The Rusty Exhaust Pipe (or “The Cost Of Health Care In the USA”)

I’ve now had 2 weeks to play test GTA and get comfortable with it. While I was playing this game, I often had this picture of a second hand racing car in my mind : its engine is upgraded and fixed, the exterior is given a new paint finish and the whole car is thoroughly spring cleaned and polished . The car is now ready for the new racing season and will easily thrash the other contenders despite the presence of a rusty exhaust pipe that was left unchecked in the frantic rush to get the car ready for the next racing season.

Earlier, I wrote that lots of things had been cut from the previous versions ( custom soundracks, planes, driving tests etc) which I put down to the need for a new direction for the series. Now I believe that they simply ran out of time to implement these features or were unable to put them in because of lack of disc space. There is also a peculiar lack of “polish” missing from the racing section of the game : often there are no races available and races where you do actually race are so easy to finish because all you need is a good car : the AI opposition always have lower quality cars and they can’t drive around corners to save their lives..

But the thing that surprised me most was the “rusty exhaust pipe” itself : the constant setting “cost of health care” . I was unable to find its value in the game but assume it is calculated as a percentage of your current money amount . Needless to say, I found that each time I died in this game ( I am at 55% complete) it cost me 10,000 dollars to be fixed. So what? Well, when you are doing missions , you are awarded anything from 1k to 10k : and lets not forget the amazing 500 $ the game awards me for making the effort to do some races and win after 5 laps! So health care is expensive in the states? Well , of course, but this is a game isnt it? How frustrating for a game to put you in a situation where you are encouraged to do anything you want, wherever you want, and whenever you want but, sorry game player, its going to cost you a lot of your hard earned game money if you fail?

I bet this setting was debated furiously in the boardrooms in Rockstar Offices : obviously someone argued for a harder game and more respect for the game surroundings and won but there has to be a limit somewhere whereby if the gameplay is being sacrificed then the constant must be changed accordingly.

Enough said… Now I need to go out and buy some rust remover…