GTA 5 Leaked Footage Confirms Current Gen Console Limitations

The Latin Times managed to get their hands on some new footage of GTA V (so Rockstar, you know who to sic your lawyers on with this one) and it showcases more than 22 minutes of in-game action. Gamers get to see the beginning parts of GTA V and how it all unfolds leading up to the main story arc, as well as how well the Xbox 360 runs the game and some of it isn't pretty.

The video is really intense and it starts with a bang. The opening gameplay is like... wow. Now usually we have videos at the top of articles where the video is the main entrée. However, given that Take Two will likely put a copyright claim on the content, the video is below.

Also, the video isn't at the top so I can warn you that there are some really, really, really... small *Spoilers*. So if you don't want GTA V ruined then don't watch. Seriously. If you want to see a truncated version of the video because you may not have time to watch all 22 minutes, check out Playborder.net.

Oh my gosh... oh my gosh that was so amazing I could die right now and feel as if my life was practically complete.

The melee combat looks perfect, I couldn't have asked for anything better. Unlike GTA IV Rockstar seems to have put more extension into the hits, which is exactly what the game needed. The impact is also more pronounced, so every punch and kick really does feel impactful. Great work, Rockstar.

I should note, however, that my lingering suspicions about the current gen consoles handling GTA V were proven correct. Last year we had a comparison between the media assets Rockstar released of GTA V versus GTA IV running iCEnhancer, and it was impressive how close both versions of the game were. As you know, there's no way the PS3 or Xbox 360 could run GTA IV, much less GTA V, with iCEnhancer quality shaders.

As evidenced throughout the video, especially starting at the 12:49 mark, we can easily see the Xbox 360 absolutely struggling to keep up at times. The opening intro movie shows blotchy loading of the shadow resolution, as well as shadow and texture pop-in happening in horrendously obvious ways all throughout the video. That's not to mention that the LOD streaming almost seems to be a skip behind the beat at times, where the game is moving faster than what the hardware can keep up with.

The game also suffers from a current gen trait of what I like to call "proximity streaming" where nothing beyond the immediate radius of the player is rendered or active, and things begin to pop-in as the player spends more time in that area. Just Cause 2 suffered from this big time on the home consoles, as there would be nothing in the area for a short while and then "boom!" peds and cars magically appear.

Nevertheless, I must confess that I am impressed at how Rockstar was able to squeeze the game onto current gen consoles. The old hags seem to show that they can at least maintain just over 25fps during some of the more hectic and scripted segments. For those of you worried whether or not the frame dropoff is as pervasive in GTA V as it was in GTA IV, you don't have to worry too much because GTA V appears to run a lot cleaner and smoother.

Of course, the game doesn't appear to look or run the way it did in the promo trailers, which still leads me to believe that a next-gen rendition with the higher quality shaders and models will make an appearance some time after Rockstar recuperates all their funds from the current gen console kiddies.

In the meantime (if you're like me) you have an awful wait time ahead of you. If you've already pre-ordered the game then good on you, as you'll be able to dive into GTA V this upcoming Tuesday. If you're brazen enough to play the game before the street date, prepare to face the wrath of Rockstar's banhammer.