Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[Breadquanda.]

That's the Saints Row reboot, a game so awful that being woke is the least of its problems, it genuinely has no redeeming qualities outside of having a more visually distinct map than Steelport

Saints Row Reboot did something far worse than being "woke" or outright bad, it committed the crime of being fucking boring. And buggy as fuck at launch from what I've heard.

I actually wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, for some reason. Initially, I thought hey maybe there is some charm to it, and maybe the customisation is quite cool and in-depth. I wanted to see the annoying quirky Marvel-style of writing as heartwarming and different. Maybe the premise of needing rent money wasn't that bad. Maybe it just was taking a different approach where funny little normal people could run around and be humorous and wholesome.

I didn't get very far with that delusion, though. After the tutorial finished, and you get the mission to drive home and whatnot, I still maintained some and thought 'huh, this is actually a pretty nice looking map'. I don't think it lasted a second longer than the store robbery mission, after which you just get thrown into the boring, terribly-made, characterless, soulless open world with nothing to do and very little feeling of life. The phone missions were all terrible, boring 'challenges' and nothing like the hilarious Saints Row activities we all love (like Septic Avenger). I didn't even bother with the next story mission, I just got bored and stopped playing. It just feels like a shitty unfinished pre-release or leak of some kind.

 

[The Last Stand]

I like the older woman in the promotional artwork.

 

[Maurice Maine]

Arthur virtue signals about feminism and anti racism in the game, the Indians are portrayed as noble savages while the US Army is portrayed as evil genociders, The KKK is in the game just to be shit on even though they only reformed in the 20's, Sadie Adler, None of the non white gang members are ever portrayed in an unsympathetic light and so on and so on...

Just watch this video if you want it in exhaustive detail:

Well as I said it's a game very much of its time and honestly all that shit didn't detract for me, it's not trying to be historically accurate y'know? If you want a 60s western thing play the original RDR which imo is a great game though I feel it deserved a remake.

 

[Meth Dick]

What wasn't woke about it? Diverse gang. Sadie turning into a ridiculous girl boss. Indians portrayed as the good guys who were suppressed by the evil white man. Constant sperging about the "stupid, racist, inbred southerners", Bill is suddenly gay now, all the PoC are nice, intelligent, educated people (even Javier who was nothing but a monster in RDR1), killing the KKK gives you good karma, killing Norris Forsythe gives you good karma, killing the slave hunter for no reason at all gives you good karma. at the same time you can't even really insult the suffrage woman in st. denis because even with the negative response, arthur will ultimately agree with her cause. And thousand other things.

I agree with everything except the Indians part. And I don't even really disagree with you there, either. As Dutch's gang were against the federal government the Injuns should have been in arms with Dutch. Which I guess they did for Dutch's band of Injun hooligans from RDR1.
But one of the scenes I actually really liked was a Lenny scene. I believe it was either the road to Shady Belle the first time or the ride from afterwards that Arthur mentions about how things are different for Lenny up north as opposed to down south when Lenny tells him:
All respect, Mr. Morgan, you wouldn't notice. Might call you a nigger lover, they see us ridin' like this. But most of it is a... a glance or a word, and after... a visit in the night.
I really enjoyed that line. It wasn't pozzed, it wasn't virtue signaling, it was what someone living in times of actual segregation would have probably felt. Reminds me of some movie I watched years ago that the title escapes me. There was a black man working with or chatting with a white man when a group of other white men noticed, and instead of confronting him then and there they waited until the night, and let their concerns be known by burning a cross in the black guys front yard. It took place back when niggers used to be sympathetic, like the 50s or early 60's. I wish I could remember it, it was like those movies Mississippi Burning or a Time to Kill, where you'd feel bad for the blacks and detest racism after watching it, at least until you are inevitably reminded by current day niggers why you hate them.

 

[Verdun_Salient]

Trying to compare RDR to actual history seems pointless, it is clearly trying to be a spaghetti western ij video game form with all the artistic license that implies

 

[Green Man]

I actually wanted to give it the benefit of the doubt, for some reason. Initially, I thought hey maybe there is some charm to it, and maybe the customisation is quite cool and in-depth. I wanted to see the annoying quirky Marvel-style of writing as heartwarming and different. Maybe the premise of needing rent money wasn't that bad. Maybe it just was taking a different approach where funny little normal people could run around and be humorous and wholesome.

I didn't get very far with that delusion, though. After the tutorial finished, and you get the mission to drive home and whatnot, I still maintained some and thought 'huh, this is actually a pretty nice looking map'. I don't think it lasted a second longer than the store robbery mission, after which you just get thrown into the boring, terribly-made, characterless, soulless open world with nothing to do and very little feeling of life. The phone missions were all terrible, boring 'challenges' and nothing like the hilarious Saints Row activities we all love (like Septic Avenger). I didn't even bother with the next story mission, I just got bored and stopped playing. It just feels like a shitty unfinished pre-release or leak of some kind.

The only things I've heard about Saints Row Reboot that can be considered good from people who played it is that the customization was cool and that the map looks nice despite being soulless and having nothing to really do. SR2 was definitely the peak of the series though some aspects of it began leaning into the 'whacky hijinks' stuff that later derailed the series, but it could also get serious when it was called for and keep some actual gravity/stakes behind certain missions. The first one is worth playing if you haven't yet, there aren't any player-flyable vehicles and it's played mostly straight [there's some humor but overall it's relatively serious] but Redditors like to pretend it doesn't exist because it's actually pretty hard.

 

[Maurice Maine]

Trying to compare RDR to actual history seems pointless, it is clearly trying to be a spaghetti western ij video game form with all the artistic license that implies

I think people misunderstood that Rockstar's push for realism in the game mechanics doesn't necessarily mean the story would have been realistic nor that it should be. Imagine if we got a realistic RDR2, it would be miserable. Dutch's gang would basically be Colm and you'd be running around terrorizing the West until you got brutally murdered or hanged

 

[The Last Stand]

I think people misunderstood that Rockstar's push for realism in the game mechanics doesn't necessarily mean the story would have been realistic nor that it should be.

GTA IV (and TLaD) was as grounded as can be, all things considered. Nothing against the other games, just something I noticed with IV's serious direction in storytelling and tone.

 

[regalterry]

Trying to compare RDR to actual history seems pointless, it is clearly trying to be a spaghetti western ij video game form with all the artistic license that implies

Your mistake here is not attributing malice to what Rockstar did with the narrative, when it's obvious the story was written with intent to spread propaganda.

 

[DeadwastePrime]

Your mistake here is not attributing malice to what Rockstar did with the narrative, when it's obvious the story was written with intent to spread propaganda.

hanlon's razor would like a word with you

 

[The Evil Midnight Bomber]

Trying to compare RDR to actual history seems pointless, it is clearly trying to be a spaghetti western ij video game form with all the artistic license that implies

So because it's a spaghetti western you have to put in a bunch of gay ass modern political bullshit and have the MC agree with all of it? RDR 1 is also a spaghetti western and didn't need any of that. John just works for anyone that will get him what he needs to free his family and never virtue signals the entire game. Maybe back then the writers still realized that writing a mass murdering criminal that constantly morally grandstands is kind of stupid and annoying.

 

[Psyduck]

Imagine if we got a realistic RDR2, it would be miserable. Dutch's gang would basically be Colm and you'd be running around terrorizing the West until you got brutally murdered or hanged

That's exactly what made GTA and even the first RDR fun to play post-story mode.

 

[Love Is Blue]

is there any way of playing GTA IV without installing rockstar's shitty launcher?

 

[El Duce]

is there any way of playing GTA IV without installing rockstar's shitty launcher?

That should be the original Games for Windows disc. You can also downgrade a Steam copy to Games for Windows Live, but I'm not sure if it'd still require you to use the rockstar launcher.

 

[The Last Stand]

A former Sony employee admitted that Sony approached R* for a two-year, three title exclusivity deal with R* and GTA because they were scared of Xbox dominating the market then. Rather interesting because MS themselves turned down R*'s proposal to make GTA 3 exclusive for their then new console.

 

[Frederica Bernkastel]

If anyone cares, I can confirm RageHookPlugin works on Linux. This means you can play LSPDFR just fine on the Steam Deck. You have to disable LSPDR sync configuration in the LSPDR.ini with:
Networking.DisableServerCommunication = true
Networking.DisableDiscordRichPresence = true
You'll need vcrun2010, dotnet48, vcrun2015+ and d3dx11_43 with DXVK (obviously)

 

[The Last Stand]

I wonder how the gaming industry would've changed if GTA 3 was an Xbox exclusive. Maybe the Xbox would've had a bigger lead, but the PS2 would've still sold like hotcakes.

That relationship with Sony must've been lucrative or easy enough for Sony to release two GTA spinoffs for the PSP (and later ported to PS2.)

 

[Problematic User Forever]

I wonder how the gaming industry would've changed if GTA 3 was an Xbox exclusive. Maybe the Xbox would've had a bigger lead, but the PS2 would've still sold like hotcakes.

That relationship with Sony must've been lucrative or easy enough for Sony to release two GTA spinoffs for the PSP (and later ported to PS2.)

I think Xbox would have definitely gotten a boost if GTA 3 was Xbox exclusive.

But yeah, PS2 was still firmly the Square/Konami/Capcom/Namco console though so it would have still dominated.

 

[Get the rope Macaulay!]

I wonder how the gaming industry would've changed if GTA 3 was an Xbox exclusive. Maybe the Xbox would've had a bigger lead, but the PS2 would've still sold like hotcakes.

That relationship with Sony must've been lucrative or easy enough for Sony to release two GTA spinoffs for the PSP (and later ported to PS2.)

i don't remember how modding worked on the original xbox, but no way in hell would rockstar have gotten away with the hot coffee stuff from san andreas or been allowed to do as much cool shit with their games with a microsoft deal.

having said that, the whole xbox live thing means they'd have probably been able to weather the storm easier. but overall it probably would have been amazing for the xbox, and especially the 360. between halo and GTA it would have set up the console as the one for mature gamers whereas the playstation would have just been for the weebs by that point. basically like we saw with the 360 era, where all the best titles happen to be on one console.

OTOH i remember way more people i know with a playstation vs the original xbox. i imagine it probably wouldn't have gotten as big. whereas everyone seemed to own a GTA game because literally everyone had a playstation.

 

[Scarlett Johansson]

He typecasted himself. He immediately took up every criminal goon role offered (see his performance in the Breaking Bad prequel Better Call Saul) and attended as many GTA/gaming conventions he could. He has no one else to blame.


Not may be, was shitty. He has every right to refuse the request but taking the money and then screeching is a Californian dick move staple.
If he wanted to seethe, he should do it on his own dime or at the very least should've messaged the guy and said he would only accept the request if it was for private use only or something. I get not wanting to do Trevor forever but don't take the money then, it's not hard. You don't get to use the role that made you famous when convenient and then ignore it and make demands from fans of your character's antics.


I'm always amused by how the trailers teased you would be playing alongside the Van Der Linde gang in their prime, either as ruthless cold-hearted bastards or renegades filled with ideals planted by a charismatic Dutch. But instead it's a misery machine and the only character that wants to outlaw like its 1899 is the woman who months ago was a prairie girl and housewife.

The funny thing is that the actor who plays Marston left Hollywood for the midwest. Likes the anonymity. But he will still interact with fans, does signings, streams, and con events, and is an overall cool dude from what I can see. Hell, he returned for the sequel. I understand the pay being shit but the recognition is worth it.