Lets see...

[Art Blade]

With a success like GTAV in their pocket, who wouldn't? :) Question is not whether or not they are planning it but when they're going to release it. If they take as long as the last time, we'll have to wait for years. At least they deliver cool products and free DLC. Unlike Ubigreed..

[OWGKID]

And GreEAd  :-D (Looking at you, Star Wars Battlefront  >:(()

[Binnatics]

I am very curious where the new GTA will take place. There has always been rumours and fans anticipating a GTA in Paris, London, Chicago and what more.
I am quite positive it will be the States again, but wonder where. Will they do a remake of Miami? As in GTA VIce? Like they did with GTA III (resulting in GTA IV) and GTA San Andreas (resulting in GTA V)?

On the other hand; they created a GTA London before the franchise went to a 3D sandbox design, and they also did a great job designing Sao Paolo in MP3. So much to look forward to ...and indeed; they won't give away a single hint until they're finally giving you a first exciting preview of let's say 1:30 min :-D

Anyway; we don't have to wait for it. They keep us busy with free updates for so long now, I think they will continue doing that for at least another year. And I didn't even do a second playthrough in SP :o

[Art Blade]

It's nice that you can switch between 1st and 3rd person. I find driving in 1st person mode easier than in 3rd, anyone else find that?

Ah, answering your question had escaped me but here you go:

Generally speaking, yes. As in going for a joyride and all that, take a car out for a spin and take in the city from street level and so forth, yes. I try to play 1st person as much as possible. Hell, I even land helicopters on a parking space in a car park using 1st person. But when it comes to (as close as you can get to) crash-free fast driving to get as quickly as possible from one spot to another, then 3rd person simply gives you a better surround view and you'll be able to appreciate the situation around you much better.  :)

[fragger]

Thanks for the tips and things guys :)

I had an odd issue... First time playing immediately after install, everything was fine. After a while I got out of the game to post here, then I went back into it - and there was no sound. I heard the sirens and gunshots etc. during the opening splash screen, but there was no sound in-game. I was playing with headphones on, but I have speakers connected as well. I unplugged the headphones, but there was still no sound through the speakers either. I quit and restarted the game with the headphones still unplugged and this this time I did get sound through the speakers. With the game still running I unplugged the speakers and plugged the headphones into the speaker jack and they worked fine. My box has two headphone/speaker jacks, one at the front and one at the rear (neither are USB, they're both for those 2mm analog/coax-type plugs, whatever those are called). I usually have the speakers plugged into the back one and headphones in the front one. Normally, plugging the headphones into the front will automatically cut the output to the rear, so if I want speaker sound I simply unplug the headphones. Seems that the game will only "recognize" the rear jack now, not the front one - although it worked fine with the headphones plugged into the front and speakers in the back the first time around. Go figure... No other games have had a problem with this headphones/speakers arrangement.

The odd thing is that as stated, with the headphones plugged in at the front I can still hear the splash screen sounds, but no in-game ones ???? The headphones have to be plugged into the rear jack for in-game sounds. I actually looked at Rockstar's support page and it seems that a number of players have had headphones issues with the game. Dunno why, they're just headphones ffs. Anyway. At least I can get around it, but it's a tad annoying as the front jack is the more convenient one to run the headphones from.

That minor gripe aside, I'm really impressed by the level of detail in the game - the way the traffic works, all the different people wandering and standing around - it's very much an alive world. I like the snippets of conversation one hears while getting around, some of it's quite funny. I like the different reactions from people when you hang close to them - some get spooked and nervously walk away (I followed one girl and she started running), some will stand their ground and tell you to get lost, some will call you a name then walk away. One lady said something like "In your dreams!" and walked off in a huff :-()

Missions seem pretty linear and scripted, but the game more than makes up for it in freedom of action otherwise. The more I get around, the more blown away I get by how much w@&k has been put into the environment. It's quite a remarkable job.

@Binn, btw, my nickname at RS is "fragger1960" (all one word, no capitals). Cheers mate :)

Good fun, looking forward to going back in :-X

[Art Blade]

fragger, as soon as you get that rottweiler from Lamar, walk the dog out and keep a close eye on other dogs. Aim at them, or people, while your dog is with you.. and he'll hunt what you're aiming at  :-() Also fun is throwing those baseballs but not just for him to fetch and return.. throw them really hard at passers-by cars, in particular at the windscreens to smash them in  :-() If you walk that dog out on the beach, you can have lots of fun if you start to annoy the living daylights out of someone until he/she turns into a red dot on the minimap (symbol for hostiles) and watch your dog go in between starting to tear that aggressor to shreds  :-()

[fragger]

I can't seem to interact with the dog... He's now living in my backyard but I can't seem to connect with him in any way.

I took a bunch of screenies using Fraps, but only a few of them actually came out. I must have taken at least a couple of dozen pics but there are only eight showing up in the screenshots directory. It wasn't like Fraps just stopped working after a while because among the ones that did appear were the very first couple I took and a couple of the very last ones. All the ones in between seem to have disappeared... which sucks because I know there would have been a couple of good ones among them :D

I wish games devs would think more about including screenshot capability with their games. They seem to either not think of it, of they have some sort of aversion to it. Either way it stinks. I would have thought that giving players an easy way to take pics and posting those pics around the net would have been made for better publicity and be beneficial to the games' sales, almost like free advertising. Apparently they don't see it that way.

I can't believe how much effort has gone into this game. You really could spend an enormous amount of time exploring it and still not see it all. It's like the most obscure part of the most obscure alleyway in the most obscure corner of the city has been fleshed out. And the city is only a small part of the overall play area - there are all the smaller outlying communities, suburbs, townships, houses, buildings, industrial areas, trailer parks, airfilelds, marinas - it's pretty amazing. Stuff going on everywhere, and it all looks terrific, even on a lower res. Everything has an almost photographic quality to it.

RS have done a brilliant job bringing this game world to life :-X

[OWGKID]

You can potentially make GTA V a Steam game by copying the files to the steamapps/common/Grand Theft Auto V. You also need the appmanifest file (so the game is actually recognized by Steam on your account). Steam will then try to download some files related to the Steam version.

[Art Blade]

I find that tip cool and dangerous at the same time. Dangerous because it isn't a steam game and trying to make steam believe it was might spark a train of thoughts in the maintenance guys' minds: "No purchase info? Did he nick it off of steam? Ban him."

You really could spend an enormous amount of time exploring it and still not see it all.

I'm homing in on 3,000 gaming hours.. since release in April. :)

The dog, he'll be your permanent pet once you move house so keep playing  :-()

[Binnatics]

Great to hear from your first impressions Fragger! Will send you a crew invite right away!  :)

@GKID, I am curious for that method you suggested. It sounds not half bad.

As another option, you can just open steam, go to the 'games' tab top-screen and choose "add a non-steam game to library". You can then choose the GTAV exe file to Steam and launch the game through Steam. That will make the steam overlay available and also gives you the ability to make steam screenshots. Always worked like a charm for me with all games (except in FC3 where Uplay somehow blocked that fucntionality with its own crappy screenshot abilities).

Your issue with the headphones doesn't sound unfamiliar to me. I have that happening a couple of times. No game sounds, just the game music. Or only the car sounds and shooting sound is gone. To me it usually happens after loading screens, and will always disappear after another loading screen or changing session (or restarting the game). It never bothered me much, since it happens rarely and always for a short amount of time. It definitely has to do with a bug or something.
I use USB connector for my headphones so it may not be a pure connector issue. On the other hand, it may. Who knows. Hope it won't bother you much more :-D

I agree with Art concerning 1st and 3rd person driving. I did quite a bit of 1st person playing, and the driving adds to the thrill on a joyride. But nowadays I use 99.9% 3rd person. You have much better view on your surroundings. And I like to see myself and my car. But that's a personal preference ;)

[fragger]

I think I know what the problem is with Fraps - it's more of an operator error :-() It's a matter of holding down the capture key for a bit longer than usual. A quick tap doesn't always register, the key needs to be held down for a half-second or so to give Fraps a chance to do it's thing. I gave the key a good solid press each time and it worked properly throughout the last session. So there'll be some screenies coming soon (once I sort them out). I'm reluctant to bring Steam into it just for the sake of grabbing screenies. Besides, the pics are a lot quicker to locate on my PC with Fraps.

The main reason I prefer 1st person driving is that I don't like the way the "camera" behaves in 3rd. 3rd person does allow a better overview of the situation though, so it's a bit of a trade-off. I love flying around like a maniac, running red lights and weaving in and out of the traffic. I don't get to do that in reality >:D And if it's someone else's car I've nicked, who cares if it gets bashed around :-() The cops don't seem to mind me breaking the road rules. I've shot through red lights right in front of them and they don't seem to care.

I had a rude surprise. I was out in the sticks and in need of some wheels, and I saw a 4x4 n the yard of an isolated farmhouse. There was just one guy in a suit nearby talking on his phone, who was obviously the car's owner. So I thought I'd walk up to him, punch him out and be done with it before nicking his car. There was nobody else around that I could see, so I did that. But as I was getting into the car three or four more guys in suits came running from around the house, shot at me, dragged me out of the car and beat the crap out of me. They might have been gangsters, or something like that crew from Reservoir Dogs :-() I must have punched out Mr. White. I thought he was just some lost, solitary city-slicker...

The free roaming part of the game is definitely the part I like best. I find the missions are often rigidly linear and some don't have a lot of margin for error. That one as Michael where my deadbeat son was dangling from the boom of the towed yacht and I had to get my car under him at speed and catch him in it was a pain - I had to have about five tries at it before I got it. Then when I finally did that, I missed catching Franklin :D But at least it checkpointed after catching the son so I didn't have to do it all again, just the Franklin part.

Man, I've already said it, but I can't get over the amount of w@&k that's been put into this game. Somebody had to model all that stuff - every stair railing, every drain pipe, every roadsign, every kitchen appliance, and the million and one other things - and create the textures, and map them onto all the models. As a 3D modeller and having some idea of what's involved, it blows me away ??? There are many highly detailed games out there, but this one just has so much. It's an awesome job.

@Binn, thanks, I'll respond to the invite next time I'm in :)

[fragger]

Some random screenies:

Franklin out and about in Los Santos, looking very Mod Squad.

[smg id=8448 align=center width=600]
[smg id=8449 align=center width=600]
[smg id=8450 align=center width=600]
[smg id=8451 align=center width=600]
[smg id=8452 align=center width=600]

I stole this chopper from right in front of a bunch of bikers. Instead of swarming on to me and pummeling me like real bikers would, they all ran away crying. Pussies...

[smg id=8453 align=center width=600]

Michael looking over the dockyards from on board a container ship.

[smg id=8454 align=center width=600]

Nice view from here. Looks amazing in-game, with the lights of lots of cars on the move down there. Very alive-looking environment.

[smg id=8455 align=center width=600]

Atmospheric effects are superb.

[smg id=8456 align=center width=600]

I like how you can jump into any vehicle that takes your fancy (watch out for the cops though!) There's something supremely ironic about stealing a courtesy minibus.

[smg id=8457 align=center width=600]

Or a fire engine! I took this baby off-road - accidentally. I lost control at speed, jumped a freeway barrier, tumbled down a hillside, bounced across a stream and ran into a rock. It still worked! They don't make them like that anymore.

[smg id=8458 align=center width=600]

As a reward for being such a good fire engine, I let it have a run around a horse-racing track.

[smg id=8459 align=center width=600]

[Art Blade]

nice.  :-X :-D

if you hit ESC, go to display, switch off minimap and hud elements (both to the top of that menu) you may find screenshots more appealing. Knowing that you like to stage them..  ;)

[Binnatics]

Seems you are having a great bit of fun out there Fragger, keep it coming :) :-X

But err... "And if it's someone else's car I've nicked, who cares if it gets bashed around :-() ", "So I thought I'd walk up to him, punch him out and be done with it before nicking his car", "I stole this chopper from right in front of a bunch of bikers"... what about that 'not liking to be a criminal'? :-D

[OWGKID]

@GKID, I am curious for that method you suggested. It sounds not half bad.

I haven't tried it myself (most of my games are bought from Steam anyway) but some people has used this feature to add their games on a different computer without redownloading it.

[Binnatics]

Oh, but ain't that when you have previously downloaded it from steam as well? ????

[fragger]

But err... "And if it's someone else's car I've nicked, who cares if it gets bashed around :-() ", "So I thought I'd walk up to him, punch him out and be done with it before nicking his car", "I stole this chopper from right in front of a bunch of bikers"... what about that 'not liking to be a criminal'? :-D

If I'm gonna play the part, I'm gonna commit to it. It's like method acting :-()

I have to say, the missions aren't grabbing me at all - in fact I've hated most of them so far. Honestly - yoga? Yoga? Why do I have to do fucking yoga? And if I skip it because I can't get those confusing and unresponsive bloody mouse and keyboard commands to w@&k, why do I have to lose mission progress because of it? What flaming genius thought it would be cool to include a yoga mission? Cor blimey... I'm knocking a point off the game solely for including that dumbass "mission". That one was obviously intended to be played with a console controller, it works like s#!t on mouse and keyboard. I had to rage-quit for a while to cool down.

Missions generally are too linear, too scripted, and too fiddly. There's too much racing against time, too many instances of "chase so-and-so", too much of go there and do that, then go here and do this. And some of the missions are very vague about what the actual objective is. I did the mission where Michael and Trevor go to get Michael's daughter away from her TV show audition. I started off playing as Michael, with Trevor accompanying me. We get there and we walk towards the entrance, when suddenly the screen fades to black - and the next thing I know I'm Trevor and I'm supposed to be chasing someone called Laslow. Who the hell is Laslow, why do I have to go after him, and why did I get switched to Trevor when both he and Michael go after Laslow together anyway? All that did was catch me off guard and baffle me just long enough for Laslow to get away and cause the mission to fail. Great. Redo. I found out who he was once we caught up with him (after yet another chase routine) but there was no explanation as to why he ran from us or why we were chasing him. Was there some exchange of dialogue that got left out while my character was being switched? That's how it seemed. I'm finding that a lot - very little reason or warning is given for the nature of a mission and you go in not having a clue what to expect, until it blows up in your face because you weren't properly prepared for it and you have to do it all over again.

Dunno... That 100% mission completed download is looking quite attractive. I'm close to saying bugger the missions. It's a shame, because I love everything else about the game.

[Binnatics]

Too bad hearing you don't enjoy the missions Fragger :(

I like them a lot, but I am quite used to what is usually asked from players in GTA games, so I have probably a shorter learning curve now. There are lots of commands so yes, it's something you should get used to.
I am not sure, but the timed events should become less later on. I never bothered that much, I was way too interested in the story to bother for a yoga lesson more or less. (I hated yoga too, that is even stated in my psychological report you get somewhere near the end of the game.
I bet for the story line the yoga is a one timer. You may, if you like, do it more often, but you don't have to.

The Lasow guy was introduced to me during a cutscene where you see him put Michael's daughter into pillery on his show. That makes both friends rage and the chase starts. It sounds like you missed out on that cutscene.
Anyway, the character switching is something to get used to. It won't happen very often but in more complicated missions it will. R* lets you play different protagonists in the same mission to let you be there where the action is. All have their own 'ability' as you may have found out already, and that can come in handy during certain shootouts or car chases.
Usually the game alerts you when it is needed or recommended to switch to a different character, and a combi of left ctrl + a function key. You'll get a hang of it. You may practice during free roam. It can be quite fun when you pop back to one of the main story characters, because they have a life of their own. When you don't control them they do their own stuff, which you notice when you gain back control. F is usually polishing his rides or he's talking to ladies. T often finds himself waking up with a bottle of beer in his hands somewhere in the middle of nowhere, in the most awkward situations and positions.  :-D

[PZ]

I'm with you on the missions, fragger - likely that is why I'm not too far into the game.  I really dislike timed events, and chases for me are almost as bad.  My favorite missions are like the ones in FC2 - go to a place and figure out how to take out everyone regardless of how long it takes.

I might do that 100% save as well - likely it has enough money for me to purchase cool stuff.

As to games in the Steam client - GTAV is in my list of games, and I did not move the files into the Steam directory - I though there was a point and click way to add games through the client itself (could be wrong - have not looked in a while)

[Art Blade]

fragger, Lazlo is just the host of a show called "shame or fame" and Michael's daughter had a live audition there as a "dancer." As her performance reminded Michael and Trevor of a pole dance, they told her to go home and meanwhile T and M chased L to teach him a lesson. Apparently the game skipped that whole part, maybe because it was a glitch, maybe you triggered that glitch because you did something you weren't supposed to (maybe didn't park your car in the right spot?)  but anyway, just go with the flow. It will be somewhat linear during quite a few missions but I never felt like playing a FC3-type of linear, I had quite a bit of fun during most missions.

Which brings me to yoga. Hehe, yes, it is apparently quite alright using the controller but even though it annoyed the flipping heck out of me. I hate that part probably just as much as you do. So.. may I give you a little hint that is not going to spoil much but more likely to make you rub your hands in anticipation..

Spoiler

there will be a mission during which you will get your revenge on that yogi and wrap a laptop computer around his head  >:D

You know.. be a man and play through. I know that there are quite a few missions that you're very likely going to enjoy. Don't miss those.. and the stock market thingy.. you will only be able to make millions if you play it yourself. I think you like to fiddle around with stuff like that, check my stock market topics.

Anyway, if you decide to use that 100% savegame, you'll find all of the missions can be replayed so you can check which ones you're going to like and abandon those that you don't.  :)

[Binnatics]

Good advice Art!  :-X :)

And I certainly would add to that "be a man" thingy; you are going to earn the freedom you have later on, and you are going to learn how to fully enjoy it.

There's skills to be mastered and lessons to be learned (take flightschool for example; it will be a pain in the butt to learn to fly, but once you know how to steer a helicopter the way it is supposed to, you will love it even better. I bet Art will agree on that)

And the storyline really is worth it. Man, if only you could imagine... you'll be a dentist one time as Trevor... you will be interrogating... oh man if I could only, just once, in real life....  :-D No! I'm not going psycho!!!

[Art Blade]

 

yes, flying.. I fly planes when I have to (and few occasions when I "find" one when I'm feeling like flying just to bail out and parachute down while watching the plane crash into the ground..) but I have grown to love flying helicopters. To be fair, I do all the vehicular stuff with an xbox controller (analogue steering, throttle and brake, YAY!) for the PC while I do all the shooting with mouse and keyboard.

I am proud to say that in all those thousands (erm, almost 3 thousand) hours of playing I almost never crashed with a chopper and only in the beginning I had to be accounted for (likely less than 10 times total) other players' deaths flying with me. I take extra care to get the job done without anyone (including myself) dying while I'm the pilot of a chopper.  ^-^

[fragger]

I found out I could actually skip just the yoga part of that mission, though I could have done without that long, long LSD-type trippy cutscene with Michael apparently flying over the city and out to sea. That just went on and on and on... Couldn't seem to skip over it.

Bloody Jimmy, I'd really like to kick that little snot's backside after putting his old man through that >:D Please don't tell me whether or not anything happens with him later.

It seems the game must have totally skipped over the scene with Laslow and Tracey because I certainly didn't see any of that. I thought something was amiss at the time because when the screen faded to black just before the character switch, it was dark for about 3 or 4 seconds and I was just starting to think it had crashed or something. The suddenly I was Trevor and I was inside the building, being prompted to go after Laslow.

You know.. be a man and play through.

I was a man the last time I looked :-() All right, if it'll make you guys happy I'll try and stick with it. I must admit, I am quite curious to see how the story progresses and plays out. Plus I'm not usually the type to take the easy way out of a game as there's no sense of achievement in that. But geez, take it easy on the psyche! If I don't like something I don't like something. The validation of my gender shouldn't enter into it :-D

[Art Blade]

as long as you don't start screaming like a girl.. :-D

I know that you can (and did) endure quite a bit, see FC3..  :-() But this time around, it should be a lot more fun. Enjoy it, there's so much stuff to do, even those side jobs and activities.. massive.

Just promise not to take on ANY of Lester's assassination missions (except the very first one he offers as that is part of the main story) so you can actually save them for making BIG money after the end of the main story. By then you might appreciate the stock market stuff. It is the only way to make enough money to buy everything there is. It would be a shame to spend the money early on without waiting for the end and without doing those assassination missions (and their related stock market trades) just to find yourself penniless when you want to try and buy stuff. ;)

Until then, have fun exploring and exploiting  :-()

Actually, one tip you might like: switch off the auto-save function before you go on a random rampage and before you "try" stuff. It prevents you from saving a ruined game and allows you to return to where you started from -- then switch on the auto-save function again.  ;)

[fragger]

Thanks for the tips Art :-X Unfortunately, I've already gone and done a few of Lester's missions... Noob goof, what can I say? :-()

I'm trying to enjoy it all, I really am. I've just put in quite a few hours of story play but I'm really not digging the missions in this game. I just don't like that level of scripting and frantic racing around, especially when there's often very little time or margin for error. I get tired of doing part of a mission over and over because I get so close to the next checkpoint only to fail and have to do it again.

I'm more of an observe, plan and improvise kind of guy :-() There's already been quite a few missions that I'm really not keen on facing again.

Speaking of Lester, it was one of his missions that rubbed me the wrong way - the one where you have to whizz around to whack four different people in an extremely limited amount of time, and they're all miles away from each other. Fortunately the mission does a checkpoint save after each hit, because that was the only way I could get through it - checkpoint to checkpoint, with fails in between. The last one took me about four tries and I finally pulled it off with literally 1 second to spare.

The only thing that's really keeping me going with the story is to see how it all plays out.

There are a couple of missions I don't mind, but none that I love and about 80% of them have annoyed me to some extent. I love the environment and the free-roaming, and some of the activities are cool (I agree, the helicopters are great fun) but the missions just aren't my bag. The game has a wonderfully convoluted storyline and superb voice acting, and it's quite clever the way it lets you switch between characters whilst maintaining story cohesion. If only they could have done something more open-ended with the mission structures that would allow a greater scope for experimentation and approach, GTA V would get a 10/10 from me. As it is - so far - I'd give it about a 7 (I'm not super crazy about the weapons and combat either, to tell the truth. I find the weapons to be somehow bland and uninteresting, and the combat doesn't feel very - well, combatty. Can't put my finger on it).

It's a terrific environment to fool around in, but I can't see it having a huge amount of replay value for me personally. I know some of you guys love it to pieces and have put enormous numbers of hours into it, and I'm certainly not rubbishing it. In fact I think it's a superb game, well and truly a cut above in many ways. It's just not something that will hold my attention for a hugely long time. Different tastes, that's just the way it is. I've probably put in thousands of hours playing Civilization during the last few years but I know it's not something you chaps would be interested in. This is a cool thing. Vive la difference 8)

MP is probably a whole different kettle of fish, especially co-op, but I don't know if I'm very interested in that either, only because I've never been very interested in MP games of any sort. If I wanted to MP this, I would only ever consider doing so with you guys, and the time zone difference might be problematic. Let me play with it for another week or so, so I can really nail down how I feel about it. It might still surprise me :) In fact, despite my gripes with the missions, the game does keep drawing me back in. There is definitely something about it that has a hook in me, it'll be interesting to see how long it stays stuck.

Heh - I just happened to stumble across a fragment of a written confession, one of fifty that together will apparently explain the unsolved murder of some girl. I found it without looking - I didn't even know about them. I just happened to walk over it and pick it up next to an old building in the middle of nowhere. Finding fifty of these in a map this size, with this many nooks and crannies in it, will be like finding fifty needles in ten square miles of haystacks :-D Same with the spaceship parts that weirdo wants Franklin to find for him. OK, piece of cake...