GTA V and a Game Controller

Back in October of 2013 I bemoaned the fact that I didn't play as many video games.  That fact is still true.  I rarely get the time to sit back and play TF2.

In November of 2014 I more or less built a computer so I could play a new game.  Now don't get me wrong, I LOVED building that computer for so many reasons... but the original spark for doing so at that particular time was a video game.  Assassin's Creed Unity.

Well... I still haven't finished playing that game.  It's fun, but not nearly as fun as the previous Assassin's Creed games.  If you know anything about the AC games, you remember that the game is basically told in two parts.  The present with a group of young assassin's using a machine to live out a past life, and the past life they're living out.  Well, a couple games ago in the series they killed off the main protagonist in the 'present'.  That kind of killed half of the game.  Yes there is still a person in the present living through the past, but the story is told mostly in shadows.  You have to think and read between the lines to continue the 'present' story line.  This game is the same... it's primarily about being an Assassin around the time of the French revolution.

Yawn.


I imagine if I had more time to just sit here and play, I'd have finished it.  But I don't really want to spend my precious time off playing a game that I'm not really enjoying.  So my gaming returned to occasional bouts of TF2 and that's about it.  It's kind of sad... I have 103 games purchased on Steam, and I only play one.  Hell... I only have (had) two installed; TF2 and Assassin's Creed Unity.

I've kinda fallen out of Television lately.  I most recently watched the entire 'The Wire' series from HBO and wanted to watch Justified, but it's not available on the services I have.  So I picked up Sons of Anarchy.. but it hasn't ye drawn me in.  So my attention turned back to the computer.  TF2 is still fun but only in small doses.  I no longer have a community of friends to play with so the public games I get into are either full of players so competitive that I'm a lead weight on the team, or it's full of players that want to goof off and get upset if you dare kill somebody or go for the game's objectives (I got banned for capturing the intelligence in a game of.... capture the intelligence!).

I figured I would feed this need/want to game for awhile and eventually back away.  But then my brother purchased Grand Theft Auto V.  Yeah, it's been out for a couple years, but it only a few days ago was released for PC.  As I expected, he's raved about the game.

Understand, ever since GTA 3 we've both played through every iteration of this franchise that came out for the PC.  GTA 3, Vice City, San Andreas, GTA IV, The Lost and the Damned, and The Ballad of Gay Tony.  All of them have been fun story filled romps with their own highs and lows.  GTA V was supposed to be more of the same, but it was also pushing the frontier of PC Gaming.  They more or less re-created the game with far higher resolution graphics so that this game looks a hell of a lot better than it did on the PS4 and XBox One.

And I have the prefect computer to take advantage of all that glorious beauty.

But, as a new game, it was still selling for $60.  I missed out on pre-ordering it and getting some bonuses, so I'd be paying full price with no extra benefit if I bought it now.  And if the recent AC Unity game was any sign I probably wouldn't play through it all.  So I waited for R to get the game and see what happened.  We both follow the same script when playing a game at the same time... we don't give away the story.

In some games its easier than others.  Some games are just 'ok' and not really worth telling about.  With other games it's a struggle as we get so excited about it that we are busting at the seems waiting for the other to get to a point so we can talk about it.  I figured if R showed that... showed that he REALLY wanted to talk to me abut it... that it would be one of those games worth buying.  If, on the other hand, he just played through it and didn't 'need' to tell me about it I would just skip it for now and pick it up on sale for like $20.

Well.... R couldn't help it.  He was like a kid that knew what you were getting for Christmas and just HAD to spill it.

I bought the game yesterday morning. It took forever to download it.  At 59 Gigabytes, it's the biggest game I've ever downloaded.  Even at our insanly high internet speeds, it took hours to download.  Yesterday afternoon I wanted to get in and play it for a bit.  Once I started it for the first time I could go into the Nvidia Geforce Experience program and it would set all the settings for me to get the best looking AND best performing gaming experience.  I honestly planned to go through the intro and play maybe a single mission.

I played for five hours straight.

It is THAT good.  Interesting storyline, GREAT graphics, fun mechanics... just an all around wonderful game.  The only problem was that the game will end up costing me more than $60.  I forgot that GTA is the only game I've ever played where I felt the need for a game controler.  Every single other game is FAR better on a keyboard and mouse.  But driving around in this game often requires delicate control of the vehicle and with a keyboard and mouse you only have full throttle and full brakes.  While it can be fun in a stupid kind of way to drive around burning your tires out at every start, you simply can't 'win' that way.  The end of my five hour marathon was trying to lose the police and I had to replay that mission at least 6 times because I simply couldn't drive well enough.

And... I don't have a game pad.  The old one I used before broke and wasn't mine in the first place.  So... I started looking at Gamepads.  I figured I'd find the best one available, order it, and pick up playing the game again once it arrived.  While there are many MANY gamepads out there, they can really be broken down into two catergories.  Ones that mimic the XBox 360 controller, and ones that mimic the Playstation controller.  I've played a bit with both styles and VASTLY prefer the XBox layout.   So right there I've already cut the selection process in half.

Controllers designed for the 360 will automatically work on a PC (thank you for utilizing the USB Interface!), so I don't have to do research on workability.  There's still a wide variety of variation out there.  Prices range from under $20 to over $100.  The one to compare against is obvious... a Microsoft XBox 360 controller.  They either work better or worse than the original.  They either have the same features or more features.  They are either more solid or more fragile.

After looking around I more or less settled on the Razer Sabertooth.  I really REALLY love the headset I got from Razer.  It has a very solid build quality and has stood up to all the beatings I've given it.  If I'm going to plop money down on something, I want it to be quality merchandise.  It has more buttons and is actually the second generation controller from Razer, so they've improved upon the ergonomics of the device.  Even the little details are good.  For example itnstead of a normal cable which will bend and crease, it has a cable that's braided.  It feels more like rope.  I have a similar cable on my headset and it's wonderful.  It still looks and acts brand new, where by comparison the cable on my keyboard (purchased at the same time) is... well... it's not going to break any time soon but it looks older.

Then I ran into a wall.  No one locally sells the Sabertooth.  It really shouldn't be a big surprise as it's a 'high end gaming device'.  It costs $80 and for casual gamers it's really no better than the $30 one from Microsoft.  It's not even wireless which most are in this price range.  So I found a place that sells it online that I trust, and figured that with overnight shipping I could have it on Tuesday.  It would cost me (with shipping) just about $120.

So when I woke up this morning my plan was to head out to some smaller game shops around town that dont' have a good web presence, and see if they didn't have one.  I'd also hit up Best Buy, Target, Sears, KMart, Meijer, Game Spot and a few other big chain stores just to make sure they didn't have it.  If I could get my hands on one locally I could really continue to play this game today.  If I didn't, I would have to wait until Tuesday.

And then a quiet, slow, reasoned voice spoke up in my head.  It reminded me that I was planning on spending half a day and probably over $100 to get a gamepad to play a single game.  A single game that will probably take about 2 months to finish and has already cost me $60.  And for what?  So that I could say that I have 'The Bestest' controller?  Just because I CAN afford something like this, in no way means that I SHOULD buy it.

So I changed plans.  I'm going to head to Best Buy.  I picked that as they will have the biggest selection of game pads.  I'd still like to have the Sabertooth, but I'll do a one stop shop for it.  If Best Buy doesn't have it (and I honestly have no faith that they will... Best Buy is good about listing their inventory online and they don't show this as available in ANY of their stores), I'll pick up a different controller.  More than likely the XBox 360 controller from Microsoft.