Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons

Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons comes from Josef Fares, the mastermind behind popular co-op games like A Way Out and It Takes Two. The game tells a heartwarming story about two brothers working together through a vast world, and the mechanics do a good job of encouraging synergies between the player in new and interesting ways. Between this and the charming art style on offer, Brothers: A Tale of Two Sons becomes a great game to play with a loved one.

Robbing Stores With no Ammo

Everyone knows that you can rob a store without needing any ammo. Simply roll up, pull out a firearm and threaten the clerk with it to receive that sweet cash. Just remember not to turn your back on them since they’re armed and more than a little vengeful. But what happens if you accidentally fire your ammo-less weapon? As felixramminger on Reddit discovered, when the clerk sees that you have no ammo, they won’t hesitate to pull out their weapon and gun you down. That this was possible all this time and players are discovering it now is crazy.

The first and most obvious thing that Grand Theft Auto Online has going for it is the fact that it’s built upon the Grand Theft Auto 5 engine which is a tried-and-true set of tools that Rockstar has used to create outstanding experiences for many years. This allows for a vast array of things to do, a staggering amount of detail to look at while doing them, and a game that runs pretty darn well all things considered. The draw distances are insane as you can see for miles from any ledge overlooking Los Santos, and while doing so it can be a bit crazy to think about how great it all still looks despite its age.

From that, we naturally have to talk about what is perhaps Grand Theft Auto Online’s strongest asset; the absolutely insane variety of modes available to play and things to do. From cooperative heists, F1-style races, to wackier modes like “deadline” that put you in what is basically a Tron game where you race around and avoid hitting the ever-growing tail you leave behind without stopping. It all adds up to an experience that is so dauntingly vast with things to do, that it ultimately feels more like a platform of its own than a single game once you’ve really wrapped your mind around it all. The best part is that the modes are still getting updates and tweaks, and new stuff is still coming out after all this time, so GTA Online is very well-positioned to be a game that once you’re hooked, it’s basically impossible to become un-hooked.

This of course leads us to the next very important thing about GTA Online; it’s an absolutely massive and super dedicated community. Any multiplayer focused video game obviously sinks or swims by how well it’s able to garner a community of players. No matter what else is at play, no matter how great or horrible an online game is, it’s success will ultimately be determined by its audience. Keeping in line with that, Grand Theft Auto Online’s success is pretty much directly proportional to its ability to garner and maintain a massive audience of dedicated players. In Grand Theft Auto Online’s case, it’s not only created a massive audience, but it’s created a massive audience that has also proven they are more than willing to shell out more of their hard-earned money for in-game items on a massive scale.

This, perhaps more than anything else, has shown the folks at Rockstar that this game is a true, one-in-a-generation success. The sheer amount of money and content that the Grand Theft Auto Online community has contributed to the experience is staggering by any reasonable measure. The game generated nearly a billion dollars in revenue for Rockstar in 2020 alone, which is still less than half of what Fortnite did, but to be even comparable to a behemoth like Fortnite is something worth commending. Especially for a game that is nearly ten years old and whose online functionality wasn’t even its original selling point like it arguably is now. All in all, the community of GTA 5 is its lifeblood, and given the staggering amount of success they’ve found with this approach, there is little reason to think that this will change about the game any time soon. So when it’s all said and done the community inside of Grand Theft Auto Online is far and away the most important part of why gamers love it so much and continue to flock to it in droves.

Of course, we can’t talk about Grand Theft Auto without giving a mention to the insane amount of control and customization that it affords the players. Even today, with games that tout their customization and freedom as their main selling points, nothing has really come close to GTA 5. It’s true that this has been a staple of the franchise for a long time. Changing your character’s outfits, how they look, what sort of car they drive, what sort of house they live in, and even various parameters of multiple game modes are up for tweaking to the players’ liking. This is not only a great aspect of GTA 5 in and of itself, but it’s also something that leads to an almost infinite amount of replayability for the game’s many modes. Playing through part of the game one way is fine but then you can do it again in an entirely different way and with an entirely different character or with an entirely different sort of vehicle which can completely change the experience from top to bottom. So when you really factor in the sheer amount of things to do in Grand Theft Auto Online and the sheer amount of ways to play all of those modes with all of the customization options in front of you it’s hard to describe it as anything other than limitless. It might not literally be limitless but seeming that way is about as good, and GTA 5 does that in all the right ways.

There really is nothing on the market quite like Grand Theft Auto Online. From the staggering amount of things to do and wide array of ways to do them, it’s an experience that just has to be played to be believed. No website article could ever really do the depth of the experience justice. You just need to dive in and see for yourself. While getting the amount of cash you need to really get to the good stuff can be a bit of a grind, especially if you’re trying to avoid spending more real-world money in the game, the game provides such a gargantuan amount of things to do and ways to explore that you could just as well quit thinking about the grind and just have fun while the metrics your looking to fill ultimately take care of themselves. While you might not really get what Grand Theft Auto Online is all about by looking at it from the outside, once you dive in, it’s impossible to not see why the game has stuck around and remained so relevant for so long.

Note: The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to, GamingBolt as an organization.

Grand Theft Auto 5 also made an appearance on the service last year, and the availability period is definitely quite small when compared to other games on the service. Red Dead Redemption 2 also remained on the service for a short while in the same vein. Speculation suggests that GTA 5 will be leaving the service next month, possibly in the early weeks.

Fans wanting to play the game should do so now, since chances of it returning anytime soon seem to be slim. Next-gen versions of GTA 5 are on their way, and Rockstar probably wouldn’t want to hurt its sales by putting the game on the service at launch.

As PCGamer has reported, the reason behind these takedowns stem from Take-Two altering its terms and conditions for using the OpenIV modding tool. The publisher reportedly changed its clauses silently in 2019, which now gives it full authority to order takedowns.

This comes shortly after Take Two removed fan-remasters of GTA: Vice City and GTA 3, which have sparked equal amounts of anger and intrigue within the community. Many seem to take these removals as an indication of an official remaster for these titles, while others believe it to be pertaining to GTA 6‘s setting. However, no solid evidence is present at the time of writing to back any such claim.

Over the last couple of weeks, we’ve taken a look at a few recent open world titles and talked about how they compare to Cyberpunk 2077 as far as immersion goes, but the one open world game that Cyberpunk has been compared to most often is, of course, is GTA. Before the game launched, players were hoping that Cyberpunk would provide a futuristic GTA-esque open world setting to mess about in. That, of course, did not end up happening, but how big is the gap between the two exactly? Let’s take a look.

SHOOTING AT WATER

Water physics might not be the most crucial element in most games, but they can add to immersion significantly. This is one of those areas where Cyberpunk 2077 falls short. Shoot at a water body in GTA 5, and you’ll see proper splashes when the bullet hits the water. In Cyberpunk 2077, you may as well be shooting at thin air.

PUNCHING NPCs

NPCs in Cyberpunk 2077 world are hollow shells who have either very disappointing reactions to the things you do, or completely inappropriate ones. Every single time you punch an NPC, they’ll simply run away, while others in the vicinity will simply vanish the moment you take your eyes off them. Things in GTA 5 are much more dynamic, and from people getting immediately knocked out to running away to even responding in kind with punches of their own, punching an NPC can result in several different things.

JUMPING OUT OF CARS

GTA 5’s physics engine is, to this day, one of the best we’ve ever seen in an open world game (which can be said of most Rockstar games, actually). Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand… well, it has a physics system… we think? Exhibit A- jump out of a moving vehicle in GTA 5, and depending on how fast you were going, you will see different animations, physics, and even damage to yourself. In Cyberpunk 2077, no matter how fast you were going, every time you jump out of a moving vehicle, you will simply land on your feet with nary a scratch on you.

BURNOUTS

Ever tried doing a burnout in a car in GTA 5? Of course you have. You’re treated to awesome smoke effects and audio, and if you keep doing it for long enough, your car’s rear tires will eventually burst, and the rims will begin producing sparks against the ground. Burnouts in Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand, are wholly unsatisfying. The rear tires produce smoke here as well, but it doesn’t look nearly as good. More disappointingly, that’s all that doing burnouts does. Your tires don’t burst or even get damaged.

BLOCKING TRAFFIC

Cyberpunk 2077’s driving AI is ridiculously bad, in that it almost doesn’t exist. There’s zero pathfinding here. In GTA 5, if you park your car in the middle of the road and walk away, other cars will simply drive around it- you know, like cars do. In Cyberpunk 2077, on the other hand, if you block traffic, cars will just remain stationed behind your vehicle. Forever. Till the end of time. Even if there’s acres of space around the blockage to drive around.

BLOCKING TRAFFIC ON-FOOT

Similarly, try standing in front of an oncoming vehicle, and you’ll see the same results. NPC drivers in Cyberpunk 2077 will come to a stop of you’re standing in their way, and will be all too happy staying there endlessly while blankly staring in your direction. NPCs in GTA 5, on the other hand, will scream at you, hurl curses your way, and eventually lose patience and, once again, like normal people, simply drive around you.

AIMING GUNS AT CARS

This is one area where Cyberpunk 2077 at least does the bare minimum at times, but still falls way short of things that a nearly decade-old game does. Point a gun at a driver while standing in front of their car and, appropriately enough, they will look visibly afraid. If you shoot at the car, they will decide to get out of their vehicle and run off. In GTA 5, however, once again, things are much more believable. If you point a gun at a driver in GTA 5, they could do anything from abandoning their vehicles and running away immediately to instantly running you over in a panic.

AIMING GUNS AT NPCs

Aiming guns at pedestrians produces the exact same results. Point a gun at an NPC in Cyberpunk 2077, and they’ll put their hands up and look appropriately scared. Start shooting, and they’ll bolt, though other NPCs in the vicinity will (once again) simply vanish as soon as you take your eyes off them. Meanwhile, in GTA 5, if you point a gun at a pedestrian, they’ll have the far more appropriate reaction of immediately running away. In fact, every single NPC in the area will run off as soon as this happens.

COP CHASES

This is one point that gets brought up all too often. The police AI in Cyberpunk 2077 is absolutely terrible, to the extent that the Wanted system may as well not even exist. The moment you commit a crime in the open world, the police will simply spawn on your location, right behind you. If you try and escape, you’ll find that there’s no challenge involved, and putting even the tiniest bit of distance between yourself and the cops will lead to them giving up the chase within seconds. In GTA 5, on the other hand, cops are highly competent. There are proper, dynamic chases, multiple police vehicles will furiously chase after you, and depending on how high your Wanted level is, they’ll throw everything from spike strips to SWAT squads to even choppers at you.

SWIMMING

Ever noticed that there’s no real falling animation in Cyberpunk 2077? By that same token, there’s no diving animation either. Try jumping into a body of water in the game, and V will simply plop right into it like a rock. Meanwhile, even when you’re swimming, you’ll hardly ever see your hands. In GTA 5, there’s proper diving and swimming animations, giving the whole action much more weight.

GLASS PHYSICS

If you’re playing a video game that gives you guns and you see a pane of glass, you’re going to shoot at, right? GTA 5 makes that a whole lot more satisfying than Cyberpunk 2077. Shooting at glass surfaces in GTA 5 produces different results based on several factors. Small surfaces like taillights shatter instantly, while larger ones, like windows, take more shots to be broken completely. Meanwhile, in Cyberpunk 2077, most (though not all) surfaces shatter with a single shot, while the animations upon impact are also far less realistic. Some smaller ones, like tallights on a vehicle, don’t shatter upon being shot at all.

TALKING TO NPCs

Having a conversation with an NPC in GTA 5 can be an absolute joy. They have actual personalities. From outlandish and bizarre comments to witty remarks to having proper reactions if you try antagonizing them, conversations with NPCs in GTA 5 feel like, you know, actual conversations. Cyberpunk 2077 is on the complete opposite end of that spectrum. Every NPC has a generic canned dialogue, and there’s basically  no interactivity whatsoever.

GETTING HIT BY A CAR

Getting hit by cars (which will invariably happen in an open world game with cars) in GTA 5 can have wildly different results, and thanks to the game’s excellent physics engine, it can lead to anything from taking a slight stumble to getting absolutely walloped and smacked into the road. Meanwhile, Cyberpunk 2077 has one single canned animation that the game triggers every time you’re hit by a vehicle, with no regard for things such as speed or the direction of the impact.

RUNNING OVER PEDESTRIANS

Again, if you’re playing an open world game with cars, you will run over pedestrians. It’s an unspoken rule. Sadly, it’s far less enjoyable in Cyberpunk 2077 than it is in GTA 5. The latter uses the ragdoll physics of its excellent engine (which we’ve mentioned a few times by now), while the former has extremely unsatisfying and often hilariously bad collision animations.

OBSTRUCTING NPCs

Yet another example of both, the terrible pathfinding in Cyberpunk 2077, as well as its AI being as dumb as a sack of bricks. If you park a car on a sidewalk in GTA 5, NPCs will simply walk around it and keep going (like normal people). Do the same in Cyberpunk 2077, and NPCs will be absolutely stumped by your evil genius. They’ll take one look at the car, stop, turn around, and start walking in the other direction.

SHOOTING TIRES

Try shooting at car tires in GTA 5, and you’ll see expected results. The tires will burst, obviously, as they should. As you may have guessed, that’s not what happens when try shooting car tires in Cyberpunk 2077. What does happen? Nothing. Nothing happens. Just like shooting at water in the game, you may as well be shooting at thin air.

Animal Crossing: New Horizons has been at or around the top of the weekly retail sales charts in the UK since it launched nearly a year ago (as it has been in most other regions). It topped last week’s charts as well, and so it has done once more this week (via GamesIndustry).

In fact, much of the top 10 is dominated by Nintendo Switch games. Exclusives like Mario Kart 8 Deluxe (at No. 2), Super Mario 3D All-Stars (No. 8), New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe (No. 9), and Ring Fit Adventure (No. 10) all figure in the top 10. Meanwhile, the Switch version of Minecraft is placed fifth. Just Dance 2021 occupies third place, and though that is, of course, a multiplatform title, 87% of its sales came on the Switch.

Total physical software sales in the UK for the year so far as up 27.4% from the same period in 2020, and much of that is down to software sales on the Switch. Switch software sales, in fact, are up 120% year-to-date.

Finally, GTA 5 at No. 4, FIFA 21 at No. 6, and Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War at No. 7 round out the top 10. You can see the full top 10 for the week ending January 16 below.

1. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
2. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
3. Just Dance 2021
4. Grand Theft Auto 5
5. Minecraft (Switch)
6. FIFA 21
7. Call of Duty: Black Ops Cold War
8. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
9. New Super Mario Bros. U Deluxe
10. Ring Fit Adventure

As such, the game has seen a lot of success. It’s been ported to 8th gen consoles and on the verge of a port to 9th gen consoles, which is a sight we rarely see from any game without it being called a remaster or remake. But even though the port to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X would qualify as a remaster, nobody’s really calling it that, because it ultimately makes plenty of sense to be on 9th gen consoles and feel like a 9th gen game because of how well it’s put together. All of that said, with Grand Theft Auto 5 technically being 7 years old, and will likely be 8 before we see another entry, the question is getting asked more and more; where exactly the hell is Grand Theft Auto 6?

We’ve seen some rumors about what the next Grand Theft Auto game could be. For starters, the more prominent rumors indicate that Grand Theft Auto 6 will be based largely in Vice City and will also take place in a new fictional city based on Rio de Janeiro. This is a rather exciting concept for fans of Vice City like me, who rather enjoyed that Scarface-style story and the 80’s aesthetic that the series has largely ignored since that game. Although this time around it seems that Grand Theft Auto 6, according to the rumors, is more inspired by Netflix’s Narcos. Also, according to the rumors the game takes place over a large span of time and throughout that span of time the economy changes. The value of cars and buildings fluctuate, while different crime empires rise and fall.

All of this information is very interesting, but the rumor that really sticks out to me is the one that says this game has been in development since 2012 a year before Grand Theft Auto 5 launched. This would mean it’s been on the back burner throughout the entire Red Dead Redemption 2 development, which could be an indication that we’re in for a rather massive experience here. I go into all of this to illustrate that we probably aren’t too far from Grand Theft Auto 6. While it is true we have waited longer for Grand Theft Auto 6 then we have waited for any Grand Theft Auto game since the original one was released on the PlayStation, it’s looking like that isn’t for no reason. Grand Theft Auto 6 is going to be rather ambitious in a multitude of ways, and in order to meet expectations of mainstream gamers, it’s obviously going to require that extra time to bring these massive ideas to fruition. Given that it’s been at some stage of development for nearly a decade, I would wager it’s probably coming sooner than we currently think.

Another reason we aren’t hearing anything official about Grand Theft Auto 6 right now despite how far along it probably is in development is because of just how successful Grand Theft Auto 5 has been. It’s sort of similar to why we haven’t gotten Tekken x Street Fighter, the long-awaited follow-up to Street Fighter x Tekken being because of Tekken 7’s unmitigated success and longevity. Copies of Tekken 7 are still flying off the shelves and getting downloaded from PSN at an alarming rate, and Bandai Namco is catering to the obvious inclinations of their audience by releasing more DLC and continuing to support Tekken 7 Network features with updates and additions. To release a new Tekken-style game with Street Fighter characters will almost certainly mean a huge blow to Tekken 7’s lifespan, and if the fans of the game are still happy with that, then the folks behind it can spend that extra time polishing up the next thing, why not go about it that way? We’re likely seeing a similar situation with Grand Theft Auto 6.

While it is probably quite far along and development, and possibly even ready for a reveal, to announce Grand Theft Auto 6 and start revving up for its eventual release would almost certainly cut short the lifespan of Grand Theft Auto 5 online mode which has proven to be a huge hit for fans of the series. Granted, Rockstar won’t want to hold on to GTA 6 forever without announcing it, if fans are still interested in 5 and still having a good time with its online mode then why not let that sit for a little bit longer while they spend that extra time polishing up Grand Theft Auto 6 and ultimately making it a richer, better experience? If I were a betting man, I would say GTA 6 could probably be released holiday 2021 no problem. It possibly could have been released this year,  but there’s really no point in cannibalizing the Red Dead Redemption 2 online audience and GTA 5 online audience with a new Grand Theft Auto game as long as those two games are still thriving, which they are.

So with all of that said and with not much else to go on at this point, I think the main points to walk away with from this are that GTA 6 is definitely on the way,  and with a franchise like this you don’t have anything to worry about when it comes to seeing it disappear or being put on ice for a ridiculously long amount of time. It’s probably never going to be one of those gems that get lost in the shuffle at Rockstar like Max Payne or Manhunt seemingly have. It’s not going anywhere. In fact odds are good it’s going to continue to get better with subsequent releases, and if Grand Theft Auto 6 rumors that are currently out there have any credibility to them at all, the ambition for the series will continue to know no bounds and surprise us with every release. I think it’s fairly obvious that the next year is going to be very revealing for the franchise. if we don’t get a launch of Grand Theft Auto 6 will at the very least get a reveal at some point after GTA 5 launches on current-gen consoles and that game starts to inevitably, finally wind down. Like all things in this department though, only time will tell.

YIGA CLAN HIDEOUT (THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD)

Forced stealth sections in games that are not stealth-focused are never a good idea, and this is probably a poster boy for that concept. In a game that is all about letting players do whatever they want, Yiga Clan is a level that forces you to do particular things in particular ways. What’s worse is that it’s not even good. The AI is no good, the stealth is questionable, and it goes on for a bit too long.

Virtual reality isn’t a space that many developers have gone into with the intentions of making a high quality, full-fledged game, but with efforts such as Astro Bot Rescue Mission and Half-Life: Alyx, the technology’s capabilities are becoming clearer and clearer. As we wait for more major players in the industry to invest in VR, it’s looking like one of the biggest of them all might be preparing to dive in as well.

Rockstar, it seems, is working on a AAA VR open world title. This is as per a new LinkedIn post by Video Games Deluxe, the studio that has worked with Rockstar on L.A. Noire: The VR Case Files. “Having finished the critically well received L.A.Noire: The V.R. Case Files we are now gearing up for a new project,” reads the developer’s update, “a AAA open world title in VR for Rockstar.” They are looking to hire people for several positions, including Senior Programmers, Engine Programmer, Designer, and Animator.

What it is that they’re working on is a mystery for now. The likeliest option seems to be a VR mode for GTA 5. After all, when the game launched for PC and PS4 and Xbox One, it did so with an added first person mode, and with another next-gen upgrade confirmed for the game, it’s entirely possible that it will now be adding VR as well.

Another possibility is a VR mode for Grand Theft Auto 6, which, as per reports, are Rockstar are currently in the middle of developing.