I can barely describe how excited I am about the next episode of the GTA series: Grand Theft Auto 5. Known for their cinematic engagement, stunning visuals, open-ended play and well-rounded characters, the franchise gets better and better with each release. Grand Theft Auto 5 should be something quite special. And from the recent marketing push – it absolutely will be.
I played GTA4 for about 6 months, exploring every nook and cranny of the unbelievably large map (plus I’m crap at doing missions). By the end of those six months I was just driving around as Nico Bellic. Cruising in great cars, doing some bowling, shooting up somebody who cut me up on the road, going on dates with psychotic cat-ladies. Standard stuff. It’s like The Sims – you get to have a second life as a GTA character, but unlike The Sims with its mega-restrictive list of things you can do, GTA lets you do pretty much anything you want.
Some of the screenshots for Grand Theft Auto 5 suggests that the graphics engine has been completely redone. As you can see from the image to the right, they’ve gone for photorealism across the board. There’s awsome particle physics and diffuse lighting from that helicopter kicking up a cloud of dust off the road, and just look at the reflections down the side of that car! The depth of field (blurry things further away from the point of focus) makes it much more immersive. Previous GTA games had a nasty habit of “pop up” scenery – as you drove from one place to another you could see buildings being loaded and rendered in the middle-distance. Hopefully Grand Theft Auto 5’s depth-of-field update will allow them to more gracefully load distant buildings without feeling like you’re reading a childrens’ book.
The other thing that caught my eye (obviously – if you know me!) was the emphasis on flying machines. I’m a total aviation geek, so screenshots that show biplanes, helicopters and even a jet fighter that strongly resembles an F/A-18 Hornet, I get very excited indeed!
But I know for most people it will be all about the cars. Good news! They’re outstanding too.
Official Grand Theft Auto 5 Trailer
This is the official trailer released by Rockstar Games:
And if being gangsta isn’t your thing, you could always play Grand Slam Auto instead…
EXCITED!!!
For more information on Grand Theft Auto 5 and its release in 2013, bookmark http://www.rockstargames.com/V/.