Grand Theft Auto V (PS3)

First impressions. Straight from the install screen you can tell this game is going to be a masterpiece. Maybe it's was the music or the fact that it had a countdown in MB, of which there are 8486, at 9MB a second, that's a long wait...but well worth it.Then suddenly you're thrust into the action...not saying how though, no spoilers...but it's far superior to getting off a boat or plane. Here you get your first taste of the new gunplay, which was overwhelmingly great after playing GTAIV recently. Later on, after the title sequence, you get your first real go at driving...it's incredible, much improved over GTAIV (and I loved the driving in that). More on those later.This time around we have three characters to play with...and you can switch between them mid-mission. This adds another level to how the player can complete a mission, without being tied down to the exact same mission structure, as with previous games. Simply hold down on the D-pad, select a character that's available and it switches instantly to that character and you take control. This isn't confined to inside the mission, though. When outside of a mission you can drop in (with a camera movement that zooms into the sky and back down on your character...basically, the coolest loading screen you've ever seen) on a character while he goes about his day...and he could be doing anything. The first time I tried it, I found Michael sitting in a car, clearly bored with his life.These three characters are classic GTA. Michael, the retired criminal with a family bleeding him dry. Franklin, gangster from the hood trying to make a bigger name for himself. And last - but definitely not least - Trevor, a complete psycho living outside of the city in Blaine County.That's all the stuff you probably know already, and obviously I haven't come close to completing this, and I wouldn't spoil it anyway. This is a day one assessment of how the game runs and controls. Do I really need to tell you how to play GTA? :DAnyone expecting The Last of Us level of graphics will be disappointed, GTA has never - and will never - matched the highest a generation has to offer. You can't compare a linear non open world game to GTA, they are made differently. TLOU uses a smaller stage and can fit more polygons and greater quality textures. GTA has to load huge amounts of polygons and textures on the fly, so they can't be the highest quality, just the most efficient. This is why GTAV requires an 8 GB install, to maximise the games ability to stream those polygons and textures. GTAIV used a 3.3 GB install, so you can see why this game would need 8 GB of data to play with, because this game is HUGE. Los Santos and the surrounding area of Blaine County...and the rest, are said to be bigger than San Andreas, GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption put together.While it isn't as good visually as TLOU, it's most definitely a better technical achievement. Naughty Dog have had a whole generation of success on one system. Rockstar have had major trouble with their PS3 versions of GTAIV and Red Dead Redemption. But this time both versions run almost identical (both at 720p native resolution...no sub-HD for PS3 this time), with Digital Foundry even recommending the PS3 over the 360 - the minor difference being better ground textures (not that you should spend much time looking at the ground). In terms of framerate, these consoles are being pushed, but typically keep a pretty good rate around 25-30fps (even pushing above 30 on occasion), PC gamers will roll their eyes at that, but most console gamers won't notice a thing. It is still a vast improvement over previous titles. It seems the power of the Cell has final paid off in multiplatform gaming...better late than never.One thing that surprised me is the lack of pop in. Even in TLOU there was a fair amount of it (Firefly pendants were particularly bad), but here you are driving around at speed with mountains and bridges seemingly always there. One mission - the one from a trailer with a man jumping out of Michael's second floor window (seen here from Franklin's perspective) - sees Michael and Franklin driving up to some posh Vinewood hills location. And mid-mission I had to stop, because the view just didn't seem real..."I'm playing on a PS3, THAT shouldn't be possible", but it is.What Rockstar have done is nothing short of a miracle. The draw distance is incredible. The words "Scope", "Sprawling", and any others reviewer's tend to give, don't do it justice. Light Source, it's an amazing feat to pull. I went to the top of a mountain and in the far distance I could see lights of cars and lights of buildings...all of which aren't just there for decoration, they are from the cars and the buildings. It makes for beautiful night time vistas. Lighting in general is superb, a great improvement over San Andreas' over saturated orange.A lot of people have questioned how this game can run on current generation systems? The answer is simple; 5 years development and $265 million! Only one other film in history cost that much (Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End cost $300 million), so it goes without saying...this is the most expensive video game ever produced, and you can see why. There just isn't another open world game that looks as good as this...for me it's up there with MGS2 on the PS2, with both punching well above their weight.Franklin's first mission (with San Andreas funny Lamar) gives you the chance to test the new driving system. And it's as expected. Halfway between GTAIV's realism and SA's arcade. You can now pull off power slides, but with the chance of messing it up. It's the perfect system. Holding (or tapping to cycle) Left on the D-pad brings up the new radio wheel (with the game effectively paused) you choose your station using the the Right stick. Far simpler than cycling through loads of stations. This system is also used to select weapons.The combat has had a dramatic improvement. The camera is now a lot tighter, before it was a battle with a strange system that seemed intent on moving the camera in the direction of movement. You can now shoot while running, a definite benefit, because the cops are now super aggressive.Before GTAIV, the cops would basically just all charge towards you brainlessly...now they all charge towards you using their brains. Just a three star wanted level is a pretty tasty challenge, with even police helicopters shooting at you. They now use a cone of view to search for you, meaning you can cleverly out fox them by hiding in a back alley. They are super smart and super tough, don't even think about standing out in the open, you're dead. Don't worry though, because a nice helping of mid-mission checkpoints and the ability to save your game at any point using your phone, mean you will be straight back into the action. There is no more bringing up your phone to restart the whole mission...there is no bringing up your phone, you die, you hit one button and you're back to the last checkpoint. You keep all you guns, there is no need to keep going back and forth for more. The guns themselves can now be upgraded, right down to the colour of the weapon. Then there's the customisation of the cars...and more...in fact...why am I wasting my time even writing this!?One last thing. If you're live on TV, whatever you do, don't answer your phone! :DThis generation goes out with a bang. The best game of the series...by the distance from one end of the map to the other...and I've only had it a day...it's quite possibly the best game ever made...apart from LittleBigPlanet 2 ;)

This game is amazing. I'm not sure its exactly 5 star but its certainly closer to a 5 than a 4. Lets just say 98/100. I have played this game non stop since I received it on release day, its incredibly addictive.The characters are possibly the greatest characters of the franchise and lets be honest, we've seen a fair few of those. My favourite is probably Michael, the ex gangster who somehow ends up back in all the action again. Trevor is equally great, he seems to have a fixation with men taking off their pants but supposedly he's heterosexual. You'll certainly have fun figuring out what his game is. Franklin is possibly the most basic of the 3 characters, fitting your stereotypical gangster to a tee. He does have his own dog though, which certainly makes him unique and fun to control.You can alternate between the 3 freely majority of the time, however, there is occasions when you must control one person but this usually isn't for too long and I suppose it helps you get a feel of the characters and figure out their backgrounds a little bit. Each of the characters have their own set of contacts. It would be pretty lame if Michael didn't have his own wife's number until you started playing the game, for example. They all have the numbers of people closest to them at the start of the game but of course there are ways to add more contacts be it by doing missions or even popping to your local strip club, touching up one of the girls until she likes you enough, take her home and well.. You have a booty call.Its pretty much all here in GTA, albeit a little bit extreme at times. You can hunt, race (Not just cars but boats also), play tennis, hang out with your family, go golfing, cheat on your wife, rob convenience stores, walk and train your dog, or everyone's favourite activity, going around and just slaughtering people! There's so much variety that I have often found myself in the position where I don't know if I even want to do the missions. Its literally that large you can get hours of fun just by walking around. Buying businesses is also a possibility along with many other things. Another updated feature is the taxi missions, while only small, I feel its quite significant as you are no longer required to continuously pick up and drop off characters until you wish to quit. Its done one by one now simply by clicking L3 when inside a taxi.GTA's map is larger than all the maps I have seen in a GTA game before. It truly is enormous. I've barely left the city because its simply too big. Not that that is a bad thing.This game is everything GTA 4 should have been and more. I can almost guarantee that once you complete all the missions, you'll still never get bored of the roaming around. And that brings me to my next point..The missions are possibly the greatest missions that have ever been in a GTA game, due in part, to the fact that often, there are all 3 protagonists playable in the same mission. This shows you different things each character does during a mission. For example, (I'll use one early into the game as to not ruin it) Michael plans to rob a jewellery store but first you first have to scope out the store and find out information, then you'll have to collect (or steal) things that will help you in the robbery, then when the robbery actually takes place Franklin has to do something before Michael does his part. So basically you get to play the whole raid rather than just one characters POV. This really helps you understand the story easier because you're actually planning the whole thing out yourself.When you fail a mission you no longer have to do huge portions of the mission again as there are now checkpoints, so if you die you won't feel as daunted doing a small part of it again. This could be deemed as unfavourable however, as it does essentially make the game easier. You can also skip mission after a certain number of fails but that's entirely optional.Los Santos looks more beautiful than ever before. The graphics are truly stunning and stretch the PS3 to its limits. The game in itself plays smoothly and feels a lot more free in general. I haven't noticed many bugs. One bug I did notice was when I dived over a railing in the subway station and landed on the track but somehow seemingly fell under the world and also another bug when I attempted to skip a mission, the game simply wouldn't load. These things, particularly the second are very likely to be fixed by patches in the near future.All in all, the game is amazing and I would recommend it for any fan of the series, even if you didn't like 4 as this is truly magical and is miles ahead of it, which is what the hardcore fans want to hear as I see no logical reason why the series cannot continue. Hopefully next time we get a female protagonist (That may just be me but it would bring something totally different to GTA) as that was the only thing I was slightly disappointed about pre-release. However, I have absolutely no complaints about the game at all after playing it. Pick this up, I guarantee you won't be disappointed either!Its needless to say that this game is not for the faint-hearted, there is nudity (Both male and female), drug use, sex, violence (DUH!) and the odd torture scene. I know these are what you'd expect from a GTA game but I thought I would point it out as this time it pushes those limits further than it ever has before so be careful if you're planning on letting somebody under the age limit play it.Is the game perfect? No but its pretty damn close to perfection!