UPDATE: The Grand Theft Auto 5 trailer is live!
Grand Theft Auto 5 is finally coming. We’ve waited three and a half long years for official confirmation of a sequel, and now we have it straight from the publisher itself. Little is known about the game just yet, but in that time, Rockstar will have had plenty of time to brainstorm ideas and fix the flaws in the last outing.
Here’s our wish list of the features Grand Theft Auto 5 needs to make us fall in love with it all over again.
Evolving characters
You could change the attire of GTA 4′s protagonist Niko Bellic. That was it though. San Andreas allowed much more flexibility in shape, size and clothing – you could even eat and work out to buff up. There wasn’t much point to it, but Rockstar loves creating immersive game environments, and part of that should be an evolving character, who changes based on your in-game actions. Perhaps they pick up scars depending on the wounds received. Which brings us to…
MotionScan
Rockstar’s 2011 release LA Noire is a flawed masterpiece, but its MotionScan technology used to capture actors’ expressions is an unequivocal triumph, turning every tic and twitch into pixels. Given the tradition of big name Hollywood stars appearing in Grand Theft Auto games, we’d expect them to look more realistic than ever in GTA 5.
A more interactive environment
The Liberty City of GTA 4 was sprawling, and impressive in 2008, but rather hollow: you couldn’t stroll into too many buildings, leaving the whole city feeling like a facade. Whatever the location this time around, we hope Grand Theft Auto 5 will let you explore much more – and blow it up. You could beat cars into a pulp with your fists in San Andreas. Here’s hoping you can do that and much more to the terrain in GTA 5.
Drug dealing
We loved the drug-dealing mini-games of handheld spin off GTA: Chinatown Wars, where prices fluctuated depending on the local heat. If you had the cajones to trade next to a police station, you could make a fortune: we’d love to see something similar in Grand Theft Auto 5, perhaps with more serious repercussions. The more references to The Wire the better, we say.
Roadkill
Anyone remember how running over an antire group of Hare Krishans in the first GTA resulted in a massive “Gouranga!” bonus? We’d love to see that return, with perhaps a more topical group of pedestrians to trample over. Scientologists, say. Insensitive? Sure. Hilarious? Oh yes.
No more stupid timed-missions
There’s nothing wrong with a day/night cycle in a game, but killing time in Grand Theft Auto 4 to meet a new mission only available at a certain time was tedious in the extreme. None of that again please Rockstar, let’s keep the emphasis on fun.
Flying planes
Sure you could skydive in the GTA 4 expansion pack, The Ballad Of Gay Tony, but you couldn’t handle planes and choppers yourself. We’d love to be able to do just that in Grand Theft Auto 5, bailing out and landing safely to earth strapped to an alien jetpack once again.
Hot Coffee
The notorious hidden mini-game in Grand Theft Auto San Andreas turned sexual intercourse into button bashing action. It was immature, but games have moved on since then. Rockstar included full on male nudity in GTA 4 add-on The Lost And Damned, and the Mass Effect series and Heavy Rain have shown sex in games doesn’t always have to elicit sniggers. Of course, this is GTA, so that may be exactly the response Rockstar wants. Either way, we welcome so more bare flesh in Grand Theft Auto 5.
London. Lord let it be London.
Rumours have been swirling around online suggesting that Grand Theft Auto 5 will return to Los Santos, the fictional Los Angeles of Grand Theft Auto San Andreas – certainly, the dollar-bill font of the Five in the logo suggests a US setting once again. While we loved Los Santos’ empty storm drains, ghettoes and gangs, we’d dearly love to see Rockstar return to its roots with a British setting. Both the Houser brothers were educated in London, and the city’s expansion pack for the very first Grand Theft Auto was one of the greatest games of the 1990s. Please make it so, guv.
What else would you like to see make the cut in Grand Theft Auto 5? Scribble down your fantasies in the comments below.
Image via gtagaming.com
