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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas review

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       Grand Theft Auto  is the King of Controversy in video games. There's been talk about how they're a bad influence on kids, contain inappropriate content, and are a glorification of crime. It's also a game series I, until recently, never really played. It's not that I paid these accusations any attention, it's more that crime games weren't my thing until recently. I preferred to be the hero and, as a result, missed out on some extremely interesting stories.     I actually tried to get into the GTA-series with  Grand Theft Auto IV  and its spinoff, the  Ballad of Gay Tony . However, the learning curve was too much for me. I really needed a tutorial for  Grand Theft Auto IV  and was under the mistaken impression that wrecking your car was a bad thing as opposed to an inevitability. The  Ballad of Gay Tony  was a poor way of easing me into the series because my first real mission was Luis killing thirty or so c...
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Grand Theft Auto V and its treatment of women

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        Grand Theft Auto  is a series which is no stranger to accusations of sexism and misogyny. The original "prostitute refund" controversy, where you have sex with one before killing her to retake your money, was one of the early means by which Jack Thompson mischaracterized the series as a "murder simulator." Worse,  Grand Theft Auto 3  ended with the possible execution of Maria Latore after she begins discussing her new life with Claude. This is in addition to the games including a bevy of strip clubs, psycho ex-girlfriends, and victimized housewives.     On my end, I've always felt  Grand Theft Auto  was a series with slightly progressive attitude to the double X chromosome set. At least compared to the rest of the video game industry. Women are never prevalent in GTA's character roster and are, more often than not, objects of lust. However, Catalina and Asuka were major figures in their respective games. GTA IV lacked f...
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Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

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       Grand Theft Auto  is a series I like to call a "Catharsis Simulator" where we get to briefly turn off our brains for a time to enjoy ourselves. You can read more about my opinion of such things in this essay:     The series is all about being a criminal, enjoying the fruits of your ill-gotten gains, and engaging in reckless mayhem as an alternative to the humdrum joys of real-life. If you haven't tried them out, you're probably one of the few gamers who haven't but I suggest everyone do so. It's not going to be everyone's taste but, for those who enjoy them, they're great.      Grand Theft Auto: Vice City  is considered by many to be the turning point in the series. Whereas  Grand Theft Auto III  was where the series became famous, GTA:VC is where I felt its combination of wacky characters and mayhem reached its perfect mixture. While  Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas  was my first game in the series, I've si...
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REVIEW / Vampire Therapist (PC)

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  It’s always nice to come across something new and unexpected. This is something that happens in gaming when genres merge or when two ideas that are just crazy enough to go together birth something pleasantly surprising. It’s not often I’m wowed anymore, (old, grumpy, and jaded,) but wowed I am and I’m rather looking forward to telling you lot all about  Vampire Therapist , the PC game on the slate for today I have to admit I wasn’t expecting great things when I picked up  Vampire Therapist . I like the vampire genre in all its gory, gothic, glory and I wasn’t sure I wanted one of the only areas of the horror genre that I enjoy messing about with. This is very much a case of don’t knock it till you’ve tried it and this visual novel come therapy SIM is just off the wall enough to make for some very entertaining play. Some of my teammates are going to come looking for me with pitchforks for saying this, but the simple fact that I’m saying nice things about a visual novel i...
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Pokemon Go celebrates the holidays and new games

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  Between the coming holidays and the release of  Pokemon Sword  and  Shield, Pokemon Go  is in a celebratory mood. With this comes new events and developments for trainers worldwide. Already, in celebration of the newest pair of main series games, the Poison and Fairy type Galarian Weezing has begun to appear in four-star raids. Along with this new form of a familiar Pokemon come new clothing options based on the protagonists of  Sword  and  Shield , and based on information from dataminers, these are only the game’s first representatives from the Galar region. Next up, Niantic has announced that Team Go Rocket will be stepping up its invasion big time on November 24th. From 11:00 AM to 1:00 PM (local time) on Sunday, Team Go Rocket Grunts will take over every single PokeStop in the game.  This is presumably meant to help players complete the Special Research mission focused on fighting these villains, but new Field Research will become avai...
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