The review of GTA V on PC – Los Santos beautiful like never before

When Grand Theft Auto V debuted almost two years ago, a lot of people called this game as almost perfect, but the conversion for the consoles of the newest generation showed that it can be even better, at least in visual respect.
The review of made based on PC version

Shifts, delays, and continuous issues – a lot of things like that occurred in the history of Grand Theft Auto V since the beginning. Although the console users experienced this issue to some extent, when we go back to the waiting for heists game mode, it’s hard to compare this to the problems of PC owners. Initially no one announced version for PC platform, but when it happened, it was postponed three times. It’s hard to be surprised with all the frustration people felt at that moment. However, it finally happened – GTA V finally arrived at personal computers. There were a lot of loud announcements. Rockstar assured that he wants to polish this new edition. In case of PC, we heard these assurances quite a lot but seldom it had much to do with the truth. How about this time? Did the authors really stand up to the challenge? Without any further suspense – yes, they did… a hundred times yes. However, with one small “but”.

Supposedly the same, yet something new

The story does not differ from what we could see in GTA V before. We follow the adventures of three, quite characteristic and contrastive characters: Franklin – who is trying to break free from his own environment, Michael – retired criminal, who can be jealous of everything except for family, and Trevor – complete lunatic and unpredictable maniac, who unleashes complete havoc everywhere he goes. While watching their actions and developing storyline, one can visit the gigantic county of Blaine. We can complete additional missions, admire beautiful views, and participate in a lot of side activities.
The entertainment in campaign can potentially last several dozens of hours, but what is more important – we can’t say anything about routine. Even when I Played GTA 5 for the first time and spent in the game world quite a long time, seeing almost everything, PC version of the game provided me with the chance to discover new locations, tasks, and figures that I didn’t notice before. The world is varied and huge, so even console veterans should absorb its atmosphere and have fun once again. However, the content of campaign and the city itself hasn’t changed at all. It’s hard to expect any modifications in things that were almost perfect.

The fact that we follow the same storyline in the same places doesn’t mean that the experiences we derive from playing PC version are identical. PC port is the only version that supports displaying the visuals in 60 FPS and I am not afraid to admit – it makes a gigantic difference. Don’t let the people, who claim that the difference between 30 and 60 FPS doesn’t change the way we perceive the game, fool you.In the case of GTA V, it is quite the opposite. Thanks to increased fluency, we can look at the city of Los Santos from different perspective. Rides through the city “tastes” differently. Action sequences are also much more exciting and dynamic. When it comes to cut scenes, they were even better to watch than before. It is worth bearing in mind that not every hardware can achieve 60 FPS. And in this way we come to the first – probably the most important matter of the port – the technical issues, which is optimization.

Almost everyone can play

When I was testing the game for the first time in a London branch of Rockstar Games, it was launched on very powerful hardware, everything looked excellent. However, I wondered how the title will present itself on regular, decent machine. This time I tested the product on a computer with specifications closely related to the recommended ones. They were as follows:

• Processor: i5-3470 – 3.20 GHz
• Graphics card: GeForce GTX 660 2GB
• Operating memory: 8 GB RAM

I must admit that the final effect was much better than what I expected. The game on the afore-mentioned hardware was launched on almost very high settings (several less important options were turned off or lowered a bit) in 1080P resolution. While playing, I experienced 50-60 FPS, though there were situations with drastic FPS drops to 20, when I was, for example, passing through crowded streets. However, these were individual cases that didn’t affect the whole gameplay. In order to enjoy constant 60 FPS, I had to lower the number of details and the graphics quality to medium. So, how the game presents itself when used everything recommended hardware has to offer?
When compared to the current generation consoles, there are no gigantic differences in the visuals themselves. However, it’s hard not to notice slightly better animations and bigger range of object drawing, as well as more realistic mirror reflections.These details are not really spectacular, but thanks to much better fluency of the image, everything makes much better appearance.

Scenarios you’ve always dreamed of

There’s much more to add than just the graphics. PC version of GTA V has got much more to offer. The biggest detail, an option unavailable in previous versions, is certainly Rockstar editor that complete the editor’s mode. In a nutshell – both tools let you on creating movie cutscenes with the use of engine and characters from the game. The recording itself was carried out in a simple and very intuitive manner – you just need to click Alt and F1 buttons to turn on the camera and devote yourself to the directorial madness. The things we can do in directing mode is a dream come true for all the Spielbergs out there. The term “full freedom” is 100% accurate. Before we begin recording any sequence, we choose any character (some of them needs to be unlocked by playing campaign mode or online), put this character in any place at any time. Then we set the parameters of our weapon and the surrounding world, and begin unlimited fun.

The things we save can be later on edited in the afore-mentioned Rockstar’s editor. I have never been interested in directing, and all the creations made by me were average, but the amount of additional options, cuts, and effects we can do in montage makes this game mode an interesting piece of game mode in the hands of talented person. In fact, they are already under development! While you read these words, the Internet is flooded with numerous fan-made creations, some of which are truly breathtaking and some others will be extremely hilarious.

If you haven’t seen the parody of a Bay Watch, “The Police Chase” or “Family Ties”, you should quickly keep up with these works and look for another ideal creations! I have been the fan of all types of Machinima animations since always. I know from the videos created based on Halo and Team Fortress 2 engines that GTA V will be yet another phenomenon and the fundaments for many fantastic productions.

It’s nice to listen … If we run the game

There is also some novelties in the area of audio sounds. People, who play on Pc, have got the possibility to create their own radio stations with their own songs, what will be a great advantage for some players. I personally have never felt the need of using that option. The available stations are great and they do not require filling in with new sounds. Now, we also received one more position – a station called The Lab. It includes more than two hours of new music, which I particularly liked.
Although initially I was listening to this station out of curiosity, after several minutes I decided to turn it on just for my own pleasure.

In the moment of premiere of PC version of GTA V, not everything went perfectly. A huge part of players experienced problems even before starting playing the game. These issues were related with the use of “prohibited” characters in the account name.
Rockstar is constantly working on eliminating this kind of problems, so let’s hope that they will soon disappear. For now, the part of players can’t participate in the gameplay at all. A lot of people report other bugs that unable installing the game properly. There are even messages about the wrong activation code, missing files, or incredibly slow download speed for the update. Those, who managed to install the game, could find errors related to logging in to Social Club service. Except for these, there are other problems on the list. Personally, I didn’t experience any of them while playing the title, but it’s difficult not to include them in the final evaluation.

The final verdict is…

I must admit that I always expect the best from Rockstar. The studio has proved many times before that they primarily focus on quality. They confirmed their place as one of the elite developers. Despite that, in case of PC version of Grand Theft Auto V, they managed to surprise me very much. The ideal base of the game was almost ready. However, contrary to appearances, moving this to a completely new platform is not that easy. Especially, if it has to be done year and a half after the original premiere. The title still managed to surprise, excite, and offer fresh quality. They managed to make it all perfectly.
The optimization, steering controls, new options, and additions – each and every element made that I was almost unwillingly giving the applause for the game. Sadly, it’s also impossible to omit the troubles connected to the title after a moment of the premiere. Rockstar really had a lot of time to prepare its PC version. It was delayed many times and problems with installing the game or turning on Social Club should never take place. That is why the final rating is a half point lower, than in case of is console editions. Nevertheless, if you manage to launch the game, everything seems to be perfect. I could give you much more praising opinions about PC version of GTA V but forgive me – Los Santos is waiting. And it is much more beautiful than it ever was. How could I turn it down?