Welcome to GTANet’s Chatterbox, our interview series where hosts uNi, Spider-Vice, and Kirsty sit down and get personal with notable people from the GTANet and Rockstar Games community, or even Rockstar Games themselves! From the well-loved to the unknown, Chatterbox is all-inclusive.

Today we bring you an exciting interview with the one and only DJ Pooh! With a background in hip hop music production, writing, and directing, DJ Pooh’s creative influence on the Grand Theft Auto series spans almost two decades now. First collaborating with Rockstar Games to write for GTA San Andreas back in the day, he’s since made his mark with further writing contributions for GTA V and GTA Online, as well as hosting in-game radio station West Coast Classics and playing a major part in The Contract DLC with Dr Dre last year. He can also be thanked for encouraging his friends Young Maylay and Shawn Fonteno (CJ and Franklin) to audition for their roles as protagonists.

DJ Pooh’s enthusiasm for the series as both a fan and a long-time friend of the company is something to be admired, so much respect to him for everything he has and continues to bring to GTA. Now, let’s hear from the man himself!

GTANet: You have worked with some of the biggest names in the music industry and on one of GTANet’s most beloved games in the franchise: Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. How important was the relationship between music and the series, helping it grow to be the giant Grand Theft Auto V and Grand Theft Auto: Online are today?

Man, the music is 50% of that game, I feel like. It’s hard to say that because the game is just so massive and so amazing and it’s just everything. But then the music – nobody in gaming does music like Grand Theft Auto. I’ve always been a huge fan of how music goes in the game, but also how good it is.
People out here love the radio stations.  Some people say GTA radio is better than real life radio. It’s so crazy, you notice like you want to make everybody happy with such a broad game and that’s a hard thing to do, something nobody can accomplish. But I feel like GTA does that better than anybody, you always gonna have your hip hop guys but then the hard rock guys came in hard, man saying, “hey, hold on, man where’s our rock shit,” but it all comes around full circle all the time and everybody loves it, man. There’s something for everybody in there and it’s not just the songs that you knew were the singles off of albums and shit, it’s also those cuts that you don’t even think of, that people don’t even notice like, “oh, wow was that on that album?” You find gems in there, man. It’s like getting an education at the same time, because you get the samples and stuff like that in some of the newer records and then you can go flick over to some of the old school, lowrider stuff, and hear some of the original songs that came from that is too cool. When you go from there to there, you’re really doing something major in music. I feel like nobody else is doing music like that today, even music isn’t doing music like we doing music today.

GTANet: The West Coast Classics radio station in GTA Online received a couple of changes for The Contract DLC, how well was that received? Did it get the reaction from the fan base you were hoping for?

 People absolutely love the changes and it made me feel like we can start changing the music now and doing more and that, because the way people reacted to it. And the way Rockstar Games does all these cool-ass updates and stuff is phenomenal, especially when the music is able to update with it too. That means everything because the music is such an intricate part of the game. Yes, people definitely loved the Dre songs and the integration, not just being the music playing in the background somewhere but as Easter eggs, and the integration and the whole storyline, and they really having a vibe and feeling something of reality is – man I love it.

GTANet: You appeared physically in the GTA Online: The Contract DLC, with cutscenes and voice, can you talk about your experience? How was it seeing yourself immortalised as a character in GTA? (Plus the mythical DJ Pooh tee!)

 Oh my God. Being such a fan, I’ve been playing this all the way back when it was just 2D [Grand Theft Auto], like Pac-Man where you walk the player from above and you’re kinda going around the shrubs and stuff. And that was just the coolest thing. I used to play that back in my studio, Snoop and us would be in there, they’d be playing the basketball and the football, and I’ll be playing that too, but then I go straight back to [GTA], it was just my thing. I was a big fan of it and to see it just grow into what you know it is, it’s just amazing, man.

And to imagine being able to be in it and be a part of it was a dream come true, man. I’m a real fan of the game as you can hear in the passion of my voice, I’m a huge fan of GTA. First I play’em all, I love ‘em all. I was like, this is gonna be the future. Being a filmmaker, it makes me go, “oh shit,” I was jealous because this is better than films. This shit’s double, I’m in the movie right now, and so to be playing the game and then to see myself in the game was like a double, “what the fuck” like that is the coolest thing ever.

(On the DJ Pooh Tee) I love that shit so much being in the game, cause that [DJ Pooh] t-shirt goes back 35 years and it hasn’t changed at all, it’s the same shirt from back in the day and people that didn’t know it or remember it, they know it, but people are just getting introduced to it. They like the shirt. People send me pictures on Instagram and on Twitter and all the social media stuff, and when they have that shirt on, bro the way that make me feel, I just go, “oh, wow!” It’s the same shirt I’ve been rocking man from way back in the day, man. Same exact shirt, orange shirt.

GTANet: How was your experience with working with Dr. Dre again, but in a completely new industry? 

Dre is the person that put the first drum machine in my hand and showed me how to work it. Dre got me into producing music and is just a great friend of mine, man. My whole entire music career, Dre and I have been connected in some way. Dre’s never put out a record without playing that whole record for me before he put it out and got my opinion and I value that so much. He sends me music, I’m trusted with it. I love Dre, he is my brother.

I’ve been working with Rockstar for almost 20 years and to be able to bring these two together, this is the best of the best, the best shit in music, the best shit in games, it’s like pulling two of the homies together. Oh my God, it was just dope.

I’d been trying to do it for so long, Dre’s not a gamer, so he really didn’t get it. But when I took that PlayStation to his house and he saw us playing, he couldn’t believe all the stuff you could do. He was just like, “holy shit, this is the real deal.” And then when he heard all the music, I really started flossing with the stations going between this, that FlyLo here and that stuff, he just lost it when he hears me and Big Boy, he said, “I want my own station!” He was all in because he got it, he saw it was really cool, really fun, and he said, “man, I had no idea. ” From that point with Dre saying, “I wanted to do it,” it was just like, wait a minute this might really happen. Seeing it come together and being a part of it with Dre mocapping inside of a studio that was built in a mocap room, like a full studio, like who does this?

GTANet: Do you think his experience will help other people change their minds about working with games?

I think so. And I think people will see the potential in music. The marriage between music and games is just as good, if not better, than the marriage between music and film or any other medium out there. The more you look at it, music doesn’t stand in the place it once did for many reasons, it’s not the same, it’s smaller, but it’s bigger – it’s strange. Coming from music, to see something that still has that traditional thing where, you know, it’s not to just throw everything at you, but it’s curated in a way as if someone cared, I like that.

It feels special, man. It feels special. I know a lot of the artists whose music make it into the game, I know these artists and they’re so happy. And so that integration has always just been one of the best natural things I feel between music and gaming, but then being able to actually be in the game with Franklin, Lamar, me, Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine, all on a golf course and doing all this, plus we built Dr. Dre’s studio in the game. Like you can go in there and just be chilling in Dr. Dre’s actual studio. This is something that I dreamed about, thinking like one day this will be happening. And man, that day is now!

GTANet: Do you have a favorite game in the GTA series? Which one is it and why?

 You really gonna make me do this, I feel trapped! It’s really hard because it’s three of them really. it’s hard to decide between the three, but if I had to decide, first of would be GTA V of course, then Vice City, I fucking love Vice City, and then San Andreas. There’s something so special about that game. All of them are special, but it’s kind of like your first, that’s right when I linked up with Rockstar and got opportunity to work with them. San Andreas was just so ahead of its time before everybody started trying to rip Rockstar off, and it just set the tone – the future is big. That game just means so much and to have had one of the little homies that that I grew up with be able to come in and play CJ in the game, that was just a special thing, too.

And just being a fan of the game and all the cool music that went into it – it was so west coast. The guys from Rockstar came out and we did everything – we flew choppers around so we could really map out everything with attention to detail. They met all these wonderful, cool people in all these different neighborhoods and communities and stuff and they wasn’t afraid to do it, they came out and they did it right. I really just love the way that whole experience unfolded for the first time.

Plus, to have a lead black character in something so big and anticipated and cool, and the way it was done with Samuel Jackson as Officer Tenpenny it was phenomenal. It’s better than any movie that came out at that time, and it’s still a lot of people’s favorite game. I still play it! And so to be able to play that, it’s just the best nostalgia and just the coolest thing. I’m out there with the Ballas and Grove Streets, I’m having a good time. I freaking love that game. 

So I’d have to say between that one and GTA V, but I don’t wanna lose Vice City, it was so Miami. It was so cold, bro.

A massive thanks to DJ Pooh for taking the time to answer our questions, and again to Rockstar Games for their continuous support in arranging these interviews!

Follow DJ Pooh on Twitter and Instagram!

Previously on Chatterbox
Roger Clark, Razed, TezFunz, Zoobz, Vinewood_Motors

The post Chatterbox: GTANet Interview with DJ Pooh appeared first on GTANet.com.

Welcome to GTANet’s Chatterbox, our interview series where hosts uNi, Spider-Vice and Kirsty sit down and get personal with notable people from the GTANet and Rockstar Games community. From the well-loved to the unknown, Chatterbox is all-inclusive.

It has been a while, but we’ve cooked up something a little extra special for our return; we had the absolute pleasure of talking to the legendary Roger Clark, a.k.a. everyone’s favourite boah Arthur Morgan, about his experience with Red Dead Redemption 2, his thoughts about the industry, and his next video game project Fort Solis. ICYMI, last year Kirsty had a chance to meet up with Roger and got us an amazing GTAForums shoutout!

With no further introductions needed, let’s get started cowpokes!

GTANet: Hi Roger! Thank you for chatting with us! Tell us a bit about yourself, have you ever tried other industries or have you set your mind on acting early on?

Roger: I was born in New Jersey and grew up in Ireland. I went to university in Wales. Started out with an HND in Computing Studies. Really blew chunks at it so decided to bite the bullet and pursue an acting degree. You only live once.

GTANet: This was your first foray into video game performance capture, correct? How did it feel to hear your voice immortalised in a virtual character for the first time, especially in such a big franchise as Red Dead?

Roger: I had done performance capture before sometime ago. My first foray into the medium was for another video game called Shellshock II. I was nervous being the protagonist of a Red Dead game after John Marston. I was a huge fan of him and realized quickly that I was going to have to do my own thing. Trying to recreate what Rob Wiethoff had done would’ve been foolish, I think.

GTANet: What was your first reaction to seeing all the GTAForums users finding out you were Arthur Morgan just from a voice in the trailer? Surely this must have been a huge surprise, did you expect the community to find you as quick as they did?

Roger: A lot of you figured it out before the trailer as I recall. Someone was clever enough to cross reference who some of the original Red Dead Redemption cast members had recently started following on social media and put two and two together. You found out about five of the new cast that way. You did not know for certain until release but it was extremely smart. It was a reminder that we were working on something big and as a Red Dead fan I really didn’t want to let you down. Without any audience feedback while we were working though, it was a double edged sword. We were able to focus and work without distraction, but had no idea how it would be received.

GTANet: You and all the other great actors that worked on the game brought an amazing performance to all of us. How different is acting in a video game? Most people just think of it as voice acting but it is so much more than that.

Roger: Voice acting is an amazing medium and about 10% of my work on Red Dead comprised of it. The rest was performance capture which is a separate, different medium. They are both amazing ways to act/work and one is not better than the other. A lot of our audience do not understand how performances in gaming is done nowadays but all appreciation is appreciated.

GTANet: You do enjoy your fair bit of gaming, which games have a special place in your heart? Are you playing anything right now?

Roger: I tried Elden Ring. I am useless. I just do not have the time to ‘git gud’ at stuff like that anymore. I have to admit that as a middle aged gamer, I do not have the hours necessary to know what I am doing with a Soulsborne game. I love them though, love watching someone who knows what they are doing on Twitch. I’m still returning to the new Horizon from time to time. Enjoying WWE 2022 and I have returned to some Shadowrun games that I used to enjoy. Looking forward to TLOU1 remake and GOW Ragnarok.

GTANet: Tell us a bit of your experience in your first playthrough of Red Dead Redemption 2. Did you get distracted with all the details, like “Oh I know that voice!”?

Roger: Yes, I saw versions of the game as we were working on it. But I never had unfettered access until about twelve hours before the rest of the world did. My wife let me have three days uninterrupted. I barely got to chapter three in that time. I was blown away. We were focused on the performance aspect of the game, we were not privy to what all the other departments were working on until we all got to sit down and play it. It is an unique way to watch your work, I was able to play it with a special nostalgia, “Oh, I remember that day” etc. One of these days I may have to do my own playthrough on Twitch…

GTANet: You must have millions of fans all over the world, was there a particular person that surprised you as being a fan?

Roger: Ice-T kind of blew my mind. Jack Black. Jack Quaid from The Boys was very kind to me once about how much he enjoyed the work. Having the kind of audience that we got with Red Dead Redemption 2 is an artist’s dream. That kind of exposure is a once in a lifetime opportunity.

GTANet: One of your next video game projects, Fort Solis, was recently revealed. It was really fun to see you in the spotlight alongside Troy Baker. Is this your first venture into the sci-fi horror genre? What is it like to prepare for this kind of role compared to the western setting of Red Dead Redemption 2?

Roger: I always prepare for different roles differently. Some things remain the same. I always focus on the script first and then try and find the voice and physicality from the clues the script gives me. What kind of animal would they be? Where is their center of gravity when they walk? What are their strengths and weaknesses. Public and private faces etc. I have never done a sci-fi thriller before and it is a joy to work on. A lot of research of Mars was done. Trying to familiarize myself with the world’s technology so that it appears second nature to Jack Leary. Games offer so much more immersion to its audience than film or TV does in my opinion and believable immersion is achieved with attention to detail, real environments and valuable research. You need to come up with authentic details that the player will take for granted that underline the truth and authenticity for whatever world you are trying to introduce audience to. Invisible little nuances that can often go unnoticed will still resonate on a subconscious level, I find.

We hope you enjoyed this fun little insightful read from Roger himself. Once again, a massive thank you to him for taking the time to chat; he is a true gentleman and we’ll forever be grateful for how supportive he is of the Red Dead community. Outlaws for life!

If you don’t follow Roger on socials yet… what are you waiting for?

Follow Roger Clark on Twitter and Instagram!

Previously on Chatterbox
Razed
TezFunz2
Zoobz
Vinewood_Motors

The post Chatterbox: GTANet Interview with Roger Clark appeared first on GTANet.com.

Fair warning, this article isn’t for the faint-hearted and turned out to be quite a lengthy read. After checking out all the pros and cons the community has discussed over the last week, this is where we’re at with our initial impressions. We’ve got four broad questions with three different perspectives, and none of them are guaranteed to match your own. For transparency, we each game on different platforms, and only one of us has subscribed to GTA+.

The financial cost of GTA+

uNi: No idea how R* decides items/discounts, but as a introduction for this new service I feel the selection of offers could have been better. Although I did end up receiving GTA$1M instead of the GTA$500k advertised initially so I am curious to see if that is something R* decided to change based on community feedback or if it is just a first month bonus kind of deal. As for the price, it’s not that steep as far subscriptions go, but keeping players will heavily depend of what they choose to offer on the future I suppose.

Spider-Vice: In essence, GTA+ isn’t very different from other game subs out there, including subs for games that are already paid themselves – see Fallout 1st for example: the game is $39.99 on Steam with a $12.99 subscription on top with these mostly static benefits – but that I’ve heard many players like, despite it having been EXTREMELY controversial at launch, even more than GTA+!
Fortnite is free to play but also has the Fortnite Crew subscription model which is $11.99 with monthly changing benefits not too different from GTA+ model, but both these games give you a premium cosmetics-only currency to spend in a cosmetics store.
Final Fantasy XIV is already subscription based itself, $14.99/mo (and the amount of time you subscribe for actually changes how many characters you can have), but also has paid DLC which can go for prices such as $39.99 on top of that subscription – though this is barely new for MMO’s such as this, and even less so for PC players who have been seeing subscription models as far back as World of Warcraft.

As far as subscriptions go, this is far, far from the worst example out there financially. If you’re interested in early access content, free cash deposits (there are reports of players getting GTA$1M instead of GTA$500K, new member bonus?) and other bonuses along with “accelerators” for each weekly event, whether you’re a veteran player with not much time on your hands to play and grind for the latest content, or a newbie who wants a shortcut with some special benefits, then sure, this proposition doesn’t sound that bad.

It doesn’t sound that bad from the point that it gives you a lot of content that is cheaper IRL than one singular Megalodon (GTA$8M) shark card and is worth (in-game) more than those GTA$8M (see the math). Besides, GTA+ is doing what some other games with optional subscriptions do as well – matching the cost of the subscription with that of currency you can also buy. For $5.99 you can get a singular GTA$500K shark card, or you can get GTA+ for the exact same price, you get the same in-game money, and a bunch of other benefits on top, but monthly.

Kirsty: If we’re going to judge GTA+ on the cost alone, then I’d say price is “alright”. Everything is a subscription when it comes to gaming/music/TV/film/shopping these days, so it’s not a new formula, but it does make you groan that there’s another one you could potentially be adding to your balance sheet.

The first month offers bonuses with a worth or saving of around GTA$10million in-game for $5.99. If you needed to buy a Shark Card to cover the exact same purchases, you’d be spending $100 for a Megalodon worth GTA$8million, and you’d still be short by GTA$2million. An important note here is that subscribing doesn’t guarantee you actually need the bonuses on offer. For example, I don’t own a Yacht, so the free Aquarius upgrade bonus this month would be worthless and unused for me as I’d have to fork out GTA$6million to purchase the basic Orion first.

Something else that doesn’t get GTA+ quite off the hook when it comes to pricing is the fact that GTA Online isn’t free to play like many other games that are filling their boots with loot these days. The 3 month sale on new-gen is reasonable, but is it fair to add a subscription service to an almost-nine year old game that at its most expensive costs $40 to buy and requires a PS+/XBL live service subscription to access as well? It’s the type of commercialism that’s a bit meh, for lack of a better description.

There are obviously a lot of moral ambiguities when it comes to microtransactions and their presence in gaming in the first place, but players are going to buy them no matter our position, so in my opinion it’s an important obligation of ours to assess their value factually as well as emotionally so people can make an informed decision and not waste their money if they don’t want or need to.

Essentially, I would be comfortable saying GTA+ is worth the price but only if you are a frequent Shark Card buyer, or you personally find value/worth in the items/bonuses/collectables that are offered. I can’t conclude that it’s worth it financially if neither of those latter statements are true for you or your playstyle as that would mean you’re kinda buying something for nothing. For this reason I’d recommend making a decision on a month by month basis given the benefits update and expire in rotation.

Casuals vs. Community: The target audience

uNi: This is obviously not targeted at everyone and never was marketed as such. Crying about it like it was is just nonsense.

Spider-Vice: As I mentioned before, especially on the PC side, a lot of massively multiplayer online games out there now have subscription services like this, focused on cosmetics, bonuses and freebies, money deposits (although this is usually a different cosmetic-only currency), etc. and they do appease to both the “casuals” and the frequent players (but not all frequent players subscribe anyway, as it usually doesn’t affect non-sub gameplay).

I see this almost as a replacement of Shark Cards for some types of players (see the bit about this in the “financial cost” part above), in the sense you get content, bonuses and money each month, not just money. Literally none of this is mandatory, and as the bonuses stand this month at least, can be completely ignorable if you’re a veteran. You already have it all and you’re not interested in the rest? Ok, good, then it’s not for you and that’s okay, it doesn’t have to be. If you don’t like it or want to “boycott” it, don’t buy it, your wallet votes.
Just as quoted at the end of this article by the amazing Ask A Game Dev:
“If you ever look at DLC or microtransactions and think “I would never pay for that”, it just means it isn’t for you.”

If you’re a collector who is interested in exclusive clothing or someone who, regardless of tenure, wants to enjoy early access to things like vehicles and/or their speed mods, you might see more value in it. Same applies to people who may be regulars but don’t want to do the common “grind” and still want to enjoy the game’s content by either having it made cheaper for them or even given to them via the subscription, along with all other benefits and bonuses that will change monthly.

I expect this to be extremely fluid each month as benefits and early access content change – some players might see more value some months than others, some might cancel some months and others might subscribe other months, etc. etc. Rockstar do have a very lenient cancellation policy (cancel any time, keep everything including bonuses for the month), so it will all depend on which months are attractive to you or not, if you’re even interested.
For both casuals and the “community”/veterans, the worth is ultimately completely dependent on you, but from personal experience and anecdotes from others, this kind of thing can end up attracting veteran players as well.

If what Tez2 speculated about on our forums is true, we could even see subscribers voting on what content will feature on the subscription each month, so this could also help with making it more enticing than having R* choose from a list themselves that players may not always like.

This stuff will, is and has always been forever divisive. No way to make everyone happy with this, regardless of whether we’re talking about GTA, Fortnite, Fallout or any other game with a subscription – it will always have different pros and cons depending on who you ask and clearly, given community backlash, is not something that will satisfy everyone and is obviously being exacerbated by the fact that it was so introduced so late into the game’s lifecycle, which is also what is making me think this is going to go into GTA VI’s Online mode.

I think a good proper FAQ post-backlash would help temper some worries from other players who might not understand that this may not have as many consequences as they think it will. Questions about what content is planned to be made truly exclusive, how will early access work and for what content, etc. etc.

Kirsty: It can be a hard pill to swallow for some, but Shark Cards are the biggest driving force behind DLC and content being free in GTA Online over the years. The massive amount of income they generate for the company is the incentive to keep production value high while moving across generations like they have. Until now, microtransactions from Rockstar have been pretty “friendly” and irrelevant to think all that much about when it comes to the topic of accessing content at a premium. Behind the scenes, casuals pay and grinders play, and everyone just got on with it.

Is Shark Cards’ success a good reason to introduce more monetisation right now? I wouldn’t be confident saying yes, but if they are here to stay, then we have to make peace with the idea that there will be players who will seek out GTA+ for their own reasons. This is where community disappointment speaks loudest, because there are many frustrated voices trying to say there is no value, and the program has already been dubbed a “scam” or “cash grab” with pleas from content creators not to buy into it at all. The longevity of GTAV has grown tiring for many players, so it’s pretty much a double-edged sword of cause and effect. The “game forever milked” they call it, a cow that should be going to pasture as we’re more than ready for the next GTA. It would be naive not to acknowledge Shark Cards’ role in the creation of GTA+ as well as all that free DLC, though, and this is why it’s also important to understand and accept when something isn’t aimed at the audience you’re part of, especially when it is optional.

Even with the divided audience of GTA+, one still generally thinks they speak for the other. The community is the “public facing” audience here and they represent the games online. The players that use their platforms to give feedback and take part in debates, build reputation out of producing content such as guides or mods, market and advertise the games through news or virtual photography; they’re the people who the gaming media looks to during these announcements. And when a chunk of these people are unhappy for one reason or another? The reaction ends up making announcements appear badly timed or tone-deaf, which only serves to burden the ever-crumbling bridge between the community and community management. Some people take the importance of criticism in the gaming space a little too literally, so in times of discord, getting your facts straight and thinking outside the box to be constructive is far more helpful. I believe that even though GTA+ has an obvious audience, a bit of well-placed understanding through player-friendly messaging with less corporate language would have smoothed over this introduction a little bit.

The short-term impact on GTA Online

uNi: I can’t foresee a big impact short-term, you may need to wait a couple days for a new car or GTA+ players get a slightly bigger bonus but that is it. If any major changes are to occur it will be in the next iteration of GTAO. I expect to see a bigger emphasis on monetisation there. It is how it works all over the industry and R* will need to follow suit if it wants GTAO to keep relevant and profitable. I don’t see the majority of the community regularly spending money on GTAO2 as long what they get in return is good enough.

Spider-Vice: If GTA+ is kept as is, like most other games with optional subscriptions? None whatsoever in my view.

Many people thought Shark Cards and those being advertised more aggressively again a few years back was “the beginning of the end”, with massive nerfs and what not incoming and that never really happened. In fact, R* even with Shark Cards has released content packs like the Cayo Perico Heist and The Contract which are both very good money makers (thus potentially negating Shark Card sales), and Cayo Perico has not been nerfed thus far like many people thought it would – “no way these payouts will be kept!” – so far, they are. Emphasis on “so far”.
R* also willingly gave people a bunch of money by multiplying the Dre storyline earnings in The Contract by x1.5 and x2 respectively in two different weeks, along with that same content pack’s Payphone Hits getting the same treatment. These were pretty much weeks of joy for grinders and regular players alike – I’ve never been richer in GTA Online and it was because of those two weeks.

Let’s also not forget they buffed the Nightclub safe for current-gen and the Career Builder already gives you access to some property (even if on a budget) and some sort of proper starting point even if you’re not a subscriber, so even if they were already planning GTA+ for a while, to me it doesn’t really feel like they want to shove it in everyone’s face that much.

A lot of people in the community have expressed concerns over regular non-subscriber weekly event bonuses being nerfed because there are GTA$ and RP “accelerators” that seem to apply to those same event weeks, but I personally think what’s going to happen is that subscribers are going to get buffed and not non-subscribers getting nerfed (i.e. x2 as usual on an adversary mode would be x3 for subscribers, instead of regular players getting nerfed down to x1.5 so GTA+ can get x2).
As I type this, in fact, R* have released their first event week since the release of GTA+ and there have been absolutely no nerfs whatsoever, instead GTA+ gets a x4 buff in Street Races.
I have seen a few community members on GTAF be relieved that nothing was nerfed or made exclusive or anything this week which kind of calmed their worries about GTA+, so I’m honestly not really worried about that stuff until/if it happens.

I personally think we’d have seen major nerfs by now to things like the Cayo Perico Heist and none of these discounts if they wanted to “forcefully” push GTA+ and its bonuses, especially considering it may have been in development for quite a while.

Again, for me, short term impact on GTA Online if everything is kept as is? None. If GTA+ doesn’t interest you and you see no value in it… you can play the game as normal and get 95% of the things in it normally, except the cosmetics. There are some adjustments to things like PvP incoming, and perhaps there might be some economy adjustments, but it remains to be seen and again I currently have no reason to think we’re seeing nerfs, as I said earlier. I will eat my words if it happens, but as it stands… Nope, not worried at all.

Kirsty: Rockstar have already announced plans for re-balancing of certain PvP related stuff, so there have been some worries about them nerfing money-earning as well now with GTA+, such as Cayo Perico Heist returns. I think if this were to come to fruition, we would see a lot of animosity from the fanbase on a scale we probably haven’t seen before! There’s always a chance that features veteran players or hardcore grinders really take advantage of can get nerfed, just look at the Red Dead Online streaks and daily challenges, but I don’t necessarily agree that GTA+ increases those odds right now. Doing this wouldn’t encourage those players to subscribe in the long run, it might even turn them off playing completely, so what would it achieve?

At this point I just don’t see it, but I am happy to eat my words in light of it happening. It’s easier than ever for anyone to make money in the game, new or old, so I wouldn’t be surprised if they are assessing the kind of payouts that make this possible. There have been some recent adjustments to increase passive income lately, such as from the Nightclub, and the introduction of the Career Builder on new-gen consoles means new players get a good start as well.

Another short term issue heavily discussed is regarding clothing/liveries that appear to be completely exclusive. The initial offerings aren’t actually entirely new, they’ve appeared in the files before but have been left unused/inaccessible unless glitched in on PC. They’re non-essential cosmetics, but this could be a way to entice the collector community towards the subscription as I understand it’s quite a hobby for some players.

Concerns for the future and how things could change

uNi: The only thing that is surprising about a GTA Online subscription model is that it did not happen years ago already. If you look at other games under the T2 portfolio this happens everywhere. If anything, the fact that GTAO has been left alone so long (apart from Shark Cards) is promising for future iterations of Online and SP games coming from R*.

Spider-Vice: I’m actually surprised this didn’t happen much earlier, people in the community had been speculating about a potential GTA Online subscription for years now. Stuff like targeted discounts and bonuses for shark card buyers advertised on the loading screens, speculation about handling flag changes being related to potential paid vehicle speed upgrades, and so on.

Looking at other games’ subscription models, where in some cases private lobbies and private features are offered, along with subscription locked non-cosmetic content, all-in-all I don’t see any reason to worry about GTA+ doing that just yet, if at all. From what I can understand from the official info, GTA+ seems to be mostly based on early access, rewards, bonuses and exclusive cosmetics (which I personally don’t mind, but others will), which I think is a fair deal if you’re paying out of your pocket IRL, at least to have some sort of incentive to keep your subscription.

I’m not going to worry about something that’s not happening and I see no sign, personally, that any of these things are going to happen just yet. Looking at other games’ models and how (despite everything, let’s be honest) friendly T2 seems to be with their R* microtransactions vs. even others within the T2 portfolio, I don’t think that’s going to happen.
Something else I’ve personally noticed is that the wording for the vehicle and property benefits is very different from the one used in the cosmetic benefits in the GTA+ website. Property and vehicle-related benefits mention discounts or them being free, if there’s discounts then this means they’ll be available for all players, just at a discounted price or even free.

In terms of the far future, whilst reading the GTA+ topic on GTAForums, one of the mods made a very interesting prediction based on their experience with other subscription-based games that I’m willing to agree with and am starting to think is what’s going to happen, especially given Red Dead Online already experimented with this.
What if Rockstar are introducing a secondary currency for the next iteration of GTA Online? What if Red Dead Online was already a test for the next iteration of GTAO based on what other games are already doing?
In RDO the Gold Bars were mostly for cosmetic content, except unlike other subscription-based games with premium currencies, you could earn them in-game as well – most other games with subscriptions and premium currency reserve that currency for subscribers only.

This new currency would be for subscribers, with drops every month much like regular money, and you could use it on cosmetics – some games even have a premium currency shop for subscriber-exclusive stuff. Most games that do this centre it all around cosmetic items, and R* themselves in a deleted part of the official GTA+ page referred to “items” from the next GTA Online Update. This is another one of the reasons why I don’t think they are going to ever lock actual vehicles and progression-related content behind the subscription – other than cosmetics, but as much as this might sour parts of the player base, especially collectors… it can actually be what makes it sell in other games for both newbies and veterans alike.

If this is what’s happening, this doesn’t change the gameplay and progression loop at all other than offering extra perks and bonuses to players who wish to pay, and I personally don’t have many concerns, if any at all, for the future of GTA Online and much less Rockstar.
I play Rockstar’s new games mostly for the single player (and only then the Online, I took a while to get into RDO) and I don’t think that’s going anywhere or decreasing in quality whatsoever over something as simple as this, that most certainly isn’t going to take any development time away more than any other GTA Online DLC. Rockstar-quality Story Modes aren’t going anywhere.

To me, what we’re seeing is R*/T2 adapting to current times just like they did with the original GTA Online, in fact, I’d even argue they’ve been waiting for this for a long time while observing what other companies were doing. In 2013 we had Shark Cards when other companies started putting similar microtransactions in games (EA was already being mocked for years), nowadays subscriptions can be more profitable and more “worth it” in terms of bonuses and content versus just buying a bunch of money (recall the math), and is the new reality in a lot of parts of gaming. I have no reason to worry about anything. But we’ll see what the next few months bring.

Now excuse me while I go and listen to Moodymann and Sessanta in the Auto Shop, call Franklin for a payphone hit and go and spin the Diamond Casino & Resort Lucky Wheel. Maybe I should replay the Dre story for a million, been a while…

Oh also, let me plug Ask A Game Dev again, as there’s another interesting article about microtransactions that is a good read. Please, please, do some reading before engaging in blind social media outrage, and if you want to be outraged, at least aim it at the companies and not at individuals!

Kirsty: Prices and morals about monetisation aside, something I’m mostly cautious about is the precedent this move will set for new games and how far exactly the monetisation will go in GTA VI’s iteration of GTA Online. There’s been a lot of talk about the possibility of completely exclusive items, content, or DLC heading to GTA Online that’s only available for GTA+ subscribers. I’m not going to get too upset about something that doesn’t exist yet, Rockstar haven’t implied that this will be the case whatsoever, but it’s food for thought as we get closer to the next GTA. Introducing it so late in the lifecycle of the game indicates to me that it’s a way to transition players into a broader purchasing scheme that will be established in the future, or a way to evaluate what kind of content players are willing to part money for in order to introduce premium items later down the line. In other words, if players get used to GTA+ now, then it’ll be easier to accept or buy into at GTA VI launch.

This impression could be completely wrong and misjudged of course, it’s only the first month! I would speculate that tables would even start turning if they ever offered a premium shop of sorts, as I bet a lot of players would actually eat that right up (see Fortnite and the success they have with celebrity/character skins), but I think it’s an understandable and genuine concern to have without further insight. People are going to spend their money however they want to, but it’s also OK to be upset at the extent of “money making” moves in a franchise you treasure.

To tap into the mentality and market of gamers who are happy to spend, it seems to me that they wanted to innovate their own streams of revenue to ensure continued success into the future. It then makes sense to assume that they looked at what other popular and high-earning games offer their own fanbases, and yep, it’s subscriptions. The reason I express caution about the possibility of long-standing changes is the way it could fracture the fanbase, such as a more obvious divide between those who pay to win and play to earn, limiting progression or overall access; it would just feel unnecessary for a game that is already hugely successful.

Optional and background monetisation is easy to ignore, but pushing premium content might feel insincere, like players are are no longer valued unless they produce profit despite their activity being what keeps games alive and relevant amongst competitors. To be fair I guess the former is kinda true for any business, we’re here to “consume”, but we’re also here to have fun. I did note, however, that there was no mention of GTA+ on the latest Newswire about the weekly bonuses; the GTA+ website was updated and there are indicators in-game, but I think it was a worthy decision to avoid giving it too much platform as this way it remains the player’s choice whether they seek it out or not, exactly like Shark Cards. I don’t know if this will be consistent of course, but credit where credit is due for putting regular players first for now. I’ll reiterate as well though that perhaps the void wouldn’t be filling up with all this unfounded speculation about the future if there wasn’t such a limited community management presence in the space to begin with.

And there you have it!

If your own views don’t fall in line with any or only parts of ours, that’s perfectly valid, as right now there’s a lot more where all this came from! Why not join in with the GTA+ discussions and debates with us on GTAForums?

GTA+ Announcement Topic
GTA+ Bitch & Moan Topic
GTA+ Subscribers Topic

The post Sound Off: The Lowdown on GTA+ appeared first on GTANet.com.

Not long ago, Misty conducted a Q&A interview with Ryan/PoachiiN for VP magazine ThePhotoMode. Due to a change in plans and circumstances, the interview will unfortunately not be published by them, so Misty approached us to see if we’d like to share it with the rest of the community on her behalf. With permission, we of course agreed, as it’d be a shame for such an interesting and insightful interview to never see the light of day!

We’re big fans of Misty’s work in GTA Online; she manages to capture characters, vehicles, and the environment with an aesthetic that I can only describe as “Los Santos summer vibes”, and that’s why she is someone we frequently share on GTANet. I’ve scattered some recent shots throughout this article so you can see what we’re actually talking about, and you can follow Misty on Twitter to keep up with her creations.

Without further ado…

All credits go to Ryan/PoachiiN / ThePhotoMode for the questions, and MistyMalorne for the answers.

What is your main drive for taking shots in games?

MistyMalorne: I am a huge fan of film, and VP is the next best thing, or is it better? I am wondering at this point as the graphics improve. I think my main drive currently is to document and add a kind of cinematography or real edge to the time spent online in games.
I see it as a VR dimension where people can be represented by avatars close or further from their real self and are able to live out extensions of themselves or fantasies as well as the gaming bread and butter such as missions and quests.
I see the gaming dimension similar to the real world, and can be captured and artistically processed in the same way. From documenting all the way across the spectrum to abstract art.
Above all of this it’s a medium to express ideas or feelings, I was here gaming and socialising so why not express and convey ideas or stories via this medium?

Who in the Virtual Photography community inspires you and why?

MistyMalorne: I think anyone who is using games to express themselves, creating pictures that might really change the course of the viewer’s mind, especially those that cleverly use vanilla versions of games in imaginative ways to create poses or express emotions. 

I find the most inspiring type of shot is one that transcends the gaming world and becomes a vital piece of art and imagery. Anyone could come along, gamer or not, and find it appealing or inspiring. Pictures that look realistic because of content, composition and editing choices, rather than just graphics performance appeal to me. 

One individual that is notable for me is Amby, I find almost all of his pictures breath-taking.

Mel, (@ I_gurly) inspired me a while ago with her Red Dead Online pictures. They showed me that a postcard, if you will, of beauty and reflection could be made from a single shot. 

Gira, the crew leader of Gangstance, and his efforts to create a virtual car meet crew and scene which he has captured very well. This creates a whole arena for art to be created, like a stage set to perform street culture based, videos and photography.

Basi, also in Gangstance, was one of the first Virtual Photographers I saw applying a realistic, subtle look to his pictures. Giving the impression they were taken in the real world, drenched in a retro style. This enlightened me to the fact that very stylish imagery could be captured in games like GTA V. 

Chy is my all time favourite Virtual Photographer and I have always found the motion in hair and life he captures from game characters truly breathtaking. He was definitely one of the first VPs to illustrate to me that this is more than “taking pictures in a game, this is art… as real as any art”. 

Lately, I have been inspired by the likes of many including Lana Melodi who has a dark, gothic nature with all of the different games she captures. It looks great, dark and brooding but what struck me the most is that it really fits the bill with what I said about VP being a medium that can transcend the gaming world. The imagery looks very real in places and certainly stands up to real life photography in my opinion. Again, I do love finding a VP that I have to double take on, and asking myself, “is that a painting or a real photo?”, especially if the game doesn’t have a dedicated photo mode and it is taken in an online mode with little control. This feat impresses me. 

I’m also inspired by the entire crew of Aesthetic Motion, which I find is very artist focused. Drew Barnes, with his very documentarian approach to VP supporting the idea of a visual diary of an online life. 

I think a lot of Spiggy with his editing skills, Ryan with information and ideas on the future of VP as a whole and its growing credibility as an artform, Evey with her breathtaking work, she is a great Virtual Photographer and of course, Huldera, Julie, Empi and Cratoz for the same reasons along with their love and support. Vis leading the crew bringing us all together is a feat in itself. 

Also shout out to Kirsty Cloud, and the GTA.net crew supporting Virtual Photographers and the R* Community. Their warmth and Saturday features of my work have picked me up and given me some belief in times of doubt.

Do you have any advice for people who might be considering taking shots for the first time?

MistyMalorne: Relax, take your time in games and embrace the mistakes and gaming accidents, they can often lead to great pictures. You might be aiming for one thing, but stumble upon something else worthwhile in the process. Don’t be afraid to work fluidly in this manner and embrace those changes.

Think outside the box and don’t be afraid to “break” the game a little to achieve a shot or pose, use your imagination. If you’re uninspired, just play and have fun, you’ll soon come across an opportunity if you have VP in the back of your mind. 

Also another good way is to look at films, and other artforms, gain some inspiration and then see if you can replicate the image or cinematography in a game. You might not realise this precisely, but you might get equally good pictures out of it with that kind of aim. You might even better the original idea! Believe. 

Keep practising. It’s the best way to improve, practice all aspects including editing. You will soon start to get used to what works and what doesn’t and you’ll get better. Think in four distinct checks: content, what is it I am taking? composition, how is the best to take this shot and express the mood or information and frame it well. Lighting, how is the scene lit and can it be more interesting? Finish, the editing that brings out or further expresses the picture’s mood and aesthetic. 

As you may be taking pictures on the fly you might not be “setting up” shots in this way, but you can still look for moments that make these four distinctive checks light up, and when they do light up for you, that is a good time to take the snap. This recognition of a “good shot” is a skill I have honed. Never underestimate those pictures that you might want to throw away, sometimes they can be saved in the edit and become your best, so be careful in what you write off or keep! 

Walk around in the game, especially in GTA V or Red Dead Redemption where driving or riding horses can be used to essentially complete a recce. Take time and you will find some great hidden gems and picture opportunities I promise you. 

Above all be original, do you, and find your own style. There are already enough copycats and vibrations of an echo chamber in the Virtual Photography scene, and having said that, what I respect the most about other Virtual Photographers (especially in the online portion where there is often character design), is the courage to do their own thing unapologetically.

Share one of your fave shots and describe it

MistyMalorne: Finalist, Fourth Focus VP AWARDS.. Abstract Cat. ‘Love Rising’.

This is one of my favourite shots due to many reasons. One, it’s an unmodded, vanilla shot from GTA Online. Secondly, it occurred when my friends and I were casually playing and evolved into a real moment in which I felt loved up about being with them, we were a unit going in together and enjoying hanging out, this culminated into the shot here. 

The four people pictured are some of my favourite people I’ve met online via VP and gaming.

After I created the shot in R* Editor, taking an unconventional angle I felt very happy I’d caught a nice picture. I’d adjusted things so that the divers look like they are almost bubbles in a glass floating up. Also, in the edit, I did some colour work to enhance the aesthetic, as it was a little flat and dull, being so deep in the ocean. I added the pink hue to represent love and a warm aura rising up with us. 

As a whole I think it ticks the boxes, however I was a bit hesitant to post it as I felt it wouldn’t be accepted well and might seem too unconventional because the new ‘The Contract’ update had just been added to GTAV and the feeds were full of this new awaited content. I just figured this odd picture would get lost in the static. However, I posted it and immediately it did very well, this was a great surprise. This really boosted my confidence to work outside of the box a bit more and perhaps do more abstract type works. It then went onto become a finalist in The Fourth Focus’ VP AWARDS, which really drove this feeling and outlook further. This just goes to show that sometimes you should have more faith in your work – To think that I almost didn’t post it!

Tell us about the music videos you make and how they illustrate GTA culture 

MistyMalorne: I like to edit music video-esque cuts. Yes, I think they are a perfect way to represent the already heavily music-orientated game that is GTA V. I have almost been using the platform solely to practice and hone editing, so that one day I can work on real music videos. Although, I totally value the game-based edits, and what is possible with so little effort compared to a real world shoot that would require broader planning and expenditure. We walk and drive in a virtual LA, a place where many music videos and films are made, so it makes perfect sense to virtually represent this. I like Rockstar’s style and how it can be shaped into a graphic novel aesthetic, or a cartoon starring all your online friends. I am surprised there isn’t more of it, however there are some great “music” videos created in GTAV R*Editor out there that can be found on YouTube. 

I love to create videos with my friends in them, because it seems to bring them joy seeing their characters up there in such a way. I just want to continually improve on this since that is my gift to people.

Should Virtual Photography be considered an artform? 

MistyMalorne: Yes, 100%, it is an artform. Anything that can allow an artist to touch other people’s hearts and minds, or express an idea via this means should be considered an artform. It can be learned, it can be mastered, and it can move people, if that doesn’t describe an artform, what does?

When it comes to capturing the VR online world of games, for example GTAOnline or Red Dead Online, and you’re taking these real moments and transforming them, you’re not only capturing a memory, but creating a piece of art from it. VP is one of our most interesting and greatest artforms to come along in a while and a real progression of visual arts. 

The scope of possibility in this medium, the scale of manipulation that can be attained, establishes a situation in which the possibilities and outcomes are really quite endless. 

I see VP as a really unique evolution of photos and film. The unique ability within the R* editor to record a moment and not just play back a film of a limited sequence, but replay the entire moment in full and navigate it wholly speaks to this. 

Post-recorded cinematography being impossible in the real world, the future and improvement of graphics and motion in games, in my eyes, sets out to create a very interesting platform which extends our capabilities within real-world cinematography. 

With the ever improving facial expression of nuances and micro details like dilating pupils and twitching, it’s only going to become even more possible to express a wider range of visuals and feelings. 

Thanks for the opportunity, 

M1STY

The post Community Spotlight: Q&A with MistyMalorne appeared first on GTANet.com.

Welcome to GTANet’s Chatterbox, our interview series where hosts uNi, Spider-Vice and Kirsty sit down and get personal with notable people from the GTANet and Rockstar Games community. From the well-loved to the unknown, Chatterbox is all-inclusive.

It’s been a while, but now we’re back with a bang! Chatterbox #4 brings our first modder to the stage, with no other than the creator of GTAV graphics mod NaturalVision: Evolved, or NVE as it’s most commonly known. In this lengthy interview, Razed answers our questions about NVE’s background and the team’s plans for the future, alongside his thoughts on E&E, modding, and more.

Let’s go!

GTANet: Do you want to tell us a bit about NVE’s background? How long have you been working on it?

Razed: Well it’s a bit of a long story. I think NaturalVision Evolved is the culmination of many years of work. I created the project back in early 2016 when it was just called NaturalVision. I was looking for a new hobby at the time and modding seemed very appealing. NaturalVision started off as a simple ReShade preset for another mod called VisualV. People ended up liking the preset and it gained a lot of attention. Everyone wanted ‘realistic’ game graphics at the time including myself.

The positive reaction from users motivated me to improve my work, so I began experimenting with timecycle files and other weather files. I spent a few months working and released NaturalVision 2.0 towards the end of that year. I still relied on ReShade at the time due to my lack of knowledge and experience when it came to GTAV’s weather files. The second version of NaturalVision was positively received by users which led to requests asking to make the game more realistic, so I started working on another overhaul.

In the summer of 2017 I ended up releasing NaturalVision Remastered (NVR) which is when I first dove deep into the game files. I was really proud of my work at the time despite it being heavily flawed. To my surprise it garnered a lot of attention from people all over the gaming community. I continued to release updates for NVR over the next year.
I thought I did everything I possibly could for the project until I ended up playing Red Dead Redemption 2. That game completely changed my outlook on modding graphics and on lighting in general. RDR2 has some of the best lighting I’ve seen in any open-world game. It opened my eyes to the potential of RAGE. I took a moment to reflect on all of my past work after playing Red Dead and began noticing tons of flaws.

In late 2018 I started working on a new update for NVR and hoped to achieve something close to RDR2’s visuals. This update continued to grow in size over the next year. Towards the end of 2019 I decided to come up with a new name for the project. That’s when NaturalVision Evolved (NVE) first originated.

Since then the project has grown massively and has a dedicated team working on it each day.

GTANet: Since NVE came around, a few other similar mods have popped up, but NVE still remains the most balanced one. How do you improve an old game in this day and age while trying to stay consistent with the game’s art direction?

Razed: I think I grew a better understanding of what can and cannot fit with the style and art direction of the game after experimenting with so many different styles over the years. Improving the game has continued to be a growing challenge due to lack of proper tools and documentation. We’re still working with an old version of RAGE so we’re limited in terms what we can modify and to what extent. I’m fortunate to have a group of people working alongside myself on the project and coming up with ways to improve the mod.

GTANet: What are your thoughts on RAGE? So far you have thrown a bunch of graphical and texture improvements at the game and it stays pretty stable.

Razed: I think it’s an incredibly powerful game engine and we’ve yet to see its full potential. Sometimes it can make scenes in RDR2 look way better than anything I’ve seen in Unreal Engine 4 so that in itself speaks volumes. It’s surprising to see how well the older version of RAGE which GTAV runs on holds up after all these years. We’ve definitely thrown everything we can at it. There have been some issues such as building pop-ins but that was mostly due to our fault for not optimizing the vegetation and road models correctly. We began optimizing them two months ago and things have been smoother ever since. Overall I’m really excited to see what Rockstar delivers in the future on their own game engine.

GTANet: If you had the time and resources to develop something like NVE for RDR2, would you, or do you think it’s fine as is and you don’t want to touch that game? Obviously it already has a ton more graphical advances on top of GTA V.

Razed: I actually have a small side-project for RDR2 called VisualRedemption which I occasionally develop with fellow modders _CP_ and robi29 whom are best known for their VisualV mod. We’ve only changed a few things such as fixing the way bloom renders, increasing reflection detail and increasing reflection draw distance, among other small tweaks. I don’t think RDR2 needs any sort of major visual overhaul. It’s a really gorgeous game right out of the box. I’d rather not ruin the style it has going for it.

Here’s some screenshots as a preview of our work so far (click to enlarge).

GTANet: Real ray-tracing is a beast to implement as a mod usually, but have you ever thought about ray-tracing or path-tracing for NVE?

Razed: We’ve discussed it as a team but it seems incredibly difficult to properly implement without having complete access to the engine. We do have screen-space global illumination though, which seems to do a decent job at bouncing light.

GTANet: What is your history with modding Rockstar games in general? Was NVE your first big project or did you have something cool before that you’d like to talk about?

Razed: I’d say NaturalVision was my first big project. I’ve been modding Rockstar games on and off for several years though. I recall modding clothing textures back when GTA 3 and GTA Vice City first came out on PC. It was quite easy back then compared to modding clothing or skin in GTAV. I recall modding GTAIV extensively as well, but I never created my own mods for that game. During the IV era I used mods such as iCEnhancer and LordNeophyte’s texture mods. I remember everyone thinking modded GTAIV was the most realistic game ever at the time. We seem to surpass this milestone with each new Rockstar release.

GTANet: Though this interview is obviously about you, we have the tight-knit team that works behind you on NVE to thank as well; how did you go about bringing the team together? Do you each have your own responsibilities for different aspects of the mod, or is it all a joint effort?

Razed: I was initially approached by Mihail (Robin) sometime during 2019 asking if I needed any help with developing 3d models or textures. I ended up giving him a few tasks which were seemingly difficult. He ended up delivering on those tasks within a matter of days. I was really surprised because I wasn’t expecting him to actually be able to help. Prior to that I was constantly approached by various people in the community wanting to contribute and always had a disappointing experience. Robin was the first person to join me on this project and remains on the team. He is one of the most talented people I’ve worked with. I met the other devs through similar experiences as well.

We each have our own tasks but we occasionally work together on a single task from time to time. The current active team consists of Robin as our 3D artist, MADZ as our animation artist and graphics programmer, NB as our vegetation artist and myself as the project manager and lead graphics artist. I try to dip my hand in a bit of everything when working on the project by editing the lighting, particle effects, weapons, textures, models and much more. The hardest part has been managing the entire team and reviewing everyone’s work near the end of each month to make sure it’s up to our standards prior to releasing a new update. Sometimes we end up remaking things multiple times over the course of multiple updates until we are finally satisfied with the result.

GTANet: Are there any specific new features that you are planning to bring to NVE, that you can tell us about? Or any other projects in the works? (aside from VisualRedemption)

Razed: We’re currently focused on trying to finish our volumetric clouds shader. It has been an extremely challenging task since we’re doing it by ourselves without help from others. Our dev MADZ has added the ability for users to change the density and scale of these clouds in real-time should they wish to do so. We plan on implementing a little system where users can make their own presets for clouds as well.

You can see an example below. Please note this is an early preview and the final version will be improved. The footage showing clouds changing in real-time has never been revealed publicly so it’s an exclusive for GTANet.

There are other new features we’re working on too but I’d rather not speak about them until they’re closer to completion.

GTANet: At some point you will end up without anything else to visually improve on V, is there any other areas of the game you would like to improve on? (e.g new models as you have already done, better and more interiors etc)

Razed: I think creating new models and textures falls into the visuals category. We’ve been working on new models and textures for roads and vegetation alongside our weather overhauls and have a good portion of the map covered. Occasionally we re-texture some buildings and interiors as well. I’d like for us to eventually re-texture all the main characters and their vanilla clothing. I don’t think we have the manpower to rework every single ped as much as I’d love to do that. The project will most likely come to a halt once I’m satisfied with our weather, lighting, vegetation and road improvements though. There’s only so much you can do with a small team.

GTANet: Are there any mods out there that you are personally impressed with, or use the most, at the moment? Or are there any WIP mods that you think are worth highlighting to the community?

Razed: I use a few mods while playing the GTA Definitive Edition games such as the radio restoration mods, simple reticle mod and various character re-texture mods. In GTAV I use a variety of vehicle mods created by vans123, SaleeN and tk0wnz. Aside from GTA, I occasionally play Microsoft Flight Simulator 2020 and use a bunch of different mods in that game such as the Star Wars X-Wing mod by EggMan28 or various airport overhaul mods. I think everyone should check those out if they plan to mod these games.

GTANet: What are your thoughts on the relationship between Rockstar, Take-Two, and the modding community? There have been a lot of events lately, as you’re likely aware; is this something that concerns you regarding your own work? How do you think Rockstar can turn things back around, and how do you feel about the future of modding?

Razed: I’m not sure if I can accurately comment on the relationship between Rockstar and Take-Two from an outsider’s perspective. I hope they are getting along together and communicating properly. I would like to see them better communicate with the modding community instead of being completely silent. I feel like it was very unnecessary to take down the map mods for the older GTA games. I don’t think those mods would’ve negatively impacted the sales of the new Trilogy games. Unfortunately this move resulted in a lot of backlash from the internet. It feels like both companies are constantly under fire by people in the gaming community as of late which is a bit sad. Speaking of which, it’s not okay to go around harassing the devs at GSG or R* just because you don’t like the new definitive edition games. People need to cut that out.

I think Rockstar has already started turning things around by making sure the GTA Definitive Edition games get patched. All they can do now is continue to go forward and learn from the past. I am confident that Rockstar will keep making great games which will set new records within the industry. I’m sure we can all agree that mostly everyone will buy the next big GTA game no matter what happens.

As for the future of modding, I don’t think much will change other than the talent pool. Most of the current GTA modding scene is comprised of individuals that started doing this in their late teens. They are now much older and have less time to focus on developing mods. By the time the next GTA comes out on PC, those same people may not be around to sit here and make quality mods for the game. This actually scares me a bit because personally I am not impressed by some of the younger generation of modders entering the scene. For example, if you go on a custom FiveM server then you’ll notice most of the interior mods, texture mods and vehicle mods are very poorly made. I can only hope those individuals will eventually step it up and carry the torch for the rest of us in the future.

GTANet: Modding aside, let’s slide in a couple questions about yourself: what’s your favourite Rockstar game and why?

Razed: That’s really tough to choose because I enjoy all of them in different ways. I’m gonna have to go with GTA Vice City because it’s based in Miami which is where I grew up most of my life. I love the Scarface references, the 80s soundtrack, the neon lights and the atmosphere. Tommy Vercetti is pretty badass too for someone wearing a bright Hawaiian shirt.

GTANet: How did you get to know Rockstar Games? How long have you been a fan?

Razed: I first heard of Rockstar Games and GTA itself back in the year 2000 or 2001. I was in the 5th grade and went to school one morning. We always had a few minutes to kill before class and one of my friends at the time brought his Gameboy Color to school. He was showing off this new game to me where you could steal any car and run from the cops. Turns out it was GTA2. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and ended up borrowing it from my friend for a while. Then GTA3 came out a while later and I was completely hooked ever since.

GTANet: If you’ve played the Trilogy remasters, do you appreciate any changes that Grove Street Games have implemented, or are they not to your personal taste and you’re going to stick to the classics?

Razed: I appreciate the effort by Grove Street Games into porting the games over from the RenderWare engine into Unreal Engine 4, but at the same time I think the games should’ve been delayed to allow for more polish. I like some of the enhancements but there are way too many bugs at the moment. Nonetheless I am enjoying my time playing through these games again with the help of some mods. I’ve been slowly working on my own mods for some of these games as well, such as a GTA III mod to restore the lighting and atmosphere from the original PS2 version of the game. I’m not sure if people will like this mod, but I mostly wanted to make it for myself because I prefer the original game’s ambience.

You can see a preview of it here below (click to enlarge).

GTANet: What’s your thoughts on E&E? A good part of the community think it deserves visual upgrades similar to what you achieved with NVE. Is this something you and the team agree with or do you think they will just update it but still keep the vanilla flavour the game has?

Razed: I think if they’re calling it “Enhanced & Expanded” then it surely deserves a visual upgrade. It doesn’t have to be on par with NVE but it should have visible improvements to the weathers and lighting. If they went all-out with visual upgrades then I’m sure people would be more than happy to pay full price for the game.

NVE, captured by uNi

GTANet: What about Rockstar’s next game – if it is GTA VI, what direction do you expect the graphical improvements to go in? We’re likely to get an even newer version of RAGE that builds upon RDR2, which still looks stunning, so is there anything you hope to see in the future, or any wishlist-style preferences?

Razed: I have really high hopes for GTA VI but at the same time I try to remind myself to keep my expectations low in case it’s not how I imagine it to be. I expect it to look better than any open-world game out there on the market. I definitely want more improvements to textures and materials. RDR2 did not fully satisfy me in that department. I want to be able to zoom in on each object and see even more detail. Ideally I would like an overhauled version of GTA V’s San Andreas, IV’s Liberty City and a new location (such as modern-day Vice City) all in the same game with the ability to travel between cities via the airport. I want 80% of the buildings to be enterable too. I can sit here for hours and talk about what’s on my wishlist for the next GTA game.

I just hope the long wait will be worth it.

Big thanks to Razed for agreeing to this interview and taking the time to respond with some well-spoken and insightful answers! You can find relevant links below. Stay tuned for more Chatterbox interviews in the near future.

Follow Razed on Twitter and Patreon!

Previously on Chatterbox
TezFunz2
Zoobz
Vinewood_Motors

The post Chatterbox: GTANet Interview with Razed appeared first on GTANet.com.

Hosted by Killaz, Nestor and Fabry, the 20 minute video revealed today features highlights from their almost-hour-long interview, and they inform us that they will be sharing the 50 minute unedited version in the coming days.

The raw footage was kindly sent to me a few days ago for an early preview so that I could type up this summary ready for the reveal, so big thanks to Nestor for setting that up for us! Our summary relates to the entire 50 minute video.

If you’re not brushed up on your Rockstar history, let’s quickly recap before you dive in – Jamie King is one of the founding members of Rockstar Games, alongside Sam & Dan Houser, Terry Donovan and Gary Foreman. After Take-Two Interactive acquired BMG Interactive (and thus the rights to GTA via DMA Design), the group formed Rockstar and Jamie held positions such as VP of Development and Executive Producer. He oversaw the production and publishing of many early Rockstar titles, before leaving the company in 2006.

With all that said, it’s best heard from the horse’s mouth, so sit back and enjoy.

Highlights of every answer below!

• Since leaving Rockstar, Jamie has focused on creative/strategy/marketing roles. His most recent role in the gaming space centered around eSports
• San Andreas was Jamie’s most enjoyable development experience
• Vice City was the most “incredible cultural education experience” since it was made in only a year and included the music and film references, new dialogue and parody
• As BMG began the transition into Take-Two, Jamie made the television spot for GTA 1
• Take-Two had a QA and production base in Windsor UK but encouraged Sam (and the other founding members) to go to the head office in NYC [to explore more publishing opportunities]
• Sam Houser asked Jamie to get a Thrasher magazine and The Warriors film licence [as he began to draw up ideas for a skating game and Warriors game]
• The group began to realise that their ideas didn’t match the existing Take-Two portfolio of games – “everything was different to us”
• The group would see the EA logo in Gamestop and discuss how you “would know what kind of gameplay quality you’re getting” no matter what kind of game you saw it on. They wanted their own label reflective of Grand Theft Auto – “we need our own identity”
• The group were at a rollercoaster theme park when they came up with the name Rockstar Games
• The Rockstar name was born from Sam Houser and his “love affair” with rock and roll music, and being able to easily name music producers, film directors, critical movies of the 70s and 80s, as well as his upbringing being surrounded by the music industry and his career at BMG
• At first, the American press challenged the name as they were making games and not music, inspiring the team – “game on!”
• The term Rockstar was reflective of their “cultural desire to show that games were for grown ups and not just kids” and a “superior form of entertainment and engagement than movies and music”
• Jamie was 27 at the highlight of his career in NYC, the group all lived in the same big apartment that had no windows, they were very “driven and focused”, “we really believed in Grand Theft Auto”
• Rockstar North, the original DMA Design team “really were amazing” [at what they were achieving] when the PS2 released. The code was “a mess but it worked”
• Rockstar were so busy with projects they would “work 7 days a week”, they were “enjoying it but had no time to pat themselves on the back”
• With more success came more marketing budget, they would always make “cool” and “wicked” clothing at Christmas for everyone that worked at Rockstar
• They’d have fun at E3 and stay at the Chateau Marmont [hotel in Hollywood], and do “whatever we wanted” with their booth
• They started as 12 people on the sixth floor [of their Broadway building] and then they were moved down to the third floor as they began work on GTA 3, expanding out with a marketing department and film department for mocap
• With new consoles on the way, and EA buying Renderware, they knew they had go independent with their own engine
• Jamie feels “lucky” to have worked on the beginnings of what would become RAGE – they brought together a core team of devs from Vienna, North, San Diego, including Wolfgang Engel who was the author of a collection of PC graphics essays, and integrated technologies they learned via devs from Nvidia and AMD, to create the cutting edge RAGE
• They inherited Red Dead Revolver when they acquired Angel Studios [San Diego], Capcom had already been working on it 4 years, Sam Houser gave the team nine months to release it. They toned down some of the “wackier” characters, wanted to use bullet-time from Max Payne for duelling, collaborated between studios to fix up the gameplay and level design. They decided against making it an open world game, though Sam Houser’s vision for it was something more like what we see in the Redemption era of the games due to his “huge respect for the western movies”
• They prioritised game design at all times – “day one, our QA team was really important”
• Jamie loved working with Sam Houser as he always wanted to work hard to prove that they were better than just publishing or marketing people who didn’t know anything – “we have to earn the right to talk to the developers, we have to understand they are the power, they are the creatives”
• Jamie scouted a weapon store in NYC that featured in the GTA 2 intro movie, they also took photos of the guns to send to Rockstar North for modelling
• Jamie’s background in music videos from the BMG Interactive days got him connected to a team to set up motion capture, some of the publishing team would record the GTA fighting moves
• Take-Two didn’t have influence on creative decisions, they weren’t allowed on the Rockstar floor unless it was the CEO
• They had a good relationship with Take-Two as Rockstar helped them “clean up” and QA some of their third party publishing titles – “you are not gonna tell us how to do this, as long as we turn up the blockbuster hit, right?”
• Jamie has no idea what Rockstar or Take-Two is like now, but thinks it must have changed as the companies are so “big” now – “they’re printing money!”
• Jamie appreciates Rockstar brand must have evolved since he left, it has “matured”
• Jamie thinks Take-Two have done a really good job on building their other labels and “diversifying their portfolio”
• It was a “very interesting” time for Rockstar during the discussions surrounding sex and violence in video games, and the conversation about it not being just children playing games – “there were times when we got so much criticism like we’re ruining the moral fabric of society” – which tested their moral compass as they realised Manhunt was “a little intense”, though they will always be proud of triggering these debates
• They never lost sight of caring about making excellent content, they wanted “freedom of speech in entertainment, but not actually encouraging anti-social behaviour”
• Even though Claude was named in GTA 3, they didn’t think about adding a voice for him, as “you’re the protagonist, you’re the hero” of the game
• They first met Ray Liotta in a steakhouse in NYC, it took two years to get him to say yes to voicing Tommy
• One of Jamie’s funniest moments of working at Rockstar was when he purposely made friends in the illegal street racing scene in Washington [as they were developing Midnight Club], he went to illegal street races and brought the cars to New York to film footage even though they didn’t have permits
• Jamie couldn’t name some of the craziest times at Rockstar, but the ones he could say included filming the illegal street racing, hanging out with Tom Sizemore during Vice City recordings, having meetings with “gnarly” Thrasher magazine execs
• Dan Houser and some marketing people were in an almost-fatal helicopter crash during the Midnight Club press tour in Paris
• Regarding the book Jacked and the BBC movie – “no one will ever be able to tell the stories the right way”
• There was a lot of misreporting about his departure – “I was really tired, we [Sam] were really close friends and it just stopped working for me”
• He loved making the promotional items that included paraphernalia that couldn’t even be sent out to people in the mail, such as knuckle dusters, baseball bats, razor blades for chopping up cocaine
• It was a lot of work for Jamie and Terry to get licences for songs, it was a lot of effort as they had key target songs for Vice City and San Andreas, and some artists were really hard to work with like Courtney Love and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but it was worth the time
• They decided against real licences for vehicles as it was too expensive with royalties and a “tremendous effort” to try and work with the companies
• Rockstar avoided leaks by having “FBI, CIA level of approach to cyber security” – internally and online they would be watching and were “very sensitive” to even discs being manufactured – they would personally drive a submission to the airport to hand it to a courier
• Due to all the MMOs entering the market at the time, they were well aware of players wanting multiplayer in GTA, Sam Houser wanted it as he was “very smart, very astute and forward thinking” about the markets, but they just couldn’t get it right in the time they had, especially on the PS2 system
• Hot Coffee was a “very big distraction to our focus” – he believes it was the pinnacle of the debate around video game content, they thought it was funniest thing to have in the game, but ESRB said no as it would change the rating and this would impact sales, and they agreed it needed to be taken out
• When Hot Coffee was discovered, Jamie feels they “passed the buck” by saying it was the modding community at fault – but “it wasn’t a good feeling” being investigated as “the FCC were trying to prove we were marketing a mature title to kids”
• Jamie received fan letters from 11 year olds that were “really well written”
• Jamie thinks Rockstar are doing an “amazing job” at how they have embraced online versions with continuing to add fresh content and monetisation
• He thinks Rockstar have proved they aren’t a “one trick pony” of GTA titles through Red Dead
• He thinks Take-Two have done a great job diversifying their portfolio enough that they can keep the stock market happy with annual releases while Rockstar focus on their mega franchises
• Jamie feels everyone is happy [with the business], and he’ll never forget his amazing time there
• Jamie is no longer in contact with either of the Housers, they are part of “very different worlds” now
• Jamie thinks the lawsuit with Leslie Benzies was “sad” though he is not surprised – he read the lawsuit documents, none of it surprises him from both sides, though it is a “shame” and “unfortunate”
• Leslie Benzies was “dynamite” and “instrumental” to growing DMA Design into Rockstar North, he “really delivered” on the code side with Vice City
• The group flew to Anguilla after finishing Vice City to plan San Andreas
• Jamie appreciates the “old days can’t stay the same” – Rockstar has “beautiful systems” and they know what they are doing with them – “they’re bigger than any one of us”
• Regarding Dan Houser’s departure, Jamie would do the same if he had his money – to travel and write – he wouldn’t be surprised if Dan published a book – “he’s an amazing writer with tone and wit”
• Regarding departures of other original devs – Jamie wouldn’t be surprised if the “tone and content” changes in the future – if it’s not as “edgy or as funny”, as there’s now opportunity for them to release something “cheesy” unlike before
• He doesn’t think gameplay mechanics will ever be affected by changing content, as they use the same core engine and beautiful machine as when he worked there [RAGE]
• He thinks there will be a internal culture difference without Leslie Benzies and Dan Houser, but it would be really hard to screw up what they have built through GTA and Red Dead, and Rockstar will be “fine, period”
• Lastly, Jamie reaffirms he left Rockstar as it became a “one way situation”, a “different way” than he wanted and it took all of the excitement out of it for him, he was working 7 days a week and sacrificing everything for it, and he started to feel “life is too short” and there was other things he wanted to achieve in his life. He feels lucky for everything he managed to work on during his time at Rockstar – it was a personal decision and he understood the terrain he was in – “if I don’t like it, I need to be the one that moves on”

And that’s all, folks!

Once again thanks go to Killaz, Nestor and Fabry, and to Jamie himself, for the interview.

The post Killaz Interview with Jamie King appeared first on GTANet.com.

Firstly, let us get the facts of the announcement of the way, just we’re all at a baseline!

Sony held their much anticipated PlayStation Showcase a few days ago, on September 9th. Rockstar entered the chat halfway through the show to debut the first trailer and reveal the new release window of GTAV’s so-called Expanded & Enhanced version, which includes a standalone GTA Online, for the latest generation of consoles.

The trailer, sitting at 1 minute 17 seconds, mostly featured singleplayer footage with a snippet of GTA Online towards the end. Blurbs throughout the trailer promise “improved graphics”, “enhanced gameplay”, “seamless character switching”, “explosive action” … “and much more”, closing off with a release window of March 2022 – a four month delay.

The Newswire article posted shortly thereafter re-iterates what had been announced during the Sony stream, with additional details confirming that the game needed some more time for “polishing and fine-tuning”. Rockstar also confirmed that PS+ players can continue to cash in on the free monthly $1million bonus until the new release date, and PS5 players will still be able to download the new GTA Online standalone for free up to three months post-release.

And now here we are… the atmosphere in the community dropped almost immediately following the reveal; the trailer was not what folks expected, and it continues to bring widespread backlash from disappointed fans. With a large ratio of Dislikes>Likes on YouTube and negative comments flooding Social Media, we thought we’d bring our own personal opinions to the table in an attempt to figure out what exactly has gone wrong.

The delay

uNi: Rockstar Games delay releases all the time, they also sell a lot of copies, make of it what you want.

Spider-Vice: I’m not necessarily surprised or really that upset at the fact the game is delayed. I do maintain that a delayed product is better than a rushed one, but I have a feeling other factors contributed to this situation. PS5 and Xbox Series consoles are still heavily hit by scalping, many, many people still can’t get one at this point.
Delaying something like E&E just a few weeks into Christmas, for example, could actually be worse for game sales because it’s probably going to be even harder to buy consoles.

These games, even if they’re not a complete overhaul, take time to make. If there are programming changes, even unrelated to graphics, those can take a long time to perfect and test, especially in a working from home situation – you can’t bring development kits home, you have to rely on a lot of remote connections to test and develop games, etc. I wouldn’t put the blame on the people who are hard at work on this, regardless of your opinion about the actual game and what it is – especially if this means no one is being overworked and everyone is having the free time they deserve especially during the pandemic. Please don’t forget the devs don’t just work on one project at a time. I’m kinda curious as to why the delay is going all the way to March, which is the end of the Take-Two fiscal year, but if things aren’t ready, then they aren’t ready.

As for the “infamous” trailer, not rarely, game trailers use footage from different parts of development. This means that some scenes may have differences between them, and this is something that is normal and was also noticed by the Rockstar community with RDR2 and GTA V. However, using footage with a few obvious bugs was definitely a way to rile up an already upset community into only noticing those things, instead of what the game actually is supposed to be. It is, however, another good sign that the game just isn’t ready to be put on people’s consoles just yet.

That said, we have been through this many times with R*, and thus far, it’s been worth it every time, every delayed product has been far more polished by release. GTA V on PC was delayed 3 times, some people were as outraged on GTAForums as they are now, calling out that the game would be a “port” with the quality of GTA IV’s, among other things. GTA V on PC released in April 2015 looking and running perfectly well.

As with every game delay ever, I’m “disappointed” of course, but I can’t say I’m *upset*, or angry, or mad.

Kirsty: The delay is something that the community seems to feel is the least offensive part of the reveal, given more divisive topics we’ll discuss later. It was a surprise me for it to be announced at a time when we were imagining to start seeing the marketing for it, only two months ahead of its original release date of 11th November with the GTA III 20th anniversary also around the corner. There are those that have their grievances with the fact that the game will now be releasing a full 21 months after it was first announced, which does bring me to question why it was announced so early if the timescale was tight to begin with.

That said, the reasons for it appear pretty clear cut. We’re not privy to the amount of resources that have been allocated to the E&E project, and Rockstar are certainly not the first company to push their games into 2022 given the pandemic. It’s a word we’re all kind of tired of hearing by now, but it still remains appropriate to consider given Rockstar are also still committed to putting their employees’ health first with their continued work from home policy and turning their back on crunch culture. If developers with their butts in chairs are pulling out the work (they know most of all what they’re talking about afterall!) and need more time to really reach a satisfactory level, it’s corporate’s responsibility to honour that and delay the game, regardless of our chagrin; something we didn’t see in the infamous Cyberpunk 2077 release.

Given the graphical bugs and glitches identified in random spots of the trailer however, it’s quite obvious that there are creases left to iron out during the timeframe they’ve been given – these bugs haven’t exactly helped the overall community response in terms of their faith in the work that has been put into this release, but it’s pretty public testament to the game just not being ready yet.

The graphics

uNi: We still don’t know what the aim of the upgrade is, and I am not going to judge the release on a single trailer that could be months old by now. Is what we were expecting it would be? Hard to say as we were never told what to expect from it. It seems to be at least on par with the PC version, which I guess it was the goal all along, and it meets that. People like to focus on their own personal experiences, but the true is that a lot of players are on console and they tend to stick with those game versions, as I said on the previous article, for them this version makes total sense. I doubt this was ever aimed as a upgrade for the players that already own the game on the PC.

Spider-Vice: This one’s a tricky one. GTA V is an 8-year-old game, from a development standpoint it doesn’t make much sense to grab it and overhaul the graphics completely, they’d probably rather leave that for a new game like GTA VI. This is especially true if GTA VI isn’t as far away as we think.

A few posts, tweets and such were made over time about how E&E could potentially use bits and bobs of code from RDR2 so it would run better. Software developers can do this, especially if you’re developing within the same codebase/engine – you can sometimes cherry-pick, adapt and backport certain things. Although a lot of RAGE has changed, some fundamentals have not between the two games, it is the same engine after all, and for most game devs that use custom engines, future projects iterate on the immediate previous release or a branch of it.

GTA Online has its performance issues, especially CPU threading issues, and GTA V, as an 8 year old game still using older tech, definitely needs its own share of optimisation (go into the Diamond Casino even on a beefy PC and you’ll notice the videos rendering on the walls bog down performance), so none of that is surprising if it happens, and I speculate that is what E&E is going to focus on with the technical enhancements, instead of just “graphics”.

The posts I mentioned seemingly lead to some people speculating the possibility of them porting the whole graphics engine into the one used in RDR2. Even I speculated about that being *possible* a few months back, but I didn’t necessarily *expect* it. After all, we had no information about the scope of the project, it was all speculation. If the community took mine (and some others’) words as fact, I can’t take fault because I’m not a Rockstar employee or anyone with that knowledge, we were all speculating, whether we believed it or not.

In hindsight, it really doesn’t make much sense when it’s mostly supposed to be an enhanced version of the same game for the PS5 and Xbox Series. I have posted a post on GTAForums detailing some of the changes I’ve noticed, and there’s probably some more subtle ones. I distinctly remember there being complaints about the old enhanced versions as well, because bushes were still “low quality”, trees didn’t sway in the wind, the game’s changes didn’t justify the price tag, etc. You can go back on GTAForums history and you’ll see some of the same discourse, even though that version brought some bigger changes.

We may not have much information, but some facts were thrown around by Sony blog posts about the game running at 4K 60FPS, and unfortunately a lot of people ignored this, instead preferring to look at the streamed trailer at face value. This is admittedly something that could have been announced before, or with the trailer, by R* themselves.

I personally think people’s expectations in this sense were through the roof, and I can’t quite understand why, as I feel like the PS3 to PS4 jump justified a bigger change than now, especially when nowadays there’s a lot of focus on frame rates and resolution (which affects your headroom for fancy graphics) – the generational jump isn’t as big.

Kirsty: The strongest discourse mostly stems from feedback surrounding the graphics of the trailer. It’s pretty hard to tackle it from a neutral standing because it’s near-widespread thumbs-down from the community, and even the most subtle changes highlighted are refuted. There’s a lot of discussion about how E&E looks the same as it already does, essentially, and this has lead the call of labelling it a “scam” due to the presumption that it will cost full price to purchase. The most frequently mentioned comments I’ve read point out that vehicle mirrors have the same reflections as old-gen, particle physics are not vastly different, draw distance seems reduced with far away objects missing, reduced props in some scenes (though increased in others), general lack of improved textures and models, and the odd inclusion of highlighter-yellow license plates. The lighting and colourisation of the sky does seem overhauled and bares similiarity to RDR2, but the community suggests that Rockstar’s practice of moving the sun’s position during trailers to give better shadows with lens flare is merely an attempt to make the graphics look better than they are. General editing remarks about the lack of footage beyond singleplayer cutscenes or other angles that would really show off what improvements there could be has also marred the reveal, with the trailer mostly feeling haphazard and uninspired to most.

Videos showing comparisons between PS4, PS5 and PC pretty much places E&E in-between these versions in my eyes, which is technically an enhancement, so if you hadn’t watched the trailer for yourself yet you’d probably think that feedback sounds harsh and surprising against Rockstar’s usual quality, but as mentioned, the discourse has been pretty overwhelming.

It’s not particularly clear why the community did have such high expectations to begin with, however, for a game that is due to reach it’s 8^th anniversary next week. Factually, we haven’t had any confirmation of what exactly the improvements (or price for that matter) were meant to be if they go beyond this trailer. Previous mentions of 4K+60FPS were only referred to by Sony indirectly, but Rockstar have been vague and held back on details that may have proved much more significant than they perhaps anticipated.

For myself, I’m not actually too bothered about graphical upgrades, so my expectations were a level playing field due to general indifference. As a mostly-console player, the game will surely run a lot smoother on a new-gen system, and I think the improvements will be felt most in the performance of GTA Online, even if the graphical changes are not as vast as the difference between PS3>PS4.

The possibilties of “expanded” content

uNi: It can be a lot of things, but we have no idea yet. We have talked about this version possibly using RDR2 version of the engine, but I guess that doesn’t automatically it would look like RDR2 out of the gate. Most of the improvements from that will be under the hood, and makes sense if they intend to keep maintaining GTA Online for the years to come.

Spider-Vice: This is tricky to speculate about as it could be pretty much anything. Personally I’m not expecting anything huge like some of the community have – things like Liberty City being added to the game, or something of the sort. I very honestly can’t understand why people were expecting such large additions, when not even the old enhanced versions actually went to that extent. It still is supposed to be largely the same game, much like the previous version.

However, I think one cool thing to add to the E&E version would be GTA Online vehicles being enabled in Story Mode, and perhaps even the apartments, reintroducing an allegedly cut feature from the game where you could buy other property from the Dynasty 8 website. Because you can’t buy GTA$ with real money in Story Mode, I think there also would be less challenges in adding the Diamond Casino & Resort to the Story Mode, allowing players to gamble their money away freely, or win large sums. The casino wheel could even be introduced in Story Mode as well.
GTAForums member Commander S pointed it out in a post and I think it would be interesting to see the stock car races, or something like Benny’s mod shop in Story Mode.

I think some technical improvements could also count as “expanded”, things like increased traffic density, pedestrian density, props being re-enabled (see the end of the previous GTAF post I linked), which would make the world more rich in detail, etc. I honestly wouldn’t go expecting full-on map expansions for the “expanded” part, I think there’s a lot more things they could expand, including within GTA Online.

Kirsty: Spider has pretty much covered all the points I could make on this one. There hasn’t been too much commentary on the possible additional content heading our way due to the hyper-focus on the problems with the trailer. Concerns mostly stem from the wish that Rockstar had just taken the opportunity to provide some tidbits of details about what’s in store, rather than a vague “more soon”.

Personally, I think the “expanded” features of E&E is the perfect opportunity to add GTA Online content to singleplayer; it doesn’t have to be everything, but your most basic GTA foundations like the vehicles and weaponry, and even some of the apartments, would be a cool addition for those that still enjoy messing around with Michael, Trevor and Franklin. Maybe that sounds counter-intuitive to the business folk, given planned DLC from the past got shelved or absorbed into GTA Online, but after 8 years and 150 million sales, it seems like a nice way to close the chapter of GTAV as we move into the future of the series.

The lack of communication

uNi: Regardless of the trailer’s fiasco, we need better and more communication from R*. They used to talk to us a whole lot more back during the 2006 – 2013 era and I think that improved the R* – Fan Sites relationship a lot.

Spider-Vice: Personally, I think this is the only bit I can direct more towards R* (community, marketing and PR teams), in the sense there are a few things to point out. This is all said with the assumption there were no contractual marketing obligations to meet with Sony – I don’t know how those things work – and it’s possible that Take-Two/Rockstar PR and marketing are stuck with having to do stuff when Sony wants to even if it’s not ready.

I think the first trailer was fatal for people’s expectations of the game. The game could have still been announced when it was, but this probably could have happened in text form instead, teasing some of the improvements/plans for E&E, leaving an actual trailer like the one we got on Thursday for a later time. It feels like it was announced too early, when development teams didn’t have anything to show, and they had to make do with old footage. I feel like if it hadn’t been this way, the community wouldn’t be as upset right now. Likely still upset, but not with the first trailer on the back of their minds to make it worse.

I’ve admittedly always appreciated Rockstar’s culture and secrecy, it’s part of their charm and I think they know how to please people whenever news about games come out, and have most times done so for the better part of those almost two decades I’ve been a fan.
However, I think currently, in a world where social media communication is basically key, and outrage culture is unfortunately at its peak, it might be preferable to be a bit more open about what you want to do and the scope of a project like this. This is especially relevant for smaller projects like E&E that might cause more scepticism – clarifying more specifically E&E’s features, dropping info occasionally, perhaps a screenshot or specific comparison, a teaser of some of the new content, just for expectation management at the very least. I think this would have made the community a lot less mad.

I can totally understand withdrawing from dealing with a community that can be rude and thankless, R* aren’t the only ones (Naughty Dog had to run away from all the exaggerated hate for The Last of Us 2 as well), and if I were a game dev or someone in marketing/PR, I would be discouraged as well (hell, this is even happening with us as a fan site), but I think the only way to extinguish fires caused by long periods of silence and vague information drops is by actually communicating more often about what’s going on and slam all that hate where it should be – in the bin. Condemning some of the community’s recent actions towards others including your employees, and clarify what’s to come for E&E or draw out a plan/roadmap of sorts, even if it’s not super detailed, would be a great starting point.
I think nowadays it can be an invitation for a PR nightmare to be silent about a project that probably is going to have people expecting too much from it, like GTA V E&E. As I mentioned, this applies more to projects like E&E than mainline ones like, say, GTA VI – Rockstar large game reveals are like no other, but even then sometimes those have extremely long periods of silence (see GTA V’s original release).

In a sense, I also feel like this kind of PR silence can negatively affect dev teams. Some outside the PR/marketing sphere may also agree that it’s better to not say anything because of the community outrage and because “gamers” are very volatile – it truly is a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.
Game dev is an extremely thankless job, you spend sometimes years working hard on something, and some gamers prefer to hate on things they don’t have knowledge about, completely ignore all the nuance that goes behind each decision, each thing that shows up in a video game, and prefer to dunk on it the first second they see it, without ever being constructive and not thinking of the human.
It’s not just Rockstar, granted – as I write this, God of War is getting hate just because of an allegedly “incorrect” representation of some Norse mythology characters, because the devs reused an animation that took nearly an year to perfect and develop for the previous game, and Uncharted on PS5 is getting hate because it’s not “enhanced enough” too. There were news of Life is Strange: True Colours being review-bombed as well by specific groups of people.
However, leaving the community frustrated with silence for too long can be an almost sure-fire way for a sudden announcement of bad news (like this delay) to backfire on those same poor people, some of which I have had the great pleasure of getting closer to in a more personal way outside me being a R* fan, and they don’t deserve any of the stuff that is being thrown at them by the angry mob – the angry mob who, sure, is also very much at fault, more so than R*, but perhaps some extra communication would have calmed them down.

As mentioned earlier, I think some expectation management in terms of features wouldn’t have hurt, and it would have benefitted everyone in the long haul. I obviously understand game development is highly iterative, unpredictable, and there can be brick walls at every turn of the corner causing delays and making marketing teams be uncomfortable about announcing something, but at least some kind of expectation management could have worked well here.

I love R*, but they need to talk more on the PR side and be a lot more organised with their public facing. Retweeting some Snapmatics and posting GTA Online and Red Dead Online bonus weeks doesn’t cut it for everyone in 2021, and I think some transparency, and more often, would be appreciated especially in these dire situations.
There has been deep mutual support between us and R* for the better part of the 20 years we exist, perhaps we could even help a little with something, or get some extra information as a recognised fan site we could help spread, or bring awareness to? We’d even sign an NDA if needed, to tease something to the community like on GTAForums for you, ha! Even if you don’t want to address the whole community directly, we wouldn’t mind helping out with something either, using our mutual support relationship for that. Could even use us for more interviews/info drops like the Q&A we are very happy to be able to have done with you!

It would also be a great time to do something cool to try and extinguish some fires after last Thursday I reckon.

Kirsty: There’s an appropriate meme circling around game devs circles about what happens when companies try to come out of their box and interact more – they just end up getting punched out by gamer hate and retreat far away from us. For that reason, telling Rockstar to just communicate more doesn’t encapsulate what they actually need to change. Rockstar is very well known for their privacy, something I can admire and respect; all eyes on are them yet they place priority in only their work and their employees over a impatient fanbase that is often expecting too much of them. There will *always* be trolls in online spaces, but the landscape has changed over the past 10 years, and Rockstar seem very resistant to embrace it.

Now, I’m not suggesting that community managers should put themselves out there to be attacked by rabid fans, nor should it be necessary to get involved with other brands for keks or other forms of cringey behaviour for the sake of trying to be relevant, but without an overall consistent level of engagement with the community, information to keep people informed and updated on even the bare minimum of details, and a little bit of meaningful interaction beyond Likes and Retweets of virtual photography, there is no one left to represent them in a brand capacity and their silence becomes deafening. And it’s not just the community that misses out in this regard – without role models to admonish awful behaviour, clarify situations or encourage positivity, their employees become targets, leaving no one to safeguard them in circumstances like these last few days apart from fans and fansites who are mature enough to put themselves in target range as well and speak out.

In contrast, we can question if the community even deserve anything from Rockstar given how toxic things can become? As a target of harassment myself for “defending” their choices, I’ve stated publicly that we don’t deserve it, but in hindsight why should those that speak loudest take away from everyone else? It’s a double-edged sword, and it is discouraging, but this is not what we see from other companies and even though this is something that used to set Rockstar at a higher bar above others, the community perceive it as lack of interest or nonchalance.

It’s not a culture that could be changed overnight admittedly, baby steps have a longer standing impact, and it’s not something that would even jeopardise their privacy over projects, but a little would go along way (our recent Q&A was an amazing start, slap us with an NDA and we’d even be your outreach if it could come to that!) and I firmly believe the response to E&E would be vastly different had transparency been valued from the beginning.

The community feedback

GTANet: Unfortunately, we have to make the response to this be more of a statement, and be very rough here from the moment this not only affects us, but many other people we also, by now, consider friends and/or closer to our hearts – one another as GTANet admins, R* employees, other community members.
A lot of people have suddenly forgotten basic human empathy, and have resorted to joining hate mobs, echo chambers and doing things to other humans (even behind a screen) that they likely wouldn’t do in real life.

R* may not have helped with releasing vague information about the game, but the sheer toxicity that is going on around social media, Reddit and even GTAForums towards both Rockstar, its employees and fan sites like GTANet including us as admins, is abhorrent and completely dehumanising. We have gone from global outrage towards more positive comments about the release, to proper harassment of others and even shameful shows of bigotry and homophobia. We are talking about video games. This is a virtual world. No one was murdered. It’s a video game.
Although there are a ton of level-headed people still in the community (We see you and appreciate you!), this is the biggest amount of backlash and toxicity we have ever seen coming from the Rockstar community and it absolutely saddens us to see the state of it. We have seen a lot of toxicity in our time on GTANet, which even meant that a couple of us as admins have been involved in arguments with the community before – e.g. with the initial GTA V delay, the GTA V PC delay, etc. – but this is something we almost never imagined happening (but kinda expected unfortunately), something that was very much made worse by the current climate of outrage on social media, and pandemic isolation.

Whilst most people who still play GTA/Red Dead Online, and support the content we put out as a fan site, haven’t changed their tone much during the reveal, which we appreciate, a fair few number of echo chambers have come to attack us for something as simple as having a more positive outlook about the E&E release, as fans who don’t engage in any kind of hate even in the worst moments.
For some, this immediately means we are “shills” just because we are a large, recognised fan site, and for some reason, for some, this means we are paid to be positive, or to be “shilling”, or anything – as if we aren’t entitled to our own opinions, and aren’t entitled to take in the situation more maturely. This has happened to a lesser extent to other fan pages as well, as this “shilling” discourse has been going on for several years in some circles of the community, even towards content creators.

It’s apparently very shocking to some that we just prefer to be mature about things. We all have other things to do and worry about in life than to be slinging hate about a video game or its developer on social media, much less when that’s not what none of us feel. We are allowed to think GTA V E&E is a completely fine project to exist, while at the same time commenting on the lack of communication behind it. Which we have earlier. We are also allowed to speculate about what it’s going to contain or not contain. One of us specifically has been accused of “shilling” just because they said something as simple as “we don’t know if this release is going to be full price, regardless of what you may think about Take-Two”. If any other member of the community says it, it’s fine, but because we are running a large fan site, we must be paid.

A fan site is not Rockstar Games, we are not employees, we are simply fans who run a large fan site. We do not make them change the way they do things. Widespread community backlash like this might, but that is as long as it’s respectful, or sticks to at least yelling about the game/company as a whole.
When it drops to levels like what we’ve seen over the weekend, attacking other individuals, being rude and offensive, then you lose any reason you could’ve had.

Very honestly, that kind of behaviour truly makes us think sometimes that perhaps it’s better Rockstar doesn’t communicate at all, if that’s what they’re going to get back. Complain all you want (preferably to the right entity and not individuals). But do not be rude, offensive, and bigoted. That is not complaining or voicing your opinion, that is being hateful and immature for the sake of social media outrage clout.

Actual hate speech aside, obviously none of this is necessarily surprising, because the community was already sceptical about GTA V E&E due to the lack of clear information and an underwhelming reveal trailer – which made this trailer, coupled with the sudden delay announcement, be just like throwing a large can of petrol into a raging fire. People are right to be sceptical and criticise how nothing was said about E&E for an year, but they are not right to be hateful, and this is where we start drawing the line and very honestly say that the actions of the angrier community members are far worse than anything R* have ever done, with communication issues or not.

There is a lot of unrealistic feedback being spread around, people saying that developers are at fault for business decisions, or that developers have been “doing nothing” for a year when Rockstar has over 3000 employees and most certainly more projects going on, which could mean E&E has a smaller overall team versus, say, something like GTA VI’s production or something else. There has been no sense of reality or humanity in a lot of groups, it’s just raw hate based on preconceived opinions. Some have even resorted to calling names to the actors that featured in the games, this is how ridiculous the hate train has gotten.

Be better. This is just disappointing. More so than any delay, any underwhelming reveal, anything.

And there you have it!

It’s taken us a few days to digest everything that is being thrown around in the community, but given the overwhelming reactions, our idea was always to articulate these problems into an article that showed both sides of the coin in addition to our personal perspectives. Our integrity as a fansite has been questioned for not joining in with the masses to roll it all out immediately, but to those people let us explain – we’re an old school fansite with an old school forum, from the length of this article you’ll see we do things differently; we process these events and put it into something that takes up more room than 280 characters (unless you’re naturally a man of little words like uNi!). You may have harsher views about E&E and Rockstar and that’s OK, our platform is your platform, and that’s the reason we’re around after two decades – there are just basic decency rules to follow if you want to be constructive.

Join in with the GTAV E&E discussions and debates here on GTAForums

Stills taken from the GTAV E&E Trailer

The post Sound Off: The Great GTA V Divide Mk 2 appeared first on GTANet.com.

GTANet: Congrats on CircoLoco Records! Music has always been a big part of the GTA series, how do you go about picking something new to introduce into the GTA world that will stick around forever?

Rockstar Games: It’s very similar to the process we used when we first created the game – all starts with having a sense of what is right for the location of the game and the vibe of the overall world. For Grand Theft Auto V, that meant bringing that sense of contemporary LA and the music that was happening there at the time. Over time as GTA Online has grown, we’ve taken the opportunity to reflect changes in the music scene and to highlight different aspects of the city’s music scene that we loved and thought that people should hear. A good example is something like KULT FM with Julian Casablancas, which is based on a low-power radio station in Venice Beach that plays a really eclectic mix of tunes. We felt that was a great balance to the stations we had already added, and Julian was the perfect host. We hope by picking a great mix of known tunes and hidden gems, people will be able to tune in and discover new things for years.

GTANet: GTA Online must provide an endless stream of data, but regarding music, which radio stations or songs that turned out to be a hit were the biggest surprise for the team?

Rockstar Games: We’ve always been blown away by how much people love Non-Stop Pop. But we’re not just trying to fill the stations with music people know and love, we really love to turn people on to new music, and that’s really the driving force between the range of radio stations and artists we put into every game.

GTANet: Regarding Los Santos Tuners specifically, what quality of life changes, or fan requests, did you add?

Rockstar Games: As hopefully you’ve already discovered, Los Santos Tuners added quite a few requested features and updates, including the ability to “Take All” Snacks in owned Properties. Players can also choose to show/hide certain radio stations in the Radio Wheel (this is done via the Interaction Menu) to suit their musical tastes. Adding a new category of Wheels was also a popular request which made sense for us to include this time around, as well as the option to Test Drive select vehicles in the LS Car Meet before purchasing.

The feedback has been incredible with a record-breaking opening week – we couldn’t be more excited and grateful to the community for coming together to play and we’re really glad everyone is enjoying the update!

GTANet: The community challenge you have done for the heists was really interesting and engaging, would you consider doing more in the future? (Not just tied with heists)

Rockstar Games: Absolutely! We loved seeing the community come together to heist over GTA$1 Trillion during The Heist Challenge – more than 10x the original target. We’ve got a few things planned this year which we think will be really fun for the community to take part in, as well as some new activities for Halloween, and some exciting new updates beyond that.

We also wanted to take a moment to thank the entire community for continuing to support GTA Online. We’ve been humbled by the incredible response to Los Santos Tuners. We’re always checking out Crews running their own meets and generally immersing themselves in car culture, and bringing that back to GTA Online is something we’ve wanted to do for a while. With the number of players requesting that we bring a car-focused update to GTA Online, the time felt right to celebrate that side of the game. It’s always been important to us that players can get in touch and let us know the kinds of things they’d like to see in the game – we strongly encourage any and all feedback to make its way to us via the GTA Online Feedback Portal at https://www.rockstargames.com/GTAOnline/feedback

Discuss with the rest of the community on GTAForums and Twitter!

** Screenshots by uNi and Spider-Vice **

The post GTANet Exclusive: Q&A with Rockstar Games appeared first on GTANet.com.

Welcome to GTANet’s Chatterbox, our interview series where hosts uNi, Spider-Vice and Kirsty sit down and get personal with notable people from the GTANet and Rockstar Games community. From the well-loved to the unknown, Chatterbox is all-inclusive.

First things first, let us dust off our joggers and apologise for our absence! It has been a while since our last Chatterbox; the last year has done a number on us at GTANet, for obvious reasons, but things are looking up and we hope everyone is coping as well as they can out there.

Without further ado and without much need for an introduction, in Chatterbox #3 we aim some burning questions at no other than TezFunz2. You might call him Fun, you might call him Tez, just never forget the 2. Chances are you’ve seen his tweets around the Rockstar community during GTA Online and Red Dead Online update days. His trademark straight-to-the-point info drops frequently get over a 1000 Likes, and he is a regular contributor to GTAForums’ Next DLC speculation topics.

GTANet: Fun! Thanks for participating in our Chatterbox series and thanks for your patience! Let’s start with an easy one: What would be your favourite GTA instalment or Rockstar game?

TezFunz2: When it comes to the GTA franchise, I kinda have a hard time picking. It would be either GTA San Andreas or GTA V. Both games have a spark that makes them unique. GTA SA was amazing and tops it in terms of providing entertainment value, what went into the gameplay was enough to keep me hooked. On the other hand, GTA V was stunning and it took the graphics and scale of the map to greater lengths, the level of detail is amazing, but it lacked a bit of the amusing tone that diverts your attention from the other aspects of the game. Both games were really great, but if I have to pick one out of the two, it will be GTA San Andreas. Outside of the GTA franchise, an all-time favourite of mine is Red Dead Redemption, it’s just chef’s kiss.

GTANet: Do you follow any franchises outside of Rockstar Games?

TezFunz2: Naughty Dog games such as Last of Us (plus TLOU2) and Uncharted, Battlefield series, and the Division and Assassin’s Creed by Ubisoft. I know, not the sort of guy that comes off as a man of culture.

GTANet: When did you first find yourself getting into the Rockstar online community?

TezFunz2: It started with the release of GTAV, that’s when I became aware of GTAForums. Before that, I spent most of my time with the silent majority, I was oblivious to the existence of such communities, I didn’t even experience GTAV pre-release days (guess I’m lucky?). Afterwards, I stumbled upon this forum and since then I’ve experienced such a fun time being here and I’m grateful for knowing you guys. For all the crap I saw, it’s still a great place for me.

GTANet: How did you come up with your username, what’s with the “2”? Let us know if you want to update it on GTAF!

TezFunz2: I was a massive fan of Modern Warfare 2, and so I came up with a nickname that implies it was a fun game. Later on, I updated it to simply “Fun 2”, just a silly nickname. Just adds up to my lack of originality. Thanks for the offer, but I’ll stick with it for now.

GTANet: As of this month you’ve got a massive 170k followers on Twitter and you’re mostly known for posting info from the tunables each week and researching Rockstar in general, do you ever feel “used” or fed up of people expecting information out of you, or is it something you still get excited about being involved in?

TezFunz2: Frankly, I don’t feel used or fed up of people expectations, it’s something I enjoy doing, but it’s not something that I’m committed to, or to be recognized by. It’s just a nice little thing I do, not something I take to the heart. It’s bothersome, but I don’t really think much of it, any increase in followers doesn’t change how I feel about it. If I somehow forget to tweet on time, I won’t feel like I failed miserably or failed my followers. My motive to provide info is just altruistic, but not so much to the point that it takes a toll on me.

GTANet: Do you have any favourite discoveries that you’ve found in the game files?

TezFunz2: Finding out the code leftovers for GTA V’s single-player expansion helped form or realize the scope of the expansion. They were planning three episodes with each one featuring unique changes to the map and the environment. It’s kinda crazy that eventually most of this became material utilized in GTA Online updates. Also, I wouldn’t call this a discovery, but the Mission Creator has a neat set of features. I would love to see them release a public version before they move on to focus on the next title. Lastly, when Rockstar added the Alien Egg supply mission to GTA Online with the Gunrunning update, the strings were divided into small bits, so that the code would go unnoticed by dataminers. Nobody noticed anything until roughly a month after release. It was a nice sight to see them do that.

GTANet: If you could go back in time and create a DLC for GTA Online, what would it be?

TezFunz2: Beach Bum Part 2, maybe? Would give a new meaning to Vespucci Beach. Jokes aside, I would settle for a quality of life update, but if I can go further than that, maybe a DLC that focuses on gang wars, competing over territories. We had the Alien War social event that happened a while ago, where two alien gangs fought each other. Just make a DLC around that. Most importantly, I would make sure to set up custom rules to balance it out and bring about a classic GTA experience, one without meme vehicles.

GTANet: Do you have a personal wishlist for a GTA 6 setting and location?

TezFunz2: I would like them to revisit Vice City, and feature Liberty City if possible. There are rumors that it may feature multiple timelines, which if true would be amazing as it would provide the same experience as RDR2 with the Chapters, where you spend more time exploring the world. Hopefully we may see an initial announcement happening this year.

GTANet: If you could bring back any character for GTA 6 to be the main protagonist, who would you like?

TezFunz2: Tricky question, I think of myself as a newcomer to the franchise, so I’m ambivalent of who I shall pick, and to be honest, I really want to see new characters with GTA6, new personalities and unique traits. I can’t think much of a character, but maybe someone slightly akin to Tommy Vercetti, someone who establishes a criminal empire, recruit members and take on complicated matters, but not so much alike that at every opportunity he takes matters into his hand.

GTANet: And last but not least, we hope you’ve been keeping sane during the pandemic. What do you think is next for Rockstar Games as the world tries to return to normal; are you looking forward to GTA V Expanded & Enhanced? Do you think we’ll see any new games from Rockstar in the near future?

TezFunz2: I’ve been doing well, and wishing the same wellness to anyone affected by the pandemic.
Ruffian Games acquisition, which is now Rockstar Dundee, was unexpected. I don’t see them providing much assistance with GTAO/RDO development, but likely working on side projects. They did say they were working on “unspecified titles”. I’m expecting a reveal this year.
I’m indeed looking forward to GTA V Expanded & Enhanced. The technical improvements and performance enhancements mentioned intrigues my interest. Especially the latter, as I’ve always wanted the game to be more responsive. With recent updates, we’ve found a few new RDR2-like functions behind the scenes. So, we may see improvements to the engine version. However, nothing major like a complete overhaul. I don’t think Rockstar is done with Cayo Perico just yet. I can see them upgrading it in some way or shape with the E&E edition. Plus, we may receive more music-centered content. E&E seems to be the prime focus, as there are signs that suggest there’s likely no new GTAO update in development at the moment.
As for new games, I can see them making a different and an unusual reveal. Not in the near term, but sometime in the mid-term. Hopefully, an announcement regarding the next title too.

We extend our thanks to TezFunz2 for the opportunity to let us make this interview, it was great fun, as always, and you can find details about TezFunz2 below!

Follow TezFunz2 on Twitter!

Previously on Chatterbox
Zoobz
Vinewood_Motors

The post Chatterbox: GTANet Interview with TezFunz2 appeared first on GTANet.com.

Here, for the next rendition of “sound off”, we each put forth our opinions on some of the biggest questions that came out of the GTA V re-release news.

Why did Rockstar re-use footage?!

uNi: This is admittedly an odd one, it would have been perhaps better not to use any footage at all? I think they should’ve just announced the new release and state that would be different. There could other reasons behind the use of the old footage that we are not fully aware of, maybe it is a requirement from Sony for the event? Or maybe the announcement had to be pushed in?

Spider-Vice: I personally think this is something they planned recently, so they didn’t really have any footage ready to show – pre-production, and all that. Video is always a good product promoter, so despite the lack of footage from the remastered game, they decided to stitch together scenes from Story Mode and GTA Online to show what the game is all about. I suppose it would have been a lot less impactful PR-wise to just show some text saying GTA V is coming in the 2nd half of 2021 to PS5.

Kirsty: It seemed a little bit short-sighted, yeah. This re-release is clearly aimed at casual players who have been keeping it in the charts for so long, but IMO it would have been mostly hardcore fans watching the event, hence the backlash. It might have been that their hand was forced though – a requirement of the Sony deal to show *something*, but a recent decision like Spider says could’ve meant there’s not actually anything to show us yet. More positively, maybe in the future it’ll be used as a way to compare the graphical improvements.

Does GTAV on next-gen even make sense?!

uNi: A lot of people in the community is clearly not happy with this, but I think in terms of seeing the big picture is makes a lot of sense. Yeah it is true it does sound a bit forced if you are a fan of series and been playing this since you bought on the 360 or the PS3 but there is a couple of good reasons to go forward with this I can think of. The main one is real simple really, although V has sold a ton of copies across platforms, there is so many players that never even played GTA V yet, at all. Plus new generation, new console, a lot of existing players and new players will be moving to the, in this case the PS5, and for the most part don’t think will be switching consoles back and forth to play GTA and other games, it’s a lot more convenient to have a GTA there. It’s just not a re-release for the looks of it.

Spider-Vice: Given how complex Rockstar games are becoming – and you can see this just looking at a non-mainline title like RDR2 – it’s great filler while we wait for them to finish up GTA VI. It allows people on the new consoles to play an enhanced version of GTA V without being stuck with PS4 features and graphics, and continue having fun until VI is announced or released, which will bring me to something else when we talk about decoupling GTA Online from GTA V.
Obviously there was going to be backlash from hardcore fans, but I think it can be a refresher until GTA VI having something like this.

Kirsty: As a business move? Absolutely, the staggering numbers only speak for themselves, straight into the ears of Take-Two. To hardcore fans? evidently not, but that doesn’t mean that’s the end of the story. A lot of people are quick to complain but will end up playing it on next-gen regardless, making any points they bring up about “milking” kinda moot. Personally of course I’m going to get it, most likely on PS5, but I’d be more likely to relish the experience of being able to play GTA IV and RDR1 on current-gen instead.

What’s “expanded and enhanced” supposed to mean?!

uNi: There’s a lot of room for improvement here without having to reinvent the wheel. The official article mentions technical improvements, visual upgrades, performance enhancements. Although it is hard to pin point exactly what is changing without any more info there’s definitely a lot of stuff can be done with the good old V in contrary to some people say. I think it was Kirsty that mention that, and quite right, people got really hyped and in love with the game again with the NVE mod. And it is pretty awesome, the game looks absolutely amazing with it, but the main issue is I cannot run it at 4K ultra 60fps with it enabled, and I have a good pc. It is easy to overlook the fact that the pc base is huge, and hardware configurations are vast, some players will be in the same situation as me, others won’t even be able to run the game at 4K with or without this mods. Then you have the console base that cannot mod the game at all with this kind of stuff. Having a native upgrade that run a enhanced version of GTA V maxed out running at 60fps on a new console will be very attractive to a lot of people. I kind of understand were people are coming from, but at the same time I think we should wait, and see what R* does with it. If they said, “Ok here is the same exact game on PS5 for full price.” then yeah I would understand the backlash but it is not the case. They said they would be changing the game quite significantly, so I am not saying that is amazing but waiting to see what they come up with first, no reason to make judgement just yet.
Imagine that decide and use RDR2’s version of RAGE for this version, imagine how good V would look specially with the weather/light system they have running on RDR2, not to say they haven’t or can’t make further adjustments on top of that since the game was finished. It can also mean better textures and models, it can mean a lot of good things, so we should at least give them time to show what they have in store for it.

Spider-Vice: uNi has nailed it I think. They’re going to take a year to remaster this, it’s not going to be a settings file edit to match PC max settings like many people think. Take-Two seems to be investing in significant remasters, like Mafia 1 being ported over to an enhanced Mafia 3 engine with ray tracing and everything, so it’s very very plausible that Rockstar might be porting GTA V and Online to RDR2’s version of RAGE, exceptionally improving visuals and maybe even gameplay until GTA VI where they will undoubtedly show us further enhancements to the experience.
I also wouldn’t worry about an engine upgrade detracting from GTA VI, because even if that happens, GTA V will still be using 2013-era models for example, so GTA VI has a lot more room to be much much more detailed.

Kirsty: uNi and Spider pretty much covered all bases here. A majority of the complaints boil down to “omg, they’re releasing the same game again!”, but without any other information, how do we know how far they’re going to go? Knowing how beautiful RDR2 looks and performs on up to date RAGE, I think things can only get better on next-gen. There were obvious graphical improvements between old-gen and current-gen, and graphical mods like Natural Vision Evolved brought so many people back to the game because people simply love to enjoy beautiful scenery, so why not let console players get the same treatment? The “expanded” part of this story might relate more to the GTA Online standalone release, but we’ll get to that later.

So GTA Online is going MMO?!

uNi: I do not follow GTAO that closely but still interested to see what they do with this standalone thing. Is it going separately on all platforms going forward? How does that work installation wise? Do I still need to have both? Definitely it’s no near being dead and they at least plan to maintain and expand on it.

Spider-Vice: I honestly think this makes all kinds of sense and I’m slightly surprised this decision took so long to make. Decoupling GTA Online from the core GTA V experience means they won’t need to make a “GTA Online 2” or whatever, and can update it as if it were a different game – think World of Warcraft after all these years but even better. GTA Online could be updated with engine upgrades and GTA VI teaser content as they went, and culminate in a full release with the GTA VI cities and features, alongside the GTA V content. Maybe you could even choose between, who knows. GTA Online becoming standalone will definitely add some flexibility, and could mean that people who just want a core single player experience would not have to download GTA Online on both GTA V and GTA VI.
Kirsty’s tidbit below also has something I’m curious about – could they potentially dedicate a team to fully supporting GTA Online and writing for it, whilst making the original GTA teams dedicate themselves to a full release and story?

Kirsty: I think this is a great idea, to be honest. I posted about this on Twitter suggesting that GTA Online being standalone could actually leave Rockstar with more time to dedicate to developing singleplayer stories again. I can’t imagine how they would tackle trying to make a GTA Online in GTA 6 worthy of what the current GTA Online has become. It’s a beast of it’s own now, and having a team dedicated to maintaining it and updating it away from singleplayer could mean we get more exciting things in the future, in the same way other MMOs do, while not taking time away from the singleplayer stories we all know and love. This might not sound “appealing” to some, and to be honest I’m not a huge GTA Online player myself as I currently prefer Red Dead Online, but the possibilities are endless if done right.

But no GTA 6 news until after 2021?!

uNi: I know people like to speculate about this stuff, but honestly I don’t see the point. Yeah it was a bit predictable a couple years ago but it’s a whole different “game” now. Just because this version is getting released sometime next year doesn’t mean they can’t announce anything else until there, the thing is R* is at such a point that can do whatever they want with announcements, more than ever. The community would to hate on them for still not announcing the next game, whatever that is, but the thing is obviously they are working on the next big thing, but there’s no need for them to announce it yet to start the hype, the community has been doing that on its own for months now. There’s talks about GTA6 everywhere without it ever being mentioned at all.

Spider-Vice: I don’t think this is an issue at all. Rockstar can still announce a different game while this is in the pipeline. It might stop more detailed info like further screenshots and trailers, but I don’t think it’ll stop a new GTA game announcement and new trailer. Imagine if they did something like – announce GTA VI, then promote GTA V and Online for the next-gen consoles with some free money and exclusive GTA VI teaser content. Perfect!

Kirsty: I personally think we’re still going to get some development news about other projects before we see this next-gen release of GTA V. Rockstar seem to be ever-evolving their approaches to marketing and communication, much to the chagrin of some of us, but there will come a point where announcing a new game will be imperative to the company, and in no way will it take away from any release they would be currently promoting. I think we could even see some in-game cross-promotion like Spider says, kinda like how we did with RDR2, and that would be awesome.

Does this mean GTA 6 is delayed?!

uNi: Don’t think it changes anything to be honest. If anything, maybe they want/need more time to finish the next big project? If RDR2 is anything to go by, they should take another 4 years if needed! Most people tend to overlook how long these things take to create and piece together.

Spider-Vice: Rockstar Games has much more than a thousand people. Not all are developers but most are, and you can’t honestly believe all of those thousands of people are allocated to a remaster project. To me this means absolutely nothing to other projects – they will still have other teams and studios leading different projects, including different IP’s if they so wished. The reason games are credited to Rockstar Studios is because the global development effort is made worldwide, but it always starts somewhere – for instance, GTA at Rockstar North, Max Payne at Rockstar Toronto, RDR1 at San Diego, RDR2 at North, etc. This won’t impede absolutely anything. Maybe those devs would rather be allocated to help on GTA VI, but I don’t think it’s a team of 100 people that will affect other titles’ development.

Kirsty: Development-mishaps and current pandemic aside, not at all. It’s normal nowadays for deeply detailed games to simply take a long time. There’s no chance that they’ve “only” just decided about what to do with GTA 6, even if this GTA V news is recent itself, and thus I’m pretty sure they’ve got a tentative plan for how the next few years will pan out. While it’s fun to joke about how much we’ve aged since the last GTA, we can’t just expect the kind of games that Rockstar are capable of to release every 1-2 years. RDR2 set a very high bar in gaming and took an immense amount of people-power, but it only came out less than 2 years ago, and even though it’s not part of the same franchise, they’re lead by the same studios. I’d really love some confirmatory news about GTA 6 or even new IPs, so hopefully that’ll come soon and we can put some of these topics to bed.

As far as GTAV/GTAO on next-gen is concerned, the GTANet team is highly curious to see what Rockstar Games has in store for the future. We want to read all the new info tidbits and zoom in on all the new screens to spot the differences while we wait, to finally get our hands on it and play once again!

Related topics on GTAForums: Enhanced GTA V coming to PS5 in 2021 , Standalone GTA Online Launching on PS5 in 2021

Snaps taken by uNi

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