Best/worst favorite traffic variety in the series

[kobeni]

This is a thread to talk about traffic variety, which is basically the variety of land vehicles that spawn in each game on the streets, and which one you feel was the best/worst out of all of the games.

 

My personal favorites were San Andreas and V.

 

Certain anachronisms and size issues aside, I liked how San Andreas placed a lot of emphasis on everyday sedans and coupes rather than the typical tuners and hypercars of the early-90s, it made the world much more believable and realistic. So much variety and styling from the 80s boxy style to the curves of the 90s, it really drove home that feeling of living in 1992 compared to the earlier games in the trilogy. I personally found cars like the Tahoma, the Cadrona and the Premier more interesting than the Cheetah or Infernus.

 

On the other hand, I really liked the variety in V in storymode for the opposite reasons. The mixture of early-2010s EVs, crossovers, hatchbacks, luxury sedans/coupes/convertibles, luxury jeeps and sports cars really drove home that rich 2013 Los Angeles feel. Adding the older car models in the desert and ghettoes was also 

A nice touch. That said, a lot of the older car models lifted from IV don't really feel right with the improved graphics, which brings me to my next point.

 

I didn't really like the traffic variety in IV. As much as I loved the game, I felt that there was a weird mix of cars from various decades despite the game being set in 2008, and there weren't too many cars in that game that felt like it was styled after cars from the mid-to-late 2000s. I understand they were also trying to amalgamate other decades into this game but I felt this was worth pointing out. I also felt that some of the car designs in this game were pretty uncanny and cartoonish at times, with cars like the Vigero or the Calvacade looking a little off. Didn't help that every car had the same Liberty City license plate without a unique number on it which makes all the cars feel like rentals.

Edited January 7 by sabitsuki

[RamsaySaint77]

One problem V has when it comes to traffic is that most of the super and sports cars on legendary motorsport website can't be found parked or in traffic like the Cheetah, Entity xf, Vacca, Stinger, and others. The Adder can be found parked and in traffic during a switch scene when franklin is stuck in traffic in Downtown Vinewood. I feel like Rockstar was going to include these cars into traffic but either they got greedy and lazy (Which wouldn't be surprising since 2013 is when their era of greed began) or there was a coding issue, The cheetah was even in the files listed as Rockford Cars and you can even see it being stolen in the Gta online trailer. Every other Rockstar game before had us able to steal a nice exotic car on the streets either parked or in traffic, this is Grand Theft Auto not Grand Buy Auto and the fact we can't steal these vehicles is just, dissappointing

 

Don't get me started on the online dlc vehicles, the same applies to them but it's even worse beause of the prescence of shark cards

 

Also police cars don't patrol the streets unless your in Downtown LS

 

Well at least we have mods for these issues

Edited January 7 by RamsaySaint77

[GhettoJesus]

I think SA and V did it the best (in this order), but I have a few gripes with V. My biggest gripe is that a lot of the cars are either black or white, maybe grey. Fortunately this doesn't happen in every area, but if you drive around places like Rockford Drive, where more expensive vehicles spawn, you will quickly notice this issue. I kinda missed the colorful traffic of SA. My second problem, which may not be a problem for others, is that there are way too many SUVs in my opinion, and sometimes you only get SUVs spawning. Like yeah I guess Americans like big cars so you have a ton of SUVs and pickups but come on now. I don't suggest on cutting down on the amount of SUVs but spawn some other type of vehicles as well. As mentioned above me, there are vehicles hidden behind GTA:O or a car dealership. This is something that is not in San Andreas and you can get pretty much every vehicle there is in the game. Why not add the cars from online to singleplayer? Yeah a flying bike wouldn't belong there but a flashy new sports car would. One thing that GTA V did well was that sometimes you can encounter a pimped out ride and I actually liked that idea. They are pretty rare so they don't ruin the illusion. The beaters were also nice addition to the countryside, though sometimes they can frustrate you if that is all that the game is spawning. I think V nicely expanded the amount of vehicles in each category so overall the quantity is satisfying.

 

As for SA, I can't really find any issues with vehicle variety. You have colorful traffic that spawns accordingly to area with a good mix of bikes, lowriders, sedans, wagons, SUVs and whatnot. The game doesn't have as many vehicles as V but for 2004 it had a pretty decent line up. They even have traffic in the water, something that is not in GTA V if I recall correctly. The only issue that could be brought up is that a few vehicles (and by that I mean I could probably count the amount of these vehicles on 1, maybe 2 hands) have messed up spawnrates. For example, the Euros and the Uranus does actually spawn in the game but the chances of seeing them spawn is very low. So overall I believe SA is the winner in this category.

Edited January 7 by GhettoJesus

[kobeni]

2 hours ago, GhettoJesus said:

My second problem, which may not be a problem for others, is that there are way too many SUVs in my opinion, and sometimes you only get SUVs spawning.

SUVs were getting really popular in the 2010s stateside though so it makes sense to include more variety in that class.

[RamsaySaint77]

These mods help with and improve traffic variety for a more traditional Gta experience

 

Versatile Traffic - GTA5-Mods.com

 

Cops: Back on the Beat - GTA5-Mods.com

 

Traffic Variety (Los Santos Tuners Update) - GTA5-Mods.com

 

Edited January 7 by RamsaySaint77

[Americana]

Grand Theft Auto V is the worst, I hate how there are so many old cars driving in Los Santos, many of them European which you can't see even on European streets anymore.

 

Also, the game has too many sport cars. I mean, I understand why - but there are not enough sedans, man. We need sedans. And guess what? Grand Theft Auto IV is the best in that regard. This game has so many normal vehicles, it's great.

 

San Andreas is just as good, but vehicle design in Grand Theft Auto IV rules - no other Grand Theft Auto game has such good designed vehicles. Most of these new cars in V look awful.

Edited January 7 by Americana

[RamsaySaint77]

Those mods I linked help improve the variety

[J LaFleur]

My only problem with GTA V traffic is that one car with European license plates on the street in the enhanced version... Feels off.

[kobeni]

3 hours ago, J LaFleur said:

My only problem with GTA V traffic is that one car with European license plates on the street in the enhanced version... Feels off.

Yeah the pigalle lol

[JE77]

I hate to say, but I disagree, I thought V had the worst and IV had the best, because V didn't have an enough of lower-class cars or middle-class cars and too much higher-class cars and I aways thought the poor areas was too small. The worst variety was Blaine County, not enough 5- to 20-year-old sedans and pickups, and not enough compact pickups and newer cheap cars was in area as well, as not enough lower-class homes or businesses or even not enough poorer MPCs was in there as well, I always thought there was not enough trailer parks. I do agree with SA. I do think, there is not an enough of beaters in GTA games, there need to be 3 to 5 or maybe 7 more of them in the games.

Edited January 21 by JE77

[Ondr4H]

I once read interesting theory GTA V traffic is bad because it feels like real world traffic.

This is interesting, because everybody get used to spawn location of specific cars now traffic act just like traffic  .

[Gettin up]

GTA IV and GTA V traffics are like the same, but sometimes it really sucked in IV if you are on the bridge and it was a traffic jam.

Edited January 27 by Gettin up