It's fair to say I'm more than a little excited about the launch of Grand Theft Auto V.

The latest iteration of Rockstar's open-world crime spree sees three protagonists take on an entire county on a map that is bigger, better looking and more diverse than anything we've seen before.

Most of all, though, I'm looking forward to the cars.

The GTA series has long-since enjoyed poking fun at car manufacturers. Although truth is sometimes stranger than fiction, who can forget the oddly named Coquette in the last game? Or even the, erm, Uranus?

The screenshots you can see above are of cars confirmed for the game. First up is the Coil Voltic, a low-slung sports car with the look of a Lotus Elise, or possibly a Tesla Roadster. Thanks to Rockstar completely overhauling the driving mechanics of the game for GTA V, expect it to handle like one too.

Then there's the Benefactor Feltzer, a performance coupé that appears to have taken inspiration for its muscular stance from the Mercedes SL65 AMG Black Series. 

Lastly, there's an Audi-esque saloon, dubbed the Obey Tailgater. We'll leave you to draw your own conclusions there.

I've also enjoyed the lengths Rockstar have gone to to publicise these cars in-game, too, even creating an entire social network - dubbed Lifeinvader - for fans to visit prior to its release. As part of that site, an advertising poster for the Enus Cognoscenti Cabrio was posted by fake dealer Legendary Motorsport. 

So there are four cars we know to be in the game, but there are photos of hundreds more online. A sports car and an SUV which bear a passing resemblance to the Audi R8 V10 Spyder and Range Rover Sport, and Porsche 911 GT3-esque sports car can all be seen driving around the streets of Los Santos in the game's official trailer.

Then there's the work of specialist tuner Bravado, which has created a real-life version of the SRT Viper-inspired Banshee, an icon from the series. It's been put up as a competition prize ahead of the game's launch, and features a 503bhp, 535lb ft SRT/10 engine. 

With all this in mind, it's easy to believe the rumours that the total cost of developing Grand Theft Auto V is $265m (£170m). That makes it not only the most expensive video game ever made, but also places it second on the list of most expensive films ever made, second only to Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End.