This really is the best game I have ever played!
Yes! This is now my favorite game of all time! Note that before playing this my all-time favorite was GTA San Andreas so there's some bias when it comes to me and the Grand Theft Auto series.
This game is absolutely incredible. It does everything so good, including the little details.
The driving was revamped. I would describe it's feel as a combination of GTA San Andreas' driving and GTA IV's driving. You can get so much speed and steel feel and be in control of your car without it looking oddly unrealistic. You can take down most fences. All this leading to a driving experience where you don't feel crashing is due to the unfairness of the game. Also, one of the protagonists' special ability is slowing down time and giving you extra turn precision while driving.
Shooting is the expected cover-based lock-on stuff. Weapons are now customizable in both looks and performance. The most important change when it comes to shooting is the fact that you can now carry any weapon, including multiple weapons of the same type (eg.: you can carry both an AK-47 and an M4). Also the game slows down when switching weapons.
Even walking around seems great in this game! There's always somebody doing something, people needing your help, cops chasing crooks around town. Random encounters are everywhere, I often set my waypoint someplace only to stop several times on the way there to interact with people. For example, this one guy was tied to a pole in his underwear after his bachelor party who needed to be driven home, and then to the church where you get to encounter his angry future-wife. You can even stumble upon characters from previous GTAs that could actually help you in story missions.
The details are amazing. For example, every mayhem you cause is reported on the news, be it radio news or internet websites. Also, most characters have a Lifeinvader page (Rockstar's parody of Facebook) where you can see their friends, likes and posts. When it comes to friends, you'll never receive frequent calls being asked to go bowl, but you can always call friends to hang out (even 2 friends at a time). They'll always have an interesting new conversation based on what's been going on in the story until that point.
Telling the story from the perspective of three protagonists that you can switch to whenever you please works incredibly well and is not at all as chaotic as it may sound.
To conclude, this game is simply amazing! Play it!
