![]() ![]() The franchise is still relentlessly cynical about the American experience - the college freshman worldview has plagued the series since 2001 - but Grand Theft Auto 5 is mercifully more lighthearted than its predecessors, and even occasionally vulnerable, thanks in large part to its broader stable of characters. The hodgepodge of locales also has allowed Rockstar to lampoon a larger swath of Americans than the cosmopolitans who typically live at the center of the Grand Theft Auto stories. It offers a bottomless checklist of things to do, such as jet-skiing, off-road racing, bank-heisting, waterboarding, tennis playing, shopping, car upgrading, weapon modifying, flight schooling, train stealing and star touring, to name just a few. For the latter in particular, Grand Theft Auto 5 is the video game equivalent of an all-inclusive tour package. The geographic and demographic scope of San Andreas resolves a number of the series' oldest and most repeated problems, namely a too-tight focus on lampooning city stereotypes and a lack of interesting things to do (the series has never been in short supply when it comes to meaningless junk). Unlike Grand Theft Auto 4, which took place in the claustrophobic corridor of Liberty City high-rises, Grand Theft Auto 5 sprawls across a broad set of counties, mimicking Los Angeles, its suburbs, the Nevada desert, upstate California and dozens of miles of underwater Pacific coast, each hiding behind a cheeky pseudonym - Los Angeles is now Los Santos, for example. The fictional sun-bleached state of San Andreas is a technical achievement, a farewell kiss to this generation of consoles and the millions who own them. ![]() Grand Theft Auto 5's stupendously large setting surpasses the game's well-drawn lead characters and brilliantly planned heists, and overcomes the script's snarky cynicism and spotty sexism. ![]()
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