It's high time we had a little mayhem, and if Saints Row 4 isn't going to be enough to satisfy your taste for destructive chaos in video gaming, then Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto V will probably be a must-buy. Following the series' often-controversial theme of placing the player in the heart of a city's criminal underbelly, Grand Theft Auto V follows three protagonists from varying criminal backgrounds in the fictional city of Los Santos, San Andreas.

In addition to being able to swap between multiple characters, the game's map is also larger than any that have come before it in the series, allowing for a greater amount of exploration, and also presumably making for a pretty hefty install.

Considering how highly-anticipated Grand Theft Auto V is, it's understandable that fans of the series should have a lot of questions about it. To satiate a little of the curiosity, Rockstar has published a Q&A post on their official site, responding to some of the most frequently asked questions about the new game. This includes clearing up the small details about just how the game will be shipped for Xbox 360 and PS3.

The disc-based versions of Grand Theft Auto V for Xbox 360 comes on two discs, but the good news is that you won't need to swap between them. The first disc contains a one-time mandatory install that will require either an Xbox 360 hard drive or a 16GB USB flash drive (at least USB 2.0 with a minimum 15mb/s read speed and formatted for Xbox 360 use). Once the game is installed with the first disc, you use the second disc to play it and should never need to switch between the two.

On PS3, it's even simpler: the game ships on a single disc and will begin installing as soon as the disc is inserted. Once the game is installed, PS3 users will be able to play the game straight away. PC gamers, however, will have to wait - potentially indefinitely - as Rockstar has responded to questions about a PC release simply by saying that they have no information at this time.

The Q&A also clarifies the nature of the three protagonists and the ability to swap between them. Grand Theft Auto IV had something that could be considered a little similar to this, as the two episodic packs - The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony - allowed the player to explore Liberty City in  the roles of Johnny Klebitz and Luis Lopez, respectively, rather than as Niko Bellic. In Grand Theft Auto V, the player can freely switch between three protagonists: family man and retired criminal Michael; young gang member Franklin, who earns a living the only way he knows how; and cheerfully psychotic redneck Trevor.

Michael, Franklin and Trevor in 'Grand Theft Auto V'

Each of the characters has his own personality, and when left to their own devices by the player they won't just sit around twiddling their thumbs. While the player is in control of one character, the other two will carry on "living their ongoing and unpredictable lives." The player can seek them out and spend time with them, though it won't be possible to kill them as they all have "remarkable powers of recovery and good health insurance," and also are required for a continuation of the plot as their stories are interconnected:

"Because they have their own schedules, you’ll never know what they might be doing — you might drop in on Michael in the middle of a family dispute, interrupt Franklin chatting up some ladies, or Trevor on the run from the law — or whatever else these guys do in their free time."

It makes you wonder what Tommy Vercetti got up to when the player wasn't looking in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Niko presumably spent all his spare time going bowling with his cousin.

Grand Theft Auto V is out on PS3 and Xbox 360 on September 17, 2013.

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Source: Rockstar [via Joystiq]