Grand Theft Auto

[topekaguy]

This is the thread for all things GTA. However I must say that the ones I have experience with are GTA III and the subsequent ones that followed. Anyways we want to hear all your stories about gunning down people and generally committing the offense of grand theft auto.

Ive played GTA III through IV but Ive only beaten Vice City, San Andreas, and IV. Suprisingly if I had to pick which one was my favorite I would say San Andreas. And I have no interest in gangstas or rap but in my opinion it was the best at what GTA tries to do. And that is provide a stylized view of America.

Anyways, its only a crime if you get caught.

[NeoStarr]

This is the thread for all things GTA. However I must say that the ones I have experience with are GTA III and the subsequent ones that followed. Anyways we want to hear all your stories about gunning down people and generally committing the offense of grand theft auto.

 

The first two are free now and I HIGHLY recommend them. They're crazy fun in a totally different way. And I would so be down for some multiplayer if we could get some people together.

http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/

 

GTA is probably my most favourite series of all time. One of the few that I take off work for on release; I just can't put them down until they're done. As far as favourites go; my list would be something like...

1. Vice City

2. The Lost and the Damned

3. GTA 1

4. GTA 4

5. Ballad of Gay Tony

6. GTA 3

7. GTA 2

8. London: 1969

9. San Andreas

 

And my reasoning;

 

1. Vice City was the best GTA game for so many reasons. I'll start with the biggest one because I'm always excited to talk about it; you take control of the city. GTA games always start out making you feel a bit like a fish out of water at the beginning, and as your reputation grows so does your comfort with the environment. However, Vice City is the only game that really takes that outcome a step further. In the other games, your ability to strive in the environment is backed up by an arsenal of weapons and good standing with all the local gangs. In Vice City, it's also backed up by a fleet of businesses paying protection money, a gang of your own, and a slew of little changes you can make to the appearance of the city by completing certain missions. And that's an awesome feeling; being able to see the mark you left in almost any area you visit. Really dug the characters in this one too; and it did a good job of not leaving too many of them behind. The one thing that never sat will with me in this game is the role of the protagonist. In most GTA games, your not necessarily a hard-boiled criminal from the get go; usually you start off in a fucked up situation that more or less forces you into a life of criminal activity. Not so in Vice City, where you play a big time coke dealer with little remorse for others from start to finish. I always thought of GTA stories as being rather good at portraying how good people can end up in bad situations; Vice City just didn't have that.

 

2. The Lost and the Damned is the epitome of Grand Theft Auto-style story telling if you ask me; at least as far as post-GTA4 stories go when Rockstar started doing tragic endings rather than happy ones. The characters in the gang are so well developed and since their stories weave together so well to create the over-arching narrative, it makes it extremely easy to get attached to them and it's probably the most emotional experience a GTA game has to offer. I suppose it loses some points for not really bringing a whole lot of stellar new gameplay elements to the mix. There's a few things added on to GTA4 that makes it a bit more tailored the biker themes of this installment but overall it's nothing especially impressive and I don't think much of them were carried over to Gay Tony or RDR.

 

3. I've been playing GTA 1 on and off ever since the old Pentium 233. The humor in this one is off the wall; surely anyone whose played it still remembers many of the words to The Ballad of Chapped Lipped Calquhoun...

The game is insanely challenging to actually complete; partly because the missions are so damn hard and one shot kills without body armor, but mostly because it's hard to walk from one side of the street to the other without getting a little trigger happy and picking fights with everyone you see because it's just so much fun (enter your name in as 'buckfast' to get all guns ^^). Some cars have ridiculous top speeds and the police AI is practically suicidal, which makes for some of the most insane car chases in the series even from a 2d perspective. Also, BRING BACK GOURANGA BONUSES.

 

4. I loved GTA4; even the date missions. Was really happy to see the return to realism in this series. The GTA3+ cities didn't feel as inspired after every open world game started copying the ideas behind it and I think Rockstar effectively showed that they know best how to make progress in the genre; not necessarily by adding more guns and crazy shit but by making the city feel more alive. Subtle things like visiting hotdog stands and interacting with passers by are enough to give a better sense that the pedestrians are more like real people than slowly moving targets for you to torment (though that's certainly not out of the question). And driving through the city at high speeds still looks fucking awesome.

 

5. As far as the GTA4+ games go, Ballad of Gay Tony is probably the most fun to screw around in. Like an antithesis to Lost and the Damned, it's heavy on new gameplay elements (that automatic shotgun with explosive rounds changes everything) and insane missions (blowing up multiple helicopters in several of them) but the story to this one is rather disjointed and suffers hard from Rockstars habit of abandoning the most interesting characters and taking the stereotypes a little too far.

 

6. GTA3 is a remarkable transition considering how many of the themes and gameplay mechanics of the series carried over almost intact from the 2D counterpart. Arguably the most impressive game at the time of its release due to the sheer size of the world; at the time seamless* 3D environments were unheard of at that scale. I think the only reason this falls so low on the list was because it was outdone by its own sequels; it essentially provides the framework for a GTA game without going too far beyond the shooting/driving mechanics and mission structure; but they had to start somewhere and this was fantastic while it lasted.

(* - Ok, there were a few minor loading transitions in that one; but not frequent at all)

 

7. I think GTA2 might be a tad overrated. Not that I don't enjoy it to death, but I kind of enjoy the first one a bit more. This one has better gameplay because of the way gang respect works; but I probably spend more time cheating in the first two games and running around town blowing stuff up than actually bothering with the missions all that often, so the gameplay point didn't really outweigh the humor and art direction of the first game (as I prefered the vibrant, happy colours of the first one to the darker, grittier look of the second).

 

8. London 1969 is the one that I've played the least off (release it for free already!), which is why it's so low on the list. I don't remember too many changes though; other than the odd 'underground' sign and the changing of 'Busted' to 'Nicked' (which I thought was fairly clever). It's probably better than I give it credit for.

 

9. If I wanted to run through an empty desert smacking UFOs with a dildo I'd go play Saints Row.

[HotChops]

This is the thread for all things GTA. However I must say that the ones I have experience with are GTA III and the subsequent ones that followed. Anyways we want to hear all your stories about gunning down people and generally committing the offense of grand theft auto.

 

The first two are free now and I HIGHLY recommend them. They're crazy fun in a totally different way. And I would so be down for some multiplayer if we could get some people together.

http://www.rockstargames.com/classics/

 

GTA is probably my most favourite series of all time. One of the few that I take off work for on release; I just can't put them down until they're done. As far as favourites go; my list would be something like...

1. Vice City

2. The Lost and the Damned

3. GTA 1

4. GTA 4

5. Ballad of Gay Tony

6. GTA 3

7. GTA 2

8. London: 1969

9. San Andreas

 

 

While I have a lot of respect for a person who has played all the GTA games, I think Vice City belongs at the bottom of the list with London 69 and GTA 2.

 

Vice City was a mess of a game. It was thrown together in only one year and it was done so primarily to capitalize on the success of GTA III while experimenting with new concepts for San Andreas.

 

My reasoning:

- The layout of the city was restrictive. It appears that they purposely made it that way to make the player go the long way to their objective and thus artificially increase the length of the game.

- The protagonist was horrible. Ray Liotta did an excellent job, but I hated Tommy Vercetti. He was a heartless asshole; a thug in every sense of the word. I understand that Tommy was based on the protagonists from films like Scarface, and that malevolence comes with that character. But when it comes to interactive entertainment, I prefer to like my character and to sympathize with his situation. For similar reasons, I hated CJ in San Andreas and love the direction that Rockstar has taken with its protagonists since those games.

- The updated law enforcement abilities were unbalanced. Once you got up to three or four stars, cops with tire spikes would spawn right in front of you again and again.

- Too many tools and guns. Variety is one thing, but it was just cumbersome and occasionally confusing in VC.

- Helicopter and motorcycles: good ideas that were poorly implemented. Helicopters were difficult to find and would spawn inconsistently. How many times did I drive all the way to my mansion, and run all the way up the stairs to find that the helicopter wasn't there? The apache was also a cool idea, but you had to go through a bunch of crap to get it (unless you managed to push/pull it into your condo garage like I did B) ) Motorcycles were fun, but it was too easy to fall off or wipe out.

- Water everywhere, yet no ability to swim.... or even survive if you go more than knee-deep. In GTA III, I got it. "Mobsters don't swim" blah blah blah. But Vice City is 50% water. They introduced boats in VC... you think you could've allowed the guy to at least survive in water for a few seconds?

- Glitchy physics. If Tommy stumbled three feet sometimes he died.

 

I'll finish by pointing out that I'm not the only person who must have noticed these things because Rockstar eventually fixed or removed almost all of those problems in subsequent games.

 

 

 

If I had to pick, I'd choose GTA III as my favorite. I felt like games were stagnating around 1999-2001, and GTA III really broke a lot of boundaries. I thought GTA III was so remarkable, I called together all of my friends from around the state to see it. They were skeptical, but I told them that it was "just like the original, but in 3D... and it's good, damn good." Two of those friends loved it so much, that on their way back to college on Monday they stopped at a store to get a PS2 and a copy of the game. Every time we saw each other for the next two years, we immediately put in GTA III and took turns seeing who could last the longest while causing the most chaos and destruction.

[CrowKnow]

So.. during the steam xmas sales I bought GTAIV and the DLC for it. From my previous experience years ago of playing with 3,Vice City, san andreas, vice city stories, and chinatown wars the series never exactly left any great impression on me.. to me it was always that sandbox game that was fun to mess around in but, never really pulled me in.

 

During all of my play throughs I generally got bored of the missions and stopped playing except for San Andreas which I only rented but, enjoyed mainly the working out/stat stuff.

 

After buying GTAIV I had reasonably high expectations considering the reviews, and the quality of R*'s work in general after hearing reviews about RDR and seeing upcoming stuff for LA Noire. IV has been a great game so far, I'm actually interested what's going on in the story although my complaints with it so far are: the movement/cover system which could just be me but, they feel rather clunky, the optimization of the PC version since I'm barely hitting 30fps at 800x600 :<, and the HELICOPTER CONTROLS ARGHHHH.... with my first encounter piloting a helicopter being a mission where you have to follow it in a car, take out guards, steal it while under fire and then fly it while being chased by police it doesn't seem like the best situation to be learning to pilot it.... not to mention that after all of that I only manage to stay airborne for 30 seconds before the helicopter decides to flip upside down and plunge directly into the ground despite me only holding the acceleration key. That being said I'll be more on the lookout for R*'s stuff in the future and I look forward to playing through the rest of IV+EFLC

Edited February 8, 2011 by ChrnoXIII

[Strangelove]

Vice city is by far my favorite gta. I love the 80s aesthetic and music. I also find the dialogue to be hilarious. Bikes were also awesome. I love the city and i like tommy.

 

Gta4 is a pile of shit. The game is essentially a humorless cunt in every sense of the word. A boring humorless cunt.

Edited February 8, 2011 by Strangelove

[NeoStarr]

the movement/cover system which could just be me but, they feel rather clunky, the optimization of the PC version since I'm barely hitting 30fps at 800x600 :<, and the HELICOPTER CONTROLS ARGHHHH....

 

Those are all valid complaints. I haven't actually tried it on PC but heard horror stories about the optimization. Do they let you use an X-Box controller with it though? Because I remember the helicopter controls being rather tight compared to previous games; but since it was mostly done with the triggers I'm not sure how the PC controls match up.

[deanb]

Grand Theft Auto IV is the worst GTA I've ever played.

Also the best.

I got it with my PS3, you guys think I'd of been allowed to pick GTA up for PS2? (tbh I wasn't much interested anyway)

IT was kinda fun, cool to just drive about. Though it's a drag at the start after you've played the game. Also I love that you keep your weapons if you get killed I'd stock up on sniper ammunition n have a shoot out from this sort of gas tower thing by the coast. North of the north east island (bodum?) Only one way up, so I'd hear em coming n just pistol them in the face.

Also I quite liked the shooting system, just log on, swing up a bit n boom headshot. Sure that might be a tad easy, but there's thousands of people to kill, you need the process to be as painless as possible.

[NeoStarr]

Dean, you would have loved GTA 3. The police AI was such that they couldn't navigate properly in vertical directions, and there was this one car park that spiraled all the way to the top, so you could sit up there with a sniper rifle for hours just taking potshots without any interruption.

[Hot Heart]

I love GTA IV. I'm not sure what it is about it exactly.

 

The story was OK but really dragged towards the end and some of the missions were dire, but I just love driving round the city. I think it's partly because it was my 'first' game on an HDTV and even though it wasn't a pretty game, it was still visually wowing (the lighting was great).

[SomTervo]

Vice City was my least favourite.

 

It felt like I was playing GTAIII whilst having a really, really bad acid trip, and trying to wrestle around gameplay that was getting too ambitious with an interface that was just as clunky as III.

 

My favourite GTA game? GTAIII. After playing IV, I went back and played III- and it honestly is just as fun today as it was back then. It's like, perfectly formulaic fun. Everything about it is fun, not trying to be too big or ambitious or deep, it's just a great laugh to play. Even going back through the missions was great, and it's got one of the best atmospheres out of all of the GTA games.

 

My favourite GTA cinematic experience/ games as art thing? GTAIV. I quite enjoyed GTAIV on my first playthrough, but not massively. The story was good overall, and the moment-to-moment writing was brilliant. But as a game, I didn't find it very fun. However, recently I went back to play it- and turned the HUD off, most of the music off, the auto-aim off, and set the camera to over-the-shoulder (the closest option).

 

That honestly changed the game. It goes from being half arcadey-GTA and half serious crime movie, to being ALL serious crime movie, and surprisingly engrossing. Especially when you have to use the map to find your way around, and actually take in the city's sights. Even the combat felt more intense when you don't have any HUD to help you and you feel like you're right IN the fight. Good stuff.

 

My favourite GTA experience, overall? GTA: San Andreas. The fun formulaic gameplay of GTAIII, taken to an ambitious and huge extreme. A massive, incredible world to explore- easily the best designed world of all GTA games; a gentle RPG-ing system that makes it actually fun to do the menial tasks the games sometimes make you do; one of the most compelling stories, the epic nature of CJ's plight, and all the characters he meets who weave in and out of the plot; and all the generally awesome shit like climbing, flying planes, base jumping/ parachuting, HGV driving cross-country, proper in-depth swimming.

 

Amazing. It gets that quality that Metal Gear Solid games usually have- years on you can come back to it, and still find some element of the game you didn't even know existed (it wasn't till 3 years after I bought the game that I found out you could steal trains!). Plus refining the controls a fair bit with free-aiming and junk.

 

Things to fix in the series? Combat. That's the main thing imho. A regenerating health system is actually a benefit in a game like this (RDR proved it)- in that the relentlessly dangerous nature of the game's simulation means the player has to be able to survive mad accidents that could take place at any time, as well as the hard-to-read/survive combat itself. Also the cover system in GTAIV (and RDR) is totally useless. I'm still waiting for a free-flowing coversystem; one where the player holds a button, and the character automatically hides, but isn't 'stuck' to any surface. So, instead of Nico sticking to a car, still getting shot, and not being able to maneouvre out of the way- the player holds a button, Nico crouches as low as he needs to, and the player can still move him back and forth, side to side, while he procedurally hides behind it. Just like a crouch button but for cover/blindfiring purposes. That would fix GTA's combat imho. Would smooth it out.

 

TL;DR: GTA:SA is the best entry, imho, for it's fun as a game and it's ambitious nature, but for the next GTA game they have to fix the combat, every iteration of the series has had serious problems with it.

Edited February 11, 2011 by kenshi_ryden

[deanb]

http://www.gta4.net/map/?lat=-9.66796875&lng=-69.609375&z=2&p=7869&ph=73.31494&pp=9.73595&pz=1

 

My fave tower.

 

Oh n the site is pretty cool idea too.

[FredEffinChopin]

http://www.vg247.com/2011/10/25/grand-theft-auto-v-announced/

 

Hi baby. I've missed you.

[SomTervo]

Cannot wait. "L.A." is, imho, the perfect setting for a GTA game. Captures that surreal artificiality of USA culture that GTA just rips the shit out of.

 

Plus, Los Santos was an amazing place in San Andreas. And they can only improve on GTAIV; there's no way they'll make it more mundane.

[RockyRan]

Cannot wait. "L.A." is, imho, the perfect setting for a GTA game. Captures that surreal artificiality of USA culture that GTA just rips the shit out of.

 

Plus, Los Santos was an amazing place in San Andreas. And they can only improve on GTAIV; there's no way they'll make it more mundane.

 

New features in GTA V include obligatory defecation minigames, consisting of 3-minute-long simon-says minigames every 8 in-game hours as you force massive dookies into the toilet of your choice, as well as adrenaline-pumping traffic features like contesting bogus traffic tickets and putting gas in your car!

 

Also, an all-new feature for GTA: grocery shopping! Feel the thrill of pushing a light cart across one of 150 meticulously rendered supermarkets, gas stations, and produce markets for a variety of different products and produce! Each item on the cart will have its own physics system so you can gawk at the hyper-advanced object physics as you put items on the cashier's conveyor belt with haunting realism! You say it's boring? Who cares! ATMOSPHERE! SO REAL!

 

And that's not all, all new features have been added to the beloved cell phone from GTA IV. Now it's a SMART phone, and many heart-stoppingly awesome missions will include texting sequences where you must control each of your characters' thumbs individually with the left and right thumbsticks. Clicking each thumbstick will tap on the virtual keyboard of the smart phone, providing an unparalleled texting experience that no other game provides! Also included is a new "billing" feature, where you get overcharges on your cell phone bill and you must call customer service and wait for 20 real-time minutes as a satire of all the times you actually have to call in real life!

 

---

 

Isn't it strange how earlier GTAs made fun of exactly the shit they had you do in GTA IV? If Rockstar was trying to be ironic with all the boringass shit in that game, I sure ain't laughing.

 

In other news, I've been playing San Andreas for the first time and I was surprised that I was actually having fun. And here I was thinking maybe the GTA series wasn't for me after trying GTA IV as my first game in the series

Edited October 27, 2011 by RockyRan

[Strangelove]

I really wish there had been an option in GTA4 to break that fucking cellphone in half or throw it in the river. Ugh. Making menial shit fun in games is the exception, not the standard. Just because you do it doesnt mean its going to be fun.

Maybe 5 will have you do your tax returns, or have you stand in line at the post office. If its a minigame, people will eat that shit up, right? Its fun, right? Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeah....

Edited October 27, 2011 by Strangelove

[Waldorf and Statler]

I was really hoping it'd be in Vice City. I love Vice City and its 80s music.

[Thursday Next]

I agree with Strangelove and Rocky. IV was a grey dirge next to Vice City. The story was bleak, the character was entirely lacking in ambition, the story went nowhere.

 

Vice City had its faults for sure. But IV tried so hard to be technically brilliant (and I'll admit, it succeeded) but along the way it completely lost all of the over the top fun of Vice City.

 

I don't want to call up my cooooseen for a ride in his taxi. I don't want to have to baby sit a bunch of whiny friends. I want to pimp about in helicopters. I want to amass millions of dollars and buy up half the city. I want characters who used to shoot me on sight to end up showing me deference and say "Hey Mr V!" as I stroll past them to my (not)Lamborghini.

 

I swear to god, if I end up with billions upon billions of dollars in V with nothing to spend it on, and marry some bint from the block I will never buy another GTA again.

[TheMightyEthan]

I liked GTA IV a lot, but Vice City is definitely the pinnacle of the series so far, for all the reasons you just said.

[deanb]

See I've never played any of the PS2 GTAs so I get to live in blissful ignorance. (I'm sure there's a phrase regarding that)

[FredEffinChopin]

I don't care where they set it, just make sure Fernando Martinez is back on the air God damnit! I missed him badly in IV.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I liked GTA IV a lot, but Vice City is definitely the pinnacle of the series so far, for all the reasons you just said.

 

What makes VC better than 3 or SA? I've always considered VC the worst of the PS2 era games for it's boring, flat city, and boring, flat main character who is just a one-liner machine.

[TheMightyEthan]

It's been too long since I've played them for me to defend my opinion to any kind of depth. I can say that I didn't find Vice City boring or flat, and as far as the character goes GTA III had the silent protagonist, and it's hard to get much more boring or flat than that. As for San Andreas I didn't like a lot of the new mechanics they introduced (especially the motherfucking gang territories...)

 

One thing I liked a lot about Vice City was the process of becoming a real estate mogul.

[Faiblesse Des Sens]

I'd rather have a silent protagonist than boring one liners that get old too fast.

[Waldorf and Statler]

I too love Vice City more than anything else. But I love everything 80's. From the articles of big websites that I read, the majority that I've seen have put Vice City as either their favorite one, or their second favorite one. For its time, the game was just fun.

 

 

GTA III defined how GTA games are now made [Chinatown Wars not included] but the silent protagonist works for certain games, not this one.

 

 

GTA San Andreas tried too hard to add all this different stuff. I didn't enjoy the main character or his story.

 

 

It's all personal opinion of course. Seeing how they all practically have the same aggregated score [this is taking into account the 'error' that one was the first, and nostalgia is involved] it depends on what you like.

[Strangelove]

I also love Vice City. The references crammed in that game are really insane. They got 1980s culture down pat.

Not to mention that EVERYTHING it added over GTA3 in terms of gameplay was fully realized and useful. I cant say the same for SA.

 

And I guess I should clarify a bit about GTA4. I have no problem with it's change of mood. I dont need to beat people up with dildos or a jetpack, but the gameplay is just really boring. Its like they took it too far with trying to differentiate itself from it's past. Plus yeah, Niko and his friends suck. I actually prefer shitty one liners than whatever the fuck that guy was about.