GTA V Artwork
If you’ve been reading this blog for any length of time you’ll probably know that I don’t talk about gaming much. It’s really not a big part of my life these days. I should be clear before we go further that I’m talking about computer gaming here, not gambling, which I know is sometimes referred to as the “gaming” industry. I don’t have any secret gambling problems. At least not that I know, unless I’m sleep gambling.
As a kid I enjoyed computer games like any other normal child of my era. When I was little in the 80′s I watched my older brother connect his ZX Spectrum to the TV in the living room and a whole new world of opportunity seemed to open up right there. Later I got a Nintendo Entertainment System or NES after seeing my friends play them for a while. I loved that thing to death, playing Super Mario Brothers, Duck Hunt, Legend Of Zelda and many more classic games. I also played PC games as they began to take off in the early 90′s. The first Prince Of Persia was a favourite and later Doom 2 also. But as I got into my teens video games just didn’t seem to factor so much. They increasingly became less a part of my life as other things took over. Going out, seeing gigs, playing in bands, social life and all the things you do at that age. I briefly got into the odd game here or there, but it’s not been a big part of my life since childhood.
Having said all of this there’s one, and only one, BIG exception to that rule. One series of games I will do anything to play, cross the road just to hear about and give me left kidney for. Grand Theft Auto. I’ve said this many times before but offer me the chance to be a wizard, an elf or some kind of mythical dragon warrior from space and my answer will most likely be “piss off”. Nothing could sound more boring. But give me the chance to be Tony Soprano or Al Capone and I’ll bite your bloody arm off Luis Suarez style before you’ve finished the sentence. I just love the characters, the humour and the rich worlds they build in the GTA games. GTA 4 was the whole reason I got a PS3. I got the console just to play that game. Many years before that I bought a PS2 pretty much so I could play Vice City, San Andreas and the like. It says something about the power of this franchise that it can still drive someone totally disengaged with video game culture like myself to buy a console.
Right now the clock is ticking and Grand Theft Auto 5 is due out in September of this year. Rockstar games have just released 3 new trailers introducing the main characters and I can’t wait. It’s so damn exciting!
Is it September yet? Why the hell not?!
Dan
