GTA V lots of improvements and several nice new twists.
Greatly improved physics system. Deformations, bullet wound decals. Rain slicks, rain pattering sounds on planes. Maybe not a 'realistic' sim necessarily (you can flip cars back upright, you dont die when crashing cars, etc) but the important thing is that everything has a feedback for the player as they are driving or engaging in the world. (To some extent this includes your decision making and approach to some in game choices and mission routes)
Aircraft is pretty cool and works well (but i find aircraft controsl in games hard) graphics settings/physics system make for a beautiful flight sim even on low settings on midgrade systems.
Three protagonists characters and the ability to flip through them. While one of them becomes something of the game's gimmick, it's still cool that the game almost seems like a sim, switching to one of your team just to check up on them as they wake up out of bed, doing drugs or other random activity. At times it almost (but not quite) feels like fledgling RPG.
Lots of random stuff. People will mug you or shout for help. Sometimes you find yourself in the wrong side of town. This is handled quite nicely in that it feels seamless and part of the world not as much like a triggered/scripted event. often open ended and most rewarding (financially or otherwise) in the game. Often you are not aware of the effects of your choices, but most of the time it seems your choices just don't matter.
Some interesting character building and scenes as you begin missions that feel seamless transitions between play and cutscenes. This is almost movie like at times and it is well shot and handled nicely as it makes the transition to a mission sequence. The 'Rampage' missions are the best in this regard.
Combat system is great and simple and works well. Good control and feedback of hits, misses and kills. Plenty of weapons to pick from and play with. You can put scopes and silencers on just about everything (though i'm not sure what these things do if anything even)
weapon and car customization is cool but feels plastic. Same with owning properties. The Stock market works fine, and isn't a bad way to just store your cash until you buy a property (however the rate of return on proprietorship seems to be way too slow... Hard to imagine most play through earning back even 33% of the cost. I was done in maybe 2 weeks?)
Music is cool. Pretty balanced and diverse selection, the best music is however the subtle OST (not the licensed radio channels) that plays on the pause menu and during missions. It's fantastic sythdisco type of hotline miami feel at times..
Unfortunately about halfway through the game the story takes a very weird and hard to follow turn It becomes sensational as heck and imo deteriorates quickly.
Some of the side missions feel virtually pointless and simply stop at dead ends. No satisfaction really or any rewards This feeds the empty feeling (see below)
At times the city itself feels a bit 'fake' and subpar in the sim aspect to GTA IV, in other ways its a big improvement. The place is big and there is still a lot to do, but at the same time it feels very sparse at times in variously different ways, partly because travelling on foot is impossible due to the way the world around you seems to scale when out of vehicle (unlike Liberty City, you could walk quite a bit from place to place even and just mess around), But there is less engagement. Aside from scale, the things you can do within the city sometimes feel less natural and limiting. You can't hold up random liquor stores and gas stations all over the place. In previous games you could attack people at the fast food restaurants and other places. I didnt get a feeling like this from liberty city. I simply dont like the 'rockstar interpretation' of story or their theory for choices and consequences: Your decisions and the effects of them seem at times non existence and almost like filler material, where the game merely seems to present an illusion of choice, while at other times there emerge realized consequences (almost like secrets, or even a 'gamble'rather than actually determining outcomes. This is controversial and it's a strange feeling for a player as the game feels less about them.
I'm not quite sure what RS makes of the use of story in games, but it seems that they strictly want a no happy or clean endings approach, maybe for realism? Yet the progression at work here is anything but satisfying and one becomes used to and might expect a jumbled together ending by the time all the pieces go back into the box. To me this seems like a shame from some good characters (Michael and his problems and Trevor and his 'problems' XD) bereft completely of destiny or even some grand meaning. I know michael would agree, 'tell those same damn stories over with the same damn heroes and the same lies, it's an american tradition!' However Dr Lieberman would say 'But why do you feel it is always all about you Michael, is the world supposed to revolve around your choices?" Still as you play this, it's chaotic. When someone doesnt need you any more they stop calling, when the mission is over you are done. You might not know why it happened or the consequences, you just move on. This kind of cliffhanger type endings is unnerving and at first I would wonder if i had failed something or if it was bugged. Nope that's just a AAA studios interpretation of C&C and story progression. It's an odd feeling whose jarring nature is perhaps magnified by smooth as silk scene transitions into the start of missions, yet they often had very rough ends.. That'd be my main gripe here, that and Franklin's character was a bit undercooked.
76% completion. not really feeling a desire to 'master' this sort of game..
