I finally put a few hours into GTA 5 this week, although I'm still incredibly early on. A few things I've noticed, good and bad, so far: I wish I could save pictures without needing Xbox Live Gold; the music is great and makes me delay triggering the next part of a mission; visually it's impressive but jaggy, and the frame rate could be smoother; I can't use the iFruit app because I don't have Xbox Live Gold; and the game world is massive.
It's undoubtedly a lot of fun, but it's a game that I feel I'll struggle to play in the large chunks of time it deserves. Little 30-minute sessions don't feel like they'll cut it, and I can play a full game of FIFA 14 in that time.
There's a reason not many other games are coming out currently, and that's the fear, and playtime, GTA 5 and FIFA 14 manage to eat up. Like many, it's the same with me.
Where the former is concerned, after throwing hours of time into it I genuinely think it's the finest GTA game ever made. With more to do than any other title in the franchise, it's relaxed nature, for lack of a better term, makes it so easy to dip in for a few hours and just do whatever you want. Before this Vice City would've taken that crown, but the most recent imagining of San Andreas is so entertaining just to exist within.
FIFA, too, is an excellent update to last year's, and while EA seems to be content on building on a very strong foundation - which is hard to argue against given how popular it seems to be - I'm more intrigued than ever about the next-gen versions. Word on the street is they do play differently.
Finally, Darts Night. If you haven't played it, get it!
Forget the extreme weather, lack of food and hooded gangs: The San Andreas homeless have never faced a greater threat than my lovable little Chop. Chop hates the homeless. I have no idea why. But after taking him on a walk through the urban decay of the city earlier in the week, I've learned to avert the Los Santos slums if I want to avoid getting into a bloodbath.
It all started with an innocent game of fetch. Throwing his ball down the road ahead, Chop set off at breakneck speed to return it. But rather than pick up the ball, Chop decided to sink his teeth into a local beggar instead, pouncing on a homeless man innocently propped up against the support beam of a freeway overpass.
There was no point in calling him back. The man was already dead. I stood over his bloodied body, accidentally kicking his teeth in after pressing the wrong button. And before I knew it, Chop had set upon another, embarking on his own mini-rampage of clearing out the city of the homeless. Barks and terrified screams rang throughout the slums. I got in a car and drove back home. I don't know what happened to his ball.
While everyone else has been hammering FIFA, I've been playing PES instead, mostly in local multiplayer. And, much like PES 2013, it looks like it's going to become my primary football game this year. If you think that sounds like madness, then know this: I don't mind if teams aren't licensed, or if Rafael has a head that looks like a horror movie prop, because, for me, it plays a better game of football. And, crucially, FIFA's kits look about three sizes too big for the players wearing them. Call that authenticity? NONSENSE.
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