Paying a visit to 'Grand Theft Auto V'

Mike Snider | USA TODAY

NEW YORK -- My first glimpse of actual gameplay from Grand Theft Auto V is from an aerial viewpoint.

The thrill-seeking character Franklin jumps out of a helicopter, free falls for a bit then pulls his chute and begins to descend.

Right off, the mammoth scope of the game hits you. A jet airliner takes off in the distance from Los Santos Airport. Then, Franklin changes direction – well, the Rockstar Games staffer driving this build of the PlayStation 3 version of the game – and there's the Alamo Sea.

As Franklin descends to a subtle, ambient electronic soundtrack like that preferred by filmmaker Michael Mann, the mountainous ground floor of Blaine County is visible. A wildcat prowls looking for a deer. A bit closer, we see a park ranger doing the rounds.

I'm told that GTA V, out Sept. 17 for PS3 and Xbox 360, has benefitted from what Rockstar Games learned in creating 2010's Red Dead Redemption. There's lots to do even in the wilderness. I assume Franklin, who lands and doffs his parachute, could probably grab a fly fishing rod and join the two wading in the fast moving mountain stream nearby – or he could take them out and use theirs.

STORY:'GTA V Puts Theft Back in the Game.'

"The team is always learning and we're always trying to evolve our approach and we learnt a lot from working with the developers on both L.A. Noire and Red Dead Redemption," said Phil Hooker, associate technical director at Rockstar North, the Edinburgh, Scotland-based studio developing GTA V. He and others on the Rockstar team provided some responses to email questions. "The level of detail in the ambient world population from Red Dead Redemption is something that has influenced the variety and depth of behavior in the (artificial intelligence) present in GTA V."

This living, breathing virtual world is the biggest ever from Rockstar. GTA V covers more than three times the turf of Red Dead Redemption and the total playable area, including underwater spots that can be explored with scuba gear, is five times larger. Overall, GTA V is bigger than GTA: San Andreas, GTA IV and Red Dead combined.

GTA V's developers promise those who who love the ability to do what they want in GTA games won't be disappointed. The new game has the largest selection of vehicles to drive of any previous GTA game. And the cars and trucks will hug the road better than previous models. Depending on the quality of vehicle, the experience promises to rival that of top racing games, the team says.

Among the vehicles you can hijack are planes and helicopters, which can be used in missions or in off-mission flying challenges. And, of course, there's more weapons to choose from, too, to accompany activities including a variety of specific mini-games such as hunting, ATM robberies, off-road racing and base jumping (as seen in GTA IV DLC game The Ballad of Gay Tony).

Players will, of course, be able to carjack vehicles such as security vans; they can also pick up hitchhikers. You can also tee off on a golf course, play tennis, do yoga, run triathlons and race bicycles.

"In the city you might stumble across cyclists along the beach, gang members hanging out in their hoods, a security guard patrolling with their guard dog who will react aggressively to you intrusion," Hooker continues. "Whilst out in the countryside you might stumble across mountain bikers flying down a trail with friends, hikers in the hills, deer and coyote roaming the hills or farmers, farmyard workers and barnyard animals around farms."

The overall GTA V map is roughly split between urban (Los Santos) and the surrounding countryside of Blaine County. For players, the manner in which they explore those areas and progress through the game will happen differently that past releases.

GTA V's story plays out from the point of view of three main characters -- Michael, Franklin and Trevor. You can meet all three of them in the new GTA V trailers released earlier this week.

Michael is an ex-con living in witness protection. But he's bored and unhappy -- with his marriage and familiy (two kids). His love of action films helps inspire some of the heists he plans to spice up his life. In the new trailer, Michael is seen talking to a psychiatrist -- a nod to The Sopranos? -- he says, "I'm rich. I'm miserable."

Franklin is the youngest character that players will control. An ex-gangbanger who resides in South Los Santos, he's trying to stay straight, but obviously won't be able to.

When told he sounds like a snitch by another character in the new trailer, Franklin responds that he is "trying to make some paper and not get killed."

Lastly, Trevor is truly the wild card. An ex-military pilot, he worked with Michael in the past and lives out in in Blaine County on the wild side amidst the meth labs and biker gangs. We first see him in the new video, howling at the moon to Waylon Jenning's song "Are You Sure Hank Done It This Way?" He alternately wields a baseball bat or a shotgun or just his fists. "I have abandonment issues," he says. "I see a shrink once a week."

During the demo, Trevor took to the water by hopping in a boat. The game's designers have developed new systems for weather and water so that the elements are more lifelike. The boat is propelled realistically over the waves and when Trevor comes to a stop, the following wave swells and sunlight permeates the water delivering natural light optics.

To show off another new feature, our demo player has Trevor don scuba gear and dive in to explore the ocean floor. He eventually attracts the attention of a shark and heads for surface.

Players will be able to switch between the three main characters during missions and off-mission. This allows the game designers to get players into the heat of the action quickly, they say.

"In previous games, there might be a mission which would involve a car chase, then a shootout, then a helicopter escape, leading the player from one to the next in a linear path," said Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies. "Now by switching between these characters we can have all these situations, and many more, all happening at once. A single mission might have a player rapidly switching between three locations and three different types of gameplay, before drawing it all together to conclusion."

When players are not on a mission, Benzies says, "you can dip in and out of these guy's lives on the fly, and the player will encounter unique, situations specific to the character they are playing as at the time. Each character will also have their own professional and recreational pastimes that are unique to them, which adds a lot of variety to the gameplay while keeping it in line with the narrative. At any time, the two characters not controlled by the player will not be sitting passively waiting to be reactivated, they will be getting on with their own lives. So the player might switch to Michael as he's shopping with his wife or to Trevor as he's being chased by the cops or Franklin as he's chilling in front of the TV. The player might then take Franklin out to rescue Michael from the shops and go for a drink, or help Trevor deal with the cops."

Another new twist: GTA V is built around the concept of heists. Now, heists aren't completely new to GTA games, but this time they are all-important. Each requires planning and execution to earn the payoff -- so you can pay for tattoos, vehicle upgrades and buy businesses.

"GTA IV had a high impact bank job called Three Leaf Clover, which fans loved and that we are really proud of, but we thought we could build on it and give something more to the player," said Imran Sarwar, associate producer at Rockstar North. "It's a great mission, but it kind of comes out of nowhere. Previous GTA games had dedicated whole strands to heists - Vice City with the Bank Job, breaking into the casino in San Andreas. Again, we're really proud of that work, but they were linear strands without much player control."

He continues: "The heists in GTA V will play out over a strand of missions, like in Vice City, or San Andreas, so the player can take part in the build-up leading right up to the heist, but here we give the players choice on how they will do the heists and making them put in the leg work and prep in as well as choosing a suitable crew. What we want to do now is give the players choices, to really feel like they're planning the heist and preparing for it, and then to have that pay off in a big satisfying mission that's been shaped by their decisions."

A heist plays out before my demo comes to an end. After Franklin rams the targetted armored car, Michael attaches explosives and blows the doors on the armored car. Police respond to the scene on the ground and air.

By switching between Michael and Franklin, players can prevent the police from outflanking them. Characters will make better use of cover in the game as Franklin does in the demo, but players can run and gun, too, as our demo driver has Michael do.

Each character has a special ability and Michael's is on display here. He can stop time as he is shooting -- similar to Max Payne 3's bullet time -- making it easier for him to hit a target. The best driver of the group, Franklin slows time when driving at high speeds. Trevor flies into a rage in a special melee move that lets him deliver increased damage while taking less.

He doesn't need that during this heist as he's on a rooftop, providing support to the group. When the demo driver switches to him, Trevor uses a sniper rifle to take out some police and then he fires a bazooka to eliminate a police chopper.

When the heist is done, players will have to give the crew their cut and then can expand their GTA V empire -- something that unfortunately, requires waiting another four months or so to begin.

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