Rockstar Newswire

Earlier this week, you got the opportunity to get better acquainted with the trio of Michael, Franklin and Trevor via our triple set of brand new Grand Theft Auto V trailers.
Today, gaming sites worldwide that recently saw the game firsthand are providing their insights, impressions and new details including...

 

 

"A helicopter hovers gently in the midday sun, the whumph of its rotor-blades blending into an ambient, dream-like score. A man stands in the open fuselage of the chopper, peering down on a vast expanse of dusty wilderness. Countless dirt tracks wriggling through green hills like snakes. Mountain peaks looming over the brush. The sea stretching out to a beautiful cerulean horizon. As far as the eye can see; a detailed, enormous, bewildering landscape.

This is Blaine County, a vast scrubland just outside of the fictional west coast city of Los Santos, a garish, hyperactive pastiche of Los Angeles, California... We were told Grand Theft Auto V was going to be big --purportedly enough virtual acreage to fit in the maps of Red Dead Redemption, GTAIV and GTA: San Andreas-- but being told doesn’t quite prepare you for the sheer scale of the thing. And this is a just a small chunk of brushland, a speck on a map that, for the first time in the series, is completely open to you from the very beginning."

 

 

"It's important to note that the gameplay never stops while you're switching characters. You'll jump into whoever you've selected even if they're in the middle of driving a vehicle. All three characters have their own lives, own circle of friends, enemies, associates, and hobbies and they'll be living out their life while not in the player's control. When off mission, you can play as any of these characters or even just focus on one the entire time. It's up to you, but you'll want to play as all three if you want to experience everything possible as there will be things that only certain characters can do.

Each character has their respective roles. It was pretty cool to see the player shoot off the rocket as Trevor, and then switch down to Michael just as the rocket hit its target. You're going to want to switch between characters to take advantage of their skills as the enemy AI has greatly improved. Cops will try to flank you, get to higher ground, and communicate with one another, all in an effort to make for a fun challenge."

 

 

"What makes a good heist sequence so exciting? Not the kinds of elegant, stealthy heists that you might see in films like The Thomas Crown Affair… Think more along the lines of the bold, explosive heists that you see in films like Michael Mann's Los Angeles crime epic Heat. Sequences like these often end up involving gunfire, but that's not what separates a great heist scene from an average one. What really pulls you in to a scene like this is the sense of planning that the criminals have put into it, the awareness of all the coordinated, moving pieces that have to work together to pull the job off successfully, and the tension of not knowing if things will go off without a hitch, or if everything will fall apart. This is the kind of heist sequence that GTAV aims to let you experience…

For the bigger jobs, you'll also be able to build out your crew beyond just the three core protagonists, perhaps hiring additional drivers or other specialists who have their own skill levels and who take a cut of the overall score that's proportionate to their skills. Will you go with cheap help who take a smaller cut but might botch the job, or will you put together a costly but skillful group of seasoned professionals? Instead of just playing through an action sequence that might remind you of a scene from one of your favorite crime films, you might get to do something closer to designing your own incredible heist sequence. Eat your heart out, Michael Mann."

 

 

"And yet there's still more to tell... your cars can be given paint jobs, new wheels, window tints, grilles, spoilers, plus you can upgrade suspensions, engine and brakes - handy if you've pinpointed, say, an Infernus that you think could be a useful getaway vehicle.

You can customise weapons too, adding laser sights, scopes, silencers, and high capacity magazines. This is particularly relevant during the prep stage: you might find one weapon is good for clearing rooms, or another better for stealth, and as you earn more cash, you can develop and improve that weapon so that - by the time you head into the key heists - you have best, most specced-up firearm available for the job. Oh, and just to round things off, you can customise yourself as well, with haircuts and new clothes, or by dropping into a tattoo parlour between missions. (We spotted one on Vinewood Boulevard, close to the Chinese Theatre.)

It doesn't stop there. You can pick up hitchhikers, do stunt jumps and flying challenges, take part in yoga, golf, tennis or bike races, and - despite Rockstar being coy on this up until now - buy property too. Houses, garages and businesses can all be snapped up, providing a useful, additional revenue source that drip-feeds cash over time. Rather neatly, there seemed to be the suggestion that the men would remain true to their characters too: twentysomething Franklin will like the idea of buying a nightclub more than Michael, who might fancy investing in a marina."

 

Combat:
Game Informer's special series of previews today include individual pieces on The Art of the Heist, Touring the Open World and Putting Your Personal Stamp on Grand Theft Auto V - as well as some first details on the evolution of combat and gunplay mechanics via their story, Running and Gunning in GTAV. An excerpt:
For video previews, don't miss the aforementioned GTAV O'Clock special preview edition as well as Rev3Games' video preview which is embedded below:




Look for more GTAV previews on gaming sites around the web and around the world today which also include a host of new screens from the game - including many international previews linked below. We'll have all of the newly released screens compiled and available tomorrow in high-res at www.rockstargames.com/V.