These GTA IV mods and add-ons reveal why GTA V's first-person mode is exciting

Grand Theft Auto V is getting a whole new perspective on PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and PC, and it’s got us antsy to get back into Los Santos.

The open-world living-city nature of the Grand Theft Auto games make them perfect for the first-person view. In fact, on the PC, modders have gone ahead and already turned most of Rockstar’s previous releases into adventures where you look through the eyes of the hero. It changes the way that you play in and interact with the games, and it’s awesome that the developer is finally embracing this.

Let’s go ahead and take a quick look back at some videos that illustrate exactly why we’re excited about first-person GTA.

GTA IV in first-person

Here is the standard Grand Theft Auto IV with the first person mod. Even in this aging game, you can see how putting you right in the shoes of Niko Bellic changes how you look at things.

You don’t guide Niko up to a hot-dog stand — you walk up to the hot-dog stand. You don’t drive around cars like they are remote controlled. You take the wheel yourself.

The difference between this and GTA V’s first-person feature is that console players will finally get a chance to try it out.

Get the mod: First-person mode

Digital sightseeing

On PC, you aren’t limited to the game that Rockstar gives you. Modders will continue to add layers on top of the built-in first-person mode. One of the things we cannot wait for are the photorealistic graphical add-ons. These turn the cartoony visuals of Grand Theft Auto into something that looks like something from out of real life.

The potential here is to create a situation where players are happy to just walk around and take in the sights of the game. For me, the best part of GTA is often just exploring the world, and first-person mode could make that even more amazing.

Get the mod: Grand Theft Auto Photorealistic 2

Virtual reality

We’ve already seen some very awesome things done with GTA and virtual reality. Check it out:

This could move even further with GTA V. First, with Rockstar officially supporting first-person, you’re likely to see less weirdness. For example, some people had issues where VR made buildings and cars feel way larger than they should. It’s possible that Rockstar could build in controls to prevent that.

Additionally, Rockstar could come around to supporting VR natively. If it’s making the leap to first person, it’s probably not too big a jump to making the game work with the Oculus Rift headset as well. The PlayStation 4 is even getting its own head-mounted virtual-reality display, and GTA V would certainly make a killer first experience for Sony.