Grand Theft Auto 5 - First Trailer (with speculation)

I never really followed or saw much Grand Theft Auto news for the past few years and I was surprised by it considering that usually when a new extremely popular game comes out or is announced, I usually can't stop hearing more of it even if I tried. I only recently found out why there was that lack of existence, because there really wasn't much existing to talk about at all, Grand Theft Auto 5 was only heavily speculated and rumored, at least until now. Rockstar announced that Grand Theft Auto 5 is actually in development and today they released the first trailer for the game.

I've had different feelings about it's predecessor, Grand Theft Auto 4, and even games that came before it did in the series; games such as Grand Theft Auto 3, San Andreas, Vice City or even 2 before all of those. There was a noticeable shift in the entire series at a few points in it's life time, the first being of course the shift from old generation consoles ending with GTA 2 and moving onto 3 at which point the game went onto being 3D and had a more cinematic presentation and somewhat more streamlined flow rather than go where ever you want and do missions for whoever you want (although you could still almost go where ever you want). In any case however, the series continued basically the same way with a few minor improvements in Vice City, and then started to show signs of change in San Andreas with various inclusions such as appearance customization, and including RPG elements such as gaining levels in skills. After San Andreas however, GTA went back to it's roots basically with GTA 4, not only taking place in the same city that GTA 3 did, but also almost mechanically as well. GTA 4, while very polished, refined, and definitely the next level up in the GTA series, reminded me of playing GTA 3 in that it seemed much more clunky than Vice City or San Andreas, although after playing the game for a long period of time, I decided that that “chunkiness” was just the game being GTA 4, and it intentionally provides a weight to everything for a sense of realism even to the extent of it's realism getting in the way of what you wanted to do in a GTA game, much like it would do in reality. With all of that said, that finally leads us to GTA 5.

I believe GTA 5 will continue the tradition of showing the change in the GTA series from just how Rockstar has improved on their implementation and utilization on the Euphoria engine between the time period of GTA 4 and Red Dead Redemption. If you've played RDR and also have played GTA 4, you can immediately spot the differences and similarities in game play, from how movement is more fluid and less dragged on by weight in RDR, to how the shooting mechanics are just in general way more improved and easier to use in RDR as well. With the lessons learned (or created) in RDR, I feel like if Rockstar carries that onto GTA 5, it would end up being a massive difference from GTA 4, however at the same time there's a possibility they won't do that at all because it would separate the two feelings of both games too much, but only time will tell.

As for the actual trailer, if you haven't seen it yet, you can find a link to it below here.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QkkoHAzjnUs

The trailer itself looks much more like the few things that I've seen from Max Payne 3 stylistically more than GTA 4. The video just seems much more bright and colorful than in has in the past. Although that may just be the improvement of graphics, as even RDR had a sense of being colorful, moreso than GTA 4. There has also been some talk of speculation that I heard from Adam who he heard from other people that speculated things such as :

-The main character is Tommy Vercetti from Grand Theft Auto : Vice City

-Niko Bellic is in the trailer as a homeless man

-CJ/Carl Johnson would have a part

-There are multiple playable characters

My take on those is that for the first one, I wouldn't mind if Tommy Vercetti was the main character as I really liked Vice City even though my liking of the character Tommy Vercetti was somewhat questionable. Although according to the trailer, if the narration voice is indeed him, then he has at least slightly changed for the better. For Niko Bellic being the homeless man shown in the trailer, I don't think that he honestly looks much like Niko at all, of course he is wearing the same outfit that Niko starts out with in GTA 4, and if the game takes 20 years after GTA 4, then it would be possible as he would probably not be easily recognizable. As the game takes place in San Andreas (apparently) it would only make sense to have the main character of San Andreas have some role in the story or at least make a brief appearance. Finally as for the multiple playable characters, after hearing that Tommy Vercetti would be the main character, I'm actually against that because I want to see how he has changed throughout the years and spending the entire game as him and seeing his view point the entire way through would be a suitable way to do that.

Finally, I still don't have that many real expectations for GTA 5 other than the one that of course many other people will have, that the game will be good if not superb. However, I do have one speculation or hope of my own that is based off the hearsay that Tommy Vercetti is the main character. If he does take that role, I would like to see mention or involvement of the other characters in Vice City that were involved with him in someway. Of course, that part should go without question anyway as the other characters were essential in Tommy Vercetti's role throughout Vice City. As I said before though, only time will tell what GTA 5 ends up becoming and if any of the speculation is true at all. With that said, the trailer made me excited for the game, and I will definitely want to play it sometime after whenever it releases.

Singular Thoughts - Current Generation vs Last Generation

Browsing through forums over the years made me see more than just a few interesting things, one of those things that came to mind that I've seen a lot more than just recently is the argument of the current generation of gaming against the last generation. More appropriate figures would be the Xbox period of time (Last gen) against the Xbox 360 period of time (Current gen). With this argument in mind, that's what I'd like to talk about in this post.

While I'm sure a lot of people have argued for or against the Current Gen in this situation, there hasn't been a lot of people that actually have had convincing arguments against the Current Gen. In fact I really haven't seen any argument other than one : “The Current generation of gaming is all about graphics” and usually that's where the argument ends. That argument suggests that this generation of gaming sacrifices everything else for improved graphics, to which I personally and respectfully disagree.

Graphics are definitely the first thing most people look at, since it is for the most part the only visual thing to look at (other things to look at arguably are things such as text, or menu design), and in general it has improved the most significantly above the last generation of gaming, despite that, there are many new features in games nowdays that you didn't really see at all in the last generation. The most direct comparisons in this argument would come from sequels where the goal is to not only provide the next chapter of a series but also to improve it all around, there have been many more than just a few series that have been on both the current gen and the last gen, here are a few that come to mind.

Halo

Last Gen - Halo : Combat Evolved, Halo 2

Current Gen - Halo Reach, Halo 3, Halo 3 : ODST

From the last gen the Halo series hasn't really changed too much. It has improved on graphics, but for the most part it has kept what made Halo popular in the first place, which of course makes sense since for a lot of people it was the game that showed that the consoles can do shooters just as well, if not better by perspective, to people. There are many minor things that have been added to the series from the last generation however, such as the ability to have 4 player cooperative play, and the addition of 2 new characters for the third and fourth player in Halo 3. Dual wielding has come and gone as well, it is still around but there are different opinions amongst the development team about it. Halo 3 ODST of course also had the Firefight mode which wasn't in any Halo games previously to it. Finally it's technical fine tuning blows the last generation out of the water with nearly non-existent loading times save for a few to start the game up, and a now standardized but unique to the current gen menu system.

So with all of that said, I believe the Halo series has definitely improved on graphics but it remained the same, thus almost being the same experience as it was on the last gen.

Call of Duty

Last Gen – Call of Duty 2, Call of Duty : Big Red One, Call of Duty : Finest Hour

Current Gen – Call of Duty 3, Call of Duty 4 : Modern Warfare, Call of Duty : Modern Warfare 2, Call of Duty : World at War, Call of Duty : Black Ops

The Call of Duty series without a doubt has improved significantly in almost every way from the last generation to our current one. The first is graphics, Call of Duty 2's graphics were very good for it's time, and it was even slightly seen in 3 and 4, but in the end the series has improved on graphics greatly from then on, into games such as World at War, and Modern Warfare 2, and basically every Call of Duty game past 3. In regards to game play, the series has become more faster paced, but it also retained the feeling of Call of Duty 2 with things like tight controls that reacted very quickly, and recharging health; at the same time however with the complete change of setting that Modern Warfare took the series, it's guns still carried the same controls, but felt completely different with the change from bolt action rifles to fully automatic assault rifles. The story telling of the series has also changed with the games featuring high octane and thrilling campaigns rather than a more long journey that was seen more in the last gen, this is probably also the double bladed sword for the series however as the long campaign that was in past games was also very interesting, and fun to play through, at the same time being nearly 2 or 3 times as long as many of the current games in the series. The tone of both generation's games are noticeably different as well, with the current favoring a long lasting effect but quick and strong hit more akin to the duration of a movie rather than the last generation's memorable adventure. Finally, the multiplayer has dramatically improved as well mainly in selection, while in the last gen console gamers really only had Finest Hour, now every CoD game has expansive multiplayer which again has improved by implementing player advancement systems and unlocks as well as in game changes such as killing streak bonuses, however the game play modes for the most part other than war in CoD3/WaW have remained the same.

My final deduction is that the Call of Duty series has improved all around off Call of Duty 2, but it has added many things that completely separate current titles from 2 from the new change of scenery and graphics to story telling and additional game play modes.

Grand Theft Auto

Last Gen – Grand Theft Auto 3, Grand Theft Auto : Vice City, Grand Theft Auto : San Andreas

Current Gen – Grand Theft Auto 4 and DLC expansions

Both generations have kept the main principle of being a open world game with a story of crime in mind, but with that the current generation has vastly improved on that vision. The graphics between SA and GTA4 are almost indistinguishable with GTA4 coming out ahead and looking much better, while admittedly it's graphical power was hampered for details everywhere else, that hampering has always been a part of the GTA series. With that aside, GTA 4 looks fantastic, it easily lives up to and rivals most current gen games. In terms of game play, the gun play in GTA 4 is much easier to use than it ever was in any GTA game, while locking on is still much easier than manually aiming, the improvements on the manual aiming system makes it usable if the player desires to use it. Handling of cars and other vehicles in GTA 4 has also improved in a number of ways from the different feels and handling of cars themselves, to the feel of the car when it's applied to the realistic weight of the world with GTA 4's engine. While that aspect is not the greatest for doing things that require precise exact handling (which is rare) it's unique enough to enjoy which helps in overcoming the challenge to adapt to it. The story telling of GTA4 also separates itself from the past entries of the series, while the GTA series originally had a very overdramatic portrayal of crime life, GTA 4 features more normal characters than the rest of the series, although this story telling way is slightly seen in GTA: SA, it is really emphasized in 4 with the main character and the rest of the cast, yet at the same time it isn't changed deeply enough to have a huge difference, I personally thought it was very similar to the past GTA games until I thought about it. Finally multiplayer, while definitely not the high light feature of GTA 4, it has competitive multiplayer and cooperative modes that the series originally did not.

Overall I believe the GTA series has gone a long way, like I said while it's kept it's original principles of being an open world game at heart, the power of the current generation really allowed it to really push those principles much further.

With these 3 popular series as examples, I believe there's more than enough things over than the improvement of graphics for the current gen to be the next step up from the last gen. There's also many more examples of games that have improvements such as these, and while not every game is great, for the most part many games of the current gen are many steps ahead of their predecessors, and I for one, hope that they continue this way to forever have something better than the last.*

*also in the future I may be doing more compare and contrasts of the last and current generation.