@psmr That sounds like a great plan and really creative, I do certain things with display but gaming/toys etc mean nothing to anyone else in my life, gaming is seen as taboo so I can only talk about it online like this and with my friends in chatrooms. My Family see it as a complete waste of my time, my Partner allows it because he knows it's not. He'll sometimes do paper-work etc while I'm playing in the same room and Red Dead Redemption 2 did get some offline reactions but I doubt this game will. I explained the hype of Grand Theft Auto, I don't think he got it, which is fine because there's hype online. I think also he looks at it like understanding why I'd play Palworld because it's fantasy and there are creatures and magic, but a game like Grand Theft Auto to the observer would look like real-life and he wouldn't understand why I'd shoot in a virtual world when I could just do it in real-life, the same for a lot of the games features. I explained it as a cinematic experience, but since I play so few narrative games it does seem odd. I imagine many a raised brow when the violence and craziness kicks in, I looked over my shoulder playing God of War and sure enough there was the raised brow. The sexual content won't be an issue, if I have to beat someone up with a bat or something, that will get a reaction. Maybe one day I'll look more into steelbooks.

@Ravix Oh that's beautiful, I prefer the second image with the dragon. It's a lot like Saint George or Mother Mary trampling Satan. I never unboxed the day one copy, I'm waiting for more content and more for the openworld but maybe I'll go for that steelbook. What are you plans for the game? launch night you'll sleep or no? I'm aiming to stop at three, awaken and then play it all day and again until three probably. I have a list, visit the zoo, visit the nature reserve, rob a lot of stores, buy a lot of clothes, obviously take a lot of pictures. And of course walk the map listening to radio stations.

@GirlVersusGame yeah my folks just really don’t get it about gaming either. I think they think I’m an idiot to still be so into gaming at almost 50 but what you gonna do, we all have our hobbies… my mother and father too, I just don’t see the need to judge.

Thankfully, the missus does get it and often explains that she’d love to be good enough to play the games I play. I explain that she’d be fine if she actually give it a proper try but she just doesn’t have the confidence. She is playing Skyrim for the second time on Switch atm though and absolutely loving it. I just bought Tainted Grail for her in the hope that she’ll get into gaming on the PS5 more (as I essentially gave her my base PS5 when I bought a Pro).

@Ravix So am I right in thinking that you attach the steelbooks to the wall using magnets? If so, no I hadn’t thought about that tbh. I do like the idea though. The only thing that would concern me though would be the weight on the plasterboard… unless the magnets are attached to the wall behind the plasterboard that is?

@GirlVersusGame I think the day one version includes the steelbook anyway (you'll have to check, but I'm pretty sure that is what it was listed as). It surprised quite a few people as they got this added extra that they didn't know about. Net positive for all involved 😄 I like both, but yes, there's something about the side with the lizard that is extra cool. If you notice they are drawing their blood for a blood letting ritual, and the peasants are almost drunk on their subservience. There is a lot of religious messaging and twisting of classic religious stories in the game, which I'm sure you will appreciate, too.

GTA day, I still don't know. I'm probably going to take it slow, I had a lot of ideas and was going to write them down like you did, but I think I decided I will just take it as it comes and ease into whatever the game puts in front of me at that moment. As soon as we get full control and we aren't being pushed from moment to moment I will just see how I feel and where we are at with the characters.

I definitely want to do a lot of urban photography and NPC study, for sure. Maybe use Lucia for that. I definitely want to get into deep vehicle customisation for each kind of story gated budget or whatever, and Jason seems like he likes polishing boats and might be a car nerd. But if we don't have a lot of resources, then we will just make an affordable car our own little pride and joy until we increase our budget. I want to treat the cars with respect and love like the horses from RDR2. They are our key to freedom, protection and exploration and must be cared for. I don't want to just be boosting cars non-stop, unless it is an emergency. I will try to lean into more victimless crimes, or at least try to keep it so I'm not just being a psycho rampage machine (unless I've made a hard save and want to just experiment for a while, like in RDR2 where Marston went on a massive crime spree and it was probably the most fun I had doing random stuff with no boundaries 😅 but it is not canon, it was just a bad dream he had, honest.

Also: greet, greet, antagonise. I want to see if that is still here as a system and if they advanced that in any way.

And yeah, the rest will be exploration and creating my own moments away from the story. Maybe seeing how the relationship dynamic is affected by different things, that seems interesting to have as a game mechanic and more towards an RPG style.

And your suggestion earlier in the thread that I'd use any photo opportunities to be crude or rude in such an explicit way, well, I just don't know where that idea could ever come from. Shame on you 😛 okay, I will lean into creating weird humourous stories through photos at times, but I'm not just going to find nude people and snap them bent over or something, I like to do things for art and humour, and in a more subtle way 😄

Think back to my Cyberpunk Grubby Urban Male Model shots if you ever saw them. I felt like in the world of Cyberpunk they would have a webzine/magazine in the style of Trashbat.co.ck/SugarApe (Nathan Barley) and so my V starred in some weird photoshoots 😅 as well as some regular urban landscape stuff

In games like The Witcher and Ghost Of Etc it is all about environments and NPCs. KCD a mix of that and some random humourous stuff as Henry is a silly lad.

GTA photos will probably be a mix of everything. Urban environments, big landscapes, cars, weapons, some macro stuff, characters, wildlife, NPCs, and humourous stuff. I can't wait to see how they approach it. RDR2 had a pretty nice photo mode and I got some really nice character stuff from that one.

I managed a pretty decent gaming session last night, so my body is ready for gaming again. It had been a while but I imagine I'll play GTA story in smaller chunks, but do everything else when I want to chill for a decent amount of time and mix it up doing all kinds of things. Or maybe the other way around 😅

@Ravix We're gonna have a "attend the wedding" situation in GTA6 aren't we... 💀

@Oram77 120 hours in and I've only made $670,000,000, got 23 sweet rides, 3 boats, 12 customised golden guns, taken over ownership of the city zoo, taken down the local gangbangers and actually married Lucia - am I ready to rob the grocery store yet? 💀

@Ravix I have to properly reply in time but this part has me very curious.

Think back to my Cyberpunk Grubby Urban Male Model shots if you ever saw them. I felt like in the world of Cyberpunk they would have a webzine/magazine in the style of Trashbat.co.ck/SugarApe (Nathan Barley) and so my V starred in some weird photoshoots 😅 as well as some regular urban landscape stuff

• Is there a link?

ah yeah! the clock has started. i just cant wait

@Ravix Boobie is still waiting for that pick up:

@psmr Interestingly my brother-in-law asked a similar question last week, I think he had seen some report about how many hours kids play games.
It is just another past time, how many hours does your mum watch soaps? (Big assumption there on my part but you get the point).

I hope you both like Tainted Grail, it does look awesome.
Right, I’ve got to go Celebrity in the Jungle is about to start.

@CaptD yeah for sure, my mum probably triples my weekly gaming time but with knitting and my old man won’t even consider getting out of bed until he’s watched at least two Westerns. Do I care? Hell no… whatever makes them happy. But I have the temerity to suggest they watch the GTAVI extended look on Netflix and they pull a face like I just released my bowels 🤣

Did anyone else find themselves sneakily wishing the Microsoft outage happened a week later? I was working from home yesterday with very little to do....

already an update, i wonder why

@Skarasny Just checked and it said I was up-to-date 🤔
File size is at 210.1GB

@Oram77 version 1002.000, 209,9gb

Just preordered the game and downloaded it. Only took an hour to download 200 GB, pretty nice!

Also got my time off granted yesterday so I'll be off work 19 - 24 November. It's gonna be pretty sweet to have almost a week to enjoy and immerse myself in the game.

Still can't believe it's been 13 years since GTA V came out. I still remember buying the game when it came out, which was during my high school years. Played it nonstop for months and I kept playing it when GTA Online came out. Not sure if I'll be playing GTA online this time as I've stopped playing games online, but nevertheless, I have an entire single-player experience to enjoy.

I just hope to god they haven't made the game too realistic like they did with Red Dead 2. I don't want to have to stop at red lights, have my car run out of gas and so on. I want to play a video game, not real life.

@Skarasny Just saw your comment so I switched on my PS5 and mine updated as well (1.073GB). I suppose the more they can polish before launch day the better, maybe feedback from reviewers gave them something they wanted to tweak.

If anyone was wondering what you get with the Ultimate Edition and what they look like in game, here you go.

And yeah the game update for me too the other day.

@LtSarge

I just hope to god they haven't made the game too realistic like they did with Red Dead 2. I don't want to have to stop at red lights, have my car run out of gas and so on. I want to play a video game, not real life

Ok there's no easy way of saying this but they have used RDR2 for a lot of foundations for this game. You will have to refill cars (which doesn't thrill me either), you can only carry two weapons with you - the stash others in the boot of your car (think saddle bag system). The hunger gauge is there... but the gym mechanic from SA is back which is really cool!

Basically R* have said they want to make the ultimate life-sim adjacent game ever, and I think from what we played in RDR2 we're in for a treat.

@Oram77 I suspected as much, but it remains to be seen how it will all work in practice. In RDR2, I eventually got used to all of that and the game was a sublime experience. Would I have preferred those mechanics to not be in the game? Absolutely. But I managed to enjoy the game nonetheless.

The thing is that GTA is a more mainstream franchise than Red Dead. Implementing too many realistic mechanics in a series like that will give rise to much more backlash from the fans. Imagine someone who rarely plays video games who picks this up and is constantly hindered by annoying mechanics. It would bring much more negative attention to the game compared to RDR2.

From what you've said though, it doesn't sound too bad yet. I do want to experience everything for myself and form my own opinion of these mechanics, so I'm not going to read more about the game.