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I find GTA 4 is almost depressing to play now. Not only because it's such an accurate representation of mid 2000s America, but the way it sort of predicted the world today. The conservative talk radio has a bit about the U.S government becoming a confused transgender prostitute. You hear ads on the radio driving between missions about companies selling at home sex change kits. Totally flew over my head at the time as mindless Houser humor, but it's aged incredibly well. Niko can date a black girl lawyer and she isn't this super genius who can't be wrong and Niko flat out tells her he deserves to be shot at by police for being a criminal who entered the country illegally. He has a conversation with Dwayne, a black guy from the hood, that starts with Dwayne complaining about having a small TV and a cramped apartment growing up, and ends with Niko telling him his village was without electricity until he was 12 years old. It's these sort of honest interactions people from different backgrounds would have in New York when race relations seemed to be in a better place. A lot of people will reframe the backlash against a new GTA game as either sexist or contrarian, but we all wanted Asuka to be the protagonist over fat boring Tony in the Liberty City Stories days. I'm very interested in seeing if this game can survive the times we are in and if it does, it could be a major cultural shift in the right direction.
