A year after Rockstar teased the gaming world with a trailer for its forthcoming Grand Theft Auto title the games company has released a second trailer revealing more details about the game.

GTA 5 (or GTA V) is the first title in the series since 2008's GTA 4, and takes the action back to the LA-like city of Los Santos - first seen in 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

The trailer shows the usual mix of opulent mansions, inner-city slums, fast cars, gangsters and gun fights.

The game will also be told through the eyes of three new characters: Michael, Franklin and Trevor.

The two-minute trailer reveals a little bit of each.

Michael is a retired bank robber with years of experience as a successful career criminal. When the action picks up, we see him living comfortably in an unofficial sort of witness protection program.

Franklin works as a repo man for an Armenian luxury car dealership, running scams on ambitious young hot shots with new money. When they can't make their re-payments, it's Franklin's job to get the cars back.

Trevor is another career criminal who lacks the professionalism of Michael. He's easily the most volatile and psychopathic criminal to be turned into a playable character in the GTA series but he retains some charm with his ex-military background. He's also an experienced pilot and comes in handy during the flying portions of the game.

Players will be able to switch between the three characters at any time during the game, marking a departure from the previous titles.

"Just at the conceptual level, the idea was three separate stories that you play in one game," said Rockstar's head writer in an interview with the New York Times. "The next bit was, let's not have the stories intersect once or twice but have them completely interwoven. It felt like it was going to be a real narrative strength: you get to play the protagonist and the antagonist in the same story." 

Rockstar says the game environment is the biggest ever seen in the series, bigger than 2004's San Andreas. However, the basic structure is kept the same as the previous titles, with gameplay featuring a combination of mission completion and city exploration. The trailer also revealed a fully modeled ocean floor that can be explored.

Rockstar says large parts of the game have been completely redesigned, including the shooting and fighting aspect, and it will feature several big set-pieces, including heists, which are expected to be far more complicated and involved than in any previous version.

The franchise has sold over 120m copies worldwide since the series started in 1997 and the latest trailer has already garnered 2.8 million YouTube views in less than 24 hours.

It will be released on the PS3, Xbox, Wii U and other platforms around March 2013.

You can watch the full trailer below: