Grand Theft Auto 5 – what we want to see

As of this writing, we know absolutely nothing about the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto. Technically, we don’t even know it exists, because publisher Rockstar Games hasn’t announced or even let slip a single scrap of information about it. But we know it’s in the works, because really, how could it not be? Saying there might not be another GTA on the horizon would be like saying EA might pull the plug on Madden.

But while we don’t yet have an idea of what Rockstar’s got up its sleeve, there are a few things that the last game left us wanting. Things that, after careful consideration, we’re convinced the franchise needs. Whether we’ll actually get them is anyone’s guess (and we’ll probably love the game regardless), but the following items are what we’d really like to see from the sequel:

Less grim, more fun

Look, we get what Rockstar was trying to do with GTA IV. At the time, we even loved it. Where other GTAs had been balls-to-the-wall frenzies driven by explosive idiocy, Niko’s story was methodical, bleak, serious and ultimately sad. It had plenty of goofy moments, sure, but the mood was more subdued, and the action toned down in favor of realism.

Above: Also in the name of realism, everyone’s really ugly
Again, we realize why Rockstar did what it did: the old craziness wouldn’t have fit the new, more mature tone, and the transformation from juvenile silliness to somber realism was a big step toward convincing the mainstream that, yes, games can be serious art. Then came The Lost and Damned expansion, which ramped up the bleakness and made Liberty City seem less like a playground and more like a hell on earth. When The Ballad of Gay Tony hit, however, it reminded us of what we’d been missing: the pure, unadulterated rush of fun and freedom that every GTA release used to signify.

Above: Remember stuff like this? That was pretty fun, wasn’t it?
As infatuated as we at first were with IV’s grimness, Gay Tony made up our minds: in the future, we’d like to see a little more levity and big-budget silliness in our car-crime games. Saints Row 2 hit a lot of those notes, rolling out an “old GTA” mentality for fans turned off by IV’s seriousness – but it’s no GTA, and we’re interested to see what the king of car-crime can do now that it’s apparently got its sense of fun back.

Cars that don’t handle like ass

Driving controls have been a problem since GTA III. It’s always fun to jack new rides and go tearing around crowded streets at high speeds, but it’s also damn near impossible to take 90-degree turns, maintain a straight line or not slam into every single pedestrian, lamppost and car between you and a routine drive to your destination.

Above: Just an average left turn in Liberty City
In GTA IV, part of this was our own fault – it’s hard not to pull the right trigger all the way in – but part of it was a deliberate design decision. The beaters and jalopies players had available in the game’s early chapters apparently had to be clunky in the name of realism, and also to contrast them with the faster, more maneuverable rides you’d find later in the game.
Again, we get it. But enough. In real life, we’re perfectly capable of driving around a city without our car hoods flipping up and blowing away. We can take corners without skidding across the intersection and smashing into fire hydrants, and we can drive at high speeds without causing multiple fatalities. We can even do this to some degree in other games. Getting banged up is and should be a normal part of car chases, but it shouldn’t happen every time we’re chauffering someone from point A to point B.

Above: AAAA WE WERE JUST GOING TO PICK UP SOME GROCERIEEEES
True, we could always try harder to just slow down a bit. But where’s the fun in that?

More than one city and/or wide-open spaces

As impressive an achievement as GTA IV’s Liberty City was, it still felt like a step back after the massive world that was San Andreas. True, long stretches of it were empty and uninteresting, but that didn’t do much to dampen the thrill of discovering the unique character and design of each new city, small town or remote point of interest on the map.

Above: Again, remember how cool this could be?
It doesn’t have to be three cities. It could be two. Or even one big one, with a lot of outlying wilderness, suburbs or small towns around its edges (we’re biased on this count, since we live in San Francisco, but we’d strongly suggest a return to San Fierro). Just so long as we’ve got an excuse to bomb across dunes on an ATV, roar down a mountainside on a runaway motorcycle or re-create things like this:




If nothing else, Red Dead Redemption proved that Rockstar can make wilderness as vibrant and interesting as its cities. It’d be kind of a waste if all that cool design didn’t make it into the next GTA, as well. And if a sprawlingly huge game world means the return of airplanes – which we were just starting to like by the time San Andreas ended – that would be even better.

A new time period

While we’re on the topic of what we’d like to see from the world, how about a new era to go nuts in? Previous games have taken us to the ‘80s, ‘90s and ‘00s, but there’s a whole century of automotive criminality Rockstar could tap for inspiration. We’d love to see what Rockstar North could do with the drug-and-disco-fueled ‘70s, for example, especially after it did such a great job with the nightclub-centric Gay Tony. And as long as we’re wishing, we’ve wanted to see a fully realized version of 1960s London ever since the amazing-for-its-time London 1969 expansion for the very first Grand Theft Auto.

Above: Because really, who wants to go back and play this old thing again?
Of course, there’s no reason to focus on the latter half of the century. True, the ‘20s and ‘30s have already been done by Mafia, and the ‘40s and ‘50s by its sequel and the upcoming, Rockstar-published L.A. Noire, but those games were (or at least appear to be) serious, no-nonsense period dramas. Meanwhile, a Prohibition-era GTA, provided its cars didn’t top out at 45 miles per hour, could bring an anarchic, Bonnie-and-Clyde sense of fun to the early 20th century, ditching grim, overcoat-wearing gravitas for wild shootouts against Treasury agents and paranoid hillbilly bootleggers.  And banjo music. Lots of banjo music.

Above: C’mon, it’d be irresistible!
Or it could be set in the future. Whatever. To bring up Red Dead Redemption again, though, the lavish western was a reminder that Rockstar has a gift for re-creating interesting moments in history, and we certainly wouldn’t turn up our noses if they decided to apply that gift to GTA again.

More DLC episodes

Rockstar was definitely on the right track with this one. Less DLC add-ons than they were entire new campaigns, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony injected new life into GTA IV’s aging Liberty City, giving players who’d finished Niko’s immigrant story a reason to dive back in. While it’s putting several carts before the horse, we hope the next GTA makes this cool idea a series tradition, giving us new characters and stories to make the most of whatever cool playground Rockstar is probably building for us right now.

Hell, every open-world game should do this. With current-gen technology turning the wait for sequels into a years-long affair, being able to squeeze the big sandbox you already own for a few more stories is pretty damned appealing.