Rockstar North's upcoming open world thriller and the newest inclusion to the already popular franchise, Grand Theft Auto 5 is easily one of the most popular titles of 2013. With more and more details slowly being unveiled related to the game, it's no wonder that GTA 5 is rearing up to be one of the top games to come out of the industry this year. And now there's more to follow up on the game.
Rockstar North art director Aaron Garbut recently spoke with Buzzfeed, and gave the site more details about the upcoming game, and how the setting of Los Santos is already vastly superior to that of any other GTA game in the franchise.
When asked about how the company managed to scale down the entire state of California for the game and how the company managed to keep the interest of players going is such a huge world, Garbut stated: "I want to stress that not only is this world huge but it's absolutely handcrafted. Every little bit of this world has had a large number of extremely talented artists pore over it. There's always something to discover, something weird or interesting to see or interact with."
"It's absolutely not a massive, empty world. We've considered the placement of every tree. We've simply not copied buildings around the map or procedurally generated the terrain to pad it out. It's all handcrafted, all unique, and we've gone over it all again and again and again to make sure there's enough layering of detail that I don't think many people will ever see everything we've put into the world. That in itself, though, means that most people will have different experiences."
He also confirmed that an "awful lot of work is the answer" to such a unique game coming out of the GTA franchise. The company, from the very beginning, wanted to "ensure that not only was the world big but that it was absolutely packed with character and life. It's levels of magnitude above Grand Theft Auto IV in terms of what we've done on the environment side. I know there are bigger games out there geographically, but I don't think there are in terms of content."
As far as a comparison with the company's previous behemoth Liberty City is concerned, Garbut added: "We used to call Liberty City a living, breathing world, but this is way beyond anything we've done before."
Rockstar North's Grand Theft Auto 5 is currently scheduled for a release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 on Sept. 17. A PC port hasn't been formally announced.
