The Student Room Group
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>
Competition - post a photo you've taken of nature >>
Uni students - Complete our survey >>

GTA 5 is a work of art

Scroll to see replies

Original post by MostUncivilised

It's noteworthy that you failed to mention the satirical elements, the script, the voice-acting... essentially, all the artistic elements of note. Perhaps the cars, the guns etc were at the top of your mind such that you didn't really have much regard for the quality of the writing?


I did kinda mention it, just not as specifically as you did. The voice actors were well chosen (the guy who voiced Trevor even looks like Trevor, it's a touch scary) but they weren't ground-breaking; just following a script (the dialogue side of which I mentioned). The satirical elements were typical of a GTA game and again, they weren't ground-breaking. The attention to detail with regard to the satiricism was pretty high, but not enough.

For a game to be a masterpiece, you need to critically assess all parts of the game. Maybe you were right to say guns and cars were at the top of my mind, but you've completely neglected to mention those and other similar aspects of the game so far. And it's those aspects of the game that are tied in with the overall gameplay of it that should also go under a critical assessment (mine being that as they have remained essentially the same throughout the GTA series since Vice City, with minor changes [and some additions] in the vehicles, driving system, guns/gunplay, they aren't exactly a landmark in the videogame experience).
I argued as much for my dissertation :h:
Original post by mikeyd85
It isn't on PC. I bought a PS3 to play it which I have since sold. It is a PS exclusive.


OHHHHH yes, of course!

Get the PS4:biggrin: there are so many good deals out there....
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Hal.E.Lujah
I argued as much for my dissertation :h:


Horie ****!

You actually wrote a dissertation on it!

What did you get for it?
Reply 84
Avatar for pjm600
pjm600
18
As art, I thought it was weak. A shell of a game.

For art, Dear Esther would take some beating.
Original post by Drunk Punx

For a game to be a masterpiece.


When did I call it a masterpiece? If I did, I'll reassess that. But please point out where I did call it that
Original post by Solemn Rain
OHHHHH yes, of course!

Get the PS4:biggrin: there are so many good deals out there....


Nah, not yet. I wanna wait for it to come down in price first. My PC is much more powerful than any console, so I'll stick with that for now, then get the WiiU for all the Mario games and then a PS4 for exclusives. I had an Xbox One and I just don't feel the exclusives for that will be worth me going back. Forza isn't the racing game I want, Halo isn't a shooter I want and Gears of War is just something I don't want.
Original post by Hal.E.Lujah
I argued as much for my dissertation :h:


Oh sweet :smile: Is there any possibility you could post even just a small excerpt?
it really isnt
a) Map is smaller than San Andreas and far less to do in terms of buying houses etc and the northern part of the map nothing to do
b) Poor gameplay, I was expecting logarithmic progression not minor tweaks like submarines and planes and taking away dating
c) Short Storyline like 3 heists
d) The characters are poor, you dont really get to know them and they do stuff with out asking you like the black guy goes on dates etc
e) The Police are mental and go too far this was a change done to appease the media
f) You can use shortcuts in missions, in Liberty Cit you could do a 30 minute mission in 3 minutes by killing the guy in GTA 5 the guy is invincible so you have to follow him for a while before you can shoot
g) Shops hardly any customization and like 3 hair styles wtf

Overall its a just like GTA Liberty City with better graphics not a game that took 5 years to make and absolutely changes the industry
Original post by MostUncivilised
When did I call it a masterpiece? If I did, I'll reassess that. But please point out where I did call it that


Solid question. I actually have no idea. In the OP you said "master parody of..." and "superb work of art", I guess my mind just skipped straight to adding the above two and coming out with "masterpiece" (an easy, if perhaps false, assumption to make).

I'll give you the masterful parody, but work of art? Hmm. Not convinced. As a game it gets at least 9/10 for me, but as others and myself have pointed out, it has its' downfalls.
Original post by mikeyd85
Nah, not yet. I wanna wait for it to come down in price first. My PC is much more powerful than any console, so I'll stick with that for now, then get the WiiU for all the Mario games and then a PS4 for exclusives. I had an Xbox One and I just don't feel the exclusives for that will be worth me going back. Forza isn't the racing game I want, Halo isn't a shooter I want and Gears of War is just something I don't want.


Well, I'm glad the XBONE is not on your mind! :lol: PS4 FTW xD and Wii haha:biggrin:
I'd love to get the wii too, but my main concern now is building a gaming PC :tongue:
I have three things already: the motherboard, psu and cpu, these are fairly new parts(a year old) and high end which I got 2nd hand from a friend:smile:
Feel free to give me advice on what graphics cards to get, case etc :h:
(edited 9 years ago)
Original post by Drunk Punx
but work of art?.


I don't think it can be denied that it's a work of art. Even the crappiest game is a form of artistic expression. I used the term "work of art" in a lofty sense, but in fact any computer game, any film, any TV show, is artistic. Anything that involves a script is inherently a work of artistic expression; the question is how it is judged, not whether it is art
GTA V is far better than GTA 5.

(ahem)
Sometimes I think it's a work of art, but then my car gets impounded and I have to steal another car to drive to the impound and then the owner of the car puts a bounty on my head and then every nutter in the game chases me around tossing grenades at me.
Original post by Solemn Rain
Horie ****!

You actually wrote a dissertation on it!

What did you get for it?




Got a 1st :h:


Original post by MostUncivilised
Oh sweet :smile: Is there any possibility you could post even just a small excerpt?



Erm I can make the same points but I'd rather avoid that until my degree certificate is safe in my hands at the end of July :ninja:
Original post by Hal.E.Lujah

Erm I can make the same points but I'd rather avoid that until my degree certificate is safe in my hands at the end of July :ninja:


No worries at all, if you're waiting on your degree cert I can entirely understand. Please do share it with us when you're able (and of course only if you want to), I'd be fascinated to see it

It is only in the last 5 years or so that video games have reached the "blockbuster" level of Hollywood movies in terms of budgets. It has had a profound effect on the popular culture, and I think it's a fascinating area of scholarly inquiry
Original post by MostUncivilised
No worries at all, if you're waiting on your degree cert I can entirely understand. Please do share it with us when you're able (and of course only if you want to), I'd be fascinated to see it

It is only in the last 5 years or so that video games have reached the "blockbuster" level of Hollywood movies in terms of budgets. It has had a profound effect on the popular culture, and I think it's a fascinating area of scholarly inquiry




At the very least, they deserve articulated academic scrutiny because of their intrinsic sociological teaching. I'm not arguing GTA teaches you to kill people, but something I explored in my Disso was the reward systems in most games. In something like Mass Effect, the distinctly negative outcome you get from some endings implies a heavy time investment bias. Or in shooting games, the stronger guns are harder to reach rather than easier - advocating a meritocratic societal model.


Not sure if that makes any sense but yeah :h:
Original post by MostUncivilised
I don't think it can be denied that it's a work of art. Even the crappiest game is a form of artistic expression. I used the term "work of art" in a lofty sense, but in fact any computer game, any film, any TV show, is artistic. Anything that involves a script is inherently a work of artistic expression; the question is how it is judged, not whether it is art


Semantics, but I'll agree with you on that principle nonetheless. You described it as a "superb work of art". Was that basically your way of saying "a good game"? :P
Because I think that everyone would agree, regardless of whether they like those kind of games or not, that objectively it fits all the criteria of what a "good game" should be (it's entertaining, it's big, it's got a plot, various characters, decent graphics, multiplayer and solo features, etc).

This thread was basically saying "I like GTA V, do you?", and somehow we've managed to get from that to "what is art?". Only on TSR :lol:

That being said, I don't think that everything that has been described as art can be called art. Tracy Emin's dirty bedroom, for example. It's a ****ing bedroom. Mine is currently in need of a tidy, that feature of my bedroom doesn't make it art. Or the pile of bricks (Equivalent VIII) that the Tate bought. Then again, if one were so inclined they could say that said pile of bricks brought so much public attention, specifically the question of whether it was art or not, that that quality in itself made it out to be art. From a builders perspective, however, it's just a pile of bricks. And they didn't even bother to build a wall with them :sad:
Original post by MostUncivilised
No worries at all, if you're waiting on your degree cert I can entirely understand. Please do share it with us when you're able (and of course only if you want to), I'd be fascinated to see it

It is only in the last 5 years or so that video games have reached the "blockbuster" level of Hollywood movies in terms of budgets. It has had a profound effect on the popular culture, and I think it's a fascinating area of scholarly inquiry


+1 for the read.

To add to this too, GTA 5 took $1 billion in 3 days, or two thirds of what the entire music industry does in a month and three times what Iron Man 3 took in it's opening weekend.

It's so funny too when people seem to laugh at us gamers for being weird and nerdy and not down with popular culture! :lol:
Original post by mikeyd85
To add to this too, GTA 5 took $1 billion in 3 days, or two thirds of what the entire music industry does in a month and three times what Iron Man 3 took in it's opening weekend.

But how much of that comes down to "OMG, GTA IV may have been pretty bad, but before that they were good, so this must be good. OMG, it's been 5 years it must definately be good, OMG OMG OMG OMG."

Quick Reply

Related discussions

Latest

Trending

Trending

Articles for you