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GTA V GameInformer Discussion (11/8, 12PM EST)
- Thread starter Buckethead
- Start date
tuna on toast
Banned
I just had a go at measuring it myself, get somewhere like 22 square miles of explorable region based on the train tunnel being ~0.7 miles long. The official map is about a 52 square mile rectangle but the majority of it isn't actually reachable.
Interestingly that means the official rectangular RDR map is actually big enough to fit the size of RDR, San Andreas and GTA IV in at once..
IV - around 6 square miles
San Andreas - around 14 square miles
So, if RDR is 22, then V will be around 42.
Ninja Scooter
Member
i'm getting some GTA withdrawals after all this coverage. Should I replay III on PSN, or play (for the first time) the GTA4 Episodes?
Play the episodes. Especially Gay Tony is a great GTA game. If you want to play something from the GTA III trilogy, get Vice City.
Episodes I think. I've been playing Gay Tony this week, so much fun.
Gay Tony did an ok job at restoring GTA to its past glory but it was only 1 step forward from 4. For what it is it's still relatively fun.
InaudibleWhispa
Member
Some guy at GTAForums has worked out the exact map sizes by walking a quarter of each map, noting the distance travelled by foot in the menu and working out how many pixels per mile each map is. San Andreas is the largest, followed by Red Dead then IV. Which feels exactly right to me, no way did I ever believe that RDR (playable space) is that much bigger than San Andreas. Anyway, it puts his overall ballpark for V at roughly 30 sq miles.
Robot Pants
Member
I even went back and started up 4 again. Probably gonna replay the episodes after too.
I can't believe red dead was that big. It only felt big to me because of the unbearably slow horses, but then again a lot of the bigger games have pretty barren or lazily designed worlds. It gets a lot harder to make huge games when you have to populate them with cities or buildings in general.
Idiotic discipline, more like.
He could've learnt a LOT of stuff from people more skilled than him, while still mantaining his twist on them.
He probably has a problem, since he can't seem to get over borrowing stuff from Heat, but watching other people's work (far better at that, might i add) can challenge you, inspire you and sparkle dormient things in your brain, without necessarily becoming lame plagiarism.
So really, an unintuitive and stupid discipline, imo.
bigboss370
Member
its only as effective as how it is designed. i think the rags to riches arc is a classic and effective narrative path to follow, but its only a macro level plot point. alot can be done in the more personal story arcs.
Graphics Horse
Member
Yeah somehow I messed up my measurement and got everything twice the dimensions of what they should have been, his sounds about right. Strange he went everywhere on foot.
Sorry I changed my mind, RDR is more like 6 sq miles of explorable area now I've checked the distance.
tuna on toast
Banned
Robot Pants
Member
How many 360 disc swaps is that?
Yeah, that's intense.
Dan Houser is great. Awesome to see what he and his brother have built over the last decade. So many great games.
Obviously you make a valid point, but as Neil McCauley said, there's a flip side to that coin. Surely you agree that there is some merit to what he is doing, it would completely alter his script if he viewed all these stellar shows and not necessarily it a positive way. The influx of influence from shows such as these would be more than a little overwhelming, it could easily bog him down and in a way block his creativity somewhat. Constantly trying to avoid similar characters/storylines of shows which are very fresh in millions of viewers minds, the pressure to deliver something "original" would add even more weight onto his shoulders.
D
Deleted member 81567
Unconfirmed Member
Idk how I feel about the three characters. Kinda ruins the feel.
Buckethead
Banned
Made a wallpaper:
Click for big.
Click for big.
D
Deleted member 81567
Unconfirmed Member
I did not. Sounds bad.
Whoawesome! Thanks for this!
Those Housers- I sure do love them. In replaying San Andreas this week, I just hit San Fierro. It's strange because while I do love the city's design, there's something magical about the L.A. inspired start in Los Santos. The Truth is still as wonderful as ever, and going through that Driving school again is broth frustrating and hilarious. I'm really dreading some of Zero's mission stuff/ plane school!
I like the multi-character idea. In playing the Episodes, part of me really relished even small nods to characters crossing paths. It'll be great to know that we can play the role of one of the three and switch at anytime.
Everything you do or see affects your "script", infact, that is what art is in a nutshell: filtering life through your sensibility (with some craft involved).
I find this dedication a bit ridiculous precisely because he should strive to look at other's point of view and grow from there, instead of being scared of them and treading old ground.
The pressure may be a pain in the ass, but it's very much needed to advance any medium, and it's the pressure that made each GTA so different from the one before (and most of the time, so better).
They do this with gamedesign, nothing changes when writing is involved- would you like them to stear clear of any other open world game, selling you something became commonplace as a great innovation and centerpiece of their design? Not really, infact, they usually strive to shame every other open world action game, and one up the odds.
Watching at other shows could provide ideas (that can be reinterpreted, or simply used as a starting point for a completely different idea); useful and positive pressure; underline errors to avoid.
I mean who are they fooling? All their games are painfully derivative when it comes to the writing, so i really don't get this arbitrary strictness.
If you have to learn from someone, learn from The Wire, Sopranos and Breaking Bad, that are masterful at their craft.
Newton said it best, "If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants".
Buckethead
Banned
Made another wallpaper:
Click for big.
Click for big.
Jason Frost
Member
How did you make these wallpapers, where did you get the background and the artwork?
Net_Wrecker
Member
I have to agree. Purposely avoiding amazing shows like The Wire, Treme, Breaking Bad, The Sopranos, Boardwalk Empire, etc. etc. out of some fear that you're work post-viewing will become derivative is kind of a weird way to go about things. If that same logic was used for game design, for example, there would be tons of games stuck with decade old mechanics and design. Hell, GTA's control jank makes more sense now.
GTA4 use of reticule aiming and cover system are really an obvious point for that.
Would we rather be stuck with the autolock (if that)?
Net_Wrecker
Member
The funniest part about avoiding those shows is that they're arguably MORE important to learn from as someone crafting 20, 30, 40+ hour narratives than the 60's-90s films they've been so clearly influenced by.
Sure, but it was to point out that the strictness was really pointless, when the most successful iterations of your franchise wore their inspirations on their sleeves.
I mean we could argue that Vice City is far into plagiarism country.
So i don't see how watching a show 5 or 6 season long, could destroy the "pure vision" he has for GTA.
Absolutely, i don't give a crap where he takes his ideas from, but his games clearly tread on known, and often very classic, tropes; i don't buy the idea of him as the pure artistic genius, contaminated by other's vision of criminal drama.
Might aswell take inspiration from the masters of something closer to what you're doing, seeing as most of the story problems in your games concern the goddamn pacing.
Yeah, I feel you.
I don't care either way really. I'm a big fan of Quentin Tarantino, and his films are littered with things he's borrowed from older movies.
GI will probably ask them to remove them.
If you check MattBertz twitter, is what he has been doing these last few days.
Buckethead
Banned
Hmm. I don't know.
OPM UK is the only reputable site who has posted them.
Also they cropped the top and bottom of the images, I don't know why.
OPM UK is the only reputable site who has posted them.
Also they cropped the top and bottom of the images, I don't know why.
SJRB
Gold Member
I noticed that as well, seems they made a printscreen and cut out the images or something.
What a weird thing to do.
Some released screenshots are 720p, but have the GameInformer water mark on them, so i assume they cut that out?
Not long 'till trailer 2 hits now... I really hope it shows off some of the countryside areas a bit more. We have seen lots of city shots now. I think I remember R* doing the same with San Andreas, most promotional shots were all centred around the city areas then as well, we didn't get many scenery shots until the game was virtually in stores.
So hyped for this game.
EDIT - then again that's probably a good thing, it's what made discovering the game world in San Andreas a joy. Not having seen it all already before the game released!
So hyped for this game.
EDIT - then again that's probably a good thing, it's what made discovering the game world in San Andreas a joy. Not having seen it all already before the game released!
I really want some voice over from Trevor or Franklin in the second trailer.
Also, Rockstar already has some marketing in stores going it seems (or maybe the stores do this stuff on their own). Was in Target looking at TV's, and all of a sudden they all start playing the GTA V trailer. And then the music starts over and it shows all the screenshots R* has put out in a little slideshow, followed by "SPRING 2013 - PREORDER NOW". Funny coincidence considering how much I've been talking about GTA V this week.
Also, Rockstar already has some marketing in stores going it seems (or maybe the stores do this stuff on their own). Was in Target looking at TV's, and all of a sudden they all start playing the GTA V trailer. And then the music starts over and it shows all the screenshots R* has put out in a little slideshow, followed by "SPRING 2013 - PREORDER NOW". Funny coincidence considering how much I've been talking about GTA V this week.
Luckily the game will not be inspired in Breaking bad AT ALL.
All the speculation on this sounded stupid imo.
Fried Food
Banned
^^Very interesting.
I really wish these guys did more interviews. They obviously care a lot about their craft and its a shame they don't share more about it.
I hope David Kushner and his disappointing book, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, didn't blow our chances of getting an in depth look into the Houser brothers.
I really wish these guys did more interviews. They obviously care a lot about their craft and its a shame they don't share more about it.
I hope David Kushner and his disappointing book, Jacked: The Outlaw Story of Grand Theft Auto, didn't blow our chances of getting an in depth look into the Houser brothers.
Yeah I always wish R* did more interviews. Dan Houser has done a bit more in recent years, but I want more from Aaron Garbut, Sam Houser, or Leslie Benzies. These guys have been with the series since GTA III, they probably have a ton of fascinating insight.
At least we'll get some good stuff from Lazlow on his inevitable Opie & Anthony appearance the week the game comes out.
At least we'll get some good stuff from Lazlow on his inevitable Opie & Anthony appearance the week the game comes out.
ii Stryker
Banned
IF they've addressed the check point system from IV in V and improved the driving (IV's driving was exactly as he explained in the article "Boat like" and the physics were too slippy slidey for me) V sounds great to me on paper.
Still would be nice if they could add co-op to the experience. 42 square miles of geography to explore by yourself doesn't sound very compelling or fun. Sound more like tedious work.
Still would be nice if they could add co-op to the experience. 42 square miles of geography to explore by yourself doesn't sound very compelling or fun. Sound more like tedious work.
Luckily? Breaking Bad is quite an amazing show, dude.
I don´t think so, dude.
Why's that?
Great characters.
Amazing cinematography.
Great soundtrack.
Great pacing.
There are few contrievances and plot holes, like any TV show that aims at a fast pacing like this, but considering, it's pretty good at that, too.
Of the shows i've seen, i'd put Deadwood and The Wire over it, but not much else.
Psychological Intellect
Banned
that's an odd opinion.