GTA V full details: Bank heists, dynamic missions and underwater gameplay!!

[JRD]

From here


-GTA V "evolves nearly every mechanic, features the biggest world in series history and introduces a new technology that radically changes the way players control the game."
-The game's three main characters are called Michael, Trevor and Franklin
-Michael is retired, early 40s, a highly successful former bank robber. He retired in luxury after making a deal with the FIB. He's in the witness protection program, he hates his wife who spends his money and hates him too. He doesn't understand his two teenage kids Tracy and Jimmy, and is forced back into the game as his money is about to run out.
-Trevor is a career criminal, early 40s, drug user governed by his desires, prone to violent outbursts and destructive rampages, a loose cannon, former military pilot, used to w@&k a bank job with Michael back in the day, always up for a heist.
-Franklin, repo man, mid 20s, a young and ambitious hustler, works for an Armenian luxury car dealership that sells cars to those who can't afford them, and when they can't pay up he plays repo man. He stumbles into Michael while looking for a hustle.
-A quick menu can be called up to switch characters, the camera pulls away into a Google Earth-style vantage point and then drops into wherever the chosen character is.
Trevor is described as having a "maniacal personality"
-Trevor is in Blaine County, a barren, rundown desert region filled with bikers, meth heads and other people from the fringes of society.
-Characters can "flick off" people and people react differently depending on the area. In a rough-and-tumble neighborhood the reaction will be different from someone in a posh boutique store.
-Rockstar's playtester pours a trail of gas away from a vehicle and drops a zippo lighter on it, the flame travels back and causes a huge explosion.
-Franklin is seen on Vespucci Beach looking for a car he's to reposess.
-Waterfront activities include a muscle beach gym.
-Ammu-Nation is back.
-Each character has his own personality motivation and skillset.
-The three characters go about their daily business when you're not in control, so you might find them in surprising situations when you take control of them again.
-Each character has a fleshed out story arc.
-Complicated, multitiered heist missions inspired by GTA IV's Three Leaf Clover are "peppered" into the game. Heists are a big theme.
-Rockstar is addressing mission diversity in pairing characters. It showed off a mission involving all three characters. The trio need to perform a snatch-and-grab to get the FIB off their backs. Trevor berates the security agent guarding a chopper, Michael urges him to calm down but he keeps running his mouth. He only agreed to do the mission in exchange for help springing his friend Brad out of jail. Franklin isn't to comfortable with Trevor.
The three change outfits and rapell down the side of a skyscraper. When they arrive players take control of Michael rapelling down, the mechanic is reminiscent of Rainbow Six Vegas.
-The musical score seems to react to the action.
-They extract the target by holding him hostage with one arm while pointing a gun at interrogators with the other, at that point an icon appears giving the player the option to switch character.
You can stay as Michael and try and pick off the enemies or select franklin, switch to his perspective and snipe them from afar. Transition is smooth and camera angle helps you adjust
-During the chase through Los Santos the player can switch to Trevor to pilot the getaway, snipe the other pilots as Franklin, or fire an assault rifle out the back of a chopper as Michael.
-Rockstar is leveraging cinematic tricks learned from Max Payne 3.
-Rockstar thinks GTA V is its strongest plotted game yet.
-Most of the gameplay mechanics have been built from the ground up.
-Cars "hold better to the ground".Rockstar thought they were a bit "boat like" in GTA 4. It "feels more like a racing game".
-Shooting has evolved "a long way" in terms of feel and mechanics.
-Melee is better; "it's never going to be as big a deal as shooting" but Rockstar "wants to make it feel really fun and strong."
-Sam Houser and lead artist Aaron Garbut were both really interested in doing a proper LA, which R* felt it didn't do with San Andreas.
-The world is described as "the largest open-world playground in Rockstar history."
-R* chose one large city over three small ones to create the best possible experience and realise its proper version of LA. The world is 'bigger than RDR, San Andreas and GTA4 combined'.
-The ocean floor is fully detailed and can be explored
-Confirmed vehicles include BMX, mountain bikes, road bikes, dirt bikes, huge variety of cars and trucks, helicopters, planes, ATVs, Jet Skis, planes, helis.
-R* has big plans for side-activities, with sophisticated minigames in the vein of RDR's poker planned.
-Each character will have unique hobbies only they can do.
-No RPG-style customisation as the three characters have specific skills and traits.
-No weight loss and gain as they pose a technical challenge pertaining to scale of the character. It was easer in San Andreas becasue standard def visuals were forgiving.
-Entertainment inside intertainment is back in GTAV, so expect more cartoons and other forms of in-game media.
-Outdoor activites mentioned include yoga, triathlons, Jet Skiing, base jumping, tennis, and a full golf game on a full golf course.
Houser doesn't think there will be romances as 'it wouldn't w@&k'.
-Each protagonist has a set of friends to interact with.

    -Lamar: Franklin's friend, a good sort of crazy. He's very funny.
    -Jimmy: Michael's friend, lazy pot smoking 20 year old, they have a confused father-son relationship.
    -Ron: Trevor's best friend, paranoiac conspiracy theorist living in a trailer.
    -Amanda: Michael's wife, he's been awful to her, she's a strong personality, bound to him but they can't stand each other

-Familiar faces from GTAIV and Episodes from Liberty City may resurface, just not major ones like Niko or anyone from PS2 era. PS2 era characters are in their own universe, GTAV takes place in a 'HD universe', they don't co-exist.
-CJ and Tommy are more like mythical characters in the GTAV world
-R* is learning from criticisms about its economy system and will have a fun, vibrant system. -No properties, but lots of other stuff.
-Mobile phone concept is back, but you won't be getting calls all the time, it's mainly used for activities.
-Random encounters with citizens are coming back in a big way.
-The dynamic mission system is similar to that of RDR, examples given include helping broken down motorists, figuring out the cause of a pile of dead bodies, being opportunistic and ripping off cash vans, or being a nice guy and catching muggers.
-Multiplayer reveal is coming later.
-There won't be any "major" celebrity names cast as main protagonists

[Art Blade]

OMG  ??? :) :) :) :-X

[JRD]

The three characters feature should be a game changer. One of them is a skilled marksman so he can slow down time to land better headshots during gunfights, just like Max Payne's bullet time. Another one is a skilled driver so he can also slow down time to do turns and escape pursuers.

There's something the third one can do too but I can remember what now  ::)

As you can switch between them as you please and some missions are played with the three of them, it means a lot of replay value in there!  :-X

[Art Blade]

absolutely. Just the sheer size of the map and the many means of transportation in an open word game.. <rubs hands together>  :-()

[PZ]

Sounds like you're really excited, JRD!

[Art Blade]

you can add me to that, too, PZ.. having started the series with GTA IV (nearly a thousand hours of gameplay) I can't wait for GTA V. :) :-X

[PZ]

The game has me interested as well, and I like the way Rockstar produces their works.  RDR was one of my favorites.  :-X

[JRD]

I started with the series with GTA Vice City back in 2002. Vice City was actually a sequence from GTA III which marked the groundbreaking evolution from 2D to 3D. You played as Tommy Vercetti (after Al Pacino's Tommy Montana in Scarface) during the 80's. Everything in this game was made to be Scarface on a videogame. Some levels were exactly like some scenes in the movie. Great fun!

The GTA San Andreas is still on top of my all time favorite games! The sheer size of the map and the ammount of vehicls and diversity of missions were simply amazing. I confess I was a bit frustrated when I played GTA IV and had no means of flying... the car handling is a let down too, even R* admitted they are too boat-like and promissed to fix it in GTA V.

Really looking forward to see what Los Santos will look like this time around. I still have the map in my head and I bet I can even find my way through again... actually, I think I'll pop San Andreas now!  >:D

[Art Blade]

you had helicopters in GTA IV :)

[JRD]

Yeah but nothing compared to GTA SA. In SA you could fly several models of helicopters (both civilian and military  >:D ), jumbo jets, stunt planes, cropdusters, old WWII planes, modern fighters, VTOL, cargo planes, hydroplanes... you name it! Even a jet pack stolen from a high security military facility! Not to mention land and sea vehicles >:D >:D

And you could start a mini mission in almost every service vehicle. Drive a taxi and toggle taxi driver missions on and start driving passengers around the city. Get an ambulance and toggle rescue missions on and start saving people. Fire trucks? Fire fighting missions. Ice cream truck? you got it. Pizza boy? You got it. Hell you could even get hold of a locomotive and toggle train missions on and off!! All police and military vehicles would enable a vigilante mission where you were to chase and eliminate random criminals around SA and it could be done using a tank or an Attack Helo!!  >:D >:D >:D >:D

I don't think I've seen so many vehicles in a game... maybe not even in JC2?

The best part is that there was room to fly all of those beauties. SA was huge, even compared to Liberty City. I reckon that's the reason they dropped flying in GTA IV, LC is a great playground but not made for flying!. SA had so many countryside areas inbetween the major cities that traversing the map flying a place would take several minutes.

There was a mission you had to steal a WWII plane and fly real low to avoid radar edtection and another one you had to steal a helicopter with a giant magnet attached to its bottom in order to steal an armoured car! So many missions taking you up in the sky!!!

Oh Boy... now I'm dreaming about GTA V real bad.  ::)

[Art Blade]

OK, something to look forward to  :) :)

[Binnatics]

@JRD: :bow :bow :bow

...to that magnificent description of San Andreas. Indeed, flying there was SO cool. And exploring the oceans, looking for giant Oysters to catch huge pearls; What were you rewarded with after finding all oysters? I think it had something to do with your girlfriends... instant sex on your first date or something :-D
And not to forget the vigilante missions with the big army copter, that was named Annihilator in GTAIV. You had it with both machine gun and rockets, and the counter for the vigilante missions continued up to 12. You started with one bandit, in a car or on a bike. Every additional level you would get one more, so you would end up with 3 loaded vehicles driving somewhere. That was so cool; Veni, Vidi, Vici every time again and again. I used those missions to rank up in the stats. Been flying round bombing cars for over an hour sometimes, only occasionally landing to loose heat quickly before going on. But once you got your max amount of money (don't remember what that was, but probably something like 10 billion) you wouldn't obtain higher ranks. After that I started driving round in a tank,on the big airstrip in Las Venturas, destroying all plains and helos that are parked there.  >:D
I never reached the ultimate rank though, that was too much w@&k, lmao ^-^

The only vehicle I missed in San Andreas was a proper U-boat. Well, there was one, but not accessible :-D That was, back then, my wish for the next GTA title :)

And thanks for the good post with descent info about the new release. That was basically all there was to tell in the Dutch text. Except for the fact that it promises to be even bigger than San Andreas, RDR AND GTA IV together :o

Oh GOD I hope they will make a PC version ???

[JRD]

Oh GOD I hope they will make a PC version ???

Hell they better do it or hordes of infuriated gamers will lay their wrath upon R* 

Actually, I believe R* always release a PC version a couple months after the consoles. This PCers are so envy of PSers and XBOXers because they can play the game first whereas PS/XBOX players get ennvy of the graphics the PC has!  ;D

[Binnatics]

Hell they better do it or hordes of infuriated gamers will lay their wrath upon R* 

Actually, I believe R* always release a PC version a couple months after the consoles. This PCers are so envy of PSers and XBOXers because they can play the game first whereas PS/XBOX players get ennvy of the graphics the PC has!  ;D

So true. But they make me fear when I think of them refusing a PC release for RDR  ???

[Art Blade]

Apparently they have always released a matching version of GTA for the PC if I'm not mistaken. Regarding better graphics on the PC, they said the PC version of L.A. Noire has got better graphics than the console versions, too :)

[Binnatics]

There were to editions PS2-exclusive; Libery City Stories and Vice City Stories. They have never been released for other platforms. But that's not too much of a loss since I think the originals were the best; it was much like the additional DLC playthroughs for GTA IV, not adding much extras. But still...

[JRD]

That's the price we pay in this platform war! PS exclusive, PC exclusive, XBOX exclusive or, even worst, poorly ported games  :D

Not being able to play as the Joker in B:AA was a major let down to me! Lock picking with a mouse+KB in AC3 is also on the list!!!

[PZ]

... Lock picking with a mouse+KB in AC3 is also on the list!!!

I recall you mentioning this in the AC3 board.  You are certainly correct; lock picking on the console is very easy in contrast to what you have experienced.

[JRD]

I expect nothing but high quality gaming with little, if any, bugs or glitches. Rockstar have always delivered well polished and detail rich GTA titles, one after the other.  :-X

Apart from the obvious discrepancy in graphics quality on the PC compared to consoles, I don't have any recollection of a widespread glitch or, in my own experience as well as of other GTA fans I know, any game breaking bug.

The porting is not really worrying me... but system requirements are!  :-\\

[Binnatics]

I do think the game will be quite demanding, but, since they release the game on XBOX and PS3, and not e.g. PS4, makes me think that, with low graphics settings, it must be playable on any of our rigs. For high and ultimate settings it will sure be demanding indeed.  ::)

[imcristian10]

thank you