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Played_Out on 19 January 2008
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fazz said:
Played_Out said:
Third, and by far the most important: regardless of sales, GTA: SA claims the moral victory by being an infinitely superior game on every level. Hell, the frickin' mini-games in SA are more complex than Mario's 2D outings.

But I guess since this is a sales site, that argument is not gonna hold a lot of water... and will likely get me a lot of abuse from pre-teens and Peter Pan-types.

Why the pre-teens? Pre-teens are the most avid GTA fans out there.



Ha ha. That is true. Little boys love reckless destruction even more than us grown ups! To be honest, that comment was intended as little more than a preemptive dig at Mario fans - the thread title did say "fight" after all!. However, I think it is still fair to say that GTA has a great deal more to offer adults than a simple platformer. Children may enjoy the violence without restraint, but much of the social satire is likely to go over their heads, and the countless allusions littered throughout the game require a degree of cultural capital that kids are unlikely to possess.

@ famine

I knew that using the term "moral victory" would be controversial, but killing people in a game can hardly be considered a moral issue. The notion of "fun" is entirely subjective, but the issue of complexity is not. And San Andreas adds a great deal that had not been in previous games.
Among SA's additions to the franchise are numerous weapons and vehicles, including trains, a jet-pac and fighter planes that can be used for dogfighting. It also added swimming, wall-climbing (not just for crackheads), parachuting, police on bikes, an active stats system, character and vehicle customisation, gang recruitment, girlfriends, burglary missions (incorporating a simple stealth mechanic), several types of gambling, and numerous mini-games such as pool, a couple of retro arcade games and some simple rhythm games. The amount of additional content was truly immense, and certainly way beyond any additions made to instalments of the Mario franchise.