GTA V

[TychoCelchuuu]

Red Dead Redemption was enormous, but the feeling of loneliness and survival in a jackal-infested prairy was part of the appeal. In contrast, the enormous sprawl in LA Noire made me feel hollow and unsatisfied. Contrast that to the excellent, constrained small size of Arkham City, that was bursting with things to on a relatively small scrap of land.

Again, I would say "this makes you feel hollow and unsatisfied" is about as spot on as you can get in terms of actually capturing LA. A game that makes LA feel fulfilling is a game that's misrepresenting LA.

[Irishjohn]

Red Dead Redemption was enormous, but the feeling of loneliness and survival in a jackal-infested prairy was part of the appeal. In contrast, the enormous sprawl in LA Noire made me feel hollow and unsatisfied. Contrast that to the excellent, constrained small size of Arkham City, that was bursting with things to on a relatively small scrap of land.

 

Couldn't agree more regarding the appeal of Red Dead Redemption. Just remembering that sensation makes me want to play that game all over again.

[I Saw Dasein]

For some reason I really like empty space in open-world games. I find games that are too crammed-pack with stuff just everywhere kind of exhausting and artificial, like an overly busy theme oark. I have really great memories of cruising down country roads in San Andreas. I didn't actually like San Andreas as a game that much, but I loved the parts of the world that existed between cities.

E: On reflection, I think this is true of me in real life as well. I don't particularly enjoy city driving, but I do really love a long, slow drive through the country.

[Salacious Snake]

I dug riding a hog around the country in San Andreas.

 

San Andreas really grabbed me because it was the first GTA in which I could sympathize with the protagonist. He's not just some power-hungry psycho, and for the first act of the game, you can understand his motivations. Dude is under a lot of pressure.

 

Once the story leaves Los Santos, shit goes off the deep end, but that first part was excellent. Rockstar loves their movies, and their take on Boyz n the Hood is some of their best work. 

 

It helps that CJ had a terrific voice actor:

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=aHALWLDUPrI#t=94s 

[melmer]

They had a press event so there must be previews popping up all over the interwebs

Polygon has a nice preview video

http://www.polygon.com/2013/5/2/4292812/grand-theft-auto-5-plenty-of-promise-s

[feelthedarkness]

Is it just me, or do these three trailers just read as "Here are the three types of players we hope to target: middle-aged guys who feel smothered by real life, 'urban' youth, and trolls"?

 

I think you meant "middle aged white guys, urban youth, and Jack Nicholson (or writers of Jack Nicholson fan fiction)"

[I_smell]

Wow this Rev3 video just reminded me that this game actually does sound rad as fuck:

 

 

Describing character-switching as being a director in these heist missions is sweeeeeeeeeet!
(and I'm sure is exactly how they described it at the preview event)

[Zeusthecat]

Man I'm a sucker for these games; played 3, Vice City, San Andreas, and 4 all to 100% completion. I get what some people are saying about the narrative but for some reason the story never bothered me in any of the games and having lived in those worlds for such extended periods of time I've grown quite fond of the stories.

 

Keep in mind though that this is coming from someone who loves The Pest.

[Erkki]

It's interesting that they say it feels more like Red Dead fast-forwarded to modern times than previous GTA games. If true, I will probably like it a lot.

[Ucantalas]

So to "get ready" for this game I've borrowed a friend's copy of GTA IV and started playing it. I'm actually a lot more invested in Niko's character than any previous GTA protagonist, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens with him.

[Brannigan]

So to "get ready" for this game I've borrowed a friend's copy of GTA IV and started playing it. I'm actually a lot more invested in Niko's character than any previous GTA protagonist, and I'm actually looking forward to seeing what happens with him.

The main story is a bit odd in 4, and goes way long. I think the episodes are more interesting, and probably a little closer to what 5 will be

[TheLastBaron]

I replayed GTA IV with a friend last Summer, and when I say I replayed it I mean he had let me borrow his 360 copy when it first came out and I finally returned it and he put it in and we ended up playing it for a few weeks straight, doing nothing but screwing around in the world.  I think we literally did nothing story related outside of whatever might have been necessary at the very beginning of the game.  It was a blast.  Part of that may have been that we play these types of games completely differently.  I play them basically by the books, following story missions and doing side stuff as it opens up, but usually as a good person because I feel really weird being an asshole even in games.  He just does whatever he feels like which usually involves ignoring the story and just running around being a total douche. 

[Zeusthecat]

For some reason I've never given a single thought to scuba diving in a video game and am not really aware of any games that have that mechanic. Now all I can think about is scuba diving in a video game. I wonder if you can punch a great white in the face.

[shammack]

Endless Ocean is a pretty good scuba diving game for Wii. You can't punch the animals, but you can take pictures of them and listen to a nice relaxing soundtrack. There's also a PC game called Reef Shot that came out recently that is along the same lines.

[Tundra]

i read in the Guardians very detailed concise preview that theyve greatly improved the water and waves will be a significant risk of tipping over your boat in the spectacular looking thunderstorms...

I'm a sucker for waves in games, so few dew them well.

[castorp]

i read in the Guardians very detailed concise preview that theyve greatly improved the water and waves will be a significant risk of tipping over your boat in the spectacular looking thunderstorms...

I'm a sucker for waves in games, so few dew them well.

Nvidia's pretty and new wave technology is for you then.

[Frenetic Pony]

Nvidia's pretty and new wave technology is for you then.

 

That's just small scale here we have WAVES:

[Patrick R]

Jesus. Do they have simulation games about sailing a ship across the sea in the 18th century? Can that please be a thing. 

Dear triple A developers, there's a lot of juice left in the Sid Meier's Pirates! franchise. You should throw millions and millions of dollars at it. Love me.

[I_smell]

Am I being a crazy person here, or does anyone else think it'd ruin it if you could freely zoom in and whiz the camera around in this simulation?

 

Also wow this smoke and these waves are really dukin it out for my attention here.

[Tundra]

if anyone has a ps3 when this comes out, free mode multiplayer; we use a cheat to put the waves in GTA5 on hurricane mode, all grab one of those sweet looking jet skis, last man who doesn't take it in the drink or gets eaten by a shark or giant octopus wins.

Also rocket launchers are permitted.

[Thrik]

That wave stuff is so cool. With PhysX — which can do all kinds of astonishing things beyond water — being an NVIDIA technology I assumed the next-gen consoles wouldn't be making use of it, being all AMD-based. But based upon cursory research it looks like NVIDIA have actually worked with Sony to get it fully incorporated into the PS4, which is pretty fucking sweet. Could end up giving PS4 exclusives a serious edge if Microsoft haven't done the same, as PhysX has the potential to literally transform games but it's never taken off due to inadequate support by the majority of gaming's audience (ie: all consoles and anyone without a recent NVIDIA card).

[Nasser]

That's just small scale here we have WAVES:

Dear God, I want this so bad. 

[soggybagel]

Again, I would say "this makes you feel hollow and unsatisfied" is about as spot on as you can get in terms of actually capturing LA. A game that makes LA feel fulfilling is a game that's misrepresenting LA.

 

Well I disagree about your disagreement good sir. I live in Los Angeles and one of the reasons I'm very excited for GTA 5 is that it will give me a facsimile of the city I live in to run around in. I find Los Angeles very fulfilling myself (I get what you're saying) though. 

 

I'm really not worried about graphics in this. Yeah next generation systems are knocking on the door but the art direction looks solid as hell...it's creepy how well they are capturing the look of Los Angeles. And having not really read a lot about the game but watched all the trailers numerous times it seems clear they're giving you a condensed version of Los Angeles in that Downtown is visible from what is the stand in for the Santa Monica Pier. I wonder how much of mid city they plan on representing. From inferring it looks like they're definitely doing some Hollywood, a fake Big Bear maybe, and then a Salton Sea type joint. It's all very exciting because I love open world games like GTA 4, Red Dead, and Sleeping Dogs.

 

And getting back to the graphics for a moment. If you look at GTA 4, then Red Dead you can see they made some great jumps in graphical fidelity. I imagine they'll be squeezing every ounce out of the systems for this one.

[Thrik]

http://www.gta4.net/map/

 

Is this awesome? Yes, yes it is. If the same were done for GTA5 in a remotely timely fashion it'd be awesome for bringing up on a tablet or something while playing. In fact Rockstar should be employing these guys to do that right now.

[Frenetic Pony]

http://www.gta4.net/map/

 

Is this awesome? Yes, yes it is. If the same were done for GTA5 in a remotely timely fashion it'd be awesome for bringing up on a tablet or something while playing. In fact Rockstar should be employing these guys to do that right now.

 

Which reminds me, that one of the things that I never liked about GTA4 was how small and restricted it felt. Admittedly part of that was the map being locked until you got through enough of the campaign, but it was also a little small to be honest. Neither is going to be a problem with V though, so woot!

 

Also, these waves:

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=0BMm-n4WIC4#t=51s

 

Not the other ones in the rest of the video, but THOSE ones, right there. That's the only time the water is of anything near that quality, next shot it's quite flat the the reflection render target doesn't have nearly the same quality. I'd hazard a guess that COULD be a PC/Next gen console test that someone making the video took some capture from. Maybe.