Day 2 of IGN's Grand Theft Auto V is huge: an Interview with Leslie Benzies, Rockstar's "rockstar" producer, a look at the three protatonists you'll be commanding next year, and two new screenshots.

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Interview with Leslie Benzies

“We do have a bunch of missions in GTA V that are far more freeform than anything we have done before,”

“We tell you to go get something and the player decides how to do it - what characters they need on the job and what tools they need for those characters.”

“In particular missions, characters will perform certain roles. A player who hangs back and plays as a sniper for an entire mission will have a very different experience to a player who stays close to the action or to a player who switches between them on the fly.”

“[Having] the three playable characters, all living in very different parts of the world, and a world that's completely open to the player from the beginning really becomes an advantage. While the character switching helps keep the missions exciting and fresh, being able to switch between playable characters while off mission makes it a lot easier for the players to explore, especially when combined with the dynamic events system that was used to populate the wide open spaces of Red Dead Redemption.”

 “One character might have an ambient activity that takes them out in to the countryside; if the player decides that they want to do something different they can switch to another character and be back in the city ready to start their next mission,”

“All vehicles will be present in the world from the start of the game, but they won't all be driving through the city waiting to be stolen. If the player wants to get their hands on one of the more ‘high end’ vehicles early in the game they'll have to work for it. For instance, airport security won't let you just wander in and steal a jet, they'll give you some serious opposition.”

“Weapons are slightly different since we have to find a balance between giving the player freedom and giving them a challenge. Letting players have any weapon they want, whenever they want it, would make earlier missions less of a challenge and less satisfying. That being said, as the player makes progress through the game they will build up a satisfying arsenal.”

Our New Best Friends

"One of the advantages of the three-character system is you can have characters who, if they were the only protagonist, would be far too flawed for you to find appealing. With other equally flawed protagonists, but flawed in different ways, I think it gets more understandable. His flaws are certainly his large ego, an inability to control his temper, and his willingness to make large moral compromises. To me, that's a very interesting character. A guy who's in his mid-40s and on the cusp of middle age who doesn't know what to do, but made a bunch of money and does not know what to do with it. He's theoretically won, but the spoils of victory aren't necessarily what he imagined. For us that's a very interesting character, unlike what we've done in the past or what we've seen in much entertainment in general, let alone any video games. That was interesting."

Michael

"He's the person who is trying to ignore some rather large mistakes that they have made. The person who's trying to forget about certain practical but still selfish decisions that they took. He's a man, also, obsessed by images and by appearances and who, when the world doesn't live up to those images and appearances, doesn't know what to do. He just retreats into his head. "

• First character Rockstar came up with.
• Began as the idea of "what happens when a GTA protagonist retires?"

Trevor

"He's the person who's driven purely by desire, resentment, no thought for tomorrow whatsoever, completely id rather than ego-driven. Constant partying, constant madness. The only thing he doesn't want to do is stop. He wants to keep going and ride it all to the end. Won't take an insult from anybody. Kills without remorse, like a true psychopath, but very sentimental for the right reasons when it suits him."

• Unlike any GTA protagonist we've seen before.
• Unhinged and untrusting.

Franklin

"The idea with Franklin was someone stepping outside their comfort zone and their normal way of doing things. That world that they thought they'd be in and be able to make a success of has, thanks to the modern world or the changes in the economy, just failed. It doesn't really exist. They're now looking for something new. A new opportunity. They've gotten their qualifications and gotten all their experience and all they're good at is driving and robbing. How do actually go forward and who do you get to a kind of mentor you? That was a good contrast. The gang-banger in the post-gang-banging world."

• More traditional GTA protagonist - ex-street gangster looking for new opportunities.
• Befriended Michael after doing a job together and now Michael sees him as “the son he never had.”

New Screenshots