GTA-V: PZ's first impressions

[PZ]

lol, I'm going broke with all the toys I want!

Bad news... my sweetie vacuumed out her car last weekend, and in order to plug in the shop vac, she unplugged my freezer, unbeknownst to me.  I went to the freezer today (yep, a week later) and you can guess what I discovered.  Needless to say, I did not have a good afternoon after all.  :-(

[Art Blade]

you should have just closed the freezer again and done whatever you'd have done without it, waited for your sweetie to be nearby, only then gone to the freezer again and opened it.. so she'd hear your "EEEeeew! OMG! WTF?!" and made sure she'd see it.

Then told her that you weren't mad at her, could have happened to anyone (no idea to whom in the world, really) ..but of course, since she ruined everything, she should at least be fair so.. have her clean her mess right away, too. For peace's sake.

:-D

[PZ]

you should have just closed the freezer again and done whatever you'd have done without it, waited for your sweetie to be nearby, only then gone to the freezer again and opened it.. so she'd hear your "EEEeeew! OMG! WTF?!" and made sure she'd see it.

Then told her that you weren't mad at her, could have happened to anyone (no idea to whom in the world, really) ..but of course, since she ruined everything, she should at least be fair so.. have her clean her mess right away, too. For peace's sake.

:-D

Now you tell me! 

[Art Blade]

ok, you should have told me when there was still time  :-D

[Binnatics]

 

[PZ]

ok, you should have told me when there was still time  :-D

:-X

Here are a few more impressions:

   
• I had a chance to play some today on the 60" TV, and wow, what an experience! I checked my stats and I've only done 5 of the 69 missions so far - it has been way too much fun simply roaming around stealing different cars, opening more of the map - as you drive around, more of the map is revealed.  However, there does not appear to be any closed areas like in the AC series.  That makes this game more open world because you can drive/fly/boat anywhere right from the start.
• Car damage looks cool - when you sideswipe something the paint is scratched through he color, and primer to bare metal. I've had a couple of tire blowouts after some serious damage - you hear the metal of the wheels grinding against the road.
• Learning to drive using the e-brake is fun - you can navigate the 90 degree streets much more effectively.
• Car detail is amazing - almost reminds me of GT5.  You can see the brake calipers through the spoke wheels, and of course the discs.  I ran my sports car back into the front end of another car and broke one of my tail lights.
• Go to the bad part of town and all you'll see is old plain cars - go to gang territory and you '' see pimp cars.  I was exploring the mountainous area north of the city and chanced upon an obviously wealthy neighborhood - found a Porche-like car - stole it of course, and left my pimp-mobile there in exchange.
• Found a beautiful mountainside home that reminded me of the place in one of the Lethal Weapon movies - went in back and a man and woman were sunbathing - they jumped up in fright, and then the man tried to push me around - I beat him up of course, and received $328
• There are races like the ones in JC2 - not fond of those so far, but I'll give them a go as I improve my driving.
• Failing a mission - what really bothers me in most of the recent games is that if you fail a mission, you get to start completely over (I hate that).  Fail a mission in this game and you are automatically restarted at the last check point, which is usually not too far before the "difficult part".
• Go on a dirt road, and you can see your tire tracks
• I over-reved the Porche and backfire flashes came out the exhaust.
• The varied terrain and abundance of vehicles suited for off-road travel reminds me of Fuel

The bottom line is that this is a true open world game, much better than most of what I have recently purchased.  The scenery is spectacular, and reminds me of the vast nature and varied terrain of JC2.  When I quit the game, I was in a desert that is reminiscent of the Sonoran desert - saguaro cactus aplenty.
This is the very first game with driving as one of the main components that has ever held my interest more than an hour or two.


All in all, a great game.

[Art Blade]

if a part of a mission is too difficult (like, get into a military base to steal a vehicle) on failing you will get two options.
1, try again and (you may like that) 2, skip this part which will put you inside the vehicle rather than having to start over. Of course, you'll still have to escape with it.

I've watched three complete playthroughs of three different players and saw quite a bit of those side missions which are not related to the main story. Everything I've seen looked cool and made sense, even timed events have a purpose you can live with, e.g. hurry so you can save someone. Apparently those timed events are not nearly impossible, to the contrary, they all seemed doable, even with room for mistakes.

[durian]

I've played for 6 hrs and a half. I like it, definitely better than GTA IV. The driving is better. The missions are not as frustrating thanks to generous checkpoints. I visited Strip club 3 times (never gone to strip club in real life) and even drive a stripper to her home to have a private a private session. To my disappointment, the sex scene wasn't shown  ;D

[Art Blade]

like GTA IV, when you went to "visit" your girlfriend. All sounds and scenery, no details  :-D

[Art Blade]

Found a beautiful mountainside home that reminded me of the place in one of the Lethal Weapon movies

This one?

Spoiler

There is a mission with exactly the same setup.. house on stilts, you'll pull it down  :-D
GTA 5 - Walkthrough Part 2 [1080p HD] - No Commentary - Grand Theft Auto 5 Walkthrough Part 1

Lethal Weapon 2 -- Pulling Down A House

[durian]

I couldn't believe in my eyes when I witnessed a sex scene in a mission. GTA V is bigger than previous iterations, even on sex.

[Art Blade]

that's something I'll have to wait for until the game gets released for PC..

I edited the spoiler in the previous post,

Spoiler

added a GTAV vid for those who want to see the same scene from lethal weapon only this time in GTAV.

[Binnatics]

I've watched three complete playthroughs

Wooaah!!!! :o

There's nothing left to guess for you then, lmao ^-^

PZ, the list you created is describing the GTA franchise pretty well. I remember the first editions of the game where you had 3rd person view ( GTA III and Vice City) and there you had to load from one open area to the next. Example; in GTA III were three main city parts a.k.a. islands. Just like in GTA IV actually. When you crossed the bridge to reach another island, the game would give you an image of a postcard for a few seconds while the next part of the city was being loaded. In GTA SA they first managed to have the entire world accessible from the start. Only some special events, like Arena car races etc. would cause the game to load an area separate of the real world.

This loading as you describe after a mission fail is new. They always gave you the opportunity to reset to mission-start-position following a link in a text message, but they never gave checkpoints or even offer skipping parts in the mission. That is a cool new feature. I'm also curious for the 100% statistics that can be obtained by completing the mission with e.g. +% of headshots, -% of car damage, completion time etc. They first introduced that in The Ballad of Gay Tony, a DLC for GTA IV and heard that they farther developed these challenges. I was hoping for that already :-X

I'm extremely curious for the off road part. Back in San Andreas there is a huge countryside, all accessible, but not really designed for off road racing. Although there are off road tracks, as well inside as outside, and you can for example drive a Patriot (synonym for Hummer) and access difficult-to-reach areas much better, but the tire-marks and blubber as you describe makes me want it even worse to come out on PC ::)

...(never gone to strip club in real life)...

Don't mention ::)

The privacy of the GTA role models is indeed better protected than ours. Maybe it's time for a NS(GT)A scandal :-D

[PZ]

This loading as you describe after a mission fail is new. They always gave you the opportunity to reset to mission-start-position following a link in a text message, but they never gave checkpoints or even offer skipping parts in the mission. That is a cool new feature. I'm also curious for the 100% statistics that can be obtained by completing the mission with e.g. +% of headshots, -% of car damage, completion time etc. They first introduced that in The Ballad of Gay Tony, a DLC for GTA IV and heard that they farther developed these challenges. I was hoping for that already :-X

I'm extremely curious for the off road part. Back in San Andreas there is a huge countryside, all accessible, but not really designed for off road racing. Although there are off road tracks, as well inside as outside, and you can for example drive a Patriot (synonym for Hummer) and access difficult-to-reach areas much better, but the tire-marks and blubber as you describe makes me want it even worse to come out on PC ::)

I can only compare it to other (some of them annoying) games that make you restart from the beginning of the mission - this was soooo refreshing in GTA-V.  For instance:

Spoiler

I was on a mission to steal a car - had to find a way into the house, sneak by the family, and get to the garage.  I ran into some dumb kid and the mission failed.  Rather than restarting from the beginning of the drive to find the place, I was right outside the house again.

I'll have to try driving completely offroad rather than on the dirt roads - looks like you should be able to, especially in the desert.

This one?

Spoiler

There is a mission with exactly the same setup.. house on stilts, you'll pull it down  :-D

You found it!  +1  :-X

[durian]

Angelenos seem to have violence/anger problem. When I came up to one of the NPC's who were standing on sidewalk chatting to one another, some of them started fistfighting me.
On another occasion, I approached one  female park ranger, I pressed right button, which caused my character say something to her, and she poke me in the chest and begin shooting at me. I ran away, but she kept shooting. I had no choice but fighting back. One ambulance came over and 2 paramedics tried to help her but they immediately left after they found she's already dead. I don't know how they know she got shot ?

[Binnatics]

  :-X

[durian]

Bin, you may want to go back reading my edited post  :)

[Art Blade]

Try to chat up some of those muscle-monster women on the beach (weight lifting, weight pushing and all that. they're fenced in together with some bodybuilders) -- you'll get a hell of a beating.  :-D

[PZ]

Angelenos seem to have violence/anger problem. When I came up to one of the NPC's who were standing on sidewalk chatting to one another, some of them started fistfighting me.

I noticed that - I was at a train station, and a black guy tried pushing me around.  Naturally I fought back, and then suddenly one after another came running at me.  I finally had to run away myself.

Can you talk with people?  I have not experienced that yet.

[Art Blade]

You can show your appreciation and wave your middle finger into their faces to start lively "conversations"  :-D Else, just try to interact and you'll hear a few basics, like "how ya doin'?"

[PZ]

hmmm... I'll need to figure out how to initiate those interactions.  There are many different button commands to try to remember, and you know how good my memory is.  :-()

[Art Blade]

can't help you there, I'm rendered a mere observer  :( You could still go to the controller configuration menu and check the meanings of those many buttons :)

[Binnatics]

 ^-^

I have been having problems recently with violent drivers in GTA SA. I almost forgot. In GTA IV the other traffic is hardly aggressive, but in the prequel they seriously try to ram you off the road and keep going once you're stumbling on the sidewalk trying to make an escape. Los Santos is a dangerous place ;)

@ Durian: I'm not sure if I get what you ment. Which post did you edit? About the Angelenos?  ????

[PZ]

can't help you there, I'm rendered a mere observer  :( You could still go to the controller configuration menu and check the meanings of those many buttons :)

lol, there is one slight annoyance in the game, and that is how the controller layout is set up.  Evidently there are in-vehicle controls, flying, and out of vehicle.  The problem is that only a single screen is displayed, and the three layouts are each only visible for about 2-3 seconds before the next one scrolls into view.  Certainly not enough time for this old brain to absorb the layout  :-()

[Art Blade]

Not a problem for you any more. Here you go  :-D

damn, scratch that, was gta iv. I'm looking..

damit, durian posted in between  :-() read after his upcoming post  :-D