Grand Theft Auto V impressions

So far, I've only been able to play as Franklin and Michael, apart from the tutorial. Whenever I switch to Michael, I feel really bad for the guy. One time, he was just sitting in his car outside his house, head down on the steering wheel. It's details like this that really add to the experience, I think.
I'm neutral to Franklin right now because he doesn't really have much actual conflict yet.

The triathlons are great. I'm really glad they brought them back from San Andreas. I do wish that they had changed the Weazel News cam to not change your controls completely when you switch to it, though.

One thing that's not so great is the non-scripted driving AI. One mission had me switch to Franklin to shoot some dudes while Michael (now controlled by the AI) drove around. He kept driving into telephone poles and getting stuck, causing us to die horribly. The only way I could finish that mission was by ignoring the game's demand for me to switch to Franklin, and to just drive as far away as possible.

HEIST ONE: THE DIAMONDS was pretty sweet. Shame my driver was a fucking retard and couldn't navigate for shit. But at least Packie's still got it.

I unlocked TREVOR, who is very well-written. Between bouts of sadism, he's actually a pretty smart guy. Shame he killed Johnny. The Lost and the Damned was the worst expansion anyway.

So why does everyone hate Franklin doing something different? He's got hundreds of thousands of dollars on-hand, a big house in not-Beverly Hills, and his own cab company, and his "friends" and family are always trying to bring the nigga down. How is Franklin supposed to respect his gang when they let the Ballas control Grove Street? It's a disgrace.

The torture scene was, uh. Hmm. I really
didn't want
to do that
The worst was when I had to yank out his tooth. Like, genital bashing? Who cares, he won't want more kids anyway. Near-drowning? No harm done if he lives. Electro-shocks? Pfft. But you do NOT fuck with a man's teeth. He needs those. For chewing.

Michael's family leaving him was... interesting.
HOW DARE YOU SUSPECT I'M SLEEPING WITH MY YOGA INSTRUCTOR AFTER I WAS CLEARLY SLEEPING WITH MY TENNIS INSTRUCTOR A WEEK AGO
HOW DARE YOU DRINK SOMETHING THAT I OFFERED YOU
HOW DARE YOU PREVENT LAZLOW FROM GRINDING ON ME ON NATIONAL TELEVISION
Well, that last one, I can understand. Who wouldn't want to get ground by Lazlow? His ponytail rivals Patient's.

Nothing so far has topped THE DIAMONDS. In that heist, there were so many layers that came together so well. It felt like I had so much influence on events. THE MYSTERIOUS OBJECT and THE BANK-ASS BANK didn't have the same thrill.

Skydiving/base jumping is still the best thing, even if parachuting onto moving trucks is hard as fuck.

Probably the best non-THE DIAMONDS mission yet is the one where Trevor has to follow the damn train. The "Better Than CJ" award was a nice touch.

So, you pulled off the biggest heist in history, right? You're pretty fucking proud of yourself? Well, fuck you. You now have to decide which ending to get. Do you kill Michael? Do you kill Trevor? Or do you put on your fucking big boy pants and save everyone? Option C is the only one that makes any sense. You grab your homeboy Lamar and go to the foundry to fuck some bitches up.

This is where the problems start. The game might have been pushed out a bit too early in order to make it out before the new console generation. The game only has 69 missions, and while many are very grandiose, this is still a very small number compared to San Andreas and IV.
The final mission has you make a bum rush to tie up all the loose ends, even that one Grove Street boy who was a traitor and you haven't heard about for thirty missions or so. Instead of giving all of the antagonists their own mission and scenario, you just kind of kill them. There's no real build-up, and you just kill Stretch, Chinaman, and FIB man before going to kidnap man who I don't really know what he does.

GTA III had you fight through a hundred Columbian gangsters to be able to shoot down Catalina's helicopter.
Vice City had you defend your mansion from Sonny's goons before being able to kill him and Lance.
San Andreas had you fight through a crack den filled with half of Los Santos's gangs before a final confrontation with Big Smoke, then a firetruck chase through the streets to catch Samuel L. Jackson.
GTA IV had you fight through a warehouse, then chase Dimitri's helicopter in a boat, before trying to board Little Jacob's helicopter in an extremely frustrating manner.

GTA V has the foundry shootout... then nothing. Sniping FIB man on the ferris wheel in full view of the camera was pretty cool, but certainly not befitting of a primary antagonist.
Maybe the other two endings are more climactic. But, honestly, at least 95% of all people who play this game will get this ending the first time through. It's really disappointing, honestly.

BUT THEN YOU GET PSYCHOLOGICALLY EVALUATED NIGGA


>A bit of a tragic case - riddled with contradictory issues
>Tries to do the right thing - poor judgement as to what that is
>Prone to bouts of self-justification
>Classic consumer, trying to fill a spiritual void with material possessions - should try to sell them a lot of my books, CDs, etc.
>Possibly repressed
>Morally conservative about some things - which is weird
>Very dependent on family for self-worth, which is odd
>Investor type - which is odd given risk-taking as unlikely to make old bones
>I wish I knew what meds to offer them - arsenic?
>Frighteningly cold-hearted about other people when it comes to property, etc.
>Thought yoga was silly - instead seems to like slaughter
>At least they don't over-exercise
>Makes friends easily; poor friends
>Does things obsessively
>Bizarre case study in excess

VERY disappointing. Not-The Truth shows you a spaceship he built! It's the size of your palm!
Your reward is a slow-ass dune buggy that makes weird noises.

VERY disappointing. You find the guy and kill him in a car chase.
I like the idea of solving a murder from thirty-plus years ago, but there was way too little payoff for the work I put in.
I wanted something like L.A. Noire, where you could, like, go to crime scenes disguised as a detective and investigate.