shinobi602
Member
Going to add as they come in. Loving some of stuff I'm reading so far, all are worth reading.
CVG: Youtube
REV3 Games: Youtube
Game Informer
IGN
Gamespot
Edge
Polygon
Kotaku
CVG: Youtube
"Missions can be played stealth or action." "You choose a crew from more than just the 3 characters like hackers, lock pickers, etc. Their skills get boosted if they live onto the next mission."
"Visually and technically, GTA V is such a leap over GTA IV, it blew me away."
9 unique attributes per character:
- Special
- Stamina
- Shooting
- Strength
- Stealth
- Flying
- Driving
- Mechanic Ability
- Lung capacity
REV3 Games: Youtube
Summary From GTAV.net
- You can buy property; houses, garages and businesses can all be purchased for extra revenue sources.
- You can customise yourself with haircuts, new clothes, and tattoos
- Each character is rated in a series of skill categories: Stamina, Shooting, Strength, Stealth, Flying, Driving, Mechanic, Lung Capacity.
- Each character has a 'Special': Franklin is an adrenalin junkie and can slow down time while driving; Trevor has a frenzy mode, where he does double damage, takes half damage, and has a unique melee attack; Michael has his own version of bullet time
- Specials are governed by a meter, it drains after use and recharges slowly
- Other skill categories are shared and can be improved by completing missions, side missions, activities and more
- Trevor will always be the best pilot, Franklin will always be the best driver but each can improve their proficiency a little
- One of the skill categories is stealth, suggesting players will be able to take different approaches to missions
- Pay N Sprays can also mod cars with paint jobs, new wheels, window tints, grilles, spoilers. Upgrades to suspension, engine and brakes can also be made.
- Weapons can also be customised with laser sights, scopes, silencers, and high capacity magazines
- You can pick up hitchikers, do stunt jumps and flying challenges, take part in yoga, golf, tennis or bike races.
- Some boats will include gear such as wetsuit, flippers and tanks for diving
- An underwater ecosystem exits, "the sea is teaming with fish and sharks"
- Treasures can be found underwater, but NPCs will be looking for them too
- GTAV rewards exploration, there's no signposting underwater, so you'll have to find the treasure the hard way
- Dives won't offer massive payoffs, but will "help grease the wheels"
- The character selection wheel is split into four triangles: Franklin, Trevor, Michael, and your multiplayer character
- It seems there's a closer relationship between single and multiplayer. Simply pressing Down on the d-pad will drop the play in and out of MP.
- Rockstar has said it will reveal more on multiplayer in the future
- There are subtle differences in the way each character moves to reflect their personalities; Michael is slower and deliberate.
- Rockstar says there will be five times as many pedestrians in GTA V as there were in Grand Theft Auto IV
- There's a "crazy level of detail": Tourist buses can be boarded for a tour of celebrity homes, film posters are plastered on the walls, men in comedy costumes try to corner you outside the Cathay Theatre, including the Superman-like Impotent Rage and Master Chief riff, Space Ranger.
- iFruit, the game's new phone, can be used to snap pictures and upload them to Rockstar's Social Club
- The phone also has apps. In addition to the camera there is internet, contacts, social media, a calendar, and a replay missions app. There are three more Rockstar hasn't yet revealed.
- Michael's obsession with classic films translates into in-game set pieces based on real world movies. In the demo the three characters mount a heist very similar to the one from Heat.
- 'Mini heists' are used to teach the player about preparation. Players must secure vehicles, outfits, masks, the getaway vehicle.
- These build up to a bigger heist where the execution must be flawless. They'll require the right crew and players will have to decide on the cheap option, which results in less skilled people, or paying more for skilled crew members that will take a larger cut.
- You can switch between Franklin, Trevor and Michael during a cutscene, manually, or automatically when the AI takes control for you
- Each character has a job to do, how much you switch yourself in or let the computer do, is entirely up to you
- If you die the game reloads to the last checkpoint, even if two other characters are alive
- Although it's up to the player when they switch, dialogue will suggest ideal moments. For example, when Michael and Franklin are being overwhelmed by snipers, Michael might ask for Trevor's help.
- A combat roll has been introduced for moving between cover
- There is a wider field of vision, and players can run-and-gun
- A deer and a wildcat was spotted in the mountains.
Game Informer
An aficionado of Vinewood action films, Michael also loves the thrill of the heist. GTA V peppers five or six of these big jobs throughout the story, each requiring careful preparation and execution. If you successfully pull off these jobs, you can walk away with millions of dollars to spend on luxury vehicles, helipads, marinas, businesses, weapons, aesthetic and performance car customizations, or even properties (a reversal of position for Rockstar, who previously told us you wouldn't be able to buy homes).
Michael continues down the street and I get a glimpse of the street life in the more populated sections of Los Santos. Much like in the Elder Scrolls games, the pedestrians in GTA V don't stay in one spot all day, preferring to move around from activity to activity. The AI is also much more responsive to your actions. In this instance, Michael walks past two celebrity lookalikes. The first is a stand-in for one of the Republican Space Rangers (which returns with new episodes in GTA V). The other is dressed as Impotent Rage, a new liberal superhero with a hit TV show. When Michael pulls out his smartphone to take a picture of the Space Ranger, the actor strikes a pose for him.
IGN
This is best exemplified by the incredible attention to detail when you go underwater. When Trevor threw on some SCUBA gear and hopped off the side of a boat, I was expecting the usual sparse underwater trench with a few floating bits of seaweed – not circling sharks, deep underwater ridges, schools of fish, a barnacle-encrusted wreck and shafts of sunlight shimmering through the water. It’s properly explorable down there, assuming you aren’t crippled by a paralysing fear of sharks. You can literally dive for sunken treasure. This marks a huge step forward for Rockstar’s worlds.
Gamespot
Remember the modest car customization found in San Andreas? Well, apparently that feature is coming back with a vengeance in GTAV. Rockstar promises that Pay-n-Spray shops will not simply be used for a quick change of paint in order to evade the cops. Of course, you can still do that if you want--and even swap out license plates if you're so inclined. But these shops will also be used for customizing your car to high heaven, including performance upgrades as well as cosmetic options such as new spoilers, grilles, and window tints that will let you live out your inner Vin Diesel (or Paul Walker, if you're the boring type).
So let's say you're driving along the dusty back roads of Blaine County and you happen to see a hitchhiker looking for a ride. Sure, you could pick him up and drive him to wherever he's going. But where's the fun in that? So why not drive him up to some remote peak, let him out of the car, and introduce him to those friendly coyotes and mountain lions? Or coast your car off a dock and see how good he is at fighting off sharks. Or take him up to some winding cliff-side road and plow your car through the guardrail, looking at your terrified guest as you proclaim, "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you had a parachute too. Well, good luck!" just as you deploy your chute and safely float down to the flaming wreckage that was your car. Anyway, you get the idea. You can do some messed-up stuff with these new side missions.
For the bigger jobs, you'll also be able to build out your crew beyond just the three core protagonists, perhaps hiring additional drivers or other specialists who have their own skill levels and who take a cut of the overall score that's proportionate to their skills. Will you go with cheap help who take a smaller cut but might botch the job, or will you put together a costly but skillful group of seasoned professionals? Instead of just playing through an action sequence that might remind you of a scene from one of your favorite crime films, you might get to do something closer to designing your own incredible heist sequence. Eat your heart out, Michael Mann.
Edge
Here’s your headline: the gunplay is Max Payne 3′s, broadly speaking, right down to the turning circle and the kill-confirming reticule X. This is no copy-paste from Rockstar’s 2012 shooter, though: there’s a new evasive roll, and a ‘combat jog’ that lets you move at speed with your weapon drawn, but not raised.
Again, the three-character setup proves its worth: no longer are you sat behind cover popping off heads until all the red dots are gone from the radar. Franklin stays behind a chunky concrete bollard for the most part, taking potshots and calling out enemy targets to his allies. This is hardly Michael’s first rodeo, so he’s more mobile, running and gunning from cover to cover. Trevor has the most fun, switching to a sniper rifle to dispatch an enemy team setting up across the street, and taking out an RPG to dispose of a police chopper and squad car.
He dives off the side and the Blaine County sun does its best to follow him down, its rays refracted by the water’s surface. Rounding the bow of a sunken ship we swim right into the path of a couple of sharks – dangerous enough to warrant their own icons on the radar, but tamed for the purposes of our demo. The sea is as alive as the land, then, and just as well. GTA V’s landmass is three-and-a-half times the size of Red Dead Redemption’s; include the sea and the world is five times as big – and this time, the whole thing is fully explorable from the word go.
Like Skyrim, each of the protagonists’ skills in certain disciplines – shooting, driving, flying and so on – improves the more they are used. So while Franklin will start the game as the most accomplished driver and Trevor’s time in the military means he’s the best pilot, you’ll be able to redress the balance simply by playing the game. Stamina, lung capacity, strength and stealth are also tracked, and Rockstar says new tools and boosts will be unlocked as you improve.
Each of the three characters also has a unique special move, use of which is limited by a meter under the minimap. Michael can slow down time in combat in a refined version of Max Payne 3′s bullet time; Franklin can do likewise from behind the wheel of a vehicle, comfortably taking tight turns at high speed. Trevor, fittingly, has a Rage mode of sorts, doling out double damage and taking less himself until the meter is spent.
Polygon
In the demo we were shown a relatively straightforward heist where Michael plans a robbery with Franklin and Trevor. Their plan involved stealing from an armored car by blocking its usual route with a dump truck, planting explosives and blowing the back doors off before stealing off into the night in a getaway car parked nearby. All told, it was pretty typical for a GTA mission, with the notable difference of being able to see the action from three different perspectives. At times the game would force us to see things from a certain character's point of view, whereas other times would give players the freedom to select whoever they want to play as. So, for example, if you're being assaulted by cops on at the ground floor of an office building, you could switch to a sniper planted across the way to give your buddies some cover.
More Customization
Players will be able to add tattoos and change the hairstyles of their characters. Weapons can be customized with different attachments. Vehicles can be improved for better handling and overall performance.
Improvements to the Combat
The feel of targeting, firing and entering cover has been completely reworked and should feel closer to that of Max Payne 3.
Citizens on Patrol
If pedestrians see you commit a crime, they'll whip out a cell phone and call the cops or take pictures with their camera phone.
Other Activities
In addition to yoga, sky diving and scuba diving, players will also be able participate in the following activities, according to reps: golf, tennis triathlons, bike races, picking up hitchhikers, base jumping and ATM robberies.
And that pulse is very, very different from the one in Liberty City. Los Santos seems livelier and more fun-loving. While Grand Theft Auto 4 seemed mired in tragedy, there's a lightheartedness to Grand Theft Auto 5, akin to what you'd see in a Michael Bay action movie (you know, one of the good ones). Where 4 opted for realism, 5 seems more focused on just having a good time.
Kotaku
The Rockstar guys also told me how huge the game is and all that's in it. Well, some of what's in it: military bases, beaches, mountains, rivers, meth dealers, biker gangs.... the whole map is open from the start. Biggest weapons list ever. Biggest vehicle list, many of them customizable for looks and performance. Cars. Trucks. Motorcycles. Bicycles. Jet fighters. I saw a jumbo jet in the sky. Can we fly that? Not sure, probably not. These games have limits.
Each of the three characters even has his own bank account, allowing you to manage each one's purchases differently. These guys can buy property. The example I was given was a taxi company. It will generate regular income. They can buy houses, too.
