Games

Back in the 1980s, when I started gaming, it took a few people perhaps a few weeks to make a good game. Even the mighty Elite - the first proper 3D game and arguably the first proper open-world game - took two guys a few months to put together. A few years later, during the 16-bit era of the Commodore Amiga, SNES and Megadrive (Genesis for you American types), this had increased to teams of a dozen or so taking a few months to a year, tops, to put together a game. The gaming industry was in the good health, with the biggest mega-hits making tens of millions of dollars but even a game selling just a few thousand copies could still turn a profit. How times have changed. Today, it takes teams of several dozen people anything from two to six years to make a game, with budgets in the tens of millions of dollars. Dozens of game development studios have closed over the course of the last generation of gaming (which began in 2005 with the release of the X-Box 360), in many cases despite selli...

Rockstar have revealed three more screenshots from Grand Theft Auto V . It looks like push-bikes will be back in the game. Along with, unsurprisingly, cars. This is the GTA5 version of perennial series favourite, the Cheeta. The 'San Andreas' plates have gotten the Internet worked up, before it was pointed out that Los Santos is still in San Andreas State and would still have San Andreas plates, regardless of how much of the state actually appears in the game. Also, jet fighters laden with missiles. Something tells me that GTA5 is easing off on its predecessor's slightly more realistic take and might be headed back to the wackiness of San Andreas . Rockstar have also said they will be releasing more pictures later this week, along with a new trailer in the near future. However, they have still not mooted a possible release date for the game (though May 2013 is widely speculated).

Rockstar have released a tiny amount of additional information on the upcoming Grand Theft Auto V . They have released two screenshots. The one above is the more interesting, depicting the sprawling city of Los Santos (apparently the biggest city in a GTA game to date) from what appears to be a commandeered police helicopter. Does the presence of large suspension bridge hint that GTA5's version of Los Santos will be more of an amalgamation of Los Angeles and San Francisco? Possibly. The other screenshot is rather more chilled out: A release date for GTA5 has not yet been mooted. However, Rockstar are adamant that they're not going to talk about the game too much in the near future. This to me suggests that a 2012 release date is now impossible (compare the amount of attention that Dishonored , not due until October, is now getting in the gaming press) and we will most likely see the game in May 2013. The spring is a more favoured date for Rockstar and is perfectly situated so...