? Experiencing the launch of a new Grand Theft Auto game is kind of like witnessing a shooting star: it doesn’t happen very often, different parts of the world gather to celebrate and enjoy it, and if you don’t understand why anyone cares about it, you still can’t escape hearing about it. Grand Theft Auto V came out a little less than a month ago, but the hype surrounding the game will last for for a long, long time. Rockstar Games is kind of an anomaly in the game industry. They don’t release a rushed game every year, and they don’t typically follow the flow of the rest of the industry. It feels like their games are developed in a vacuum, away from the rest of the world. The release of a Rockstar game genuinely feels like an event. Grand Theft Auto V was the biggest game event of all time, grossing over 1 billion dollars in three days. But here’s the thing: all that hype? It’s warranted. Grand Theft Auto V is the best game in the series by a wide margin and will undoubtedly go down in gaming history as a high-water mark for the industry. It feels like every game Rockstar has made has been leading up to this; it combines all the best mechanics of every title they’ve released thus far into one incredible, awe-inspiring package. The game features three playable characters for the first time in series history, and uses it to craft an incredible narrative. It’s the funniest, darkest, most thrilling game in the series. Rockstar made sure to give players plenty of time to get lost in the story by wisely waiting two weeks after release to launch GTA Online, the ambitious multiplayer component that the series always seemed destined for. GTA Online launched on Oct 1, and although it was effectively broken on launch day, Rockstar has worked hard to fix it, and it’s more or less functional now. It expands the core of single player and lets players create crews and work together to perform jobs and make huge amounts of money. It’s solid fun and provides even more playtime for an already immensely valuable package. What makes GTA unlike any other game, though, is how it brings together a room of strangers. It can consume you for hours, and not just by partaking in story missions or any grand narrative, but simply driving by around virtual Los Angeles and existing in a world more exhilarating, engaging and downright delightful than anything you’ve ever experienced before. Rockstar continues to deliver, game after game and Grand Theft Auto V is no exception. That’s something special.
