Unbeknownst to most of the population of the world, a revolution has come, a possibility for a new medium to be considered art. Yes, it is. Grand Theft Auto V is one of the most anticipated video games in history. It has officially set the record for the most expensive video game ever made, at $265 million. What is even more incredible is the fact that the team made all of that money back based on pre-orders alone. It has also set a new record for the fastest selling entertainment product in history, with $800 million in sales from the first day and $1 billion within three days. Rockstar Games plan to have a last adieu to this generation of consoles.
GTA V is bringing the player back to the fictional representation of Southern California: San Andreas, or more specifically, Los Santos. It may be an understatement, but this map is huge. Los Santos is larger than the maps of GTA: San Andreas, GTA IV, and Red Dead Redemption combined. Rockstar is taking the PS3’s and the Xbox 360’s hardware to the absolute maximum. Of course, with help from the RAGE engine. Draw distances are much greater, providing an immense scale to the world. Along with the city, there is open wilderness filled with animals to hunt, suburbs, trailer parks, all sorts of environments to explore. In an interview with IGN, lead producer Leslie Benzie said “because of the scale of the map and the different kinds of areas involved, a countryside without animals would feel quite hollow.” Because of the much larger open areas Los Santos has to offer, a feature has finally arrived that players have been waiting anxiously for more than nine years: the ability to fly airplanes.
Rockstar did a complete overhaul on the mechanics for the game. This game will play very differently than GTA IV. “Hard locking”, or locking automatically onto enemies when aimed on, is gone. The team felt it broke the immersion of the game, since the player did not have to stress about where enemies were. The driving mechanics have also been improved. The driving mechanics in GTA IV have always been criticized as very unresponsive and slippery. Now, vehicles behave similar to cars in racing games, and much more arcade-like. Rockstar has also added the interesting mechanic of switching between the three main protagonists of the story at any point in time. This is to remove any long periods of time without much action, and to keep up the pace of a game. If a player wants to explore a certain area of the map, they do not have to worry about the long haul back to where they were. They can simply switch to a different character. This mechanic also allows for some interesting strategies. The player could be holding off enemies on a front assault, then switch to another character instantly and flank from the other side. Also included is dynamic mission content, which Rockstar first included in Red Dead Redemption. While the player is free-roaming, a certain event could suddenly occur and the player could choose to ignore them or interact with them. They could range from intercepting an armored van, a police chase, or just about anything you could imagine. However, this is just the tip of the iceberg. GTA V is being called an “everything simulator”. Junior Bradley Caldwell is shocked at the amount of content in this game. “It feels like you can be playing an entirely different game without changing discs. If I want to play a racing game, it’s already there. If I want to skydive, it’s there. This is a game with everything for everyone.”, he said. You can engage in activities from scuba diving, bike riding, golf, tennis, skydiving, flying planes, hunting animals, and even buying stocks. Sophomore Cooper Snyder stated, “If you can think of it, you can probably do it. There’s just everything in this game.” Rockstar has finally created a world that feels alive.
The story revolves around three characters whose stories become intertwined with one another. Michael is a witness-protected, now-retired bank robber, who is trying to silence his criminal impulses. Franklin is a repo man who loses his job, and he believes the gangsters surrounding his life are delusional. And then there’s Trevor, and simply put, he’s a psychopath, and his rage and affection for violence is fueled further by his drug addiction. Quite obviously, these “heroes” do not pursue honor or the safety of fellow citizens. They wish for a life of wealth and comfort. Then again, that’s what the majority strive for. While these men engage in a life of crime, the end goal is to achieve what most want: The Mighty American Dollar.
The game is currently on Xbox 360 and Playstation 3, and is so large it requires at least 8 gigabytes of space. Sadly, the current state of the port to PC is not known. Junior Adam Brown says he is “willing to wait a bit for the PC port. There’s going to be some amazing mods for the game.”
As CJ said in GTA: San Andreas, “After 5 years on the East Coast, it was time to come home.”