Grand Theft Auto 5 will capture your attention immediately with a bombastic kick-off, Rockstar North president Leslie Benzies has told Jeuxactu in a new interview, which also sheds light on the game's capacity for insanity and choice of multiple playable protagonists. The following quotes come care of Google Translate and a little polishing on my part, so treat them gingerly.

Update - I've changed the headline to reflect the fact that Benzies' comments about "doing crazy things for no reason" apply to character antics in missions, rather than what's possible in GTA 5's open world. Apologies for any confusion.

Original story continues - Several playable characters were apparently considered for GTA: San Andreas on the PS2 and original Xbox, Benzies revealed, but the idea was abandoned for technical reasons. With GTA 5, however, "one character alone could not manage all the activities and tasks we wanted to establish."

Regarding the gentler introductions of older GTAs, Benzies observed that "I think it was the right strategy for stories we wanted to tell at the time, but not this time. Today, we want to surprise people with very intense missions from the start. The pace of the game is much faster than any of its predecessors.
"From the beginning, we want to show off the new game mechanics while creating intense, action-packed gameplay, to capture the player's attention immediately. Remember that the three characters in the game are already living in the city of Los Santos and surrounding areas. They are not newcomers like Niko and Tommy Vercetti, or people returning after a long absence like CJ.

"They already have contacts, they are integrated with the world and lead a busy life - these characteristics should give players a sense of immediate and total immersion."
That said, all three main characters won't be playable from the off. "We want to give the player the opportunity to get to know the three characters individually, and explore the world as each of them, and it would not have been possible if all three had been available from the start."

Also key to the whole immersion gambit is the game's sense of realism. GTA 5 trailers suggest that a large amount of violent lunacy is in store, but Benzies insists that all of it will be plausible, carefully framed by the plot. "You won't see anyone doing crazy things for no reason. The player will have access to enough heavy artillery early in the game, but again, in a particular context and not without reason."

As we reported earlier this morning, GTA 5 features a player-owned dog and 15 wild animal species. Here's a GTA 5 preview with more. Nice work spotting this, Videogamer.

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Pretty long, but worth the read!