Reality Check - Could GTA V train you to kill?

no game can make you a killer

More realistic videogames such as ARMA definitely improve one's tactical decision making though.

No offence to mature games but this is why teen oriented games are more accessible.

if I wan't to kill people i'm not gonna play games to train, stop wasting our F*&^ING tax dollars on these dumb studies

nhaa it can't train me to kill there's better video's to watch on the net on how to kill people

Good feature. I'm glad to see four-digit comment counts.

...Pointless "journalism"!

When I was in the Navy I often used arcade shooting games to keep my accuracy up. Consoles never helped me any. I can see games like this teaching some basic tactical concepts like using cover. Ultimately though I find games are so unrealistic that they can teach more bad habits such as a false sense of invulnerability. Just like movies and TV shows I wouldn't rely on these mediums for my combat education. They teach techniques slightly wrong for a reason.

makes me think of that robin williams movie toys

Games train to kill as much as FIFA or PES train you in football. I can't deny, however, it develops an apparent lust for the kill.

However, when a person who is used to see violence only on videogames and movies is confronted with real life violence he becomes disoriented.

Another thing is: once I went to this videogame release here in Portugal. It was f1 200? franchise, I don't remember wich one. There was a portuguese pilot there at the presentation. The videogame editor was very thrilled, telling that playing the game was pratically piloting an F1 car. They had a cockpit and all, the pilot tested the game and after that the press interviewed him and asked: "Is it THAT real?" The pilot almost evaded the question, but he finally disagreed that the simulator was very far from driving experience. My point is, if videogames were toroughly realistic, their learning curves would be much more steeper ('cause there's a learning process involved) and even boring (reality is fortunately much more calm).

Firing a gun in a videogame is a great and fun way to chill out. Kepp off the streets and don't even try to outgun your local gangster :)

Have to agree with Cam- I seriously doubt using a controller to control and fire a virtual gun would help you in using a real-life firearm (which have kinds of moving parts to consider and can be quite heavy too), as there's a lot more involved than lining up the crosshairs and firing.

But yes, GTA V coming out has just become another excuse for the tabloids to bring up the old videogames and violence thing. I really want to go out and knock some journalist skulls together.

because in real life the whole world flashes black and white to let you know you killed someone...

Please R*, release a patch for people who hate the strobe flash kill indicator.

Games don't train you to shoot....they may teach you tactics, but they don't teach you about the firing pin, the safety, how to load a clip, which ammunition goes in a gun....the concept that a game can actually influence someone to shoot other people is ridiculous and needs to end now. Does television teach you how to kidnap and rape? I expect this type of bullcrap from fox or cnn, but the video game community doesn't need to add fire to the flames.

If they develop a game pad shaped Glock, it will be the end of the world as we know it.

Damn if this is true then I would be a world class assassin by now. Awesome that people are wasting money to research this stupid shit.

I have hunted all my life and I was in the military for six years. I have never used my mad fps skillz irl. EST 2000 though is a great training tool. Basically it is a real m-16 hooked up to an air compressor using lasers on projected targets.

all i need now is a norfleet and a flock of psychos

I reckon thanks to games like the TimeSplitters series, I've killed in excess of 1 000 000 people/robots/helicopters/monkeys, but in real life, I've only recently reached double figures. That's not very good correlation.

Employ your rights to keep and bear GTA V dudes! Don't let bullshit like this spoil your game!

aside from the reviews, this is the only show i watch on gamespot. good work! :)

:D i has a gun

What an utterly awesome episode. Just loved it! Especially with all the gun debates happening in America.

Your show is the most classier and intelligent in gamespot, dude.

Keep up the good work!

GTA V can't train a sane person to kill if you were raised right there's no need to worry (after hearing all those jail stories stop most people from committing violent acts). But to me GTA games have always been something to if any "release stress" by doing things that you can do in a fictional/virtual world compared to real life. Overall life's crazy people

1. Jeffery Dahmer

2. Ted Bundy

3. John Wayne Gracy

just to name a few known people were raised and treated bad as kids.

compared to known people that had good child hoods that are who associated and plays GTA games as well as award winning actors

1. Samuel L. Jackson

2. Burt Reynolds

3. James Woods

overall fuel for those against this series and want it cancelled as well as something people with medical conditions to blame for there actions

Shame on you for putting this crap om Gamespot! Every time rockstar releases a GTA they have to deal with people acusing them of mass shootings and crying babies. I thought Gamespot was trying to move gamers and gaming forward, and become a platform for educating people about the limitations of influence a game has, not jumping on the "games make people kill" bandwagon!

I didn't watch the video so I don't know what angle you're taking in it, but the headline alone is damaging to the gaming community. If there was a little less important stuff happening in the world right now, FOX news could take this headline and spin it.... then where would you be? I'm tired of defending my hobby!

Comon guys think.

And also, no. No game to date can train anyone to kill, not even Manhunter. The army, the police and growing up destitute and surrounded by crime, abuse and neglect. That's how people learn to kill. All of whom represent a very small portion of the population (in first world countries where people can pay hundreds of dollars for games and consoles). In the same way GTA doesn't teach you to drive, it doesn't teach you to shoot, swim, fly, skydive, navigate the ocean in a submersible, ****, flirt, eat, play tennis, play golf, or fight with your bitch wife whose making whooppee with the yoga instructor.

you would be a complete idiot with a piss poor understand of combat, weapons or hand to hand combat training to think a video game could make you a master on any level. I have fired a few guns one being a m16 A2. None of the weapons I fired feels the same on any level as a game.

Cam, you rock.

How in the hell is it that in a freaking internet video GTA 5 looks less aliased than the ps3 or xbox version on a TV? I'm in full screen too, that's pretty rediculous.