The Free Hornet
Member
- Joined
- Aug 15, 2011
- Messages
- 2,743
Tuesday I purchased this PS3 GTA5 bundle and today I encountered an unskippable torture mission that has my console frozen.
Although not much of a gamer, I'll play the same game intensely for hundreds of hours. GTA 4 (Vice City) was a hoot and I enjoyed every aspect although I never tried the "Hot Coffee" thing.
Random violence and controversy is OK. What *I* object to in this mission is that game advancement requires the player to perform the (virtual) torture. "Hold R2 to grip a tooth". Beyond teeth, there is a pipe wrench, electrocution, and waterboarding with gasoline (or pouring a flammable liquid over the victim - based on reviews as I'm not started the 'tooth thing').
The game is also falsely promoted as allowing you to play one of three thugs to complete the missions and to freely switch among them. What I've seen thusly is that there is no "freedom" about it. You play whatever thug they make you play or the mission is failed and game advancement stops.
So this isn't a freedom issue per se, but more of crappy product I'd rather not support with my wallet.
Anyway, just venting 'cause I feel like a major wuss as I really really like the game but can't bring myself to accept this particular aspect of the game. Early in the game, one of thugs you play curb stomps to death a rival, but that is a 'cut scene'. You don't have to watch it or "Press R2 to curb stomp the skull" and I think many/most cut scenes are skippable. There is usually a degree of freedom. However violent, the game also has its own artifical boundaries. In a city where you can attack or hit-n-run millions of pedestrians, there are no children. What are the odds? No children at all in a city the size of LA. Rockstar has its limits too. Maybe GTA6 will cross that barrier.
Of course, the usual parties are aligned against the game:
http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...t-auto-5-under-fire-for-graphic-torture-scene
Gamers are rightly defensive in their forums. However, I fear they are defending poor gameplay masked as artistic freedom. Also, it is my understanding that Rockstar is trying to make an anti-torture point. Presumably, the torturer has a confessional of sorts upon realizing that the only information they got was bad.
Somehow, I'm not sure if that is how it plays out with the real people who torture.
I notified Best Buy of an intent to return and will see how they respond to my email. Maybe they can send someone from Geek Squad to get past this point in the mission. There is no software patch AFAIK but I did make that request too. I really like the game and wanted to get other games for it. Given the choice of returning it or engaging in virtual torture, I'm siding with returning it.
They won't cry about the return as this game will cross a billion in sales no problem. Maybe Best Buy or Sony won't like it.
As a general comment on the PS3 GTA5 bundle itself. The Blu-ray player does A LOT of constant and noisy access for a game that installs 8GB of data. Why it can't install all the damn data and just use the disk to authenticate on startup or install, I don't know. It is 500 GB of nearly empty space and a disk drive that sounds like it is gasping to grab that data. If anything, that ought to be the complaint. It comes with a 500 GB hard drive, but playing an installed game requires the disk to be constantly thrashed. Lame. It is offensive enough that the disk has to be in the console to play the game (I remember when you installed and could put the disk back in the box forever). Another reason to be a pirate...
As for returning for full credit with not stocking fee, this was a game system purchase with a game and not a game with a system. More so, I paid with a credit card so there is that.
Although not much of a gamer, I'll play the same game intensely for hundreds of hours. GTA 4 (Vice City) was a hoot and I enjoyed every aspect although I never tried the "Hot Coffee" thing.
Random violence and controversy is OK. What *I* object to in this mission is that game advancement requires the player to perform the (virtual) torture. "Hold R2 to grip a tooth". Beyond teeth, there is a pipe wrench, electrocution, and waterboarding with gasoline (or pouring a flammable liquid over the victim - based on reviews as I'm not started the 'tooth thing').
The game is also falsely promoted as allowing you to play one of three thugs to complete the missions and to freely switch among them. What I've seen thusly is that there is no "freedom" about it. You play whatever thug they make you play or the mission is failed and game advancement stops.
So this isn't a freedom issue per se, but more of crappy product I'd rather not support with my wallet.
Anyway, just venting 'cause I feel like a major wuss as I really really like the game but can't bring myself to accept this particular aspect of the game. Early in the game, one of thugs you play curb stomps to death a rival, but that is a 'cut scene'. You don't have to watch it or "Press R2 to curb stomp the skull" and I think many/most cut scenes are skippable. There is usually a degree of freedom. However violent, the game also has its own artifical boundaries. In a city where you can attack or hit-n-run millions of pedestrians, there are no children. What are the odds? No children at all in a city the size of LA. Rockstar has its limits too. Maybe GTA6 will cross that barrier.
Of course, the usual parties are aligned against the game:
http://www.theguardian.com/technolo...t-auto-5-under-fire-for-graphic-torture-scene
Gamers are rightly defensive in their forums. However, I fear they are defending poor gameplay masked as artistic freedom. Also, it is my understanding that Rockstar is trying to make an anti-torture point. Presumably, the torturer has a confessional of sorts upon realizing that the only information they got was bad.
Somehow, I'm not sure if that is how it plays out with the real people who torture.
I notified Best Buy of an intent to return and will see how they respond to my email. Maybe they can send someone from Geek Squad to get past this point in the mission. There is no software patch AFAIK but I did make that request too. I really like the game and wanted to get other games for it. Given the choice of returning it or engaging in virtual torture, I'm siding with returning it.
They won't cry about the return as this game will cross a billion in sales no problem. Maybe Best Buy or Sony won't like it.
As a general comment on the PS3 GTA5 bundle itself. The Blu-ray player does A LOT of constant and noisy access for a game that installs 8GB of data. Why it can't install all the damn data and just use the disk to authenticate on startup or install, I don't know. It is 500 GB of nearly empty space and a disk drive that sounds like it is gasping to grab that data. If anything, that ought to be the complaint. It comes with a 500 GB hard drive, but playing an installed game requires the disk to be constantly thrashed. Lame. It is offensive enough that the disk has to be in the console to play the game (I remember when you installed and could put the disk back in the box forever). Another reason to be a pirate...
As for returning for full credit with not stocking fee, this was a game system purchase with a game and not a game with a system. More so, I paid with a credit card so there is that.
