Gaming's driving ambitions: The Crew and Grand Theft Auto V

Re: Social Gaming...

i've suddenly become time-poor too. i don't quite know when it happened.

but i've found GTA Online is pretty good for infrequent visits. sure, you're not going to become world famous, but it doesn't punish you for not spending your life logged in. there aren't really any aspects that require you to grind away for hours to achieve something.

and there's a lot of fun to be had in the playlist missions if you get a good mix of other players.

Re: Always online requirement? No sale.

Perhaps they were at breaking point because they just couldn't get their braking point right.

Re: Always online requirement? No sale.

"no good reason to mandate an internet connection"

while that is true, i can't be bothered to go to the settings and enable/disable the wifi all the time, or get up and yank the ethernet out of the back of the ps4, so whether the game mandates it or not, these days i am in fact always online.

(obviously, if your internet provider has a tiny data cap on your usage and punishingly expensive costs if you exceed it, they yes, best to avoid online games at all)

Re: Always online requirement? No sale.

there is no good reason to mandate an internet connection.

The only working form of DRM makes for reason enough.

@AC

I have to agree with you about the hype part, and I also thought your review was interesting. However; I've also spotted some items I don't agree with. For example: "X game is better than GTA V" really is in the eye of the beholder. At times I like playing Minecraft much more than GTA V but that doesn't make it necessarily better per definition.

One of the reasons why I thought the graphics in GTA V (ps3) were disappointing is because they borrowed (or used) the same graphics engine which was being used in L.A. Noire. Granted; GTA V brings much more detail to the environment, but the look and feel is pretty much the same.

My personal gripe with GTA V is the crammed up storyline. It just isn't long enough to do dive into all three characters. This worked flawlessly in GTA IV but only because all characters got time to develop. Niko had to cope with both learning you all about Liberty City and dive into the character. But as soon as you got TLAD you already knew about the basics thus could dive right into the main course. And it still provided plenty of character building. Same with TBoGT.

Story wise I enjoyed GTA IV a whole lot better. It felt like it had much more depth. And of course there was a surprise angle when you got to play certain missions again yet from a whole different perspective (it was pretty cool when I played Johnny and met up with Niko; I knew what was gonna happen yet they still managed to add new surprising elements to it).

But that magic is all gone in GTA V.

GTA Online.. its kinda cool but also pretty much ruined by R*'s constant changes. Esp. the reward system. It seems to me as if R* doesn't know shit about providing a good balanced multi-user gameplay where economy is concerned. Because right now it seems everyone has a buzzard (attack helicopter) yet few know how to use it. Wouldn't be the first time I tried to take on a mission (taking out an enemy crew for example) only to get shot down by some idiot in a Buzzard.

Its unbalanced. The whole of it. Some missions require a minimum of 2 - 3 players while they can easily be done alone while others force you to repeat your actions because you're alone ('gentry does it'; steal 2 boats. If you destroy one its game over. You need to deliver a boat, go back and deliver the other. While in other missions you can just destroy one vehicle, deliver the other and you're good).

For me the replay value of GTA V is very low.

re: Oz gamers are calling for the bible to be banned:

So they agree such things shouldn't be available?

I would commend them on their progressiveness, but I fear they are just ignorant, like their US counterparts.

Just to be clear, corporations do not have morals. Mothers shop at Target so guess who Target will keep happy? Not the under-18's who don't spend money there and wouldn't be allowed to buy the game anyway.

Mothers tend to be reasonably pragmatic. The chances of children going on a shooting or going on a hit-and-run spree are minimal. It has minimal reward in the real world and very high risk. Abusive sex however has a much better risk/reward ratio (and to a large extent - "use and abuse" - it isn't illegal) and therefore has a much higher real-world incidence.

This is posturing on both sides. Target for removing one game and the gamers for pretending that GTA is a good thing and a shop not selling it is infringing on their "freedoms."

A pox on both their houses.