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Before you ask, it looks amazing. Magical, even. At times, with neon blazing over the storm-sodden Vinewood streets, puddles dancing with rain splats - as the full spectrum of PS4 particle effects and lighting coalesce - it looks like a tiny miracle: easily the best-looking new-gen game yet. At others, it's 'merely' impeccably high-res and comfortably familiar.
Above all, its GTAV stretched to its extremes: the violent crescendos more vivid, abrupt and dislocating; yet its peaceful, almost transcendental moments, more ethereal and serene - oh, and there's a new First Person mode that might just change the way we play GTA games, but in the rush to describe so much bewildering, eclectic *stuff*, it's possible to forget.
We were treated to a two-hour hands-on with GTAV on PS4 only days ago, and our best attempt to capture the highs, lows and sheer volume of information, however microscopic, can be found in the special episode of GTAVoclock below. It's almost 60 mins, sure, but you can always skip between sections using the time guide below, and we'll do our best to recap our overall impressions here.
There's little need to recap the volume of new content awaiting those who played the PS3 / 360 version and are upgrading to new-gen. It's best-handled by Rockstar's very own Newswire , or in our GTA V next-gen summary. Either way, we got to sample very few of the new side-missions, like Michael's film-noir Murder Mystery, or Franklin's Wildlife Photography Challenge. Not that Rockstar stopped us, but asked us not to spoil anything too pertinent so close to the game's November 18 release.
If it's surprises you're after, our hands-on threw up plenty, in vintage GTAV fashion. Even when you adjust to the incredible new visuals, at 1080p and 30fps no less (trust us, 30 fps is plenty, before we all enter 60fps-or-bust therapy groups, with the frame-rate notably fluid, even at its explosive peaks), the game keeps catching you off guard.
Sure, cruising around Downtown Los Santos in a Pegassi Zentorno can almost look and feel mundane (well, relatively), until your attention is caught by a comically-fluffy cat eye-balling you at the traffic lights, as it ambles up a side street. Good / bad news: cats aren't bullet-proof, but we didn't put it to the test. There's over 20 new species of wildlife, but it's those in bushy new-gen fuzz that catch the eye. Oh, and did we mention the PC version will run in up to 4k? That, too.
First-person mode is the big change. It's not just a case of plonking a new camera within a character's head, just because they could, but an extensive rework of the game's movement, driving and targeting engines. There are thousands of new animations for gun reloading alone, no to mention the first-person views of parachuting, carjacking etc.
A particularly fine moment is being run over by a speeding truck in first-person, watching the world rotate and blur, like tipping your head back on a rollercoaster. Peer down with the right stick and you can see your feet, your body and even your phone, now a full 3D object, not a 2D icon. Selfies have never looked more stupidly real, even if character's faces are still a fissure below the uncanny valley, with the ability to blush, raise eyebrows and other relative subtleties.
First-person options are bogglingly extensive, with options for Assisted Aim, Semi-Assisted Aim, Free Aim and much, much more. You can set first-person targeting with third-person cover, or third-person targeting with first-person driving... the choice is huge. First-person (FP) street brawls feel more hilariously, violently wrong than ever. The FP combat would even lend itself to a Punch Out-style dedicated mini-game, if Rockstar desired. That's the point: Rockstar, bizarrely, were in danger of becoming trapped in the open-world genre of their own creation, forever tied to third-person conventions.
The FP mode, at a head-dipping, momentum-fuelled step (yes, you can toggle this too) moves Rockstar into the most lucrative arena outside their own: the first-person shooter. Battlefield Hardline might be a first-person cops 'n robbers squad shooter that apes GTA, but Rockstar's game *is* GTA, now liberated to tackle any genre it chooses.
"Even when you adjust to the incredible new visuals, the game keeps catching you off guard."
GTA Online lets you create FP-only races and death-matches, with the long-anticipated Heists now, apparently, on the near-horizon. Call of Duty-style contests? Almost certainly, and Rockstar have the scope to tackle their rivals on all fronts with custom DLC and user-created FP content.
We haven't even talked about the 100s of new songs our hours of new DJ chatter (Back Street Boys 'Tell me Why', anyone?), or the ability to dip into first-person at any time (tap the PS4 face pad), or the amazing new pedestrian chatter (we tailed a guy fobbing off his boss in a 30 second phone call), or the soft, haunting glow of lightning, or the new smog effects, or the fireflies in the forest, or swimming with a whale.
