Grand Theft Auto Online was finally revealed yesterday (watch its debut trailer right here) and I’m now prepared to spend the next month sitting on the edge of every seat I happen to sit on in anticipation. With that being said, here are 5 things that I hope make it into the game, a list I have created because I am a gamer and gamers have an inflated sense of entitlement.
PC and next-gen console releases
It’s highly likely that GTA Online will eventually make its way to PC alongside GTA V, but what about the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One? As Sony and Microsoft’s upcoming consoles are to be launched at the tail-end of this year, that means that those of us looking to make the jump will only have a couple of months to play GTA Online before we start packing our current-gen consoles away. Rockstar has said that they have no plans to release GTA V separately, but hopefully the demand is so high for a next-gen GTA Online they’ll eventually release it on the PS4 and Xbone at some point in the near future. If not, then looks like my 360 will be sitting in my TV cabinet a little while longer than I had originally planned.
Many, many players
One major issue I had with GTA IV‘s multiplayer component was that too often I’d find myself alone in Liberty City, meeting up with my fellow players only for the occasional impromptu shootout. Considering that GTA V‘s Los Santos setting has the biggest map of the series thus far, I am worried that I’ll once again find myself lonely wandering its landscape. Rockstar has said that upon release GTA Online will support 1 – 16 players, however, if they were to take GTA Online to PC and next-gen consoles in the future, this would mean that the available number of player slots could be upped, allowing for some large-scale destruction befitting of the ambitious vision Rockstar has for GTA V.
Fleshed-out side activities
Rockstar is promising that there will be plenty to see and do in GTA Online, with players able to partake in a multitude of leisurely activities including the likes of tennis and golf. Now perhaps I’m being too demanding here, but I’d LOVE it if these sports were well-rounded games in their own right instead of just short, throwaway mini-games. I’m thinking a multitude of golf courses, complete with Everybody’s Golf-esque simple but fun gameplay, and arcadey tennis matches in the style of Virtua Tennis. Also, rather than having the equipment to take part in these sports thrust in your direction from the get-go, players would instead have to buy better golf clubs, rackets and the like from sports shops in order to improve their game.
Dogs
GTA V will feature a dog – a customizable one at that. But how awesome would it be to be able to roam around Los Santos with a loyal canine companion in Los Santos? Sure, there would be a worrying amount of doggy deaths as players mercilessly murdered each other’s pooches, but if you look past that and think of those few fleeting moments you’ll get to spend with your dog in your swanky apartment – feeding him, stroking him, taking him for a walk before one of your buddies runs him over in his Lamborghini – it’s difficult to imagine how you could possibly have gun in the game without the company of Fido.
A persistent game world, shared by my friends
So this one is little more than a pipe dream, but this is a list of things I want from GTA Online, damn it, and this is exactly what I want. While the Xbox 360 or PlayStation 3 obviously will not be able to support different servers for the different worlds of the thousands upon thousands of prospective GTA Online players, I’d love it if Rockstar would employ a system similar to the 360 version of Minecraft, where one player creates a world that their friends can then share. This means that friends can then each have their own apartment in that players’ world, to visit and to customize as they see fit. It’s unlikely that this will happen, of course, but a guy can but hope.
