the team overhauled the game's shooting and driving mechanics to match the standards of its contemporaries. public reception to the team's previous games (such as "grand theft auto iv", "red dead redemption" and "max payne 3") was considered during the process. to increase the pace of shootouts, the team removed hard lockinga central mechanic in "grand theft auto iv" that instantly locks onto the enemy nearest to the crosshair. associate technical director phil hooker found hard locking "too disorientating" and immersion-breaking, "as you didn't have to think about enemy locations". he said that "grand theft auto iv" players "just rely on holding and shooting until a target is dead", so "grand theft auto v" introduces a timer that breaks the lock on a target after a few seconds. the team refined "red dead redemption"s cover system for the game, with increased fluidity moving into and out of cover. regarding the reworked vehicle mechanics, houser felt the game took influence from racing games and corrected "grand theft auto iv"s "boat-like" driving controls.