Grand Theft Auto V

That mission is a Female Doggo - I say that as someone who has completed the game three times. First time through took me forever, but subsequent tries I figured it out. The trick is figuring out which cops you need to fight to advance, and which you can relatively safely ignore. Take it easy, stay in cover where possible, but keep moving forward steadily is my best advice.

And I am so stoked for GTA V. I'm especially stoked to see how they move the multiplayer experience forward...

At this point I wish they would just release GTAV on next-gen platforms. Going back over the E3 Watch Dogs demo makes me marvel at the possibilities of Rockstar producing on a platform where the bar is raised.

Releasing it around the projected launch window of Xbox 3 and PS4 would be a fantastic way to kickstart sales for the consoles too.

Maybe they could do something like Gun and release V on both current and next-gen systems.

Too many what ifs involved, but man I'd love to play GTAV on the next set of consoles.

I know that the PS4/Xbox3 haven't been announced yet, but we should be getting into the cross-over period again where games are developed across generations.

You mean like Darksiders 2, Assassin's Creed 3, and Aliens: Colonial Marines? Or does the Wii U not count as part of the next console generation?

ClockworkHouse wrote:

Or does the Wii U not count as part of the next console generation? ;)

Honestly, I think it's hard to say at this point. There's always a lot of hot air which doesn't mean a lot until the damn things and the games for them come out.

Scratched wrote:

the games for them come out.

This one is probably most important.

Are they going to make the combat and the driving fun for this one?

I LOVED the driving in GTA IV.

Different types of cars each had their own feel, weight and pickup. Driving in 1st-person cockpit mode while listening to fantastic music or hilarious talk/commercials was a joy.

Shooting was serviceable, but not great. It was a vast improvement over earlier GTA games though, so I appreciated that.

Aaron D. wrote:

At this point I wish they would just release GTAV on next-gen platforms.

Me too. It's obvious that open-world games in GTA vein need that extra power badly. At least that was the first thing that came to my mind upon seeing the screenshots.

UCRC wrote:
Aaron D. wrote:

At this point I wish they would just release GTAV on next-gen platforms.

Me too. It's obvious that open-world games in GTA vein need that extra power badly. At least that was the first thing that came to my mind upon seeing the screenshots.

Hmmm, it depends. They were doing GTA on the PS1, and GTA3 to GTA:SA on the PS2 (and others). I guess it comes down to where the demanding bit is that requires the horsepower, and if that's the same as the 'mission critical' bit of the game that makes it tick.

ruhk wrote:

Kifflom.

Great! Note which tab appears twice.

Spring, 2013 - PS3 and 360 confirmed.

GTA, at least if it's around/above the scale Rockstar did GTA4 seems like the kind of thing I'd like to see them do a next-gen (and PC) re-release of it later on to see it in it's full glory. It's an achievement they get such a game on the consoles, but it would be a good one to show off what more power would let them do with a 'quick' upgrade.

trueheart78 wrote:

Spring, 2013 - PS3 and 360 confirmed.

...Dammit. A lot of stuff comes out then. It's going to be expensive.

So far I haven't seen anything to make me interested in GTA5 other than that it's a GTA game and therefore we're "supposed" to care. Especially when I have Saints Row the Third and its supposed sequel in 2013 (maybe).

LobsterMobster wrote:

So far I haven't seen anything to make me interested in GTA5 other than that it's a GTA game and therefore we're "supposed" to care.

Considering that they haven't actually revealed anything other than half a dozen screenshots and art...

Yes. It's going to be interesting if they took the feedback of GTA4 into this one. I do get the feeling that GTA is a bit selling itself on it's brand, and that big open cities are ten-a-penny now. Rockstar's big cities have their own particular flavour to them, but personally I agree that they need to do a bit more than just 'be GTA' with some low-life doing missions for a range of weird and wacky bosses now.

Rockstar, repeat after me: you're making a game, not a movie.

I'm sure this has been said at some point but my one hope is that the constant phone calls in GTA4 don't return. Good lord those were annoying.

Agent 86 wrote:

I'm sure this has been said at some point but my one hope is that the constant phone calls in GTA4 don't return. Good lord those were annoying.

Niko, my cousin! We go to titty bar?

I guess the thing with that is whether they want GTA to be a violent version of the sims and do everything, or narrow down on something.

I would personally like to see them veer away from Saints Row territory and get more serious, keep the black humour, but drop the crazy sh*t that Saints Row has stolen out from under them and done a whole lot better. I actually enjoyed the story in both Vice City and San Andreas (skipped GTA IV unfortunately), the juvenille humour was a low point in my opinion.

I'm probably the only person who thinks this.

Redwing wrote:

I would personally like to see them veer away from Saints Row territory and get more serious, keep the black humour, but drop the crazy sh*t that Saints Row has stolen out from under them and done a whole lot better. I actually enjoyed the story in both Vice City and San Andreas (skipped GTA IV unfortunately), the juvenille humour was a low point in my opinion.

I'm probably the only person who thinks this.

I'd say that's a good observation. I agree they can't have it both ways both trying to be realistic and extreme, choose one and go for it because the competition is squeezing you. So long as there's gamey aspects such as the police heat levels it'll be hard pushed to keep much believability if you can go on a murderous rampage one minute and stroll down the street the next. For what it's worth, I though GTA1 was a great game.

I'd like to see them play around with that a bit as I think it could lead to interesting places, how about a heat level that takes a long time to decay, so long as you're given the tools to deal with it. I'd love to deal with the paranoia from an extended man-hunt, or if there was an underlying long-term heat level to keep you on your toes. If you go and steal an attack helicopter and go on a rampage you'd better be prepared to deal with them hounding you for a long time, although I think in such a setup the city would be reduced to rubble within an hour.

Redwing wrote:

I would personally like to see them veer away from Saints Row territory and get more serious, keep the black humour, but drop the crazy sh*t that Saints Row has stolen out from under them and done a whole lot better. I actually enjoyed the story in both Vice City and San Andreas (skipped GTA IV unfortunately), the juvenille humour was a low point in my opinion.

I'm probably the only person who thinks this.

From what I understand, Saints Row was a reaction to GTA going more serious, and the further GTA pushes in that direction, the further Saints Row goes in the other.

I hope that Rockstar swallows its pride and takes a few lessons from Saints Row, not thematically but systematically. GTA's car storage system is totally useless.

And I admit it'd be nice if they got rid of the bathroom humor. It's not that I'm offended by it but it's jarring in a franchise that wants to tell a serious story.

An interesting discussion, as always on GWJ.

I have to disagree with LobsterMobster about 'Saints Row' being a reaction to 'GTA' growing up. Saints Row was released in 2006, two years after the still-pretty-deranged GTA: San Andreas. I always took Saints Row to be a shameless attempt to copy and cash in.

However, I think Rockstar's direction of travel - away from the schoolboy humour of the PS2 iterations of GTA and into more serous territory - is pretty clear. Both GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption (which I regard as a GTA) were pretty serious, and in places quite dark games. Though, of course, they had a few characters to offer some comic relief (Brucie in IV springs to mind).

Rockstar's equivalent of Marvel's 'Assistant Editors' Month' seems to be the expansions to the main game (The Lost and the Damned, The Ballad of Gay Tony, Undead Nightmares).

Like RedWing, I'm happy with this steady shift... though - like Scratched - I recognise the need to ensure that the game is more internally consistent.

On the Wanted Level issue, I wonder whether something akin to Skyrim's bounty system might be a good solution.

detroit20 wrote:

I always took Saints Row to be a shameless attempt to copy and cash in.

Yeah, I'll buy that. But the two series have fallen into those separate roles since then.

I actually really like the more cinematic direction that Rockstar is taking these games, and I hope they continue to make mature games.

Put me in the list of people who really enjoyed the vehicle physics in GTA 4. My only complaint would be that there wasn't enough performance vehicles so you so often felt that you were stuck driving a boat. Even with them it was really satisfying to execute a perfect Scandinavian flick around corners. I really enjoyed the tuned motorcycle mechanics in Lost and Damned as well.

SallyNasty wrote:

I actually really like the more cinematic direction that Rockstar is taking these games, and I hope they continue to make mature games.

The cutscenes in GTA4 were excruciatingly long and I found the dialog to range between painful and uninspired. But if you skip them, you're left with no clue what's going on.