Grand Theft Auto V is less than a week away, and now that the ads are popping up on billboards, buses and even on TV, we thought now was the perfect time to rundown everything we know about Rockstar’s latest blockbuster.
GTA V was officially announced way back in November 2011, almost two years ago. Since then Rockstar remained tight-lipped on the game, while leaks and rumours fuelled our wildest guesses.
The main confirmed points are that you’ll play as three protagonists instead of just one.
Michael, a retired bank robber who’s unhappy with family life and misses his old ways.
Trevor, Michael’s friend and a batshit crazy hillbilly who isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.
Franklin, a gangster who wants to get out of the hood and move onto bigger things.. not go legit mind you, just bigger robberies.
Switching between characters is done by a radial menu in the corner of the screen, if the characters are close by then the switch will be almost immediate but if they’re far apart, the camera will move up to a Google Maps style view and then back down onto the selected character.
Keep in mind though that you never know what that character might be getting up to, as the gameplay trailer shows, you might just drop yourself into the middle of a high-speed pursuit, or something even crazier.
Each character has their own specialties too, Michael is a pro with weapons and right off the bat has a higher aiming skill and the ability to go into Bullet Time for easier shooting (and dodging).
Trevor is the best pilot of the three and instantly can handle aircraft better and when his specialty is activated he can do double damage while only taking half, for a short time.
And as Franklin is the wheelman of the group, he’s the best driver off the bat and his special ability allows him to slow down time while driving, allowing you to manoeuvre around a police roadblock without breaking a sweat.
The game takes place in San Andreas which is based on South California and includes the main city Los Santos, GTA’s fictional version of Los Angeles. The surrounding countryside of Blaine County and Los Santos County are also open for you to run amok in.
We don’t know the entire plot but we do know it’ll be based around a series of increasingly difficult heists with each heist being customizable. You get to choose who to use as backup, who’s going to be the getaway driver, whether to go in guns blazing or try to be stealthy.
Speaking of stealth, it’s possible to be much stealthier in GTA V with the addition of silencers on weapons and simply the option to sneak being presented more often, rather than being forced to shoot your way in.~
Weapon customization will extend to more than just silencers though and will be deeper than in any previous GTA.
The old process of cycling through weapons in order is gone too, with a Max Payne 3 style weapon wheel instead, which is designed to make changing weapons quicker and more fluid.
Cars will be fully customizable too, bringing another much-missed feature back from GTA: San Andreas. But you’ll have to take out insurance on your car if you want it to respawn after you inevitably wrap it around a telephone pole.
The entire world map is bigger than the map of Red Dead Redemption, GTA IV and GTA: SA according to Rockstar themselves, and as a leak of the map this week shows, they look like they’re not lying.
Jets, helicopters, tanks, Humvees, quad bikes, boats, submarines, dirt and sport bikes, bicycles and trains are some of the vehicles that have been confirmed as useable.
With an estimated production and marketing budget of $250 million, GTA V is the most expensive videogame ever produced, which in terms of entertainment budget puts the game behind the $300 million that Pirates of the Caribbean cost to make.
Analysts also predict that GTA V will make over $1 billion in sales, with over 25 million copies sold within the first year.
There’s a lot more to Grand Theft Auto V than we’ve touched on, most of it won’t become apparent until you play, but we’ll have another rundown of things you might have missed about GTA V before the game launches on September 17th.
