Grand Theft Auto V

I know that I will buy GTA V (I'm a pretty easy date for high profile games, I'll admit), but I really hope that if Rockstar is going to continue to try to make a movie, they at least try to make a good movie. We've all beaten up on GTA IV's writing and plot, but I fear that when Rockstar reads those criticisms and then looks at their profits from IV, it's easy for them to choose which path to go down. And it isn't the one I want them on.

DEAR ROCKSTAR I WOULD PAY UP TO 100 US DOLLARS FOR A GTA IV: VICE CITY THANK YOU.

I still want Red Dead on PC.

NathanialG wrote:

I still want Red Dead on PC.

Still have no idea what's up with that. I think it's their best game.

Second that about RDR. It was quite humorous to see the San Diego studio trounce Rockstar's main franchise in terms of critical acclaim. I'm hoping that reaction might leverage Rockstar North to take a more dramatic tone with this iteration of GTA. If not I'm going to sit this one out, wait for another Red Dead.

Quintin_Stone wrote:

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.

A man, lost in the urban jungle. A mini-map, filled with yellow letters. At every letter, dozens of other men for him to shoot.

Rockstar Games proudly presents

Grand Theft Auto Whatever

Sign me up for GTA V. The only thing they need to change is the camera/aiming.

Quintin_Stone wrote:
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.

Whereas I view, in terms of story and such, 4 to be their best of the series. I loved NB's story as a man trying to escape the life he used to live, but being pulled right back in and dealing with the consequences of his choices. The genre as a whole (and some could argue, the hobby as a whole) glorifies violence and we rarely see the aftermath of that... and while that's still true here MOSTLY, the idea that his life is made worse by his rise and the final choice and we see some of the emotional turmoil (devastation even?) of that decision. Was it highly cinematic? Yes. Could some of those conversations have taken place in a car as you're driving? Probably. But I would say with San Andreas and 4, they were trying to tell stories as much as have craziness in gameplay, and that worked for me.

I think the most common bash against GTA4's story/character is the disconnect between the crazed gunman gameplay and that repeated refrain of Niko saying he hates violence. It's not that it's wrong to make a big violent game, or for developers to have conflicted characters, but for such a big title, the work that went into it and that they're trying on some level to take themselves seriously they need to address that disconnect/conflict in some way.

Were they trying to make the game with a remorseful ex-soldier, or one where it's fun to hijack a car and turn the town red in a frenzy of drive-bys and driving on the pavement?

syndicatedragon wrote:

Renascence

Ow...

Renaissance. Rebirth / reborn.

Why insult when you can inform?

Scratched wrote:

Were they trying to make the game with a remorseful ex-soldier, or one where it's fun to hijack a car and turn the town red in a frenzy of drive-bys and driving on the pavement?

They did a better job in RDR of portraying the "reluctant gunman" but it's still really weird/silly when the game goes from ultra-violence to picking flowers in the space of 30 seconds. John Marsten, true Renaissance man.

Thanks, guys. Never trust the spell checker.

syndicatedragon wrote:

Thanks, guys. Never trust the spell checker. :)

I asked the spell checker to feed my cats when I was away on holiday and it stole my TV.

syndicatedragon wrote:
Scratched wrote:

Were they trying to make the game with a remorseful ex-soldier, or one where it's fun to hijack a car and turn the town red in a frenzy of drive-bys and driving on the pavement?

They did a better job in RDR of portraying the "reluctant gunman" but it's still really weird/silly when the game goes from ultra-violence to picking flowers in the space of 30 seconds. John Marsten, true Renaissance man.

Niko is remembered as a reluctant gunman, but having played the game a few times, outside of memory and 2nd hand tales in the actual game he is very much not. He is, in fact, a quite eager gunman who's very upfront about how he's simply using the only real skill he has to get by.

Hell, in one of the earliest missions, Roman wants to let his girlfriend run off with Vlad, and Niko is adamant that Vlad has to die for this insult, and if Roman doesn't do it, he will.

LobsterMobster wrote:
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.

Exactly. SR started as a ripoff, but veered into parody better than just about any series I can think of.

I predict that GTAV will be like IV in that the hype (pre and post) will be excruciating with perfect scores all over the place (in large part because of the Rockstar cache and, well, sleazy PR practices) but the hype will die down until end of the year awards.

That is, unless they make GTAV more like Lost and the Damned and then I'll be all over this.

I don't care what direction they take the game in as long as it has a better save system than IV.

garion333 wrote:

I predict that GTAV will be like IV in that the hype (pre and post) will be excruciating with perfect scores all over the place (in large part because of the Rockstar cache and, well, sleazy PR practices) but the hype will die down until end of the year awards.

That's along the lines I'm thinking. I see it like Call of Duty, for all that's written about how it needs to change and how it's 'bad' in some way, it keeps on selling so I think GTA is in the same spot, they don't want to change it too much as long as it sells. There's probably a ton of game series you could apply that to.

ebarstad wrote:

I don't care what direction they take the game in as long as it has a better save system than IV.

If Skyrim can do save anywhere then so can this.

Save anywhere would be nice, but at least I want more in-mission checkpoints and "trip skips".

Apparently the new issue of Game Informer has scads new information on GTA5. I haven't read it myself, but this blog summarizes much of it. Probably the two most interesting points from the article are:

-supposedly the map in GTA5 is the size of Red Dead Redemption, GTAIV and San Andreas combined. That seems so large I'm a going to be a bit skeptical until I get confirmation directly from R*. If it is true, awesome. I loved exploring in San Andreas and RDR.

-there are three playable characters: Michael, a middle-aged ex-bank robber from the suburbs, Franklin, a con man operating out of a car dealership, and Trevor, a hot headed burglar losing to substance abuse. Apparently you can switch between characters at any time, even during missions, and when not on missions the uncontrolled characters will spread out and go about their own business in the world, allowing them to be used as sort of a fast-travel system.
IMAGE(http://www.onlysp.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/Opener610.jpg)

So they're making Heat the Video Game? Sounds good to me.

Some more info in convenient bulletpoint form.

Highlights from that list:

-Each character has their own specific abilities and story arc, with all three stories intertwined.

-Characters will work together during missions, and you can switch between characters mid-mission to fulfill different roles. For example, during a chase sequence you can pilot the getaway helicopter as Trevor, snipe pursuing pilots as Franklin, or fire an assault rifle as Michael.

-Missions will have a "very diiferent tone depending on who's on them, how many people are on them, and how much we're using switches", says Houser.

-Dynamic missions - hidden missions dotted around the game world. "Going off-road in the desert, you may come across two parked cars and a sea of dead bodies around them... Investigate if you want."

ruhk wrote:

-supposedly the map in GTA5 is the size of Red Dead Redemption, GTAIV and San Andreas combined. That seems so large I'm a going to be a bit skeptical until I get confirmation directly from R*. If it is true, awesome. I loved exploring in San Andreas and RDR.

RDR just barely felt like too big of a map for the scale of travel speed (though I'm also not a fan of fast travel when dealing with console load times, so that may factor in). I can't imagine that they could make something with a good sense of "play density" of the scale you describe. But that's the beauty of such a young entertainment medium: we can still be surprised!

San Andreas was huge. I'm interested to see that point confirmed too.

Oh wow, nobody else has posted about it?

I sat down and took an hour to read the article.

I can confirm that indeed the "size" quote was in the magazine and I believe it was a quote. It's 2 am and it has been 24 hours since I read it so I might be wrong.

Remember the "Four Leaf Clover" mission in GTA IV? Yeah that is back for multiple times in the storyline.

Bikes are back along with ATV's and more. Pretty much seems like everything from GTA SA might return in terms of vehicles, only thing I haven't seen hide or hair of is the train. Which I'm still crossing my fingers on and hoping it returns.

This hasn't been exactly spread everywhere but it seems like you can now use gas cans and empty them around vehicles and well, as they did in the demo, blow up cars from afar.

Another thing that hasn't been widely mentioned is that the switch between characters is a push of a button and the transition they describe is like going up to a Google Earth view of the Los Santos area before zooming back into the character.

Those are just a few of the things that I can remember off the top of my head. Overall I feel like I'm now excited for GTA V once again compared to how "meh" I was feeling a month or two ago.

Oh F**KING SOLD. Not that I wasn't before, and GTA games never, ever quite live up to the preview hype, but I remember the first few hours of GTA IV felt freaking amazing to me. I can't wait. Basically, my only hope is that they take all the lessons they should've learned from RDR, understand that Saints Row is giving them serious competition, and apply that knowledge to this.

Wolfen Victrocious wrote:

Another thing that hasn't been widely mentioned is that the switch between characters is a push of a button and the transition they describe is like going up to a Google Earth view of the Los Santos area before zooming back into the character.

Seems like Driver SF.

Not having big enough worlds has never been the problem with GTA, so hearing that it's the biggest one yet doesn't do much for me. I want to know if they're fixing their clunky mechanics and archaic save system.

Woke up this morning and slapped my forehead, I could have just linked to a GTAV Fansite that has also read the magazine and created a bullet list.

GTAV.Net - Game Informer Preview

Also, speaking of save systems, I wonder how that will work with three characters. They can't all have the same "safe houses" because that wouldn't go with Rockstar's story. Maybe they will finally add in the ability to save anywhere?

You can flip off other characters in the game, and see interesting results dependent on who you're flipping off.

Finally a game with advanced flip-off simulation. I'm sold.