Developer/publisher Rockstar Games Format PC, PS3, PS4, PS5, Xbox 360, Xbox One, Xbox Series Release 2013
The first decade of Grand Theft Auto’s 3D reinvention, from 2001 to 2011, brought four full-length releases (not counting handheld instalments or DLC expansions) across two console generations: games that reshaped the videogame landscape in their open-world image. In 2023, as GTAV enters its tenth year, it remains the series’ only release of the period. A single game following in those footsteps couldn’t, surely, hope to have the same seismic effect. And yet.
When Sony revealed the PS5 lineup in a 2020 event promising the ‘Future Of Gaming’, the very first title it showed was GTAV – agame that had first released on PS3. This enhanced edition would bring the game to its third generation of consoles, across the span of which it has sold over 170m copies. Few games have ever remained in the conversation for so long. But for those who haven’t held onto their citizenship over that time, what’s it like to revisit Los Santos after a few years away?
Visually, has grown old with remarkable grace. In close-ups the game occasionally shows its age, but in the sweep of transit, it still convinces. Of course, it’s had rather a lot of work done over the years – what else would you expect from a game set, more or less, in LA? The cosmetic enhancements include cleaner textures and sharper resolutions, naturally, while on PS5 these changes also extend to the hands, the DualSense haptics improving the sense of the city beneath our tyres and pulsing in time with the thick bass of a nightclub.
