So as many of you know, unless you live under a rock, literally, that GTA V's trailer will be hitting on November 2nd, 2011. Despite my many problems with Grand Theft Auto IV, I can't help but be excited beyond containment about a new GTA. I've fallen in love with the GTA series since it's debut on the pc way back when, and it's one of those rare games that I actually still own every single game in the series. 2008's GTA IV was a massive disappointment for me, as I felt that they stripped out a lot of what was fun about the series in exchange for putting down a more serious tone. In many ways, Saint's Row 2 revitalized a lot of what I love about the Grand Theft Auto series. The only downfall there is that I feel Saint's Row 3 is going to be just a bit too over-the-top. However, I present the five things that need to be addressed or changed to make GTA V a true successor to it's predecessors.

5. Bring back some hilarity to balance out the serious tone. One of the biggest things that bothered me about Grand Theft Auto IV was the insanely serious tone 90% of the time. The tone was so serious in IV that anytime a joke was cracked or something was played off as being funny it came out of no where and misfired. The DLC tried to add humor and at times it was funny, but at times it was just completely distasteful (digital penis anyone?). But bring back the crazy things, like jetpacks and bizarre weapons.

4. Bring back some of the fun arcade elements like Rampages. There were always some pretty cool side-mission things in the earlier GTA's, that fell off on the wayside with IV. I'd love to see Rampages and some of the other cool side-missions you can discover to bring a nice distraction to the series, not to mention something more fun to do then simply run around and shoot pigeons as a collectible. Those "hidden package" pigeons really sucked.

3. Don't focus so much on a multiplayer aspect. I'd rather see the development team spend more time on making a great single-player campaign then dump there time into a throw away mutliplayer component. Grand Theft Auto IV's multiplayer was a joke. Let's be honest. And in a world where only games like Halo and Call of Duty are really played competitively online, lets stop while we are ahead. I'm all ok with a freemode, but that's about it. Unless Rockstar can blow my mind and make a decent multiplayer like Red Dead Redemption, but I doubt that's the case here.

2. Fix the driving! Anyone who claimed that GTA IV's driving mechanic was the best, they were simply drunk or just flat out stupid. I shouldn't hop in a car and feel like I'm driving on a thin sheet of ice at all times. That would make sense with it raining or snowing in the game, but not when it's Sunny outside. Seriously, the driving in IV was abysmal to say the least. It was so awful I never finished the races for Brucie. Saint's Row has a nice driving mechanic, I hope that Rockstar has been paying attention to them.

And the number one thing?

1. DON'T BE LIKE GRAND THEFT AUTO IV! Honestly, it's time to move on Rockstar. You had your fun making a serious entry into a series that has never been serious or never was meant to be, but it's time to move on. Grand Theft Auto IV was never a perfect game, it always felt like an 8/10 in my opinion, but Rockstar has had a nice break between games and really came into their own with Red Dead Redemption, a game that I still think is that studio's masterpiece. I'd love to see them climb back to the top with Grand Theft Auto V. I really hope they do a new location too. Revisiting Liberty City was a nice change of pace, but it's time to do something unique and cool. And bring back the MASSIVE world style that was in San Andreas, because that was awesome. Overall though Rockstar, just don't be anything like GTA IV.