Grand Theft Auto V

"Developed by series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto V heads to the city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches in the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created."

- Rockstar Games

Grand Theft Auto V, also known as GTA 5 or GTA V, is a Rockstar North video game which was released on September 17, 2013 for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. It is the fifteenth installment in the Grand Theft Auto series.

Announced on October 25, 2011, the game's first trailer was released on November 2, 2011, at 4:00 PM GMT. The game was initially slated for a Spring 2013 release, but was pushed to September 17th the same year. Then, on July 15, 2013, Rockstar announced the Japanese release date for the game: October 10, 2013, almost a month after it will be released in the west.

Grand Theft Auto V is to be set in modern-day Los Santos and its surrounding areas and tells the stories of three protagonists: Michael, Franklin and Trevor.

Gameplay
Grand Theft Auto V evolves nearly every mechanic that was in the previous Grand Theft Auto games. As far as driving goes, the cars have been greatly improved, with Rockstar running more physics on them. The cars even hold to the ground a bit better and the mechanics feel more like a racing game, compared to Grand Theft Auto IV's rocky, boat-like handling system. The shooting mechanics will be better in terms of the feel of the mechanics and bigger compared to the melee mechanics in the game, but that doesn't mean that the melee combat won't be fun, as it as been improved over the previous titles as well. Weapon selection has now also been changed. Instead of the old way of selecting through all the weapons, there is now a weapon wheel, just like the one in Red Dead Redemption. It has also been confirmed that this will be the first Grand Theft Auto game that has a fully-fledged ecosystem.

There are many unique features in the game, one of those features is that when the players are playing as one of three protagonists in the game, the other two are living out their daily lives, and you will be surprised by what you find the characters doing when you switch back into them. Another unique feature is the swapping characters feature happens in a Google Earth styled manner and was displayed during a Game Informer demo, which it showed to have ran smoothly and without lag.

New activities have also been added, such as yoga, triathlons, jet skiing, base-jumping, tennis, a full-fledged golf, and scuba diving. The mobile phone has also returned but will only be used for calling your friends and using the internet. Flipping off people is another new feature the player can use (which Rockstar recommended you do in various locations around Los Santos to see the outcome of this effect, depending on where the player is at they will get different reactions from pedestrians).

Rockstar has also made changes to the pedestrian mechanics; some pedestrians you see at the bus stops in South Los Santos will reappear in Rockford Hills working on rich peoples' lawns and gardens. Some minor mechanics that help out the environment and looks of Los Santos will come on at certain times, such as a sprinklers system coming on in the morning in rich areas like Rockford Hills.

One of the greatest gameplay effects seen so far is that the engines on planes can blow vehicles back, using the force of their powerful engines.

The map is said to be bigger than GTA San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead Redemption put together. After some calculations by members of GawdAlmighty.com, that would equal to around 27.5 square miles when land and sea are put together. 

Vehicles

 * Main Article: Vehicles in GTA V

Grand Theft Auto V promises to have more vehicles than in any other Grand Theft Auto game to date, with a variety of vehicles, including airplanes, helicopters, convertible cars, utility vehicles, emergency service cars, motorcycles, and jet skis. It has been confirmed that players will be able to fly planes, this was not possible in Grand Theft Auto IV because of the size of the map, but will be in Grand Theft Auto V because the map is larger. In a brief scene in the first trailer, overhead wires are visible on a banking next to the road, which are probably wires for a railway track. A submarine has also been displayed, hinting at sub-aquatic travel.

Businesses

 * Main Article: Businesses in GTA V

According to the trailer, businesses in Grand Theft Auto IV are set to appear in the upcoming game. New businesses also appear, as seen in the trailer, such as the Bugstars fumigation company and Up-n-Atom Burger fast food restaurant.

Weaponry

 * Main article: Weapons in GTA V 

Weaponry is not currently revealed in full. As seen in the trailer, there are Norinco Type 56-2 assault rifles with sound suppressors, mounted lasers, olive drab polymer furniture, and side-folding stocks. This leads to the return of suppressed weapons and the possibility of attaching suppressors to most firearms or having an individual variant of the weapon that has a suppressor while the other remains without any attachments. During the trailer a man playing Golf with a Golf club is seen but is unknown if the Golf Club is going to be a melee weapon. No other weapons were revealed in the trailer for the game. During the second trailer, Trevor mention that "The guns and crank in this area go through Trevor Phillips Enterprises or they ain't going!" Hinting that the player will be able to control Trevor's business of guns in Blaine County.

Multiplayer

 * Main article: Grand Theft Auto Online 

According to the Rockstar Games Social Club, multiplayer crews in Max Payne 3 will be carried over to Grand Theft Auto V. Grand Theft Auto V will have multiplayer features linked to Rockstar's Social Club. If the player created a crew in Max Payne 3, it can be imported to Grand Theft Auto V through the Social Club.

Multiplayer will hold 16 people on Xbox Live and PlayStation Network.

Multiplayer was confirmed in the Grand Theft Auto V official release statement, as it mentions "online multiplayer". Apart from the fact that Crews from Max Payne 3 will carry over to Grand Theft Auto V, and therefore crews will be present in Grand Theft Auto V, no information about multiplayer has been released. It has also been confirmed that a separate team is developing the single player while another team is working on the multiplayer.

Players will have a garage where they can save their weapons and vehicles, much like the outfitter in Red Dead Redemption.

Setting
On November 3, 2011, Rockstar Games confirmed that the game will take place in Los Santos and the surrounding countryside - and will not feature a recreated rendition of an entire State of San Andreas - in a statement on their Newswire:


 * "We are very proud to officially announce that Grand Theft Auto V is in full development."

Developed by series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto V heads to the city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches in the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created.


 * "A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present day Southern California."

During the Game Informer Grand Theft Auto V Cover Story, the vice president of creativity for Rockstar Games, Dan Houser, has stated that Los Santos this time around is different and a lot more developed (having cities, wilderness, deserts, farmlands, villages, a Mount Chiliad, a military base, and a fully detailed ocean floor including coral beds). Los Santos is also five times larger than Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto IV, and Red Dead Redemption all combined, along with interior spaces in each building, house, apartment and more. After some calculations by members of GawdAlmighty.com, that would equal to around 27.5 square miles when land and sea are put together.

Characters and Premise


Grand Theft Auto V will feature three playable protagonists; Michael, Trevor and Franklin.

Michael is a retired professional bank robber, who after making a sweetheart deal with FIB, returned to the life of crime. Trevor is the loose cannon in this story, who is also a long time best friend of Michael's and a hot-head psychopath as well. Last but certainly not least, we have Franklin, a young and grim repo man who has a large amount of experience behind the wheel, but no real experience to crime until he meets Michael while he was trying to get a hustle.

Other main characters include Amanda De Santa, Michael's wife; Jimmy De Santa and Tracey De Santa, Michael's children; Lamar, Franklin's friend; Ron, Trevor's paranoid friend; and Simeon Yetarian, Franklin's employer.

Editions comparison

 * See more, Grand Theft Auto V/Editions

Trailers

 * See more, Grand Theft Auto V/Trailer

Screenshots

 * See more, Grand Theft Auto V/Screenshots

Artworks

 * See more, Grand Theft Auto V/Artworks

Trivia

 * On April 8, 2012, The Electric Playground (programmed show on WABC) stated that the next Grand Theft Auto blockbuster will hit streets in 2013, months before Rockstar's official announcement.
 * The vehicles in the trailer all have plates reading "San Andreas". Some of the license plates are stylized as modern California license plates, while some are stylized after the 1980's style California plate, oddly out of place on new cars.
 * A stationary airship is repetitively visible amongst the skyline of Los Santos. It is believed to be the Atomic Blimp
 * For the first time the cars can retract and deploy their soft top/hard top covers. In previous games convertibles were stuck with the roof they had or didn't have (with the exception of being able to install a permanent cover on lowriders in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas).
 * In the background of the first trailer, a certain building is about half completed. However, later in the video, the same building is nearing completion. This could be either be because the game is still in development, or an indication of time passing by, affecting the environment throughout the game's storyline.
 * This is the largest and most ambitious game they have yet created.
 * The registration plates have orange stickers on top right. The same plates are used for 2013 California registration plates. The same was also used in California in 2008.