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Grand Theft Auto V : Everything You Need To Know

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Grand Theft Auto fans breathed a collective sigh of relief when Rockstar Games finally unveiled the release date for 2013’s most anticipated game, Grand Theft Auto V. And even though we have to wait until September 17th to get our hands on a copy, the fact that Rockstar is giving themselves so much time to work on the title should make us all a little more giddy.

So here we present to you everything you need to know about Grand Theft Auto V.

Characters

In a bold departure for the series, GTA V will split its narrative evenly between three very different protagonists.

Micheal : Rockstar is looking to retired former criminal Michael, Grand Theft Auto V’s lead protagonist, to explore the narrative of a man at his breaking point with everything and nothing to lose. In his early forties, he’s older than your average GTA star, and better off too, living in luxury with his family in well-to-do Rockford Hills, Los Santos’ equivalent to Beverly Hills.
Trevor : Whereas Michael is established and living the high life Trevor is stuck in a trailer park. He’s unhinged and untrusting. Trevor has a more reckless and impulsive personality than that of Michael’s, and this we’ve already seen that his headstrong ways are the source of much conflict between the main characters.
Franklin : Franklin lives in South Los Santos and is the most traditional protagonist of Grand Theft Auto V’s trio, ex-street gangster who’s always looking for new opportunities. Rockstar’s Dan Houser describes him as a “gang-banger in the post gang-banging world”. Aware that he’s on a fast-track to nowhere, Franklin associates himself with Michael and Trevor in the hope that they can teach him about the world of ‘real’ crime.

Map / Landscape

It will be split into two major areas – Los Santos (the city) and Blaine County (the countryside). None of the world will be sealed off at the start of the game. You can explore it all straight away.

The underwater areas look dense and busy. The ocean bed is littered with downed chunks of ships and liners, plus other divers exploring the wreckage. And yes, there are sharks swimming about.

Rockstar has promised that the world in GTA V is bigger than GTA IV, San Andreas, and Red Dead Redemption combined. The game will obviously be the largest open world game that Rockstar has ever created. Each and every building now has an explorable interior.

It’s a setting that provides plenty of scope for variety. The environments span the gauntlet from tacky commercial beachfronts to locked-down military bases; from desert lowlands to a fully scaleable Mount Chillad.

Mount Chillad is the stand-out landmark in Blaine County and the towering mountain is apparently the highest point in the game, taller than any of the skyscrapers in downtown Los Santos. Again, Rockstar has only teased fleeting glimpses of Mount Chiliad but one thing’s for certain: walking to the top — or even mountain biking, which is definitely in the game — will take a very long time.

Storyline

Rockstar hasn’t been very forthcoming about the actual storyline, but we do have a few key pieces of information. First—and this is one of the most unique features of GTA V—some of the storylines will require players to switch between the three main protagonists in order to accomplish the mission.

This means that players will need to keep track of each of their character’s roles throughout the mission and juggle the timing accordingly. Hopefully, this doesn’t mean that we’ll be screwing around with any uncharacteristic puzzle-based storylines.

It uses a Google Street View-style system. The map zooms out in stages, crosses across the map to the character you want to play as, then zooms back in with a slight pause when arriving at the new character. It takes a few seconds to switch between characters out in the open world.

The three main characters will have different special abilities. Michael has a bullet-time variant, Trevor can do double damage (and also has a unique melee attack) while Franklin can steer around corners in slow-mo.

Side Missions / Sports / Activities

There are plenty of distractions to take part in. Side missions include hijacking security vans and picking up hitchhikers. Sports events include yoga, golf, tennis, triathlons and bike races. Challenges include stunt jumps and flying challenges. You can also acquire property – player housing returns and you can also buy garages, marinas and businesses.

Mechanics And Vehicles

According to Rockstar, the combat and driving mechanics have been rebuilt from the ground up. The reason for this is unclear, but it probably has to do with the new vehicle types being added. So far, the developer has confirmed that players will be able to take control of bikes, ATVs, jet skis, planes, helicopters, and cars.

Planes will come with parachutes, helicopters will return. Car customisation includes paintjobs, wheels, window tints, grills, spoilers. You can also play with the way vehicles handle and feel, changing the suspension, engine and brakes. GTA 5 will have the largest selection of vehicles seen in a GTA game.

Some of the marine vehicles will come complete with diving equipment, to support excursions into the deep. The ocean will not have any form of signposting, so prepare to be fully immersed (literally) in exploration.

The dating and relationship mechanics have been removed from GTA V. Now I don’t have to answer my friends’ phone call while the army is shooting at me. That’ll be nice.

Weapons

The stars system for police returns. We haven’t seen what the different ratings do but we can say that at four stars, police snipers are called in. Auto-aim isn’t as rigid as GTA IV but like Max Payne 3, there will be variable targeting options, including free aim, soft lock and hard lock.

Weapons wheel selection from Red Dead Redemption is used here. This will have the largest selection of weapons from any GTA game. Weapons we’ve seen – sniper rifles, machine guns and sticky bombs. Weapon customisation includes silencers, scopes, extended mags and laser sights.

Multiplayer

This side of the game is still shrouded in mystery as Rockstar are saving concrete details on GTA V’s competitive multiplayer mode for a later date. Dan Houser sounds pretty upbeat about what his multiplayer team are building however, commenting: “We’re very pleased with the direction it’s heading. We’re ever closer to nailing the fun and excitement of open-world multiplayer”.

As Official PlayStation Magazine reports, the only solid thing we do know is that Max Payne 3’s Crew infrastructure will carry over to GTA V’s multiplayer, via Rockstar’s Social Club. Multiplayer sessions will support up to 32 players simultaneously.