Completely false. a) Microsoft doesn't wait until days after launch to ban people. b) They aren't going to ban anybody at this point.

IIRC, somebody here was wondering about the mini-map and GPS awhile back. You do have the option to turn off the GPS. You can also turn off the mini-map altogether.

^^That's awesome. I'm going to get lost on purpose and spend days in this game.

wat.

I still have GTA 3, VC and SA installed on my PC which i play occasionally. When I had them on PS2, i'd play them a lot after completing the games too.

This is genius. I'm totally doing this.

And come to think of it. This is probably the last xbox 360 game I'm ever going to buy. Kind of sad but awesome at the same time. Good game to extend the life of this generation.

I worked for Xbox for three years. I knew people on the PET team. For things such as early access of a game, bans are handed down on the normal ban schedule and at the console level in most cases (console ban instead of account ban) those types of bans are normally issued on a grand scale 1-2 times a month, not neccesarily immediately after the offense occurs. Trust me, they did it with Halo 4 and COD:BO. There will be significant bans because of early access of this game.

I formatted one of my hard drives for the install, used a new offline profile, gonna uninstall before tues and then reinstall. Think I'll be ok?

lol

Yes. So long as you dont connect to live while playing you are good. Xbox considers playing a game before release to be a pirated version. Hence why they drop the hammer on the console, as it has to be modified to play pirated games

Cool, think I need to uninstall again? Only asking cos I've heard stuff about a day one patch, and the console will know when the game was installed and catch people that way

They did it with those two games because they leaked a month or so early. And the bans were handed out shortly after people began playing them, not after release. Every game leaks at least a few days early and every game is played online at least a few days early without bans.

I don't know when you worked for Microsoft but things have changed. They gave up on dashboard update ban waves, for example, like two years ago after C4EVA conquered XGD3. I know people who play tons of games early all the time.

People who pirated GTA V and have their tags on piracy forums are being banned right now. If they still catch you being stupid, yeah, you'll get banned, but there is no waiting period. And there definitely is no ban coming for those with legit copies. People have received shipments from Amazon already, for chrissakes.

For those that have it, does the map-screen "un-shade" like it did in SA? Or is it just all there with nothing like that at all? I ask because I dug that aspect in SA so I would know if I'd been to a certain area or not.

Might have to wait until mid-October to play, so I'm thinking I should just suck it up and wait until the PS4 comes out.

It's safe to assume that the game will run better and be able to be set to a much higher graphics setting with the newer systems? Are there a ton of bugs that make it smarter to wait a couple of months to get the new systems? If so, I'll just snag a PS3 now and stash it till I can play it.

I'm still betting that Las Venturas and San Fiero come out as DLC's. Goddamn I hope so.

Right amazon shipments and all retailers who ship early have to include language on the packaging saying that the game cannot be played before launch. I left xbox about 4 months ago. Spoke to people banned three weeks after a launch because of early access. It happens

Again. Do what you will, but dont guarantee people they wont be banned. It can certainly happen. Just dont play while xonnected to live. There is no reason to do so at this point

That is true.

Also:

Yeah you do, I've uncovered most of los santos and a thin strip round the edge from a leisurely coastal cruise, which took a good while btw

Hope mine gets delivered tomorow. Literally can't wait for this beast now!

People that appear to have it, is it as sick as expected?

heater,

does that gif show the player dying when the crash occurs?

i saw another gif where the player rode a sanchez off of mt chiliad and the same thing occured, looks like its easy to die

Yeah it really is.

Graphics are top notch, draw distance is unbelievable, played all day and only noticed pop in once, and that was window textures on a far off skyscraper. No slow down at all so far, and there's a hell of a lot on screen sometimes. Sound is amazing, from the soundtrack to the voice acting, even the ambient noise is just perfect.
Game does a good job of going through the tutorials but keeping it fun. Police don't f*** about in LS, two stars and they're all over you, but the new system is great, no longer can you just outrun them in a straight line, their cruisers are damn quick, but you can shake them and hide. Makes for some tense moments while you see them searching around right by you.
Not too sure about the driving, its great at high speed but cars are quite twitchy, def no more understeering like in IV. I found Michael easier to control a car than Franklin tbh, felt more like driving in IV using him. Suppose I'll get used to it tho, its not as bad as I feared it would be. Had a few lol and wtf moments, but I don't wanna spoil them for ya

Oh and strip clubs are great, got thrown out straight away lol

this sounds pretty amazing, care to elaborate? you can pm me if you dont want to spoil

No. I've crashed cars into tons of stuff and haven't died unless they explode.

Really? I died after going through the windscreen, but think the cops had already softened me up tbf.

Edit: died once after driving off an overpass and landing on the roof too come to think of it

One more great touch is there's no more loading screens for missions, just go to the marker and it smoothly goes straight into cutscene. No more "come back at x o clock" either, game time advances to required time of day. Man I could go on about this game all night

going to be pretty tilted if my copy isnt dispatched tomorrow. I've already come to terms that i'm looking at it arriving on Wednesday most likely. Glad i preordered to ensure release day playing time!!

Sweet, was fancying with all the hype surrounding it, it may not have lived up to expectations but sounds all good then!