2. Up The Social Aspect
Heres one thatll stir up the comment section. Grand Theft Auto players are happy to stab people, shoot people, bludgeon people; run over, burn and explode people. But ask them to spend time with people - to take them out for dinner and go play pool - and theyre liable to get angry: Niko Bellics social life is to GTA fans what his killing prostitutes is to Jack Thompson. Admittedly, it can be a bother. When youve just finished murdering an entire strip-club of gangsters, a chirpy phone call from your comic relief cousin is an unwelcome interruption to your post-slaughter brood. But usually its a lot of fun: When youre not car jacking and hotfooting to avoid the cops, taking a cruise with Brucie is the best way to see Liberty City. And it feeds you a lot of backstory; Niko and Romans pained exchanges about life in Serbia are a handy framing device for your sociopathic impulses. Theres the internet, where you can read sympathetic emails from your disappointed mother, and a dating service filled with spoilt, deviant spinsters. Patrick, Dwayne and everyone else you hang out with are your tickets to Liberty Citys complex social scene, ambassadors for the different races and gangs that make up Rockstars Faux York City. You can ignore them if you like, but its a disservice to GTA IVs rich narrative. As a compromise, Rockstar could weave your GTA social life into the daily crime routine: You and your friends could swap anecdotes en route to missions. But with a bigger city to explore and potentially hundreds of characters to meet, lets hope the social aspect of GTA V is more involved than ever.