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Grand Theft Auto 5: Features

And there are tons of things players can spend their cash on. Weapons, armour, clothes, masks, car upgrades, custom jobs and properties and businesses are all up for grabs. As was the case with GTA 4, GTA 5 is set on a sprawling map filled with activities to occupy players for ages.

Los Santos is Rockstar’s cracked version of Los Angeles and anyone who has been to the City of Angels will crack a wry smile at the recognisable landmarks and neighbourhoods it contains.

The city is simply bursting with events and mini-games. Players can take part in a round of golf, a game of tennis or even attempt a triathlon. They can improve their aim at a firing range, transport contraband via land or air or engage in a spot of skydiving. Incidentally, each time you use one of the three characters in the game in some sort of activity, you level up their abilities.

If you play a lot of tennis, your stamina will go up. Spend some time at a firing range and your skill in firearms will increase. No activity is a waste and God knows, there’s enough of them to keep players engaged for hours.

The map of Los Santos also feels looser, less claustrophobic than GTA 4’s Liberty City. While we at T3 love 2008’s Rockstar flagship release, we have to confess that the constraints of the Liberty City gridlock prompted us to drop a small fortune on cabs.

This hasn’t been the case in Los Santos; it’s possible to navigate the streets, highways, back roads and off-road routes without taking your foot off the gas and given the beauty and attention to detail of the world around you, driving for extended periods never feels like a chore.

In truth GTA 5 harkens back to the Bacchanalian sense of chaotic freedom that existed in the earliest third-person GTA games (III, Vice City and San Andreas). In Los Santos, you’re restricted only by a lack of attention and your lack of imagination. This is a town where you can enjoy a rollercoaster ride, race down the side of a mountain on a bicycle or buy a parachute, nick a dirt bike and then head off into the hills for a spot of motorised base jumping.

Grand Theft Auto 5: Plot

There’s also a rather decent story underpinning all of this action – even though it will strike fans of the gritty GTA 4 as somewhat more hyper and more deranged. Rockstar North has always presented GTA as a twisted satire on American culture, but given the extreme turn politics and media in the USA have taken in recent years, GTA 5’s satirical edge is sharp enough to sever bone.

The three protagonists at the centre of GTA 5 are all pretty unsympathetic characters, although it’s a testament to how well written they are that they’re not bad company for the 26+ hours it’ll take players to blaze through the main story mode.

Franklyn is a hustler from a rundown area of Los Santos who has grown tired of boosting cars for a repo business and is looking to make his mark as a professional criminal. His job causes him to cross paths with Michael, a retired heist man who is being driven slowly insane by his selfish family.

Franklyn’s looking for a mentor. Michael, even though he initially doesn’t know it, is looking for a protégé and, most importantly, a way to end the mind-numbing tedium of his day-to-day routine. It’s not long before their activities bring them to the attention of Trevor, a violent former partner of Michael’s from back in the day. Once he’s added to the mix everything goes sideways.

IFA 2013 has kicked-off, bringing with it a swathe of new gadgets to get excited about. We're seeing updates and new launches left, right and centre. Here we're pulling together the best of the best, the devices you should be getting excited about, the sort of thing you might add to your Christmas list.

We're battling through the press conferences and announcements, bringing you plenty of action from the show floor before the show opens to the public. But the things that really catch our eye you can read about here. We'll be adding to this feature as we get to grips with more exciting tech.

You can follow all our IFA 2013 news via our IFA 2013 homepage, but if you're after the best devices all in one place, you've landed on the right page. 

Sony Xperia Z1

Undoubtedly one of the highlights of the show, the Sony Xperia Z1 takes a great phone and makes it better. The design has been tweaked slightly so its better in the hand and now has a waterproof 3.5mm headphone socket. But it's under the skin where the biggest changes have been made.

Microsoft has already announced it will be shipping the Xbox One with Forza 5 to replace the promised FIFA 14 bundle, after that ran out. Now we're hearing the new slimmed-down Xbox 360 will launch with FIFA 14 included.

Microsoft announced that FIFA 14 will arrive on the Xbox One only for first day pre-orders, while stocks last. Of course that's not literally as it's a digital edition that's being bundled.

The Xbox 360 FIFA 14 bundle will land at retailers on 27 September - the day FIFA 14 is released.

For £170 you'll get a new Xbox 360 with 250GB HDD and Xbox One inspired straight-edge design along with a copy of FIFA 14. But hurry if you're eager as these will likely be limited too.

Recently, we saw Apple introduce a new plastic iPhone. Why plastic? Because it's cheaper, sure. But it's also one of the smartest industrial design decisions Apple has ever made. 

Manufacturing the 5C: Harder, better, stronger

I can't put a dollar figure on what Apple's bill of materials for the 5C is, but it's safe to say that by going with plastic, they're saving a lot. And not just on material costs-also on time and labor. An aluminum iPhone has to undergo multiple stages of CNC machining and anodizing. These are very time consuming processes that require an enormous number of man hours to oversee them. In contrast, an injection-molded plastic shell can be produced in just one or two operations. 

But the real key to the 5C design isn't just injection molding it out of plastic. It's injection molding it out of a single piece of plastic. This creates a stronger, simpler part-and it's going to produce much faster yield rates than Apple can currently get with the iPhone 5/5S. 

This efficiency is the key to reducing costs on the iPhone 5C compared to aluminum iPhones. In the time it takes Apple to produce just one housing for the aluminum iPhone, they can make multiple plastic iPhones. The ability to produce iPhones quicker is a key feature for Apple as they try meet demand, especially in developing countries. 

So yes-the iPhone 5C's plastic housing is cheaper because the material is less expensive. But the primary cost reduction is due to the fact that it takes fewer steps manufacture, which reduces the time and labor involved. I have no doubt that the 5C will become the best seller in Apple's iPhone lineup overnight, if for no other reason than that they can produce so many more of them. 

Cheap chic

Is Apple's design team giving up much, in terms of the 5C's aesthetics? Plastic is cheap, but it also feels cheap, right? Well, that depends on the quality of the plastic, but more crucially, the injection molding process. In this area, Apple is world class. Just look at the quality of the plastic housing on Apple TV, AirPort routers, or the EarPods. 

The iPhone 5C's hard plastic back gives us a glimpse into Apple's design process. Most plastic cases are made using a mold that includes holes for the speakers, buttons, and the camera. But with the 5C casing, Apple is choosing to use a CNC machine to create these holes after the shell has already been made. Why? First of all, this yields a stronger part. If those holes were included in the injection molding process, hot plastic would have to flow around them. This creates weak points in the plastic. By machining those holes out, the plastic around the holes is just as strong as the rest of the shell. These cases will be stronger than the norm. 

Second, the CNC solution allows Apple to focus on making the housing as seamless as possible. In most plastic products, you can see a faint line-called a "witness line"-that reveals where the two parts of the mold came together. By not molding the holes, Apple only has to make sure they eliminate one witness line-along the glass display edge of the housing. In fact, you can see the CNC polishing wheel process they use for eliminating that witness line here: 

Third, CNC machining these holes gives them a much tighter tolerance than if they were simply molded into the part. Visually, this makes them look crisper and makes the fit between components like the SIM card tray and buttons feel very precise. 

Apple also added an additional step of spray coating the backplate with a clear lacquer hard coat. This gives the plastic some of the qualities glazing gives pottery: It helps prevent scratching, makes the shell look extremely glossy, and completely changes how it feels in our hands. Instead of feeling like glossy plastic, the 5C should feel like ceramic. 

Even the most minute elements of the 5C were designed to reduce the amount of detail found on the body of the 5S. The volume and lock buttons are the same color as the plastic back, which means they blend into the housing. The headphone jack, lightning connector, and screws have all been tinted black to match the black display glass, too. I'll say it again: Less. Visual. Clutter. 

Hamburger and steak

What will be missing from the 5C, though, is the feeling the 5/5S has when you pick it up. Even a year later, the aluminum iPhone feels impossibly thin and light. But comparing the plastic iPhone to the aluminum iPhone is a bit like comparing a gourmet hamburger to a gourmet steak. Both use the highest quality ingredients, but they're designed for different audiences and occasions. 

I prefer hamburger. In white, thank you. The iPhone 5C has fewer speaker holes, no dual-sided chamfers, no secondary glass pieces at the top and bottom, and no thin plastic dividers on the sides to make the external antenna work. It's almost like Apple decided to use one of those simplified, outlined icons in its "Made for iPhone" program as the basis for this design. 

It's this simplicity that makes the 5C a much cleaner option compared to the aluminum 5S. By making the manufacturing process cheaper and more efficient, Apple has found a brilliant way to actually improve the design of the iPhone.