Replaying this 'cause the GTA VI trailer got me all hyped and shit. I haven't played this game since 2014, back on my old fat PS3 (RIP). It's still real good, especially with all the touchups in the PS5 remaster. The art direction and technical team absolutely cooked here, I'm constantly blown away by how beautiful the game's lighting looks. And I can't help but yelp everytime the dusk/dawn in the horizon presents itself, the colors are so pleasing to the eyes. So hats off to them, it's a very good remaster job.
Before I started, I admit, I was expecting to enjoy the story more now, since I actually can understand English at a higher level. But it's such a dumb mess. The fact that it's mostly an excuse to be able to do crazy ass mission scenarios is just too obvious, a lot of them barely connect. I also can't stand most of Michael's scum family drama, and many of Trevor's psychotic antics. Franklin's not perfect, but his interactions with the people in his hood are always a stand out. Lamar might be a loser but he's the funniest guy around, easily my favorite out of the side cast.
At least they didn't stumble with the missions. Of course, you have to put in the fact that Rockstar is very much still in the business of putting way too many shootouts in them. In many cases, it's either not necessary, or they go on for too long. But I can't deny that there's a lot of kick-ass missions here. If I had to pick a couple favorites, it would be:
- The Bureau Raid. It's so cool pretending to be firemen and navigating the ruined floors. And you get some AAA floor mopping action too!
- Father/Son. There's so much happening in a few minutes here. Getting Franklin to jump on the yacht, catching Jimmy while he's hanging from the pole, and listening to all the dysfunctional father-son banter in the process.
- Scouting the Port. I liked all the heist prep missions because they serve well as the bridge between the hard hitting action, and this is probably the best one to me. I guess I like handling the heavy equipment too much, haha.
A lot of these missions, especially the heists, are big, showboat-y set pieces made to amaze. At this point, bombastic action doesn't hit as hard as they did a decade ago, and the aforementioned shootout bloat only makes things worse. Still, I appreciate that Rockstar were trying to push themselves, at least on the technical side.
Now I want to talk a bit about the side activities. This is where the scope of the game gets truly massive. There's just so much to do. Races, tennis, parachuting, hunting, etc. Most of these aren't individually stellar, but you can't beat Rockstar at being the jack of ALL trades. My personal favorite is the Triathlon, it's basically a set piece, but about seeing the most beautiful environments instead of killing and blowing things up. In fact, I almost shed a tear seeing the blue-orange Los Santos city scape in the distance as I was frantically mashing X, biking from hillbilly land in the other direction. And I gotta say, I like towing vehicles a lot, haha. There's also a lot of things to spend your money on, which helps the end game even more. It feels like no matter what your interests are, there's at least one side activity that you can treat like a hobby and just focus on.
This replay was a very productive one, might be the most productive replay I ever had. It's hard to believe that since GTA V first came out, there's only one game that can challenge it on its turf (Watch Dogs 2, baby!). The open world modern city genre has not been in the spotlight for a while now, and many of the old GTA clones from back in the day has taken a down turn, or outright disappear. I really think that there's still so much to gain from this open world formula, and I hope GTA VI can prove it. There's a lot of new tricks that Rockstar can learn, and I have faith in their capability to excite us with something fresh.
Side note: there's so many cats and dogs running around the city now. I'm pretty sure they added these post PS3-360. They're so cute!
Before I started, I admit, I was expecting to enjoy the story more now, since I actually can understand English at a higher level. But it's such a dumb mess. The fact that it's mostly an excuse to be able to do crazy ass mission scenarios is just too obvious, a lot of them barely connect. I also can't stand most of Michael's scum family drama, and many of Trevor's psychotic antics. Franklin's not perfect, but his interactions with the people in his hood are always a stand out. Lamar might be a loser but he's the funniest guy around, easily my favorite out of the side cast.
At least they didn't stumble with the missions. Of course, you have to put in the fact that Rockstar is very much still in the business of putting way too many shootouts in them. In many cases, it's either not necessary, or they go on for too long. But I can't deny that there's a lot of kick-ass missions here. If I had to pick a couple favorites, it would be:
- The Bureau Raid. It's so cool pretending to be firemen and navigating the ruined floors. And you get some AAA floor mopping action too!
- Father/Son. There's so much happening in a few minutes here. Getting Franklin to jump on the yacht, catching Jimmy while he's hanging from the pole, and listening to all the dysfunctional father-son banter in the process.
- Scouting the Port. I liked all the heist prep missions because they serve well as the bridge between the hard hitting action, and this is probably the best one to me. I guess I like handling the heavy equipment too much, haha.
A lot of these missions, especially the heists, are big, showboat-y set pieces made to amaze. At this point, bombastic action doesn't hit as hard as they did a decade ago, and the aforementioned shootout bloat only makes things worse. Still, I appreciate that Rockstar were trying to push themselves, at least on the technical side.
Now I want to talk a bit about the side activities. This is where the scope of the game gets truly massive. There's just so much to do. Races, tennis, parachuting, hunting, etc. Most of these aren't individually stellar, but you can't beat Rockstar at being the jack of ALL trades. My personal favorite is the Triathlon, it's basically a set piece, but about seeing the most beautiful environments instead of killing and blowing things up. In fact, I almost shed a tear seeing the blue-orange Los Santos city scape in the distance as I was frantically mashing X, biking from hillbilly land in the other direction. And I gotta say, I like towing vehicles a lot, haha. There's also a lot of things to spend your money on, which helps the end game even more. It feels like no matter what your interests are, there's at least one side activity that you can treat like a hobby and just focus on.
This replay was a very productive one, might be the most productive replay I ever had. It's hard to believe that since GTA V first came out, there's only one game that can challenge it on its turf (Watch Dogs 2, baby!). The open world modern city genre has not been in the spotlight for a while now, and many of the old GTA clones from back in the day has taken a down turn, or outright disappear. I really think that there's still so much to gain from this open world formula, and I hope GTA VI can prove it. There's a lot of new tricks that Rockstar can learn, and I have faith in their capability to excite us with something fresh.
Side note: there's so many cats and dogs running around the city now. I'm pretty sure they added these post PS3-360. They're so cute!