Grand Theft Auto V

Pleased. I know this is pretty much gamer heresy at this point, but i've gotten exponentially more mileage and enjoyment out of GTA than I have out of Saints Row. I've played both, i've enjoyed both, but I never picked up SR3 again after finishing it.

CptGlanton wrote:

I'm officially somewhat excited. If they fix the tonal problems from GTA IV and just make it a comedy/satire (and finally learn that if GTA IV was a serious dramatic film, it would be one of the worst serious dramatic films in history), it could be great.

The tonal dissonance was a huge problem, yes. If you want to go serious, you can't still have an internet cafe named "tw@t" in the same universe.

And watch out for the pacing problems in almost every Rockstar release. The storyline missions need a more ruthless editor: campaigns are usually too long and often dwell on a boring story section.

I tell you this because I love you, GTA, and I want you to be better.

beeporama wrote:
CptGlanton wrote:

I'm officially somewhat excited. If they fix the tonal problems from GTA IV and just make it a comedy/satire (and finally learn that if GTA IV was a serious dramatic film, it would be one of the worst serious dramatic films in history), it could be great.

The tonal dissonance was a huge problem, yes. If you want to go serious, you can't still have an internet cafe named "tw@t" in the same universe.

And watch out for the pacing problems in almost every Rockstar release. The storyline missions need a more ruthless editor: campaigns are usually too long and often dwell on a boring story section.

I tell you this because I love you, GTA, and I want you to be better.

I think that might be why this three character idea works, you have three tonally different stories that you can move between at your own pace and it also lends itself for if you end up bored on those middle stories for one character you can move to another characters story which could be an entirely different theme.

Which in a way I think you can look at it in the way the Michael is GTA IV tone, Trevor is GTA III series tone, and Franklin seems to be straight up GTA SA part 2. And the missions where you get all three of them together will be an interesting tonal mix because Michael will be the straight guy, like Niko, to Trevor's insanity and Franklin's Grove Street.

We have yet to see how it works but in a way the checkpoints from GTA's expansions and Red Dead mixed with these three radically different characters that the player can control might just be the way to fix this generations GTA issues.

I really like the three new character intro trailers. I think I may be onboard.

The trailers make me want to watch the GTA V tv show, not play the game.

There are a bunch of written previews that released today, and GAF has a thread for them. I will just quote the thing I liked best from them here:

Polygon wrote:

And that pulse is very, very different from the one in Liberty City. Los Santos seems livelier and more fun-loving. While Grand Theft Auto 4 seemed mired in tragedy, there's a lightheartedness to Grand Theft Auto 5, akin to what you'd see in a Michael Bay action movie (you know, one of the good ones). Where 4 opted for realism, 5 seems more focused on just having a good time.

Link.

one of the good ones

Say what.

UCRC wrote:
one of the good ones

Say what.

Like Bad Boys or The Rock or the Playboy: Kerri Kendall - September 1990 Video Centerfold video

Kotaku has a write up on the game from a press demo.

My interest is piqued. The three character thing seems neat and if they can pull off what they are promising with the heists...that just sounds awesome.

San Andreas was my favorite in the series (all you Vice City people are just wrong and horrible ;)) as well as one of my favorite games in general, and it engladdens me to see the same spirit of fun and eclecticism that made SA great returning in V.

San Andreas is an interesting case because it's just as much the nest egg for IV as it was anything else. It was partly in the spirit of fun, and partly uber-serious drama about the social effects of crime and poverty.

At any rate, I completely agree in welcoming what seems to be a tone shift for the series.

I like the art style. It's heading toward realism but it also has the subtle smoothness and simplification of animation.

ruhk wrote:

San Andreas was my favorite in the series (all you Vice City people are just wrong and horrible ;)) as well as one of my favorite games in general, and it engladdens me to see the same spirit of fun and eclecticism that made SA great returning in V.

I think San Andreas is probably my favorite but GTA3 is the the one I spent the most time with.

I loved GTA4:)

I've loved them all.

Man, I hope they announce a PC version at some point. I'm pretty much done with the 360 at this stage, and doubt I'll be jumping early into the nextgen consoles for some time, given than most things are multiplatform..

Rykin wrote:
UCRC wrote:
one of the good ones

Say what.

Like Bad Boys or The Rock or the Playboy: Kerri Kendall - September 1990 Video Centerfold video ;)

You lost me, then lost me some more, then hmm.

Latrine wrote:

The trailers make me want to watch the GTA V tv show, not play the game.

As a counter-balance that's exactly kind of game i want to play from time to time. It would make too trashy of a TV series for me to watch it, but as interactive medium it hits just that sweet spot where I'm not too bothered because, hey, it's also a game.

A very interesting chat from Giantbomb after they went to see the game in action. They talk about how the three characters interrelate game play wise. It sounds very smart mechanically and in terms of reducing the dissonance of one character being all things to all people.

If we aren't going to see GTA V on PC, PS4, or XBox whatever, Rockstar will have guaranteed my PS3 a spot in my HDMI rats' nest for some time to come. At this point, I'm sure I will double dip if they decide to release the game on one of those platforms after initial release.

GTA V will eventually come to PC it just may be a while after the consoles. Every version has made it to PC this far.

Gumbie wrote:

GTA V will eventually come to PC it just may be a while after the consoles. Every version has made it to PC this far.

They've been coy about PC releases lately though, not mentioning them until later, or with Red Dead Redemption, not releasing them at all. RDR was definitely an exception so far, but it's frustrating that they don't feel inclined to release info on PC at the same time as other platform announcements.

I was pretty gutted RDR never made it to PC

I guess they don't want to give anyone any reason to hold off pre-ordering/Day1 purchasing on concoles by letting them know when it would be available to leech for PC.

Oh, and I hope the GFWL abomanation also gets dropped....

New gameplay Video!

Looks very promising; the opening gave me a Vice City vibe, which I would love. The shooting reminds me of Max Payne 3's (which would be a great thing). I just hope I don't have idiots calling me to go on yoga dates.

Well, you can't fault their ambition.

Gotta say that looks pretty sweet. I usually skip alternate GTA games (not that much usually changes on each iteration) but I broke that rule for GTAIV which I then found quite disappointing. GTAV looks pretty much what I wanted IV to be.

I'm excited. Everything I saw looked cool, and so much of it suggested more things, improvements in the overall game from GTA IV. I like how Rockstar seems to have iterated their 3rd person Open World games, each one improving and getting more and more polished. They're taking bits and pieces from all the different projects and rolling them up into this... I'm especially jazzed to see just a bit of multiplayer - which looks to me like all of the MP game modes may be taking place with a Free Mode style open world - so that races could be occuring at the same time that other groups are playing a Gang Wars kind of scenario - total conjecture on my part but that's what I'm hoping for. I'm really expecting the Open World to have the co-op element that people are wishing was in single player.

Looks pretty darn great.

Kid Charlemagne brings up a good point about how Rockstar has been iterating each successive game, in or out of a particular franchise, pooling together the best of what they've learned. I remember how RDR felt like a vast improvement in the cover & shooting dept. when compared to GTA IV. Then GTA took a nod from RDR with mid-mission check points in Liberty City Stories. The gunplay mechanics in V looks a lot like Max Payne 3, which is quite impressive when you compare the scope of both games.

Also, those mini-games do look fun. The golf and tennis in particular have the same presentation and hud UI's that dedicated sports games have. Curious about the cycling too.

Now all Rockstar needs to do is announce GTA IV for PS4 & XB1 and we'll have a real party.

I have one question only about this entire game... Can I hijack the trains? All I wanna do is hijack a train and go on a rail rampage where I'm just barely staying on the rails.

That trailer makes me feel somewhere between joyful and peachy.