"GRAND THEFT AUTO SAN ANDREAS!"

On my quest to find a video game that peaked my interest I decided to take up my old “Grand Theft Auto, San Andreas"  video game, pop it into my play station 2 and make some observations about my game of choice.   For those of you who are unfamiliar about this game, it is about a man called Carl Johnson (CJ) who escaped from the pressures of life in Los Santos, San Andreas... a city tearing itself apart with gang trouble, drugs and corruption. Where film stars and millionaires do their best to avoid the dealers and gang bangers.

Now, it's the early 90s and Carl's got to go home because his mother was murdered, his family has fallen apart and his childhood friends are all heading towards disaster.

On his return to the neighborhood, a couple of corrupt cops frame him for homicide. CJ is forced on a journey that takes him across the entire state of San Andreas, to save his family and to take control of the streets.

I chose this game because of my very adventurous and outgoing personality and found it of course without reason of a doubt to be very interesting and although the game is one of a violent nature, I was intrigued by the adrenalin pumping through my blood while completing adventurous tasks and escaping the crooked cops.  

The game is a two and/or one player game that encourages socialization among peers and family members.  The core gameplay consists of elements of a third-person shooter and a driving game, affording the player a large, open world environment in which to move around. 

On foot, the player's character is capable of walking, eating, running, sprinting, swimming, climbing and jumping as well as using weapons and various forms of hand to hand combat. Players can drive a variety of vehicles, including automobiles, buses, semis, boats, fixed wing aircraft, helicopters, trains, tanks, motorcycles and bikes. You can even change car colors and add spoilers and other accessories to it. They may also import vehicles rather than steal them; players can also go shopping with the avatar and choose from a wide variety of available clothing and weapons. Cool right? The character even puts on weight when he over eats and can even run the risk of getting a heart attack and when he exercises, the pudgy character loses weight and becomes muscular pretty much like real life, won’t you say? You can use crazy things like the jetpack and parachute. 

 It’s such an interesting game and although it was introduced since 2004, it is still a very fun game for the adventurous mind and although the missions seem endless I enjoyed it! After all no one wants a video game they can beat in a week? No?

So how does this tie in to social networking? A video game is an avenue of social networking it encourages the development of social learning skills, including empathy, friendliness, teamwork, and much more.