homepage Forums SimHQ Community Community Hall So I decided to play GTA V

....And loved it

I had just spent the past couple of months playing Gary Grigsby's War in the East religiously. If you know that game you'll know it's a massive, complex grand operational war game. After playing two German and one Russian grand campaign I was in need of a momentous gaming shift. I needed to buy a new game that was like as far removed from operational wargaming as I could find. Spent a few days on Steam, and GOG and Googling 'best PC games' looking for inspiration.

One recurring thought was 'something like GTA'. Despite enjoying games like the Witcher and Dragon Age, third person games aren't my thing. I will play them if the game is great, but I much prefer first person. I might rate Witcher 3 as the best game of all time, so I'm glad I play them. But first person allows me to become far more immersed in the character I am playing. Just a preference sorta thing.

I hadn't played any GTA game since San Andreas, and that was back in 2004, and even then I probably didn't play more than a few hours before moving on. I didn't grab me.

So back to two weeks ago... Unable to find a game that really lit my fire I had a look at GTA 5. Oh that's right...they added first person. I wonder....

Oh hell with it, it's only $30 and if I hate it no big deal.

But I really enjoyed it. The gunplay, the car chases, running from the cops. The radio, the funny ads, all of the satire. The heists.

And the city of Los Santos. Seriously, a wonderful game world.

I can't remember a game I've played that made me laugh so much.

That was thirty bucks well spent. Not everything was great. I was no fan of Trevor. Despite it being a GTA game and knowing what that means, I still managed to find him repulsive and repugnant, and maybe too far over the top, but he's just one of the characters. Actually, none of the characters really clicked for me, but what did click was me becoming these characters (first person yay!).

So what's the deal with GTA online? Sh!t show? I can't imagine it's anything but. Still, I liked the story mode so much I kinda want to give it a go. But I suspect my enthusiasm would be dashed within minutes of venturing online. Yeah, the game is 5 years old, and didn't even run all that well for me. 170 fps, but with micro stutters that I never did completely eradicate. But it's a wild ride with an amazing gameworld, and really funny.

170 fps is not running good ?

I think the online is still very popular. It's still top 5 on Steam.

Not with the stutters. I was able to reduce this significantly through tweaking, but not completely. And for a five year old game on a fast modern box I would say not running well. But acceptable. It's just that stutter at 130 MPH on the Los Santos freeway isn't good

Does it stutter if you turn on Vsync?

Actually no I did not. Perhaps I should! Maybe it's running too fast?

The advice I read about stuttering said to turn vsynch off in game (which I did) but on in the nvidia panel (which I never did do)

GTA:O was fun but it is a huge grind fest and it is full of people who will troll you.

There is a way to play in a private session though with just friends and that is a lot of fun or to just cruise around by yourself having fun exploring. A lot of the online features only work in public sessions though and that is a real shame because public sessions will give you cancer faster than microwaving your dick.

Yeah I had read that online pricing is insane, and so you need to grind the money to afford it. Not a put-off in of itself, I do play Elite Dangerous after all

But no appeal in having progress erased by internet psychopaths who just affix a sticky bomb to the new car you played weeks to afford. There's insurance and all, but still.

And with the game being so old now, I doubt I'd find a group of friends wanting to play. I think I'll pop in and see what's what. I don't expect to find a great time, but nothing ventured...I suppose ya never know (but can take an educated guess). Not in to pick-up crews, so not sure there's really much for me in GTA:O.

I wasn't expecting to like the game as much as I did, nor to be as impressed as I was with the game world. Just looking for a little more content and since there is no SP DLC, online is my last option.

I play it online now and again, but mostly I like the Stunt Races and making my own in the editor. I think I have made over 50 by now

Is it more fun or more frustrating for you?

Ya know what this game is missing? Grand theft of autos. I mean seriously, why is there no mechanic for me to steal and sell hot cars? Actually, the whole stealing cars thing was a bit of a letdown. Too easy, too little consequence. I could extend my playtime drastically with a more fleshed out system with more danger, and more reward for nicking supercars.The Simeon arc starts down this road but it is over as soon as you crash through the plate glass.

There are a bunch of online missions for stealing cars from your run of the mill cars to very high end cars.

GTA V is cpu intensive, are you on a older system ?

It's a 6700K Skylake , 1070, 16 gigs 'o RAM

I guess others don't get this stuttering?

Thanks Master, that's what I want to do

You can play MOST of the regular online missions by yourself in a closed session. Only some of the bigger missions require help and some of the bigger stuff like heists and etc require a full crew first.

You are still going to be grinding before you can do the missions you want as you have to open the mission givers first but to be fair the first parts of GTAO are pretty fun. its not until you are trying to grind out a few millions that it becomes an issue.

Now I'm somewhat biased since I've been a fan from the old top down 2D version, but this really is a great series. The developer understands how to put out a top notch entertainment product that is superior to any other open world game. I love the feel of the world and how every aspect meshes together into one seamless experience. The online feature while having some drawbacks is great game mode that offers its own unique experiences.

I still play here and there so if you or anyone wants to get together online let me know.

I might just take you up on that, My first time in GTAO was not good. Here's how it went.

Clicked Online and was treated to a long loading screen after which it told me I had yet to create a character, so another loading screen and then to character creation. Threw together one that sorta looks like the dude married to Nicole Kidman. Then was taken to the game opening where you're introduced to a few mechanics. After a brief introduction with Lamar I have to choose a car for a race. I chose the Surge, which as I might have guessed (but didn't) was electric. Which means no cool engine sounds and that won't do. But it had the best acceleration, which I thought would be good in a street race. It was and I won the race easily.

First I am made to go buy some exorbitantly priced clothes and am then tasked with tracking down some gang members to take their stash of less than legal party favors. A shootout ensues against a bunch of NPCs which is pretty easy, but I notice the drugs have jumped in a car and I'm off in my soundless Surge (is this thing on?). Tracked them down and ended up shooting out the tires. Banger bailed and I gunned him down in the street, grabbed the drugs and delivered them to one of Lamar's friends for $500.

Knowing I will probably be killed soon after being dumped in to the game world I pull out the phone and deposit some of my money in the bank so I don't lose it when I die, After a series of messages telling me al of the things I can do I am tasked with stealing a car to be my main hoopty for the early parts of the game I guess. Whichever car you take to the custom shop will get free insurance and a tracker so I can find it when it's stolen. So set off in my silent Surge looking for a good car. Except in online there are a lot more types of cars, but far fewer just sitting around waiting to be nicked and some of them are rank-locked

At this point my enthusiasm is already taking a hit. On the right side of the screen is the text chat. It''s basically endless variations of "who's the modder?" From what I've read there are a lot of hackers in GTAO and it seems I've landed with one in my first server. Undaunted I start driving around Los Santos looking for a likely mark to make my ride. Players are shown on the minimap as dots, so you can see where they are. I just tried to keep my distance at first. On the left side of the screen a steady roll of players killed ticks by. So I can see that it's just mayhem. Deathmatch essentially. No one seems to be doing anything other than killing each other. One guy dies, then another, then four all at once as they kill each other, probably in an explosion.

I get a message to go Los Santos Customs after stealing my car. But I decided to stop by, see what options there were, and then continue my car search. But then I see for this first visit stuff is free, but I don't want to make the Surge my main ride. So I alt-F4 out and more long loading screens.
Back in I finally I locate an Ocelot. This was one of my favorite cars in story mode, and one of my characters hit 146 MPH in it, so I was psyched to get it and find it wasn't rank locked. I drive it to the custom shop to see it's not the F260 that I thought it was and it's some other Ocelot car. Alt-F4 and begin again. Now I have no car at all and am on foot, and players are in helos. Gunships really.

I find a parking deck, which are great places to find cars of course and I begin climbing the decks in search. A message

Hello dbond, your Uber awaits at the top of the parking garage.

Un oh, I've been noticed.

I want nothing to do with it and as I look out the sides of the deck I see a helo in a perfect hover watching me. I climb a deck. He ascends likewise. As I reach the top deck he lands and I get in. Yeah. Well I did and he takes off and we fly across the city and he land at the Vinewood sign. I get out and stop to admire the panoramic vista of the city below. The pilot also gets out and he's a clown. Literally. Green hair. Uh oh, clowns are never good. He pulls out a machete. I pull my fists. Doh. I then pull my starting pistol and shoot him in the face, but he doesn't die. I do from the machete chop.

:"Sorry, I had to do it"

yeah right D-bag.

So I respawn. In the same spot. Seriously? The clown is back in his helo and I try to run away but he chops me up with his rotor blades.

"Sorry, I had to do it"

Homey don't play dat.

What was that that Master had said? You can play MOST of the regular online missions by yourself in a closed session? How to actually do this is not very obvious, but eventually I work out how to start a private server. At this point I am still in need of a car. But now I have no D-bags to trip me up. So I alt-tab so I can do a quick search for opinions on good starter cars. After like four minutes I hop back in to be told I've been idle too long and it reloads the server, but public and once again I am surrounded by sociopaths. What the hell, maybe this server is better. I steal a crap car and evade the cops and begin looking for my new car. I'm driving along and suddenly a message appears that I have invited me to my apartment, long load screen and when I come out of it I am just a camera, nothing else, and am in a hail of gunfire, I assume from a helo. More hackers. Good grief.

So I reload again in a private server and find a car. It's a black coupe, like a 3-series BMW. Take it to the custom shop, then run a couple of missions like bounty hunting. I've played for a little more than two hoursand accomplished little aside from being a hacker or clown victim. What fun.

Still, the solo server stuff gives me more content, but it's a shame that folks can't play this in the right spirit, it's just deathmatch, everyone killing everyone over and over. Not what I want. If I keep at it I can at least develop my character and if I go back in public at least not be equipped like a noob. But my first experience sucked. Once I get some stuff I would be interested in joining HHF and anyone else here that might get the itch to get back in to this game. But public PvP is a complete sh!t show based on last night.

DBond,I wanted GTA V just to play online but you just described exactly why I have resisted it every time I see it on sale.

Well then let's start our own group

There's fun to be had here, but not in PvP it seems. I knew that already, but I still held out hope that things would be different. Recently I made a post here and the uptake was that people suck. Cant recall what I was talking about, but the sentiment is universal, innit? At this point I plan to level up my dude and get some stuff. If anyone's interested in getting something going I'm in.

I'll do a little more private server stuff today. See if I can gain some bank, and get a good weapon. I want to play public, but I hit 100% hacker rate last night and that will not do.

I play The Crew 2 for my arcadey madness fun kick. Sometimes i wish it had the option to get out and do a bit of run and gun and some better upgrade options but for an hour of crazy touring car action with friends it's just straight up good fun.

For my quick action/madness fix I just play Rainbow Six: Siege.

My son plays Crew 2 on the PS4 and has a blast. He plays Forza Horizon 4 too which I got him for Christmas (but on XBox One, he is spoiled)

I played more GTAOSwE (Grand Theft Auto Online Solo with Exceptions) yesterday. Trying to build up some rank and cash and kit. Managed to get to rank 6 which unlocked a lot of stuff and I can play golf now

The exceptions are the fact that even though I am in a private server alone, I can at any time choose a mission and the matchmaking fills the spots with other players and I did that a few times. But once the mission is over it reverts to my private server so I can roam freemode in peace. Had a few really good missions with the dudes I was matched with. So that works pretty well and is sort of a hybrid SP/MP way to enjoy this game.

Aside from a few of these co-op missions, the main way I've leveled so far is bounty hunting (there are only a few, and I managed to accidentally kill one of the targets which cost me ten grand), stealing and selling cars and robbing liquor stores. That's fine for now but sooner or later I'm gonna need a crew to run some of the better missions.