Waxing Nostalgic for GTAV/O [Reflections of your first moments]

[fw3]

In another thread, we were discussing things we missed from 2013 – and trust me, there were a lot!

 

But it got me reflecting back on when I first got the game on release day, and how thoroughly disappointed I was that the Online aspect was not enabled yet.

The intent of this thread isn't a "Share Your Stories" thread – to me, that's for very specific in-game stories to share.
This is more for a brief description of what your initial reactions were to GTAV/O when you first jumped in and how you might compare it to the game today.

For example:

GTAV:
Had to play single player on release day (no GTAO). My initial reaction was complete jaw-dropped amazement! Then, the cops came. <sigh>

GTAO:
GTAO was better than anything I'd ever played before, by a thousand miles! The potential for so much fun! Then, the Rockstar servers are unavailable" messages came. <sigh>

 

NOW:
Level 300 and I still thoroughly enjoy the game, and while there's SO much more to do now, it's a more casual experience and I spend a lot less time in LS than ever.

So, please try to keep your replies brief so the thread does not get shifted to Share Your Stories.

I'm curious to read about your reactions to the game and how it compares to now or even how it compared to GTAIV, in your mind.

Personally, I wish I could recapture those first few days of playing GTAO. They were, perhaps, the greatest gaming moments I've had... and I'm old as $&%#!

Cheers!

Edited June 21, 2016 by fw3

[Zader]

I wish I loved the game now the way I did back in 2013.

[Maxxeine]

My initial reactions were based on my expectations for GTAO. I was expecting GTAO to be good, and surely enough it was, minus all of the bugs. Everyone I knew including myself continued to play because of how fun GTAO was. We didn't care about the problems and just kept going. I think it's still one of the reasons I continue to play GTAO - even though it may have some flaws and annoyances, that still doesn't detract from the overall experience.

 

2013 GTAO was "magical", not to sound like a cliche. It still is, but I think 2013/early 2014 GTAO was where it was at its highest. Everything seemed brand new and bizzare. I wish I could go back to experience that again.

[Hunter]

Oh it was great. I got GTA V on day one, so before any of us knew how horrible Online's servers (or lack of servers) would be.

 

We had planes again (they weren't in IV), tanks, jets, Buzzards, a big and varied map, just so much that people had asked to get back from older GTAs. Online came, and well, getting my character wiped over and over put a dampener on things. Then when I finally got to play, I had a great time.

 

Over time, some of the shortcomings became more clear though. The constant disconnections/unknown errors/session splits, just how unbalanced jets were, etc.

 

Then other things happened. The homing launcher came out - unbalancing one of the most balanced attack vehicles in the game (the Buzzard). Bullet proof helmets became a thing. Movement while sniping became a thing, and sniping as a whole degenerated into wiggling and spamming as many shots as possible.

 

In a lot of ways, I enjoyed the game more at the start - before the above things were added, and before I had a good idea of just how horrible the servers/stability are/is.

 

Of course, more good stuff has been added, and the latest update has given it more life. But there are some elements of the game that feel as though they've been permanently lost. The lost art of sniping, the glory days of the Buzzard, etc.

 

The fact that - even with all this new stuff - I miss these elements of the game, well I guess it says a lot about how much I enjoyed it. It was brilliant. Terrible stability, but a really fun game.

[GTA_dog]

Whoever was disappointed with Online not coming the day GTA V came out, didn't do enough research on the game. R* stated online would be available two weeks after the release on 360/PS3.

[fw3]

Whoever was disappointed with Online not coming the day GTA V came out, didn't do enough research on the game. R* stated online would be available two weeks after the release on 360/PS3.

Yes, but who believes that crap? I had hope and hope trumps reality, every time! <sigh>

[rodrich266]

Oh those are great, sweet memories for me! Playing GTA O for the first time, not only I saw the great potential this game has had but I appreaciated a lot of little features many might take for granted these days.

 

Things I could only dream to see on a GTA title came to life here since day one. An immersive feature like showering was something I wanted to see added but feared it might never make it cause its trivial for many, but they also gave it a functionality, and to this day I appreaciate that a lot, believe it or not. Also the ability to have an inventory and to carry and use snacks was something I was amazed by and also love to the date. To be honest, I appreciate the game more now than I did back then, but it's something amazing that has never happened to me on a game before, seeing as so much has been added (and removed ) since launch day!

[Diana_McFarland]

Oh it was great. I got GTA V on day one, so before any of us knew how horrible Online's servers (or lack of servers) would be.

 

We had planes again (they weren't in IV), tanks, jets, Buzzards, a big and varied map, just so much that people had asked to get back from older GTAs. Online came, and well, getting my character wiped over and over put a dampener on things. Then when I finally got to play, I had a great time.

 

Over time, some of the shortcomings became more clear though. The constant disconnections/unknown errors/session splits, just how unbalanced jets were, etc.

 

Then other things happened. The homing launcher came out - unbalancing one of the most balanced attack vehicles in the game (the Buzzard). Bullet proof helmets became a thing. Movement while sniping became a thing, and sniping as a whole degenerated into wiggling and spamming as many shots as possible.

 

In a lot of ways, I enjoyed the game more at the start - before the above things were added, and before I had a good idea of just how horrible the servers/stability are/is.

 

Of course, more good stuff has been added, and the latest update has given it more life. But there are some elements of the game that feel as though they've been permanently lost. The lost art of sniping, the glory days of the Buzzard, etc.

 

The fact that - even with all this new stuff - I miss these elements of the game, well I guess it says a lot about how much I enjoyed it. It was brilliant. Terrible stability, but a really fun game.

you ARE so right about the marksmen rifle/sniper spamfire whilst squirming back n forth.

THAT IS LITERALLY THE MOST TRIGGERING THING ABOUT FREEROAM PVP.

 

that's lowkey one of the reasons why im slowly turning into a jet person.

Honestly, what made Rockstar even add the marksmen rifle into the game.

 

 

Since i know for a fact they won't remove it, do you even think they'll implement not being able to move sporadicly whilst sniping.

 

The person doesn't even have to be good.

 

They literally just force you to miss your shots and its boils down to who cant shoot in each others general direction fast enough.

 

i got SO MAD at these 2 people on Saturday for doing that.

 

Legit argued with them for 30 minutes.

 

if they aren't going to play fairly and drop all the gunfight semantics, i'll just use a hydra and strafe them till' they leave the session.

Edited June 21, 2016 by Diana_McFarland

[R3CON]

Edit: TLDR below

 

I viewed GTA Online and GTA V as the same exact game, just one was single player and one was multi-player, so my opinions of the game overall didn't really change.

However, I did like the fact I could own more and different safe houses apartments & garages and do new activities (jobs). The biggest thing that stood out to me was how expensive GTA Online was and how violent it was.

 

I always viewed NPCs/Police as the enemy (coming from single player) and wanted more cooperation amongst players. The first time I logged on, I modified my car and just drove around exploring. The next time I logged on, I bought a Special Carbine and blew all my money on weapons/ammo. Lesson learned.

 

Once I went broke buying sheer protection and nothing else, I realized I needed a safe house and a better car. I saw players with nicer clothes and saw how expensive that was. $9000 bounties seemed expensive, PvP battles ate so much cash. I went on to Destiny 8 and realized how long it would take to even buy a 2-car apartment, let alone a 6-car or the luxury 10-cars apartments everyone else had. It soon dawned on me how much of a money drain Online was about to be and I was completely blindsided by the impending grind to sustain such a lifestyle. I didn't believe in micro-transactions, but not too long after I caved and bought my first (and since then only) shark card of $1.5Mil just to set myself up. I needed a foundation if this was going to work out.

 

It wasn't until much later, when the game had more time to marinate that I realized the other differences that set Online apart, from new DLC content to the fleshed-out interaction menu, a bigger map, insurance, contact services, etc. It became crystal clear that GTA V was as old and new as September 17th 2013, while GTA Online was evolving and moving with the present. GTA Online had a future. GTA V was only sliding deeper into the past. .

 

I didn't see the purpose of solo sessions/invite-only back then (I thought why even bother playing Online if you're gonna separate yourself) and I didn't join a crew til much, much later. So my logic was either survive Public Lobbies or run back to Michael-Trevor-&-Franklin. Despite how violent and expensive it was, I choose to adapt to this new "continuously expanding world" rather than stay stuck in the past. The violence and the price tags were still a big concern but I figured I just needed to think smarter, be more efficient, get my skill set up and make friends. So I stayed and the rest is history.

 

TL:DR

I answered "good, but it wasn't what I was really expecting". I had a lot of fun and I still enjoy it a hell of alot today, but I was dismayed at how huge a factor money would be in my gameplay and I was naively unprepared for the levels of violence multiplayer would bring.

Edited June 21, 2016 by ikaR3CON

[GR Choke]

i can't remember what my first thought of gtao was but i do remember that i wasn't impressed with gtav's storyline

 

now gtao has so much to do now i have upgraded to next gen/current gen. it's really good

 

fw3 i didn't really catch the last part of what you said? old as what?

[CarimboHanky]

i got gta at a midnight release, i was amazed by how great the game looks, having being playing IV for years my eyes had to adjust to how bright everything is haha, to be honest i was disappointed with the story but overall, is a damn good game.

 

GTAO...is the game i was waiting for all my life!

 

being a day 1 player i can say it was nothing but troubles, my character got eaten by the cloud, etc etc etc

 

but once i managed to play, i felt in love with the game and as they starting adding more content i got more in love.

 

gtao is the best game i have ever played.

[Mr_Zombly]

It was something I'd never done before and I was really immersed to begin with.

 

My first day I went into a deathmatch and it was so f*cking fun trying to move from cover to cover to pick up weapons. I still remember it, it was on a cargo ship at the docks at night time.

 

Feels like a complete different game.

[Coleco]

It was a great game - and still is.

 

Sure, it's got plenty of issues but so have other online games and this is the only one I'm still playing nearly three years after I originally bought it. I think sometimes we all get a bit jaded and forget that not only is it a game with a vast amount of freedom to do as you please but it's also an amazing technical achievement.

 

I have my gripes, sure... but nothing that would stop me playing anytime soon. Still the best online experience I've had by far.

[westsxde]

I'll be honest, I've never been into video games when I was younger and I wasn't when I was growing up. They were boring to me. But my brother had gotten a 360 and idk why but I heard about GTAV and it appealed to me so I got it on a whim. Story mode was frustrating in the beginning. Driving was way difficult lol but once I got the hang of story mode I loved it! I played the story 3 times over on 360. Eventually, my friends from school talked me into making a character online and to play with them so I did. I worked hard for my first super (a Vacca) and worked even harder for a Zentorno. Eventually sold the Vacca so I could get a zentorno. (We raced a lot).

 

Anyways, I moved over to the One and I still love GTA. I've met good people through GTAO and they're some of my best friends now. They've showed me a lot of things and I've shown them a lot of things. ^_^

[Pedinhuh]

I firstly started V by playing singleplayer, and my jaw was dropped in the ground from the introduction until the part we get to repo two cars in that mission after the prologue, I hated the new driving physics from get go but that didn't stopped me from playing.

 

So I kept on playing but I ended up so frustated with the storyline and disgusted with the main characters, I breezed through the campaing to finish it already and go to Online(I haven't bought this game day-one).

 

When I logged into Online and saw SO MANY things that SHOULD be in Singleplayer, that just cemented my opinion that SP portion of the game went through some big cutting of features just so more players could be attracted to Online, after that I might have beat singleplayer again to see the heists and endings through other perspectives and never touched it again.

 

Now, to Online, the first days for me, and the subsequentely months were frustating, leveling up was HARD, earning money was HARDER(payouts from races was patched before I started playing), my best weapon was a wimpy Micro SMG and a sawn off shotgun, which couldn't do sh*t against an reverse-shooting Entity XF, or a tank, or even a goddamn jet, those last two being the banes of every public session, so I got spawn killed over and over again, specially for me who is the lone wolf kind of player, and lets not forget the constant RR spam invites, Prison Thugz deathmatch and plenty of others user created garbage(spawn trap DMs).

 

I can say that this game is much, MUCH better now than before.

Edited June 21, 2016 by pedinhuh

[alkaline_]

for me online was a lot more fun than story mode, even though for the first year i always been into empty lobby because my internet wasn't very ui ui ui.

 

my only wish would be the world would feel a little bit more alive, like open restaurants, nightclubs, more interiors in general, working ropeway up mount chillard bililard, animals. little things. some of them are in single player but no available in online äi äi äi!

[Aether]

Oh those first days trying to get onto an online session and get past the tutorial.... priceless.

 

Making money to get your first car and apartment....

 

Calling the first couple of months magical is the best way to put it. Not sure if i'll ever love a game the way I love this one again. Even with its ugly moments.

[TeammateHelper]

The key difference between day one me and now?

 

I f*cking hated Obey and Audi back then.

[SKiTZoFReNiK]

>created a social club account

>tried to make a character

>plays online after 30 minutes of trying to make a character

>level 7

>remakes character

>still an ugly beast

>cries

[davey1975pafc]

I stayed up till midnight. Collected my copy from tesco. I had to be up at 5am.

I got home and loaded it up and was just astonished at the awesomeness. From where I was I could see a mountain/hills (vinewood sign)and thought I have to get there before I go bed. 1 hour past and now matter how I tried I just kept getting chinned by the old bill! Eventually I made it. And then wondered what was behind. Kept driving in the police car I'd stolen before hand until I was confronted with a wide open sprawl and yet another mountain (chilliad) smiled and switched it off. To have all the carnage just to the vine wood sign to be confronted with the desert and beyond not yet explored was awesome! This game still never gets old

[_PANiC_]

The first two weeks in GTAO where amazing, then they wiped tonnes of people characters and progress and did nothing to remedy it!. Then they nerfed all the mission payouts and took away reply.

 

 

then, cash cards.. and its all been downhill from there, just taken me a long time to realise/admit it. Everything is now geared toward trolling you out of in game cash to increase cash card sales.

[kuusko]

i loved the beginning of gta online. I didnt understand sh*t back then and that was by far the best time i ever had. I didnt know how insurance worked so i just stole cars for a week and i just derped around.

 

 

That was untill i became addicted,

now im level 500 and ill never have that fun back from the beginning

[fw3]

Calling the first couple of months magical is the best way to put it. Not sure if i'll ever love a game the way I love this one again. Even with its ugly moments.

Nice description, . I completely agree.

 

I mean, it's a game. It's supposed to be fun and all, but really... it's not supposed to have that much of an impact, right?

 

I'm an older gamer, so I've seen most of what's come before. And my reaction was like yours.

 

But I kind of feel bad for the younger generation – the 8-10 year old kids who were allowed to play GTAO.

They have this expectation that this is how gaming should be. I can't imagine the level of disappointment from the games they play next that don't measure up.

 

One of my sons, who is 14, got really upset when he played Destiny (I have not played it). He was expecting so much more.

Meanwhile, I jumped onto the game Sunset Overdrive and have a blast with it, because it's a lot like Jet Set Radio Future (my favorite game, ever).

When he tried that, he gave up after about 20 minutes, saying it was boring and mindless.

 

Because GTAO has set a standard for the younger gen.

 

Wait until they hit real life and have to actually buy real cars and get real jobs... Lester ain't gonna just call out of the blue, you know! lol!

[TwiztidFirestarter]

I remember getting the game and first noticing the more arcade style handling of the cars which I didn't care for (it grew on me though). I also remember thinking how much easier it was to drive fast around the city compared to IV thanks to the wider streets, curved turning lanes, and general openness of the city. And of course my first run in with cops...I think it took me about 10-15 minutes to lose them.

 

As for online, my first reaction was disappointment since I could never get through the cutscene before the race. I had to create my character a couple of times, but I never got far with him so I didn't lose much unlike some people. I gave up playing for a week or two until things settled down. After I came back I grinded violent duct with 3 randoms until I had enough money to buy the most expensive Eclipse Towers apartment.

 

Now, well, it's pretty amazing to see how far it has come. There has been so much added if you look back to how the game was at release. I've never played a whole lot, I go through spurts where I'll play for a few weeks and then take a few weeks off, but it's consistently been like that since the game came out. Sometimes when I play I find myself stopping and actually taking a good look and thinking to myself "Man, this is a beautiful game". It's easy to go through the motions and take for granted how good this game can look.

[Urustay Gordov Matt D.]

Good game GTA 5, but i was disappointed by the lack of particellar effects and lack of details in the city. The graphics seemed awesome to me, and i was amazed by how much fps it gained compared to GTA 4.

Also the driving sucked to me.Overall a good game, but thought it was better

Online: awesome experience in online,much better than the one in GTA 4.Races were ruined by the new dumbed down physics, but there have been a lot of improvements.

[Aether]

Yeah. Don't play destiny... ever lol.

[IceDree]

The key difference between day one me and now?

 

I f*cking hated Obey and Audi back then.

Hahahaha I'm the opposite.

It was excellent! GTAonline exceeded my expectations & it keeps getting better every year.

 

I'm disappointed in a few things though, some of my favorite cars never made it from IV, but the Cognoscenti gave me hope. And I'm disappointed they removed the armored truck robberies from online