GTA V

[Professor Bear]

I used to think a lot of the moaning about GTA's chauvinism was misplaced, based as it is on the assumption that the game universe isn't an equal opportunities offender when it comes to the stereotypical portrayal of men and women both, but it's hard to deny when we're at the 15th game in the series and still no playable female characters even when the hook of the current game is that there are three main payable characters at all times.


I saw the amount of chav scum* lining up for this last night at the Xtravision/Tesco midnight openings and realised that once they were sold out a lot of those people - mostly kids - running around in the small hours around my estate whooping and hollering would be very disappointed.  Naturally, I decided to go and buy a copy to help make this moment happen sooner.  Glad I did - my gripe with GTA4 was not, in retrospect, that it was po-faced, joyless, and aimed at people who want to take things far too seriously, but based on GTA5 it was in fact the lack of variety.
I must have failed that very first GTA5 mission at least seven times, as once I was behind the wheel of a car I ditched the mission (to drive from A to B) and instead drove like fuck and within minutes was out of the city, being chased across a dam by cops, cutting across country and mowing down a herd of goats in the process, crossing rivers, deserts, passing shanty towns and suburbs along the way - and I still think the actual horizon  is a bit of a ways off, not that I got near it as the pigs did for me shortly as I'd picked the red car that handles like a brick.  Once I did the first mission and got to wander about, I still didn't get very far as the map is so huge it is practically impossible to get anywhere without committing a crime, though fair play most probably don't have the impulse to do a running clothesline on everyone they come across like I do, but hey - what kind of world is it where you can pass a skate park full of hippies and not skid 180 degrees to go back and mow them down?  Not a world I want to live in, I can tell you.
Fantastic and fun game, though going on the shelf until I get my work done as I can see this bastard claiming even more of my time than Saints Row did.


* I am not saying that people who like GTA are chav scum, I am merely relating that only chav scum were to be seen on this occasion.

[Goaty]

[spoiler]Aliens...   [/spoiler]       

[radiator]

Managed to grab half an hour on this last night, but had to call it a day when I could barely keep my eyes open (due to the fact it was very late rather than anything to do with the game).

It all looks hugely impressive so far, though all I've really done in the game is get lost and drive round and round some shipyards, then got chased by a vanful of hoodlums after they picked a fight with me and I beat them up.

It's been a long time since I played GTAIV, so could be misremembering, but the controls feel much tighter than I remember them being - I always feel like I 'm having to make do with slightly twitchy, weightless, unrefined on-foot controls in GTA games, but it feels a lot more weighty in this one.

[Charlie boy]

[spoiler]Aliens...   [/spoiler]       

Seriously?

[Goaty]

[spoiler]Aliens...   [/spoiler]       

Seriously?

Oh yes...

[Professor Bear]

Exploring in this is so much fun I stopped whatever it was I was doing at one point and tore off towards the horizon after seeing what I thought was a SETI array, and sure enough it was and I ran about like a kid for a bit, then for some reason was at an abandoned airport using the runway for doing high speed wheelies and stoppies.  It started raining at one point when I was in the city and I stopped to look at it splash on cars and paper vending machines and this scabby, wretched-looking man dressed in rags and standing by a shopping cart full of his possessions asked me for any spare cash I might have and then just stood there, his arms not so much attached to him as hanging off him as it poured down.  This is a really well-designed game that brilliantly captures the hair's breadth separating the luxury and squalor that exist side-by-side in a major city.
Also you get to play as a Rottweiler and bum other dogs.

[Link Prime]

Installing now- 6809 / 8466MB.
Fingernails left: 2/10.
Projected sleep reduction: 68%.

[Goaty]

It really good graphic game! As I been shot few times with blood on my suit, and later mission, I still got same blood! and nice blood on the cars... sad is it?

[Link Prime]

Like most of you, I abandoned the missions after the first car-chase one, and went exploring.

Wound up taking a cable car to the top of Mt. Chiliad in the middle of the night- spooky Silent Hill type moment when I found a drawing on the wall with reference to [spoiler]Alien spacecraft[/spoiler].
Googled it this morning, and there's loads of crack-pot theories  / spoilers out there. Will avoid, and figure this out for myself.


Also; I committed sinister cold blooded murder and got away scott-free; in the middle of nowhere I bumped into some happy-go-lucky chap walking his dog.
Without a second thought I STABBED THEM BOTH TO DEATH, leaving their bodies for the vultures.
Should a video game make you feel guilty? 

[Goaty]

You sounds sadistic Link Prime!

There was one moment I feelings like Riggs in Lethal Weapon 2 moment. Which was awesome!

[radiator]

Played a bit more last night.

As amazing as it clearly is, does anyone else think there's a bit of a disconnect between the hugely atmospheric environment and sense of place, and the ludicrously over the top actions you're expected to perform?

Of course I know GTA is supposed to be set in a heightened, hyper-real universe, but even so it's a bit jarring that you have to gun down 30+ cops in the opening, then later with Franklin, commit mass murder while attempting to repossess a motorbike. As if anyone would be willing to kill a single person - let alone 20 - in such a situation. Even in GTAIV, the first few missions eased you in, asking no more of you than to commit petty vandalism and intimidation.

I think it's the storytelling ambitions of the developer bumping up against the kind of frantic, fast-paced gameplay modern gamers expect which causes a weird disconnect (or 'ludonarrative dissonance' if you want to sound like a tosser) and it's one of the many reasons that I think games don't handle narrative well. It's just especially jarring in this game precisely because it's otherwise so convincing and evocative.

I'm not for a second saying games shouldn't be fun, but I hope that in the next generation things like combat and interaction will be nuanced to the point where they won't have to constantly spam you with enemies to keep things interesting, and just fighting a single enemy could be every bit as thrilling, visceral, fun and demanding as gunning down hundreds of them - which to me feels like a crutch that games have to fall back on.

Still, it's an incredible achievement from what I've seen so far. It says a lot that I actually watch the cutscenes and care somewhat about the story and characters.

One last thing - I can't work out if the game auto-saves? Can you only save your game at your safehouse? Because that seems demented in this day and age if so...

[Link Prime]

One last thing - I can't work out if the game auto-saves? Can you only save your game at your safehouse? Because that seems demented in this day and age if so...

Just pop out your phone and select 'Quick Save'.

[radiator]

Nice one, thanks.

[ThryllSeekyr]

How is the driving in this one? One thing that stopped me from playing GTA Four was that I couldn't complete a mission where I was in car chase. Cars are were hard to control in this one.

[Link Prime]

How is the driving in this one? One thing that stopped me from playing GTA Four was that I couldn't complete a mission where I was in car chase. Cars are were hard to control in this one.

In my opinion, the driving has massively improved over IV.
I'm normally a bit shit at the street races, but had no problem with the first two I encountered in this game.