Up until about a year ago, Grand Theft Auto was one of the biggest game series in video game history and was one that could have been beat by no more than a handful of franchises. The game was developed by Rockstar Games, who is an iconic game developing company thanks to the success of GTA and other bestselling hits such ad Red Dead Redemption and Bully.

So when a company such as Rockstar wants to make a new installment to one of its games, 5 years after the last one, you know for a fact that they are not just going to add a few small features that most often don't even require a sequel, like some war games and most sports games. You know that Rockstar is going to give it their all in making sure the game becomes extremely popular and that it's going to do no less than blow your mind.

Wouldn't you know it, that's exactly what Rockstar went and did. Rockstar put together a team of the very best programmers and developers, and they let their imaginations run wild. They took one of the best PS3 games to ever sell and they completely rebuilt the game from the ground up with features that some gamers would never think were possible. Now, 5 years after the release of Grand Theft Auto IV and its two companion games, Rockstar released Grand Theft Auto V, an elite game that would go on to change the gaming industry and to pave the way for the next generation of gaming.

When you turn on Grand Theft Auto V for the very first time, you're not going to notice the story here, no that's not important. You may catch a glimpse of the new soundtrack as the game loads, but you will right away dismiss it and not give it any thought. You might not even care for the rocket launchers, sticky bombs, and cars at this point, because frankly, they don't matter much this early into the game.

What does matter more than all those great aspects of the game is the thing that you see at the very beginning of the game when you first turn it on. What am I talking about that could be more important than guns and cars at the start of the game? I am talking about none other than the legendary graphics of the game. Obviously, the graphics would be the first thing that you see when you turn the game on, and in my opinion, the graphics are the aspect of the game that has had the most improvement since Grand Theft Auto IV.

GRAPHICS 10/10

The graphics for Grand Theft Auto V are purely remarkable and are just one of a kind. Again, in my opinion, I would be inclined to agree that the graphics for this game are the greatest and most realistic graphics of any game to make its debut so far and that it would be challenging for any game in the very near future to surpass it. The people who worked on the graphics and aspects such as designing the map have done a great job and its because of their work that the game had became such a huge hit and further promoted the reputation of the franchise and of Rockstar Games as well.

The map looks simply amazing, its full of color and detail, and the texture of all the designs causes it to look so realistic. The cars are so expertly crafted, and so are the characters and buildings to a point where the graphics, buildings, objects, and movements all blend together perfectly and flow together as you journey across the map. This flow makes it feel as if you really are the character that you play as, and not just some random person with a controller sitting in your pajamas. Its also not just the buildings and people that the graphics bring to life, its the animals as well. Take a swim in the ocean as a horrifically realistic shark hunts you down, or do the hunting yourself and bring down a deer.

The point that I am trying to get across is that the graphics are to beautiful to dismiss. Whether you hijacked a jet and are flying above the mountains, speeding down the streets with the cops on your tail, or parachuting from the sky and onto the top of a skyscraper, the graphics are breathtaking. I give the graphics a grade that they deserve and they deserve a perfect score. Even if the graphics were much worse than what they are now, I would still give it a 10. I also believe that there would be no more than a handful of people out there who would give the graphics of Grand Theft Auto a less than perfect grade.

ADDICIVNESS 10/10

People don't want a basic game in which they play the game one time for an hour and then shove it back into its case to rot, people never want that. What people do want is a good game that is addicting and will allow the standard gamer to play hundreds of hours without ever getting bored. Every gaming franchise that has ever been considered to be a blockbuster series such as Pokemon or Call of Duty has proven that their games are addicting. For years, Rockstar Games has been proving that they have an addicting series and ever since Grand Theft Auto V was released, they have proven that they can get even better.

I remember back to when Grand Theft Auto was first released and people were saying that it was a revolutionary game and that it was state of the art. To some, this was true because the game was great and most people, including myself, have logged hundreds of hours of game play because there was simply so much to do and the game was just so addicting. Now lets zoom back to the release of Grand Theft Auto V and its new features. You are now taking a game that was already very addicting and you are adding dozens of new and awesome features. There is no possible was that the addictiveness level can drop, it can only double.

This is simply because there is so much to do in this city. Lets not forget that this is the largest city in Grand Theft Auto history, so of course there will be a ton of stuff to do. For instance, I have a ritual that I perform every time I turn the game on. I break into the airport and hijack a plane, and then I just fly all around the city and do all sorts of awesome tricks. Every once in a while I will try to jump out of the plane and land on a building or I will just jump and let my parachute take me wherever. I do this every single time I turn the game on but it never gets boring because it's just so fun and addicting. I also love heading down to the hunting grounds and testing my skills because I feel this is one of the most fun and innovative new features of the game. Let's not forget the most addicting aspects of the game, driving around and shooting people.

But wait, there's more! Much more to be exact. I stated that the new hunting capabilities was my favorite new feature to the game, however that was just my own opinion and there is one more feature that even tops that one when it comes global popularity. This great new feature is the ability to play online with other people. Grand Theft Auto IV also had online, but to many people, the quality of the online capabilities was just dreadful. This time around, Rockstar took a different approach towards online game play and had spent years making sure that it was perfect. The end result was an online gaming system that was unlike any other and sad far more advanced than the game before it. In the new online system, people can do pretty much the same stuff they would do in offline mode, but they can do it with other people. You can go ahead and kill a real live person, you can put a bounty on another player, you can even work together with these other gamers or your friends to complete missions.

The point here that I am trying to get across is that there is so much to do that it should be physically impossible for you to get bored while playing this game. The game is just too addicting to give up and return after just a couple of plays or even after 50 to 60 hours. This is the kind of Game that will keep you occupied for hundreds of hours in offline mode and many more hours in online mode. Overall, I have no choice but to give the Addictiveness aspect a perfect score and I am almost positive that there are many other gamers out there who will do the same.

SOUND 10/10

Now we move onto the sound of the game which is also remarkable. The entire soundtrack for Grand Theft Auto V has to be one of the largest soundtracks in history for as single game because there are just so many tracks. When you talk about this game, you’re not just talking about the games soundtrack that is composed by a Hollywood composer like most games. No, in Grand Theft Auto V, you do have that, but then you also have the radio that fans of the franchise have been accustomed to.

First, there is the basic soundtrack that consists of more than 50 songs which were used specifically for certain in game events and then you have the Radio stations which play more than 230 different songs, most of which by well known artists such as Britney Spears and Rihanna.

The fact that the music blends in so nicely with what’s going on in the game, combined with the fact that there are so many songs, leads me to give the song portion of the game another perfect score.

STORY 9/10

As for the story, you really can’t have anything bigger. This is because Rockstar no lets you play the game as different games, instead of just one character like all of the previous games. You can play as Michael, a former bank robber who was living under witness protection, and can slow down time when fighting, Franklin, a repo man who can slow down time while driving, or Trevor, a weapon smuggler, who can deal extra damage as well as receive lass damage. Once accustomed to the characters, the player then goes on an outrageous series of missions to find what each of these characters ultimately want. It’s basically the same as the previous games, but having three playable characters instead of just one makes all the difference. Overall, the story gets a near perfect score of 9 out of 10, and if I could, I would give it a grade of 9.3 or 9.5.

DEPTH 10/10

The depth of the game is amazing, in addition to all the things you can do that we had mentioned earlier, there are a grand total of more than 60 featured missions that you can perform, as well as a whole bunch of missions that are available in online mode, and more than a hundred different vehicles. As for the depth of the game, this deserves another perfect score.

DIFFICULTY 5

Lastly, we are going to talk about the difficulty. Grand Theft Auto is not meant to be difficult, it’s meant to be a game that people want to play and that can immerse players for hours. If the game had turned out to be too challenging, many players would have given up with the franchise a long time ago. Sure, there will be a few times when a mission may be a bit complicated, but other than those times, the game is not much of a challenge and can be played with no problems. For Difficulty, I give this game a 5.

OVERALL   9.8

For an overall grade, I give this game a 9.8 because it’s the greatest of the Grand Theft Auto games, and it is one of the greatest games that I have ever played. If you have not yet played this game for either the PS3 of the 360, you are missing out on a lot and I highly advise that you get the game sooner or later.