Characters Welcome...

[BlackListedB]

To borrow a cable TV phrase. This thread is to gauge your feelings after playing and having the game in your own sweaty hands, what do you think about having the multiple playables? 

 

Many people argued left and right about playing as a 40 to 50 something male would not be in keeping with the action activities of GTA, like riding a BMX bike for example, when in fact, I own more then one myself. I've been a fan of BMX biking since the earliest 1980s, and custom cars, so that's a direct influence to GTA admiration right there, I like that the normal GTA character is someone who's flawed but not entirely unlikable as an anti-hero sort. Real people with real issues, and then some, in the case of Trevor Philips. So... After the game shows you what these characters are all about, have your feelings changed, or prior to release perceptions on what was expected?

 

What changes might Rockstar make as the series moves forward, now that we have this formula expanding from the GTA IV games?

[LaurieX]

I think the people who argued that "a 48 [roughly, Townley's headstone said 1965...or were they referring to Trevor?] year old guy on a BMX" didn't fit were thinking narrow-mindedly there. CJ didn't really fit in the cockpit of a Shamal, as the storyline placed him...twice. Not that I'm racist, but I don't see very many young black guys from the hood with a pilot's license. I didn't really see Luis Lopez driving a golf cart either. But I guess the point of GTA is to do/see things that you wouldn't normally do/see, right? I mean, while keeping within a somewhat "plausible" reality that all GTAs are based in.

 

So these character/vehicle pair-ups I mentioned were forced together by the storyline. However, I don't recall any of the V characters being forced onto a BMX by the storyline. If it was done, it was done by the player's choice. And then they go and complain that they had the ability to do it.

 

But I really don't pay much attention to other people's opinions. I have this strange, uncanny ability to form my own! I don't mind hearing other people's thoughts, constructive viewpoints, but any opinion that contains the pseudo-word "sux", my brain puts on permanent ignore.

 

So the three characters. I never had a negative opinion on it. I knew I was in good hands with Rockstar, and they don't exactly have a reputation of producing garbage. So I looked forward to it. I know it wouldn't quite be the same, but it would be like playing GTAIV, TBoGT and TLaD simultaneously. (Google: "The Possible Trinity".) Only difference being that the three protags rarely ever had contact with each other.

 

Having three protags opened up a new dynamic, with new possibilities. More new things to try, and a whole new bunch of "I wonder what would happen if I made em do THIS?" like, letting Trevor into Michael's house by having Mikey hold the door open for him.

 

But what I wonder is... how many people actually chose their own MAIN protagonist? I'm not sure why, but I chose Mike. But not on purpose. When I think about things in my head, I think of them as "Me, Trevor and Franklin". Just caught myself doing that one day, and made me realize that I guess I relate to Michael's way of thinking, or maybe way of life, more so than the others. I'm not black a black kid from the ghetto, nor am I a tweaking hillbilly... but the game didn't have an intelligent young brunette from a broken home, so Michael became the closest thing.

 

I would love to see more outside-the-box stuff like this from Rockstar. BUT, not sooo outside the box that they turn into Saints Row IV (just...wow), but still staying inside a more or less "real-world" environment.

 

And that's just my $0.02.

[LDoubleU]

I enjoyed playing as all the characters apart from Trevor really. Don't get me wrong, I love Trevor as a character but his missions just annoyed me a bit to be honest, I much preferred Michael and Franklins' missions. I wasn't sure I was going to like the whole character switching thing at first but it brings a whole new extremely useful dynamic to the game and I now can't imagine not having it.

[BlackListedB]

Ultimately it's an Adult game catering to adults who've already seen plenty of R rated movies, if not X, eh!? And music that's uncensored, but as far as active adults or those that fit a GTA Do Anything philosophy, I think the way I've seen Michael so far in the game, he's a bit over-blown in the characterization though no doubt some adults might act strangely similar, I wonder if it's a certain mindset that pervades the end result characters that can't help but come from an outsider's perspective, in simpler terms, the designers who help create more then one key characters are themselves from a specific age, background, perspective that has to still translate to multiple characters in the game, so all walks of lives and personalities are the real palette in the game design, a challenge each time out (in making a successor)

 

I guess I should put it out there again, should we have GENDER SWITCHING in future GTAs?!? I think even a simple idea of that and police or FIB as characters we can play, then switch to the other side of the tracks in the same game would be very interesting, and I think Rockstar have to pick up on this quite soon!

Edited October 14, 2013 by BlackListedB

[LDoubleU]

I like the idea of being able to hop the fence so to speak and play as the police.

 

I am not sure how well that would lend itself to the story mode but certainly in online that would be good maybe when you join a session you can select a 'criminal character' or a 'cop character' to play as and maybe if you play as a cop you would get notified of other players in the session committing crimes and you get like a last known whereabouts area on the map and you hunt them down.

 

As for the female character thing, I do think that needs to happen all of the women I have spoken to who play GTA V have said 'It's great, absolutely brilliant, but you would have thought they might have made one of the playable characters a woman...'

[BlackListedB]

I don't think it would present a huge shift in gaming dynamic and it might be the most interesting evolution to have you play as a woman who's also by characterization of the game itself, a strong female lead, I'm hoping I chose the right words here, since it's not really a Role Model as a lead character in any GTA game! hahaha