Grand Theft Auto V

[JimLeavy59]

http://kotaku.com/ive-seen-grand-theft-auto-v-this-ones-radically-diff-487200782?utm_campaign=Socialflow_Kotaku_Facebook&utm_source=Kotaku_Facebook&utm_medium=Socialflow

[Handleit_44]

[Handleit_44]

[JimLeavy59]

I want now.

[jms493]

I want now.

[JimLeavy59]

Waits for Twigg to post about some Sleeping Dogs DLC.

[Chrispy]

And we still have to wait a couple of months for it

[Handleit_44]

GameInformer Preview:

Putting Your Personal Stamp On Grand Theft Auto V

The RPG-style character customization in GTA: San Andreas was so popular that when Rockstar announced this feature would be left out of GTA IV, a vocal minority made its displeasure widely known. For the return trip to Los Santos, this fan-favorite feature returns in a new way. While you won't be ballooning Michael up several pants sizes by gorging on snacks from the convenience store or turning Franklin into Ray Lewis by pumping iron, you can leave your mark by improving several of their skills.

Given their diverse backgrounds and experiences, Michael, Trevor, and Franklin start off with unique skill levels in each of the different upgradable categories. Currently, the game includes strength, shooting, stealth, flying, driving, and lung capacity, but Rockstar says these are still subject to change. Rather than giving players experience points that they can allocate to the various categories, the characters improve their skills by performing these tasks. Flying planes may be difficult with Michael at first, but the more he does it, the better he gets. Dedicated players can max out each of the characters' abilities.

Those with an eye for fashion can also customize the look of Michael, Franklin, and Trevor by giving them new haircuts, buying new clothes, and getting tattoos.

Pimp Your Ride

The customization doesn't end with character progression. The Pay & Spray businesses that used to serve as a quick way to fix up your car and get a new paintjob are now full custom shops. Rockstar says players can tweak both performance and aesthetics at a level on par with Midnight Club: Los Angeles.

Under the hood, you can tune the engine, improve the suspension, buy new brakes, and make other tweaks to how the car handles. Trick your engine out too much and you can overtune it, so be careful.

If you'd rather focus on style over substance, concentrate on altering the paint job, wheels, window tinting, grill, and spoiler. You can even customize your license plate.

This Is My Rifle, This Is My Gun

Considering the amount of time you spend in shootouts, it was only natural that Rockstar would eventually implement a deeper weapon-customization option for gun nuts who like to debate the finer qualities of the red-dot sight versus the reflex sight.

With the ability to mix and match scopes, silencers, laser sights, flashlights, and extended mags for your favorite weapons, you may want to sign up for a customer rewards program at Ammu-nation in Grand Theft Auto V.

Making Money To Spend Money

During our cover visit, Rockstar intimated that money would play a central role in Grand Theft Auto V. We knew pulling off heists could result in big payoffs, but details were still sketchy regarding what we could spend that money on. Now we have a better idea. In addition to dropping serious cash on all the weapon, car, and character customization options, players can invest heavily in toys, real estate, and businesses.

Rockstar originally told us we wouldn't be able to buy new properties for the three main characters, but has since reversed course. Make enough cash and you can blow it on new houses, garages, marinas, helipads (a prerequisite for owning a chopper), and even businesses. Several of these investments have perks. For instance, if you throw your money behind a taxi business, you won't have to spend a dime on cabs ever again.

Running And Gunning In Grand Theft Auto V

The core combat of Rockstar games has evolved quite a bit since Grand Theft Auto IV released in 2008. Red Dead Redemption streamlined the cover system first implemented in GTA IV, made gunfights more visceral thanks to the animations provided by the Euphoria technology, and introduced the slow-motion Dead-Eye mechanic. Max Payne 3 took the combat even further with destructible environments, kill cams, a last stand mechanic, and more natural feeling movement when you're running and gunning. For Grand Theft Auto V, Rockstar is taking the lessons learned from all of its previous games to bring the combat into the future.

The first thing I notice when Franklin and Michael open fire during a heist gone wrong is the smoothness of the transition animations. The characters move effortlessly in and out of cover, while taking care to avoid exposing themselves to incoming fire. A library of new animations also introduces a combat-ready jog that makes it easier to shoot from the hip and even allows players to run, aim, and shoot at the same time. Players can also drop into a combat roll at the press of a button.

The gunplay still takes place in third person, but Rockstar migrated part of the Max Payne 3 team over to the GTA team to tweak the camera perspective. The new over-the-shoulder aim view gives you a clearer field of vision during combat, which makes it easier to spot enemies at the periphery and while you're behind cover.

Not every gamer prefers the same aiming system, so Rockstar has included three different options in GTA V: a hard snap-to targeting, a soft targeting, and free aim. The impressive death animations created by Euphoria normally make it easy to tell when a body is about to hit the floor, but the tweaked reticle confirms your kill by turning into an X. When you hover the reticle over an enemy, it also turns red to indicate the threat.

When you pull the trigger, expect to have a more visceral connection to the outcome. Some types of cover are destructible, so you can chip away at hiding spots to expose enemies. Rockstar says the gunshot damage is now totally dynamic and specific to particular weapons as well.

When you're on the receiving end of a hail of bullets, you'll also notice a slightly modified health system. You can regenerate up to 50 percent of your health, but you need med packs to make up the difference. Rockstar is also implementing various kinds of body armor that offer different levels of protection.

Melding these improvements together, Rockstar aims to offer the best gunplay the series has ever seen. We won't know for sure if it succeeded until we get our hands on the game for ourselves, but given its track record of improvements with Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3, we're bullish on its prospects.

The Art Of The Heist In GTA V

You can make decent money knocking over liquor stores, arms trafficking, or carrying out hits in Los Santos, but why be a small-time crook when you can go for the major score? Grand Theft Auto V protagonist Michael thought he made enough to retire from a life of crime, but after his family squanders away most of his ill-gained earnings, he's forced to jump back into the game with fellow playable characters Trevor and Franklin. The only way he's going to regain his financial footing is by thinking big.

An aficionado of Vinewood action films, Michael also loves the thrill of the heist. GTA V peppers five or six of these big jobs throughout the story, each requiring careful preparation and execution. If you successfully pull off these jobs, you can walk away with millions of dollars to spend on luxury vehicles, helipads, marinas, businesses, weapons, aesthetic and performance car customizations, or even properties (a reversal of position for Rockstar, who previously told us you wouldn't be able to buy homes).

These major heists typically begin with a meeting of the minds. As Michael, Trevor, and Franklin kick around ideas, the player is presented with options on how to approach the proposed mission. For instance, you could enter a building stealthily from the roof or bust through the front door, guns blazing. The choice you make completely changes the dynamic of the heist, and thanks to the ability to replay missions you can experience both approaches if you want.

The more complex missions require the help of specialists like a wheelman, hired gun, or a hacker. You have cheap and expensive options, but you get what you pay for. The cheaper hacker may take longer to crack the security network, leaving you with only 30 seconds to collect all the money you can carry instead of the full minute you may have received had you spent more to get a seasoned pro. The drawback to hiring an expert is they demand a bigger cut of the take. If your hired hands survive the mission, they will improve and perform better the next time you need their expertise.

Once you lock down your approach and hire any specialists you require, you must perform a series of sub-missions. In the mission Rockstar showed us (which isn't a major story heist, but a one-of-a-kind mission that shares structural similarities), the crew plans to rob an armored security truck just like the famous scene in Heat. Before they can start the mission, the player must steal the vehicles being used for the job, find a place to stash the getaway vehicle, and buy some boiler suits and masks to wear during the heist.

With these sub-missions already taken care of before the demo starts, we join Franklin just as he's pulling up to meet Michael and Trevor. After the three exchange pleasantries, Michael outlines the plan. Trevor needs to find an elevated perch and serve as the lookout, notifying the other two when the security truck is nearing the site of the attempted robbery so they can block the road.

The job starts with the player controlling Trevor in a first-person view as he looks at the oncoming traffic through a pair of binoculars to locate the armored truck. Once he spots it, the camera zooms out and places the player in control of Michael in the garbage truck, who maneuvers the vehicle to block the entire street.

When the garbage truck is in place, a cinematic sequence shows the armored truck approaching the roadblock and screeching to a halt. Now the camera jumps to Franklin's first-person perspective behind the wheel of the tow truck. The play tester steps on the gas and rams into the target vehicle at full speed. Another cutscene shows the powerful impact of the crash, which tips the armored vehicle on its side.

The player stays in control of Franklin, who walks over and places explosives on the back door of the overturned truck. After detonation, Michael joins Franklin and the guards emerge with their hands up. The alarm is already sounding, and police sirens scream in the distance. The team doesn't have time to collect all the cash, so they take defensive positions and wait to open fire on the LSPD.

At this point in the mission the player is given the ability to swap between Trevor, who is perched in an elevated position with a sniper rifle and an RPG, and the two other characters, who are both armed with machine guns near the truck. When the characters are this close together, player-activated switching happens nearly instantaneously, with the world slowing down for a split second so the player can reorient before rejoining the fray. To showcase the speed of these transitions, the play tester fires a rocket with Trevor and switches immediately to Franklin. Before the rocket even reaches its intended destination, he's in full control of the new character.

After disposing of several waves of cops, a brief reprieve allows the crew to gather the money and make off in the getaway vehicle, marking the end of a thrilling score.

Jumping from one character to another repeatedly may sound disorienting on paper, but watching Grand Theft Auto V in action quells any worry I had about the system. Smooth transitions make it easy to orient yourself after a switch, the cinematic sequences add another layer of drama to the proceedings, and being able to rotate between the characters gives the players a new level of control in dictating their play style. For Rockstar, this may be the greatest heist of all.

Touring The Open World of Grand Theft Auto V

Rockstar gives us a new look at the expansive territory gamers can explore in the latest GTA game.

Reading numbers on paper is one thing. However, seeing is believing when it comes to getting your head around just how large the Los Santos territory is in Grand Theft Auto V. When we visited Rockstar headquarters in New York City for the cover reveal, the team rattled off several impressive facts about the scale. The total playable area (including the underwater areas) is five times bigger than the frontier in Red Dead Redemption. Taken as a whole, this square footage is bigger than GTA San Andreas, GTA IV, and Red Dead Redemption combined. As impressive as these stats are, the expansiveness doesn't really sink in until you see Franklin hanging out of a plane at 13,000 feet.

The sense of scale is breathtaking. Looking out to the left as Franklin jumps from the plane, I can see clear to the Alamos Sea (the GTA version of the Salton Sea). Far in the distance to the right is downtown Los Santos, with skyscrapers reaching high into the sky despite the considerable distance from the jump location. In between lies a vast mountain range filled with trees, animals, and a wealth of dynamic activities. As Franklin descends over a ridge and guides himself toward a stream, I notice deer and wildcats roaming the mountain range and a park ranger cruising the winding cliffside roads.

Franklin successfully navigates himself to the side of the road, where two men are fishing the stream next to their Winnebago. Though the wilderness is vast, Rockstar promises several things to do in these open expanses. Vehicles like ATVs are parked at the side of the road just waiting for someone to hop on. Depending on which of the three characters you are controlling, the location, and the time of day, you may experience dynamic events like hitchhikers, broken-down cars, and ATM robberies. You can also kill time by hunting in these territories (sorry, no fishing).

At this point in the demo we jump to Trevor, the most unpredictable of the three playable characters. The camera pulls away from Franklin high into the sky like a satellite before triangulating on Trevor's position and descending back to Earth. He's passed out on a beach with a bottle of liquor in his hand wearing nothing but his underwear, socks, and a pair of shoes. Bloody scratches, bruises, and scars pock his body, which Rockstar says are dynamically generated. The beachfront around him is littered with the bodies of the west-coast chapter of The Lost, the biker gang that first appeared in The Lost & Damned DLC for Grand Theft Auto IV. These rough-looking characters have patches of dried blood on their jeans and cuts, but I couldn't tell if they were just passed out from a bender or ended up on the losing end of a skirmish with Trevor, with whom they frequently clash.

Once Trevor drunkenly struggles to his feet he leaves the bikers behind and hops into a Dinghy (a boat that has appeared in several previous GTA games). Cruising out into the body of water, I notice the vastly improved wave technology, which looks more like the technology driving the open waters of Assassin's Creed III than previous GTA games. The boat rocks forward and backward naturally as the waves roll by.

Some boats in Los Santos include scuba equipment, which Trevor grabs to head underwater. Plunging into the ocean depth reveals another world players can lose themselves in. With schools of fish, waving seaweed, and a diverse ocean-floor terrain, it's teeming with just as much life as the mountainside. Trevor heads toward a giant shipwreck, which has attracted the attention of other divers as well. Rockstar wouldn't give specifics, but promises you can find several types of useful items in these wrecks.

As he moves around the hull of the ship he encounters the last thing a diver wants to see - a great white shark. Trevor audibly gasps in fear as it approaches, but Rockstar says as long as you don't make sudden movements or swim too near the sharks they may disregard you. Trevor quickens his pace toward the surface to escape the sticky situation.

With our brief glimpse of the ocean life coming to an end, the playtester jumps from Trevor to Michael, who is walking out of an office building in Vinewood. Since he can't stand his family, the career criminal spends the majority of his downtime drinking whiskey, watching Vinewood action movies, and visiting his therapist.

As he turns the corner he runs into a fading actress named Pamela Drake, who says to anyone who will listen that back in the day a big-time Vinewood mogul wrote the film A *** In Paris specifically her for. Like the street preacher in GTA IV, Drake is one of a series of recurring pedestrians that offers chatter. Depending on whether you approach her with Trevor, Franklin, or Michael, she will react differently.

Michael continues down the street and I get a glimpse of the street life in the more populated sections of Los Santos. Much like in the Elder Scrolls games, the pedestrians in GTA V don't stay in one spot all day, preferring to move around from activity to activity. The AI is also much more responsive to your actions. In this instance, Michael walks past two celebrity lookalikes. The first is a stand-in for one of the Republican Space Rangers (which returns with new episodes in GTA V). The other is dressed as Impotent Rage, a new liberal superhero with a hit TV show. When Michael pulls out his smartphone to take a picture of the Space Ranger, the actor strikes a pose for him. Whenever you take a picture in Los Santos, you can share it with friends via the Rockstar Social Club. Nearby, another man is offering a tour of celebrity homes. If you jump on board, he will tell you the sleazy backstories of the stars featured on the tour.

Passing a tattoo parlor (which you can enter if you wish), Michael notices a woman hiding behind a bus in a nearby alley. The woman is Lacy Jonas, a celebrity who calls herself the voice of a generation., This is just one of the several dynamic missions that may pop up on your map when walking through a neighborhood. Why is she in the alley? Paparazzi have staked out her car (which is hilariously called a Benefactor Surano). Michael nonchalantly walks up to the vehicle, smarts off to the cameramen, and peels away to pick up Lacy.

The paparazzi don't give up that easily. As Michael takes off in the sportscar, they give chase in a van. Lacy angrily voices her reservations about being photographed right now because she feels fat (she's not). When Michael asks what she did to generate so much attention, she replies, "I'm really famous. I didn't do anything!" Michael eventually shakes their pursuers and heads up to the safety of Vinewood hills.

Though our glimpses into the lives of Franklin, Trevor, and Michael were brief, they effectively communicate just how diverse the experiences will be depending on which corner of the open world you're in. The wildnerness both above and below water give players ample reasons to explore, and the heart of Los Santos feels just as vibrant and teeming with life as Liberty City did in GTA IV.

[Swarley]

[BigBucs]

[Twigg4075]

Waits for Twigg to post about some Sleeping Dogs DLC.

I think I get it now. You're the biggest GTA fanboy on Earth and get super defensive whenever someone talks badly about your precious game.

You win at life.

[EmpireWF]

Holy shit at the scale of the environment in GTA V.

[JimLeavy59]

I think I get it now. You're the biggest GTA fanboy on Earth and get super defensive whenever someone talks badly about your precious game.

You win at life.

Whens that new Sleeping Dogs DLC coming out?

[Swarley]

Whens that new Sleeping Dogs DLC coming out?

[Guest]

For all the people who complain about COD being repetitive year in and year out (and I see some of you in this thread) you have no room to complain about COD if you don't complain about GTA. I couldn't make it through a quarter of GTAIV before I gave up on it, because it's the same exact thing from previous years. Sure, it's a bigger city, a new character, etc, but it all boils down to many of the same missions I've done multiple times already. At least with Saints Row, they try and make it more grandiose every year, and don't take themselves seriously at all, instead of trying to win awards like GTAV.