Ever since Grand Theft Auto 3, in the very early days of Rockstar’s now-bestselling crime series of games, planes and other types of aviation-based vehicles have been available to us in the open world of the sandbox title. Admittedly, the only plane we could commandeer in GTA: III was the infamous Dodo plane which was nearly impossible to take off in, but it was a start.
Planes would soon become a much more prominent feature in GTA – we had sea planes in Vice City, and helicopters made their debut, too. 2004′s San Andreas was a watershed moment for aviation however, providing us with a whole host of flyable vehicles to use such as commercial jets, stunt planes, fighter jets, spitfires and even a jumbo jet.
It has been nearly nine years now however since planes featured in a Grand Theft Auto title, they were absent from GTA: IV with only helicopters being made available to us, but the good news is, planes are now back with a vengeance in the upcoming GTA: V.
We thought we would take the time out and examine five possibilities for flight exploration in Rockstar’s fervently anticipated sandbox title, and we’re sure that we are just as excited as you are to get back behind the controls of a Hydra jet and create some mayhem.
Click “Next” to get started.
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19 Comments
Actually, the reason planes were absent from GTA IV was that they were pointless to add in. Very few places to land and a (relatively) small city made planes damn near useless. It had nothing to do with 9/11 and R* North have gone out of their way multiple times to correct people on this issue. It wouldn’t hurt for someone writing about the subject to do a little research.
Very few places to land? You mean apart from the airport?
He’s right it wasn’t because of 9/11 it was because the size of the map..
They did have destructible buildings but that was in vice City Stories whenever you bought a business or you took it from a rival the enemy would come and destroy your building and you would have to pay to fix it back up
Great article, I agree with everything as it would make the game more interesting. I remember reading in an interview with Dan Houser that, in the development process, he was raving about how they could adjust the free moving camera from the smallest details in a 24/7 store, out to the clouds where you could see several helicopters and the shadows of the clouds growing across the landscape. So I’m also really hoping for more air activity, and wishful for destructibility but I’m not planning on it as GTA was always limited in that department. Then again, they always succeed in surprising me with each release.
I loved the random planes in san andreas. I remember i did the 100ft bunny hop cheat and got hit by a plane out of nowhere. I would love to see funny things like that in gta 5
The Protag is flying the cargo plane, not the fighter jet.
Thank you! I thought I was only one on the internet who’s noticed this.
This game will be cooler then gta san andrease, gta 3, and gta 4. this game be the cooliest game on earth anyways. in couple months and go get it the stores then for gta 5. more things to do, more vehiles, more planes, and others stuffs to it anyways.
Yay for AIs in the air, side missions, random dynamics and a slight yay for a dogfight mission.
Nay for destructible environments.
Sounds like you want to play Battlefield. Go do that.
Destructible environments would not make GTA, what it is.
It’d make it awkward. Blowing up the beautiful landscape developers have sought to create and turning the whole thing into a desolate wasteland would not make the game fun.
Because in order to maintain the immersive realism in setting that the franchise has developed a renown for, it would take a few in-game years to recover from damage done.
Destructible environments are for blow-em up terrorist games.
Not for life of a criminal in pursuit of the “almighty dollar” games.
Your response makes no sense and these, “go play battlefield” discredits nothing. Destructible environments would only add more depth. All we ask for is more realism with each new release.
Realism is not always better.
Destructible environments would not be a good idea, because i know if i was playing id have that entire town laid to waste in mere seconds, and then id just be ina wasteland, i know the game is meant to be realistic but thats just to much.
I don’t know why everyone is throwing a huge personal ruckus about destructible environments. The really aren’t necessary in this game. We had the holding silos we could destroy in GTA IV, and those were fun to mess with. But I don’t want to blow holes in buildings or level whole blocks. GTA isn’t that kind of game. Maybe the biggest extent is a small crater from a grenade or rocket that a car can get a hold of and lose control, but would disappear at a rate a bullet hole would. (Which I’m sure we would always love an unlimited amount of those bullet holes, it’s nice to see the aftermath.)
The one thing I would love, is better syncing online. RDR, and IV haven’t been so good. I’m sure it would be all the more challenging in this one.
I agree with everything, especially destructible environments. However I don’t see this coming any time soon unfortunately, and even then it’d be a huge strain on the hardware. Maybe in the next GTA title we will be able to blow the hell out of bridges, putting the police or military off our trail so we can hide away somewhere.
And those were good memories, investigating those plane crashes. The number of times I’ve cried of laughter as a plane just drops from the sky and onto a bunch of cars is countless. So many good memories with San Anreas, and I’m so so happy that I’ll be able to relive a few of them in such a beautiful looking game in a few months time c’:
I understand the issues surrounding the destructible environment idea, it probably isn’t really that feasible considering the reasons stated so far. Perhaps it could be included in a smaller capacity than I intended, or perhaps the game could have builders who complete repair work on damaged property – a long shot I know but heck, it’s an idea.
Just to be clear mercenaries one and two had destructible buildings, bridges, and even statues and monuments. Given it’s a whole different type of platform of game but if they could do it on ps2 i’m sure they could incorporate some sort of city maintenance/worker squad to perform repairs..just a thought. Hell even window washers would be fun to snipe.
I would love destructible environments. Just as ambulance crews turn up to help pedestrians, construction crews could appear to repair buildings. Scaffolding would go round the building and repaired in so many day cycles of the game. It would be amazing if maybe a little ambitious because you know you wold try to level the whole city at once!
The planes that randomly fly about in GTA SA ARE computer controlled, or have A.I, if you will. If they weren’t, they would fall out of the sky.