Rockstar has lifted the lid on its plans for the new-gen version of Grand Theft Auto V, and it makes for happy reading ahead of an already busy Christmas release schedule on PS4 and Xbox One. Mark the date now: 18 November. PC gamers will have to wait it out a little longer, until 27 January to be precise, as Rockstar says a little fine-tuning is in order. But trust us, it’ll all be worth it.
Your shiny jaunts across Los Santos come with vast visual improvements, from the sumptuous bleeding of light effects (with the neon signs of Vinewood boulevard at night time looking particularly swish) to a new foliage system which sees greenery sway lushly in the breeze. We’ve seen a huge number of incremental upgrades besides: whiskey swills in glasses, light refracts through bottles, and water behaves, well, like water, spraying and flowing in ways that make the PS3 and 360 versions look about as inviting as a lake of manatee sweat. Do manatees sweat? If they did,
it’d be gross, so we’ll let that stick.
Hammer time
And we’re in for more than just a bit of a tarting up, as a glut of additional content is also set to touch down. New animals, including hammerhead sharks and killer whales, will be waiting in the water for those of an aquatic persuasion, and are among the features inbound. Plus you’ll get to take part in an all-new wildlife photography minigame whenever you’re not signing up for the extra shooting
challenges that are also incoming.
GTA Online is naturally getting an overhaul, too. All of the content that’s been pumped out since its launch a year ago will be included from day one, but the most exciting news on the multiplayer front is that player lobbies will cater for 30 people at once. 30-player deathmatches? Yes please.
Save as houses
We’re a little peeved at rockstar's decision to limit some content to those that have played the last-gen versions, however. Those aforementioned new wildlife photography and shooting modes, alongside returning vehicles from past GTAs, will only be available for download if you’ve completed the prologue of GTA V on a last-gen machine.
We’ll have to wait and see if there will be another way to access this new content, perhaps as a piece of DLc. However either way you won’t have to play through the whole thing a second time, as save transferring between generations is possible. That said, it’s very possible you’ll want to anyway…
Your shiny jaunts across Los Santos come with vast visual improvements, from the sumptuous bleeding of light effects (with the neon signs of Vinewood boulevard at night time looking particularly swish) to a new foliage system which sees greenery sway lushly in the breeze. We’ve seen a huge number of incremental upgrades besides: whiskey swills in glasses, light refracts through bottles, and water behaves, well, like water, spraying and flowing in ways that make the PS3 and 360 versions look about as inviting as a lake of manatee sweat. Do manatees sweat? If they did,
it’d be gross, so we’ll let that stick.
Hammer time
And we’re in for more than just a bit of a tarting up, as a glut of additional content is also set to touch down. New animals, including hammerhead sharks and killer whales, will be waiting in the water for those of an aquatic persuasion, and are among the features inbound. Plus you’ll get to take part in an all-new wildlife photography minigame whenever you’re not signing up for the extra shooting
challenges that are also incoming.
GTA Online is naturally getting an overhaul, too. All of the content that’s been pumped out since its launch a year ago will be included from day one, but the most exciting news on the multiplayer front is that player lobbies will cater for 30 people at once. 30-player deathmatches? Yes please.
Save as houses
We’re a little peeved at rockstar's decision to limit some content to those that have played the last-gen versions, however. Those aforementioned new wildlife photography and shooting modes, alongside returning vehicles from past GTAs, will only be available for download if you’ve completed the prologue of GTA V on a last-gen machine.
We’ll have to wait and see if there will be another way to access this new content, perhaps as a piece of DLc. However either way you won’t have to play through the whole thing a second time, as save transferring between generations is possible. That said, it’s very possible you’ll want to anyway…