Why GTA V is going to be fantastic.

With all the news that's been released about Rockstar's next installment of the highly acclaimed Grand Theft Auto series, I thought I'd make a quick summary of all the great features that are going to make GTA V a game to remember. The new trailer was released yesterday, and so my hype toward this game has completely been restored. We get to see the new protagonists in action, and some sneak peeks of the kind of missions we'll be doing throughout the game. Here's the new trailer:

The trailer isn't the only thing that has been released though, a ton of information has been released by Rockstar about the game itself. Here are some reasons why you should definitely be excited for GTA V

Not one Protagonist, but three

That's right, you read correctly. Meet Micheal, Trevor and Franklin. Rockstar has decided that playing one badass criminal isn't enough anymore, and now we have 3 to choose from. You can switch between any 3 of the characters outside missions, and the 3 often team up for heists and other criminal hijinks. Rockstars reasoning behind this is pretty simple, it didn't feel realistic enough when Niko moaned about wanting to quit the criminal lifestyle and had morals against killing peole, then the player went on a huge road-rage killing spree with him. With 3 protagonists Rockstar hopes to add a little more realism, as when not being played they will go about their daily lives, and when you switch back to them you may find yourself in some interesting situations! Another great key feature of having 3 protagonists is when they team up together for missions. You will be able to switch points of view, an example given by Rockstar is a heist of a business building, where one guy  is rappelling the building, one sniping and one driving a helicopter.

Biggest game world yet

Los Santos, where GTA V is set, is bigger than Liberty City, San Andreas and Red Dead Redemption combined. The possibilities will be endless, I absolutely cannot wait. Free roam sandbox games are truly my favourite things, I sink endless hours into the Elder Scrolls series, Fallout and GTA's. A bigger game world means more content (unless Rockstar decide to leave everything blank which I highly doubt!) and more stuff to do. It's really the little things that give these games their charm, and the return of gun shops is something I'm really looking forward to.

Improved Features

Car Physics, Gun fighting and Melee combat have all been tweaked and improved. The driving improvements are something I am personally looking forward to, I hated the driving physics in GTA IV, it felt slippy and skiddy. Hopefully it will feel more realistic, and getting away from the police in a high-speed chase won't be ruined by the dry roads handling like ice. I'm also quite excited for the improved melee, there's something extremely satisfying about GTA Melee, like getting a perfect KO punch in GTA IV.

Realistic Pedestrians

The pedestrians in these games have always irked me a little bit, they've always just felt generic and boring, fillers just to make the city less empty (an exception to this was a transexual in Vice City that used to say "Ew  you're sweaty" in a hilarious voice, causing my cousin, brother and I to laugh every time it happened, and run past said pedestrian to trigger the speech). However, in GTA V some pedestrians have been modeled and animated using motion capture technology, and more voice actors have been hired. Hopefully this means more variety and less of a "copy and paste" feel.

Dynamic "Quests"

If you played Red Dead, you'll remember the dynamic events that could happen. For those that haven't, I'll briefly explain. You would find a person stranded in the wild, or a damsel in distress, and you could participate in these and receive unique objectives, sometimes with cool story lines. These are completely optional and add a nice amount of flavour to the game. I'm really excited for these to be added to GTA, we all know Rockstar are capable of making some really quirky and funny ones.

Other small features

There are plenty of small things being added too, a smart phone called "iFruit" (very clever Rockstar) that allows internet access and probably the same phone features as IV, more choice of customisable  clothes, the addition of an economy where players can spend their honest(!) hard earned dollars. Of course, some stuff has been removed; dating and real estate among these. I won't really miss the dating but I'm curious how the game will handle save points without the real estate.

If the game is going in the direction it seems to be, as the title says, this games going to be fantastic. I like the fact GTA is moving away from the "zany wacky" feel of San Andreas and Vice City. While those games were brilliant in their time, and still have brilliant replay value, games need to change and evolve, lest they get stuck in a rut of rehash after rehash after rehash (CoD anyone?). There's still Saints Row out there for the fan of the older games, but personally, I cannot wait.

Game of the year 2013, calling it now.