Advertisement

‘Grand Theft Auto V,’ touted the ‘perfect’ game, opens to eager crowds

‘Grand Theft Auto V,’ touted the ‘perfect’ game, opens to eager crowds

All across the world, fans of the Grand Theft Auto series lined up to be the first to get their hands on the newest release from publisher Rockstar: Grand Theft Auto V. Midnight launches in Canada, the U.S. and many other countries saw crowds waiting outside of video game stores for hours, all so they could pick up the game, and head home to play.

And if the reviews that have come out are any indication, there’s good reason for that: many reviewers have been giving GTA V a perfect score, not something easily found in the video game industry. On metacritic, a website that curates review scores from all over the web, it has an average score of 97.5/100 (97 for the PS3 edition, 98 for the Xbox 360 version – and if that holds, it will be the best reviewed Xbox 360 game of all time). Here’s a sampling of what some people have been saying about the game:

“No other world in video games comes close to this in size or scope, and there is sharp intelligence behind its sense of humour and gift for mayhem.” – IGN (10/10)

“Each character has his own missions and switching between them moves you to wherever that character is as you join his life, which is already in progress. This means you might catch Trevor waking up in the middle of the desert, wearing a dress. Or you might catch Michael waking up screaming. It's a good little trick that gives the illusion that these characters are off living their lives, even when you aren't directly controlling them.” – Giant Bomb, in reference to the three different characters you can play over the course of the game (5/5)

“It's fitting that the game arrives at the cusp of the next generation of consoles. Grand Theft Auto 5 is the closure of this generation, and the benchmark for the next. Here is a game caught occasionally for the worst, but overwhelmingly for the better, between the present and the future.” – Polygon (9.5/10)

[ More Right Click: Nintendo 2DS announced by Nintendo for entry-level gaming ]

With so much positive chatter about the game, it isn’t hard to understand why analysts are predicting that the game will rake in $1 billion in sales by March 2014. That isn’t quite record setting, but it is certainly impressive. Currently, the record for the fastest game to reach $1 billion in sales goes to Call of Duty: Black Ops 2, which reached $1 billion in its first 15 days on sale.

Still, considering the themes in the game, including cursing, violence, sexual themes and other inclusions which have earned the game an “M for Mature” rating (customers need to be 17 or over to buy the game), its widespread popularity is still impressive, considering it can’t rely on younger gamers to fuel purchases. As with any media, however, there will always be parents who opt to let their child play the game, anyway, like this 11-year-old in France, who managed to get his hands on an advanced copy of the game:

If you’re at least 17, and want to experience for yourself the phenomenon that is Grand Theft Auto, you haven’t missed out just because you weren’t camped out at midnight; copies for Xbox 360 and PS3 are available now in stores across Canada.

Need to know what’s hot in tech? Follow @YRightClick on Twitter!