Grand Theft Auto Retrospective 292
Sadkey writes "In light of the release of Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories for the PSP, UGO has posted a retrospective around the GTA games. "Come take a trip through time, and see how a franchise went from a cult hit to a cultural phenomenon, set the tone for an entire generation, and made open-ended gameplay a buzzword of the early 21st century. It's a long, bumpy ride, but at the end, Grand Theft Auto stands tall as the game that changed everything.' ."
I remember playing the top down GTAs and just loving it. Great games.
Re:The real question is... (Score:5, Informative)
If you really miss top down that much... (Score:5, Informative)
Grand Theft Auto [rockstargames.com] - Free Download
Grand Theft Auto 2 [rockstargames.com] - Free Download
Re:If you really miss top down that much... (Score:2, Informative)
GTA [63.236.94.185]
GTA2 [63.236.94.185]
Whois info [arin.net] for the above IP, since I didn't recognize it myself. I'm not sure why they're hosted 'offsite'.
Re:I miss... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:I miss... (Score:2, Informative)
Re:If you really miss top down that much... (Score:3, Informative)
Re:I miss... (Score:2, Informative)
But also in that version of GTA, you'd hear the voice of Elvis Presley going "uh-huh uh-huh"
and so on. I could never work out if it was simply random or if there was something you did that triggered the king.
Re:Apparently retrospect is 20/200 (Score:3, Informative)
What? Aircraft have been in the game since Vice City.
No physics impovements? Did you forget that Rockstar added motorcycles and playable pool tables in VC? How about the bicycles, base jumping, and the ability to swim added in SA?
Other additions since the original GTA3 include tons of new weapons, the ability to enter stores to either buy stuff or rob them. You can now eat food, buy clothes, get tattoos, workout, get a haircut, and customize your cars with paint/suspension/nitro kits. You can then take your tricked out rides into bounce competitions. They even added schools you can attend in game for various types of vehicles (cars, motorocycles, boats, aircraft) to improve ingame control of said vehicles.
They added stats like respect, strength, body fat, and dating progress with girlfriends (yes, you can get girlfriends in the game now). Also added are mini games like gyruss, flying bee game, a DDR game, pool, and a few forms of gambling.
SA added gang wars with the ability to take over turf, getting a posse and doing drive bys, and home invasions.
Have you even played latter these games?
Re:Apparently retrospect is 20/200 (Score:4, Informative)
Why do you bother to comment? You obviously have not player Vice City let alone San Andreas. Those things are in both games.
Re:What I'd Like To See (Score:5, Informative)
if it was as influential as the article states, then why are the only games I can find now that are vaguely based off the GTA formula horribly inferior ripoffs with the same criminal motif?
Because very few developers are as good as Rockstar - it's hardly Rockstar's fault that their imitators lack the necessary vision and inspiration...
The Fast & Furious game idea you mentioned could actually be played out within GTA: San Andreas, which features many street racing events and car modding - all you'd have to do is ignore the rest of the game. Admittedly it's only a sidegame, so the depth isn't that great, but it's there, and it's a great example of why the GTA games are to be celebrated. There are two separate rhythm action games in San Andreas (one based around dancing, one around car hydraulics). There are casinos. Paperboy-style delivery missions. Shooting galleries. BMX stunt courses. Articulated truck simulations... the list does go on. This is what the imitators can't match, and it's why GTA's cities are a lot deeper than Shenmue's, if you give them a chance - and I love Shenmue (thanks to Shenmue, I can't walk past a forklift in GTA without going for a spin).
You're absolutely right that the copycats are by and large atrocious, or at least dull, because they're copying what's on the surface of GTA and missing the depths completely. But that's no reason to criticise GTA itself; if fifty percent of developers/publishers cared as much about making a decent game as Rockstar clearly do, we'd be in a true golden age.
they stioll have top-view, right? (Score:2, Informative)
Respect is everything (Score:5, Informative)
Incidently for those that may have missed the 'original' series. Rockstar released updated versions (support for recent hardware) of 1&2 some time ago as free downloads [rockstargames.com]. Enjoy!