GTA 5: An Overview of The Next Big Thing

It’s not yet clear when exactly we will see the next big entry in the GTA saga. Chances are somewhere in the second quarter of next year, just the way we got Red Dead Redemption, LA Noire and Max Payne 3 in the past years. That’s Rockstar’s release window for their big titles. Even GTA IV was released during that window. So there we have a somewhat good chance of narrowing a release date down.

As for what GTA V – that’s Gee Tee Aih Five, not Vee – is actually all about, well, for that we have a trailer and some screenshots as well as a few bits of rumors to consider. It will be set in Los Santos apparently. Those of you with what I call the wonderful ability of “having a memory” will remember GTA San Andreas, where Los Santos was one of the three cities the game featured. Los Santos, that’s the GTA version of Los Angeles.

The big reveal trailer shows off various sights around the Los Santos area, including some out of town backwater vistas that mirror the less urban areas outside of real life Los Angeles. Los Santos, the city, the environment, that will again be the star of the game. Or one of the stars. Just like Liberty City to GTA IV. Or most game world in open world games really. At this point, it’s almost unnecessary to point out that open world games have great game worlds. It’s a necessity. An open world game with a bland and boring game world fails at being one. Just as LA Noire. – Mind you, that game fails at open world, but succeeds elsewhere, but that’s not what this article is about.

Much speculation is still in the air about the nature of GTA V’s narrative. Apparently there will be an elderly main character who used to be in the mob, who’s now being drawn back in. Apparently there will also be more than one protagonist, since there’s more than one old geezer seen in the various quick action shots. This might mean that there will be a substantial multiplayer co-op heist mode happening. That could be pretty awesome, but I don’t need to tell you that. Designated escape car drivers, guys to shoot the five-ohs’ tires out, gangs working together like clockwork. Only thing that’d be missing to give APB reloaded a real run for its money – besides being a better game with more budget and all – would be a competitive component that adds player controlled cops to the mix.

From what we can tell so far, GTA V will be another huge game. The game world will probably be – at least partially – based on Rockstar’s groundwork for LA Noire, a game which they digitized a huge part of the real (1940s) Los Angeles for. Apparently this will be the biggest GTA game world yet. Which means a lot considering how freaking huge San Andreas seemed, but then nostalgia can be misleading. Also Rockstar tends to listen to the fans at least a bit, so we’ll probably not see a return of the GTA IV dating sim elements, at least not to the dominating extent they had in IV.

At the bottom line, it’s another GTA game. Not a single one of them has been a disappointment so far, so the fact that this game exists and will be unleashed upon the world within a year is reason enough to get excited.