Rockstar ramps it up with Grand Theft Auto V reveal
Three's a crowd
Rockstar's GTA V publicity went into overdrive today with a new trailer and more details about what the game has in store for fans.
For starters, the publisher says GTA V's game world will be bigger than San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption combined. Memorising your way around may prove tricky, especially as the entire map will be unlocked from the start.
As a previous taster suggested, the game will be based in a virtual version of LA - Los Santos - a setting Rockstar already covered with San Andreas. But the similarities start to end beyond that.
Rockstar has apparently overhauled the entire mechanics of the game. It has heavily revamped the shooting side of things and introduced new tech that alters how players interact with the world around them.
Instead of just one central character, GTA V allows players to step between three at will, each with their own skills and individual personality. There's a retired bank robber, a hardened criminal and a car salesman.
In some missions the trio will work in unison, with players able to switch to access particular talents. Most of the time, they'll merely get on with their daily business while one of the other characters is under player control.
Players can enjoy bonus activities for each character as well, including base jumping, tennis, yoga, triathlons and jet-skiing. There will a lot of flying too, with helicopters, fighter jets, private planes and crop dusters all making an appearance.
The second trailer - which has literally just gone live - confirms many of the features already unveiled. You can check the video out below in all its glory:
GTA V will roll out across current-gen consoles in Spring 2013. Rockstar's retail chums are now taking advance orders. ®
COMMENTS
"There's a retired bank robber, a hardened criminal and a car salesman."
It lets you play as a *car salesman*? Does the depravity of video game makers know no bounds?
Re: Beware the hype
I can hold my hands up and say I've never been hammered by Rockstar. Not once.
Then again, I love all of the games you just mentioned and while not without flaws, they're definitely worthy of high praise... LA Noire was under-rated imo.
I do agree that smaller sites/ blogs are often "scared" to speak out, worried that any negative press will lead to "blacklisting" or finding it hard to get review code.
However without the readership to back you up, of course you'll be lower down the pecking order and probably need to do loads of buttering up to get preferential treatment.
Unfortunately, the world is driven by fear. Perhaps there are a few exceptions, but I don't think game publishers are literally approaching people and 'hammering' them into positive reviews. When you think about the way it's all set up, the buttering-up of publishers by small blogs is probably an inevitability.
I can't understand why any site with significant readership would be pressured into this kind of thing, though.
"Exclusives" on the other hand may come with a "critical opinion not allowed" guideline, but I've never seen that with tech and haven't the experience of an exclusive game review yet, so can't say for sure. Again, if so, fear is probably to blame rather than a conscious effort on the publisher's part.
I guess the moral of the story is, always be objective and stick to sites that you know you can trust.
I'm not just saying this because I work here, but El Reg is definitely one of the good guys! We're critical where necessary and would laugh at any threats of blacklisting, before making an article out of it to embarrass the company in question further. :-)
But you didn't answer the most important question everyone wants an answer to...
Can you still get your money back after you have sex with a hooker?
Because of their compact nature I always felt that the GTA cities seemed less copy and pasted than real life cities.
They've avoided the row after row of identical terraced houses and countless tedious acres of monotonous housing estates which blight most cities.
Re: omg that's better than sex!!!
"You just ain't doing it right my friend!"
You haven't seen his misses.
