The Alamo Sea

[NumaYay]

Hello guys.

 

Am I the only one who thinks that the Alamo Sea doesn't feel like a proper Salton Sea replica?

 

The lake looks the same as the ocean, but it shouldn't. The water should behave different and it should be way more polluted in my opinion.. with dead fish, garbage, etc.

 

 

 

 

 

The lake should look different than any other lake/ocean in the game, but it's just the same.

 

Your thoughts?

[TheTechPoTaToCHIP]

Considering they hide a weapons cache under the Alamo Sea, I think it would be damn near impossible for you to find it if the water is THAT polluted, besides. They kept it fairly clean just for aesthetic purposes. Let's face it, it wouldn't look as good if the water literally looks like a tub of sh*t. They took creative liberties so that the water doesn't look so out of place compared to the mountain range surrounding it.

[gta4_player]

I prefer the clear water because it makes the game's world more gorgeous and fantastic.

[Drake1212]

Remember, the Salton Sea is HUGE - so huge that you cannot simply sum it up in OP's two pictures.
For example, look at the picture below:

It's goddamn huge, right?. And it looks clean too. In reality it's polluted by the massive amounts of fertilizers used on the surrounding fields. These chemicals makes the water too salty to sustain life.
And while the waters may be polluted and sterile, but it looks just like any other lake. It's not like there was dumped anything mysteriously into the lake which would cause it to turn yellow or something.
Just normal plant nutrition like phosphorus, potassium and nitrogen.
So in short: it shouldn't really behave/look differently than the ocean in GTA V since the Salton Sea looks just like any other sea.

However, as seen in the pic you posted, when the wind blows right, one can often find waves of dead floating fish near the Salton shore. I don't know why Rockstar didn't choose to include this in the game, but a couple of my guesses are:
- It was hard to make something which looked satisfying.
- Despite its size the history behind the Salton Sea is actually quite unknown (even to folks living in CA) and not a very popular tourist attraction (wonder why), so not a lot of people knows about the dead fish phenomenon. Therefore Rockstar could have opted not to include this phenomenon as it would confuse players who do not know what the thing is suppossed to be.

- Rockstar simply didn't make it so because they were not creating a 100% realistic copy of the Salton Sea.

Whatever the cause is i still think they managed to create a very good "parody" (or what the hell Rockstar's version of things are called). The Alamo Sea captures the vibe of the Salton Sea pretty good.
You should try checking out this mini-documentary about the Salton Sea if you're (like me) fascinated by the sea:

 

And check out this travel guide if you're interested in seeing some of the "other sides" of the sea (beauty):

 

Remember, there are a lot more to the Salton Sea than what have been posted in this thread.

Edited January 3, 2015 by Drake1212

[Eram]

@Drake - I've posted this a while ago, but it seems appropriate to post it again on this thread (it's 1h13mins, but worth it imo):

http://www.veoh.com/watch/v196795517mKMjmT3?h1=Plagues.and.Pleasures.on.the.Salton.Sea.2004

Edited January 3, 2015 by EramVerdes