After a long time I come back from the ashes (oh yes I am working full time now) and thought of coming back to NoobyWorld and write something. For 4-5 months I have been out of touch with the gaming industry due to my focus of my music and my new job. These are the reasons why could not get into much writing about recent games. As Halo 4 has been released (I still haven’t played the game and I am waiting until I come back to US on 23^rd) and Black Ops II has just been released (Activision please don’t screw us this time like you did it yet again with 007 Legends), I thought I should put more focus on the upcoming Grand Theft Auto game.

I have played almost more or less all the Grand Theft Auto games starting from the 3D era. The last Grand Theft Auto 4 was indeed a great game but it did not hook me up as much as how San Andreas did. As Grand Theft Auto 5 will be getting released soon and how Rockstar has very much secretive about their development, I really can’t discuss a lot about the contents rather than just discuss about my expectations about the game. Well the huge expectations from me are very much legit since Rockstar do take a long development period and do bring us something new.

The first thing that comes to my mind is that we need a humongous area to explore just like what we experienced in San Andreas. It would allow much variation in gameplay and environment interaction. Red Dead Redemption did fairly a good job bringing vast land to explore with so many side missions in it. I personally like this urban suburb setting, not only because of variation but also because it brings something me in it (I have travelling here and there a hell lot). GTA IV had many side gameplays in its urban setting. Combining the features in Red Dead Redemption and GTA IV would really take the game to a new level. Horses anyone? I am thinking too much right now. Just I won’t like the fact that the game should only feature Los Santos and only Los Santos. If possible I would like Rockstar to have the whole western areas covered and if possible bring on fictional areas of Canada and Mexico or even Hawaii (yes that would even bring some Vice City feel in it). I would like to see people spending hours interacting the urban setting alone. The last sandbox game that I played, Yakuza 4, did a very good job hooking me up and let me have many sleepless nights. I heard the news that GTA V will be bigger than San Andreas, RDR and GTAIV combined. I am widely optimistic about this game. Just they need to make sure the environments are different.

What GTAIV did is bringing up realism a lot, which is good but it does sacrifice some craziness in it. Vehicle physics is a good addition and I think Rockstar would keep it but I would also expect Rockstar give us a lot of crazy moments taking this vehicle physics into account. I am sure it cannot be as unreal as Saints Row III but people like doing crazy things and gives ample reason to discuss among each other. Saint Row III was not a technological feat or anything new. It perfected the formula of being hilarious and unreal and Rockstar, although not follow Saint Row III completely, should invent some gameplay features so that people can say “Oh man, I just destroyed 200 cars with a single explosion and man that was so hard to do, how many cars you blew up?” The last time I heard from Rockstar is that you can play as both protagonist and antagonist. That is pretty much optimistic in my point of view.

Rockstar never fail to bring in good storylines in the gameplay and I already assume it will be the same from GTA V. In that case I would leave it to the hands to the writers in Rockstar because they are yet to fail me when it comes to good storyline. I would however add something. In the side missions, I would like to have some storyline going in and also have proper preplanning activities, not just take the job and do the job. For example if there is a robbery side mission then there should be a systematic way where the character can build himself enough to be able to rob a bank or even rob a military vehicle. It could be finding items or building the body by going to the gym or start eating less since the character needs to run away faster with more stamina. It will bring in more extra game time. I would also like to have some detective elements in the game just like L.A. Noire to give some thrilling. I also saw a picture with flying F/A-18A shooting a missile. Dogfight elements anyone? Rockstar never focused much on hand to hand combat and judging by how Yakuza 4 did so well in hand to hand combat, I would also urge Rockstar to do some thinking about it.

There are tons of ideas running into my mind. I know I am thinking too much for a single game but it is not wrong to think it like this way. Expectations can be broken but ideas should always be welcomed. Rockstar is a company that likes to play with ideas. For a $60 game, the game should be developed in that way. A good well content game will give enough justification for people to spend those 60 dollars since they will not regret buying it. Sandbox games have vast areas to improve and if Rockstar tends to focus on improving every aspect of the game, it will give enough doses for other sandbox game makers to reach to the same level of standards. Considering the fact how I am disapproving the way FPS and RPG games are going (I still haven’t played Halo 4 and Black Ops II yet and Skyrim is the big exception), the developers are on a right track when it comes to sandbox games (I am yet to get disappointed by any of the current sandbox type games).