Grand Theft Auto: V

Grand Theft Auto V is an open world, action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 17 September 2013 for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. Anenhanced version of the game was released on 18 November 2014 for the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, and 14 April 2015 for Microsoft Windows. The game is the first main entry in the Grand Theft Autoseries since 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas (based on Southern California), the single-player story follows three criminals and their efforts to commit heists while under pressure from a government agency. The open world design lets players freely roam San Andreas, which includes open countryside and the fictional city of Los Santos (based on Los Angeles).

The game is played from either a third-person or first-person view and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. Players control the three lead protagonists throughout the single-player mode, switching between them both during and outside of missions. The story is centred on the heist sequences, and many of the missions involve shooting and driving gameplay. Players who commit crimes may incite a response from law enforcement agencies, measured by a "wanted" system that governs the aggression of their response. Grand Theft Auto Online, the online multiplayer mode, lets up to 30 players explore the open world and engage in cooperative or competitive game matches.

Development began in 2009, soon after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. The development team envisioned Grand Theft Auto V as a spiritual successor to many of their previous projects, such as Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3. The game's use of three lead protagonists is a break from series tradition—a design choice from the developers to innovate on the core structure of its predecessors. As part of their research for the open world, the developers conducted field research around California throughout development and captured footage for the design team. Development duties were shared between many of Rockstar's studios worldwide.

Following its announcement in October 2011, Grand Theft Auto V was widely anticipated. It was acclaimed by many reviewers, with praise particularly directed at its multiple protagonist design, open-ended gameplay and technical advancements. Critics were polarised by a scene depicting torture and the game's treatment of women. Some labelled the game inherently violent and misogynistic. Grand Theft Auto V broke industry sales records and became the fastest-selling entertainment product in history, earning US $800 million in its first day and US$ 1 billion in its first three days. Considered one of the most significant titles of the seventh generation of console gaming, the gamewon year-end accolades, including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications.

Gameplay

Grand Theft Auto V is an action-adventure game played from either a first-person or third-person view. Players complete missions—linear scenarios with set objectives—to progress through the story. Outside of missions, players can freely roam the open world. Composed of the San Andreas open countryside area and the fictional city of Los Santos, the world of Grand Theft Auto V is much larger in area than earlier entries in the series.The world may be fully explored from the beginning of the game without restrictions, although story progress unlocks more gameplay content.

Players use melee attacks, firearms and explosives to fight enemies, and may run, jump, swim or use vehicles to navigate the world. To accommodate the map's size, the game introduces vehicle types absent in its predecessor Grand Theft Auto IV, such as fixed-wing aircraft.In combat, auto-aim and a cover system can be used as assistance against enemies.Should players take damage, their health meter will gradually regenerate to its halfway point. Players respawn at hospitals when their health depletes. If players commit crimes while playing, law enforcement agencies may respond as indicated by a "wanted" meter in the head-up display (HUD). On the meter, the displayed stars indicate the current wanted level (for example, at the maximum five-star level, efforts by law enforcement to incapacitate players become very aggressive). Law enforcement officers will search for players who leave the wanted vicinity. Players arrested or killed by officers during missions may restart from the last checkpoint. The meter enters a cooldown mode and eventually recedes when players are hidden from the officers' line of sight (as displayed on the mini-map).

The single-player mode lets players control three characters: Michael De Santa, Trevor Philips and Franklin Clinton—criminals whose stories interconnect as they complete missions. Some missions are completed with only one character and others feature two or three. Throughout single-player, players may switch between the protagonists at will by means of a directional compass on the HUD. The game may switch between characters automatically in single-player missions to complete certain objectives. A character's compass avatar will flash red if he is in danger and needs help, and flash white if he has a strategic advantage. Though players complete missions as any of the three protagonists, the more difficult heist missions require aid from AI-controlled accomplices with unique skill sets, such as computer hacking or driving. If an accomplice survives a successful heist, they take a cut from the cash reward and may be available for later missions with improvements to their unique skills. The game encourages differentiation in heist mission strategies—for example, in a holdup mission, players may either stealthily subdue civilians with an agent or conspicuously storm the venue with guns drawn.

While free roaming the game world, players may engage in context-specific activities such as scuba diving underwater or BASE jumping via parachute. Each character has a smartphone for contacting friends, starting activities and accessing an in-game Internet. The Internet lets players trade in stocks via a stock market. Players may purchase properties such as homes and businesses, upgrade the weapons and vehicles in each character's arsenal, and customise their appearance by purchasing outfits, haircuts, tattoos and jewellery.Each character has a set of eight skills that represent their ability in certain areas such as shooting and driving. Though players improve characters' skills as they play, each character has a skill with expertise by default (e.g. Trevor's flying skill). The eighth "special" skill determines the effectiveness in performing an ability that is unique to each respective character. Michael enters bullet time in combat, Franklin slows down time while driving, and Trevor deals twice as much damage to enemies while taking half as much in combat. A meter on each character's HUD depletes when an ability is being used and regenerates when players perform skilful actions (for example,drifting in vehicles as Franklin or pulling off headshots as Michael).

Developed in tandem with the single-player mode, the online multiplayer mode Grand Theft Auto Online was conceived as a separate experience to be played in a continually evolving world. Up to 30 players freely roam across a re-creation of the single-player world and enter lobbies to complete jobs (story-driven competitive and cooperative modes). The Content Creator toolset lets players create their own parameters for custom jobs, like racetracks and deathmatch weaponspawn points. Players may band together in organised player teams called crews to complete jobs together. Rockstar Games Social Club extends crews formed in Max Payne 3 '​s multiplayer mode to that of Grand Theft Auto Online. Players can create their own crews and join up to five total. Crews win multiplayer matches to earn experience points and climbonline leaderboards.

Plot

Nine years after a botched robbery in Ludendorff, North Yankton, former bank robber Michael Townley is living under witness protection with his family in Los Santos, San Andreas, under the alias Michael De Santa. When Michael discovers his wife Amanda in bed with her tennis coach, he chases the coach to a mansion and destroys it out of anger. The mansion's owner is Mexican drug lord Martin Madrazo's girlfriend. Madrazo demands compensation, so Michael and his accomplice Franklin Clinton perform a jewellery shop heist to pay their debt. Michael's sole surviving partner in the Ludendorff robbery, Trevor Philips, hears of the jewellery heist and realises that it was Michael's handiwork. The two reunite after Trevor tracks Michael down in Los Santos.

The personal lives of the protagonists begin to spiral out of control. Michael's family leaves him, and his attempts to make something of himself bring him into conflict with Devin Weston, a self-made billionaire venture capitalist and corporate raider who develops a grudge against him and vows revenge. Franklin rescues his friend Lamar Davis from gangster Harold "Stretch" Joseph, who repeatedly attempts to kill Lamar to prove himself to his brethren. Trevor's reckless efforts to consolidate his control over various black markets in Blaine County see him waging war against the San Andreas chapter of The Lost outlaw motorcycle club, a number of Latin American street gangs, rival meth dealers, government-sponsored mercenaries and Triad kingpin Wei Cheng.

Federal Investigation Bureau (FIB) government agents Dave Norton and Steve Haines contact Michael and demand that he perform a series of operations with Franklin and Trevor to undermine a rival agency, the International Affairs Agency (IAA).Under Haines' direction, they attack an armoured convoy carrying funds intended for the IAA and raid a bank containing the payroll for all corrupt police and public officials in Los Santos. As Haines comes under increasing scrutiny for his methods, he forces Franklin and Michael to infiltrate the FIB headquarters and erase any evidence being used against him from their servers. Michael takes the opportunity to wipe any data on his own activities, destroying Haines' leverage over him. The trio start planning their most daring feat ever: raiding the Union Depository's gold bullion reserve.

After returning to Los Santos, Michael makes amends with his family and they start living together again. Trevor, however, discovers that a former Ludendorff heist accomplice, Brad Snider, was not in prison as he was led to believe, but killed during the heist and buried in the grave marked for Michael. Trevor's feelings of betrayal cause friction within the group and threaten to undermine their Union Depository plans. When Michael and Norton, both of whom are betrayed by Haines, are caught in a Mexican standoff between the FIB, IAA and private security firm Merryweather, Trevor aids in their escape, holding that only he has the right to kill Michael. Despite not forgiving Michael, Trevor still wants to perform the Union Depository heist; the duo agree to part ways afterwards.

The Union Depository heist is completed successfully, but Franklin is approached by two parties separately who demand that he kill Trevor or Michael. Haines and Norton contend that Trevor is a liability, and Weston wants retribution for Michael's betrayal. Franklin has three choices: kill Michael, kill Trevor or kill neither and face their enemies together. Should Franklin kill either Michael or Trevor, he ceases contact with the survivor and returns to his old life.Should he kill neither, the trio join forces to withstand an onslaught from the FIB and Merryweather before going on to kill Weston, Stretch, Cheng and Haines. With all their enemies disposed, the three cease working together, but remain friends.

Development

Rockstar North began to develop Grand Theft Auto V in 2009, following the release of Grand Theft Auto IV. Development was conducted by a team of more than 1,000 people, including Rockstar North's core team and staff from parent company Rockstar Games's studios around the world. The game runs on the proprietary Rockstar Advanced Game Engine (RAGE), which was overhauled for the game to improve its draw distance rendering capabilities. The Euphoria and Bulletsoftware handle additional animation and rendering tasks. Having become familiar with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 hardware over time, Rockstar found they were able to push the graphical capabilities of the consoles further than in previous games. Analyst estimations place the game's combined development and marketing budget at more than £170 million (US $265 million), which would make it the most expensive game ever made at that time.

The open world's design and in-game render constituted much of the game's early work. The open world was modelled on Southern California and Los Angeles. Key members of the game world production team took field research trips throughout the region and documented their research with photo and video footage. Google Maps projections of Los Angeles were used by the team to help design the road networks of Los Santos. To reflect and reproduce the demographic spread of Los Angeles, the developers also studied census data and watched documentaries about the city. The team considered creating the open world the most technically demanding aspect of the game's production.

A fundamental design goal from the outset was to innovate on the core structure of Grand Theft Auto games by giving players control of three lead protagonists instead of one. The idea was first raised during Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas '​s development, but contemporaneous hardware restrictions made it infeasible. Having developed two Grand Theft Auto IV episodic expansion packs featuring new protagonists in 2009, the team wanted to base Grand Theft Auto Varound three simultaneously controlled protagonists. The team viewed Grand Theft Auto V as a spiritual successor to many of their previous games (such as Grand Theft Auto IV, Red Dead Redemption and Max Payne 3), and designed it to improve upon their gameplay mechanics. They sought to improve the action gameplay by refining the shooting mechanics and cover system, and reworked the driving mechanics to correct Grand Theft Auto IV '​s difficult vehicle controls.

After an audition process, Ned Luke, Shawn Fonteno and Steven Ogg were selected to portray Michael, Franklin and Trevor, respectively. Their performances were mostly recorded using motion capture technology, but dialogue for scenes with characters seated in vehicles was recorded in studios instead. Grand Theft Auto V is the first entry in the series to feature an original score, which was composed by a team of producers collaborating with each other over a number of years. Licensed music provided by an in-game radio is also used. The team licensed more than 241 tracks shared between fifteen radio stations, with an additional two stations providing talk radio. Some of the tracks were written specifically for the game, such as rapper and producer Flying Lotus's original work composed for the FlyLo FM radio station he hosts.

Grand Theft Auto V was first announced by Rockstar Games on 25 October 2011. They released its debut trailer one week later, with an official press release acknowledging the game's setting. Journalists noted that the announcement ignited widespread anticipation within the gaming industry, which they owed to the cultural significance of the series.The game missed its original projected Q2 2013 release date, pushed back to 17 September to allow for further polishing. To spur pre-order game sales, Rockstar collaborated with several retail outlets to make a special edition with extra in-game features. Rockstar also ran a viral marketing strategy with a website for a fictional religious cult, "The Epsilon Program", that offered users the chance to feature in the game as members of the cult.

Additional content

Post-release content is continually added to Grand Theft Auto Online and the single-player mode of Grand Theft Auto V through free title updates. The Beach Bum Update, released on 19 November 2013, added more beach-themed jobs and customisation content for players. In December, Rockstar announced that they plan to release downloadable content in 2014 that expands the single-player mode and creates new story for the lead characters. The Deathmatch & Race Creators update was released on 11 December and lets players create their own deathmatches and races. The Capture Update was released on 17 December and adds a new team-based capture the flag mode called Capture. On 24 December, the Holiday Gifts update added Christmas-themed items to the online mode. It also gave players discounts on in-game vehicles, weapons, apartments and other items. The items and discounts were available until 5 January 2014. The update also added snowfall to the game world during Christmas.

Coinciding with the 2014 Valentine's Day, the Valentine's Day Massacre Special update released on 13 February added Bonnie and Clyde-themed content to the game for a limited time until the end of February. The Business Update, released on 4 March, added multiple business-themed items to the game. On 11 April, the Capture Creator Update was released that added the ability for players to create their own Capture jobs using the Content Creator. The High Life Update released on 13 May added new vehicles, clothes and weapons. It also added new apartments, the ability to purchase two properties at any one time and the Mental State gameplay statistic that monitors player behaviour in-game. The I'm Not a Hipster Update was released on 17 June and added hipster-themed customisation items, and retro-themed vehicles and weapons. The Independence Day Special update was released on 1 July to celebrate the US Independence Day and added patriotic-themed vehicles, weapons and customisation items for a limited time. The patch added new properties to Grand Theft Auto Online and the "On Call Matchmaking" feature that lets player accept a job invite and keep playing until the lobby is full. The San Andreas Flight School Update, released on 19 August 2014, added new features and vehicles related to the in-game flying school. On 18 December 2014, the Festive Surprise update was released, which added two new weapons, four holiday-themed vehicles and Christmas-themed apparel that was announced to be available until 5 January 2015. The update also added the ability to buy a third property. Online Heists launched on 10 March 2015, suffering some technical difficulties due to the increased user load.

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