Grand Theft Auto: Arrested

I imagine Microsoft would shit a gold brick if that’s all the DLC that came out

I believe that Vice City Stories has jet skis.

Ah, all right. Alert Odd downgraded to Alert Didn’t Play the PSP GTAs. Or Unalert.

Speaking of alerts, I think the radio should have made a bigger issue of the terrorist threat levels. I enjoyed hearing that the current alert level was something like Charcoal-8, more dangerous than Ash-7, but still not as much of an imminent threat as Slate-9.

Agreed. in general, I’d have liked to see much more of the very funny culteral reference humor, and less tit jokes. This game is also apparently going for the “record of most phallic and sexual reference satire in virtual advertising” as well…

Also, would it be a win for M$ or Sony if the exclusive DLC was ring tones and new T-shirts that in game women hate =)

Saint’s Row wins that hands down.

So, on the issue of whether the level of profanity in this game is justified by the subject matter, last night a clerk in a Burger Shot called me a motherfucker. I guess that’s more of that gritty realism they talked so much about. He was black, and that’s how black people talk even when they’re in entry-level service jobs.

irony and absurdism really don’t have a place around here.

Yeah, Burger Shot is always a good example to show people when they try to tell me all the juvenile humor in the game is really clever satire. I walked into a Burger Shot and the female clerk just blurts out “Burger and a hand job?”

How that’s clever on any level is beyond me.

Speaking of Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, are they good? Good enough to buy a PSP for?

I never tried Vice City PSP, but Liberty City PSP was unplayable due to horrible load times. This was on the original PSP though, it might be tolerable on the newer models.

I actually enjoyed “Welcome to Burger Shot, motherfucker!”, mainly for the actor’s cheerful delivery.

Also, McMaster, you’re on thin enough ice with the “irony”, but the “absurdism” is definitely a reach. There’s very little of either in GTA4.

-Tom

Hang on there.

Liberty City is a major metropolitan area spread over three islands–which have all civillian travel between them shut down on pain of massive armed force instantly focused on anyone who crosses the roadblocks. Its citizens view ordering babies over the internet as disposable consumer goods as perfectly unremarkable. When the police actually arrest someone instead of just killing them, they let them go with a minor fine and just take any guns. The symbol of the city is a giant statue triumphantly holding a fistful of dollars aloft. And so on.

I dunno, that all seems pretty absurd to me. Its world is very irrational, meaningless, and an individual–especially the protagonist–relationship with it is fundamentally adversarial with pervasive conflict, which is the sense of the “ism” even.

Not much irony that I’ve seen, though, agreed. I guess if there’s any weddings, there’s usually raiaiaiaian on those days.

That’s not absurdism; that’s satire. Absurdism is Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead or Waiting For Godot. Satire is The Colbert Report.

Great, now I’m that guy. But…

Main Entry:
ab·surd·ism

: a philosophy based on the belief that the universe is irrational and meaningless and that the search for order brings the individual into conflict with the universe — compare existentialism

Unclean. I can’t do that again this decade.

Well, even though “absurd” isn’t the same as “absurdism”, there’s something inherently absurd about most gameplay conventions. But I like to think guys like us understand them for what they are: gameplay conventions, and not Genet or Pirandello, much less “irrational” or “meaningless”. But nice try anyway, Drastic! :)

Also, look a little closer. Those aren’t dollars in the Statue of Happiness hand! It’s a venti half-caff no-foam latte or something.

-Tom

The one time I looked closer I rammed my helicopter into it. The statue won.

edit: I’m not being entirely serious, even though I’m using no smilies. But I’m half-serious, as even disregarding the gameplay elements, GTA’s universe is fundamentally insane. The radio spots are every bit as much of the game’s world as the various grotty little concerns of the characters, for instance–the content is part of the setting, the fact that no radio is audible more than two feet away from a windowless car is gameplay.

Although, come to think of it, if it’s a universe where sound waves really do stop dead in a two-foot radius from any car speaker, that’s pretty irrational too! In closing, I triumphantly raise my latte full of money to the sky.

Does it matter how we classify the humor anyways? If you don’t like it, then it doesn’t matter what anyone calls it.

Not that every fart joke is genius commentary on the state of the union, sometimes they are just fart jokes. I’m able to toss off GTA’s juvenile humor because it also comes with a degree of intelligence and awareness, absent in games that might be a little less overt in their sophomorism, but also less rich in underlying material.

Try to keep up, Mr. Gonzo. We’re goofing on McMaster for trying to act all superior and using the wrong words to do it!

-Tom

OK. Let’s call him Professor Doofus and fart at him. With absurdism.

Which is why it annoys me that they removed a bunch of fun elements in previous games using “realism” as an excuse. The game is not realistic, it never will be. So any argument that says “selling babies is okay, but using a firetruck to put out fires is just too crazy” makes no damn sense.