Grand Theft Auto / GTA Online

[Alex79]

I anticipate a lot of lengthy stories about the game in this podcast, and don't have a great deal to add other than its an absolutely fantastic game. I loved every minute of it. GTA V was a welcome return to the silliness of the earlier games after the somewhat trudging fourth outing, and I really appreciated that. Stealing a plane and just flying over the world really did provide me with hours of fun. The missions had variety, and the whole game just had a depth that the series hadn't really had before. Switching between the three, very different, characters meant you never got bored, and I really look forward to replaying it on PS4 at some point. Never really had time to get in to the multiplayer, but what I did manage to play was hugely enjoyable. The missions where you had to chase the bikes in the planes was exceptional. Excellent game all round.

THREE WORD REVIEW : Grand Theft Awesome.

[Flabyo]

I don't really have a huge amount to say about this one, but one thing I quite like about it is that each of the three protagonists is a representation of the protagonist of one of the previous games.

Michael is the 'Italian mobster' type as seen in GTA: Vice City
Franklin is the 'gang member' type as seen in GTA: San Andreas
Trevor is the 'anarchist' type as seen in GTA3.

I also liked the way that you're backed into a corner at the end... (story spoiler!)

Spoiler: show

Franklin is basically told he has to kill either Trevor or Michael. I like the the game has a proper 'take a third option' though where you say "all these people have got us backed into a corner, so what say each of us goes and deals with one of the other guys problem".

I thought that was fun. That these three guys had become friends enough that they realised that was a way out. Not a very *nice* way out, but a way out.

[TechnoRage1127]

To start, I have to be honest, I was never a Grand Theft Auto fan. I know, it's one of the great Sins of video gaming; "Thou Shalt Love GTA!" I always acknowledged the incredible amount of work that went into each game, as well as the innovative genius to create these open-world/sand box games. However, the story was always a mixed bag for me. The writing would skirt the line of taking itself way too seriously or being on-the-nose satirical. There are times where I feel like the developers are Eric Idle from Monty Python (Nudge-nudge, wink-wink, Know-what-I-mean?). Plus, the protagonists in each game have been especially annoying and the time spent going through the story with them becomes a chore. GTAIV is certainly a disappointment all around.
Having said that, there was a sale on PSN for the PS4 version and I decided it was worth a shot, as this could be the game that finally "gets it right" for me. Long story short, I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this game. Having the three protagonists breaks up the story into easily digestible pieces and replaying events from a different character's prospective is refreshing. Rockstar actually takes the time to establish each character's backstory and motivations. Most importantly, there are missions (especially with Trevor) when you actually get to cut loose and are rewarded for doing so.
While the story does take it's time, and there are several very memorable moments, it doesn't really go anywhere. Which, surprisingly, doesn't really bother me as all the moments getting to the end are quite fun. Driving also feels so much better then the "cat-on-rollerskates" feel that GTAIV had, although the flying mechanics needed some work.
I have not done much of GTAOnline. I'm not a big multiplayer person, and it seems to be impressively overwhelming. But maybe someday.
To sum up my thoughts, Grand Theft Auto is still not my favorite series of all time, but this latest entry is certainly worth the price of admission (albeit on sale). It's the 900 lbs gorilla when it comes to sandbox games, and it actually delivers.
Also, it has the best use of the PS4 controller light bar, which flashes red & blue when you're pursued by the police. Which I hadn't even noticed until let my wife play and she likes to drive on the sidewalks crammed with pedestrians.

Three word review; Clunky-Flying-Mechanics

[DeadpoolNegative]

This is an essay I wrote a few years ago that was published at GameCritics. You have permission to use anything from it if you find it interesting.

http://gamecritics.com/dan-coyle/it-s-b ... it-anyway/

[Xavier Desmond]

Grand Theft Auto has always be a series that has never quite hit with me. I struggled with mechanics of the PS2 era games and I found the drab world and poor structure (particularly of the side quests) in GTA 4 dragged the game down.

GTA5 does an amazing job of fixing the problems of the previous games of the series. The driving and shooting are much more enjoyable and the game is cleverly structured so that, unlike the previous game in the series, you never feel forced into doing missions or quests you don't want to do. In many ways Rockstar have created the best open world game ever with an astonishing level of detail and a world that feels truly lived in.

Despite this, I cannot say that I love GTA5. The sheer size and detail in the game means that inevitably there is lot of creative talent involved and because of this GTA5 lacks an identity of its own. The humour in the game varies wildly from clever and subtle satire to lowest common denominator, Adam Sandler level, idiocy. The story never hangs together and feels like it was written by committee. To compare it to Rockstar's previous game, Red Dead Redemption, GTA 5 is superior in many ways but it has no coherent artistic vision of the story it wants to tell or the world it wants to create. This means that although the game is never dull nothing about it really sticks in the memory.

To sum GTA up, I would say it would be easy to say that this is one of the best games ever made but I cannot imagine many people saying it was their personal favourite.

[KSubzero1000]

Just leaving my Three Words Review: "Quantity over Quality"

[Tleprie]

Hopefully this isn't too late for the podcast, but here we go.

I wasn't incredibly excited for GTA V. Sure, it looked beautiful, and I enjoyed my time with the last two numbered entries in the series, but for me GTA has always been about relaxing with the sandbox parts of the game, not the story. I would have been perfectly fine not buying it, and continuing to occasionally play GTA IV. My brother and friends had a different outlook though. They were all incredibly excited for the game, picking it up in the first week, if not first day.

The story definitely drew me in at first. Having three characters was an interesting approach and I especially enjoyed Franklin's special ability and Trevor's personality. But it wasn't enough, and soon after starting the story I was back to my old antics of running away from the cops and starting shoot-outs in parking garages.

When GTA Online launched three of my friends and I all gathered with our 360s in my basement. Everyone brought their own TV and we struggled through the initial issues of the service till we were causing mischief together. Online had less sticking power with me than the story however. I can rarely be bothered to play anything online, but the idea of having my own character was appealing. I remember putting a bit more time into it when friends would play, but I didn't stick around for heists, and my friends eventually jumped to PC, while I stayed put with my 360 copy.

So, after giving up on the story and online, I was back to where I was with GTA IV, but clearly V was better. I have many fond memories of sitting on the floor of my brother's bedroom, where the xbox was located, putting in countless hours of mindless violence while he played Civilization or some other strategy game on his PC.
GTA V became a great stress relief game, and I'd put it next to Minecraft and Dark Souls 1 as my favorite relaxing games. While I certainly enjoyed the violent aspects of the game, this entry had so much more for me to do than the previous one. I probably spent almost as much time just walking around the city as I did blowing it up. I loved exploring the mountains and jumping on trains. My personal favorite "non-violent" activity was to get in a helicopter, fly to the top of a bridge, get out, and try to jump onto one of the passing cars. This always amused me much more than it probably should have.

I wouldn't argue with anyone that GTA V is a masterpiece, but I still won't be excited for the next one.

[Kiyomi]

I don't have a particular bit of praise for GTA V when it comes to how it plays, or the characters, or where the story ends up. In these regards GTA V is mechanically solid if not best-in-class, it's fun to shoot things, the cover system works, the driving is pleasurable, and the characters unfortunately crime movie stereotypes that often don't have a whole lot to say. Even for all the shouting and swearing.

Instead, I regard GTA V more highly because of the impact it had on me, and how it opened my eyes once again to open world games. I bought my PS3 in August '11 having been out of gaming for a number of years, and with it a slew of the generation's games including Red Dead Redemption - an absolute masterpiece in its' own right. With that in mind, the next Rockstar project was announced just a couple of months later - GTA V. It was, perhaps, the single biggest case of being excited for a game that I'd ever experienced. I'd never played a GTA game before and so it was with eager anticipation I placed my preorder - something I have almost never done before or since. For two years, I was on almost a complete blackout - aside from the initial launch trailer and perhaps one other closer to release, I refused to look at anything GTA related.

After the (rather considerable) install, I sat down, ready to be thrust into an exciting world of crime, destruction and havoc. And while I certainly enjoyed the initial elements laid out to me, the thing that captured me most was simply the world R* had created. This world was alive with the sights and sounds of city life in a way I'd never even begun to think was really possible in a videogame. People walking past on their cellphones. People bumping into one another. People occasionally starting a gunfight only for the police to arrive on the scene moments later where upon they themselves would be shot at, hurt, and then tended to by paramedics who'd write down notes on a clipboard. It was the way the light streamed through a gap in the bridge to the underpass below it, lighting up the roof of your car as you drove past. And then realising the underpass was itself alive with a small, graffiti-laden alley that was home to drunks, the homeless and the violent. And the sound, too, felt vivid and real. It was the ticking of the engine cooling as you switched off your car and got out, the industrial warning sirens in the docks and the roar of a sports car in the distance. It was the squeak of a suspension, the music blaring from inside an apartment.

For my first 5 or so hours, I spent my time in GTA V walking, yes, walking around the streets of Los Santos, refusing to run, soaking it all in, utterly engaged not by a set of mechanics or a flowing script but by this feat of world building. I found immense joy in discovering a staircase on the side of a building a few-storeys high, walking up it, taking to the roof and looking out at the cars and people walk past. And then feeling the realisation kick in that those stairs served no other purpose than to be there, as you would expect from a building of that type - not because it serves the player in terms of progression, but because it's what would exist. It's the mundane details in GTA V that truly brought it to life to me in a way that no game had ever done before, or since.

There are no other major developers that pay the kind of attention that R* does to the way it sculpts its worlds, and if I'm honest, I'm quite thankful for that. To be launched into a new world so completely and entirely every 5 years or so is fine by me and sets an industry standard that right now, nobody can even come close to.

[JaySevenZero]

As we touched upon this during the recording the other night I figured I'd give the Rockstar Editor another bout of trying to get my head around how it works. Anyway, after recording a bunch of clips whilst just driving around in GTA Online, I attempted to create something out of them using the in-game toolset. Gotta say, I quite enjoyed messing around with them, albeit in a rudimentary fashion.

[ratsoalbion]

Comprehensive!

[hazeredmist]

Immensely enjoyable session on GTA5 last night (cheers Jay!), I can comfortably say in a single night I had more fun & variety than my entire time playing The Division. Can't wait to get back on

[JaySevenZero]

Immensely enjoyable session on GTA5 last night (cheers Jay!), I can comfortably say in a single night I had more fun & variety than my entire time playing The Division. Can't wait to get back on

No problem, it's always more fun when there are more of us online!

Now if anyone's wondering as to the kind of shit we get up to in GTA Online, here's a video of what happens when you give four trigger happy a-holes a simple 'clear out a gang' type affair!

[Suits]

[hazeredmist]

Immensely enjoyable session on GTA5 last night (cheers Jay!), I can comfortably say in a single night I had more fun & variety than my entire time playing The Division. Can't wait to get back on

No problem, it's always more fun when there are more of us online!

Now if anyone's wondering as to the kind of shit we get up to in GTA Online, here's a video of what happens when you give four trigger happy a-holes a simple 'clear out a gang' type affair!

Brilliant! That mission was ace. Utter carnage.

Still can't believe I landed that plane later on...

[TheEmailer]

That was a very good podcast.

Re the online, don't have any friends on PC who play it and I got sick of trying heists with randoms who ran off alone or kept quitting. May try the stunt stuff though

[JaySevenZero]

That was a very good podcast.

Re the online, don't have any friends on PC who play it and I got sick of trying heists with randoms who ran off alone or kept quitting. May try the stunt stuff though

That's a shame as there are a bunch of us on the PS4 playing this most evenings.

As an aside I introduced the group to 'Coulrophobia' a custom raid that basically has you go up against a load of angry clowns with fists, baseball bats, molotovs and golf clubs and much amusement ensued.

[hazeredmist]

Coulrophobia is on my GTA bucket list now!

[JaySevenZero]

At last, melee combat on bikes!

[ratsoalbion]

Have we got denim waistcoats with the CaR logo on the back?

[JaySevenZero]

Have we got denim waistcoats with the CaR logo on the back?

If you buy them from the shop, then yes!