Cyberpunk 2077 satisfied my appetite for that sort of urban sandbox in a setting more interesting than faux Florida.

I will be playing Ocarina of Time instead.

I don't really care about GTA. I never undertood the appeal.

Well you missed out on greatness. How old were you when gta3 launched? That game was revolutionary.

If you like tech in games a Rockstar North release is always a rare moment in the industry, it's really impressive to see what they do with their games.

It's the definition of doing it "bigger and better" in the industry.

It doesn't really appeal much aside from that like other games do for gameplay, style, story, character building, etc, so it is also not nearly one of my most awaited games either, but I do love the tech part of things and it is really cool when one of this games releases, like a Naughty Dog game as well for example, but I do have much more to be interested on those too aside from just how impressive they are.

My friend's brother will likely get it, and then my friend will play it on his account. So 3rd hand I will be able to watch it and decide if it is worth buying and then probably not buy it.

I thought 5 was genuinely pretty bad. But I'll still probably get this at launch. What Rockstar do well they do better than anyone else. But their games have some dreadful design choices, pacing, mission design etc. That really holds them back from being truly great. But they'll never improve on these aspects because critics suddenly forget about all of that when reviewing a rockstar game.

My kid says it's cheap for what you get, he wants it day one. He's right, I paid $130 for FS2024 (premium deluxe edition) so I can't fault him.

R* knows how to build great environments to explore, even without the game play it will be fun just to walk/cycle/drive/bus/fly/boat around. It's the Titanic of video games, whether the story is good or not, the production values are off the charts. I spend most my time in GTA5 and RDR2 just exploring the maps, stumbling on emergent gameplay and stories embedded in the environment. Also there's nothing else on my radar for upcoming sandbox games. Dunno if the satire will hold up though since reality has far exceeded anything GTA has caricaturized.

They are like Titanic/Avatar of gaming, and Rockstar is like James Cameron. In terms of production and how to actually translate technology advancement into gameplay they are the best in this industry period, and GTA is their magnum opus so to speak 

GTA V has a deeply responsive and immersive world far above anyone would expect of a PS3 game. Let's say the open-world craze didn't start out of tin air 

This is coming from someone who doesn't like GTA's gameplay loop, narrative or aesthetics in first place, many people do. We can also break down this:

In certain ways shooting is probably the most popular combat system in action games, so it's another selling point, no brainer here 

For narrative, most of games start with the point of morally good white-washed heroes. GTA brings the concept of playing morally gray to outright criminal PCs. You can roleplay outside the quintessential heroic/good guy

As for aesthetics, most of gaming leans towards fantasy side of stories, GTA provide a grounded and hyper realistic world people relate without feeling disconnected

If you think about it a bit, you will notice GTA is quite unique in the industry with almost nothing that play like it. It's different from something like "Generic FPS number 7" or "Generic JRPG number 11" which have dozens of similar offerings

Cyberpunk tried to be Cyperbunk GTA and already sold over 35 million units DESPITE it's  launch controversy. Then you have it 

Can't believe you were faster than me on the Titanic analogy goddammit lmao

If the latest rumour about a disc version also coming (and fairly soon after the launch date!), I might get the game at some point. I'm not exactly a huge GTA fan, but I can appreciate well-built worlds with good enough gameplay/content. I also like the setting/theme.