The Hype: Rockstar promised that GTA Online would be a significant expansion of GTA IV's solid deathmatch style, allowing San Andreas to become their playground, introducing leveling up, missions and, best of all, co-operative heists to net awesome booty. What Happened?: Even ignoring the massive server issues which plagued GTAO upon launch, it just felt incredibly piecemeal. The missions were insanely repetitive for one, enough that there wasn't much incentive to keep playing to increase your rank. And then there's heists, the most hyped-up part of GTAO, which were delayed repeatedly until finally releasing in March, a whole 17 months after the game first launched, by which time most players had lost patience with Rockstar and moved onto other games. Oh, and while heists were initially promoted with huge, 8-player Cops 'n Robbers-type gameplay (pictured above), this was ultimately scaled back to just 4 players, further compounding the crushing disappointment most gamers felt. As brilliant as the GTA V experience was, GTAO proved that no developer is infallible, and even the giants can let us down from time to time.
Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes).
General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.
