A GTA thread devoid of violence whining.

[pleto4_ryan]

no i don't know anything about number 4 which will come after the GTA : (desert city what is called) and will be revolution, as Rockstar sais

 

I am playing the last days Grand Theft Auto : Vice City..

Yep i finally bought it

 

And seeing the differences from GTA3 is remarkable. There is a story. Real story...not the A+ Mafia plot but a decent one for such a game and for the first attemt.

Also the chars finally have some souls, they aren't just pixels who send you to jombs. I mean just the talk with the taxi misses can make you laugh...

 

Also let's not forget the new freedom. You can fly and go ANYWHERE in the city. It is remarkable to have your mp3s in the radio and seeing the sunset up above and the scyscrapters on the horizon *shivers*. And also the thing of owing house, businesses. At last you can really become the owner of the city. In GTA3 you were're supposed to be one of the first criminals and still you had some garages

 

What am i going e? what for all this rave? If Rockstar has managed getting the quality and the gameplay at such a high point only in one game, and let's forget, not putting many many things more. Imagine what we will see in the number 4

 

So, let the drooling begin....

[Marek]

GTA4 (or 5, depending on how you look at it) is rumored to be called Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. That's all that's known, basically.

 

I wouldn't go so far as calling GTA3/Vice the "ultimate experience" or anything like that. But they're excellent games, and I think they present a direction for many devs to follow. The game also has a TON of style to boot (especially Vice).

 

I also like how Vice has you in a more proactive role. You're not just running errands for everyone all the time. It feels like you're actually building towards something. The story is quite nice. There were a couple of moments where it really felt like a thrill ride. (The helicopter mission with Vance was one of them for me personally.)

 

There's only one problem I have with the game, and that's the story structure. I went through the game following the story missions pretty closely, and not doing any taxi missions or other 'sidequests' at the same time. So you get a really condensed part where there's lots of story going on, lots of phone calls, etc. That all stops when you finish the mission that lets you buy assets, after which the pacing goes all wrong. You don't get anymore phone calls or story bits--you're just working on your assets for a very very long time, and you only have one or two story missions left at the end. It's kinda out of balance.

 

What I'd like to see in future GTA's:

* Interactive cutscenes. A lot of GTA's experience is still watching pre-scripted movie clips. I'd love to see some adventure game and/or Half-Life 2 influence creep in. Interactive dialog trees and the ability to move around and interact with the environment during a cutscene would be awesome.

* A small hint of sim/strategy. I think the concept of running a criminal network could be taken a little further. For example, by giving you the option who to recruit and who to kill, or by putting a tiny bit of simcity-style management into the assets. I'm just talking about a really subtle influence, incorporated into the action/adventure gameplay. I'd love to have some kind of main hideout from which I could do business.

* MUCH more different models for pedestrians please! It's the only thing that disrupts the suspension of disbelief. It kind of sucks seeing a gang of 10 people, all looking exactly the same

 

Don't get me wrong though, I think GTA kicks ass. 'San Andreas' will probably be another evolution of the basic GTA3 concept, but hopefully the next generation of games after that will really set new standards again. (The first bit is purely based on educated guess, by the way.)

[Jake]

Sorry if this is confusing . I cloned the other GTA4 thread in hopes of separating discussion about how GTA is violent from discussion of GTA as a game, since both are interesting discussions, but one tends to shove the other out.* If you're looking to tell everyone how bad GTA is because its violent, go over here.

 

* really I wanted an excuse to write a lot of dull crap without being seen as being "off-topic." but shh.

 

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I wonder if by "San Andreas" (if that's the real name) they're referring to the San Francisco area or the Los Angeles area (both more or less on the San Andreas faultline, but San Francisco is more well known for it). If it was set in San Francisco it would be a really great twist on the series, just because San Francisco is a very hill-based city. Anyone who's played Crazy Taxi (which is set in SF) can see what I'm getting at.

 

One of my favorite parts of Vice City isn't any of the mob stuff, but is just stealing a fast motorcycle and going for as much air as possible. If they could manage to build hilly landscapes without too much fog (though San Francisco is also notorious for fog, so I guess a little is acceptable), you could do some amazingly nice jumps on some of the main city streets.

 

If it's set in LA, that would seem pretty boring to me, as its more or less Vice City over again except with less interesting beaches and stuff (well, and that waterway featuring the truck vs motorcycle chase from T2 but thats hardly worth basing a game around )

 

And Marek, I agree about the sneaking-in of moderate resource management and dialogue trees, especially if its done subtly. Well, one can only assume it will be done subtly, because everything in the GTA games is done subtly except the wanton and gratuitous violence.

 

I always assumed there were only like 5 types of pedestrians as to lessen the load times. It already has trouble having more than 10 kinds of car on the road (sometimes it's even worse than that), but yes it is silly that all the gang members look identical, etc.

[amishler]

Not having a PS2 or a capable PC, I was able to pretty much ignore the hype about GTA3 and Vice City (which is not to say that I didn't know they existed). But since the two-in-one game was announced for the Xbox I've been doing a little reading on them, and I think I may have to pick it up. They both sound like that rare combination of great games with huge popular appeal.

 

On a side note, the July issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly has the EGM staff bring GTA:VC, Hitman 2, The Getaway and Animal Crossing to ex-mobster Henry Hill (the man whose life Goodfellas is based on), and he ends up cussing out the mob-related games and keeps Animal Crossing, as well as EGM's Gamecube. It's pretty funny.

 

And on another GTA-related side note, I really hope The Simpsons: Hit and Run is as good as the previews (and one review) I've read are making it sound like. I got burned by Road Rage, so I'm cautiously waiting to hear more about this one, but it's sounding good so far. I mean, who wouldn't like playing GTA as Homer in his muumuu? Keeping my fingers crossed, and also hoping that someday they make a cel-shaded Simpsons game instead of this mildly creepy 3D stuff. You'd think as popular as cel-shading has been the past couple of years, they'd think to use it in a game that's based on a flipping 2D cartoon, for Pete's sake!

 

But I digress. I look forward to playing GTA for the first time and seeing what all the fuss is about.

[remixor]

Originally posted by amishler

On a side note, the July issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly has the EGM staff bring GTA:VC, Hitman 2, The Getaway and Animal Crossing to ex-mobster Henry Hill (the man whose life Goodfellas is based on)

 

On another side note--if you weren't already aware--Ray Liotta, who played Henry Hill in GoodFellas, plays Vice City protagonist Tommy Vercetti. It's hardly his most inspired acting job, but not bad.

 

 

The only GTA games I played were GTA1 and Vice City, and both of them are great for, obviously, completely different reasons. I'm not crazy about the VC 80s atmosphere (except for hearing "Africa" by Toto on the VC radio--I love that song!), but as far as gameplay goes it's excellent.

[pleto4_ryan]

i haven't plaied GTA 1 and 2 and i don't see it happen in the future, i dislike much the way the camera looks

 

anyway, GTA3 was one of the games i waited much for the to come to PC port...when it came out i was dazzled and plaied it until break down

 

and vice city continued with the same way

 

I reallylike the 80s atmosphere, it's interesting and i like colorful things

 

(good idea Jake to split the threads *thumps up* )

 

Vice City has some wonderful missions, like the Love Fist Speed one (i was loosing at many times because i wanted to read what the love fist was saying (funny responses) and hitted cars )

 

and another great one was when you took Phil(?) dying to the hospital and the whole dizzy environement

 

missions you liked?

[Jake]

Originally posted by amishler

 

And on another GTA-related side note, I really hope The Simpsons: Hit and Run is as good as the previews (and one review) I've read are making it sound like.

 

I don't know how the finished product will play, or if it was just a mission-specific thing, but when we played it for a couple minutes at E3 it kept yelling "GET BACK IN CAR" whenever I tried to get out and run around. It might be because I was in the middle of a car chase mission or something, but "GET BACK IN CAR!" didn't seem very GTA . The art and car physics seemed pretty fun though.

[Novel_T]

Here's a quote from Gamespot's extensive, and highly favorable preview of Hit and Run:

 

The game's control scheme manages to keep the action accessible to just about anyone. The game features two basic sets of controls for walking and driving. For walking around, you'll simply direct your character with the analog stick and use the face buttons to run, jump, kick, and interact with items. If you need to move the camera around, you'll be able to use the right analog stick. For driving, you'll use the face buttons for steering, accelerating, and braking.