Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[Wooz]

They need more female characters imo. Have Lola show up for real. Female antagonists were absent in V...like obviously have lampooned villains but a serious villain ala the Helen Mirren expy in Uncharted would be fun.

Lmao imagine Gracie Ancelotti returning for VI.

Fuck Gracie. I wish those fail cutscenes of her breaking her neck in the car trunk were canon lmao.

 

[The Last Stand]

I guess, but Haines felt like a lame copy of Tenpenny, and was treated like a joke throughout the game (no one respected him on his TV show, the running gag of his leg getting shot, and the way each protagonist mocked him). Weston was just a rich douchebag whose big moments were screwing everyone out of their money for the cars (big whoop, the whole game goes to ridiculous lengths to not reward players money beyond 4 of the heists) and ordering a hit on Michael's family.

Stretch only appears in two missions, one of which is locked if you go for the other two endings, so he's more of a minor annoyance than a villain (compared to the others, anyway). Wei Cheng gets a slightly better deal in that he gets some build up in Trevor's missions and he nearly kills Michael, but even then his screen time is too short for him to shine.

Really, I think GTA V has the shittiest villains of all of Rockstar's titles, very disappointing given their pedigree.

Compare the villains in V to Dimitri from IV. You can see the buildup of how Dimitri became legitimately menacing and evil as Niko progresses through Liberty City.

GTA V has flawed characters. Almost everybody is unlikeable or just underdeveloped. Michael is a sorry sack, Trevor is a manic, Franklin has little backstory.

 

[Wooz]

Compare the villains in V to Dimitri from IV. You can see the buildup of how Dimitri became legitimately menacing and evil as Niko progresses through Liberty City.

GTA V has flawed characters. Almost everybody is unlikeable or just underdeveloped. Michael is a sorry sack, Trevor is a manic, Franklin has little backstory.

The more I think about it, the more I realize just how much of a missed opportunity 5 was on so many levels. From the map, the story, the detail, a lot of the substance felt scaled back while the technology progressed.

 

[Tom Nook's Gloryhole]

GTA V was literally all style and no substance, which is completely fine if you want a little sandbox to fuck around in but it was generally boring as shit, and to top it off all the side quests didn't give you any bonuses, just essentially said "here's $10, you're a retard for wasting your time on this".

The ending was unintentionally hilarious because by the time I got to the end, half the people who were on the hitlist had already been forgotten about. I thought the Chinese had disappeared or something by then. The completely bipolar character motivations screamed of the story being written by about 50 different writers with no general 'bible' to ensure that each little mission didn't fuck with another.

I played it twice through on release because the first time was so disappointing I figured I'd made some wrong choices in the story, only to do the opposite way around the next time and notice barely any difference.

Also fuck the OG police, I'm convinced they were that bloodthirsty because they made sure you didn't break the technical limitations of the game on PS3/Xbox.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Really, I think GTA V has the shittiest villains of all of Rockstar's titles, very disappointing given their pedigree.

I'm telling you, Trevor was originally meant to to be *the* build up villain of GTA V before he was re-written into a protagonist.

I like Trevor, but disconnect him from being playable and look at how he is presented in the game outside of his personal narrative. He's has the biggest buildup out of any of them. If he wasn't re-written into a protagonist he wouldn't come off nearly as sympathetic and would be treated as a psychotic threat to Michael and his family as he should be.

Not to mention how he literally goes from never letting it go that Mike set him up and got Brad killed, to just being like "Well, Brad was a prick anyways and I would have killed him too." once the Deathwish Ending is achieved.

Don't quote me on it, but I heard that Lamar was planned to be a playable character.

Slink Johnson said it himself in a reddit AMA, I'm pretty sure. He even said that he would have been playable after the ending but things changed, which lead people to assume that Franklin would have died but I'm not so sure.

 

[Jack Awful]

Slink Johnson said it himself in a reddit AMA, I'm pretty sure. He even said that he would have been playable after the ending but things changed, which lead people to assume that Franklin would have died but I'm not so sure.

There was a rumor that ending C originally had Franklin die and that each ending would have the dead character replaced by an ally. I think Jimmy would replace dead Michael, IDK who would replace Trevor though.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Even that doesn't make sense though, because Jimmy would be a horrible criminal to play as, and would have nothing to do with Franklin or Trevor when they killed his father.

I honestly think it's a sign of when there was much more criminal activities to do with your partners. That way having Lamar would make sense if you had to kill Trevor and/or Michael originally.

 

[The Last Stand]

I think Jimmy would replace dead Michael, IDK who would replace Trevor though.

Now THAT would be an insulting dissonance to GTA fans. Jimmy is literally a 20-year-old pot smoking suburan gamer. How would you build up his character in tandem with the GTA formula?

and to top it off all the side quests didn't give you any bonuses, just essentially said "here's $10, you're a retard for wasting your time on this".

You'd get the sense of accomplishment of character development, conclusion and an achievement. It felt the same way with IV is its hidden packages. In past games, you'd get weapons and bribes for your safehouse. Now, it's some money and a pat on the back.

GTA V was literally all style and no substance,

Just like modern day Los Angeles and Hollywood.

 

[The Ugly One]

GTA V really builds up its heists in the beginning of the game, and only gives what, 3 or 4 in the entire game? The much-vaunted "sandbox" is barely changed from GTA III: see how many civilians and cops you can kill before getting taken down (and losing your money and your guns). Not many ways to earn money, and not any point, really, since there is plenty of firepower available on missions, and the only reason to buy guns outside of the missions is to go on a murder spree.

 

[CWCissey]

IDK who would replace Trevor though.

Chef?

 

[The Last Stand]

GTA V really builds up its heists in the beginning of the game, and only gives what, 3 or 4 in the entire game? The much-vaunted "sandbox" is barely changed from GTA III: see how many civilians and cops you can kill before getting taken down (and losing your money and your guns). Not many ways to earn money, and not any point, really, since there is plenty of firepower available on missions, and the only reason to buy guns outside of the missions is to go on a murder spree.

San Andreas did ONE thing right with its open-world: give the player options to spend their ill-gotten funds. AND provide activities that don't count for 100%.

 

[Nobunaga]

The only character who had any sort of arc or goal was michael, franklin was everyones bitch and completely useless and trevor was just le wacky cruahzy psycho with no arc

 

[Honka Honka Burning Love]

Not to mention how he literally goes from never letting it go that Mike set him up and got Brad killed, to just being like "Well, Brad was a prick anyways and I would have killed him too." once the Deathwish Ending is achieved.

I am 100% GTAV is missing a set of story arcs between "Mike and Trevor have their fight" and "Franklin slaps them into line"

 

[Vault Boy]

GTA V really builds up its heists in the beginning of the game, and only gives what, 3 or 4 in the entire game? The much-vaunted "sandbox" is barely changed from GTA III: see how many civilians and cops you can kill before getting taken down (and losing your money and your guns). Not many ways to earn money, and not any point, really, since there is plenty of firepower available on missions, and the only reason to buy guns outside of the missions is to go on a murder spree.

Six heists, two of which didn't give you shit and two of which gave you less than $100,000.

One of my bigger gripes with the game is how stingy it is with rewards, both for the missions and collectibles. The missions go through some asinine lengths to avoid paying you (like Lamar giving away too much info to the police or that security car heist being about "gaining connections"), and the most you get for collecting most collectibles is some crappy car that you need to store in your glitchy garages.

Even properties are a waste since they take far too long to break even and force you to do mundane shit to get paid.

 

[Milwaukee Macho Man]

Pretty sure properties were a last minute addition, as Rockstar had originally claimed there wouldn't be any apartments or properties to buy and there was a big backlash over it. That's why I assume they are so useless.

Part of me wonders if Rockstar realized how easy it was to manipulate the GTA fanbase when they realized just putting in something that pretty much just removes money made them happy.

 

[The Last Stand]

The only character who had any sort of arc or goal was michael,

Had the plot of GTA V not happened, he'd still be sulking in his swimming pool, going to a therapist that despises him and coming back to a family that hates his guts.

His redemption arc with his family was good, but that's it. He COULD be a case study of riding your laurels.

 

[Korpon]

A little late but another good example of how shit GTA V's antagonists were is Martin Madrazo, this big bad powerful drug lord, he shows up and forces Michael into repaying him for the house he torn down, resulting in the Jewelry Store heist. Later on Trevor straight up kidnaps his wife, causing the entire city of Los Santos to be dangerous for Michael and Trevor as he has guys waiting at the highways ready to gun their asses down. Then Trevor returns his wife, beats Martin up, and he's all fine with it and is being nice to Trevor? And no retaliation against him? It was just treated as a big joke and made it painfully hard to care about any stakes after that.

 

[The Ugly One]

Six heists, two of which didn't give you shit and two of which gave you less than $100,000.

One of my bigger gripes with the game is how stingy it is with rewards, both for the missions and collectibles. The missions go through some asinine lengths to avoid paying you (like Lamar giving away too much info to the police or that security car heist being about "gaining connections"), and the most you get for collecting most collectibles is some crappy car that you need to store in your glitchy garages.

Even properties are a waste since they take far too long to break even and force you to do mundane shit to get paid.

And what do you need money and cars for? I beat the entire game without doing that stuff, because there really wasn't any benefit to the main game. IIRC, in Just Cause 2, as you blew stuff up around the island, it gradually became less dangerous for you. You'd also find upgrades to make your weapons better. If GTA could make me care, like doing side stuff made my car faster/more durable or got me better weapons, I'd care.

Instead, I think they expected the novelty of being able to drive in any random direction and shoot random civilians to not wear off in 20 years.

 

[Anachronistic]

A little late but another good example of how shit GTA V's antagonists were is Martin Madrazo, this big bad powerful drug lord, he shows up and forces Michael into repaying him for the house he torn down, resulting in the Jewelry Store heist. Later on Trevor straight up kidnaps his wife, causing the entire city of Los Santos to be dangerous for Michael and Trevor as he has guys waiting at the highways ready to gun their asses down. Then Trevor returns his wife, beats Martin up, and he's all fine with it and is being nice to Trevor? And no retaliation against him? It was just treated as a big joke and made it painfully hard to care about any stakes after that.

I was pretty confused about that myself. Michael and Trevor have to hide out in the desert since the city if filled with gangsters (gangsters with pistols, not much of a threat compared to the other enemies in the game IMO) and Madrazo calls both of them, sincerely pissed. Yet when Trevor returns Patricia, Madrazo is missing an ear and is terrified of Trevor.

So did Trevor go to his house without Patricia and attack him off-camera at some point or did he do that when he kidnapped Patricia and Madrazo is just bipolar with memory loss? Because either concept is stupid and the result of shitty writing.

 

[The Last Stand]

I was pretty confused about that myself. Michael and Trevor have to hide out in the desert since the city if filled with gangsters (gangsters with pistols, not much of a threat compared to the other enemies in the game IMO) and Madrazo calls both of them, sincerely pissed. Yet when Trevor returns Patricia, Madrazo is missing an ear and is terrified of Trevor.

So did Trevor go to his house without Patricia and attack him off-camera at some point or did he do that when he kidnapped Patricia and Madrazo is just bipolar with memory loss? Because either concept is stupid and the result of shitty writing.

AFAIK, Trevor asked for payment, Martin said no, so Trevor flipped out, knocked him out, cut off his ear and THEN kidnapped his wife.

Then Trevor returns his wife, beats Martin up, and he's all fine with it and is being nice to Trevor? And no retaliation against him? It was just treated as a big joke and made it painfully hard to care about any stakes after that.

Michael gave him an artifact along with the safe return of his wife. Long story short, Martin's afraid of Trevor.