Guys the full interview is now readable above, but I'll post it here again in case you missed it.
If you thought you were excited now, read this. This is the interview linked above, just in text.
~ Vehicles can be customized with paint jobs, tires, wheels with other little things.
~ You can modify entire heists by using a customized vehicle with things such as roll cages, bullet proof tires, armor and other performance mods such as engine tuning and brakes etc that affect the handling and the outcome of a heist can be different because of this.
~ Over 1000 combinations of things you can do to the cars, per car.
~ Certain stunt jumps aren't easy or possible without equipping nitrous or a turbo charger to your car. It varies based on your task.
~ Modding your car has the potential to help you last longer in particularly tough action sequences in missions that could help you slug it out longer if you are getting ripped on by a hail of bullets.
~ Bullet proof tires can come in handy evading the police.
~ If you mod a car and for some reason you have to leave it, it will turn up at a police impound where you pay a fine and get your car back. No more losing your car when you abandon it!
~ Gas tanks will leak gasoline when shot.
~ If your car has a leaking gas tank you can drive into a group of enemies, shoot the gasoline to light it up and it will blow up everything around the car.
~ You can stick sticky bombs on a vehicle and drive it into a crowd and explode them that way.
~ The mechanic in LS Customs may or may not suggest certain mods for your car.
~ You will always keep a weapon. If it runs out of ammo you will still keep it. No more throwing it away when you run out of ammo. Your guns will be with you throughout the entire game. This applies to any weapon you happen to find or purchase.
~ Customized weapons will help your performance in side missions and games such as street racing and target shooting.
~ Customizing weapons will broaden the range of tactic options.
~ Pistols can be equipped with suppressors, in order to take on a mission in a stealthy way.
~ You can take on missions from a full frontal assault and using foregrips will increase accuracy.
~ Rifles can be equipped with scopes in order to snipe enemies from a distance.
~ Customized weapons coupled with upgradable player stats will give the player a lot of options in game and during missions.
~ GTA was primarily about weapons and vehicles but Rockstar has given hand to hand combat a big overhaul.
~Ventures away from static fights to a more free flowing system.
~ You can attack any target in any direction at any time.
~ You are able to quickly switch focus on different enemies that you're engaging with.
~ You no longer need to lock on to a target at all to have a fight with a target but you can still lock on if you wish.
~ Hits are much more satisfying especially with melee weapons, citing you feel the impact, the crunch, when you hit someone.
~ Really stressed the free flowing fact so that the person could take on multiple targets.
~ Each of the characters specializes in different moves and different animations.
~ There will be a strength statistic in the game that will effect how powerful the players attacks are in regards to melee combat and how much damage they can take. That is the difference between each characters melee capabilities.
~ Environments are destructible, such as house windows etc while allowing you to make fast choices during gameplay and allow more options in combat as well.
~ You can shoot from cover, more around corners, jump into cover, blindfire etc.
~ You can shoot an enemy through a window, take cover and look through the window sill, jump through the window sill and attack enemies that way.
~ You can shoot barrels that explode, though try to stay quiet about what exactly is destructible.
~ Rockstar notes that there are very destructive scenes quite early on in the game.
~ There will be lots of damage and carnage at the tips of the players hands.
~ Combat A.I. is much more advanced this time and have a lot more knowledge of the event that happens around the player.
~ Enemies will react to how you play.
~ Enemies will constantly be looking for a new position to move to so they can expose your cover if you are in cover.
~ If you sit and do nothing but shoot, enemies will move forward quickly to swarm and flank you.
~ Cover gives you the advantage but you need to keep moving and keep attacking to exploit it.
~ Enemies will behave different, for example S.W.A.T. teams will be a lot more focused and a lot more agressive in flanking a lot more as well as being more aware of their surroundings whereas gang members might be more gung-ho.
~ Different enemies will cause different intensity levels. Not necessarily easier or harder, just very different depending on who is attacking you.
~ There will be a lot of agility based stuff.
~ Players movements in certain missions will have to be worked on as well. I'm assuming this means you'll have to practice.
~ Everything was improved over GTA IV, Rockstar says they are really happy with it but it is still getting tweaked.
~ A lot of the things you saw in the trailers such as climbing things and jumping around is possible and is not cutscene material.
~ The three characters work together in firefights based on situations that arrive in game.
~ If you are attacking a group of enemies you can position each character where you want them on the map.
~ If you chose to position them on the map where you want you can also choose the strategy that player will use, for example if you put Michael on high ground you could get a sniper rifle out and he would pick off the enemies whereas Franklin would sneak around back and Trevor and have him do a full frontal assault with a vehicle such as a bull dozer. This changes depending on what you want each character to do.
~ You are free to switch between each character at any given point.
~ If you switch the character you left will continue doing what he is doing.
~ If you engage in a situation with each player and one gets in trouble, you may have to switch back to that character to get him out of trouble.
~ If a character is getting shot at and you can't get a shot at that enemy you may have to switch to another character who is sniping to plink off that enemy.
~ Rockstar stresses that the new combat system will feel really natural, perhaps the best of all games.
~ You may have a situation where Michael may be escaping enemies and Franklin would be with him, and your getting shot at in a car chase and Franklin is shooting back, you can either switch to Franklin and shoot or continue driving as Michael. Events like this are totally random but some play with the story.
~ There will be situations where the players have specialist rolls.
~ One player may be doing something and the other may have to cover or protect the one engaging in something else.
~ Rockstar stresses it will be a completely new experience.
~ All three characters will feel different throughout the entire game, not only in combat but also from various stats that will effect how they play.
~ One of the main ways they will differ is from the shooting stat and special abilities.
~ The shooting stat will effect the players ability to carry ammo, like how much they are able to carry.
~ The shooting stat will also effect reload speed, accuracy as well as steadiness of aim and combat movement.
~ All 3 characters will start with different skill levels.
~ You have the ability to increase their skills throughout the game.
~ You can go to a shooting range and practice to increase your shooting stat.
~ When you kill an enemy your shooting stat will rise.
~ Your shooting stat will rise differently depending on how you kill an enemy. For example, a headshot will increase it more that a torso shot.
~ You will be rewarded in that aspect based on how you play. Your stats will be increased based on this.
~ Michaels special abilities will have a big effect on combat, such as the ability to slow down time to pick off enemies very accurately.
~ Taking down enemies in slow motion will allow very graphic visuals when you see the person get taken down and they have added nice filters for these sort of things.
~ Trevors special ability is almost the opposite of Michaels. He takes less damage and inflicts double damage. He goes into a rage-like mode where he takes down enemies quite easily and not take any damage.
~ Franklins special ability allows him to slow down time while driving in order to pull off "spectacular" driving moves. Think of it as slowing down time but driving at the same speed, weaving in and out of traffic with real, real pinpoint accuracy. You can miss a car by 2 inches and nail it. It allows people to perfrom really sick moves.
~ Franklins skill allows him to perform drivebys in slow motion.
~ His skill isn't quite as combat heavy as Trevor or Michael but it makes them each unique and different.
~ These abilities help players decide who they want to play certain missions as.
~ Special abilites only last so long, so you can only use them for as long as they last.
~ Special abilities have a stat allowing you to build up it's usable length over time.
~ Franklins special ability was demonstrated in the gameplay video released yesterday.
~ Rockstar assures us that they are trying to provided their greatest piece of entertainment.
~ You can customize car horns.
END OF INTERVIEW
