Boasting a map bigger than those of Red Dead Redemption, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and Grand Theft Auto IV combined, it’s clear that Rockstar has put a lot of work into Grand Theft Auto V.
One of the main people behind GTA V is Aaron Garbut, the Art Director at Rockstar North, who spoke to Buzzfeed about how their knowledge of the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 has expanded since the release of Grand Theft Auto IV:
Grand Theft Auto IV was our first headlong jump into current-gen consoles. We had a lot to learn in every aspect, not just technically but artistically and even in terms of production. As I mentioned earlier, I think we moved from effectively building a world out of some roads and boxes to a much, much more detailed creation. That first jump was really hard. Since then, though, we’ve had a lot more experience. We’re comfortable building assets at this level of detail and our coders are comfortable with the machines. We’ve pushed them much, much further than before.
Referencing Grand Theft Auto V specifically, Garbut continued by mentioning their goals:
The main thing we wanted to achieve was to pull off this sense of scale. The way we don’t limit the draw distance and draw the lights so far back really emphasizes this. We have a load of tech just geared toward the countryside, from heat haze to cloud shadows, to the water to the advanced fog.
On the streaming side we’re able to do so much more. That’s let us make the world not just a lot bigger but much more detailed than IV was. There’s just so much going on, not just on the backdrop of the world but in the life on the street.
If you’ve yet to see Grand Theft Auto V in action yet, you can check out the gameplay video (from the PS3 version) here, with details about the online portion of the game, Grand Theft Auto Online, expected to be revealed this Thursday.
Grand Theft Auto V is going to be available on September 17th at retail, with a PSN Day 1 Digital version still unconfirmed.
