Grand Theft Auto V Review PC PS4 Xbox One

've now had a chance to play the Xbox One version of GTA V, and there are no discernible differences in image quality, or performance between the two versions, at least to the naked eye; the slight frame rate slowdown experienced during busier scenes on the PS4 is also present on the Xbox One. While support for Remote Play and the DualShock's speaker and lightbar obviously isn't in the Xbox One version, it does have support for the Xbox One's haptic triggers, which subtly vibrate when you fire a weapon, or hammer the accelerator in a vehicle.

This isn't because of some grand moral awakening on my part, but an interesting side effect of what is the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One version of GTA V's most compelling new feature: first-person mode. Even when GTA games were top-down shooters, there was always something of a disconnect between the sometimes shockingly violent scenes on-screen, and the mentality of the player. You could imagine that, despite directly controlling a character, it was this virtual caricature of a criminal committing the crimes--you merely played witness to them. First-person mode fundamentally changes how you view GTA V's world. It has the power to make you stop and think about your actions, and to deeply question a character's motivations. And in a series that has long been criticized for glorifying a life of crime, rather than questioning it, this is no bad thing.

Yes, there are plenty of violent first-person shooters around in which issues of morality can be raised, but few are paired with the stunning Hollywood production values of GTA V. The city of Los Santos is one of the most beautiful and convincing open-world environments to have ever graced a video game, and in its new higher-resolution guise, it's even more spectacular. Compared to the last-gen versions, the new GTA V is noticeably sharper, largely thanks to improved antialiasing. Textures resolutions have been bumped, surfaces are, well, bumpier (thanks enhanced tessellation), and there are all manner of new particle, light, and lens effects. You can cruise down Vespucci Beach and pick out little details in its trinket stores and skateboard shops that weren't there before. You can drive around in the rain, marvelling at the beautifully rendered raindrops and puddles on the ground. And when you stop admiring the scenery to cause some anarchy, explosions from a hastily thrown grenade pop in a dazzling display of fire and light. You can easily download GTA 5 for PC.

To admire this all in first-person is a delight. The wide, cinematic field of view is very different to that of your typical shooter, as is the slower pace with which you walk; think P.T. and you're on the right track. Where the camera once easily tilted up above and around the city, at ground level everything looks bigger and more imposing. I found myself walking along the city streets, watching as the many weird and wonderful citizens of Los Santos went about their business. I wandered into shops, even those where I couldn't buy anything, just to admire the astonishing level of detail at eye level, with nifty depth of field effects helping to sell the immersion. It's all very lifelike, the gentle head bobs and animations as you leap over walls and tumble out of cars drawing you into the game in a way that third-person mode never could.

Then there's the driving, which, no matter how hard I tried, I found far too difficult to master in first-person. The fully working and wonderfully detailed vehicle interiors might be impressive, but the twitchy controls that work so well in third-person for pulling off outrageous driving stunts are just far too sensitive to easily keep cars on the road during a frantic police chase. There are also vehicle missions that simply weren't designed with first-person in mind either. Trying to catch Michael's son as he dangles off a boat on the highway, or performing a speeding drive by on the highway is very difficult. It's arguably more realistic, but I found myself switching back to third-person in order to get them done. Thankfully, it's not an either or situation when it comes to your viewpoint. You can drive in third-person and have the game automatically switch to first-person when on-foot if you like, or even pan out to third-person when you take cover.

But even if you choose to ignore first-person mode completely, GTA V has lost little of its lustre since release. Even now, after the years of progress in the industry and all the wonderful games that I've played, I'm surprised how few have managed to replicate the Hollywood feel and effortless, natural dialogue of a GTA. This is a series that has consistently been the most convincing and the most cinematic in games, and GTA V continues that tradition with aplomb. Even something as basic as credible characters are a rarity, and yet GTA V manages to create a whole city full of them, as well as three authentic leads with which to journey through it. That's not to say these leads are likeable characters, but perhaps that's the point. There may be a few times you sympathise with retired gangster Michael as his family life crumbles around him, or when you believe that wannabe gangster Franklin might be a nice guy just because he says he's always trying to do the right thing.

But these are narcissistic, psychopathic killers who don't blink an eyelid at killing hundreds of perfectly innocent people when it serves their own means. This is particularly true of Trevor, who remains far and away the most interesting and well-written character of the lot, a terrifyingly insane yet remarkably intelligent criminal who constantly seems on the edge of some kind of mental breakdown. Scary doesn't even begin to describe it. These characters are not without fault, though--there are moments when a character will contradict his own motivations, seemingly just to fit the structure of a mission but the fact that these characters can be so convincingly terrifying, and so sharp and snappy in their interactions with one another is a testament to just how fantastic the writing in GTA is. www.skidrowsgames.com