Chris

Rockstar posted up a big article yesterday giving many more details about GTA Online. If you're sceptical about the game, or are just not sure about certain aspects of it, you should definitely read it. Below are excerpts of the main points Rockstar want to get across. First of all, some general details about it: Next up, Rockstar need everyone's feedback straight from day one, it's needed because they need to know what people think is good and what people think is bad about the game, allowing them to focus their efforts on giving the best experience to everyone. And details on what to expect from day one of the launch of GTA Online: Finally, a few details on some content updates that are already planned:

Yeah, similar message in Chrome. Here's Google's report on why: http://safebrowsing.clients.google.com/safebrowsing/diagnostic?site=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.gtagaming.com%2F&client=googlechrome&hl=en-US So, they either got hacked, or some ads they were displaying got replaced with malicious javascript code. Probably be fine to visit but perhaps best to stay off it until that message goes, just to be on the safe side.

After news of GTAV's first day sales breaking $ 800 million, we all predicted that GTA V would be the quickest videogame in history to hit $ 1 billion in sales milestone. And it's gone and done just that in only three days! Source: Take Two PR

Oh yeah good point about the vehicle damage, I was expecting better, but it doesn't bother me too much. I seem to crash quite a bit and I think if they had more realistic damage I'd be looking for a new car every couple of minutes.

I think you have to have done the mission/event to unlock it first. And yeah if I remember correctly it's X on PS3, A on 360. There'll be a hint popup in the top left corner telling you this. If you didn't see one then you probably didn't unlock it yet.

I love GTA V. I think it's almost perfect. It's as if they took everything that was great about SA, everything that was great about IV, mashed it together, and added even more cool stuff. So far, I have only one complaint. Literally just one. The wasted screen. It ends so quickly! I get that this is good because you get back in the game quicker (so it's great if you die while on a mission), but it seriously sucks when you're just fucking around. I jumped off Mt. Chiliad on a bike yesterday and smashed into the rocks and Trevor's body bounced up and started to flail everywhere, but then the screen faded to black and I respawned before the body really got anywhere. I wanted to see him fall all the way down because deaths like that are hilarious! Similarly today, I was playing as Franklin, going insanely quick down a straight road, swerved to miss a car and crashed into some kind of concrete bench or planter, didn't really see. Of course the car came to a dead stop and Franklin flew out the window (dying instantly) and the wasted screen faded to black before he had even landed! Anyway, my proposal to Rockstar to "fix" this behaviour: make the wasted screen last as long as you want (say a limit of 30 seconds or so just to be realistic), and press a button (Start?) if you want to immediately get back into the game. This way it won't be annoying if you're on a mission, and if you're just fucking around you have time to watch a funny ragdoll death. Everyone's happy.

I found the yoga part really annoying actually, went on for too long, although some of the comments made were funny. It ended with that one sexual pose, it would have been funnier if the whole thing was like that though. I thought it would be seeing as that's what it shows on the official website.

I passed this mission earlier today. WTF indeed. lol

Wow. That is probably the most impressive title I've ever written for a news article. You read it right, Take Two has confirmed today that Grand Theft Auto V made over $ 800 million during the first day of sales worldwide (excluding Japan and Brazil). This is a new record for first day sales, beating out the previous record holder Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which made $ 500 million on its first day. This puts GTAV squarely on track to reach $ 1 billion in record time. It took Black Ops 2 15 days to reach this figure, while Modern Warfare 3 took 16 days. And in the film industry, the record holder is Avatar, and that took 17 days to reach a billion. I expect most of you have now played some GTA V, and I think we can all agree it is one of the greatest games of all time, if not the greatest. Massive congratulations to everyone at Rockstar for pulling off something this amazing. Below is the relevant excerpt from the press release.

Well I have both, I switched to PS3 gaming a while back but still have loads of friends I wanna play online with that have 360. So I thought fuck it, I'll just get both. I played a couple of hours of 360 version, then my PS3 version arrived and I've played 3 or 4 hours on that now. I honestly haven't noticed much difference at all between the two versions. The graphics seem pretty much the same, on the 360 the blacks maybe a little darker and whites a little brighter, could have just been my slightly different calibration settings though so I won't comment any further on that. I'd really need to see screenshots side by side to properly notice stuff like that. One noticeable difference I felt was car handling. Perhaps it was just the fact I got used to it after a couple of hours on 360, but I definitely felt driving cars was a lot better on PS3. The analog sticks aren't as sensitive as the 360 ones, so it's a lot easier to make more precise movements, which helps massively when driving fast through traffic. Aside from that, nothing else to report on yet, I doubt I'll play much of the 360 version though, not until Online launches.

Following on from part one of their interview with Dan Houser last week, The Guardian have just posted up part two. This part has Dan go into detail about what went in to the making of GTA V, how it's improved from GTA IV, what inspired it, and what GTA inspires in other media. Dan says there's no concrete plans for future GTA games, they just make the best game they can at the time, they'll stop making GTA when it stops being interesting. With GTA V on track to be come the highest rated game of all time, it's pretty clear that we all feel GTA is still VERY interesting. The interview ends with Dan being asked if we could see another GTA game set in the U.K. It's a question that he gives a great answer to. So there you have it. Rockstar would indeed like to set another game in the U.K., but if they did, it most likely won't be GTA. I have to agree with Dan's thoughts on this, America is the perfect setting for a GTA game, it just feels right. Since GTA London, others have tried; The Getaway was a nice effort, albeit played from the correct side of the law, but it wasn't great. I know Rockstar could and would do a better job, but I'm not sure it would be better than any of their previous games. So, here's hoping for a new future Rockstar franchise set in the U.K!

Take Two have just announced by way of a press release that Grand Theft Auto V is now available worldwide, a fact some of you may be aware of already. I'm sure most of you are indeed now busy enjoying the game, just continue to do so. We'll be providing news, media and other content in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that. Our forums are always a good way to discuss the game, please remember to use spoiler tags where appropriate though. Remember you can also keep up with us on Facebook and Twitter if you prefer that.

GTAV's manual was far too big to fit in the game case, so Rockstar broke from tradition and have released an dedicated app for it. The app contains over 100 pages, explaining the game controls and features, a tour of local neighbourhoods and activities you can do across Los Santos and Blaine County, as well as a special interactive version of the game map that can be zoomed and explored. GTAV: The Manual can be downloaded for free for PC or iOS. Mac, Android and Windows Phone apps are coming soon.

Damn, hard to believe it's been two whole years almost. And that's just when we officially knew about it. All that time spent before then... waiting, hoping... Nice job creating that though, makes me think I should have done something similar myself for an article leading up to release, too late now though heh.

Well I'm not a game developer but it makes sense that optimising for PC does indeed take a lot longer. With consoles, EVERYONE has the exact same hardware, you are developing the game for just two systems (PS3 and 360). PCs on the other hand, almost every player will have a slightly different setup to any other player. There are so many variables, everything needs to be tested a lot more thoroughly. There is of course the piracy factor too, I don't think you can really rule that out. Fact is, when a simultaneous PC release happens, most people who own both a PC and console will forego the console version, and a large percentage of those will choose to pirate it as it's so much easier (compared to pirating for a console). With that said, the growth of Steam in the past few years has got so big that I think it's now become a lot easier for PC gamers to legitimately and willingly purchase PC games instead of pirating them. We can hope for GTA and indeed other franchises in the future to do simultaneous releases, but there's probably various other hurdles to overcome for developers/publishers. I'm not knowledgeable enough on that area to properly comment on it.

The embargo has been lifted and pretty much every gaming website on the internet has their review out now. No surprises but it's pretty much 10/10 across the board, with a few deciding to be more critical and knock a few marks off for various reasons. Below is a huge but probably incomplete list of reviews and their scores. AusGAMERS - 9.8/10 CVG - 10/10 Destructoid - 9/10 DigitalSpy - 5/5 EDGE - 10/10 EuroGamer - 9/10 Eurogamer España - 10/10 EuroGamer Italia - 10/10 Examiner - 5/5 IGN - 10/10 InsideGaming - 10/10 JeuxVideo - 18/20 Joystiq - 4.5/5 Kotaku - YES, Play it GameBlog.FR - 5/5 GameInformer - 9.75/10 Gamekult - 9/10 GameReactor - 10/10 GamesRadar - 5/5 GameSpot - 9/10 GamesTM - 10/10 Gameswelt - 9.5/10 GameTrailers - 9.8/10 Giant Bomb - 5/5 METRO - 10/10 MTV - 9/10 Multiplayer.it - 9.7/10 Now Gamer - 9.5/10 Official PlayStation Magazine - 10/10 OXM - 10/10 Polygon - 9.5/10 Power Unlimited - 100/100 Rev3Games - 5/5 Strategy Informer - 10/10 T3 - 5/5 The Escapist - 3.5/5 The Guardian - 5/5 The Telegraph - 5/5 The Sixth Axis - 10/10 Thunderbolt - 10/10 TIME Magazine - 5/5 US Gamer - 4.5/5 VideoGame.it - 5/5 VideoGamer - 10/10 Xbox360Achievements - 100/100

Rockstar have released a GTAV companion app for iOS devices (Android coming soon) by the way of iFruit. Simply put, iFruit allows you to log in to Social Club and keep up to date with the latest news, including content from Lifeinvader. There's even stuff to do to customise your experience in GTAV with Los Santos Customs, and you can even train Chop from the app! iFruit is available for free, for iOS devices running 4.3 or later. Download now from the App Store.