Gameguru Mania

ggrobot · Elite Member Joined: 28 May 2004 Posts: 45748

GameSpot has posted

a new preview of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the next iteration in the globally successful Grand Theft Auto franchise. Here's a taster:

Now, while it's clear Rockstar wants you to keep CJ fed in the game, just chowing down on anything and everything isn't going to do you any favor

Read more...

Source: GGMania headlines
GGMania.com - Daily Gaming and Tech news

nobodyspecial · Contributor Joined: 02 Jul 2004 Posts: 3

I don't care about eating in GTA at all, I'd rather they work on gameplay mechanics than eating. If I wanted to play an eating RPG I don't really think I'd want to get GTA: San Andreas to do it. People get GTA to jack cars and murder people, throwing eating mechanics into it is a neat idea but it will just hinder the game play for most people. Oh well, this series has done pretty much at it can do it seems...might as well make someone a fatass while doing it.

alfred nonymous · Guest

Yeah, really. I thought this was a joke when I first read it. I'm still skeptical. Why on Earth would anyone think that devoting resources to this feature would be cost-effective, appealing to GTA fans, or a good idea?

Unlike almost every other commercial artform, it's extremely easy to make a good sequel to a good game. You take the lauded elements of the first good game and improve them. That's all. There will be 500 more "Street Fighter" fighting games made, but no more "Mortal Kombat" RPGs.

I can imagine the design meeting now: "If we leverage our experience with virtual pets - a multimillion dollar industry - with GTA's success, we could outsell Pokemon!"

And even if virtual pets were the way to go to broaden the game's appeal, didn't anyone stop to consider that the fat aspect might not be the best for sales? Gaming is a sedentary activity. The "biggest" GTA4 fans probably fit that description literally and figuratively. You won't find fast food companies, comfy chair sellers or candy manufacturers poking fun at porkers... I'm not sure if it's a wise business decision for a game company to bite the flabby hands that feed them.

But what really bothers me is that the feature seems detailed... yet utterly superfluous. As if they ran out of "good" new ideas to spend time implementing... so in went the kitchen sink. I get the feeling this is going to be GTA3 part 2 + random crap rather than a true evolutionary sequel.