GTA 5: Why Rockstar Loves Los Angeles

Thanks to the Grand Theft Auto series, Los Santos becomes a world that has become almost too real. It has become a virtually enhanced version of real-life Los Angeles. Rockstar Game itself has its headquarters cradled in Manhattan. New York has already become the inspiration for other Rockstar games, such as the Max Payne series and GTA 4’s Liberty City. The studio, however, has managed to form a strong relationship with Los Angeles.

Grand Theft Auto 5 is actually the fifth time within two generations that Rockstar has used Los Angeles, this time in the guise of Los Santos, as a game backdrop. Remember the recent L.A. Noire. Then, there was Midnight Club – Los Angeles. Staying within the GTA franchise, you can remember GTA – San Andreas. In 2003’s Midnight Club 2, Rockstar revisited Los Angeles giving enough landmarks and atmosphere to make it clear to players where they were. Somehow though, it was Rockstar’s version of Los Angeles – Los Santos – that made players really focus on the city’s atmosphere.

Los Santos is a stunning and vast world. It has proven how technology has come so far now. Now, the games are filling in the gaps that used to be our turn to fill with our own imaginations. The result is quite admirable.

Even Rockstar North’s first try at giving Los Santos life was already impressive. It showcases not just a place with landmarks but it showed the socio-economic spectrum. You get to see the Richman’s mansions and Ganton’s infamous Grove Street where the dilapidated houses are. The place is not just there. It managed to come alive. Because of this, Los Angeles has also become Rockstar Games’ home away from New York.

GTA 5 Exclusivity Rumor and VGA Reveal

Since the GTA V trailer we’ve seen numerous rumors and apparent news leak, and some of the ideas suggested have been pretty amazing, which include potential features in Grand Theft Auto 5 like being able to build a business empire with hitmen, thugs and more or simpler ideas like houses that you can enter.

Most of the GTA V rumors are pretty weak and not confirmed by any source or Dev team, although some rumors are more believable than others. In the last couple of days we’ve seen two new rumors appear on a number of websites, which include the possibility of a reveal at Spike TV’s Video Game Awards tonight and talk of the PS3 getting an exclusive with GTA 5.

While it would be pretty cool to see some sort of new trailer at the 2011 Spike TV VGA, one of the sources claiming this rumor can be found here, and they created this viewpoint from a tweet by Geoff Keighley, which only said gamers wouldn’t believe the “PS3 Exclusive“. Following this tweet, he said “Amazing top-secret rehearsals tonight at VGAs,” continuing “Some very special things in the works.”

We have no doubt that the VGAs will be special tonight, and you can expect some reveals, although for that to be GTA 5 and even the chance of a PS3 exclusive seems very far-fetched. What do our readers think?

Those of you excited about what the next GTA 5 game could bring, you might want to look at the history of GTA weapons here, things that could make the game suck here, and a debate on the Grand Theft Auto V story and getting the balance right here।

GTA 5 Story Balancing: Serious and Fun

There has been a lot of talk regarding the main character, setting and how big GTA 5 will be, but another important aspect is to balance the story correctly. It’s all very well having a game that is both serious and fun, but Rockstar knows it will be a fine balancing act to get things right – just hope they do not go over the top either way.

The story of Niko Bellic was incredible, we had the serous side of things mixed in with some humor, but for some there needed to be some more of those fun moments. How good is it to be very serious in certain campaigns, but then have a laugh a little later? You can see in games like Saints Row where the fun side is over the top, so Rockstar needs to look at this as a fine example of overdoing it.

However, according to GameBandits the developer has been asked to look at some aspects of Saints Row, as there is no shortage of laugh out loud moments. It’s now time to bring the franchise up to date, we have seen them step up to the plate with games like Red Dead Redemption, so we know they can do it. The most recent Grand Theft Auto games have been getting a little too serious, and this could have a negative effect, as the market has now changed.

There were a huge number of campaigns in the previous game, and the percentage of those finished were low, as players would much rather explore. It now starts to make sense to be able to do more side missions, or even visit a fair and play some mini games. There are other possibilities as well, but they need to be fun.

What should Rockstar do to make GTA 5 fun?

GTA 5 Development Time and Fine Details

Over the last few weeks we’ve heard some interesting takes on what GTA 5 should be, which included our readers debating the story and how fun or serious it should be. The idea of Sony’s PS3 getting an exclusive for just a few months got a welcome from some gamers, and complete anger from others.

One factor that seems to reappear is finding balance in GTA 5, it seems that most of us agree the PS3 and Xbox 360 are more than capable of achieving more than we need in the next Grand Theft Auto game, although there is one thing stopping all the features we want being added, and this is time.

Development for GTA IV is said to have started in 2004, although the game didn’t release until 2008. While we don’t know the extent of work carried out over those 4 years, you can count on that time helping the game be much more than an annual release, seen in many franchises these days.

So what can we expect with GTA 5 and the development time? It has been confirmed that development is well under way, and we’ve all seen the trailer that showed us a few things and opened many questions like the chance of mini games.

We expect the development time to be much shorter for this game, although how much should Rockstar balance the time spent on development for fine details, which includes getting the large map inline with real world alleys and streets it portrays, and the wanted finer features like more houses to enter and smaller items you can interact with in-game?

While we hate going back to Skyrim, you’ve got to admire the little things found in that game. Whether you find food ingredients pointless in Skyrim or not, you got to love it for just being there allowing you to cook, and lessons can be learned here for Grand Theft Auto V.

We love the little things, although what fine details do you think need to be added to the next GTA V game? Would you wait longer to get more features and little things that make the game more lifelike? This could be the ability to enhance autos by adding rims, audio and upgrading the engine to making the GTA 5 world more open to interaction.

It’s not what is possible but more about development time available, and the fine details that should be included and those that cannot thanks to the lack of time.

GTA 5: A PS3 Exclusive?!

From the very moment the Grand Theft Auto V trailer was released, there were lots of rumors that accompany the game. For awhile then, we thought that the instalment was just a product of a combination of a good imagination and loads of wishful thinking. Well, GTA 5 was proven but lots of things are still unclear.

So now we check on the game after Spike TV’s Video Game Awards has already been aired. Before the VGAs, there were lots of rumors that involved every aspect of the game. Some of the rumors were pretty weak and ended up getting debunked so fast before other gamers could even have heard of them. There were those that lingered because they were more logical. Lately, there were some new rumors that had appeared on video gaming blog sites. One of such rumors is that GTA 5 will be released as a PS3 exclusive.

Not a whole lot of people believe that GTA 5 will be released as a PS3 exclusive. VGAs host Geoff Keighley did not help through his tweets that do not really reveal anything: “Amazing top-secret rehearsals tonight at VGAs” and “some very special things in the works”. The tweets are pretty general. The question that was really playing back then was if the VGAs will be extra special in the case of GTA 5.

GTA 5 Most Searched Game of 2012

Christmas evening: the presents have been shared and you're left wondering how on earth you're going to fit in all of these AAA games without either losing your job or missing sleep for the next six months. There's always that rogue thought though, 2011 is almost over and soon 2012 will come around and with it all those new games that we've been watching for years. These games are going to be fun but THOSE games are going to be more than fun, they're going to be more exciting, better looking and...more expensive. Forget that last one...

Botchweed have been taking a sneak peak as to what people have been searching for on Google, a list of games that people are either looking forward to or are hoping are released next year (guess which one I added that qualifier for).

In first place, Grand Theft Auto V; this isn't exactly surprising. Not only will GTA 5 have an absolutely huge launch, but there simply isn't enough information at this point to keep everybody happy. The trailer released a few weeks ago may well be the very definition of teaser. Rockstar will continue to be happy, in second place is Max Payne 3, the long awaited continuation to the series and a game presumed dead until relatively recently.

Halo 4 is in third place, a game that had to appear somewhere. This is in the face of worries about the slow sales on Halo Anniversary, a game that some people expected to be as big a system seller as Halo 3. In fact, that doesn't seem to have happened and, for whatever reason, the sales seem to have actually been rather underwhelming for a title like Halo.

Fourth place is taken by Half Life 3, perhaps thanks to those t-shirts recently seen being worn by a Valve employee at a developer's conference. Finally, the majority of people had given up on seeing another Half-Life sequel in their lifetime and they go ahead and pull something like this out of the hat.

Fifth place goes to Mass Effect 3 and who can be surprised considering the amount of advertising Commander Shepherd does?

Of course, this isn't a fantastic indicator of which games are going to be bought the most or even which games people are looking forward to (although they're all big hitters). Instead, see this as the top five games people want more information on - I can definitely see why.

Grand Theft Auto III Heading to iOS, Android Devices

In the 10 years since the debut of "Grand Theft Auto III," several video games have upped the ante in the naughty category - including some other "Grand Theft Auto" games.

But the original open-world gangster-action game is doing a second drive-by with the December 15 release of "Grand Theft Auto 3: 10 Year Anniversary Edition."

The game will be available for download on Apple's iPad, iPhone and iPod Touch and on Android tablets and smartphones. It will cost $4.99.

Publisher Rockstar Games sells "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars" in Apple's App Store, but this is the first game in the series to be released on Google's Android platform. The Apple version works on all iPads, the latest iPod Touch and the iPhone 4 and 4S. Rockstar has posted a list of supported Android devices as well.

From the first batch of screen shots released by the publisher, the game looks similar on the two mobile platforms. Instead of using a controller like on the original PlayStation 2 game, players will tap on-screen buttons to switch between weapons.

Rockstar plans to release more details and a trailer video to coincide with the game's release next week, the company said. A spokesman didn't immediately respond to a question about whether the anniversary game would have different missions from the original.

The "Grand Theft Auto" series has sold more than 114 million copies worldwide since it debuted in 1997. In November, Rockstar released a trailer for "Grand Theft Auto 5," which is in development.

The holiday season has been active with anniversary games. Microsoft released "Halo: Combat Evolved Anniversary," Sega put out "Sonic Generations" and Konami had "Metal Gear Solid HD Collection."