GTAV’s improved next-gen load times make the game so much faster

theverge.com:

For all of its open-world excess, Grand Theft Auto V is also a game about repetition: you go through missions multiple times, trying to finally complete that high-speed pursuit or violent shootout successfully. This can often mean reloading the same mission repeatedly, and — in previous iterations of the game — that time could add up quite a bit and become a frustrating nuisance. But after replaying the first few hours of the game’s new next-gen release, the thing that has struck me most is just how fast things move.

GTAV is out now on the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X / S (I’ve been playing the PS5 version), and it features the usual assortment of next-gen upgrades. That means support for 4K visuals, ray tracing, and 60fps gameplay, which you can access through a handful of visual modes: fidelity, performance, and performance RT. The smoother gameplay is nice, but I’ve mostly been playing in fidelity mode.

Even now, nearly a decade after launch, GTAV’s open-world rendition of Los Santos is still impressive, and now, the console versions look on par with a high-end PC through more lifelike textures and lighting. The water, in particular, looks stunning. If it weren’t for the dated character models — particularly for everyone who isn’t part of the main cast — you could almost mistake it for a brand-new game.

It looks great, and I’ve spent much of my time just driving around, watching the sunset while listening to the radio. It’s extremely chill. But when I do dip into the story, the experience is much-improved, thanks to the faster loading times. I am a bad GTA driver, which usually means it takes a few tries to track down a stolen yacht or help a paparazzi snap the perfect photo of a couple in a limo. Now, it takes