What has four wheels, two thumbs, and the possible release date for Grand Theft Auto V? Most of the internet by now, it seems. On Christmas Eve, Amazon leaked the launch date of March 26 for the pre-purchase time. As the date hasn’t yet been confirmed by any official sources, we’ll keep an open mind on that, especially because Bioshock: Infinite‘s release has been pushed back to the same date. It’s worth noting that Best Buy has endcaps full of pre-release order forms, though.
For now, we’re just going to content ourselves with watching the two trailers released so far for the long-lasting franchise game by Rockstar Games. The trailers have a rockin’ proto-Led Zepp soundtrack from The Small Faces — no doubt a cheeky nod to the London expansions from the first game — and certainly fitting to the action, followed with a hard working 1980s funk number, “Skeletons” by Stevie Wonder.
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We recommend you turn up your speakers and watch in HD.
So, what are we being promised?
The gang’s all here: Michael, Franklin, and Trevor.
Well, for starters, instead of the previous — and annoying- – single-person linear storylines, Rockstar has definitely been looking at the competition, listening to player demands, and building on its other games like Red Dead Redemption to offer a three-player interactive story that requires teamwork and more than a little ingenuity. You get to freely switch between Michael, an older ex-gangster who’s become tired of living in witness protection with his overspending wife and teenage kids; Franklin, a young, ambitious repo-man with nagging girlfriend and attendant dog; and Trevor Phillips, the first character that Rockstar announced. Trevor, an old buddy of Michael, is an ex-military pilot who lives in the meth-ridden hills of Blaine County. An unhinged psycho and drug addict, it looks like Trevor will do a lot of flying and unhinged, wanton slaughter.
Clever Trevor.
We return to the world of San Andreas, which Rockstar has expanded and revamped significantly, focussing solely on Los Angeles’s dark virtual twin Los Santos. And why not? L.A. is a huge, sprawling megalopolis that certainly has enough room for more exploration. In fact, the playable area is bigger than San Andreas, GTA IV, and Red Dead Redemption combined. This new world spans from Palm Springs to LAX to the Salton Sea, and it even contains a fully playable golf course.
The range of vehicles seems to have ballooned too, promising more cars and trucks than ever before as well as jet skis, quad bikes, dirt bikes, biplanes, blimps, fighter jets, helicopters, and even a mini-submersible with sharks patrolling around you. And good old fashioned low-tech bicycles. Oh, and did we mention trains? There are trains too.
“You can see my house from here!” assuming, of course, you live in a virtual L.A.
Rockstar has alluded to numerous randomised, dynamic missions in the vein of Red Dead Redemption, one of which seems to be a heist on Rodeo Drive. Another might be the hijacking of a commercial jetliner. Another is encountering deserted cars and dead bodies and trying to discover what happened. This is all accompanied by numerous mini-games that include yoga, dirt-bike racing, and golf. You don’t build a giant playable golf course without a golf mini-game. There’s also tennis. And base-jumping. And a triathlon? Hey, all that bike riding has to count for something.
Freewheelin’ Franklin.
GTA V will be available Spring 2013 on the PS3 and XBox. There are currently no announced plans to bring GTA V to the PC or Wii-U.
Gratuitous bikini shot.
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