Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar's attempt at a visual novel? Options

[Tanegar]

So, I've had GTA4 for some time now, but I never really made much progress in it. A couple weeks ago, I started a new game, determined to see the ending.

One of the design choices is really annoying me: friendship. If you hang out with certain NPCs, it makes them like you more and eventually gives you access to a special ability of theirs. If Little Jacob the Jamaican drug dealer likes you, for example, you can call him up and he'll bring a car full of weapons to your location, and sell them to you at a discounted price. Convenient, but not earth-shattering, particularly given that you'll almost certainly have more money than you can easily spend around the midpoint of the game.

The problem is that friendship activities are, frankly, boring as fuck. Maybe it's just me, but I play GTA to drive really fast and blow shit up. Hanging out with NPCs means doing things like playing pool, playing darts, getting drunk, or going to a strip club. The strip club is really creepy, since GTA4's character models aren't quite good enough to get out of the uncanny valley, you know?

It feels like Rockstar decided to focus on a realistic portrayal of a criminal's life at the expense of making a fun game.