GTA V announcedFollow

I'll second that sentiment, though I haven't watched the trailer yet. Between the GTA games, Bully, and RDR, their formula is getting pretty stale for me.

I think they need to redesign their mission structure from the ground up. That's probably the most important thing.

I'm glad we're planning on getting that PS3 now. If nothing else, I missed running around and shooting things in GTA IV.

Vice City was the best because it was about the 80s.

Looks good to me. I'm just finishing Liberty City up now. Not a ground breaking game as far as GTA goes, but compared to previous ones, it's huge. I love going around exploring and these games keep me busy for a while. Also being more of an old school NES gamer, they don't require me to have extra fingers to play it like most next-gen games do.

P.S. I hope they bring back the missing packages. Something about killing flying rats just didn't satisfy me.

The big thing that brought GTA IV down was the constant babysitting you would have to do in between missions. If it didn't have that really annoying navi wanna-be then it would be really enjoyable to play through. Also if they gave the options to have a couple different endings depending on the choices you made through the game that would have been really awesome. Apparently I kept making the same decision later on in the game so I kept getting the same ending. Now I got to play through the game again. /shakefist

Here's hoping they can learn from the high points of GTA:San Andreas and GTA IV and make a solid game. All while avoiding this.

I'd like to see them get more serious. There are some signs of a trend in that direction with GTAIV and RDR, but I feel like they were undermined by the mission structure. It's hard to get the motivation to care about my protagonist when he's an ambivalent douchebag who'll burn down a children's hospital just because some guy yelled at him and told him to.

Rockstar doesn't handle character development very well. It isn't because they don't have the skills for it (because in flashes, they show the ability), but because it's always at odds with their gameplay. I'd say that they could just eschew any seriousness and just go with sandbox-craziness, but it seems like Saints Row is cornering that market.

Edited, Nov 4th 2011 12:59pm by Eske

I've got a boatload of issues with RDR's characterizations (and I understand that not everyone shares them). Marston's character's motivations don't make any sense. It's a commonality with Rockstar's games. He defends a group of nuns from being harassed by a drunk, of his own volition. Then he stumbles upon a rebel town that's under siege by vicious government troops. The general in command basically flags him down and says, "Hey you, help me murder all of these families and burn their town to the ground" and Marston is like "Sure, I didn't have anything else planned."

The implied motivation is that he'll do anything and everything in order to get the information that he needs to kill his old gang-mates and rescue his family. Except for a massive stretch of the game, his family is a distant memory while you hop around from mission to mission, making it seem like Marston just really enjoys doing the bidding of anyone who'll ask, for no reason whatsoever. He's frustratingly patient with people who do all but come out and say "Dude, I'm totally stringing you along for my benefit. I've got no intention of helping you." He continues to be that way, even when they're threatening him and talking down to him to his face. And because it's a Rockstar game, you know that you'll be killing those very same mission-givers just a little down the road. You're listening to Marston take their tongue-lashings, and just thinking "C'mon, I already know I'm going to kill this guy later. Why can't I just shoot him now?"

Then there's the fact that you almost single-handedly topple an entire nation's government, and kill roughly 85,000 people, but Marston seems to be deathly afraid of confronting the people that have his family captured. That didn't really jive with me.

I thought the ending was strong, though, and I thought they did a good job with his son. The moments between the two of them were pretty well done, and some of the game's high points.

Edited, Nov 4th 2011 3:46pm by Eske

Looks like the post got nuked to infinity and beyond.

That's right. When an admin's wrath falls upon you, you become Buzz Lightyear.