GTA V - what are your thoughts?

I am a big fan of the Grand Theft Auto series. My favourite one has to be the London version - back when it was "top-down" gameplay.

Picture courtesy of Wikipedia

As the years have gone on, games in general have become better developed. You can play online with friends, keep fit with different platforms' motion sensors, you can even play some games in 3D!

Grand Theft Auto is a big title in the gaming industry. When GTA V was released last week, it was estimated that over 1.5 million copies were sold in the UK in the first three days alone! On the weekend this report from Metro states that £1 billion worth of copies had been sold!

So what makes it so popular?

Picture courtesy of Rockstar Games

That's a question I can't answer personally. The reason I enjoy it is because I see it as a great outcome from stress. You spend all day doing housework, the kids come home from school and take 2 minutes to ruin your spotless living room! They decide they don't want what you've cooked them for dinner and they WON'T do their homework. They're too cool for a bath, bedtime is after 11pm and you feel like screaming from the rooftop! STRESS! Anyone with girls that are pre-teens will get what I mean! Playing on GTA, driving around, shooting whoever I want relieves my stress. I don't smoke or drink, a stress ball wouldn't last me long, so doing something I enjoy (gaming) helps - with the added bonus of building up my gamerscore of course!

"But the violence?!" I hear you scream.

There have been so many news reports about the link between the GTA games and violence. This report from last week shows a prime example! A man was attacked 80 minutes after picking up his copy of the game. Cue the outcry! "That's why it shouldn't be allowed!", "That's awful, the developers must pay!", etc etc. But is it really the developers fault? Is it the game's fault? I don't think so! Just because I can willing pay a prostitute then beat her with a baseball bat in the game doesn't mean I want to do it in real life! I certainly don't go around pinching cars, running people over, smashing through hospital windows in real life. And I certainly don't run away from the police! A few family members enjoy playing it too, they're not out doing that either! So why the bad stigma? The game was centred in that report, as well as many others, when they also stole a watch and phone from the victim. If further reports are true, they are 14, 16 and 17 - why was a 14 year old at 1am? What were his parents doing and why didn't they care or know their son was out on the streets?

These games have an age rating of 18+. The problems lie when parents don't take note of this and buy the game for their 7 year old. I wrote a post a while back about it then and I am going to mention it again now. If you are a parent and your child is asking you for a game, please do some research on it first! Because, yet again, in Asda yesterday, there was a young boy with his mother (I can only guess) buying GTA V. Even though I think the relation between the game and violence is exaggerated, I won't let any of the kiddies play on it! I don't even play it around them. But that's down to the fact of the language that's used, for which you'd expect on a game such as this. I wouldn't want J to repeat one of the words used whilst he was in school!! I'd be mortified.

Do you think the game is to blame? Or is it just parents too oblivious? I would love to hear your thoughts!

It's not all bad.....

I've just found myself daydreaming. I do this quite often when I'm not doing anything in particular. I sit for a few minutes and just lose myself in the make-believe land in my mind. Each time it's different than the last. For those of you who have read Enid Blyton's The Faraway Tree, it's a bit like the magical land at the top of the tree. You never know what you're going to see up there!

What was I seeing this time? My 3 eldest children playing on the Xbox. To be more precise, playing Minecraft on the Xbox. Hang on, I'll be even more precise, they were building magnificent castles, fortresses, houses on Minecraft, on the Xbox.

Rewind back to the real world a moment. Minecraft is their favourite game at the moment. I'll guess that it'll be Baby B's as soon as he's old enough to understand too! In Minecraft they can do as they please. They can build things, break things, the girls like building houses, decorating and furnishing them. J just likes setting their houses on fire, or spawning animals inside! Yes, he's mean!

So many people are quick to blast video games. I remember a report a while back about the violence in games like Grand Theft Auto saying that the games were to blame for a high number of crimes. I have never heard so much rubbish in my life! I love the Grand Theft Auto series and have been known to play it to release my "stress"! But just because I like bashing a few cars about, or smashing some things up with a baseball bat DOES NOT mean I want to do it in real life!

However, one thing in this report that I did agree with was the age limits of these games! Take Saints Row 3 (I won't link up just in case, but feel free to do your own research) - a game similar to GTA, you can pinch and ride around in cars, beating and smashing things on your journey. Except, this one has something different. It's called "The Penetrator" - and, as I did, you only have to guess at what it is by the name. It's a weapon at least. Back in December, I was sat in our local Sainsbury's cafe with my girls when a family walked in at sat at the table next to us. The little boy, couldn't have been any older than 9, had a copy of SR3 in his hand and was excitingly inspecting the case and telling his sister, who looked about 5, about what he was going to do when he got home to play on it.

I was sat gobsmacked and amazed that his parents had bought this game for him. The age restriction is clearly shown on the front as 18+ so why did they buy this for him? I couldn't understand, so asked his mother if she realised what the game contained. Her reply? "It's what he likes to play on so it's fine by us." Here I am, sat in the middle of the cafe, with my mouth wide open. Kind of an " :O " moment. I couldn't believe my ears! Was she serious?! So I told her again. Then I proceeded to telling the sales assistant at the customer services desk. They informed me there was nothing they could do because his mum had bought it!

This has to be a joke! But what could I do? I went home that day hoping that his mother would see some sense!

Every game the kids play on, I make sure I know what it contains. This normally means I have to play a few hours of it first, but I'm not complaining! I call myself a "Gamer" and, although I haven't much time for it anymore, I love getting the Kinect on and doing some "exercise" with Just Dance or rocking out on Guitar Hero! But at least I know my kids are safe.

Anyway, back to Minecraft. In my daydream the girls were building a huge mansion. A bedroom each for everyone, a playroom for each of them and the boys, a bathroom each so J couldn't run it while they were having a shower (told you he was mean!), a big room for daddy so he can watch Game of Thrones in peace whilst kicking other people's butts on Fifa, and lastly - a huge kitchen for mum. (Umm, thanks kids, dad gets to relax, mum gets to cook? Story of my life!)

But, it got me thinking, well daydreaming. Even J is pretty good at building things - he specialises in Angry Bird models at the moment and has been trying to do Moshi Monsters too. He has mentioned doing some Skylanders but gave up after spending hours working on a portal for T to come along and destroy it (she called it payback!).

So, not only does it keep the kids from almost killing each other when they're bored, it make them use their creative part of their brains!

Here we have J in the top left corner, C in the top right and T in the bottom left. I especially like the treehouse C has made although it's not a very good picture. But it goes to show what you can do on there.

Do you let your children play video games? Which ones do they like? And what are your opinions on Age Restrictions?