There’s been a lot said about how violent this game is, and much of that is true. The game is about theft, violence and nasty characters doing nasty things to each other. You play as one of three protagonists, from unstable Trevor to down-on-his-luck Michael to up-and-comer Franklin. It is interesting to note that with three protagonists to choose from, all are men.

You team up to tackle a variety of enemies from government agents to drug lords to treacherous gangbangers. You know, normal GTA stuff.

San Andreas and Los Santos are back in style and as players we are lucky to see them again.

This game like previous entries, features licensed music and is set in the modern day with current hits as well as old dusties and hilarious talk radio. The graphical output shows off the power of the PS3 and XBOX 360 well, and one can only wonder how great this will look on the next-gen consoles or a powerful PC. The look on the faces of characters in this GTA are well enough done that characters no longer look like they have a mask over their real face like in “GTA San Andreas. That said, there are numerous times where we still see strange hit boxes that lead to the player being stuck, or the weird running motion that looks a little like you’re a running back in Madden. Overall though the presentation hits the mark and then some.

It’s the same GTA you’ve come to know and love (or hate as many also do) with the titular activity of car theft a crucial element of gameplay along with merciless slaughter of nameless and faceless goon after goon. Like with the Mario series, you trudge through the same elements, the same ‘drive-here-and-follow-my-instructions’ gameplay it’s always been with few true changes barring two big items. One is the three main characters. This leads the player to switching between characters in certain scenarios when one is doing a needed action like holding up a bank, while another readies the getaway or the other grabs the money. That sentence reminds of the other change: the heists. The heist missions are awesome; imagine getting to plot out and execute multi-million dollar cash grabs from vaults or jewelry stores.

This is a great game in many ways, but there are also a lot of times where the player is waiting to do something fun and the realism of the game becomes an impediment to the fun of the game. Combine this with the relative dearth of heists, the lackluster story and the well-worn GTA style and you’d think this game would be a dud, but as a testament to how awesome the innards of this game is, it’s still so hard to quit it. It’s hard to quit when you get to robbing a military airbase so you can use the plane to drop drug shipments off to Mexican cartels to help pay for your army-size weapons stockpile to take on corrupt intelligence agents who’ve ruined your best friend’s life … whew. And that’s only part of it. Play with your eyes open to all of “GTA V” but don’t forget to play it. It’s still a gem.