GTA 5 : "EXPLORE"

The latest game in Rockstar Games' "Grand Theft Auto" series was released Tuesday.

It's been more than five years since the last game, "Grand Theft Auto IV," came out in April 2008 to critical acclaim.Expectations have been incredibly high for "GTA V."

Besides Rockstar's reputation, the game also had significant investment behind it: a recent report noted that the game cost $266 million to make, an amount larger than the budgets of most big-budget films.

Critics have been universally positive about the game with the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 versions of the game receiving a 97 and 98 out of 100 rating on review aggregation site Metacritic respectively.

• The story starts out strong but breaks down near the end due to a lack of character development for two of the three protagonists.

• The ability to switch between protagonists has made the game far more immersive. As Edge's review of the game puts it:
  Rockstar uses it to gracefully nudge you towards this vast world's many activities, too - Michael, for instance, might be parked up outside a tennis court, or stuck in traffic near his shrink's office. You'll find yourself naturally switching every few missions, and playing the game in character, choosing vehicles, activities and radio stations based on who's under your control. You soon realise that, rather than the gangster flicks of GTAs past, you're now playing an episodic TV show. 

• The new heist-style missions are fantastic.
  In one minute of a heist, I swapped between Franklin commandeering a tractor, Michael dispatching snipers and Trevor unloading a rocket launcher into a pickup truck. Swapping so drastically improves the pace of Grand Theft Auto 5 that I can't imagine the series moving forward without it.
  

• Half of the fun is ignoring the story and exploring the city of Los Santos, an alternate-reality take on Los Angeles.
  The mini-games and activities available throughout the game world are not only fun, they reinforce the feeling that you're in a real city - whether you're going for a bike ride along the game's equivalent of Venice Beach or doing yoga with the wealthy residents of 'Vinewood.'

•  While the "Grand Theft Auto" games are known for their occasional bugs and graphical issues, "GTA V" performs admirably on the older hardware in the Xbox 360 and PS3.

It pushes the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 further than it has any right to, and it looks incredible. The biggest jump in quality since Grand Theft Auto IV is the character animation, but the world is also much more expansive, detailed, and populous. The price we pay for that is occasional framerate dips and texture pop-in.

• If you have the option, get the PS3 version of the game.
  As Kotaku's Kirk Hamilton reports, Xbox 360 users who have installed the game improperly have had  performance issues.

•  Bottom line: If you're a fan of of the series or the action genre in general, you should buy "GTA V." The game's simplified checkpoint system makes it far more accessible for casual players while the improvements to driving and combat will satisfy hardcore action gamers.

• Parents: There is graphic violence and sex in "Grand Theft Auto V." If you wouldn't want your child to watch a show like "Game of Thrones," you wouldn't want your child play "GTA V."