作者：JEFF VOGEL

“《侠盗猎车手V》是美国梦的终点。”

——Dan Houser，《Rockstar》的总编辑兼VP

我想我们都同意《侠盗猎车手V》到达了游戏产业的绝对巅峰。（请点击此处阅读本文第二部分）

它在Metacritic的分数高达97，远超于其它游戏。它仅花了几天时间便赚到了超过10亿美元的收益。尽管它还不是我所期待的年度最杰出游戏，但它的确具有非常出色的表现。

GTAV（from blogspot）

是否存在任何标准（游戏邦注：不管是鉴定性的还是源自收益）能够反驳这款游戏作为我们产业中最出色的游戏？

并且是否有任何人能够看着我的眼睛并说道这不是一款有缺陷的作品？既然灰尘已经被拂去了，是否有任何人能够大胆地向前迈出并提供一个它不合格的证据？实际上，每个大方的评论都具有绝对的资格。“这是一种奇幻的体验，只要忽视[样板任务/平淡的角色/可怕的酷刑场景/歧视女人]便可。”

在失去兴趣前我玩了2/3的《侠盗猎车手V》的故事情节。这真的让我非常痛苦，因为我是个真正的《侠盗猎车手》粉丝。我支持了这一系列游戏好多年。你知道我是多么忠实吧？我完成了《侠盗猎车手IV》！说实话，谁还会做到这样？

我发现一些有趣的部分做得很好，但也有许多方面不能有效运行。这是一款重要且充满野心的游戏，它值得进行可靠的剖析。

我已经阅读过无数有关这一内容的评论和分析，并且也看到一些我想要添加的评论（这可能是来自Rockstar的人不会想看到的）。这并不是作为一些道德上的指责。从道德上来看我并没有比这系列游戏好多少。我只是一个想要再次体验这些游戏的忠实玩家。

fans（from blogspot）

不要指责评论者

评论像《侠盗猎车手V》这样的游戏是一项吃力不讨好的任务。你被带到一家酒店。你获得一个磁盘。你深深地叹了口气。你玩了10个小时的游戏。你想要喝杯烈性酒。你打出93（总分100）分。你再次想要喝杯烈性酒。

存在怎样的可替代选择？如果你说出了游戏的缺陷，你便会收到许多交战（甚至是威胁）的信息，没人会喜欢这样。然后便会有人要求你的网站给出新的评论。你可能也会因此失去广告费用（甚至是工作）。

一个典型的例子便是Carolyn Petit在Gamespot所作出的评论。这是一个正面的9/10评论，但却碰巧提到游戏“深深歧视女性”。所以那篇文章的评论中共有22000多条愤怒回帖。

评论者也是人，编辑也是人。看到如此多愤怒的箭头指向自己，甚至是一些来自网络上的匿名人士，真的让人很震惊，在此之前你甚至从未你考虑过实际的评论可能导致真正的商业惩罚。

这是一个奇特的系统，一个人决定去惩罚那些诚实的反馈，并用一些无意义的评级分数去替代它们。

一些有关歧视女性的内容

每个评论者继续传达着有关《侠盗猎车手V》游戏世界的规模，深度和细节。游戏真的非常大且具有出色的渲染。它能够真实地呈现给玩家洛杉矶这座城市。

然而，随着开发者将所有资金和努力全部投入于创造这个世界，这里还能容下什么呢？一个不是妓女，脱衣舞女或泼妇的女性角色。

让我们说清楚点。我并不是说这个世界里的任何一个故事都需要有个女人（或男人）。我所说的是《侠盗猎车手V》的故事将因为角色的多样性得到完善。这是关于一些脾气暴躁的花花公子如何朝着彼此相互埋怨40个小时。这是一些不断重复的内容，所以需要一些内容去活跃气氛。

让我们回到歧视女性的话题上。当然，《侠盗猎车手V》具有歧视妇女的表现。这并不是一个漏洞。这是一个特点。这是一个卖点。并且这也不是一种犯罪行为。有些人只是希望他们的幻想世界更加倾向于男性气概，而Rockstar正是想面向这些人去销售游戏。

如果这是你想要的，那很好。这并不是违法行为。但至少要承认它！当有人将其指出时也不要过于担心。

年轻人，你已经赢了。你创造了自己想要的游戏，你让它获得了成功。隐藏你将获得许多你想要的内容。然而，我们中的其他人仍然有权说出一些你不想听到的话。你不能阻止我们传达想法。这是游戏产业不能赋予你的权利。

《侠盗猎车手》做得很好的一些事

如果不能做一些正确的事，那便不存在任何系列能够成为这样的制度，而《侠盗猎车手V》便具有两个元素能够解释其持久的普及性。

首先，游戏世界非常巨大，并能够呈现各种细节。这是份巨大且昂贵的工作，但将创导出某种奇迹:只是徘徊在这个世界中都会很有趣。看到山上的一栋漂亮的房子了吗？你可以到那里，闲逛，找到坐在水池边的人，并杀死他们。

能够徘徊在任何你所选择的地方的乐趣便是这系列游戏的主要特征。（就像《到家》的最有趣的元素便是检查人们的东西的邪恶乐趣。我只是想到了《侠盗猎车手》和《到家》之间的联系。）

其次，开车兜风很有趣。《侠盗猎车手IV》中奇怪的驾车已经不见了，在此能够驾驶一辆跑车驰骋无数英里真的很棒。

同样地，这并未获得足够的赞赏，为角色驱动AI是让人惊喜的。我尝试了许多任务，包括在忙碌的街道上高速追逐，而所有的汽车都能更可靠地移动着，并且不会以某种笨拙的方式撞到某些东西。

这是那些很容易被低估的强大的技巧成就之一。我不能想象将所有的时间都花在做好这些工作上。

planes（from blogspot）

但那只是汽车

这是《侠盗猎车手》游戏的一个常量。他们发现团队中有人是乐趣的最大敌人，所以他们让那个人去负责飞机和直升机内容。

在这里，开车是很宽容的，如果你需要倒车，你便可以使用操纵杆轻松地做到这点。虽然这看起来很蠢。

但是当你必须停一辆飞机时，你便需要同时兼顾副翼，方向拖，螺旋桨和起落架等等。如果忽视了其中一点，你便会遭遇失败并在飞行5分多钟后再次尝试。如果你没有耐心花一个小时的时间去做这些的话，我相信XBox Skip Mission按键（这是有缺陷的游戏设计的忏悔）将会是蓝色的。

《侠盗猎车手V》做得很好的另一件事

如愿以偿。

我并不是说那种明显的如愿以偿，如通过暴力，药瘾或其它荒唐的方式。

我所说的是一些更为可靠的东西。我所谈论的是在游戏早期，三个角色中有两个角色真正拥有房子。一所带有高品位家具，良好的视野并且不用支付巨额贷款的理想房子。

玩家们所需要的只是一个支线任务，即就像能够支付让人窒息的大学贷款一样，他们也能够完成游戏。

（本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译，拒绝任何不保留版权的转载，如需转载请联系：游戏邦）

Whining About Grand Theft Auto V, Part 1. Cars Are Awesome, and Girls Are Icky.

By JEFF VOGEL

“[GTA V] is the endpoint of the American dream.”
- Dan Houser, Rockstar Head Writer and VP

I think we can all agree at this point that Grand Theft Auto V rests comfortably at the absolute pinnacle of the game industry.

Its Metacritic score is an impossibly high 97, head and shoulders above any other game anywhere ever. It took only a few days to garner over a Billion-with-a-B dollars in sales. While it’s nowhere near as dominant in the Game of the Year awards as I expected (perhaps some of the lavish acclaim has been rethought), it is still doing respectably well.

Is there any standard, critical and financial, by which this game can’t be considered the finest our industry has to offer?

And yet, is there anyone who can look me in the eye and tell me that it is not a flawed piece of work? Now that the dust has cleared, will anyone step forward and give an unqualified endorsement of it? Practically every lavish review comes with a huge qualification. “It’s a fantastic experience, just ignore the [boilerplate missions/flat characters/hideous torture scene/misogyny].”

I played through about 2/3 of the GTAV storyline before I lost interest.  This pains me greatly, because I am a huge, HUGE Grand Theft Auto fan. I have unapologetically defended the series for years. You know how serious a fan I am? I finished Grand Theft Auto IV! The whole thing! Who did that, seriously?

I found fun bits, parts that are done really well, and a lot of stuff that just doesn’t work. It is an important, ambitious title, and it deserves a solid dissection. Not just a “Fine. 10/10. Whatever. Is Battlefield 4 working yet?”

I’ve read a million reviews and analyses of this thing, and I have a few critiques I’d like to add (not that anyone from Rockstar will ever read them or care). Not as some moral scold. I’m not morally better than this series. I’m just a dedicated gamer who wants to love these games again.

At least we now know how Rockstar pictures their fans.

Don’t Blame the Reviewers

Reviewing a game like Grand Theft Auto V is an incredibly thankless task. You’re flown to a hotel. You get the disk. You let out a long sigh. You play for 10 hours straight. You go out for a stiff drink. You give it 93/100. You go out for a stiff drink.

What’s the alternative? If you actually engage the flaws of the game, you get millions of belligerent (and even threatening) messages, and NOBODY enjoys that. Then there are demands that your site does a new review. Then you might lose your advertising dollars (and your job).

A perfect example is the Gamespot review by Carolyn Petit. It’s a lavishly positive 9/10 review, that just happens to mention that the game is “profoundly misogynistic”. (Which it is.) The comments thread on the article is, as of this writing, over 22000 (!!!) posts of rage.

Reviewers are humans. Editors are humans. Having this much anger directed at you, even from anonymous ghosts over the internet, is shaking, even before you consider the real business punishment that can result from actual criticism.

It’s a bizarre system, one determined to punish honest feedback, replacing it with an avalanche of meaningless rating scores.

The next part is the one that’ll make people mad. As a calming influence, here is a bunny.

Oh, and About the Misogyny Thing

Every reviewer goes on, rightly, about the incredible scale and depth and detail of GTAV’s game world. The game is amazingly big and lovingly rendered. It does an excellent job of evoking real-life Los Angeles.

And yet, with all the money and effort that went into making the world, you know what there wasn’t room for? A single female character that wasn’t a hooker, a stripper, or a shrew.

And let’s be super clear. I’m not saying every story everywhere ever needs to have women in it (or men). But what I AM saying is that GTAV’s story would be improved by more variety in the cast. It’s all grumpy, bitter dudes grousing at each other for forty hours. It’s dour and repetitive, and it needed something to liven it up. (I’ll get back to this in detail in Part 2.)

But back to misogyny. Of course GTAV is misogynistic. It’s not a bug. It’s a feature. It’s a selling point. And that is not a crime. Some people simply want their fantasy world to be a He-Man Boy’s Club, and Rockstar is making infinite dollars selling it to them.

If that’s what you want, fine. It’s not against the law. But at least admit it! Don’t freak out when someone points out the obvious.

Young men, you already won. You got the game you wanted, and you made it a success. Thus, you will get plenty more of what you want. However, the rest of us are still allowed to say that something is gross. You can’t keep us from expressing opinions. That is one thing the game industry cannot bend over backwards to give you.

Yes, I’m about to tie Gone Home into this. This is a Difficulty Level 4 Game Critic Maneuver (DL4GCM). We’ll see if I stick the landing.

Some Things GTAV Gets Perfectly Right

No series becomes such an institution without getting some things right, and GTAV has mastered two elements that explain most of its everlasting popularity.

First, the world is mind-boggling huge and rendered to exacting detail. This sort of thing is a huge and expensive job, but it results in a kind of miracle: A world that is fun to just wander around in. See a pretty house up on a hill? You can go up there, poke around, find people sitting by the pool, and murder them.

The transgressive joy of being able to wander anywhere you want is one of the key features of the series. (Just as one of the most fun things about Gone Home is the evil pleasure of simply going through peoples’ stuff. And, yes, I did just come up with the long sought-after Grand Theft Auto-Gone Home connection. You’re welcome.)

Second, driving around is fun. The weird clumsy driving in Grand Theft Auto IV is gone, and peeling down the roads in a sports car at a zillion miles an hour is a simple good time.

Also, and this doesn’t get appreciated enough, the driving AI for the characters is amazing. I played a bunch of missions involving high-speed chases through busy streets, and all of the cars moved perfectly believably and never ran into things in dumb ways.

It’s one of those super-fiddly technical accomplishments that’s really, really easy to underrate. I can’t imagine all of the hours it must have taken to get that to work right.

Every plane offers a free one-way teleportation to the nearest hospital.

But That’s Just the Cars

It’s a constant of Grand Theft Auto games. They find the person on the team who is the biggest enemy of fun, and they put that person in charge of the planes and helicopters.

I mean, my God. The driving is so forgiving that if you roll your car onto its back (always the insta-fail kiss of death in older GTA games), you just need to waggle the joystick a few times and it magically flops back onto the tires. It looks goofy.

But when you have to land a plane, you better have your ailerons and rudders and propellors and landing gear and what-nots just so, or else! If not, well, you fail and get to try again after five more minutes of flying. If you don’t have the patience for an hour of this, I believe the XBox Skip Mission button is the blue one.

(A Skip Mission button is, itself, a confession of flawed game design, but that’s a battle for another day.)

Part two. TWO. I can’t recommend this video highly enough. Skip forward to 2:40 or so. The delight at spending only a few imaginary dollars to sleep with an imaginary stripper is the opposite of infectious.

Another Thing GTAV Gets Perfectly Right

The wish-fulfillment.

And I’m not talking about the obvious wish-fulfillment, like the violence or the drugs or the ludicrous way you can get strippers to sleep with you.

I’m talking about the little, more relatable things. In particular, I’m talking about how, early in the game, two of your three characters can actually own a house. A nice house, with tasteful furniture, a view, and no crushing mortgage I can never pay off.

You want an impossible fantasy for the young people playing the game? Can’t beat actually owning a nice house.

All they need is a side-mission in which you pay off your suffocating college debt, and the game will be complete.(source:blogspot)