This guest article comes from the keyboard of ashw92, one of our community members.
The biggest game of the year was released yesterday in the form of Grand Theft Auto 5. However, I really haven’t been able to get myself excited about. Left and right through nearly every conceivable media stream I have been inundated with marketing spiel and hype inducing communications.
Social media has also been a hotbed of discussion, with the overly pro-GTA bandwagon out in full force against the ‘hating it for the sake of it’ brigade. And then there are those like me, clustered somewhere in the middle, in Grand Theft Auto limbo. We know full well there are copies still about to pick up from your local retailer of choice but having no real motivation to go and do so.
Obviously the announcement of the latest game in Rockstar’s insanely popular series was no surprise whatsoever. Everyone knew it was coming, but after GTA IV left a slightly sour taste in my mouth I wasn’t as excited as some to see the announcement that would soon be upon us. However, when that initial announcement came around and the first few trailers and big bits of information were released my interest grew rapidly.
A return to Los Santos, a big city and an open area to wreak havoc in, three playable characters and some nearly-next gen looking graphics all piqued my interest to the point where I considered putting down an early preorder.
This excitement, however, did not last. The more pieces of small information that were released, and the drip feed screenshots began to bore me. Yes, that plane looks cool and yes, that is nice looking mountain and yes, Trevor does look like a crazy bag of fun, but do I want to play it? I’m not sure. The more I heard the more my interest deteriorated, it wasn’t a case of it looking unappealing as such, it just didn’t seem overly appealing to me.
When all of the reviews were released it was clear that GTA V was an amazing game. With near unanimous 9’s and 10’s from a broad range of outlets, it seemed that Rockstar had produced the game that would mark the swansong of the PS3 and Xbox 360 generation. But still, a smorgasbord of praise and a Metacritic score of a whopping 97/100 didn’t make me want to get back on the hype train. I appreciated that it was a great game and definitely something that I should play and would undoubtedly get into and enjoy but I still didn’t consider buying it.
Today I walked into a Tesco to buy some lunch and saw, beside a security guard who really seemed to be taking the link between GTA and crime all too literally, was an enormous display with dozens of copies, ready to picked up for only £38. I paused for a moment and looked at them.
This game, the most expensive game ever made, one of the most critically acclaimed games ever made, and I just walked straight past to get a pot of pasta. I had the money, I have the time to play it and I had the opportunity to buy it, but even the ever-present cries of how good the game is from the Internet as a whole couldn’t sway me at point of purchase.
Ultimately, this worries me slightly. Why did I, an avid gamer and writer about games, not pick up the biggest release of the generation when it was starring me in the face? I can only really see two possible reasons; that I am simply losing interest in video games or that I am experiencing current-generation console fatigue.
I sincerely hope it’s the latter. I love video games and I hope to continue to do so, and that deep down that I am simply in need of a change. New hardware, new IPs and new experiences are all coming later this year.
Saying that, I did hold back on preordering a PS4 too…
JohnnyBoy
I’ve been through the game fatigue plenty of time (I’m 44), most recently a few years ago and I’m blaming GTA 4 – I loved GTA games, Vice City being my favourite. GTA 4 was such a frustrating game for me – boring missions, annoying checkpoints. I’d lost faith in Rockstar… Then came Red Dead Redemption (one of my favourite games this generation) and my faith had been restored. Max Payne 3 confirmed to me that GTA 4 was something I should forget and hope that Rockstar took all the bad from GTA4 and replace it with the good they’ve learnt from their previous games.
I’ve only played a few missions in GTA 5, but it feels like Rockstar are back on form. One of the main reasons I haven’t done too many missions is the fact that I’ve just been exploring, evading cops and generally messing about. It draws you in like classic Rockstar games, so I’m willing to forgive them for their one aberration
sponge0812
Hello my name is Sponge0812 and I do not like GTA (or COD or FifA)… this feels like a support group :)
I am so happy other people feel the same as me, I have spent the last two days questioning myself as to why I have not bought the game, I went into town yesterday and on my way I went from “I need to get this game as its reviews are amazing” etc to “Do I need this?”
I played GTA4 for an hour and did not enjoy it (still at zero on my trophy list which is annoying) and when I look back I never really enjoyed GTA but as a gamer I feel I (we) are being told that if we do not play this then we are really not gamers, its kinda like COD or FIFA every year.
My logic is simple, in 10 weeks I will get a day 1 PS4 so until then I want to clear up old games, plus the PS+ is dropping Far Cry 3 which I have not played and just started Mafia 2 which will keep me busy for a couple of weeks so why splash out £40+ for something that I will end up grinding on just to get a plat.
Like many people have already said, GTA5 is pretty and the online might be awesome but is it really a step up from GTA4 etc, I doubt it.
SpikeyMikey23
oh man you are gonna love Farcry 3. Next to COD4 it’s my game of the generation.
sponge0812
Yeah not sure why I never played it (prob too skint to buy it) so looking forward to that
freezebug2
Great article Ash, I think everyone has similar thoughts of indifference towards video gaming, it’s just part of a cycle.
I think GTA V and it’s huge hype tank, could prompt some people to think back to the anticipation and hype lavished on GTAIV and realise the dissapointment that game was to some, it could prompt people into deferring that possible same outcome by taking an unassuming view of the hype train.
Fear not though, R* have indeed worked their magic here, just give it a few weeks for the hype to die down and allow normal sevice to resume and see how you feel ;)
arrybags
I have a similar feeling towards every 1st person shooter ever made, for some reason i just dont enjoy them i hear Cod or Battlefield mentioned and i just switch off.
sponge0812
I switched from COD to BF when it came out couple of years ago and really enjoyed it, started to feel the same about 1st person shooters but BF changed my mind