My Take on the GTA V Announcement and Some Speculation

A few days after I posted my tribute article to the 10^th anniversary of Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar Games announced on Monday that they were developing a new Grand Theft Auto game, called “Grand Theft Auto V”. Obviously, I was very excited to hear this news, and it gave me something to look forward to. I’ve made it no secret that GTA is my favorite video game series of all time, and I cannot wait to see what direction Rockstar will be taking for this adventure.

There isn’t too much to speculate on GTA V, other than the logo. Looks like something out of a 5-dollar bill, in my opinion. That could be a clue right there, the 5-dollar bill there represents money, so money could be a bigger factor in this GTA game than in previous GTA games. I frequent the GTA forums quite a bit, and there is also speculation as to where the location will be set for this game. If the logo is anything to go by, the setting could be a place where money runs the city. My bet is on Las Vegas to be the setting of this GTA game. In fact, I will take this one step further. If anyone remembers GTA: San Andreas, the three major cities were Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). I am fairly confident that the location of this new GTA game will be in a redesigned version of one of those cities in San Andreas. How confident am I? I will say 75%, but like all speculation, I could be wrong.

Of course, a lot of the game won’t be revealed until the first trailer comes out on November 2 (Wednesday). In the trailer, we would probably get an idea on the setting of this game, the main character of the game, and also have a basic idea of the plot, among other things.

One last issue, why did Rockstar have to call this one GTA V? The transition from GTA 2 to GTA 3 and from GTA 3 to GTA IV was massive. We went from a cartoony, top-down styled GTA 2, to an open world, sandbox styled GTA 3. We also went from that same open world; sandbox styled GTA 3 to a graphically robust, beautifully atmospheric GTA IV. What I am trying to say is that the change between GTA IV and GTA V won’t be that much of a massive change as the other two transitions. Of course, I could be wrong in what I have said, or the game could be a lot like GTA IV. Who really knows?

So, let’s wait until the first trailer comes out, then the speculative fun really begins…