I won't bother with going online so far. GTA is too legend/epic-like, that i would do anything else than going through the story first. Even tho, online will rule if the netcode is good.
I've played about one and a half hour into the story so far. Half of it was messing around and getting familiar with the controls. And i must say... it's hard to find the right words. It's hard to describe all this awesomeness with a few sentences... it would end up in a looong post i guess.
So let's keep it simple...
It's EPIC!!!!
Car physics are very good by the way. Of course, still arcade like... but they are much closer to real life behaviour now. Maybe a little exaggerated (ok, a lot), but they look damn good. I took a nice 4wd pickup to the beach for example... you leave "marks" in the sand. Not just skid marks... like... tracks? I also found a group of rocks, and tried how the "offroad physics" would be regarding "rock climbing"... let me just say, it works... and it looks damn good (suspension is simulated really good)!
If you have played Crackdown before... the car physics are a bit similar, but greatly improved and still GTA style.
The best part is crash physics...
Accidents feel and look like accidents (speaking of cars... and pedestrians (ragdoll anyone?), yikes!). Or lets say you take a few newspaper stands and mailboxes etc with you, on your way on the sidewalk, it looks just mind blowing!!!
And now it's time to stop... i'm going towards the long post mentioned above...
*back to GTA*