Location, location, location. I've been put anywhere and everywhere. We've been to Hell (Dante's Inferno), space ships and stations (Dead Space), alternate dimensions and ultra-secret military bases (Half Life). Some games take me to the farthest reaches of the known galaxy (Beyond Good and Evil, Mass Effect), while others stick me in mind-bending government offices (The Stanley Parable). Some worlds are sprawling masterpieces (World of Warcraft), while others are much more confining (Dear Esther).
So even though I've been everywhere, I pick Rockstar's worlds over any other. Yes, Los Santos, the Old West, or Liberty City are neither suspended in a nebula nor in a giant, underground lab. They don't have dragons and they don't have aliens. Yet these cities and environments have more detail packed into each square foot than any other world I've been to.
My pick, if I had to choose the best locale Rockstar has made to date, Los Santos is up there, followed quickly by Rockstar's version of Texas and New York City. How does a version of Los Angeles take first place above all the other places I've been? It simply feels alive. When I start up GTA 5, I feel like I'm 'coming back' to Los Santos, like the city is there when I'm not, doing its own thing while I'm off doing mine.
Each person can be punched, each car stolen, each plane crashed, and each store perused. The whole experience is the most seamless I know of. Bugs are par for the course of any Bethesda game, yet not so for a Rockstar title like GTA. Chalk it up to the setting, smaller environments, or lack of giants, but Rockstar made Los Santos surprisingly well, even by major-league game development standards.
The city is versatile enough that, when you take it at surface value, it's just a place within which you can do pretty much anything illegal until the cops catch up to you; sometimes they don't. But when you stop and look at the roses, Rockstar's biting satire is stuffed into every radio station, building sign, and character that walks Los Santos' streets. Cops chase down perps, people go fishing and hunting, and some engage in the most banal conversations on their phones. You can buy a ridiculously overpriced cup of joe at a store that looks suspiciously like a Starbucks, listen to adds that don't attempt disguising their ulterior motives, and you can get a news update from Weazel News.
Simply put, there's more to see and do in Los Santos than any other game I've played. And it all works so well.
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This blog is my entry in the Blog Herding Community Writing Challenge. Thanks for reading, and Happy Gaming!
from Game Informer Magazine http://ift.tt/1xTVMxR
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