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PlayStation (Games) Entertainment Games

GTA San Andreas Goes Swimming, Gangbanging, Smuggling 81

Thanks to Eurogamer for its article revealing a number of new details on Rockstar's forthcoming Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as printed in the UK's Official PlayStation 2 magazine. Topics discussed include the 'invention' of swimming ("We just got pissed off with people saying, 'We can't do swimming'... so if you drive off a bridge you're not going to drown"), the advent of gangs ("You can now recruit a gang and take over territories with them, and then lose territories if you don't look after them. So you've got the idea that bits of the map become personalised to you as much as your own character becomes personalised to you"), and the widening out of the game world ("We love, from a technical point of view, the driving in the open spaces on Smuggler's Run. It's awesome. Now you'll be able to do that in GTA, with all of the GTA gameplay.")
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GTA San Andreas Goes Swimming, Gangbanging, Smuggling

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  • GTA:XXX (Score:5, Funny)

    by BigDork1001 ( 683341 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @07:13AM (#9684595) Homepage
    Now with more gangbang action!
  • by netvoid ( 793226 ) <netvoidNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @07:21AM (#9684678)
    On stupid hair: "If you've got a stupid haircut, people will say, 'You look stupid'."

    Something i'm sure the Slashdot crowd is already used to.

    Sadly no mention of supported online play. But I suppose it's still early days.
  • by illuminata ( 668963 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @07:33AM (#9684791) Journal
    On characters and satire: "We've developed our characters a bit more and to that extent it's more serious. But it's still very much trying to be funny at all points. The satire... I suppose it's levelled at the broader weirdness of America and American consumerism and American action movies as well."

    Oh no, consumerism didn't do an ounce of good for this game. Nor did this game try not to exploit consumerism with it's giant advertising campaigns.

    I've noticed this since GTA3, but it still find it funny how they crack jokes at the very culture that makes their games sell in the millions.
  • by asveepay ( 323579 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @07:59AM (#9685019)
    If this game doesn't have gourangas, i'm gonna be super pissed.
  • by KDR_11k ( 778916 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @08:14AM (#9685158)
    I'm still waiting for them to implement an XBTF-style fully functional economy into the game and maybe add permanent consequences (i.e. if you die or get arrested you have to load your last save). Basically I'd like to see an Elite-style game but on earth, with cars, cities, etc. But then turning GTA from a crime simulator (well, as far as you can call a game where death isn't permanent a simulator...) into a "simulation" game would probably drive the core audience away.
    • I thought GTA3 did return you to the garage where you last saved when you died.
      Anyways how is loading your last save a "permanent consequence."
      • Anyways how is loading your last save a "permanent consequence."
        You lose all your progress since the last save. Ever play a game for 2 hours, not saving and then die and have to go back to that last save spot? It sucks, makes dieing in the game more troublesome then 'respawning'.
        • by Anonymous Coward
          If you want those consequences, feel free to play that way yourself.

          The rest of us are just going to chuckle and/or get pissed off when you suggest we should all play in the masochistic manner you prefer.
          • Did I say I enjoy replaying 2 hours over and over and over until I can finally get it right?

            This is what I hate about Metroid Prime, not enough save spots!
            • This is what I dislike about many games out there now. They're built entirely around the idea that you can just restore from your last save and try again. It's annoying having to do things over and over because of one mistake, even if it only takes 2 or 3 minutes.
      • "I thought GTA3 did return you to the garage where you last saved when you died."

        GTA3 would return you to either the nearest hospital or to to the nearest police station, depending on where you bought it. Whatever mission you were on had to be restarted. Vice City was nice because it'd offer you a taxi ride back to the mission, but I always preferred to just reload. ;)
    • by (trb001) ( 224998 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @09:14AM (#9685749) Homepage
      They designed it so you wouldn't HAVE to load your save game when you died. One of fundamental principles in making a video game is that you want to suck your audience in and not let them go. If you die and you have to reload, that's a perfect time for the player to decide "Well, I just died, time for me to go [do something useful]". That's not what they want. In GTA:III, you came back at the hospital/police station. In GTA:VC you had a taxi waiting to take you to the last mission you were on. It's all very well designed ploys by Rockstar to make sure you never say "This is too time consuming, I'm going to go [do something useful]".

      --trb
      • It's also useful if you have to try the same mission over and over and over and over...You can just keep playing without begin hindered by menuing system of the game.
      • by Mechanik ( 104328 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @09:52AM (#9686154) Homepage
        They designed it so you wouldn't HAVE to load your save game when you died.

        I dunno about the rest of you but regardless of how well done and user friendly the "you just died" functionality was, if I failed a mission, I bloody well loaded up my last save point to maintain my previous stats and inventory. I'm willing to bet just about everyone else did this too.

        Hell, I'm the kind of guy that used to hit the reset button back on my 486 DX33 while playing X-Wing because I didn't want my pilot to get captured or killed, and if I hit reboot before it saved the stats to the hard drive, I could just restart the mission.

        Face it, these kinds of schemes are just way too easy to circumvent. As long as there are stats or an inventory that count for something, people will "cheat death" in the game.

        Mechanik
        • by kisrael ( 134664 ) * on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @09:55AM (#9686192) Homepage
          Yeah, the first time through i was pretty quick on the reload sequence...after a while though, once I figured out how to quickly get an arsenal, I would just try to play it straight. GTAs are nice in that your character doesn't powerup (except for the health/armor bonus possibility) and is basically the same at the end as at the begining...you're just a smarter player, and have more knowledge of getting guns, or more money.
          • GTAs are nice in that your character doesn't powerup (except for the health/armor bonus possibility) and is basically the same at the end as at the begining

            By the end, you've probably also built up his stamina by running a lot.
            • By the end, you've probably also built up his stamina by running a lot.

              Heh...I think you're making a funny (at least I didn't notice any improvement...though it's funny how in VC he can be like the cop robot in Terminator 2 and run down a car...) but I think that kind of exercise-related buildup is how the new GTA is slated to work. At least, if you don't exercise and/or eat crap from the restaurants you get fat. (Heh, food selections from restaurants, wonder if it'll endup being like River City Ransom.
              • No, I was serious. At the beginning of the game, if your character runs more than a few feet, he gets tired and out of breath and needs to walk for a while before he can run again. Which is pretty inconvenient during a mission when your car blows up and you are trying to quickly run to grab another car, to evade people on foot, etc. By the time you reach the end of the game, you have built up enough stamina to run much further than you could at the beginning. There's no "stamina" statistic that you can view
            • Fuck building up stamina. Do the ambulance missions and get infinite run.
        • As long as there are stats or an inventory that count for something, people will "cheat death" in the game.

          What do you think of my soultion to the Kobayashi Maru?
        • I just made backups of my pilot file. If my pilot ever died or was captured, I would just replace the file with the backup.

          I also had the later compilation version of the X-Wing series that gave a "Top Ace" pilot. I copied that file and (I think) changed the names of the pilots. Then, I used them as my wingmates in the missions. I'm not sure if they actually had the skill of aces or not, but I hope they did, otherwise all that work was for nothing.
        • , I bloody well loaded up my last save point to maintain my previous stats and inventory. I'm willing to bet just about everyone else did this too.


          Nope. I just run it straight through. That stupid Columbians vs. Hatians mission took me 20 tries. So what if I lost a bit of money or my weapons? Guns are easy to come by, so are vehicles. I'll make the money back. Besides, I wouldn't risk "losing" a secret package/tiki doll!
        • I dunno about the rest of you but regardless of how well done and user friendly the "you just died" functionality was, if I failed a mission, I bloody well loaded up my last save point to maintain my previous stats and inventory. I'm willing to bet just about everyone else did this too.

          I have to admit that for the first half of my play through Vice City I did exactly that -- reloaded any time I died. The main reason I did this was because it took longer for me to get new weapons than it did to reload.

          Ho

    • maybe add permanent consequences (i.e. if you die or get arrested you have to load your last save).

      I would argue that in the early game there are permanent consequences, of a sort. Until you collect a lot of hidden packages, have a lot of money, or learn your way around there is a huge inconvenience of reacquiring your weapons and maybe that hard-to-find fast car. This was lessoned in the late game when you could just whip by a hideout or one of your car suppliers, but by that point the challenge has c
  • I've been waiting for this a long time. I would like if it came out for the XBOX so I wouldn't have to relearn the controls on the PS2 (relax, I already have one. I'm not a fanatic). I wonder if there will be another "public radio" station...
    • http://ps2.gamespy.com/playstation-2/grand-theft-a uto-san-andreas/523232p1.html

      From Gamespy:
      First revealed in January of this year, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is all set to hit the PS2 in October 19th (potential delays excluded) here in the U.S. and later in 2005 on PC and Xbox.
  • from the article is the multiplayer option... no dice?
    • "from the article is the multiplayer option... no dice?"

      I don't think the PS2 would be the best system to launch a multiplayer option. That's what PCs are for.
      • What now? I don't see your reasoning for believing that the PS2 is not a good system to have a multiplayer option. Let's assume that we're all talking about networked multiplayer [because if we're talking about two people playing the game while sitting next to each other, the PC is the worst option]. While the PS2 hardware is beginning to show its age, most of the PCs out there today still have less powerful hardware than the PS2. If Rockstar wants to spend extra time and cash on adding multiplayer to GTA,
        • "Let's assume that we're all talking about networked multiplayer [because if we're talking about two people playing the game while sitting next to each other, the PC is the worst option]. "

          Yes I was talking about networked multiplayer, but you are wrong about two people sitting next to each other. Split screen == The suck. Even 1vs1 would be much better on the net.

          "While the PS2 hardware is beginning to show its age, most of the PCs out there today still have less powerful hardware than the PS2."

          Th
          • "Yes I was talking about networked multiplayer, but you are wrong about two people sitting next to each other. Split screen == The suck. Even 1vs1 would be much better on the net."

            Not all multiplayer experiences on the console have to be split screen. I can rattle off quite a few but my point was that I was assuming you were talking about network gaming rather than multiple people in the same room gaming because this very rarely happens with a PC, as compared to the entire history of console gaming. I was

            • I>"I was not saying that GTA looks better on a PS2 [I don't know how you could have gotten that out of what I said] but rather, I was saying that, percentage wise, most PCs in operation right now are using outdated hardware."

              I was talking about the current state of machines most gamers have right now. You're right, though, that I didn't clarify that enough. Most gaming machines out there have >=1 gig processors, >=512 meg of RAM, and a suitable video card to out do the PS2. Your statement is ju
              • "For starters, you don't even have a very effective input device to set everything up. This alone makes the PS2 or Dreamcast or any other console out there a difficult machine to use on the net without needing a custom service."

                I'm not going to reply to the rest of what you wrote because it's just more nonsense from someone who obviously can't admit that they're wrong. I said that the majority of PCs out there are less powerful than a PS2. You said that was untrue. I again said that the majority of PCs ou

                • "The point is that if Rockstar is going to include multiplayer in GTA then it will be in the PS2 release."

                  I agree with this point, but...

                  " If it is not in the PS2 release, Rockstar is not going to have multiplayer in the PC release." ... I only half agree with this one. There's no reason to preclude the possiblity of multiplayer on the PC version. Likely? Probably not, but not precluded.

                  " You then said that gamers have more powerful machines than a PS2 in reply. Obviously, you don't respond to stat
                • "I'm not going to reply to the rest of what you wrote because it's just more nonsense from someone who obviously can't admit that they're wrong. "

                  Do you realize what a snotty little brat you sound like right now?
                • I said that the majority of PCs out there are less powerful than a PS2

                  on what planet "out there"? even 3 years old PCs with good video card are more powerful than PS2 with so called "emotion engine" and another marketing blabla

                  some links that i quickly googled:

                  GTA3 [amazon.com] - "High resolution textures, enhanced sounds, and accelerated 3D graphics make GTA3 PC look and sound much better than the PS2 version"

                  Vice City [ugo.com] - "As they did last year with Grand Theft Auto 3, Rockstar Games has ported the massive Plays
            • there are people out there running Windows 95.

              True, although that's a very small minority (1% according to Google [google.com]).

              The majority of PCs out there right now are less powerful than the PS2.

              Probably not true. The XBox is significantly more powerful than the PS2, with a 733Mhz proc, 64MB RAM, and a GeForce 3.5. I think it's safe to say that a huge majority of PCs currently in use have faster procs and more RAM. I don't know about the GFX card stats over the set of all PCs, but I'll bet you that 95% of PCs th

      • Assuming you don't have downloadable content, the PS2 is a fine system for multiplayer. These days it tends to come with the broadband adapter, AKA NIC. If you do have downloadable content, the PS2 is a terrible platform for your multiplayer game, because the hard drive is expensive.
  • does anyone else agrees with me that this franchise makes it for the best single-player experience ever? i'm really looking forward GTA:SA... i just hope there's some "Espantoso" radio in it...
  • There really wasn't any information in the article that I hadn't heard when it was first announced at E3.
  • From the article:
    "There are shadows, which give us a gameplay thing we never had previously, because you can hide in them. Now you can sneak in a GTA game for the first time...you could sneak around and pick [the enemies] off one by one."

    Is it just me or does it sound like they've incorporated the Manhunt game mechanics into GTA:SA? If so, that would be an excellent addition to the franchise since the gameplay in Manhunt was rather solid.
    • "...since the gameplay in Manhunt was rather solid."

      Solid ? How about boring ? All the missions were the same, and it really gets boring to hit someone over the head with a club the umptieth time. Besides that, i found the AI to be very dumb : Come on, it's 2004 , we don't need invisible barriers for enemies, now do we ?

      Seriously though, what did you like in particular about that game ?

      • While the gameplay got repetitive, (I haven't played far enough into the game yet for that to be true for me, though I can understand your view) the game controlled well and featured good gameplay mechanics. The gameplay in Manhunt aimed to capture a slow stealthly pace and did that very well. Lack of creative level design doesn't mean the gameplay wasn't solid.

        I haven't noticed the invisible barriers you mentioned for enemies, but I agree those are always lame.

        I think the sneaking aspect of Manhunt mixed
  • Suicide Button? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by ziggles ( 246540 ) on Tuesday July 13, 2004 @05:06PM (#9691397) Homepage
    The trouble with driving off a bridge and not dying is.. now you have to swim to the nearest coast. I hate it when a game strands me somewhere and then forces me to do something very mundane to get out of the situation. I experienced this occasionally in GTAVC. It'd be nice if I could make my character kill himself so I don't have to find a way out, I can just start back at the hospital. I'm not a fan of loading a previous save when I get stuck. I'm more likely to just quit playing instead.
    • I think that Sharks would be a good idea to get you out of the water quickly.

      I think there were sharks swimming in the water in GTA VC, which lead to speculation when the first screenshots were released that swimming would be included.
  • I certainly hope this game will have a bigger 'sphere of action' - or atleast have one more shaped like a sphere. Let me explain. Enemies (and civilians) are always spawned at a certain distance from the player to give the illusion of a 'real' city. However, this distance varies depending on direction - in front of you the distance is quite high so the enemies don't seem to pop out of nowhere. Since you can't see the ones behind you the 'area of real life' can be kept smaller (so the game doesn't have to ca
  • It seems like they're really pulling out all of the stops for this sequel - but I just know that it will contain yet more painful localization blunders.

    Remember hearing the mafiosos in GTA3 refer to garbage trucks as "dust carts"? Or parking garages as "car parks"? And let's not forget the sign in Manhunt that reminded players to "Please bin your rubbish".

    Seems like the voice actors should have pointed that out to the writers at the time, but I guess I wouldn't speak up if I were getting a paycheck (and n
  • XBox version? Yes or no? GTA is my second most played single player game on my Box next to KOTOR. I hope there will be a version of this for me.
  • ...there will be robots!

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