It’s been about a year since Grand Theft Auto V released on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. When the first launched the PS4 and Xbox One versions hadn’t been planned, so now after a year they are finally out, with a PC release next year. There were a number of additions made to take advantage of the new formats and things they wanted to include the first time around. While these new additions are nice, some others were left out. It’s still pretty much the same game from last year, for better or worse; Thankfully much more for the better.

In case you hadn’t played last year’s release, the game is about the story of three men who through fate, get together and pull off heists to eventually make a big score, and make it big in the cities of Los Santos and San Andreas, even if it means flipping their nose to the law. Michael is a guy who took a fall in a heist ten years prior, but has moved on and retired from a life of crime, but now gets dragged back into it. He also meets an up-and-coming rookie in Franklin. Of course their actions also draw the attentions of Michael’s former partner Trevor, who is the main reason he faked his death. This is because Trevor is one hell of a psychopath. Together they get together and pull off many scores and get into all sorts of trouble.

Gameplay is in third person, and there were great improvements made from the previous entry in the series, GTA IV. Driving is better, and aiming works better with the ability to snap to the closet targets for easy shooting. New to this version is a first person mode, which is a neat little way to experience the game. Interestingly though, running on foot is faster in this perspective. Now that the game has three playable characters, they have each been given special abilities to aid the player in the game. Franklin can use a ‘bullet-time’ slow motion effect to make getting through congested traffic easier. While Michael does the same for gun play, Trevor increases the power of his attacks. The game also thankfully has much needed checkpoints and the ability to quick-save.

While the overall story of the game is interesting, there is a big problem with the character development. The story focuses mainly on Michael and Trevor’s past and present, Franklin gets pretty much left behind. This makes him a third wheel, who’s mostly just there for backup during heists or other missions. I feel like Rockstar didn’t know what to do with him. It’s like they wanted a ‘CJ from San Andreas but not CJ’, but they failed to give him any presence or real individuality past his intro missions, wasted potential. And it’s not like this version of the game includes past DLC, because single player DLC still hasn’t been made yet.

While the game is still solid, one feature that’s still missing from the game is the ability for fast travel because specific landmarks to make getting to certain destinations faster. And the map of GTA V is huge. It might take several minutes to get to locations, and as a person who values their time, this is annoying. You’d think that after 17 years of the franchise’s existence, they nail this. Especially for San Andreas and GTA V, there are taxis, but it’s not much of a substitute. At least it’s a convenient excuse to listen to the game’s various radio stations and the music selections. And it’s quite a good selection. While the game got a slight visual improvement, it doesn’t do much to hide the fact that it’s using a dated engine designed for last generation systems. And the move to PS4 and Xbox One didn’t bump up the framerate to 60FPS, but rather a constant 30. Which is still fine, especially considering the world is completely rendered before booting a game up, practically eliminating follow up load times. Also if you bought the previous gen release on either platform, you can transfer your online multiplayer characters. So while there is no new DLC included and there are some features that were not added, the game is still a solid experience, but there’s not much to get returning players to come back. This release is mainly for players who passed up the game the first time. And you couldn’t go wrong.

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