• Posted November 12th, 2012 at 11:07 EDT by Mike Harradence
• 2 Comments

Grand Theft Auto V’s massive game world was conceived with the idea of flyingin mind, says Rockstar’s Dan Houser.

The crime sequel features a sprawling open-world to explore, which is touted at being lager than GTA IV, San Andreas and Red Dead Redemption’s environments combined.

And with good reason too, as Houser revealed to The Guardian that gamers will be given the opportunity to fly multiple aircraft in GTA V, so the world had to be big enough to accommodate such a feature.

"We wanted to make a big place, as much as anything, to allow you to fly," said Houser. "A lot of the decisions, we're talking about them here on a philosophical level, but they're also practical decisions, too: we're making a game. You have to understand the medium.

"On an obvious level we wanted somewhere big so you can fly properly - we have a lot of missions that involve flying, in helicopters or whatever, it was logical. Also, Jet skis work better around LA than they would in New York. “

"We're using the environment to let us have toys we couldn't have had otherwise," he continued. "And equally, we're using the story and environment to introduce missions that can be more extreme. In some ways we wanted the game to have a larger-than-life Hollywood feel; the stories we heard in LA, we wanted to capture them in the game. If the place isn't informing what we're doing, we're not using it correctly."

In addition to sporting the biggest open-world in Rockstar history, the game will also incorporate a character-hopping mechanic allowing gamers to jump between three individuals.

GTA V is pencilled in for a Spring 2013 release on PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. The game was recently blown wide open in a Game Informer cover issue, and you can read our full recap of the info here.