Grand Theft Auto 5 to get midnight launch event on September 16

Rockstar’s Indian game distributor, e-xpress Interactive, has announced that the upcoming open-world epic Grand Theft Auto 5 will be getting a midnight launch event. The event will start on September 16 at 11:59 pm. Players can go grab their copies at Games The Shop outlets all over Mumbai and in Thane. The midnight launch will also be taking place at Landmark Stores in Inorbit Mall Vashi and SGS Mall Pune.

If you can’t wait to get your GTA fix, you can check out the Launch Trailer which Rockstar had released back in August. The video shows off the game’s story, which involves Michael’s moving out of retirement to join Franklin and Trevor in causing complete mayhem in Los Santos. Interestingly, there’s no mention of GTA Online. This isn’t surprising, however, since GTA Online won’t be live till October—several weeks after the September 17 release date of the main game.

The game’s radio stations will include quite an impressive collection of music that will span a wide variety of genres. Some of the artists making appearances in GTA 5’s radios include Queen, Def Leppard, Muse, Rihanna, Britney Spears, Snoop Dogg, Pulp, Black Flag, Aphex Twin, The Circle Jerks and Outkast.

Earlier videos released by Rockstar showed off the ability able to switch the main characters on the fly. While you play and roam around the city as one of the characters, the others will be living their own lives. You can switch to these other characters and continue their activities at any moment. As the lady in the trailer describes it, you can indulge in some voyeurism.

There also seems to be some improvement in the core gameplay itself—driving and shooting. The ability to change guns seems too have been changed to use a radial menu instead of the traditional ‘switch weapons one-by-one’ system of the earlier games. Driving also seems to be much more fast and fluid, with less emphasis on realism.

GTA 5 will also have some great variety in its game world, with everything ranging from the city to the country side, urban decay to untouched natural scenery. Needless to say, there will also be some new side-activities. These include playing tennis, taking part in bicycle races, skydiving, or even hunting (both bounty and animals).