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GTA San Andreas Official Site Launched
Oshuma.Shiroki writes "Rockstar Games has launched the official site for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is particularly notable because it comes complete the very first trailer for the game, as well as some new screenshots. In any case, GTA:SA is due out for PlayStation 2 on October 19th. Head on over and take a look."
i think they already did
Stereo-typing? Hardly. There is certain individuals such as the ones depicted in the game in real life. What ever race, nationality R* chooses to base the games culture on someone is going to be offended. Now if R* was a film production studio and made movies no one would as much as make a peep about this so called racial stereo-typing. Oh wait I take that back because if a bunch of white guys made a movie about black guys in da hood, that would be racist... but if a black made it, hell that would be considered emmy winning material.
misundstood by most, hated by some, loved by few.
I can't be the only European who thinks the GTA series of games is rather US-centric?
This is one of the great things about the GTA series. Americans think it's clearly a home-made product, the rest of the world is sometimes put off by its Americocentric theme, but what neither realise is that GTA is a thoroughly European product. Yes, various Americans work on the game via Rockstar's head office in New York, but the game itself is made by Rockstar North (ex-DMA Design) in Scotland.
This is actually readily apparent if you pay attention. GTA as it is perhaps could not even have been made by only Americans; it is the result of how Europeans experienced American crime through US film, TV and music. The entire plot of the games is one crime cliche after another, where you can often pinpoint the film whence it came from, but what makes it work is that is not considered "real". There is no real crime in GTA. It's just a movie. Similarly for the stereotypes, these don't mean as much to Europeans as they would to Americans. As a result, in the US you can expect a lot of ruckus over both the stereotyping and the violence in this game, whereas most complaints in Europe will be only about the violence. The stereotypes are the same we've seen a hundred times before in US films.
Personally I prefer Mafia to any of the GTA games. Yes, it is more linear, and no it is not pointlessly brutal (although it can still be pretty violent), but I really enjoy the level of character depth and the high quality of the writing.
/AC because this is OT
The game is obviously influenced by the various mobster movies/TV shows that have become popular (Godfather, especially) and I really enjoyed playing the scenarios. GTA just got old, I'd play through the missions quickly enough and then not want to do all the stuff on the side. I guess I just got burnt out on it too quickly. To each their own, I guess, they're definately very different games (but the fact that they both take place in open cities will inevitably draw comparisons.)
I don't see how you can cry "racist" here simply because the lead character is now black. In fact, Rockstar seems to have gone to great lengths to make this lead the most complicated and deep of any of the three games... probably just to ward off uneducated knee-jerk reactionists like yourself.
Yes, it is US-centric. Sorry that seems to make a difference to you. When I played Tomb Raider, it didn't matter to me that Lara Croft is English, had a butler, and a big countryside mansion for the training level. Nor did it bother me when Mario adventured at the Caribbean-inspired Isle Delfino. For you to relate to a game, is it absolutely required that it take place in your parent's basement? We're talking escapist video games here.
If they produced a Continental European GTA that continued their string of quality and depth, I would eagerly snap it up with no complaints. Although - and you wouldn't know this, since you get your entire GTA info from crappy, one-paragraph /. articles - the GTA games have all used heavily fictionalized cities, so I'm not sure how you would specifically identify a European location, aside from using local accents and a tourist area of 1000-year-old buildings.