2. Endless Faffing About
Sequels have to get BIGGER. That's why Sonic got lumbered with Tails and why Mario has gone from a land to a world to a galaxy over the decades. This tragic phenomenon is why the caped crusader recently outgrew the humble but exquisitely detailed confines of Arkham Asylum, exchanging that tight and slowly revealed labyrinth for a sprawling (if flavourless) city. Likewise Rockstar will likely feel the need to give us more, whilst actually giving us much less in terms of a memorable, atmospheric experience. Cue endless faffing around buying houses and micro-managing restaurants or whatever. "But you don't have to if you don't want to" I hear you cry. That's true. But GTA has always been deeply cynical about capitalism and features like this don't gel with the game's character. The in-game radio stations in GTA IV were a constant wellspring of deliciously black humour and jibes at the contradictions encountered in Western consumer society. This stuff has always been central to the GTA games, of course, yet for the first time the series seemed to be sincere rather than cynical or simply misanthropic. Shorn of the usual tiresome publicity-baiting controversy, GTA even seemed to occupy something like the moral high-ground last time around. Allowing the player to fetishise a collection of hats and fine home furnishings - as they inevitably will - means Rockstar lose the right to make that sort of commentary. Particularly if they try and sell lots of it as DLC (you know they will). But even if you don't care whether the game has any integrity or cultural merit ("it's just a game!"), consider this: if you are able to amass a small, Ian Beale-like empire of mansions, housing blocks and night clubs, then why would your character possibly need to shoot people in the streets every two and a half seconds? If he is a comfortable, rich guy who kills people for money and steals everybody's motor vehicles, then isn't he just a bit of a prick, rather than a tragic victim of circumstance? Niko Bellic might be able to buy himself a swankier pad, but you never get the impression he's more powerful than those hiring him for jobs - because that would spoil the game. In fact the bigger Niko's apartment gets - and the more expensive his clothes - the lonelier and more desperate he seems to appear.