Author: Avid Gamer

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In a not-so-recent post (Cyberpunk 2077), I wrote about starting to play Cyberpunk 2077 again. Then, in a slightly-more-recent post (Why I Still Play GTAV), I again wrote that I was going to start playing it “…real soon now.” And, after some unexpected travel (another blog post altogether), I did start playing it again, and played for a reasonable amount of time (a total of 10.4 hours, according to Steam).

I played long enough to get to the part of the story where Keanu Reeves shows up as the in-game character Johnny Silverhand. For more info on this, check out this YouTube Video (caution: NSFW (“Not Safe For Work,” or around children) language. I’m far enough along that I’ve met Takamura in the cafe and talked with Johnny after Takamura leaves (hopefully this will not be a spoiler in the (unlikely) event that you decide to play the game).

At any rate, I’m enjoying the game a lot. I still have to look at the controller layout sheat pretty often, but I’m getting there. They say, “practice makes perfect,” but really practice makes habit. The more I play the better it will be.

The only downside to the game so far is that it’s a single player only game. It would be great to be able to play with friends… if I had any that played this game. Oh well.

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My last blog post in the Video Games category was about Cyberpunk 2077. At the time I was excited to begin playing it, but, alas, as yet I have not played it very much.

That is not the fault of the game or the developers. By all accounts the game is much improved from it’s incarnation at it’s release on December 10, 2020. Also, the developers have been adding DLC (down loadable content) on a pretty regular basis.

Why, then, have I not played it very much? And why is GTAV in the title of this blog post? The answers to both of those questions are related. Sort of.

I have not started playing Cyberpunk 2077 in earnest because I want to create a new character and start over (not a big deal to start over because I never got very far before). This may not sound like much of a hurdle to playing the game, and, really, it isn’t. The character creation process takes a little bit of time, but that’s okay. The real hurdle – for me – is getting through the learn-the-controls-of-this-game-and-the-combat-and-driving-mechanics “mission” that occurs at the beginning of almost all modern (and not so modern) video games. When I think about learning a new set of controls at my, ahem, advanced age (for a gamer), I have an avoidance reaction. I’ve done it before, and I’ll do it again (hopefully), but it will feel unnatural for a while and I’ll be clumsy with it and I’ll have to split my concentration between that and the story game play until the mechanics are committed to muscle memory.

Which is, in large part, why I find myself still starting up GTAV Online when I just want to play for a short time to clear my head or occupy part of my mind so that the less conscious part can cogitate on other things. I’ve been playing GTAV since it was released back in 2013 (could it really have been that long ago?), so I don’t have to think about the mechanics or which controller buttons to use. I just think about what I want to do in the game and it just happens.

Some (many?) of you may be shocked to find out that I play a game that many consider vulgar (which some of it is), or one that is Middle Schoolish (which most of it is), or one that seems to glamorize criminal activity (I don’t think it does, but each is welcome to his own opinion). I play the mostly less vulgar online version of the game and ignore the sophomoric innuendo. As for the criminal activity… well, let’s just say that the game is a safe place to indulge in a bit of “stress relief.”

Finally, I absolutely intend to start playing Cyberpunk 2077 soon. Yep. Real soon now…