Grand Theft Auto V is the game that just never stops rolling. It is around nine years old and it is still topping the sales charts. The single-player campaign is fantastic, but the game owes some of its legs to Grand Theft Auto Online, the multiplayer component. Players have been exploring Los Santos together with friends for almost a decade.
They will continue doing so when the next-generation version of Grand Theft Auto V comes out in March 2022. Considering the game's age, GTA Online needs some serious fixes to keep up with all the other competing popular multiplayer titles. Here's hoping Rockstar Games goes all out and adds at least some fixes detailed in the list below.
8 Reduced Load Times
Booting up Grand Theft Auto V takes an incredibly long time. Where many modern games take advantage of the new consoles' SSD to almost eliminate load times, it would be inexcusable if the modern incarnation of GTA Online still made players wait over a minute to get into the world.
Upon disconnecting, it takes even more time to either jump into a new server or return to the single-player mode. Lessening the load times would help streamline GTA Online.
7 Improved Frame Rate
The current version of GTA Online runs at a steady 30 frames per second, which was perfectly acceptable in 2014. However, this generation has seen most games run at 60 frames per second. This is not just re-releases, either.
Brand-new games often let players choose between a high frame rate with a normal resolution or a locked 30 in 4K. If GTA Online does not offer the same options, it will be a lot harder to justify purchasing it again.
6 More Story Content For Those Who Play Solo
Even though GTA Online is a multiplayer mode, many go about their days as lone wolves. A recent expansion, The Contract, even has an involved story featuring characters from the single-player mode taking place after the events of GTA V.
If this represents a new trend in content for GTA Online, those who are into Rockstar Games for the story will have a lot to look forward to. GTA V never gave fans single-player DLC, so story-focused expansions for GTA Online are a good way to make up for it.
5 Fix Griefing
One could argue that griefing, the process of killing other players for no other reason than to stump their progress, is a part of the experience. This is a game about committing crimes and shooting things, after all. However, this turns off a lot of potential new players.
While there are already ways to avoid this, there should be more done to help newcomers avoid griefers. Ultimately, it makes one think about why people take such joy from doing so. Rockstar could at least get rid of or further nerf the Oppressor Mk 2 bikes.
4 More Land
The Los Santos map is big enough to feel interesting and fresh even all these years later. All the same, It would do a lot to excite and entice new players if there was a whole other section of the map added. The dream would be to have Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto IV included, but that might be asking too much.
Adding something even a quarter the size of the mainland would be interesting. The developers teased fans with the Cayo Perio heist, which took place on a different island, but players could not do a lot there other than the main heist.
3 Smoother Movement And Aiming
One major complaint about recent games from the developer is what some consider outdated controls. The games, including the more recent Red Dead Redemption 2, have basically controlled the same since Grand Theft Auto 4.
Other open-world games have made movement freer and aiming smoother. While not an open-world game, Max Payne 3 runs on the same engine and has significantly more fluid controls.
2 Cross-Platform Play
GTA Online has an absolutely massive playerbase. Players should rarely have trouble ever finding people in the world. However, there are definitely plenty of friends who cannot reach out to each other across different consoles.
Many popular multiplayer games have cross-platform capabilities. GTA Online's heists and missions requiring two or more players are always better if it is with people the player knows. Not being able to play with friends because they are on a different console is understandable, but also does not feel good when players know other games allow this.
1 Custom Soundtrack
On the original Xbox, players had the ability to put songs onto their hard drives and play them in the car while playing any of the Grand Theft Auto titles for the console. It is curious to see this feature absent from future releases.
Some modern games have included a Spotify option in the menu to customize the game's soundtrack. As great as the radio is in GTA Online, those who play a ton will start to hear the same thing after a while, so letting them throw some of their own tunes via a streaming service would be a great feature.
Grand Theft Auto 5 is out now for PS3, PS4, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC. A next-generation version is scheduled to come out in March, 2022