Grand Theft Auto 5 has students mesmerized from MWSU Campus Watch on Vimeo.

Video games have become an escape for many people and over the last three weeks, one video game has taken the world by storm.

On September 17th, Grand Theft Auto 5 was released. In the first 24 hours the game made $800 million. After three days it had reached one billion dollars in sales. Junior Trey McLaughlin says he can’t choose just one thing that he loves the most.

“You can sit down and watch TV. You can drive around for hours just exploring. You could find stunt jumps and just do that if you’re into that kind of thing. You can hijack helicopters and airplanes and stuff and fly all over the place too. And then of course the main storyline is very good too. So honestly, the fact that you can do whatever you want is probably my favorite aspect,” said McLaughlin

The main storyline follows three characters as they work their way up the ladder in the criminal underbelly of Los Santos, Grand Theft Auto’s version of Los Angeles.

Each character has his own special ability; Franklin can slow time while driving, Michael can slow time while shooting, and Trevor goes into a rampage mode where he takes minimal damage while inflicting more than normal. The player can also switch between characters at anytime.

A major selling point for the game was Grand Theft Auto Online, a completely separate world from the offline game. However, since its launch last Tuesday, GTA Online has been plagued with problems.

Fans of the series have been upset with developer Rockstar Games for not having a smooth launch. Junior AJ Quevy feels it should be working but understands why it isn’t.

“It was supposed to be online that day so it should have worked,” Quevy said. “But as far as realism goes, people should kind of give them the courtesy to understand that this is a trial and error type thing.”

“There was a reason why they waited because they were still getting the kinks out of it and there still are kinks but once you actually get into the game – I’ve seen some online gameplay – it’s really cool. It’s just, they honestly should have probably waited another week or two before they actually released it,” said McLaughlin

Quevy says he’s given up sleep just to get more playing time in.

“I have been really, really tired during class because of it. I’ve gone sleepless nights but then went to class afterwards though, just to keep playing.”