Features

Published on November 10th, 2012 | by Tom Ascott

1,865

5 Reasons Why GTA V Looks Amazing

Grand Theft Auto V is slated to arrive sometime in Spring 2013, taking us back to sunny, satirical, Los Santos, this time as three separate playable characters. It’s bigger, bolder and potentially better, though not everyone thinks so. With such stinging criticism in mind, and without a comprehensive picture of what to expect, here are just five reasons why Rockstar’s marquee franchise could well be the best GTA yet. You know, at least until they make GTA Medieval.

1. The Split Narrative

GTA V will be the first GTA game to have multiple protagonists, and we’re told this will be a key feature of the game to the extent that the ability to switch from one character to another is mapped to a single dedicated button.

For all the naysayers out there I have one main thing to say: GTA V is not really the first GTA game to have multiple protagonists. Before you go bald scratching your head trying to work out what I mean (was it possible to play as another character in one of the earlier games? Perhaps the 2D ones?), I am, in fact, talking about GTA IV.

If we take GTA IV and all its DLC together it becomes one game with three playable characters: Nico Bellic, Luis Lopez and Johnny Klebitz. They all have overlapping stories and are set in the same city. Instead of pressing one button you could load up one of the DLC instalments and, boom, there you are in the same city, surrounded by a similar cast dealing with the same key plot points.

2. The Size

This is, without a doubt, the biggest game of all time. It’s so big that switching between characters will trigger a camera movement similar to Google Earth. If you’re not excited about that then you’re clinically dead, because if there’s one thing Rockstar knows how to do well it’s build a believable city.

Believable? Pfft, look at the physics on the truck’s front tyres

You’d better believe that the teams who built the wide open stretches for Red Dead Redemption will be working on this as well. Except this time instead of being stuck on the back of some horse, you’ll be able to ride down mountain sides on mountain or dirt bikes. Still, why drive down when you can base-jump off of the top of the damn thing anyway?

There’s also the dense streets of L.A. to explore as well as the suburbs, mountains and a enormous stretch of sea for you to boat on or dive in. This should all make for better chases too, after trying to lose the cops in the backstreets of L.A. you can try to escape down the freeway or jump into a boat and sail away. Hell, you can even jump into a jet if you remember where you parked it.

3. The Location

So we’re going back to L.A. and this time it promises to be entirely different. For everyone who says that this is San Andreas HD, they can go jump off a bridge because they clearly haven’t been paying attention.

There are no distractions in the form of San Fierro (San Francisco) or Las Venturas (Las Vegas). Now it’s all about Los Santos, or L.A. if you will. Not only that but it’s not stuck in the 90′s which means all that cutting satire you probably missed the first time round, having not been living in Compton for the better part of the 1990′s, will this time make a lot more sense.

What’s that? You don’t know what the Rampart scandal was? And, oh, you didn’t take part in the riots? Doesn’t matter; this game will be modern and deal with the economic downturn and the recession which, unless you live under a rock in the Cayman Islands, you’ve probably heard of.

4. The Hobbies

There have always been side missions in GTA games and some of the best have been the most bizarre, like being an ice cream man in Vice City before going out and chainsawing a bunch of people into cornetto-sized pieces.

Here a Los Santos resident is pursuing his hobby: staring wistfully at rendered satire

This time it could be the same; each playable character will have their own set of mini games to correspond with their own special skills. Franklin, the young repo man, will have import / export-style missions where he has to go and steal certain vehicles. If this doesn’t get the blood pumping then think about this: one of the mini games is robbing banks. Yes, straight up robbing banks. There’s no need to wait for it to come up in missions, you can now just call up your pals and put together a full-blown heist whenever you want.

Suddenly “mini games” sound a lot more interesting, especially when you consider that there will be a million ways to spend your cash and this time it won’t be on taking your miserable girlfriend out on a date.

5. The Cell Phone

It was always going to be an uphill struggle to defend the inclusion of the cell phone but I think it will really help in this game more than GTA IV. Whereas when Roman called you up asking if you wanted to go and see, what was it, boobs, or – oh yeah – “teet-ies”, this time will be totally different because you can call up other people you actually play as. You’ll have a much stronger attachment to the cast than ever before.

Not only that but it looks like you will be able to meet up with other playable characters to help you perform missions, suddenly making the cell phone extremely useful.

Not only that but Rockstar’s insistence that the phone won’t be used for having girlfriends call you up for dates suggests that the phone will play a much more practical (if not realistic) part of the gameplay, otherwise they would have surely just taken it out. Right?