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With depressing predictability, I thought I might as well bookend last week's pre-GTA5 Letter from America with a post-GTA5 piece. Because let's face it, how could I not talk about the most-talked about game this week? And indeed the most shouted about, complained about, controversed about etc etc etc.I decided not to evoke executive privilege and review the game myself, and instead let our guy Mike Williams do the honours. His take - like many others' - is that GTA5 is a phenomenal game, but one that left him feeling somewhat conflicted. He enjoyed playing it, but sometimes felt disturbed by the characters' actions and choices. I felt the same way, but even more so. So much so, indeed, that I ended up writing an editorial on USgamer about my love-hate relationship with the game. I started out with an open mind, but it didn't take long before I began to skip the character dialogue, simply because I didn't find the story or the characters particularly compelling or likable.
For me, GTA5's magic is easily summed up by my two-and-a-half-hour play session last night, when I decided it was time to completely open up the map and spent the entire time driving around every road I could find (and some areas that didn't have any). It blows my mind just how expansive, rich and detailed GTA5's environment is, and how stupendously terrific its lighting and atmospheric effects are. One of my most jaw-dropping moments so far was when I drove around the corner of a side road and found myself looking across a small reservoir with Los Santos in the distance, just as the sun was setting. I sat there for about 10 minutes watching the sun go down, marvelling at what I was seeing.
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