GTA Online Character Creation Makes You Look Like Your Parents

[Cognimancer]

GTA Online Character Creation Makes You Look Like Your Parents


Grand Theft Auto Online avatars will have custom lifestyles and family trees, so you can really get into character while robbing banks and shooting helicopters.

The gaming world is abuzz over Grand Theft Auto V, but don't let Grand Theft Auto Online slip off your radar. GTAO (which is bundled with all copies of vGTA V) is shaping up to be a pseudo-MMO with enough content to rival the single-player game. Rockstar recently spilled the beans on a few of its features, some of which have been bouncing around since Grand Theft Auto III.

From the start, Rockstar wanted to challenge the status quo. "I've always felt character creators in games to be a bit wacky - pulling the ears and noses to change the way they look seems wrong," says Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies. "That's not how humans are made in the real world. Normally it involves a man, a woman, and some sexy time." That sexy time is the foundation of your online avatar - instead of breaking down the minutia of your character's appearance, you'll select your parents and grandparents and see what happens. After that, you select a lifestyle (party animal, couch potato, etc) to determine your starting skills.

The gameplay structure of GTAO is looking interesting as well. Some 500 missions are available, many requiring a team of players to complete. Your crew can take on designated roles like sniper, look-out, and driver to pull a big heist, and then the crew leader can decide how to distribute the loot. Of course this also means your crew leader can take all the money and leave you hanging, but in that case you can take revenge (players drop any cash they were carrying upon death) or put a bounty on their head to encourage other players to take them down.

Grand Theft Auto Online goes live on October 1, two weeks after the launch of GTA V.

Source: CVG [http://www.gameinformer.com/b/news/archive/2013/09/10/october-cover-reveal-call-of-duty-ghosts.aspx]

Check out Escapist News Now on the GTA character creation system:

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[Compatriot Block]

I feel inexplicably excited about the choosing your lineage feature.

 

[Remus]

While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

 

[Voulan]

Well that's...unexpected. How much do you control it, though? Do you select from a range of predetermined parents and go from there? Or do I have to spend even more hours on customizing up to four different characters to then get my actual character?

I'm all for it, though. It's a nice change of pace.

 

[FloodOne]

While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

That's... not how kids work. Me and my brother have the same parents, and while we definitely look like brothers, we are not twins.

 

[Bat Vader]

Besides MMORPGs GTA Online may be the first MP mode in a game that I actually enjoy. I heard that there is a passive option so that other players can't kill me and that I can decide whom I want to let into my game world.

 

[J Tyran]

Hmm I wonder if you choose the parents and then have a "Hot Coffee" style QTE to make the baby, the players vigor, stamina and technique could alter the variables maybe? Do a good job and get higher base starting stats or something similar.

 

[pearcinator]

Now I need to see pics of Mila Kunis's parents and grandparents so I can make the best look-alike...

 

[mad825]

Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

 

[Icehearted]

As long as the online dickery of GTTA4 and RDR are being curbed here, this could be one of the best online experiences ever.

Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

Pretty sure this is more of a separate feature, and it's not even going to be implemented right away, and it will be updated regularly. I'm sure the single player game will be as big as ever.

If anything this is more of just a free, carefully thought out add-on than the foundation of the game itself.

 

[UrinalDook]

Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

...Nnooo.

GTAO is a completely separate thing that Rockstar plan to maintain alongside future releases. It comes bundled in with GTAV (and this very article literally says that in the third sentence). Seriously, that's been the biggest buzz about the new GTA since Rockstar released separate trailers so they could detail both the massive single player, and this additional, awesome looking multiplayer feature.

OT: Meh. I've never seen anything wrong with character creators being an obvious element of gameplay so one actually gets to decide how the character they'll be staring at for the next 20+ hours of gameplay looks. I don't feel a need to make that 'realistic' or the process itself 'immersive'. While I'm not going to judge this before I see it (maybe there will be enough choices of parents to get the look you want), it does still feel like it'll be more limited than a straight up character creator, and it's hardly the feature getting me most excited about GTAO.

Still, it'll at least be an improvement on the shitty generic character roster available for GTAIV multiplayer.

Any word yet on whether we'll be able to have female characters in GTAO?

 

[Adam Jensen_v1legacy]

Honestly, that sounds like just a clever way to disguise the limitations of character creator.

 

[FogHornG36]

sounds like the sims, but should be cool, hopefully we have a little more control then just a random generation based on two other characters... or i might end up hiting the re-roll button a few hundred times

 

[mad825]

Let me guess, GTAV is multiplayer orientated? single player designed for multiplayer? Fuck this game.

...Nnooo.

GTAO is a completely separate thing that Rockstar plan to maintain alongside future releases. It comes bundled in with GTAV (and this very article literally says that in the third sentence). Seriously, that's been the biggest buzz about the new GTA since Rockstar released separate trailers so they could detail both the massive single player, and this additional, awesome looking multiplayer feature.

Yes, the game being "bundled" means that it's a completely different game and you're getting more than you pay for :| a marketing ploy if you cannot see through that.


I for one am sceptical, the gameplay features between GTAV and "GTAO" are fairly similar by nature and they haven't differentiated between the two. Maybe they'll release more information soon but Rockstar as of late has been focusing specifically on multiplayer and DLC, their agenda will most likly lay on that.

 

[Mr F.]

While this sounds cool, there remains the possibility of twins that wouldn't exist in a Skyrim-level system of customization. Two people pick the same parents from the available genepool, BOOM! Instant twins. Although with the lifestyle selection, they may end up with a fat twin and a skinny twin perhaps. So this begs the question, how random and how large is the available geneology for character creation?

That's... not how kids work. Me and my brother have the same parents, and while we definitely look like brothers, we are not twins.

Lies!

I look almost identical to both of my sisters. Despite our varied environmental influences from the moment of our conception, including my mother having malaria whilst she was pregnant with me and the meds giving me near constant tinnitus, we all look almost identical!

That is how genes work! Everyone knows that. That is why large families with 5+ children are so hard to be around, so many twins.

...

OT: Sounds interesting. When this hits PC's it will definitely be on my radar. Till then? Meh, maybe someone in the house will own it next year and maybe it will be the first GTA I beat since GTA Vice City. The online portion does look interesting.

My experience with GTA4 online was "The servers barely work, I cannot connect with my friend sitting less than a foot away but I can connect with a bored Russian hacker who has made himself immortal."

 

[Erttheking]

......I think Rockstar just took character creator to the extreme literal. Why does this sound like such a cool idea and why am I on board with it.

 

[Cognimancer]

Any word yet on whether we'll be able to have female characters in GTAO?

You can! Female characters are confirmed.

 

[elvor0]

Any word yet on whether we'll be able to have female characters in GTAO?

Confirmed, and in the trailer in the article