GTA:V Single-Player Thread - next-gen versions out now!

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Oh Christ I love this so much I just want to sack in my job and divorce my wife and just play this in my pants for the rest of my life.

I won't though obvs...

Oh, love that my car is in it too

[SteveH]

I'd just like to say...to those knocking the resolution - i did warn you. But as said your eyes will get accustomed to it.

I really thought it would look at lot cleaner than it does. It isn't that long ago I picked up Midnight Club Los Angeles and that city is beautifully detailed, has way more cars on screen at once, plenty of pedestrians, and also shop fronts with actual windows and displays in them, yet looks a hell of a lot cleaner and has a better framerate.

[NecroMorrius]

Anyone done the mission that starts with a man sat at a table trying to legalise cannabis yet?

"Cleanness" isn't a problem, it renders at 720 and there's no post-processing to smear the screen whatsoever.

[JoeK]

I could almost wait the 6 months to a year for GTA5 on PC, if it meant they surprised up all with RDR suddenly appearing on Steam

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Anyone done the mission that starts with a man sat at a table trying to legalise cannabis yet?

Aaaaahhh yeah buddy. *peowpeow*

[Dimahoo]

I really thought it would look at lot cleaner than it does. It isn't that long ago I picked up Midnight Club Los Angeles and that city is beautifully detailed, has way more cars on screen at once, plenty of pedestrians, and also shop fronts with actual windows and displays in them, yet looks a hell of a lot cleaner and has a better framerate.

This has no filtering so they could add more stuff. Midnight club probably has repeated asset use and very little hills, AI work - stuff like that. Theres very little of this thats similar although.

They probably had some team work on each area like real town planners do. Start with hills and water, then add the major roads, then links, etc. The industrial areas look really good at times. So many layers and buildings being drawn.

I counted something like 9 bridges in the industrial area (near where the tow truck is - it has a mission there) you could see in one view with that suspension bridge overlooking it all. Stunning really.

I've not even gone north yet. Found the vinewood sign only because Fraklin was there taking it all in from the viewpoint nearby.

[NecroMorrius]

When you get up on top of a tallish building you realise how much this is rendering at once. There's way, way more geometry than the boxes of Midnight club LA.

[Meh]

I really, really hate how the vehicles handle. I just can't get used to them at all. Nothing about the game is doing anything for me whatsoever.

I know, right? My big fucking loss.

[Opinionated Ham Scarecrow]

Anyone complaining about the visuals in this game needs a slap.

[Monkeyboy]

Only done a few missions with Franklin so far, even though I've been playing it for about 4 hours or so. Mainly I've just been zipping around the map, taking the cable car to the mountain top etc. Franklin moves like a fucking tank though. I guess some things never change with GTA, but I am getting used to it.

And what exactly have they done to the cars? Made them lighter or something? So far, I think I prefer the heavier handling of GTA4.

[Dimahoo]

I think they're alright. They've been tweaked a bit and feel more precise to make them a bit easier. You can always customise them. Maybe that helps the handling - i know you can add engines and stuff.

They're lighter to drive, but still feel heavy when they crash. The physics are quite good at times - you can launch yourself off a low nose car like the Giotti or Lambo rip off.

In the stock cars the handbrake can send you in a spin but in the sports cars deft use will make you feel like a boss sometimes. Usually at road junctions.

[MrPogo]

Played it for six hours straight and absolutely love it. Rockstar know exactly how to build a world that you are quite happy to just chill out and explore without feeling the need to keep plowing on with the missions.

Not a fan of what they have done with the car handling though. They lack the weight and momentum from GTA IV, which is a real shame.

They all feel a bit "glued to the road" to me at the minute. Not driven that many vehicles so far, but everything seems to handle like it's an F1 car with massive fat tyres and precision steering even at high speed, compared to GTA IV where everything seemed like a skittery.... F1 car in the wet I suppose, and not designed to take corners at much about 25mph. The GTA V handling is more fun from the off, but IV seemed to have more of a challenge to it so it felt more rewarding to master.

Glad to see the police response is more mental than ever though; crashed my car into a river in the middle of nowhere, encountered a random mountain biker and nicked his ride, overheard him say "I'm not taking this. I'm calling the cops", and within 30 seconds three squad cars had turned up and shot me to death before I could even contemplate a getaway.

[JohnnyNolan]

The car handling took me a bit to get used to it, but now I'm loving it. The only thing I had to do was alter the view. I felt the camera was too low and blocked too much of the road ahead.

Really enjoyed my first few hours with this. I took a drive up to the 'Vineyard' sign at dusk and climbed up on top of it and watched the city light up in front of me. Stunning. Love the fact that failing a mission no longer means having to go back miles from were you where too. Just unlocked Michael and I don't feel liked I've even remotely scratched the surface of this. The scope of it is just mind boggling.

I did the drugs mission in the square.

[Retroid]

Loving the 'gangster shit; the relationship between Franklin and Lamar kind of reminds me of Huey and Riley .

Also encountered my first bug:

(Not really a spoiler but just in-case...)

I think she has a drinking problem.

[Grobbelboy]

I loved the bit of animation during preparation for the LifeInvader mission, when you're in the clothing shop and Michael makes all these annoyed gestures while trying on hipster outfits.

[Monkeyboy]

Anyone gone to see The Loneliest Robot in Great Britain? Mental

Maybe I'm getting old, but I thought some of that was just cringeworthy with the amount of swearing at the beginning. Plus, it wasn't funny.

[snowbind]

To be honest i wouldn't be surprised if they did (released the PC version later) that so you'd buy two copies from them.

It would make complete sense. In fact I am almost certain that's the plan. Essentially Xbone, PS4 and PC are all almost the same game. Delaying the release like this capitalises on userbase, increases double dipping and reduces PC piracy.

[memories]

How do you take photos with your phone?

When I try what I think is the option it starts to "scan storage" and then tells me the social club is down.

[Dimahoo]

The car handling took me a bit to get used to it, but now I'm loving it. The only thing I had to do was alter the view. I felt the camera was too low and blocked too much of the road ahead.

Really enjoyed my first few hours with this. I took a drive up to the 'Vineyard' sign at dusk and climbed up on top of it and watched the city light up in front of me. Stunning. Love the fact that failing a mission no longer means having to go back miles from were you where too. Just unlocked Michael and I don't feel liked I've even remotely scratched the surface of this. The scope of it is just mind boggling.

I did the drugs mission in the square.

Did you notice the no hikers sign?

Theres a sign there about it being illegial only for two backpackers to walk past!

Then when i climbed the sign the police came. I went to get down and run off and promptly missed the ladder, plunging to my death.

[Qazimod]

Not a fan of what they have done with the car handling though. They lack the weight and momentum from GTA IV, which is a real shame.

I couldn't get on with the weight and momentum of GTA IV's cars, so I'm enjoying V's vehicles a lot.

Regretting not booking time off now; I could just keep playing...

[Spacehost]

This is so good. I felt IV was grey, dour and boring and this is bright, crazy and exciting.

[Roboplegic Wrongcock]

Ah man.

Just started Trevor's missions and it was fucking sad to see

Johnny get done in like that.

[Madness]

Oh my god this is the best game I've ever played.

[Gorf King]

Yup Spacehost. GTA IV wore me down with its drabness after a while. Here, the open world feels like it rewards exploration with touches of beauty. You want an open world to be atmospheric, to engage the senses, or at the other extreme to be startlingly bleak and arresting. I thought GTA IV's world was neither for the most part; it was kind of mundane in a way. I know it wasn't actually like that all the time, but the memory of it is like a kind of grey drizzle. Here it's all exploding sunsets on mountain roads, green-blue morning ocean waves, etc. The variety brought by the switching of characters is really welcome too, and so far at least (it's always tempting fate to come to a conclusion about the main story and missions so early on in a GTA) both those characters and the situations they get involved in seem far more engaging.

So far they seem to have smoothed out a few of the problems of recent GTAs. It feels - to tempt fate again - so far, it feels as if it could be the best GTA ever, and maybe by far. There could be quite a few game of the gen lists being rewritten a couple of weeks down the line.

[Jonzo]

Installed it to a 16gb USB stick and it worked fine, no pop ups during the intro at all!

Gone from furious anger to absolute hysterics chasing a large woman down the street and kicking her in the bottom.

...and then I put GTA V on. Booboom.

[SqueakyG]

So I've played for about 5 or 6 hours... haven't unlocked Trevor yet. There is so much to be impressed by. It looks so much better than GTAIV, and I'm looking forward to a massive amount of cool stuff to do.

However... Warning, criticisms ahead! Don't get too butthurt on this day of excitement, but I have some negative things to say.

One thing I forgot was how frustrating, difficult and buggy the GTA series has always been, and V is no exception. Criticisms so far:

- Two early missions got broken by bugs that stopped the scripting from continuing, and there's a sore lack of a "restart mission" option. I had to load earlier saves to get out of the broken missions.

- Michael goes home to find his wife and daughter standing rigid on tables.

- I can tell the strictness of the scripting is going to be infuriating. "Get to the shore"... I park my jetski on the shore... "Mission failed: you beached your jetski."

- The usual GTA problem of teaching the game through messages in the top left corner while you're busy doing chaotic shit.

- I have no love at all for the black gang stuff that makes up Franklin's story so far. "Nigguh, fuck, fuck, motherfuckuh, nigguh, OG, nigguh, motherfuckuh, loc, OG, nigguh...."

- As some reviews said, the TV/radio stuff is as funny as ever, but doesn't seem to fit the tone of the game any more. I don't think Michael, Franklin or Trevor would sit and watch such goofy shit.

But now some awesome:

- The strip club is frighteningly well-developed. I like the "minigame" of touching the strippers while the bouncer isn't looking, and maxing out their "like" bar for interesting results. Actual boobies too.

- Going to the end of Grove Street gave me chills because it's a very familiar reference point. The best part was hearling a ped straight from GTA:SA saying, "I smoke cuz it gives me knowledge!"

- So much radio!

- Car handling is just the right level of improvement from GTAIV.

- Dat game engine. Seeing mountains in the distance and knowing you can go to them. No watercolour blur-o-vision like in GTAIV.

[PaB]

Oh my god . The sea. THE SEA

[Uncle Nasty]

Missions are getting frustrating already - where is the Skip option that Edge mentioned?

[Thread Astaire]

I played this for 4 hours straight. Only in the last half hour did I do any missions...so much to see

[mr_woo]

As well as wanting a more 'bolder' aiming reticule I'd love to have an option to keep the reticule on screen all the time. Run and gunning is actually pretty fun but I hate the way I have to press the fire button to make it appear on screen and how it disappears quickly as well. I guess it's probably a design choice but I'd love the option anyway. Those are really my only nitpicks with the game so far. Ok the combat isn't on par with Max Payne 3 but it's still a big leap as to be very enjoyable now.