the scale of everything seems alot more like real life

We'll see how they do it. Andrespetmonkey already made a point, but here come three bigger ones:

- The whole city of Los Angeles was on all 3 LA Noire discs. If they could split that huge map into two seperate areas, R* could fit the whole map and all of its mission on two discs.

- Halo 4 lets you install the 2nd DVD (multiplayer) on the harddrive, so you can play it while only having the singleplayer disk in the tray. Even if it was 3 DVDs or more R* could let you install the remaining disks optionally so you don't need to swap.

- Skyrim fits on half a 360 DVD.

Looks like it's going to run at 1217x684 on the PS3, compared to GTAIV's 1152x640 resolution. 360 may get full 720p as it did with GTAIV.

Do we know what platforms it'll be on?

Yes!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! that is all.

PS3 and Xbox 360 confirmed for spring. We will probably see a PC version later and maybe Wii U.

Meeeh... not convinced. I dont see them doing anything increadibly refreshing. Just more of the same as usual. Same game since GTA3 with more FX.
The changes to driving sound good, but i doubt it will be better than sleeping dogs on my book.

I think it sounds fantastic, spring can't come soon enough

The 3 character idea sounds good and with the re-introduction of planes, there should be more fun to have when messing about. Hopefully all the lessons learnt from Red Dead will be put in the game.

Now I just need to find some 1080p bullshots to put as my screensaver

3 protagonists which you switch between in real time during missions? I don't think that's ever been done before in any major title let alone the GTA series.

"Complicated, multitiered heist missions"? There was only 1 in GTAIV, and it wasn't very complex. This sounds like it's taking it to a whole new level. 

The awesome multiplayer mode?

And the map changes are massive features, as the maps are as important to GTA games as any character or gameplay mechanic. This map looks incredible.

I like some of the changes they are introducing, but playing with 3 characters "at the same time"... we'll see.