Grand Theft Auto 5

Originally set for March, Rockstar recently announced that the GTA V release date would be put back to September. This is pretty dissapointing for anyone who was waiting for the game, and many fans showed there dislike of the move but complaining vehemently - to no effect of course. Rockstar were accused of moving the date so as not to collide with publisher-stablemate Biosock Infinite; however, the developer simply claims that GTA 5 wasn't ready for launch at this time.
One silver lining of the delay is that Rockstar gave a precise date for the release - September the 17th. Now that's a Tuesday, which is the traditional day for game releases in the US. Given it's such a huge title we'd expect UK retailers to also launch on the Tuesday (as they did with Black Ops 2) rather than a traditional Friday release. So September the 17th it is.


Sadly, not the release date anymore
A release later in the year is likely to have some of its hype stolen by upcoming next-gen console releases, see our PS4 release date, specs & price rumours and Xbox 720 release date, specs & price rumours for more details.
On the plus side, the extra development time may be to ensure that prettied-up, next-gen versions of GTA 5 are available for the new consoles from the off. Although Take-Two CEO has been careful not to stoke the fire on that one, as it could only damage sales of the game if gamers belive a superior version is in the pipeline.
At present GTA 5 has only been announced on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. PC and Wii U version have not yet been confirmed.

TRAILER

There have been two trailers to date for GTA 5. You can watch both (again) below. Both trailers have sky-high production values, with excellent soundtracks and voice acting, and it looks like Rockstar have once again raised the bar for games in these departments.
On the evidence of the first trailer alone Draw distances are remarkable, especially if they can be recreated on current-gen hardware. And some of the huge backdrops look too true to be real, can you actually scale those mountains (20 secs in on the first video) or are they merely set-dressing at the edge of the world of San Andreas. Texture details and geometry are also mind-bogglingly impressive for a world this big. As are the smoke effects seen in the plane spray seen at 42 seconds in. We were also pleased to see animated elements, such as the oil well at 1:04.
The second trailer introduces the game's trio of main playable characters. increasing the number of core characters in the game is a great idea, as GTA 4 suffered from having to fit one character to too numerous dramatic roles - you had to believe that Niko Bellic would worry over killing one man, one minute and then go on a killing rampage the next; that he cared about friends and girlfriends, but was also a moody loner.
The three new characters - ex-gangster Michael, his psycho former partner Trevor, and young repo man Franklin - allow for a far greater variety of missions. And hopefully a far better narrative, with a small cast of key characters - think a good HBO show, rather than a star-led Hollywood movie.
In between missions you'll be able to switch characters freely to explore and undertake non-character specific tasks. The dating is gone, thank god, but activities include triathlons, Jet Skiing, base-jumping, tennis, golf and scuba diving - with a fully-detailed ocean floor for the latter.

NEWS

We'll be updating this section as more news becomes available

RUMOURS AND GAMEPLAY

There's little hard information available on GTA 5's gameplay beyond what we've seen in the trailers. Of course, it's a GTA game so we can expect the usual blend of driving, shooting and missions, along with various aforementioned activities.
A long list of cars and other vehicles was discovered in the game code for Max Payne 3. You can find a full list at www.gtaforums.com.
Other gameplay nuggets include:
- A gameworld that's bigger than anything Rockstar has done before.
- Apparently the characters will work together in some missions, and you'll be able to switch between them to undertake different roles. Those switches look to be pre-determined, as a away of cutting out having to travel from one piece of action and the next, for high-octane continuous thrills.
- When you're not controlling them they'll go about their day-to-day business on their own - which may not be as mundane as you might first imagine.
Plenty to get exited about then, and we'll be updating this article as we get closer to the release date.