This is exciting: So far, the PC version of GTA 5 is almost everything I could possibly want from a port – outside of timely, of course. After a nearly 60GB download and resetting my Rockstar Social Club password (because who remembers that?) my first few hours of driving, running, and gunning my way through Rockstar’s masterpiece of a virtual city looked, performed, and controlled better than it does on any other platform.

First, a warning: Rockstar’s QA somehow managed to miss a bug that potentially renders GTA 5 unplayable if your Windows user name contains any “special characters,” meaning anything other than letters and numbers. If your account is, for example, “Dave’s PC” or “Steve & Jane,” you might not be able to play until it’s patched, unless you create an alternate user account. To Rockstar’s credit, there’s currently a warning on the Steam store page, and Rockstar is offering refunds if you’re not willing to wait for the fix - so at least they’re handling this the right way.
Assuming your user name is compliant, then, everything else is rosy. Graphics options are plentiful and powerful, with everything from standard quality and view-distance adjustments to a field-of-view slider (though it’s more limited than discriminating FOV players might want - I expect modders will remedy that shortly). It’ll support 4K resolutions and multi-monitor layouts. Controls are customizable, and you can play your own music library on the in-game radio. It’s hard to complain much about that.

And those options are actually extremely useful, because optimization looks to be on point. My GeForce GTX 660Ti (a ₹25000 card) is able to run with most settings maxed out at 1600*900 without dipping below 50 frames per second. Once I tune it precisely, I’ll let you know where I’ve landed with my settings to maintain a smooth 60 – I’m not someone who demands more than 30 frames to find a game enjoyable, but I sure do appreciate the smoothness you get from double that performance. The PC version is the only way you can play GTA like this, and it’d be really tough to go back.
For the most part, the menus are well done and feel good to use with the mouse. That’s best exemplified with the web browser, which feels like you’d expect navigating a web page with a mouse to feel. The one place this breaks down a little is in the score menus; it’s still a little tougher to navigate an Ammunation’s wares with a D-pad or arrow keys, but it’s still totally workable.

Shooting control is good enough that it risks making things too easy. I don’t pretend to be a brilliant marksman, but if you’re a bad guy (or a cop) in Los Santos, your odds of even making it out of your car to start shooting drop considerably when the hand that guides the gun is using a mouse. Without the scourge of auto-aim dragging the targeting reticule down toward center mass, I found myself picking off most enemies with a single shot to the head, especially when playing in first-person mode.

Nice PC-specific control touches, like not having to hammer a button to keep up running speed (just hold down Shift) and being able to hit a single button (Caps Lock by default) to activate a special ability make everything feel like a native PC game. You don’t get the annoying horizontal drift when running in first-person like you do in the PS4 and Xbox One versions, either.

One of my favorite things about the control setup, though, is that like GTA 4 and a select few other games before it, GTA 5 lets you seamlessly swap between the mouse and keyboard and a gamepad on the fly. No need to go into a menu and swap - just push a button on one or the other, and all on-screen prompts change to reflect what you’re using. It’s a fantastic thing for a game like this, where running and gunning is more precise with a mouse and keyboard but driving or especially flying benefits greatly from the analog input of a thumbstick.
In fact, you don’t even have to choose one or the other! In our first Review in Progress video, you can see a second player and I share control of a vehicle; him driving with the gamepad and me shooting with the mouse. Sure, it’s a little tough to drive when someone else is controlling what you can see, but it’s a crazy kind of co-op control that you should try out if you like to shoot more than drive, and have a friend who prefers to be behind the wheel.

I’ve yet to delve into the Rockstar Editor movie maker or GTA Online – that’s on my agenda for the next couple of days. The one thing I’ve noticed that’s a tad annoying about the movie maker so far is that as I progress through the story missions, I’m unlocking characters – like Michael’s family – for use in my movies. That seems like the sort of meaningless progression system that just gets in the way of doing what I want to do when I want to do it for the sake of giving me an extra reward. Not a big deal, obviously.

The other FYI is that I haven't had any luck getting cloud saves to work, which means all the progress I made at home last night remains... at home.

The Verdict
Grand Theft Auto 5 is a masterpiece of a game, and the PC version is the best way to experience it. Its sprawling yet meticulously detailed map is the high bar to which all other open-world games aspire, and it’s incredibly dense with excellent content. With so much to do, explore, and play with, both in single-player and multiplayer, plus great creative tools, it’s truly amazing on multiple levels.

10/10

This is exciting: So far, the PC version of GTA 5 is almost everything I could possibly want from a port – outside of timely, of course. After a nearly 60GB download and resetting my Rockstar Social Club password (because who remembers that?) my first few hours of driving, running, and gunning my way through Rockstar’s masterpiece of a virtual city looked, performed, and controlled better than it does on any other platform. First, a warning: Rockstar’s QA somehow managed to miss a bug that potentially renders GTA 5 unplayable if your Windows user name contains any “special characters,” meaning anything other than letters and numbers. If your account is, for example, “Dave’s PC” or “Steve & Jane,” you might not be able to play until it’s patched, unless you create an alternate user account. To Rockstar’s credit, there’s currently a warning on the Steam store page, and Rockstar is offering refunds if you’re not willing to wait for the fix - so at least they’re handling this the right way. Assuming your user name is compliant, then, everything else is rosy. Graphics options are plentiful and powerful, with everything from standard quality and view-distance adjustments to a field-of-view slider (though it’s more limited than discriminating FOV players might want - I expect modders will remedy that shortly). It’ll support 4K resolutions and multi-monitor layouts. Controls are customizable, and you can play your own music library on the in-game radio. It’s hard to complain much about that. And those options are actually extremely useful, because optimization looks to be on point. My GeForce GTX 660Ti (a ₹25000 card) is able to run with most settings maxed out at 1600*900 without dipping below 50 frames per second. Once I tune it precisely, I’ll let you know where I’ve landed with my settings to maintain a smooth 60 – I’m not someone who demands more than 30 frames to find a game enjoyable, but I sure do appreciate the smoothness you get from double that performance. The PC version is the only way you can play GTA like this, and it’d be really tough to go back. For the most part, the menus are well done and feel good to use with the mouse. That’s best exemplified with the web browser, which feels like you’d expect navigating a web page with a mouse to feel. The one place this breaks down a little is in the score menus; it’s still a little tougher to navigate an Ammunation’s wares with a D-pad or arrow keys, but it’s still totally workable. Shooting control is good enough that it risks making things too easy. I don’t pretend to be a brilliant marksman, but if you’re a bad guy (or a cop) in Los Santos, your odds of even making it out of your car to start shooting drop considerably when the hand that guides the gun is using a mouse. Without the scourge of auto-aim dragging the targeting reticule down toward center mass, I found myself picking off most enemies with a single shot to the head, especially when playing in first-person mode. Nice PC-specific control touches, like not having to hammer a button to keep up running speed (just hold down Shift) and being able to hit a single button (Caps Lock by default) to activate a special ability make everything feel like a native PC game. You don’t get the annoying horizontal drift when running in first-person like you do in the PS4 and Xbox One versions, either. One of my favorite things about the control setup, though, is that like GTA 4 and a select few other games before it, GTA 5 lets you seamlessly swap between the mouse and keyboard and a gamepad on the fly. No need to go into a menu and swap - just push a button on one or the other, and all on-screen prompts change to reflect what you’re using. It’s a fantastic thing for a game like this, where running and gunning is more precise with a mouse and keyboard but driving or especially flying benefits greatly from the analog input of a thumbstick. In fact, you don’t even have to choose one or the other! In our first Review in Progress video, you can see a second player and I share control of a vehicle; him driving with the gamepad and me shooting with the mouse. Sure, it’s a little tough to drive when someone else is controlling what you can see, but it’s a crazy kind of co-op control that you should try out if you like to shoot more than drive, and have a friend who prefers to be behind the wheel. I’ve yet to delve into the Rockstar Editor movie maker or GTA Online – that’s on my agenda for the next couple of days. The one thing I’ve noticed that’s a tad annoying about the movie maker so far is that as I progress through the story missions, I’m unlocking characters – like Michael’s family – for use in my movies. That seems like the sort of meaningless progression system that just gets in the way of doing what I want to do when I want to do it for the sake of giving me an extra reward. Not a big deal, obviously. The other FYI is that I haven't had any luck getting cloud saves to work, which means all the progress I made at home last night remains... at home. [b]The Verdict[/b] Grand Theft Auto 5 is a masterpiece of a game, and the PC version is the best way to experience it. Its sprawling yet meticulously detailed map is the high bar to which all other open-world games aspire, and it’s incredibly dense with excellent content. With so much to do, explore, and play with, both in single-player and multiplayer, plus great creative tools, it’s truly amazing on multiple levels. 10/10