Plus the union busting controversies and the fact that V is overrated and has imo a quality of writing deterioration from IV approaching the level of a Bethesda game.

In other news, I finally got 100 % in the good version of San Andreas. (pictured, the tutorial screen I got after I wanted to go on a rampage with the free tank to celebrate)

Absolute banger of a game, a definite masterpiece. Even as updates have taken away songs from the radio, or the ability to mod the game (which I was never able to get back without having the game become too unstable). Annoyingly, there was a bug that caused it to freeze for good whenever some menus loaded in, requring a restart. Especially in clothes’ stores and, most annoyingly, the racing minigames. Those were a pain, also especially with how AI traffic likes to change lanes with no warning and make you crash.

The early game and the Las Venturas part are by far the best. San Fierro’s story is kinda weak compared to the rest of the game, and the return to Los Santos is kinda monotonous in forcing you to take over a set amount of gang territories before you are allowed to get to the final mission, especially after that excellent Casino Robbery arc in LV and other iconic missions, such as the one where you get the jetpack. But basically my only bone to pick with the story is how Ryder’s betrayal and character arc were handled. That is alleged to be due to a dispute between Rockstar and the VA.

100%-ing the game for the first time took me 37 hours. In a more modern game, probably double that. The 2000s were truly the peak of gaming, and I am saying this because of my own age’s bias. Hardware that was suddenly technically advanced enough to allow experimentation and ambitious projects, but not enough to allow the current amounts of bloat or free money features.