Several outlets have gone live with new Grand Theft Auto V previews this morning, sharing new information and screenshots.
If you haven’t read our summary of Game Informer’s cover story on Grand Theft Auto V, you can do so here.
Here are some new bits from today’s previews, courtesy of GTAV.net and NeoGAF:
Characters
- Michael: The skilled and versatile “smooth operator.” He is the retired bank robber and older guy who’s still tough and misses the thrill. He will have his own luxury car from the start.
- Trevor: The skilled helicopter pilot. He is, according to Guardian, a “psychotic career criminal with a shady military background.” He is inspired by the typical Grand Theft Auto player, who only roams around to cause havoc.
- Franklin: The skilled driver and sniper. He is a younger character working in vehicle repossession for a group of Armenian gangsters. He is in search of a mentor, and finds one after meeting Michael during a repo job with Franklin.
- Characters are selected through a radial menu.
- Character switching during missions is partially scripted.
Missions & Multiplayer
- The story is built around five or six major robberies.
- Missions are long and deep. There will be different endings based on player choices.
- Mission-types will vary, including “big and small events , explosive, infiltration, super spectacular, family, invasion, hostage recovery, heists and robberies. Plus classic Grand Theft Auto missions but updated and improved.”
- Side-missions similar to Taxi, Ambulance, and Vigilante will return, but “probably not identical” to those from previous games.
- Dynamic music during missions.
- No co-op for single-player missions, but there will be co-op modes in multiplayer.
- Multiplayer is a big focus. There will be a lot of content to keep players busy.
World
- The map can be fully explored from the very beginning.
- Underwater world (with underwater caves) and diving equipment confirmed.
- California’s Salt Sea is known as Alamo Sea.
- There will be a functioning ecosystem with wildlife. Wild dogs confirmed.
- Dan Houser on Grand Theft Auto outside America: “I don’t know. I thought about it. A lot. Argued it every which way. I think, my own sense, speaking for myself and not for the company, is that it’s as much a product Americana. That’s such a big part of the game. You know, you could make a great game set in Amsterdam. Would it be Grand Theft Auto? I don’t know. We haven’t done it, so I can’t really offer a comment or an opinion on it. We’ve avoided it because we think that part of the experience of Grand Theft Auto is its engagement with America, or American media, American movies, American culture or whatever. Some kind of Americana is such a part of the games, that in removing that, it would bizarrely make them lose their universality.”
Radio
- Radio stations will feature weather reports and other news.
- “Radio Love” is one of the confirmed songs.
Mechanics and Systems
- Cover mechanics have been greatly improved and cover will be very important.
- Dan Houser on economy: “You will be able to spend money to buy interesting and fun things like expensive toys. We are still working on the economy but it will be a strong element in the game and players will be eager to make money to spend money. Something along the lines of ‘I went through all of this to make all this money and now I’m going to spend it on this crazy item.'”
- The physics engine has been rewritten.
View the new screenshots at the gallery.
