GTA IV, but you take public transit everywhere (Patreon)

There was a time where I earnestly would've told you I thought Grand Theft Auto games were boring, badly designed games with terrible controls. Nowadays if you asked me whether I still felt that way, I'd say yes, but at the very least I wouldn't offer that opinion unprompted.

I'm loosely playing through GTA IV right now, trying to behave rationally, and not skipping things or using convenience features wherever practical. It turns out it's pretty hard to do this in some cases-- the game really does expect you to regularly commit grand theft auto (the crime) in order to progress. One of my favorite examples of this is how if someone calls you to hang out, like this girl Michelle, she'll ask if you want to go on a date and you accept, your character will say "Great, see you in hour" no matter where you are. If you don't make it to the date in time, the person will get mad and you'll lose standing with them.

Time passes really fast, so walking is completely out of the question. If you're lucky and you're near a train station (and so are they) you might be able to take the train. If you're really lucky and you're near a place with one of your "owned" cars you can use that. Hailing a cab is a possibility but it's actually pretty annoying to do that, which I appreciate, and it often ends in you being late anyway.

As soon as you meet up with the person, they'll say "Okay, let's find us a car!" which is actually a pretty funny tacit admission that committing grand theft auto (the crime) is both allowed and encouraged, because if you clearly don't have a car, what the hell do they expect?

If you're patient, you can walk anywhere with your date. You can hail a cab too, which is really fun. Sitting in the back of a cab looking out the window with an NPC is a weirdly intimate way to build a relationship with them. It's so plain. Highly recommended.

I'm sure a video will come out of this as well, but for now, I'm really enjoying this game!

I maintain that the conventional game design is pretty bad though.