A Truly Ambitious Game of Uncompromising proportions, a stellar achievement and a perfect way to cap a generation.
Story: I will not spoil anything here, but how could I? the story is so grand, so vast and covers multiple protagonist. It Would be really hard to "spoil" anything really as every tidbit of story line stands on its own merit yet is cleverly interwoven into the main storyline perfectly. Its really hard to distinguish what is main or side quest sometimes as well, because the acting and voicing of the characters is so good. Jut when you think your doing a side mission it is then gently steered back into the main story later down the line, Truly remarkable. The Characters, main/ side/lead/support/extra's etc. are acted so brilliantly but obviously (as GTA traditionally does) are lifted or should i say "influenced" by current times and situations, R* has always tried to have they're games (Story) reflect the times we live in and the controlled chaos of todays markets and lively hoods are all expertly crafted here as the characters having knowledge of what works but not sure how to apply that to the future is a grand example or personification of the "old hand" not being capable of establishing its grip on a new uninterested society.
Gameplay: GTA has always been a "jack of all trades" kinda game but in this fifth instillation (fifth being a loose term) they truly have come close to mastering those techniques. I almost want to coin a new term and say its quality with quantity as none of the many, many ways that you can tackle this game are bad or average in anyway.... well... the shooting and driving mechanics are still somethings that i find hard pressed to fall in love with but have generally been vastly and greatly improved over what was before. My absolute main concern with game play however was 3 protagonist. The many promo videos explained it but it didn't make sense, i thought it would have been really lost on me as a mechanic but having played it, it just..... makes sense. Which honestly feels like a cop out as an answer on my part but when your dealing with a game this huge, one character truly wasn't enough and its handled so sublimely, the true definition of being in 3 places at once. As always i commend R* for having the balls to just do something like this with the crazy ass budget they have, no other studio will ever be able to make a game this risky with this kinda budget. This is brilliant game design, with rock solid mechanics and encompasses so much variety that almost every kind of gamer can get into... almost.
Presentation: The terms "virgin blood" or "virgin sacrifice" comes to mind when thinking about how greatly this game has been put together technically speaking. Apart from the start of the game or if you have to restart something there are no loading screens, Yeah, you hear that gaming industry?? No Loading (Visible Loading anyway) on current gen systems. Awesome.
For such a grand scale it runs relatively smooth and Sound is superb as its always been, there are some low textures in places but you really have to search to find them and its hard to nitpick at this as its probably the biggest game world ever created. From Sea/Road or Air the game is richly detailed and completely explorable.
In Closing, GTA 5 is huge game and a huge statement from R* to the gaming industry, if this is whats possible on Current Systems, i'm more excited to see what really will be possible next few years in the next gen, but as it currently stands i don't see anything this year or early next year that tops this and thats saying alot.