At the PlayStation Showcase 2021, Rockstar Games has finally shown gameplay footage from the PlayStation 5 remaster of Grand Theft Auto V, which will also release on Xbox Series X/S. Rockstar announced the GTA 5 ports last summer at the reveal of the PS5. Although there was a trailer to accompany the first announcement, it exclusively used PS4 footage. Up until now, next to nothing else was revealed or shared about the remaster of the 2013 sandbox game.
Following its eighth birthday, GTA 5 comes to PS5 in November and will feature all-new content. As mentioned, Rockstar has been keeping the new remaster under wraps, but the developer has noted that GTA Online will get exclusive content updates and its own standalone release like Red Dead Online's. Reports have also suggested that Rockstar may bundle GTA 3, Vice City, and San Andreas with this new-gen re-release as a thank-you to players for continuing to support the game.
During Thursday's PlayStation Showcase, Rockstar gave the first-ever look at GTA 5 on PS5. The game is clear visual step-up from the PS4 version, and the new hardware should allow for the game to run at its full potential with much less to hold its performance back. GTA 5 reportedly runs at 4K/60FPS on PS5 with reduced load times. New vehicle upgrades will allow players to move through Los Santos at previously unprecedented speeds, but not much else was said regarding new content for the game. Although the game looks gorgeous, Rockstar also ended the trailer by revealing the game has been delayed to March 2022.
It seems likely Rockstar may go more in-depth with the remaster ahead of launch, detailing more of the new content and showing some of the new features in action. Prior to the 2018 re-release of GTA 5 for PS4 and Xbox One, Rockstar released a gameplay video of the first-person mode had added for the ports. With the game being nearly ten years old, there's hope that Rockstar will add more new features and perhaps rework some of the more dated elements of the game, such as GTA Online's cluttered UI and menus.
Although Rockstar has already sold 150 million copies of GTA 5, meaningful changes to GTA Online seem in order to encourage players to continue playing and spending there until the inevitable GTA 6 arrives. The base game takes multiple minutes to load into GTA Online on last-gen hardware, something that the standalone release may help to address. The SSDs in the new consoles should also help remedy this (as well as switching between protagonists in single-player), but GTA 5 is in desperate need quality-of-life updates and GTA Online-tier content that faster load times can't fix. Although the gameplay looks better than ever, it's not known just how much will be added to this new version.
Grand Theft Auto V is available on PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC, and it will launch for PS5 and Xbox Series X/S in March 2022.
Source: PlayStation/YouTube