Things GTA 5 did better than any previous games

[CynicalMexican]

We have plenty of GTA 5 hate threads and posts, so let's do the opposite!

 

- Vegetation. The vegetation in this game is quite beautiful and detailed, and there's a great variety of it too. The vegetation strongly fits the California vibe much more than GTA SA.

 

- Road signs. This may be a minor one, but GTA V EASILY has the best highway signs out of any GTA games. They are useful and are an Interstate system. Every other game fails in this regard.

 

- Minor details. While I hate the map design of Los Santos, I do like how Los Santos has so many minor details compared to its GTA SA counterpart. Businesses names, design of buildings, streets, and so on. Every house/structure feels so detailed. 

 

- Weapon wheel. This is so easy and slick to use. One of the best additions.

 

- First person mode. Need I say more?

 

- The "look" of the map. What I mean is, GTA 5's map looks much closer to California than GTA SA does. For example, the foliage and textures on the hills properly look SoCal, compared to GTA SA's generic grass textures. Sadly the map design itself sucks, but it looks more like California than GTA SA does.

 

- License plates. Another minor detail, but GTA 5 has the best license plates of the series. All other games have generic plates except GTA SA, and even GTA SA's license plates fail in that each city has its own plate (which is not akin to real life USA) and the letter format is off.

 

- World building (tied with GTA 4). The HD Universe in general is waaaay more fleshed out than the 3D Universe.

[Guest]

- Graphics, obviously. EDIT: or not.

- Vehicle customization. Also weapon and parachute customization for the first time in the series.

- Weapon reloading animations. You can see the magazines being attached/detached.

- NPCs inhabiting your safehouses. Michael's family, Denise in Franklin's first safehouse and Ron hanging around Trevor's trailer.

- Animals. Could've been implemented better coming from RDR1, but still better than other GTAs.

- Underwater details. Even if I feel R* should have rather prioritized other aspects of the map, submarine exploration was still something new.

Edited September 19, 2021 by Guest
does anyone care anymore

[bananaking13]

13 minutes ago, horsewithnoname said:

- Graphics, obviously.

- Vehicle customization. Also weapon and parachute customization for the first time in the series.

- Weapon reloading animations. You can see the magazines being attached/detached.

- NPCs inhabiting your safehouses. Michael's family, Denise in Franklin's first safehouse and Ron hanging around Trevor's trailer.

- Animals. Could've been implemented better coming from RDR1, but still better than other GTAs.

- Underwater details. Even if I feel R* should have rather prioritized other aspects of the map, submarine exploration was still something new.

I don't know about the graphics. They're sick, but I feel like they're meant to appeal to graphic junkies. It's hard to remember parts of the map even 8 years after release.

Oh, I have to be positive. Well then, I like car tuning, the amount & variety of weapons, and the physics. There used to be a debate on here circa 2015 on whether V or IV's physics are better, and to be frank I don't think it is close.

[CynicalMexican]

25 minutes ago, horsewithnoname said:

- Graphics, obviously.

- Vehicle customization. Also weapon and parachute customization for the first time in the series.

- Weapon reloading animations. You can see the magazines being attached/detached.

- NPCs inhabiting your safehouses. Michael's family, Denise in Franklin's first safehouse and Ron hanging around Trevor's trailer.

- Animals. Could've been implemented better coming from RDR1, but still better than other GTAs.

- Underwater details. Even if I feel R* should have rather prioritized other aspects of the map, submarine exploration was still something new.

Vehicle customization was pretty good; I also like the multiple garages (only bested by GTA SA).

[Guest]

28 minutes ago, bananaking13 said:

I don't know about the graphics. They're sick, but I feel like they're meant to appeal to graphic junkies. It's hard to remember parts of the map even 8 years after release.

Yeah, I mainly meant the graphical fidelity which holds up pretty well IMO, the art direction is more subjective. The physics in some ways is also kinda a matter of taste, hopefully R* finds the right balance in the next GTA.

[universetwisters]

Multiple protagonists

 

3 hours ago, CynicalMexican said:

- World building (tied with GTA 4). The HD Universe in general is waaaay more fleshed out than the 3D Universe.

Debatable but I'd rather have 3D universe vagueness than GTA 5's worldbuilding. It wasn't as bad in 5 but in 4 it was just jarring; a serious tone in a silly world? Come on lmao

[CynicalMexican]

Just now, universetwisters said:

Multiple protagonists

 

Debatable but I'd rather have 3D universe vagueness than GTA 5's worldbuilding. It wasn't as bad in 5 but in 4 it was just jarring; a serious tone in a silly world? Come on lmao

Yeah I kinda agree. I miss GTA 3's approach to the series in that the humor was subtle and the brands being mocked didn't rely on innuendo. 

2 hours ago, horsewithnoname said:

Yeah, I mainly meant the graphical fidelity which holds up pretty well IMO, the art direction is more subjective. The physics in some ways is also kinda a matter of taste, hopefully R* finds the right balance in the next GTA.

GTA V is eye candy. The art direction isn't perfect, but overall GTA 5 still looks great.

[The Tracker]

4 hours ago, universetwisters said:

Debatable but I'd rather have 3D universe vagueness than GTA 5's worldbuilding. It wasn't as bad in 5 but in 4 it was just jarring; a serious tone in a silly world? Come on lmao

 

I would say the sillyness in IV's worldbuilding made sense because it was tied to Niko's cynical view on the American society and the overexposed marketing and consumerism

 

It made more sense in V though, even if I agree that they could have toned the silliness down a bit. 

Edited August 17, 2021 by The Tracker

[DeltaV20]

Balanced Euphoria Physics
More realistic and smooth motion captures 
Arcade: Gun play , driving , balanced suspension etc
Special abilities 
Character Swapping (which was actually going to be a thing in san andreas but got cut) 
Scores
Weapon wheel and radio wheel 
Better animations 
First person mode 
Scuba diving 
Mission replay 
Clothing (which is also kinda arcade) Clothing in SA was very annoying when CJ goes to wardrobe for every single item
Turbulence 
an X mark on reticule/crosshair which informs that an enemy you shot is dead and little screen flash which indicates that the enemy you wounded is dead 
car customization etc
there's alot more, V took advantage of the modern tech but still a huge amount of content got cut due to console limitations and R*'s own decisions 

[CynicalMexican]

Clothing is a good one and I like how each protag had appropriate clothing rather than just random crap.

[Rajder]

V brought back the fun the IV was lacking. GTA was finally cool again back in 2013

[The Tracker]

13 hours ago, Rajder said:

V brought back the fun the IV was lacking. GTA was finally cool again back in 2013

 

Well, if overpowered enemies with Pin-Point Terminator accuracy, insta-explotions at every single land or crash, bare-bones health system with insta-deaths for everything, bare-bones NPC damage, broken and overly sensitive wanted system that rubberbands itself, guns that feel like air-soft weapons, etc, stand for fun, go for it 

[B Dawg]

On 8/20/2021 at 10:47 AM, DeltaV20 said:

Balanced Euphoria Physics
Arcade: Gun play , driving , balanced suspension etc
Special abilities
Turbulence 
an X mark on reticule/crosshair which informs that an enemy you shot is dead and little screen flash which indicates that the enemy you wounded is dead

there's alot more, V took advantage of the modern tech but still a huge amount of content got cut due to console limitations

None of these are improvements (Euphoria wasn't balanced properly, otherwise people wouldn't be making so many mods for it). Hitmarkers are cancer in gaming (especially ones you can't turn off, which is the case with V). Imagine having good visual feedback and then slapping on screen effects on top.

Edited August 21, 2021 by B Dawg

[String]

The variety in robbery missions (perhaps the robbery aspect in general). You rob a jewelry store, a freighter, an armoured vehicle, a train, a federal Building, a country bank and a super bank. You can also rob stores in free roam iirc. Don't think any other GTA had you rob so many different targets. 

[The Tracker]

12 minutes ago, Wayne Kerr said:

You can also rob stores in free roam iirc. 

 

You can also rob stores in IV's free roam, so it doesn't really count. 

 

It's a bit better in V though, I always liked how you can get the money at gun-point, having the option to threaten the cashier shooting at the goods, I remember the early days of GTAO when I would roleplay as an street street thug, robbing as many stores as I could. 

Edited August 21, 2021 by The Tracker

[String]

You can rob stores in Vice City too, the point is not that it's unique to V but that V features so many targets that you can rob which isn't really seen in other GTAs to this extent, so in my opinion V has the best variety of robbery missions. 

[DeltaV20]

2 minutes ago, The Tracker said:

 

You can also rob stores in IV's free roam, so it doesn't count. 

mission variety in V is way better than IV 

[The Tracker]

2 minutes ago, DeltaV20 said:

mission variety in V is way better than IV 

 

To an extent, but I was directly talking about about the free-roam.  

[DeltaV20]

2 hours ago, B Dawg said:

None of these are improvements (Euphoria wasn't balanced properly, otherwise people wouldn't be making so many mods for it). Hitmarkers are cancer in gaming (especially ones you can't turn off, which is the case with V). Imagine having good visual feedback and then slapping on screen effects on top.

From balanced i meant reduced , enhanced, animations not clipping etc. Indeed Euphoria in V was not perfect but it was furnished. (imo they decreased the ragdoll tone in V for arcade in both rdr2 and V character controlling feels like moving 4 kg sand , IV was a bit more realistic 
Not talking about annoying hitmarkers from COD , r6,  for e.g :

 

[The Tracker]

6 minutes ago, DeltaV20 said:

From balanced i meant reduced , enhanced, animations not clipping etc. Indeed Euphoria in V was not perfect but it was furnished. (imo they decreased the ragdoll tone in V for arcade in both rdr2 and V character controlling feels like moving 4 kg sand , IV was a bit more realistic 

 

Do you mean character ragdoll movement, or character gameplay movement? 

 

If you're talking about the first, I found RDR2 to be more of a mix between RDR1 and GTA V ragdolls. 

[PhilPerlmutter]

1.: I really liked Strangers and Freaks, more than the main story actually (cannot remember if GTAIV had something similar implemented though)
2.: Weapon customization: It totally makes sense to be able to equip things like suppressor and sights. They should have implemented it in GTA San Andreas actually. That said, it could have been better, I disliked the fact that you could only attach things in ammonation, instead you should be able to remove a suppressor for example via quick menu.
Also, although you could customize weapons, it was not really that useful because missions are very linear and there is not a really realistic detection system in the game. I really hope they will implement that sort of thing in the next game, after all it is a open world game so eventhough missions follow a clear line, there should only be soft restrictions in the missions to allow the player some freedom how to solve the mission. The games of the 3D Generation were way better in that sense.

3.: The peds like people meeting somewhere in the city, having chats were very cool. It really created an convincing atmosphere.

Other than that, I don't really think it was that great. Overall, I liked GTA IV and the 3D Generation way more, I could not even be bothered to play the story completely a second time in GTA V, while I have played through GTA San Andreas more then 10 times...

[DeltaV20]

2 minutes ago, The Tracker said:

Do you mean character ragdoll movement, or character gameplay movement? 

both and i think the reason for this is , IV used the "real" euphoria engine and later R* titles used source code of the engine implemented in RAGE which is why the ragdolls and controlling feels heavy i guess

[DeltaV20]

24 minutes ago, The Tracker said:

 

To an extent, but I was directly talking about about the free-roam.  

oh my bad , also i think having mission variety like V wouldn't make sense in IV because it depends on the story and IV's story is realistic. But i like Truck Hustle mission in gta IV. tbogt missions were fun too plus Tlad's ending 

[[Ambient]]

- Mobile phones.

- Modding and modding-related communities.

[Be-Deliver]

As someone already mentioned the reloading animation where you can actually see the magazine being detached and replaced.

 

Adding on that, GTA V is currently the only game in the whole franchise where the parts of each firearm is animated.

 

Some examples of this are:

- Every pistol's slide moving back and forth cycling each round when fired

- Assault & Carbine Rifle's (or virtually every automatic firearm's) charging handle moving back and forth cycling each round when firing

- Sawed Off Shotgun and Pump Shotgun's fore-end actually being pumped after each shot

- Sniper Rifle's bolt actually being cycled

- In first person view, you can see your character (especially when wielding pistols) pulling/holding the trigger

- Both LMG's rounds visibly being cycled into the receiver from the magazine

 

This video nicely shows the animation for each firearm including those exclusive to Online:

 

[Badman_]

[Midnight Hitman]

surviving for 8 years and then getting a second remaster

[CynicalMexican]

4 hours ago, Midnight Hitman said:

surviving for 8 years and then getting a second remaster

 

I'm pretty sure we will get a nuclear holocaust and somehow get another GTA 5 remaster

[MetroFloaty]

Atmosphere

 

NPC's having conversations on the phone and in person, the random freak missions the interactions.
It doesn't go beyond our wildest imagination but it's very good and to this day no other game besides RDR 2 has topped GTA 5 in NPC interaction

[The Tracker]

18 minutes ago, MetroFloaty said:

Atmosphere

 

NPC's having conversations on the phone and in person, the random freak missions the interactions.
It doesn't go beyond our wildest imagination but it's very good and to this day no other game besides RDR 2 has topped GTA 5 in NPC interaction

 

Err, that's it? NPC Conversations and interactions? Is not like previous R* games didn't have that. 

Edited September 19, 2021 by The Tracker