Grand Theft Auto 5 (Xbox 360)

September 17th 2013 - The most exciting day of my life playing games to date. Finally, GTA V was in my hands and couldn't wait to play it. GTA V is set in the fictional city of Los Santos, with countryside and run-down areas dwarfing it. So is this just San Andreas in HD I hear you ask? Definitely not. The map has been completely re-designed from scratch, and bears little to no resemblance to Los Santos on GTA San Andreas. Instead of having 3 islands and you having to unlock them, the whole map is open to you right from the get go. To add a little bit of discovery, the map inside the game is not visible until you've explored those areas. Grove Street returns, but is only a passing resemblance to the original. The game arrives on 2 Discs. Rockstar claim that for optimal performance, you must Install the first disc and then run the game from the 2nd disc. This is true to some degree, but for even better performance (and quietness since the Xbox 360 sounds like a lawnmower when its spinning a disc), is to install the contents of disc 2 to a 16GB memory stick. The game opens up with a playable sequence of events 9 years before the events of GTA V, which happens in North Yankton in South Canada. This area is not playable or accessible after this mission, so it makes sense that it may be an area made available when GTA Online opens on 1st October. I was immediately impressed by the level of detail in this game. Sure, there are some Xbox 360 games which look better than this, but they don't have such a massive area to explore and every street is unique like it is in this game. It runs in a higher resolution than GTA IV, the lighting has been entirly re-done and all textures and 3D models have been refined. After you've completed around a 1/3rd of the main missions in the game, you can switch between 3 protagonists at any time. Michael who is a guy who has already made it big time but finds it stressful and wants to be a criminal, Franklin which is the youngest of the trio, brought up in the Los Santos ghetto and Trevor, who is the probably the most entertaining and funniest GTA character to date! Looking back at GTA IV, I hated the way that most missions in the game followed the same template. It was always "Go kill this guy that didn't pay his money to the person you are working for". In GTA V, Rockstar have listened and my goodness have they delivered! Each mission I've played so far has been unique and enjoyable. It does have some WTF moments as I've experienced which are eerily not far off from something that you'd find in titles more like Saints Row IV. There are over 240 songs in this game from all sorts of genres. I think there is a slight lack of heavier rock but also a lack of club tracks like the ones featured on the Episodes From Liberty City. In addition to the 240+ songs there are unique "scores of music" which cut in when exploring or during intense moments. You cannot turn these off unless you choose to listen to one of the radio stations instead. The physics have been spruced up as well. Cars turn in much tighter and feels a lot more like the classic Midnight Club games. When you hit another car, it doesn't simply go over the top of yours like it was made from plastic like it did in GTA IV. Some people have commented and said they don't like the handling. It does feel a tad twitchy but if you play GTA's of old then you will appreciate how far its come. When you are going up flights of stairs indoors you can simply walk forward and the game will turn the character around the corner for you. Once you've had enough of the main missions, there's plenty to do outside of this. You can participate in various different sports including cycling, swimming, tennis, golf. All of these feel like dedicated separate games rather than just a failed jack-of-all trades. If you have a smartphone or tablet in real life you can download the iFruit app to it from the App Store or Google Play and this contains a place to tune your car and a Sims like app to train Lemar's dog, Chop. There are various other animals throughout the game world as well. I've seen about 3 or 4 breeds of dogs but there could be more. So with all of these positives, are there any negatives. Yep, but they aren't massive problems. The main downfall I feel is the framerate which dips a lot. Not as much as the smaller GTA IV but still enough to not call it fluid. But I can appreciate it with the massive improvements to graphics they have taken. Another thing is that there are only 69 main storyline missions (If you don't understand the significance of this number you may not be old enough to play the game). Aside from these I don't really have any other complaints. The gun sensitivity could be lessened, even when in the options its set on its lowest. This can be sorted out with a patch. If and when Rockstar release this for PC, then I'd happily buy this as well. The modding community is huge and no doubt the good graphics will be made better. You can tell there is plenty of room for scope. Sadly, I couldn't test GTA Online but it promises to be better than the Single Player, plus there are rumors that Downloadable content will be released as well! Is this my game of the year, 1000% YES! Is this my favorite game of the console generation? Yep! Is this the best game in the GTA Series? Well, Yes and No. Its much better than GTA IV and San Andreas but not as good as my overall favorite which is Vice City.

You play as three different characters: Michael, an ex-con living the sweet life amongst the rich and famous of Los Santos. Secondly, we have Trevor, another ex-con living a much less glamorous life on the outskirts of the city. Lastly, we have Franklin, a street hustler looking to make it into the big leagues. All three cross paths and create plenty of chaos across Los Santos. Trevor is the craziest game lead that Rockstar have created to date, it's just impossible to take your eyes off of him when he's on screen. The story is the usual 'rise to the top of the criminal empire scenario', but the intersecting stories come together well and introduce plenty of interesting support characters. G R A P H I C S & S O U N D Los Santos easily takes the top spot on the open-world podium, as one of the most stunningly realised settings to date. Los Santos is split into a number of districts and suburbs. The inner city burst with contemporary architecture and sun drenched monuments. The draw distances are equally as impressive when gazing far out towards the swirling hills of Los Santos. Moving away from high society there are large forests to wander, dusty plains to traverse and giant mountains to embark upon. Los Santos screams atmosphere no matter what time of the day it is. NPCs gather around liquor stores, gang fights break out for no reason, police chases burst out of nowhere and crazed drivers love to think they're above the law. On the outskirts of the city it just goes totally redneck! Dusty trailers populate open desert land, crappy shacks litter cracked trail ways and rocky hills dwarf the lands. Even the oceans are explorable and filled with many discoverables. Mostly sunken ships and radioactive waste! The map is vast and endless, giving players a ridiculous amount of freedom. Characters models have also been improved, making it rare to see duplicate NPCs walking about. Facial animations now look better than ever and strong mo-cap performances help sell the believability of the characters. Vehicles , aircraft and environmental objects are highly detailed. Lighting beautifully cascades over buildings and streaks through openings. The soundtrack during missions creates a Miami Vice vibe with retro 80s beats pounding into the presentation. The radio stations are diverse and present a good range of tracks for all your travel needs. The voice acting is superb and hits all the right notes from start to finish. G A M E P L A Y Some changes have been made to the progressive structure of the game, but all of the fundamentals remain intact. The ability to switch between the lead characters at any time (except during individual missions) injects greater diversity into the experience. Heists are now at the core of many missions, which will require players to recruit a team of criminals. Heists give players greater control in how they choose to tackle objectives, which can range from taking stealthier options or go in guns blazing. Dependant on how competently you've achieved success this will impact on the amount of money you'll earn. Each character has their own specific set of story missions, allowing the story to focus on each. Story missions will not reward players with money, but instead carry specific achievements to encourage players to attain gold medal success. Many missions are now broken up into a series of checkpoints to chop up the gameplay and keep things interesting. Each character also has a personal stats system to improve, including: driving, swimming, shooting, flying etc. Improving these will keep your survival chances much higher on some of the more tougher missions. Many missions are pulled from hollywood stunts, using mind blowing set-pieces and superb action choreography. When all three characters are involved on the same mission, then it is possible to switch between them to gain advantages and employ a little strategy. It's the scope of the map that really impresses. The mountainous regions of Los Santos can actually be traversed all the way to the peaks. Take in the view and then base jump at will! The police and armed forces are not as tenacious and it isn't very taxing when it comes to outrunning them. It becomes a different matter when support is called in - then you're on your own! The driving mechanics have been completely overhauled, no more stiff handling, instead car control feels much smoother and it is much more fun to get behind the wheel of many beastly cars. Aircrafts are fantastic to use, especially to get that glittery view of Los Santos. Rampage missions make a most welcome return, allowing Trevor to lose his mind and go on a much needed killing spree. If this doesn't get the heart pumping then nothing will. O V E R A L L After 60+ hours of gameplay I was still left wanting more from Los Santos. GTA 5 is a must-have title. It's not just about the satire, the violence, or even the excessive cursing. Rockstar have surpassed their quality as the gold standard developers of open world gaming.

GTA V has to be the best game that I have played on my XBOX. Obviously the graphics, plot and game play are amazing. The characters are believable and well scripted. Trevor is my favourite at the moment. I find him hilarious and disturbing at the same time. I love the fact that you can play as three people. It helps you to explore the huggge map better and get more out of the game. There are many more things to do than on previous GTA's. I am having a lot of fun completing the 'Strangers and Freaks' missions and other activities such as the Street Races and Triathlons. I am missing certain aspects of San Andreas such as the Robbery missions, where you could bur-gal peoples houses and stuff. That was really fun... but I am not missing it that much. There is too much stuff distracting me to worry about that. The only thing I have found that annoys me is that when your Garages are full you have to remove a car to put another one in. I did this and when I got outside the car I wanted to place in the garage had disappeared. I now ensure I have extra room in case. I have not yet completed the game but I think have nearly finished the main missions, I am definitely going to be playing it after I have finished the main missions. And I am waiting for online of course! This is the best game ever! I am adding this bit onto the review as I finished the game a while ago. I still stand by my review and I will say again that this is the best game ever. Apart from the trouble with online at first, where I was tempted to play something else. However, online is now fixed and I love it again. You can do missions online, rob stores, join crews and continue creating havoc as you did in GTA IV. I have not yet fully explored online and its options but I do like messing around with my friends on it. The only thing that did annoy me about online is the fact it takes quite a while to do the tutorial and set up a character. Although the modifying your character option is a nice touch I don't think it should be a required, meaning you should be able to pick a random character like on GTA IV. But that is me just being really picky... The tutorial seemed a bit pointless to me as I was dying to play online and explore but I can't complain too much as it is a nice touch for new players who have gone straight to online without playing the main campaign. Although, I do not know who would miss out on that experience. Overall, I still stand by my rating and recommend this to anyone who loves GTA and wants to experience awesome game play - online or offline.

Before buying this I thought it was over hyped because on face value it looked same as other GTA's and wasn't going to pay 40 plus pounds for it (paid 29.99). However it deserve its 5 stars because its simply so much fun to play. The story is great (only done 1 heist so far which had a italian job vibe to it), playing 3 characters is great and the side missions are a blast to play. There is a red dead redemption/GTA 3 vibe to it. If you go into the mountains It really does feel like red dead. What makes it better than other GTA's is the sheer amount of things to do and the attention detail. I've played for a while now and still come across surprising things (one time I came a cross a load of dead bodies and a briefcase (contained 5k) which I simply had to take, then some very pissed off dudes chased me). The sandbox is great, you can own buisness's, rob stores/armoured cars, be a taxi driver, mug people, then there is all the other activities (hunting, tennis, scuba diving, golf etc) which are all well done. You can occupy yourself just doing the sandbox and ignoring the story if you want (although you need to do that to unlock some things). The AI seems well done too although not perfect I guess but better than previous GTA's. one big improvement is being able to skip missions after a few attempts and you can replay the last bit you just did if you fail (there is also the function to manual save off missions at any time). Makes doing hard missions a lot less fustrating (although so far it dosen't look as hard as previous GTA which in my book is a good thing) The only thing that I could fault is the graphics. They do look nice but the AA seems bad in outdoor scenes (looks okay close up or indoors) and textures are not brilliant (mostly the ground in the mountain areas) but maybe that's just because it's xbox. Also using drive by shooting you have to steer with one joy stick and aim with another which seems real awkward to me :) oh and DO NOT play this near children. I thought at first that it wasn't too bad then I met Lester :) If you like GTA and red dead then you are gonna love this "Remember to turn off your cell phones, and please don't masturbate." - Ad before watching film in theater in GTA V

I pre-ordered this game, and Amazon delivered it on the day of release (which, to be honest, I did not expect, as my history with Amazon pre-orders has not been great). The install (I can't quite remember the size) did not take long at all and I was playing it withing 10 minutes. The gameplay was very immersing and fun, and when not on a mission, I could generally mess around across the map. Some of the missions could be considered repetitive, though in comparison to the rest of the game, this is irrelevant. The story-line is perhaps not as good as other games that came out this year, though it is still very well thought out and makes good gameplay. Once the story is completed there is a myriad of things to do on the map. Multiplayer can be either extremely fun, or just boring. When it was launched, it did have some technical issues (some of which linger) which really hindered the entertainment. Overall, I find that the multiplayer is only as fun as the friends you play it with - if you play in a game with random people, then you will find some selfish so-and-so that only care for killing as many players as possible. Do not expect to run into someone in the street without them attacking you, I'm afraid this is the problem with the immature players on this game. Money is perhaps a bit to hard to get online, though there are many fun and entertaining methods, like races, mission, deathmatches, etc, with this hard-earned money, you can invest in anything from hair and clothing, to cars and guns. Gameplay: 10/10 Story: 7/10 Customization: 9/10 Map: 8/10 (Perhaps slightly too much wilderness, and not enough city) Multiplayer: 8/10 Graphics: 7/10 Audio: 9/10 (includes a nice range of radio stations) AI: 7/10 (Police can pretty much locate you from halfway across the city, which over-powered) Engine: 8/10 (Pretty smooth, with perhaps only a few bugs) Community support: 10/10 (Rockstar will constantly be releasing content-updates for online)

After pre ordering my copy on the 6th of September, I was very happy indeed when the package was delivered on the launch day in complete working order. The game requires 7856MB, or 7.8GB of spare memory on your hard drive in order to install the game. For those of you who thought this was unfair for not being warned about it, there is clearly a sign on the front of the box art that states "Storage Required" to play. If you don't have the memory, you can't play the game. In which case, go out and get more memory because you are clearly missing out. I don't believe in the perfect game, as what is good is relative to the beholder and there will alway be something to improve on. Grand Theft Auto V has come up closest to this that I have seen in a long, long time; passing all of its past titles and perhaps even my personal favorite, Halo 3. The game world is HUGE. You can explore it for hours on end in the fastest of the vehicles and not even reveal a quarter of the map, which areas are hidden until you actually visit them. The visuals are stunning, with skylines being lit up at night alongside the additional pedestrians and vehicular activity in comparison to the smaller numbers of them in GTA IV. The world is bristling with life, with random events happening all over the place daily with there always being something to do and enjoy. There are some small texture issues on the grassy areas in some parts of the map, but apart from that the game runs very smoothly and I have yet to see even a moderate frame rate drop in my 7 hours of play so far. Overall, visuals are great and according to my friends' experiences, they run just about the same on X360 and PS3. The story missions are fantastic in comparison to the older games. Instead of the traditional "drive and shoot" mission varieties, you are presented with three main characters (Michael, Franklin and Trevor) who must work together not only to solve each others' problems, but to pull of a series of heists that YOU CAN DESIGN YOURSELF. The game gives you the options of either "Smart" or "Loud" for your heists, yet there are more that I probably need to see myself. Smart being the stealthy, incognito style that you would expect in "Oceans Eleven" or something, while Loud is more along the lines of... shooting loads of people and taking their stuff. The options to choose your own style to heists like this (and pick your heist crew as well) is something that really makes this game special. The voice acting is stellar. I have laughed so many times at this game's hilarious script, composed of Franklin talking smack with his homies with his pet Rotweiler "Chop", all up to the funny arguments of Michael and his family bickering over their own stupid matters. It is great, and it really shows how well made this game was put together. The gameplay mechanics have taken a massive turnaround for the common gamer. The weapon wheel from Red Dead Redemption is back, allowing quick weapon swaps in combat. The cover system seems to have stayed the same, plus a few extra animations and the ability to destroy some cover pieces in the environment. The gunplay is pretty much the same as RDR's, and it is a better game for it as it packs in the fast-paced action of automatic weapons with the accurate and precise feeling of cover shooting that we had playing as John Marston back in 2010. Driving is much more controllable now, it seems the developers decided to ditch the "spongy" feeling of the suspension from GTA IV and replaced it with a driving feel much more similar to that of racing games. Once again, it is for the better. Another thing that really caught my eye was that you can now shoot the gas trails of disabled cars to ignite them and detonate the vehicle. This is highlighted in the third mission or so while playing as Franklin and it really is impressive to see. Just the small details, people. They mean a lot, and this game has a lot of them. GTA ONLINE IS NOT AVAILABLE UNTIL OCTOBER 1ST. Motherf***ing bull in my books. I understand that this game of this size would need more preparation for online in order to set up servers and what not, but another 13 days after launch to play multiplayer with my friends? I can't speak for this part as I have not played it, however I can only guess that it will be even more fun as the single player. It supposedly features character customization, crews (pretty much clans for your friends to muck around in) and not to forget 16 player free roam with races, banks to rob and chaos to cause. In the open world of Grand Theft Auto V with this many players can only result in absolute joy. This game is great, and I would recommend getting the game before the prices go up even more (it went from 34.99 pounds to nearly 50 on launch day!) and play it. Call in sick, miss your classes, whatever. Just play this game, as it undoubtedly is amongst one of the better games that our generation has ever had the pleasure to play. 5 stars.

One of, if not the, best game ever made. Endless hours of fun and messing around. Story mode could be better but the online mode provides so much entertainment

I've had GTA V for more than two months now and I honestly think it is a very good game. I got it with free one day delivery due to my Amazon Prime trial and it arrived on time which I am very pleased with. I cannot compare this to other GTA games because I have not played GTA IV and the last game in this series I played was GTA San Andreas which was a long time ago i.e when I was a kid. I do think that the game has a lot to offer which is a positive for me. I also like how you, as the player, can go round as a criminal stealing cars and mugging people. I personally think that the visual aspects of the game such as the scenery and time of day work really well together and blend in beautifully. GTA Online is something I have yet to review as I have not participated in it (I do not have xbox live gold membership) but hopefully will do at a later date. Having an open world to roam about freely in is a great way to explore and do fun activities such as parachuting. As the story progresses, it becomes more engaging and interesting, I think. Overall it is a fun and entertaining game that will keep me hooked for hours. I made the right decision in buying it. =======2013/14 EDIT======= I think that the lack of cheats for the game is a little disappointing. When GTA San Andreas was released, there was quite a few cheats that came with it and that is something I really liked when I played that game. In that sense, San Andreas was a very good game. Since then, quite a few cheats have been removed and the invincibility only lasts five minutes. This is annoying because the time goes by rather quickly in GTA 5 and once it's over, you are no longer invincible. I also liked the fact that there were states in San Andreas that you could unlock after certain missions. Now in V, however, It's mainly one big city with a couple of towns a few in game hours away and an airport and you can go anywhere except the airport without being caught(this is also a good thing). Also I find that some weapons are not available in game such as hat seeking rocket lauchers, flamethrowers and bats. The jetpack isn't available either. These are the only negatives for me - the game is excellent otherwise, a real masterpiece. Overall, I would give GTA V 4.9 stars out of 5. This is just my opinion and I do not intend to nitpick or complain.