The first major blowout of information on the highly anticipated GTA 5 has arrived, and boy, oh boy, it is awesome.
First of all, it’s been revealed that the world of Los Santos is bigger than GTA 4, San Andreas and Red Dead Redemption combined. It’s a huge and diverse city”, that combines the “large open expanses” of Red Dead Redemption and the “densely packed urban environment” of GTA 4. While GTA: San Andreas was more about how gangs ran and operated, GTA 5 focuses on capturing the “contemporary culture of LA”.
Mind blown?
Yes, that is accurate. It’s something that we still can’t imagine Rockstar pulling off. But they have done it. We have more details on the game though, along with some new screenshots which unfortunately we cannot post here on the site since it’s a PDF version. But stay tuned, they will be live soon enough.
There are three protagonists, as we revealed earlier, and you can switch between them. When you aren’t doing any missions you can find them doing random things in-game. When you switch between the characters, the camera zooms out into a “Google Earth-style” map in the interim.
The three characters are- Michael, who’s in his early 40’s. He was an ex-bank robber, but he retired after he made a deal with the feds. He was the guy that narrated the original GTA 5 trailer. He has a wife, Amanda, who he hates, and two teenage children. The second character is Trevor, who is a former war vet, and has plenty of fighting experience. Oh, he’s also a “drugged out psychopath”. He also has a paranoid, conspiracy theorist friend called Ron. The third and the final character is Franklin. He works as a repo man who’s in his mid-20s, and has been described by Rockstar as “the young and capable one of the bunch.” He has a “crazy friend” called Lamar. There will be “one or two key minigame activities per character”, meaning that each character will have his own hobbies and abilities. None of the characters are voiced by any celebrities.
All three main characters will come together several times to perform sevreral mission, and heists. Which, by the way, are “a big theme in the game.”
During one particular mission, Michael rappels down the side of a building and into it to grab a target, Franklin uses a sniper rifle to take down other targets from afar while Trevor flies the getaway chopper up above. As you get into the getaway chopper, Trevor flies it, Franklin snipes enemies and Michael uses the machine gun to take down other choppers in pursuit. During the entire mission, you can switch between them whenever you want and do whatever it is you want.
Several characters GTA 4 and its two expansion- Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and the Damned- will also be featured. But you will not see in any PS2-era characters. “The five PS2 games are one universe, and this is the high definition universe, so they don’t co-exist,” says Rockstar’s Dan Harmon.
Also, don’t expect mainline characters like Niko Bellic to make a return. That’s not happening.
The game also has what has been described as a “vibrant and fun” economy”, although, you will be unable to buy houses, contrary to what the general consensus amongst fans was after the first trailer was released.
The visuals have also been amped up, obviously. The physics and vehicle handling have been improved. “The cars hold to the ground better”, says Dan Harmon, and that it “feels more like a racing game.” The lighting, textures and draw distances will also see a big improvement, as you might have guessed.
Here are some details on shooting and melee.
“We feel like we’ve evolved it on from where we had it in any previous game a long way. And not just in terms of how it works, but also in terms of the core mechanics of how you play the game,” said Dan Houser on shooting.
“It’s better than we’ve had in the past. How far we can push it — we will see depending on resources we allocate to it,” he added for melee. “We do want it to feel really fun and strong.”
The game contains more vehicles than any GTA game. Vehicles like the BMX bike, mountain bikes, road bikes, dirt bikes, trucks, helicopters, planes, ATVs and Jet Skis are all going to be in the game. Of course, the manufacturers will still be fictional. Anyone who saw a Jet Ski called “Speedophile” would have guessed that already, but this is just to make it clear.
You guys still here? Okay, get this.
No romance in the game. It’s good news, obviously, seeing as GTA 4 handled romance… well, not very well. But making friends and hanging out with them, as you did in GTA 4, is still present here. No, Roman, I don’t want to go play fucking darts, I’m wanted by federal agents right now and I’m piloting a chopper.
GTA 4’s mobile phone will also make a return, but it will not be archaic and will have certain new features. Like the ability to access internet.
“We weren’t sure it would work, and we’re doing lots of other new stuff. We definitely would bring it back in the future but not this game. It just felt like it was going to be overly complex (with three protagonists),” Houser said.
There’s dynamic missions a la Red Dead Redemption too. “Because the expansive frontier in Red Dead Redemption was so wide open, Rockstar Games devised a dynamic mission system that would present players with scenarios they could either ignore or engage rather than making them wander aimlessly between missions,” Rockstar said.
“When you are driving around in the country, you may see a broken down car or hitchhiker on the side of the road. If you’re the curious type, pull over and see what happens.
“Did a Breaking Bad style drug deal go bad? Investigate if you want.”
Did they just say Breaking Bad? This is the best game already.
There will also be a ton of new kinds of side missions, and what Rockstar describes as “more sophisticated” mini-games. You have everything from yoga, triathlons and Jet Skiing to base-jumping, tennis, and golf. Incidentally, Los Santos will also have a full golf course. You can also go scuba diving, meaning that you can actually explore what lies beneath the waters of Los Santos.
Unfortunately, the game does not have San Andreas style RPG customization, but, well, you can still customize the clothing of your character.
There’s a little bit more info- you can flip off people (show them the middle finger) whenever you want. This will produce different kinds of reactions from different citizens. Some might start punching you and beating the crap out of you, while others might start crying like little bitches.
Rockstar has also confirmed that the game will have a multiplayer component. There are no details on this as of yet, but speculation suggests that it might be co-op. Seeing as the game has three playable characters, having 3 player co-op would be perfect for it.
GTA 5 releases in Spring 2013, as was confirmed by Rockstar earlier, for the Xbox 360 and PS3. A second trailer for the game will be out soon, so stay tuned.
You can read more GTA 5 details here.
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