GTA V Returns to Los Santos, Watch the First Trailer Here

GTA V’s trailer has gone live. If you’re just here to watch, you can skip over all our analysis and speculation and catch it after the break.

We’re definitely heading back to San Andreas. Judging by this first trailer, Rockstar has followed in the footsteps of GTA IV and made the new Los Santos a detailed, true to life representation of Los Angeles. There are also shots of the wilderness (Mount Chiliad, anyone?), farmland, and long stretches of rural freeway, so it looks like we’ll be able to leave city limits.

There’s no footage of San Fierro or Las Venturas, the other two metro areas in San Andreas, and judging by the level of detail on display, there’s a good chance we’ll be sticking to Los Santos and the surrounding area.

From the sound of things, our protagonist this go around a middle aged family man who finds himself pulled into a life of crime by the rough economy. We’ve heard rumors that GTA V would be satirizing the country’s real-world financial troubles, and that’s clearly on display here, from a clip of a home that’s being foreclosed on to a main character who buys a big house only to find himself strapped for cash and unable to retire.

Oh, and one more little thing of note: planes. The trailer features shots of a private jet, a biplane, and a military jet, all styled after the ones that appeared in San Andreas. That should make everyone who missed flying in GTA IV very happy indeed. Hopefully we won’t have to spend six hours flying through rings this time.