Today, Rockstar released the first trailer for the inevitable juggernaut that will be Grand Theft Auto V. Rockstar has been pretty quiet the past few years after the release of GTAIV. They published L.A. Noire, but they didn't develop it - leaving that responsibility to Australia-based Team Bondi. In fact, other than expansions for Red Dead Redemption and GTAIV, Rockstar really hasn't done much of anything the past few years.

But it looks like that is going to change soon.

The trailer was released on Rockstar's official YouTube channel, and can be seen below:

No release date was given with the video, but I can't imagine it hitting shelves any earlier than late 2012.

Gameplay and plot details are also scarce, but we do get a few valuable bits of information from the trailer. ..

After decades of video gaming, the real good guys with the uniforms and badges finally get their moment to shine! But can they stand up to the vigilantes, anti-heroes, super heroes, undercover cops, crooked cops, and outright criminals that we are used to playing as?

Brain before brawn

Fighting crime isn’t all glamour and excitement. The job of a protector of the peace isn’t all shootouts, car chases, street brawls, damsels in distress, and throwing cars at super villains. There’s a lot of walking around crime scenes and looking at stuff. Figuring out what kind and size of shoe left the prints in the dirt. Reading the brand name of the lipstick of murdered women. Reading the addresses of bars off of matchbooks. Looking up the registered owner of a car with a license plate number provided by a witness. Reading through hotel registries. And accusing people of lying about stuff. It is this element of police work that L.A. Noire tries to capture. The focus of this game is taken away from gun fights, chases, and action scenes, and attempts to highlight the more cerebral elements of police work.

Although the exciting stuff does still happen, this game is a departure for Rockstar games. It puts the player in the role of a police investigator with a badge rather than the hardened criminals, vigilantes, bullies, and antiheroes that we’re used to. The exaggerated fictional cities and over-the-top dark humor have been replaced with a massive and highly detailed (although somewhat anachronistic) reproduction of 1940’s Los Angeles that takes itself much more seriously. The map is pretty large, accurate, and surprisingly densely packed with streets and alleyways. Average roads are multi-lane, sidewalks are decently-sized, and everything has a great sense of scale to it that most city-sandbox games lack. And the game only contains a fraction of the actual city!