GTA V

[melmer]

Micro transactions incoming (totes called it)

http://www.reddit.com/r/GrandTheftAutoV/comments/1mx8a6/so_i_might_have_found_why_its_so_hard_to_make/

[juv3nal]

ewwww

[Frenetic Pony]

I don't know what it says about me (other than I have maybe watched Reservoir Dogs too often), but my first impulse when clothing shops opened up is to go grab a black/dark grey suit for each character. As if you can't be a serious business criminal if you aren't wearing a suit. I even did it with Trevor despite his missions (right when you unlock him) being all way the hell far away from the nearest Poisonby's.

 

I immediately made Michael look like Robert Deniro from Heat. The impression is quite accurate and he looks slick as hell, too bad his personality doesn't match so it looks a bit mismatched during cutscenes.

 

As for Trevor I haven't found an appropriate look for him yet, nothing seems to say "deranged" quite well enough. As for Franklin, he seems to locked in to bullshit hip ganster crap for me to do much with him so far. I mean, I'd like to get Samuel L. Jackson from Jurassic Park going, but I'm not sure he has the right hair options (or the clothes for that matter).

 

Also: Ewww micro transactions. Not that I've actually a found much use for money yet. If you want a motor car you pluck it from the trees, clothes don't seem too costly, helicopters seem in high supply, and the only mission I got for my one property asked me to go pick something up, I don't know where and I don't know how to accept the mission (was I supposed to call them?) and after a while they just dropped it. So it didn't really seem interesting.

[juv3nal]

Pro tip if you die a lot like me: the amount of money that gets deducted when you de is a percentage of your cash on hand (think it's 5%) so if you have extra cash on hand that you don't intend to spend right away, consider sticking it in a stock. so long as the stock price doesn't tank, you basically still have access to that money any time but it doesn't count towards the death penalty calculation.

 

This has bitten me in the ass, btw. So if you do this, don't use BAWSAQ because I have about $100k locked away for Michael and Franklin and BAWSAQ has been unavailable for me since Sunday.

[plasticflesh]

For one of the Kifflam cult missions you have to run 5 miles in the desert. I have my controller taped up so Michael runs in circles. Last time I tried to 100% a game was with Fez, I changed my xbox clock for that game...

 

as they say, "Kifflam."

[seamus2389]

For people who have played the game who did ye feel about the torture stuff cause after seeing my brother play it I won't be playing this game unless there is a way to skip that mission.

[plasticflesh]

That is definitely a gross mission.

you can rush through that sequence, the tools you use make no difference, you'll end up using them all, and you can skip all the cutscenes.

[clyde]

The only way I found to skip it was to basically turn the tv off and hit the right trigger and "A" a bunch. For a while.

[plasticflesh]

Oooh right I forgot about how it's loaded with QTE events. (quick time event events)

[Tundra]

Anyone realised they stole the main sequences from Uncharted One and Two.

You enter a cargo plane, the back is open, you are shooting bad guys as boxes and cars fly past you that you have to dodge to avoid death.
It ends with the plane crashing and you fly out the back and land in the desert.

Also working your way up a moving train.

[KitGonzo]

Wow, Tundra, thanks for the two-fer spoiler there. Good work if you can get it...

[plasticflesh]

I concluded some missions with a terrible feeling of antithesis... 

I had heard you can get a cool 1 million at the end of the Epsilon cult missions. But I did not read that you have to betray the Cult and kill them all and steal their money-car at the last minute to do so. And replaying missions keeps you from reaping the benefits. Kifflom! Kifflom, Kifflom! My end-game Michael already had 4 million, so I am entirely greedy, but every million counts when you want to buy that 200 million dollar golf course.

[Yasawas]

I found I wasn't overly bothered by the controversial bit presumably because I'm an utterly abhorrent individual. It was defintely a bit off and if they'd had to include it it could easily have been a cutscene but it was not the game-eclipsing moment I'd been led to expect. I'm really, really enjoying this overall, now about 50% in and still doing the side stuff I never do in other games because it's always just endless fetch quests or crap but here, whilst they're still generally basic, I have so much fun just mincing about in the world blaring Non-Stop Pop that I'm happy to have any excuse to do more of it.

 

Does anyone get the logic of parachutes in this game? It seems that sometimes when I jump out of an aircraft I get one and sometimes I don't whereas in San Andreas you always got one I think. I've only found one in the wild so far, in a really inconvenient location, and I can't seem to buy them anywhere.

[plasticflesh]

For parachutes,

I think they become standard in any aircraft you fly after a certain mission, I forget which, and I find it's not entirely reliable. I think it was a heist prep mission where you steal an helicopter and return it to the desert airfield. You can see if you have a parachute on your person in the bottom right of the weapons menu. For aiming my descent in parachutes, I try and keep my target just above the character. For landing, I try to bring it in to a story or two above the target, with it still about 50yards ahead of me, coast at that altitude until I'm like 5 yards away, then drop in the final dozen feet at the last second. Otherwise I over-shoot, under-shoot, or destroy myself with too much speed.

[Yasawas]

Funny! I did that mission then noticed an "owned" helicopter spawned on that airfield, took it for a go, leapt from it and got a parachute so assumed it always would, but it only did that one time. I'll solve it eventually.

[youmeyou]

Fantastic write-up from Tom Bissell: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9719678/tom-bissell-writes-letter-niko-bellic-grand-theft-auto-v

 

I'm not sure what anyone was expecting: GTA is basically the most elaborate asshole simulation system ever devised, a game based on hurting people and doing whatever you like. At the same time, though, I understand the basic sense of fatigue with which people are approaching it. Once upon a time, playing aGTA game was like sitting next to your offensive Republican uncle at Christmas dinner. He was definitely a dick but also smart and interesting, and his heart was fundamentally in the right place. These days Uncle GTA is a billionaire with an unchanged shtick, and he seems a hell of a lot more mean-spirited than before.

 

via SoccerStar Argodale

[shammack]

I dislike that article for the following reasons:

• cutesy "letter to a fictional character" conceit
• the fact that you have to read about ten paragraphs in before he starts to get to the point
• condescending link to Wikipedia article about thalidomide for the sake of a dumb metaphor
• repeatedly saying something extremely judgmental and then putting "not a criticism" after it

[youmeyou]

I think the 'Dear Niko' stuff is only effective if you've read Extra Lives, so I can see how it'd feel baseless without that context.

 

He makes several points throughout. Some in the first paragraphs.

 

He likes using rare words, its a stylistic choice I can see might be off putting. I find it fun and enlightening.

 

No offense but, your complaints seem a bit nitpicky. Not a criticism! 

[melmer]

New info about gta online

http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/51422/some-more-details-on-grand-theft-auto-online.html

[Yasawas]

I hope this becomes amazing but given I still can't save tiny-resolution pictures to Social Club nine days after release I can only see it being a whole load of spinning circle icons on day one. A lot of ambitious and interesting ideas though, and I won't even begrudge them the inevitable microtransactions if they make it half as fun as it is in my head.

[toblix]

I'm worried that everyone will be spread across five different platforms because four of them aren't allowed to play with others.

 

Also, is it just me or is the coloring of map items really hard to see? I swear some of the question marks are white, but when I reach one I am the wrong character.

[Frenetic Pony]

Fantastic write-up from Tom Bissell: http://www.grantland.com/story/_/id/9719678/tom-bissell-writes-letter-niko-bellic-grand-theft-auto-v

 

 

via SoccerStar Argodale

 

Yeah that is among the stupidest things I've ever read. It's pure click bait "Let's say a bunch of shit about a huge selling game so I can get more ad revenue"

 

It reminds me of another thing along the same lines. "GTA V isn't misogynist but it's supporters are!" I mean, seriously, I get it you want ad revenue and are saying the loudest thing you can to bait people. But what happened to video games being, fun? Why not save the bullshit for politics.

 

At least the micro transactions are only for the online thing. I'm up to "the big score" on the single player and I hope this is the one where I actually make a lot of money.

[Gormongous]

Yeah that is among the stupidest things I've ever read. It's pure click bait "Let's say a bunch of shit about a huge selling game so I can get more ad revenue"

 

Considering that he wrote an important and impressive chapter in his book about his long and problematic relationship with Grand Theft Auto IV, I'm pretty sure Tom Bissell isn't just dogging for ad money. This is a weird accusation that gets thrown at all of gaming criticism's best and most controversial writers. It feels immature, to say the least.

[RubixsQube]

I really enjoyed the Tom Bissell article, actually. It reflects a lot of what I'm thinking when I play the game. "This is not a great game. It's a fantastic world, and an excellent playbox for silly activities, but there is so much missing." I guess I'm disappointed at how the missions are so poorly strung together narrative-wise and how the writing/humor is juvenile-but-not (it seems like perhaps you should either go ultra-realistic and serious, which is what GTAIV was criticized about, or you just go whole hog bonkers like the Saints Row series). I understand that other people do not believe this to be true, but I feel that the games high points are kind of strung between points where I say: "seriously? we're going to have a big ol' poop joke here?" or "wait, why does this character just have so much irrational anger? Why are they always yelling? Why are they just cursing and cursing and cursing?" 

[osmosisch]

Lovely article by Bissell as always. Haters don't get it.