From the Sounds of it...

[HB_Sauce 20]

http://www.rockstargames.com/newswire/article/19471/grand-theft-auto-v-official-announcement.html

Looks like it might only take place in Los Santos, and about Southern California in general. With the inclusion of countryside/beaches, it looks like they will be greatly increasing the sprawl of Los Santos area and I'm ok with that.

If it's just one city (aka Liberty City, Vice City) then the story has less of a chance to become derailed by the size of the map, which I thought happened in San Andreas.

As long as we can pilot those jets & drive a car to the top of that mountain I don't think a lot of people will complain.

[Samurai_tbag 27]

Saw this coming. The level of detail was too good for more than one city. I'd take a guess that those mountains are going to be the border of the map as they were in RDR, making them un-climbable.

Slightly disappointing though, considering LS is a pretty boring city in comparison to LC. I think VC would've been a much smarter choice personally.

[DuffMan 266]

I think people forget the transformation Liberty City underwent from III => IV. I expect there'll be lots of complaints about it just being LS and the surrounding area, but it won't be anything like the one in SA. They'll make it work regardless of where it's set.

Also, the comments about there must be more than one city and multiple airports if there are jets... maybe, just maybe, they're adding all the stuff people have begged for from SA that they missed in IV. It's rare for developers to give people what they want but clearly someone at Rockstar has been listening.

[JameZ88 3]

I dont know how you can say it is only LS, jeez if we went off the trailer the map is already smaller than IV because the dense city area is minute, tbh I think we will see another city in the next trailer, and it that is Mount Chilliad as we believe judging by the old SA map that is right next to San Fierro, I think this trailer is a taster, and they were always gonna show Las Santos first because Vinewood is the iconic place, I could be entirely wrong but I would not be surprised to see casino's and everything that goes with them, in the next 2 trailers.

[Samurai_tbag 27]

I think people forget the transformation Liberty City underwent from III => IV. I expect there'll be lots of complaints about it just being LS and the surrounding area, but it won't be anything like the one in SA. They'll make it work regardless of where it's set.

It's less the transformation, more the setting for me. LA is a boring dull city in real life. It looks the same, there's nothing iconic about it, aside from the obvious few (Hollywood Blvd., Santa Monica/Venice Beach and Downtown). LA is just a massive suburb in my eyes, with a small Downtown area which features four or five skyscrapers. That is pretty incomparable to NY's skyline and its variety of architectural suburbs.

Miami has a much more unique mixture of both NY and LA. Miami's skyline is far more interesting than LA's (more scrapers, the best of NY), the architecture of Miami is much nicer than LA's (SoBe, Little Havana, etc..) and the various bridges and islands that compose Miami could be a lot more interesting than one big suburban sprawl. LA has beaches, great, Miami has nicer beaches. LA has hills, again great, but Miami has real rural 'red neck' America and swamps, much more interesting in my opinion.

Don't get me wrong, I'll be buying this the day it's released, but I'm just saying, LA is a poor choice, look at how boring LA based games have been in the past (L.A. Noire, Midnight Club L.A., True Crime LA, etc..). I'm just not sure how R* can make a boring city in real life, become an interesting one in a game.

[Rayge 689]

R* incorporated gang culture into LS brilliantly in San Andreas, and just because it wasn't so eventful in SA doesn't mean it won't be now, like from III>IV, there was a HUGE change in things to do. I don't think xbox could handle the entire state of San Andreas, therefore they had to cut it down to one city (would require multiple DVDs). Or maybe they will release more trailers of LV and SF later, who knows.

When the next generation of consoles come about I think there will be capability of an entire San Andreas, but that will be in years to come.

[JameZ88 3]

It will be two disk, one disk for Multiplayer and installation and the other disk will be the main game, you think of the biggest PC installed game and its a couple gb's were not talking tb's it will be a large install and then play by disk, BF3 just did it not long back so it proves that installs work, GTA would never work of multiple disks thats a fact, PS3 blu-ray 1 disk and install, Xbox 2 disk, 1 disk install other disk play.

[OptimumPx 329]

Here's what I'm thinking:

A huge part of the map for the "largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created" will be the city of Los Santos. Outside of town will be the countryside and such. But also San Andreas style small towns. I'm thinking there will be at least one smaller city in the game map....something like San Diego or Santa Barbara.

Basically a city like San Diego would work best, it's large enough for an airport but much smaller then Los Angeles.

[ViceMan 1380]

I dont know how you can say it is only LS, jeez if we went off the trailer the map is already smaller than IV because the dense city area is minute, tbh I think we will see another city in the next trailer, and it that is Mount Chilliad as we believe judging by the old SA map that is right next to San Fierro, I think this trailer is a taster, and they were always gonna show Las Santos first because Vinewood is the iconic place, I could be entirely wrong but I would not be surprised to see casino's and everything that goes with them, in the next 2 trailers.

Firstly it's R* themselves saying it's only LS. Secondly you don't know how large the map is from the few shots we have of it, it's hard to judge but i'd say the city is around the same size as LC. Sure it's not the same vertically as LA is more of a sprawl that the compacted NY. And finally it could just be R* throwing us off the scent, but that's not normally their style. They usually remain tight-lipped about it until they release a new trailer.

[JameZ88 3]

wow ok thats interesting, I need to see the next trailer before I say anything, I feel a little underwhelmed because that looks tiny compared to LC, i dunno maybe its just me :S

[ViceMan 1380]

Let me try to ease the pain for those thinking it's only LS.

Developed by series creator Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto V heads to the city of Los Santos and surrounding hills, countryside and beaches in the largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created.

It says "heads to" meaning all of it may not take place in LS. If it's the "largest and most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created" then the map (not necessarily the city) must be bigger than that of GTA IV's and RDR's (i'm not sure how large RDR's map is compared to GTA IV though.)

A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present day Southern California.

"Re-imagined, present day Southern California." It doesn't specifically say Los Santos there, so we may see more. And we now know it takes place in 2012.

Just trying to get your hopes back up so they can be shattered again at a later date.

[JameZ88 3]

well if i may be critical I would prefer more city than wild lands, I remembered getting pissed off in SA cuz i would find myself miles from any road with no vehicle, but who knows?

[Fran 1]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_California

To be fair seems a pretty big area

[ViceMan 1380]

well if i may be critical I would prefer more city than wild lands, I remembered getting pissed off in SA cuz i would find myself miles from any road with no vehicle, but who knows?

I'm the opposite, I think SA had a nice balance of city to countryside, in fact the city to countryside ratio was probably 1:3. I loved exploring the wilderness. RDR was the same but you couldn't fly a jet plane in that.

[Rayge 689]

And we now know it takes place in 2012.

Really? How do we know that fo' sho'?

[JameZ88 3]

I loved RDR too but that was a western, GTA is an urban Sandbox game, imo I cant think of many things that can take place in the countryside, which means acres of land that theres nothing there, where as a vast city if applied can have shops and jumps, but tbf it says Los Santos is the "Major City" meaning that there must be more than one but maybe im reading into it too much.

[Fran 1]

I loved RDR too but that was a western, GTA is an urban Sandbox game, imo I cant think of many things that can take place in the countryside, which means acres of land that theres nothing there, where as a vast city if applied can have shops and jumps, but tbf it says Los Santos is the "Major City" meaning that there must be more than one but maybe im reading into it too much.

Countryside will have stuff to do, just be more hidden and subtle with little towns on the way

[ViceMan 1380]

And we now know it takes place in 2012.

Really? How do we know that fo' sho'?

A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present day Southern California.

"Re-imagined, present day Southern California." It doesn't specifically say Los Santos there, so we may see more. And we now know it takes place in 2012.

Because of that.

[JameZ88 3]

But im talking bout after the story, apart from racing and hunting what can you do in a vast countryside, yeah you can have dirtbikes and Quadbikes but it only gets you so far, im just feeling negative I guess but I dont consider countryside as ambitious

[Fran 1]

But im talking bout after the story, apart from racing and hunting what can you do in a vast countryside, yeah you can have dirtbikes and Quadbikes but it only gets you so far, im just feeling negative I guess but I dont consider countryside as ambitious

Just places to explore and expanding the map without overloading the game

[JameZ88 3]

Space is useless without content, why have a large map with nothing to do that makes no sense, I would of preferred a dense LA with different activities, rather than a landscare i will appreciate but cant do anything in

[ViceMan 1380]

Fly around in a plane, run from the law, go nuts, if there are animals watch the cops get attacked by them. I dunno. The city will be large enough and have plenty to do by the looks of it, if you don't like the country stay in the city and parachute from the tops of buildings.

[Rayge 689]

And we now know it takes place in 2012.

Really? How do we know that fo' sho'?

A bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer, Grand Theft Auto V focuses on the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present day Southern California.

"Re-imagined, present day Southern California." It doesn't specifically say Los Santos there, so we may see more. And we now know it takes place in 2012.

Because of that.

Okay, but with the release of Max Payne 3 in 2012, will they really release GTA V then? especially 24/05/12, that's only 2 months after Max Payne's release, and I don't think R* will release major games like that so closely to each other.

[Fran 1]

Space is useless without content, why have a large map with nothing to do that makes no sense, I would of preferred a dense LA with different activities, rather than a landscare i will appreciate but cant do anything in

I'm certain it will be a dense LA/Southern California with different activites but with some country around it to break up smaller cities and towns and to have different feeling regions rather Liberty City and its constant sky risers

[JameZ88 3]

I agree with that mate but think of the cool things that cud of been added if a large proportion of space wasnt taken up by scenery, like Mad Dooby's car mod ideas, strategical Bank Robberies, hell maybe even a small Las Venturas where u can own and develop ur own casino's, or I can wander a forest in the hope that i find an easter egg sasquatch

and might i add in Skyrim I can set a dragon on lawmen so....