E3 2014: Why Should You Play Grand Theft Auto V Again?

Lots of big games have been revealed and shown off this E3. There is an insane amount of new games to look forward to across all platforms and you would be forgiven if you started forgetting about any games that are getting a next gen port. But Grand Theft Auto V coming to both PlayStation 4 and Xbox One (as well as finally coming to PC) is big news that deserves your attention. You may be over this game by now, but let me tell you why this version will be worth your time.

One of the interesting parts of this announcement is that unlike the Tomb Raider and The Last of Us ports that carry extra titles (TLoU: Remastered for example) this is quite simply GTA V on new consoles. So what does this mean? It could mean that the exact same game is being ported with no changes but if you've seen the trailer and have a keen eye you will notice this certainly isn't the case. But comparing the final game to the original trailers there was certainly a noticeable difference. Maybe that now Rockstar have got the big, money making release on old consoles out the way, they can release their true vision for GTA V on the new generation. Perhaps the original trailers were showing this new version all along.
Rockstar have said the game will include “Increased draw distances, finer texture details, denser traffic, and enhanced resolutions.” This may just sound like the usual jargon a developer would use to big up their release but again if we have a quick look we can see a noticeable difference between the game we currently have and the one they are now showing us.

In the above GIF you can see a clear upgrade to the overall textures, mainly making the grass and ground look way more realistic. This is emphasised even more in the below GIF that shows such a huge difference in the detail of the grass. It’s a small difference but it does completely change the way the scenery looks and helps hugely in making countryside vistas look that much more beautiful.

Also seen in the trailer are new animal breeds such as hammerhead sharks, cats and more dog breeds. There also seems to be more animals around in general such as seeing multiple sharks at once which never happened before as well as a cougar hunting deer; it seems the overall AI has also been improved. The amount of NPCs and traffic also seems much bigger and helps really make the world seem more alive.
Another big reason this release excites me is GTA Online. While I was disappointed with the final product I hope this release can fix all the bugs and also add plenty of new content. We still haven't got Heists (come on already Rockstar!) and with all the previous add-on content coming to this version at launch, it won't be so easy to run out of new content like it was at launch. Also having this online service on new consoles is great as I hope they continue to add and evolve it over the years and this simply cannot happen if you have to plug in an old console to play it. And being able to carry over GTA Online progress from either Xbox 360 or PS3 to any of the new versions is another reason to keep playing as we won’t have to start over again.

Perhaps the biggest news from all of this is finally a release for PC. PC players have had to be really patient but it looks like it may have paid off as they will undoubtedly get the best version of the game possible. Rockstar have already announced an advanced movie maker for the PC version and with the potential for mods in the community, this will surely be the definitive version of the game.
Of course the game still won't be out till the fall which is a long time and hopefully before this release we should see the first piece of single player DLC. We still have no idea when it will arrive and what it could potentially include. I personally hope it’s either a prequel set in North Yankton or involves breaking into the Los Santos Prison as both of these areas are awesome and were criminally underused in the main story. Whatever this DLC is, it should absolutely be included in this new version when it arrives.
While it is mainly small changes, it looks to certainly be worth picking up again if you crave more GTA content. If you didn’t play the game originally this is now the perfect time to jump in and I really hope we get Rockstar’s true vision of Grand Theft Auto V. No more hardware limitations, just pure artistic realization. It’s for that reason alone why you should care about Grand Theft Auto V coming to a next generation console or PC later this year.