GTA V Review

17 september 2013, the day that Boston celebrated it's 383th birthday and the day that the first Space Shuttle became 37 years, but the most important of all, it was the launch day of Grand Theft Auto Five. The launch was the biggest success in entertainment history. Rockstar became one billion dollars richer in only three days. After playing the game for nearly two weeks, I thought it was time for a review.

So, where do I need to start? This game is so extremely big and comprehensive, it's nearly unbelievable. The world is approximately three times as big as Liberty City from GTA IV, but there is also a massive underwater world. The game let's you explore the map by yourself. Every time you go further into the map, your map get's updated. I like this system, because it gives me a good reason to go to the most remote areas of San Andreas, and there are many remote areas. The biggest advantage of the huge world is that you can find new spots for many hours, so the world stays fun to explore. San Andreas looks amazing. The level of detail is fantastic. Every little piece of the world has the smallest details. Even a garbage bin or a towel looks good in this game. The water is greatly improved since GTA V. The waves very realistic. When you are at the ocean you see the typical slow and big waves of an ocean, but when you are at a smaller lake, you see tiny and fast waves. When you are under the waves, you are amazed. The seabed is as detailed as the world above the water. You can see all kinds of different plants, huge underwater canyons and some shipwrecks.

Grand Theft Auto Five is the first game with three main characters. The characters are totally different. The first one you meet is called Michael da Santa. He is a retired bank robber and father of two kids. The second character you meet is Franklin Clinton. He is a young guy who grew up in the poor district of Los Santos. The last character is Trevor Philips. He is totally insane. Trevor is a drug addicted murderer who runs a weapon and drug smuggling company. The characters feel like real persons. Their background story is very good and gives the story an amazing boost. Every character has a special ability. Michael can shoot in slow motion, Franklin can drive in slow motion and Trevor can do more damage and take less damage. The special abilities are very useful during gameplay. The special abilities also fit the stories of the characters. When you play as Franklin, for example, you have much more driving mission than with the other characters. You can switch between the characters using the down button. When switching, the game will zoom out, move to the place of the other character and zoom in again. This looks really nice. You get a cool overview of the area you're in.

The story is very good. The missions are varied and great fun to play. In the beginning of the game the story starts slow, but not too slow. The further you get into the story, the more intense and action packed the game is. Later in the game the missions are very challenging and spectacular, and they are definitely worth it to replay them. The game is all about heists. In the storyline you can play several heists, from a jewelry heist to a stealing the gold reserve of the biggest bank in town. You need to prepare the heists yourself, by choosing a crew and the way of performing the heist. You can always choose between tactical and explosive, gun blazing raiding. After your decision you need to do some small preparation missions to get ready for the heist. This system of making your own heist is really cool. When playing the heist you can truly notice the difference between a good and a bad gunman, which is very important in succeeding.

Vehicles are very important in every Grand Theft Auto. In GTA V there are 257 vehicles, which is amazing. There are trucks, sports cars, boats, classic cars, planes, helicopters, trailers and many more vehicles. Many vehicles are new, but there are also some vehicles from other GTA games. The vehicle handling is totally different than the handling from GTA IV. In GTA IV the vehicles didn't had much grip and leaned much. In GTA V the vehicles are sticked to the road. They have good grip and have a good handling. In the beginning you need to get used to the different handling, but after a couple of hours you can drive much better than in GTA IV. The damage model looks more like the other GTA games when you have little damage, but when you have much damage, the damage looks more like the GTA IV damage. When you have small accidents your bonnet will loosen and your bumper will hang a bit down, but with bigger accidents, your vehicle has a more round damage, just like GTA IV. Your car can lose most of its body parts. The GTA V damage model is much more realistic than any other game damage model on this world.

As mentioned before, cars aren't the only vehicles in GTA V. The boats didn't change much, but I think that wasn't necessary. The boats react very good to the waves of the lakes and oceans. It's even possible to explore the waterworld in a submarine. It's fantastic to explore the seas in a submarine. With the submarine you can discover many underwater easter eggs, but I will tell more about easter eggs later on. Sadly the submarine can only go down to 500 feet, but the seas are much deeper. The trucks and some cars can pull trailers. The truck trailers are very funny to play with. You can, for example, drop a trailer when driving at the highway. This can cause some fantastic accidents, but you can also create roadblocks, have amazing crashes and do many more things. The car trailers are much smaller. Most of the car trailers are boat trailers, and sometimes they actually have a boat on them. There are also some smaller utility trailers. With the car trailers you can have just as much fun as with the truck trailers.

Planes are back again, and this time you can fly in them. When you are in a plane you can see the amazing world really good. The planes in GTA V are very different. You can fly for example in a private jet, or a fighter jet or a jumbo jet. The fighter is fast and has a very good handling, but the jumbo jet has a bad handling, but can go really fast. Using planes in GTA V is very useful, because of the size of the world. You can land them on most of the hills, if you aim good, but when you jump out of the plane later in the game, you get a parachute. Skydiving is much more difficult than in The Ballad of Gay Tony. You fall really fast down, and you can control yourself worse. Parachuting is also more difficult, but you can still land very precise, for example on a driving car. I think the GTA V skydiving and parachuting system is much more realistic, but maybe it's a bit too realistic. Helicopters are more steady than in GTA IV, which is a good improvement. Hitting a building isn't a very big deal anymore, because your helicopter will stay steady.

The AI is extremely good. People on the streets talk to you, react to your actions by taking pictures or calling the police. The police is another one of these great improvements. They are very intelligent. When you are driving they try to block your path, or do a PIT maneuver.  The helicopters of the police have snipers inside them, which try shoot your tires, and they often succeed in doing that. In combat the agents try to stay in cover until they get a chance to shoot you. When you are in a static position, the agents try to flank you. The way of attacking you is extremely deadly when you're not aware of them. Gang members choose a more direct way of attacking you. Every type of enemy has a different way of attacking you, which makes the game much more challenging than any other GTA.

The weapon types of GTA V are nearly the same as in GTA IV, but they shoot very different. I have the idea that they have less recoil, but that isn't a problem for me. For the first time you can customize them. The customizing isn't very extensive. The customizing is nearly always limited to a suppressor, a flashlight, a grip and extended mags. There are three prints: black, army and LSPD. I think the customizing is too limited, which is sad because nearly everything of this game is amazingly extensive. One weapon surprised me: the jerrycan. It's a surprisingly useful weapon. When you have the jerrycan equipped, you can make a gasoline trail. By shooting at it you can ignite it, which creates a flame wall. It's one of my favorite weapons to play with.

Grand Theft Auto Five is one of the biggest games I've ever seen. The world is enormous and highly detailed. The three character idea is fantastic and works very good. The story is good balanced and very exciting to play. Vehicles are very important in GTA and this time they are better than every. You can do many things with with the vehicles. The AI is very intelligent. Every enemy tries to attack you in a different way, which makes the game very challenging. The weapons are good, but the customisation is too limited. Grand Theft Auto Five is the best game I've ever played. I think this game is the best way to exit a generation of consoles. If you don't have this game yet, buy it now! For more GTA V, keep an eye on this blog.

Written by: WZ

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My pre-orders of 2013

Last week I did my pre-orders of this year. I pre-ordered two games: GTA V and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag. I'm so excited about these games. I've said much about GTA V, but I can't get enough of this game. The trailers, screenshots and gameplay look so amazing. Two days left, and then I can enjoy it! (If they send it on monday and hopefully they do...). You can expect much more GTA on this blog, of course I will post a big review, and maybe some let's plays.

Assassin's Creed is one of my favorite series, so I had to pre-order Assassin's Creed IV. Last year I pre-ordered the most expensive version, with a beautiful statue, but this year I chose the Special Edition, which is strangely the cheapest. The gameplay looks amazing. The world is huge, and has a high level of detail. The world has many island to explore, so I'm going to spend many hours to explore them all. I think the game has a very relaxed atmosphere, and that's a thing that I like. Why hurry or stress? You're in a virtual world where you can do what you want in the beautiful Carribean. Just like GTA V you can expect a review and maybe some let's plays.

Both games are very different, but also have many things in common. Both worlds are big, have much detail, you are killing many people in-game, on many ways and there are many animals to hunt. The differences are not very difficult to see, because GTA V is a modern-day game, and Assassin's Creed IV plays in the 18th century. Which games did you pre-order?

Written by: WZ

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Assassins Creed Wall

Every time I come back from school, I drive past a wall with my bicycle. The wall contains always an advertisement for something, but in May, it was an amazing advertisement. I tweeted a picture of a picture of the amazing wall. The wall art contained a huge Assassin's Creed IV logo. Many of you liked it. When I went back to school, the wall was repainted. Now it looks even better. The wall contains the boxart of Assassin's Creed IV! It looks in real life way better than on my pictures, so if you're in Amsterdam, check it out!

I did some research to know a bit more about the wall. There is a company called ikwilgraffiti (I want graffiti) who make murals, paintings, rooms and give workshops. They made both the paintings. If you want to know how they made the murals, click here.

I think this way is a great way to promote a video game. Every time I drive past it I'm amazed by the size and beauty. Do you have any amazing game paintings in your neighborhood?

Written by: WZ

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Ten things I would like to see in GTA V

The big waiting is nearly over, GTA V is coming in two weeks! Rockstar came with loads of new ideas for the latest game in their super popular gangstar game. But which things would I want to see? I'm going to tell you the ten things I would like to see in GTA V.

1 Apps
You can do many things in Los Santos. For example you can buy stocks. But if you are in the desert, your stocks are useless. But if you download the BAWSAQ (GTA version of NASDAQ) app, you can check your stocks, everywhere, anytime. That's not all, it would of course also be very useful if you can sell and buy them. I can imagine many more apps, but I won't annoy you with more ideas. Time for number two!

2 Delivery service
If you ever played GTA Chinatown Wars, you know the Ammu-Nation delivery service. If you download the Ammu-Nation app, you can order guns, and then, they will be delivered to the closest safehouse, just like in GTA Chinatown Wars. Guns are of course not the only things I would like to order. I would also like to order clothes, cars and pets. Pets? Yes pets! Read more about them at number three!

3 Pets
What I would like to see is pets. Of course you have the very cute dog of Franklin, he has the name Chop. But dogs aren't anything. How awesome would it be if there is a bird flying around you when you're stealing a car, or a kitten who is walking through the bank you're robbing. I think that would be awesome! When you're done stroking your kitty, read number four!

4 More cheats
If you ask somebody to name typical GTA features, the change is big that the person would say 'cheats'. I thought the cheats of GTA IV were a bit disappointing. Some guns, some sports cars, a heli, get rid of the cops, full ammo, health and armor. That's it! I want many cheats. I want to spawn airplanes, yacht's, heli's, many different cars, every gun, health, ammo, armor, get rid of the cops, change the weather, change everybody into Elvis, a ninja or a hooker, blow up every car, fly in my car and every other thing I could imagine. Fun cheats, that's what I missed in GTA IV. Sadly cheats don't work in real life, so check out number five!

5 Useless vehicle functions
Yes, useless vehicle functions to use. Got it? In GTA Vice City Stories the forklift could actually lift things. I want that back! And the Packer from GTA San Andreas, which had a liftable vehicle ramp so I could store cars. A skycrane would also be awesome. Lifting boats and drop them on the streets with a skycrane would be cool! When you're finished lifting vehicles, check the awesome number six!

6 Fighting styles
Fighting styles, just like in San Andreas. Boxing, Kung Fu, Martial Arts, Karate and any other thing you could imagine. Why hitting somebody on a useless way when you can fight in amazing styles. Some cool moves and somebody is laying on the ground. One swipe of a stick and your enemy is on the ground. Many things that would be great to see back in Los Santos. When everybody in your room is laying paralyzed on the ground, check number 7!

7 Satchel charges
The sticky and deadly bombs which were available in GTA San Andreas. The sticky bombs of The Ballad of Gay Tony were basically the same, so they would also be great to return. The cool thing of satchel charges way sticking them on a car, get a high speed, jump out and then... BOOOOOMM!!!!! Great fun! When everything is detonated, have a look at number eight!

8 Store robbing
Robbing stores, a perfect criminal activity. I hope that you can rob stores in GTA V. In Mafia 2 it was the best way to earn money, and get free stuff. Of course Rockstar can't come with such an easy way of robbing, and it's not very exciting. So, if the shopkeepers attacked you and it was a bit harder, it would be better. More possibilities would also be better. Think about driving through the front wall, enter the shop via a back alley. When every single store in Los Santos is empty, read number 9!

9 Destructible environments
How awesome would it be to blow up a building? Awesome of course! I'm quite sure that's not going to happen, but destructible environments are also possible in a bit more simple way. I think it would be great if you could blow up a wall if you want to be on the other side of the wall. Blowing up walls isn't everything of course. If it was possible to destroy trees, electricity poles, roads and shops, the world would be a lot more fun to play in. After every tree is down on the ground, it's time to burn them! Burn them? Yes! Check number 10!

10 Huge fires
Everybody knows the molotovs to light the world on fire, but they are often small and are finished in a very short time. That's why I would like to see big fires which last long. Burning a huge part of the countryside down, and then racing through it. That would be great. Another advantage is that a big fire is actually an interesting job for the fireman. In the previous games the fires were often finished before the firemen's arrived.

So that are the ten things I would like to see in GTA V. I don't think many of them would make it to the game, but if many do, it would be awesome. What would you like to see in GTA V?

Written by: WZ

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