes far and above just video games as well, though I suppose I should better stay on topic. Because I'm only coming to terms with this relatively slowly, I'm finding myself less and less interested in the things I once was. It's both convenient and unsettling that video games take so long to be developed, because they simultaneously act as a really good barometer for my interests but also highlight how those interests have changed between single iterations in a series. Some of my fondest memories of games are from 2007/8 and titles like Oblivion, Fallout 3, GTA IV and Bordertands. I was at university, was having a great time and had the capacity to play games quite a lot. I've enjoyed every single one of those games' sequels significantly less than I did the one I played. Of course repetition dulls the enjoyment, but I've changed and so have my life circumstances.

GTA V pretty much represents the final game in a big line of games that has made these changes glaringly apparent. I apologise if it sounds like I'm directly criticising the gunfight-saturation directly, because I really don't have a problem with them in and of themselves. I suppose it all boils down to me having changed while the games I used to relate quite heavily to - certainly enjoyed the most - haven't as much. GTA V is still a massive accomplishment to be sure, but I'm busy putting up new curtains and fertilising my miniature fruit trees - out of choice strangely enough. I'd really have liked to see the game change where it counts just a little bit more than it has, though I do appreciate that we all grow up at different speeds.

I will certainly play the story to completion and am actually enjoying it quite a bit. One day I'll be able to fully articulate my thoughts on changing around the games you once loved. Until then, apologies if I came across as a bit heavy handed with my opinions; I'm just scrambling around in the dark at the minute.

@humanity: Two pro-swimming opinions; this is getting too important to ignore! We did go to water-aerobics once which was pretty fun, if a bit too long. The moral being, though, was that she wasn't bothered by the water very much at all. Maybe we'll eventually share a semi-aquatic lifestyle, like a pair of otters.

@nonused: I'm sure Second Life would be spot on for me, but the social stigma attached to it is just too strong; I don't want to be classified as strange, now do I?

I think you might have got my misgivings spot on in a single sentence where it took me two thousand and odd words; "Rockstar threw so much at this game, from money to talent, and it all seems so...formulaic?"

@wilshere, @joshwent: It seems like a few people have misinterpreted my words; I'm not saying that I'm looking for a violence-free crime game or, God forbid, a Playstation Home-like experience. It's simply that almost every aspect of GTA has gained depth or been expanded upon except how we approach much of the story-based - especially combat orientated - content. The game contains so many ancillary systems - yoga, darts, hunting, strippers etc - for its side activities, that it just seems like a missed opportunity to not have created new ways for players to interact with the action based story content. I'm not looking for emergent gameplay here, I'm just saying that my heart sinks a little when an interesting scenario turns into a gunfight. I'm certainly enjoying the game, don't get me wrong, I'm having a good time with it, it's just a little sad to see the amount of effort that has clearly gone into expanding upon almost every aspect of the game, except the way the player is able to approach combat and violent conflict. Or even just the scale of the conflicts we're thrust into full stop.