September 17th 2013 - The most exciting day of my life playing games to date. Finally, GTA V was in my hands and couldn't wait to play it.
GTA V is set in the fictional city of Los Santos, with countryside and run-down areas dwarfing it. So is this just San Andreas in HD I hear you ask? Definitely not. The map has been completely re-designed from scratch, and bears little to no resemblance to Los Santos on GTA San Andreas. Instead of having 3 islands and you having to unlock them, the whole map is open to you right from the get go. To add a little bit of discovery, the map inside the game is not visible until you've explored those areas. Grove Street returns, but is only a passing resemblance to the original.
The game arrives on 2 Discs. Rockstar claim that for optimal performance, you must Install the first disc and then run the game from the 2nd disc. This is true to some degree, but for even better performance (and quietness since the Xbox 360 sounds like a lawnmower when its spinning a disc), is to install the contents of disc 2 to a 16GB memory stick.
The game opens up with a playable sequence of events 9 years before the events of GTA V, which happens in North Yankton in South Canada. This area is not playable or accessible after this mission, so it makes sense that it may be an area made available when GTA Online opens on 1st October. I was immediately impressed by the level of detail in this game. Sure, there are some Xbox 360 games which look better than this, but they don't have such a massive area to explore and every street is unique like it is in this game. It runs in a higher resolution than GTA IV, the lighting has been entirly re-done and all textures and 3D models have been refined. After you've completed around a 1/3rd of the main missions in the game, you can switch between 3 protagonists at any time. Michael who is a guy who has already made it big time but finds it stressful and wants to be a criminal, Franklin which is the youngest of the trio, brought up in the Los Santos ghetto and Trevor, who is the probably the most entertaining and funniest GTA character to date!
Looking back at GTA IV, I hated the way that most missions in the game followed the same template. It was always "Go kill this guy that didn't pay his money to the person you are working for". In GTA V, Rockstar have listened and my goodness have they delivered! Each mission I've played so far has been unique and enjoyable. It does have some WTF moments as I've experienced which are eerily not far off from something that you'd find in titles more like Saints Row IV.
There are over 240 songs in this game from all sorts of genres. I think there is a slight lack of heavier rock but also a lack of club tracks like the ones featured on the Episodes From Liberty City. In addition to the 240+ songs there are unique "scores of music" which cut in when exploring or during intense moments. You cannot turn these off unless you choose to listen to one of the radio stations instead.
The physics have been spruced up as well. Cars turn in much tighter and feels a lot more like the classic Midnight Club games. When you hit another car, it doesn't simply go over the top of yours like it was made from plastic like it did in GTA IV. Some people have commented and said they don't like the handling. It does feel a tad twitchy but if you play GTA's of old then you will appreciate how far its come. When you are going up flights of stairs indoors you can simply walk forward and the game will turn the character around the corner for you.
Once you've had enough of the main missions, there's plenty to do outside of this. You can participate in various different sports including cycling, swimming, tennis, golf. All of these feel like dedicated separate games rather than just a failed jack-of-all trades. If you have a smartphone or tablet in real life you can download the iFruit app to it from the App Store or Google Play and this contains a place to tune your car and a Sims like app to train Lemar's dog, Chop. There are various other animals throughout the game world as well. I've seen about 3 or 4 breeds of dogs but there could be more.
So with all of these positives, are there any negatives. Yep, but they aren't massive problems. The main downfall I feel is the framerate which dips a lot. Not as much as the smaller GTA IV but still enough to not call it fluid. But I can appreciate it with the massive improvements to graphics they have taken. Another thing is that there are only 69 main storyline missions (If you don't understand the significance of this number you may not be old enough to play the game). Aside from these I don't really have any other complaints. The gun sensitivity could be lessened, even when in the options its set on its lowest. This can be sorted out with a patch.
If and when Rockstar release this for PC, then I'd happily buy this as well. The modding community is huge and no doubt the good graphics will be made better. You can tell there is plenty of room for scope.
Sadly, I couldn't test GTA Online but it promises to be better than the Single Player, plus there are rumors that Downloadable content will be released as well!
Is this my game of the year, 1000% YES!
Is this my favorite game of the console generation? Yep!
Is this the best game in the GTA Series? Well, Yes and No. Its much better than GTA IV and San Andreas but not as good as my overall favorite which is Vice City.
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