Grand Theft Auto 5

As I mentioned in last weeks post, my Blood Bowl career has been slowed down a bit by the long awaited arrival of Grand Theft Auto V.

GTA V for PC was delayed at least three times, and every time I shrugged and said “Oh well, it's better that they push it back and get it right at launch”. So the question becomes; did they get it right? The answer is yes, yes they did!

It's a real joy to play a game that's actually finished, unlike so many games these days that ship half done and get patched later, if at all.

GTA V on PC is an absolutely amazing game. The graphics are gorgeous, the voice work is great and the gameplay is the best in the series so far. The level of detail is insane. From the garbage on the streets to the characters actually using body language while carrying on a conversation in a moving car, the amount of things going on is astounding. Everything feels so incredibly alive, it's a joy to merely move around.

In a big departure from the previous games in the franchise, you control three main characters instead of just one. You have smooth career criminal Michael with his crazy family, streetwise Franklin working his way out of the 'hood and Trevor the lunatic. Trevor is not my favorite by a long shot, but I think he is the most entertaining of the three, he's just so outrageously insane.

Initially I was skeptical about this three character system, but it works really well, and makes the story considerably better and less linear. The only downside is when you want to keep playing say Michael, but he's out of things to do and you have to move on to one of the others. But overall I'm very pleased.

Being a game with such a focus on cars, I'm pleased to say that the vehicles handle better than ever. The streets are wide, and driving is a lot of fun.

The other major part, fighting, is also really smooth. From gun play to fisticuffs, I have no complaints at all. Well OK, one small complaint. You tend to get stuck on corners a bit. This can delay you at a critical moment, but once you're aware of this, it's no biggie.

The one “bad” thing I've found so far is the radio. Compared to previous GTA titles, this iteration has the weakest soundtrack of the bunch. But as always, you can put music in a designated folder and you have your own radio station. And this is the cool part: they have both a DJ and commercials on this station, which makes it feel more legit and less than a playlist.

For some odd reason, all versions, even the Steam version uses the Rockstar Social Club as a kind of DRM. 99.9% of the time this is a non-issue but I understand that it went down at one point which made it impossible to play even the single player story mode. I had hoped we would have moved past this by now. As with all DRM it punishes the genuine customers and ignores the pirates, since the DRM is cracked anyway. Especially on Steam this is so unnecessary since you can't have a pirated game on Steam. At least as far as I know. I myself haven't seen the Social Club problem, but I've run into similar issues with Uplay, Ubisofts “launch platform”.

To sum up: if you've ever played a GTA game and liked it, this is a game for you. Simple as that. I can see no reason for any fan of the franchise to skip GTA V. Now, there is an online mode that I have yet to try, so I won't comment on it. More on that when I have some experience.

That's it ladies and gentlemen, so until next time, have a great week!