On Just Driving Around the City
In real life, I’m not really a fan of driving. I find it tedious and only drive because I have to. While it is nice to drive and listen to music, the cost of petrol is a large deterrent, and I don’t really like driving around for no reason. Now, in a video game? That’s not a problem. There’s no petrol to worry about, and I can listen to whatever I like.
The game I normally do this in is Saints Row the Third. After I completed the main game, I spent a lot of time just driving around the city. Steelport isn’t the most interesting place to drive around, but you can cause a lot of carnage as you do so. Once you’ve unlocked more ammo for your guns, you can just spam fire out of the window and murder other gangs in drive-by shootings. But sometimes it’s a lot easier just to run people over. After all, it saves on ammo, and you can always reverse back over them if they survive. However, I often find myself just cruising around the city, mostly driving on the wrong side of the road for the hell of it.
However, I recently got around to installing Saints Row 2, and also installing the Gentlemen of the Row patch. Stilwater (with one L) is probably a cooler city. It’s definitely much more alive than Steelport is, and I think the city is also bigger overall. The traffic however is a lot more chaotic. There’s not just things like random roadworks, the drivers themselves are more aggressive and some will happily run you over. They’re also much more likely to crash into each other, drive erratically and overtake all of a sudden. Pedestrians are also a bit finicky. They’ll try to jump out of the way, but I have definitely accidentally run over some that have dived in front of me as well.
Stilwater though is definitely cool. There’s a lot more to it, and the districts are more distinct. There are also more gangs to fight, and getting rid of notoriety is harder to do. And I keep on accidentally getting into a mess with the police because pedestrians keep on jumping out in front of me.
Most of this driving is generally done with something going on in the background. Sometimes it’s just something on Twitch, but a lot of the time, it’s Spotify. While I do like using the radio in both Saints Row games, I do prefer listening to my own music.
I’ve also kinda done the same in Skyrim. Sometimes it’s nice to grab a horse and just, well, wander around. But doing so is a lot slower and a lot less eventful. Well, it can be eventful, but mostly in an annoying way. Combat on horses kinda sucks, and Skyrim AI isn’t very intelligent. Plus, sometimes your horse decides to run away. Sure, I can just fast travel around, however, sometimes fast travel just spoils the mood and makes things too easy.
Really, I just like wandering around in video games, while listening to random stuff. It’s relaxing, and I don’t have to really do anything. I can just chill and enjoy the scenery.