GTA V

[Admiral Valdemar]

Soon. Very soon. In fact, I already got a despatch e-mail off Amazon (hear they're going to be looked into by Rockstar over early release).

Anyway, list of reviews. For what that's worth. Sounds like they fixed all my beefs with IV and more beside. The game world? Unprecedented in size and detail. Most expensive media production second only to the third PotC film at £170M.

I also love The Escapist review. Criminals are horrible? Why wasn't I informed?!

[TheFeniX]

There's also some flak going around because a Gamespot reviewer pegged it at 9/10 for general sexism as women are underrepresented and represented poorly when they are around. I wasn't aware that a game portraying the ins and outs of being a scumbag protagonist listed equality high on the priority list.

I think GTA fans are just up in arms that anyone would give a GTA game a "low" score.

The GTA series left me behind due to the overemphasis on the narrative. Slogging through hours of cutscenes alone is annoying. Having a buddy to share your pain makes things better (like the "Shitty movie party on Netflix" we used to do), but alas no co-op because "level of precision" or some other such bullshit.

[Admiral Valdemar]

The Guardian review mentions that too. The hope for a female protagonist turning up in DLC is always there, but in the end, I can't think of many gangster stories that focus on women more than filler. Certainly they won't be passing the Bechdel test any time soon.

That said, I don't see 3.5 stars as low anyway. The deductions were over personal taste regarding the characters, not the gameplay. Though I have seen people complain about all the driving in GTA before... so...

I don't mind the cutscene drives, so long as they're entertaining and I can continue the damn mission from a check-point and have the objective not cheat.

I intend to play co-op with my girlfriend anyway. Much as we did for many hours with Saints 3 and RE6, the latter of which got atrocious reviews nearly a year ago, despite being damn fun and far better than RE5 in virtually all gameplay aspects.

Also, the size and scope of the world, I'll have even more fun than previous games (and that's all games, Fallout and Skyrim included) in just exploring and doing side-missions. I've never just trudged through the main storyline single-mindedly in a GTA game.

[Mr Bean]

So Amazon broke the street date it seems because one procurement center (possibly 2) can't read the shipping charts. If you ship professionally UPS provides all sorts of handy charts one of which is a nice circle map based on where you live and where the nearest distribution hub is.

So if you ship 2 day it will for sure get there in 2 days in the lower 48 but if your in Florida shipping to Georgia it's mostly next day not 2 day. So one Amazon center who's got these games packed and ready to ship hands the wrong bunch of boxes to people who will get it Friday rather than Tuesday because they should be shipped Monday afternoon to get there Tuesday morning while the North Carolina cart needs to be shipped Friday afternoon to get there Monday and they screwed up the order.

[Admiral Valdemar]

It's funny, because I only pre-ordered on Saturday and got a confirmation e-mail saying it'd be estimated delivery on Wednesday. Then this morning, it says it's already winging its way to me and it'll be here tomorrow morning. Then I read the BBC story on this and seems some other retailers did it too. There was that underage French kid video as well.

[Grumman]

There's also some flak going around because a Gamespot reviewer pegged it at 9/10 for general sexism as women are underrepresented and represented poorly when they are around. I wasn't aware that a game portraying the ins and outs of being a scumbag protagonist listed equality high on the priority list.

It does for me. I don't want to play as any of the protagonists in GTA5, let alone all of them.

[TheFeniX]

I intend to play co-op with my girlfriend anyway. Much as we did for many hours with Saints 3 and RE6, the latter of which got atrocious reviews nearly a year ago, despite being damn fun and far better than RE5 in virtually all gameplay aspects.

Whoa whoa whoa. There's actual co-op? Or are we talking just the set-piece missions as part of GTAV's multiplayer?

There's also some flak going around because a Gamespot reviewer pegged it at 9/10 for general sexism as women are underrepresented and represented poorly when they are around. I wasn't aware that a game portraying the ins and outs of being a scumbag protagonist listed equality high on the priority list.

It does for me. I don't want to play as any of the protagonists in GTA5, let alone all of them.

I don't understand what you're referencing with the comment "It does for me." You'd rather there be a poorly characterized female protagonist?

Anyways, another point that turned me off to GTA was this revisionist version of Tommy in Vice City where he was some kind of anti-hero solely because he was a slightly less-huge shitbag than everyone else in the game. He wasn't an anti-hero. He was a villain. That's kind of the staple of GTA, with the possible exception of CJ in San Andreas, but I never beat the game because it was horribly boring so I don't know how it all panned out.

Bagging on GTA for making you play a bad guy doesn't make sense. I may not like it (among other things that actually matter) so I avoid the game because I don't want to watch hours of cutscenes about me being an asshole. But that's part of playing a GTA game.

[Zaune]

In related news, here's one act of violence we really can blame on violent videogames; someone got shanked for his copy of the game.

[Napoleon the Clown]

People got shanked for fucking Furbies, I don't think it's reasonable to say it's because of video games so much as it is because there are people who take material goods far too seriously.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Whoa whoa whoa. There's actual co-op? Or are we talking just the set-piece missions as part of GTAV's multiplayer?

GTA Online will allow you to basically live as a separate criminal in an online world prior to the events of the story, customising yourself and cars etc. and joining in heists, gang shootings and racing, among other things. It comes online 1st October, though I wish the campaign was co-op too, like in SR3.

I don't understand what you're referencing with the comment "It does for me." You'd rather there be a poorly characterized female protagonist?

Anyways, another point that turned me off to GTA was this revisionist version of Tommy in Vice City where he was some kind of anti-hero solely because he was a slightly less-huge shitbag than everyone else in the game. He wasn't an anti-hero. He was a villain. That's kind of the staple of GTA, with the possible exception of CJ in San Andreas, but I never beat the game because it was horribly boring so I don't know how it all panned out.

Bagging on GTA for making you play a bad guy doesn't make sense. I may not like it (among other things that actually matter) so I avoid the game because I don't want to watch hours of cutscenes about me being an asshole. But that's part of playing a GTA game.

Me neither. There are countless games with despicable people in that we enjoy playing. I don't see why GTA gets a bad rap over portraying these people as assholes and the violence and crime they commit with visceral imagery, as opposed to "gamefying" it as others do. By the same standard, we shouldn't enjoy The Wire, Breaking Bad or even Game Of Thrones given even the "good guys" in them are dubious at best.

Having just played a couple hours of the game (cut short because I'm knackered), the level of detail in the world is stunning. It's easily the prettiest and most detailed world I've seen in a game. It makes Skyrim look positively antique, to say nothing of prior GTA games. The story missions allow for restarting from check-points and I'm intrigued by the character swapping ability which gives the main cast a sense that they're doing their own thing when you suddenly switch to them.

I also had myself a wander to the bay area and crashed off a ramp. As I walked back to it, I heard cops on their bullhorns. Thinking it was me, I grabbed my shotgun but soon found when I got to the road that some guy in a jeep was holding up an articulated lorry (a semi). Cops had no reason to want me at that time. Till I stole a police bike.

The loss of police omniscience and introduction of vision cones, along with stealth and various tweaks to the cover system are all welcome. Even the cutscenes are totally seamless. No loading or black bars, you just walk to an area and then dialogue and proper camera direction, then away you go.

Only complaint so far is Franklin's buddy is a total twat.

[Grumman]

I don't understand what you're referencing with the comment "It does for me." You'd rather there be a poorly characterized female protagonist?

I didn't think my comment was difficult to understand: I'd rather there be an adequately characterised female protagonist.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Someone like Mama out of Dredd would've been something at least.

[RogueIce]

Anyways, another point that turned me off to GTA was this revisionist version of Tommy in Vice City where he was some kind of anti-hero solely because he was a slightly less-huge shitbag than everyone else in the game. He wasn't an anti-hero. He was a villain. That's kind of the staple of GTA, with the possible exception of CJ in San Andreas, but I never beat the game because it was horribly boring so I don't know how it all panned out.

Wait what, when has Rockstar been trying to make Tommy an anti-hero? I mean shit, even in San Andreas the whole reason that Ken Rosenberg is there is because Tommy is an asshole and refuses to take his calls anymore after he gets out of rehab. So he goes to work for the mob and then CJ, instead.

Fanon can go fuck itself if they try to make Tommy an anti-hero. Hell, The Guy from GTA3 is a better candidate for that if only because he pretty much has zero personality so you can play him however you want, though he definitely has no qualms when it comes to backstabbing previous employers if somebody offers him enough money.

CJ is sort of an anti-hero I guess. He murders his way to the top, but he is loyal to those who are loyal to him. And even though he tries to get out of the whole gang thing, his brother fairly easily brings him back into it. Really the only "good" thing about him is he hates crack cocaine.

[Thanas]

Bellic would fit the role of anti-hero as well. He might even be a real tragic figure.

[Agent Fisher]

So far, having played for a couple hours, this feels like a real city. The improvements to the Police, like the vision cones is nice. And yeah, the switching is really cool. I was playing as Franklin, and switched over to Michael to find him getting hassled by an Los Santos Sheriff Deputy about smoking in a park. That's another thing I like. It actually feels like there are different police agencies in different parts of the city. The SD cars have an old school bubble top, the PD cars are driving with an LED bar. Even the with the PD cars so far I've noticed a couple different types, with LED lights mounted on the mirror or on the ram bar. Stuff like that helps it feel like a real world. Plus, I'm looking forward to seeing what the mod community will come up with for a Police mod.

[RogueIce]

So I've read that the police don't "patrol" like they used to. They're out there when 911 is called or when messing with somebody, but not just out driving like they used to. Any truth to this?

[Mr Bean]

In install mode now.
Okay lets review the entire list of GTA protagonists.

GTA1, London and GTA 2 all had no name guys like GTA3, all silent all murderous and all out to make money and that's about it. If they do good it's on accident. Hell GTA2 had you rounding up poor people to sell to Russians to make hotdogs.

Of the rest we have Tommy, CJ, Niko, and the really interesting two Johnny and Luis. Of that list in my eyes only Luis and Niko qualify with Luis making the best claim to being a valid hero. He's loyal to his own (Like CJ and Niko) and he only does violence once forced into it. The people he hates are just as violent as he is but at the end of the day he's happy just being a bouncer for his boss at his nightclubs. He's a loyal minion and his boss is not that bad a guy, he has shitty taste in men and some terrible business sense but he's not bad.

[RogueIce]

GTA1

Speaking of GTA1 and female protagonists, the original actually had four in its character select screen: Divine, Katie, Mikki and Ulrika. So there.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Guy from GTA3 is named Claude officially.

[Agent Fisher]

Don't stand next to a cop. They take offense and you get a wanted star

[Grumman]

Don't stand next to a cop. They take offense and you get a wanted star

It would be funny if taking a screenshot of a cop did the same thing.

[Admiral Valdemar]

Ha, really? I've not seen many on the beat. I've only really bumped into a few cars when out racing, and then when I stole a truck and rammed about every vehicle on the highway.

[Napoleon the Clown]

Don't stand next to a cop. They take offense and you get a wanted star

It would be funny if taking a screenshot of a cop did the same thing.

That calls the real police, actually.

[Enigma]

Do they still do the invincible bad guy car in the main missions? You know, no matter what you do won't affect the car and they can plow through any vehicle like they were nothing until you get to a specific check point?

[Admiral Valdemar]

Not from what I've seen. I had a guy in a bike I had to charge down, but he wiped out before I could catch him.