Review: Grand Theft Auto V

The first game in the series to offer more than one protagonist, things play a bit differently than before. As each character is introduced, you’ll play only as them for a few hours to get acquainted with their backstory and style of play. After all three characters are firmly established (about ten hours in), however, the rest of the narrative shifts between them. There’s missions unique to each character, some of which focus solely on their story (like Michael keeping his awful family at bay) and others that combine all three characters together. One mission, for instance, has Trevor Philips GTA V flying a helicopter, Michael repelling from it and scaling a building and Franklin providing cover via a sniper rifle from a neighboring building. While some parts of the mission must be done as a certain character (like Michael repelling), others let you play as you want to. For instance, after fleeing, you can choose to either pilot the helicopter, shoot from inside or provide cover from a building with a sniper rifle. This swap happens on the fly via holding down on the d-pad, which allows any one of the three of the characters to be chosen. You can complete these mission parts as just one of the characters, but it’s generally best to cycle between all three to be most efficient. In-between missions, characters can almost always be swapped to at will by the same d-pad method. This is effective for both doing individual missions and covering different parts of the city. As the character’s safehouses are generally spread apart, it’s a nice feature as the character closest to the desired destination can instantly be swapped to, saving commuting time.

The world of Grand Theft Auto V is the biggest ever. Although some were concerned when the game map was recently leaked (which has turned out to be accurate) due to the fact that the majority of it was rural, know that it’s not that they’ve taken away from the city, but simply added hundreds of miles of land outside it just for good fun. The city itself is huge and rivals the entire world of GTA IV. Outside of it, there’s mountains, rivers, beaches, desert and more. Surprisingly, however, hardly any of it is empty. There’s small towns, unique buildings, military bases and more sprinkled throughout. The incredible thing is how alive it all seems. Off one of the back roads, for instance, I noticed a car pull over at a fruit stand and decided to see if it was a coincidence, but nope -- a woman got out, walked up to it and examined the produce. That’s level of detail to expect in the world, from the boardwalks with interactive rides to trains carving through mountain passes. To add some spice for players who like to drive around exploring the world, random events have been added that unfold during a day. Represented by a flashing blue blip on the map that appears when nearby, these range from a thief snatching a purse to a carjacking. After stopping the miscreant in one of these robberies, you can either keep the stolen item for yourself or return it to the victim. Doing the latter results in good karma that might just come back to you later in the game.

I, like many of my friends and colleagues, am a strong supporter of virtual reality. I remember seeing early YouTube videos of a guy hooked up to a massive virtual reality headset suspended from the ceiling by a tangle of cords while walking along a conveyor-like platform that tracked his movement. Even though the clip didn't even show what game he was playing, I was excited, but the cumbersome nature of the device made entering a virtual world seem like a luxury only the absurdly wealthy would ever get to enjoy.


While the time-intensive task does result in some pretty spectacular vehicular carnage, Fysho's exploits are merely the tip of the iceberg where cheats-empowered destruction is concerned. Imagine the same video with moon-bounce gravity, or as part of a crude Rube Goldberg machine (where one element serves only to operate the next). How about a flaming Ken Masters-style punch to kick off the fiery cy

I want to emphasize that I’m not afraid of this getting into children’s hands. If it does, that’s a failing of parents, not any of the companies related to the game or any of the peripherals used in the video. I am worried about what this might do to a whole era of games that support full virtual reality. What I had once envisioned as a device that would take classrooms to the surface of Mars so their teachers can explain first hand what unimaginable wonders are in our galaxy may in the future be used to simulate weapons to an unprecedented degree of precision.


Next week, the PlayStation Vita First Edition bundle will grace the hands of consumers all across North America. Gamers will turn on the system, and be entranced by its beautiful HD touchscreen. Some will not go to their jobs, the streets will be filled with wrecked cars as drivers crash while playing WipEout 2048 . The world will be in shambles, and then aliens will come and enslave us. Because that was Sony's plan all al