We don’t know much about Grand Theft Auto V, but that’s about to change. Rockstar Games’ promotional campaign for the spring 2013 release kicks off with the latest Game Informer cover.

The big news: GTA V will feature three main characters, a first for the series. Color me disappointed Rockstar Games continues to focus exclusively on male protagonists, but given how much better the downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV was (focused, efficient storytelling), I'm already way more interested than I was a few minutes ago.

We don’t know much about Grand Theft Auto V, but that’s about to change. Rockstar Games’ promotional campaign for the spring 2013 release kicks off with the latest Game Informer cover.

The big news: GTA V will feature three main characters, a first for the series. Color me disappointed Rockstar Games continues to focus exclusively on male protagonists, but given how much better the downloadable content for Grand Theft Auto IV was (focused, efficient storytelling), I'm already way more interested than I was a few minutes ago.

the guy on the left scares me

Could prove to be interesting. I still need to complete the last one plus the DLC but am looking forward to this one.

I expected that.

how about a woman main character?!

@Thoseposers said:

the guy on the left scares me

This was my first thought, too.

Edit: Wait, is that Claude?

I've definitely always wanted a multi protagonist GTA story.

@mike28212 said:

Could prove to be interesting. I still need to complete the first game plus the DLC but am looking forward to this one.

You can probably skip the expansion for the 1969 expansion.

Or by first game do you mean 4th game?

And all three will be unlikable cunts who have no consistency between their character motivations and their actions.

Because, y'know, Rockstar are such brilliant writers....

Oh my god, it's totally Claude, CJ and Tommy!

Nah.

WE GET IT, the DLC is better. Why do you have to say it every few seconds.

@cocowawa said:

how about a woman main character?!

But then who would play the hookers and girlfriend characters... gosh... lol

Finally. No more 50 hours of the same lame character doing random things. Maybe they can actually weave an interesting story with more plot threads.

Honestly the story in both L&D and TBoGT was also a little hit and miss at times, too. Characters like Johnny's girlfriend, Terry and Clay, and Luis' mum were all left at the sidelines. I still really enjoyed the narratives (especially the L&D; TBoGT was a bit disappointing, though), but overall even with all of the padding in the middle, Niko's story I found to be the best.

Still really glad to hear about multiple protagonists! Best part of GTAIV as a whole was watching each of the stories connect and influence each other; playing through the L&D in particular was harrowing when you realise just how much shit Niko's actions pour over the gang.

For as generic as he may look, I'm especially excited to follow the guy on the right. He looks very Michael Mann-ish in his design. I wonder if the game switches between each one once their story's completed, or if you can select which one to play first.

Rockstar is just putting an end to 3 great GTA stories!

@ILikePopCans: Man, every few seconds would be pretty rough. You'd be all having a nice dinner with a pal and there's Patrick's face rushing through your pasta, all whispering "Better in chuuuuuuunks."

@rebgav said:

@cocowawa said:

how about a woman main character?!

Given Rockstar's preference for vapid machismo do you really, really want to see them tackle a female lead in a GTA game?

I was also going to cry foul but maybe you have a point

but hell they could just make a catalina clone and be done

If they do have a female protagonist in future I hope her hair is black because I hate all other hair colors.

A female protagonist in a Rockstar game would be interesting, I agree. They know how to write characters and I think I've seen the rough-neck male a few too many times.

Nice to see we get some diversity. I hope it plays like The Lost Vikings.

@forkboy: ha, yes I meant the fourth one.

All these guys looks mad.

All of them are looking to get out of bad business. All of them will be doing bad business throughout the game. At the end, all three of them will be trying to kill each other, all of them will die.

I just wrote Gta V

If that was Claude CJ and Tommy, I would be totally psyched. Now that someone ruined my expectations because they aren't, I know I will still love this game.

I don't know why people miss Tommy and Claude, they barely had any personality. CJ did but his arch is over so I donno where they would go from there.

Bummer 3 chances and no female protagonist :(

Rockstar is allergic to women.

What's up with that assault rifle? the muzzle's chopped off at the front sight, am I missing something or is the cover art? 

I think Rockstar is trying to say that women don't make good,convincing guns-for-hire.

I'm so fucking pumped for this I could just rip out my own intestines and run down my street yelling "AND I RAN, I RAN SO FAR AWAY".

@PhilESkyline said:

Rockstar is just putting an end to 3 great GTA stories!

man if this was true, i'd lose my proverbial shit.

@PhilESkyline said:

Rockstar is just putting an end to 3 great GTA stories!

You may be on to something...

@Animasta said:

I don't know why people miss Tommy and Claude, they barely had any personality. CJ did but his arch is over so I donno where they would go from there.

Claude was obviously just a shell for the player and not even a character (though his cameo in San Andreas was still pretty funny), but Tommy had plenty of personality.

Yeah, would have been cool with a lady in the mix. That said, a hillbilly looking gross dude, a black guy, and a older man, is still pretty different from what most developers do. None of them is a 25-35 white guy with brown hair. (Ok maybe that guy to the left is just that....)

@GNitro said:

@cocowawa said:

how about a woman main character?!

But then who would play the hookers and girlfriend characters... gosh... lol

She could be bi. I mean I played as female characters in Saints Row 2 and 3. Kinda makes some of the talks with female NPCs have a whole different tone.

@PhilESkyline said:

Rockstar is just putting an end to 3 great GTA stories!

Cool, but it can't be right. Tommy would have to be way older than CJ or the GTA 3 guy (Claude)?

I'm disappointed too about the lack of a female protagonist - I wouldn't have been since I wasn't expecting it but seeing they now have 3 new protagonists and none of them female, I give three times less fucks about this game.

Dude yea how about a Female main character, ever think of that one rockstar?

Rockstar is just putting an end to 3 great GTA stories!

@Metal_Mills said:

@PhilESkyline said:

Rockstar is just putting an end to 3 great GTA stories!

Fuuuuck. That would be AWESOME.

Holy. Fucking. Shit. That really would be brilliant.

Pfft where did this "No female character?!!" thing came from? as in having one could change anything other than giving videogame website writters more things to complain about female leads.

Awesome news. If it was CJ, Claude and Tommy, I think everyone would explode in excitement.

@Victor018 said:

Didn't they say that all the previous main characters were dead when GTA IV was released?

Yeah, and GTAIV (and by extension GTAV I assume) is supposed to take place in a separate universe from the PS2 games, hence why there were literally no characters from the previous games who appeared in GTAIV.

EDIT: Discounting Lazlow maybe.

I feel like if anyone's going to write a strong well realized female character for a game lead role Rockstar could pull it off. Oh well maybe this just means 6 will have one for an entire game. What I care more about though is how well this one plays, all the gta's have been progressively less janky but 4 was still pretty far behind with a lot of its gameplay elements tho I am sure Rockstar has learned a lot since 2008.

@PhilESkyline said:

Rockstar is just putting an end to 3 great GTA stories!

Too perfect.

My guess is they're basically addressing the 'Niko Bellic is an ok guy who occasionally goes on bloody rampages' dissonance thing by giving you one character who's more or less psychotic, and who can go on killing sprees without 'breaking character', and allowing the others to fill the more empathetic (sympathetic?) roles in the story.

Sounds great to me. I thought GTAIV got really fucking boring, and I never finished the main story line for niko. But I loved the DLC for it, I thought the shorter stories were great.

This is strictly not a first for the series, as Grand Theft Auto had eight protagonists.

@MarkWahlberg said:

My guess is they're basically addressing the 'Niko Bellic is an ok guy who occasionally goes on bloody rampages' dissonance thing by giving you one character who's more or less psychotic, and who can go on killing sprees without 'breaking character', and allowing the others to fill the more empathetic roles in the story.

CJ is the legit empathetic one, Tommy is the psychotic character you unlock achievements with and Claude is killed in the first ten minutes of the game (being CJ's impetus for getting out of the biz).

GOTY? GOTY.

I smell interweaving plots!