Graphics are as important as you want them to be. GTA: San Andreas most definitely looked like a game made on aging PS2 hardware. It's still my favorite in the series. I'm more of a gameplay guy, an open-world explorer and someone with an unhealthy appetite for good sidequests. I'm very interested in seeing how much of this three-character structure's potential Rockstar can realize, and I'm glad they're doing something so different and so outside of their standard formula.

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Rockstar has about four months to go to polish this game and deliver something special. Several years ago, I saw Red Dead Redemption at just about the same level of completion. It was about where GTA V appears to be now, so I'm hopeful about how this game will come together.

At worst, this could be an interesting stumble of unrealized potential, taking the biggest risks I've seen in a GTA since GTA III.

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At best, I'm in the mood for a terrific and audacious new GTA. I hope they nail it. At least the shipwrecks part. And the yoga. And the holding up of liquor stores. And the triathalons. And the hunting...

This preview included a live playthrough of about half an hour of the game by the developers. No hands-on time by Kotaku. To contact the author of this post, write to stephentotilo@kotaku.com or find him on Twitter @stephentotilo