The Grand Theft Auto series is an extremely popular and well established franchise, published by Rockstar and developed by Rockstar North. The first GTA game of the series was created in 1997, and 14 titles followed this, the most recent being Grand Theft Auto V, which is set to be released in the Spring of 2013. The first GTA game set out to found the new 'Sandbox' format of games, involving violence, organised crime, theft and many other subjects that other games had been reluctant to include before. The games have proved to be very controversial, but also very successful, and the publicity that has surrounded news on GTA V suggests that the new game in the franchise is set to be a huge triumph for Rockstar.
Rockstar has been drip feeding the press news on GTA V for quite a while now, however not a lot is known about the gameplay and production of the game. Rockstar have told us that GTA V 'evolves every mechanic' that was included in every other game of the series, and that the world that game is set in is bigger than the worlds of Red Dead Redemption, San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto IV combined. We also know a bit about that characters in the game - Michael, Trevor and Franklin are the 3 main protagonists (as shown in the image below) and are criminals, whose stories intertwine as they complete missions together. According to the GTA V wikipedia page, "Michael is a retired former bank robber in his early forties who lives with his dysfunctional family on the proceeds of his former life in the upper-class suburb of Rockford Hills, based on Beverley Hills. Trevor lives alone in a trailer in the desert of Blaine County, his reckless and psychopathic behaviours being fuelled by a drug addiction. Franklin makes a living in Vespucci Beach — based on Venice Beach — as a repo man for an unscrupulous car dealership." The three acquaintances are drawn into Los Santos' criminal underworld in the "pursuit of the almighty American dollar". As in all GTA games, the open world of Los Santos (based on Los Angeles) can be fully explored. The GTA world is totally interactive, and players can interact with people with in the game and even pursue hobbies such as scuba diving and base jumping.
On the 2nd of November 2011, Rockstar released the trailer for GTA V, which stimulated a lot of discussion on line. This is an example of how Rockstar virally marketed the game. Rockstar had scheduled to release a second trailer on the 2nd of November of this year, however Hurricane Sandy delayed this, and it is now set to be released on the 14th of November instead. The picture above is a screenshot from the first trailer, which shows a sign, obviously based on the Hollywood sign in LA. The trailer also contaioned footage of a jet aeroplane and many people have concluded that there may be opportunities to actually fly jets in the game. From the 20th to the 24th of August, Rockstar also released a series of screenshots from the game, which also caused a stir on the internet - they provided hints as to what the gameplay will consist of. It's Rockstar's consistant, but scarce marketing strategies mean that publicity is built up, and a lot of 'knowledge' that people have about the game is just speculation. This creates an aura of excitement about GTA V.
We now know for sure that the new GTA game will only be available on PS3 and Xbox, not the new Wii U. The more complicated controllers of the Playstation and Xbox consoles suggest that GTA V will be aimed at core gamers, and the violent content of the game (and also one of the cover art pieces showing a woman in a bikini) suggest a male target audience. Now available for gamers to pre order, it is for sale in the UK in shops such as GAME, Play.com, Zavvi, HMV, Amazon and Tesco. This may mean that Rockstar may have a place in the top 10 gaming charts several months before the game is even released.
No comments:
Post a Comment