GTA: Vice City Sells 8.5 Million Copies in 3 Months

Gus writes "Take Two Interactive Software reports that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has sold more than 8.5 million copies in the first three months since its late-October launch. The good news is Rockstar Games has 11 titles in the works. The bad news is the chances of the next GTA making it out this year are pretty slim." Also, there's still a couple people waiting on Duke Nukem Forever, and their patience is wearing thin.

Comments

GTA

[WilliamsDA]

I still think the original GTA is neat -- it also has an interesting perspective (overhead). If you haven't played it, go check it out if you're looking for a GTA fix!

Re:GTA

[Angry White Guy]

The little motorcycles were killer, although nothing like playing motorcycle crash for distance in 3d.
Punching the Hare Krishnas was fun too.

Re:GTA

[ergonal]

I agree. GTA is one of many testaments to the idea that you don't need to go purely 3D for a game to be fun. Although for some reason I didn't like GTA2 as much as the first.

Re:GTA

[Goldsmith]

I absolutely loved GTA, but what was really fun was the multiplayer. There's nothing like racing through a city with rocket launchers in the first GTA.

I don't remember if the second one didn't have multiplayer or didn't have good multiplayer, but I remember that it just wasn't the same.

Re:GTA

[Yito Graft]

While i lige the orginal GTA, i must say that the second one was the one that I liked best. The second one was a little more relistic, yet kept to the overhead view.... Besides... I love playing the ice truck game that was one of the bonus games.... nothing better them blowing up ice cream trucks and hearing... "CCCHHHOOOCCKK TTAASSTTIICC!!!".

Re:GTA

[los furtive]

GTA1 and GTA2 were great, too bad they don't work in Windows 2000/XP. If someone has figured out a way to get them to work in 2000/XP, please let me know!

Re:GTA

[Osty]

GTA2 works perfectly in Windows XP for me. Here's what I do:

1. Put the CD in the drive
2. Click the button on the launcher to play

That's it. Very simple.

Now, GTA1 was a DOS app IIRC, so you're likely to have more issues there (getting it to run will be easier than getting it to run with sound).

Re:GTA

[Anonvmous Coward]

"I agree. GTA is one of many testaments to the idea that you don't need to go purely 3D for a game to be fun."

I agree completely with your comment. However, one of the observations I made about GTA 3 was that despite being 3D, they managed to retain the fun of it. I'm really glad they didn't blow it.

Re:GTA

[snack-a-lot]

GTA1 was a Windows application too, but I could only get the DOS version working under XP.

Re:GTA

[Anonymous Coward]

Really? My friend has Windows XP setup on a very old system (Really, it doesn't come near the system requirements of the OS, much less the recommended hardware), and he's been happily playing GTA2 for the last month and a half or so. It runs perfectly fine on his system, too. :)

Re:GTA

[Deflatamouse!]

> GTA is one of many testaments to the idea that you don't need to go purely 3D for a game to be fun.

I doubt you need any testments at all to show non-3d games are fun, there were plenty of fun 2d games even before 3d games were available. I tend to find 2d games more fun, and I think it is because the programmers tend to concentrate on the game play more in those games rather than the graphics. Nice 3d graphics are nice, but that shouldn't be the focus. For exmaple, some may disagree and this is just my opinion, but I find Starcraft more fun than Warcraft III. I find most 3d games lacking in depth in game play, and am in fact still looking for testaments that 3d games can be fun. FPS's are an exception, but they've been hashed and rehashed so often they no longer have any appeal to me. Hmm, looks like I am ranting.. I'll stop now :)

Re:GTA

[punkmanandy]

i liked gta3, but there is no multiplayer, so it gets no position on any of my systems (mostly lan party). they had a lot of the work inplace, up to the multiplayer icons/interface, but didnt enable it.

Re:GTA

[fuzza]

Although for some reason I didn't like GTA2 as much as the first.

Ditto. I think the main reason (for me) was because of the poor game physics. For instance, try the following:

• Get in a Mack truch (the almost-square ones, I forget what they're called). Don't get one with a trailer though.
• Hold down left or right.
• Slowly, and in spurts, press forward (accelerate).
• Observe this nice big Mack truck turning on the spot (on its axis), without actually moving forward at all.

Good fun... or not, depending on how intensely you're being chased :(

Re:GTA

[wo1verin3]

Thank god the guys over here are making an MP mod =)

Re:GTA

[iocat]

I don't think the reason you prefer 2D games is not that developers concentrate more on the gameplay in a 2D game, but rather that it's easier to have total situational awareness in a 2D game. We're doing a 3D game right now, and I know people are concentrating as much on the gameplay as they did when doing 2D games. There are definitely more distracting technical problems with 3D games than 2D games, but I don't think that affects the gameplay signifcantly, since 3D games also tend to have more people on them, and have longer schedules.

Re:GTA

[Anonymous Coward]

there's a windows 2k patch out there somewhere, just keep on looking.

Re:GTA

[Mac Degger]

Homeworld: a 3d game that looks amazing, has an amazing storyline and hell, even the music is amazing. This game, much mroe than Halflife or something like it, comes close to being art.

Re:GTA

[slimak]

Do you really think any of the GTA games are about realistic game play? Seriously, how long would you be able to run around beating old women, stealing cars and breaking every traffic law under the sun?
Making games too realistic has the downside that they're too much like my real life (which is one of the reason I enjoy the non-realistic games).

Re:GTA

[Darlock]

I would have to agree. A buddy of mine lent me his copy of Homeworld but I lost it so I bought a new copy of it yesterday. It was a very good investment.

It kept me up rather late last night. :)

Re:GTA

[Moloch666]

Yup.
Best. Game. Evar.

Fortunately it doesn't take too long to beat, I probably would have flunked out of college.
Cataclysm was great as well, I can't wait for Homeworld 2, it's being worked on!

Re:GTA

[Anonymous Cow herd]

I still think the original GTA is neat -- it also has an interesting perspective (overhead).

I found the overhead perspective of the original GTA series to be one of their greatest weaknesses... the problem being that once you got any decent amount of speed going, it's nearly impossible to react in time to traffic, making high-speed chases very difficult.

I also found that it's easier to learn the layout of cities, the increased line-of-sight offered by the 3d perspectives allow you to spot landmarks much easier than the top-down view.

From an eye candy perspective, I found the in-game cutscenes in GTA3 and GTA:VC to be much more appealing than the popup windows in GTA and GTA2.

All that aside, the original games are a great foundation, offered alot of entertainment, and provided a unique and enjoyable gaming experience.

Re:GTA

[benzapp]

You know, I have been playing Homeworld a lot lately. While I agree its a great game, one of the best ever made, I really hope they make an update.

I remember first playing the game like three years ago, and I thought the artwork was amazing. But now, it seems really dated.

Anyone here of an update? We have MOO3/Galciv coming out. What about the real time combat games.

Re:GTA

[fuzza]

Do you really think any of the GTA games are about realistic game play? Seriously, how long would you be able to run around beating old women, stealing cars and breaking every traffic law under the sun?
Making games too realistic has the downside that they're too much like my real life (which is one of the reason I enjoy the non-realistic games).

Good point, I suppose. Granted, you're certainly not _allowed_ to do all those things, and with good reason.

But, on the other hand, if it's not actually about realism, then why go to the trouble of making them as realistic as they are? (And, in the case of GTA1 I believe, actually modelling various cars on real-world counterparts?)

For those who don't really want realism, there's plenty of "unrealistic" ways of having fun, such as slaying dragons, etc. (No offence to our fantasy-loving friends.)

But, it seems, if they do bother with things like driving on the correct side of the road, obeying traffic signals, etc (even though you, as the player, don't have to - which is the "illegal" "unrealistic" part), then they should at least _try_ to make the driving characteristics sensible, seeing as driving is a major part of the game...

My 0.02c, anyway.

rate of unemployment?

[stonebeat.org]

do you think this has to do anything with the high rate of unemployment, and discontent among the people?

Re:rate of unemployment?

[Angry White Guy]

Road Rage incidents... Maybe.
High unemployment rate... Sure
Hooker beatings... I can see that
Poor driving skills... I guess

But discontent... No way man, that game fucking rocks!

Re:rate of unemployment?

[kfg]

Nah, I think it probably has something to do with it's being a great game.

Who woulda thunk it, eh?

KFG

Re:rate of unemployment?

[enigmiac]

GTA:VC came out the same week I was laid off. I will admit that at 5pm the day I found out, I was at electronics boutique buying GTA and tony hawk 4. They managed to keep me amused until earlier this month, when .hack//infection came out in the US. I'd have to say it's probably the best video game I've played since Blaster Master on the original NES.

Vice City

[funkhauser]

Honestly, I thought Rockstar dropped the ball with Vice City. The graphics seemed less polished, the controls seemed choppier, and, well, it just seemed a lot less fun than GTA3. Oh well.

Re:Vice City

[Jace of Fuse!]

I have both, and find myself playing Vice City more simply because it's newer, but it doesn't seem that it has as much. Sometimes I'll play it just to "Find a new package today" or something like that.

GTA Vice City is a good game without a doubt, but in the end I think that GTA3 was a better game overall. Vice City also had a few more bizarre bugs than GTA3, but I don't guess that's really important.

What matters is that they're both great games, even if I personally think 3 was better than VC. I hope the series moves forward and doesn't become very ho-hum.

Re:Vice City

[Chester K]

The graphics seemed less polished, the controls seemed choppier, and, well, it just seemed a lot less fun than GTA3. Oh well.

They're unforunately constrained by the power of the PS2. They shoehorned some new features into GTA:VC (compared to GTA3), but as far as visually impressive features, there's not much they can do.

I wouldn't mind so much if the next GTA uses the same engine, but please for the love of god I hope for two things: 1) Las Vegas as the setting, and 2) a mission generator.

Re:Vice City

[d34thm0nk3y]

I love anything even remotly related to all the GTA games, but I liked the music on GTA3 better than vice city. Vice City is all stuff I've been hearing for the last 20 years, I liked the original music better. Fernando and Laslo are both still on the radio though so i guess its ok.

Re:Vice City

[Goronmon]

I thought the graphics were more polished in VC than in GTA.

Make sure you go to Options and turn off Trails, it makes the visuals much more crisp.

Re:Vice City

[May Kasahara]

I have been finding it very hard to play Vice City recently, mostly because of the choppiness of the animation (hurts my eyes! Oh, the pain!!).

I've noticed a few bugs as well, but those I don't mind so much. The (apparent) framerate, on the other hand...

Re:Vice City

[shepd]

No life left in it? From all accounts, the PS2 is, even today, the best selling console of the moment.

I think you're thinking Game Cube.

Re:Vice City

[deadsaijinx*]

but then why dont they polish the graphics for the PC release, after, we can handle it better than consoles

Re:Vice City

[fenix down]

I'm pretty sure they will, I mean, they did for III, so I'd think they'd do the same for VC.

Re:Vice City

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're thinking Xbox.

Re:Vice City

[Anonymous Coward]

Why isn't Vice City on the PC yet? Why did they release it on an old console that has no life left in it? Oh yeah, I forgot there for a second....Sony is frucking greedy! They're obviously delaying or even stopping Rockstar from releasing it on the PC or XBox because they want to sell more consoles. Bullshit.

DEAR COMPANIES,
PLEASE TRY TO STOP MAKING MONEY IT'S GREEDY AND IMMORAL.
HOW DARE YOU.

LOVE,
CONSUMER ZIPLUX

Re:Vice City

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds like somebody's parents can't afford a PS2. Poor baby.

Re:Vice City

[cortices]

This is an enormously successful video game that was released exclusively for the PS2. So, how is it that this console has no life left in it?

Re:Vice City

[single_user_mode]

constrained? in what way?

Re:Vice City

[Monkey-Man2000]

I heard that Rockstar now has an exclusive contract with PS2 for GTA since GTA3. So, no I wouldn't expect a VC for PC.

Re:Vice City

[Anonymous Coward]

Vice City for PC will be released on May 13th 2003.

Re:Vice City

[kyrre]

Gta: Vice City for the pc was announced 14 days ago. Here an url. Click on news..

Re:Vice City

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm sorry that you are a pc user, you are a bit right that the ps2 is not the latest hardware miracle. Although I think GTA3 + VC are a good reason to buy a playstation2 and sell it afterwards so you don't loose too much on it.
Or be patient and wait for the pc releases, hey don't blame Sony, why they sell more consoles? Because of things like this. Good marketing department from a non-US company!!!!!!!!

No offence, happy gaming :)

Re:Vice City

[WWE-TicK]

That only applies to game consoles. Not to PCs. I suppose they think that game consoles and PCs aren't in direct competition or something. They're probably right.

Re:Vice City

[Anonymous Coward]

Vice City will be out on the PC soon enough, trust me, you will shit. The reason it has not come out yet, is because Rockstar has exclusivity deals with Sony.

Yet at heart, the Rockstar crew are at heart PC Gamers, they have always planned on a PC version, and believe you me, its great.

Re:Vice City

[John Hansen]

I've caught the "flying car" bug in GTA3 a number of times. It happens whenever a path-driven car flies over a spot where the road has disappeared; it'll tilt at a crazy angle... and keep on driving. But the most important thing is that I keep coming back to GTA3. Ah well, until they come out with Vice City for the PC...

Games

[Anonymous Coward]

let's go get drunk and beat up some midgits...

PC?!

[Anonymous Coward]

Argh, where's Vice City for the PC already? :P

And, inspired by the game itself

[Anonymous Coward]

Another 8.5 million were stolen at gunpoint from stores nationwide.

Re:And, inspired by the game itself

[Penguinoflight]

Yeah, and aparently gangsters aren't too good at math either! October November December January Febuary... Five months, not three.

Re:And, inspired by the game itself

[mattfish]

Or the money was stole from stippers after you banged them HAHAHAHAHA best part of the game!

Re:And, inspired by the game itself

[Anonymous Coward]

They said "three months" because they're only counting sales during the first three months. January figures probably haven't been finalized. And come on, February isn't even over yet.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Good for them

[Eese]

I think this just goes to show that any publicity is good publicity. The GTA series has been the poster-child for anti-violentvideogame groups. However, I have to agree that it's a kickass game, and I'm glad to see that Rockstar is being successful and not taking a pounding in sales for having some content that several concerned mothers don't approve of.

Re:Good for them

[joedavis123]

Reading your comment about concerned mothers not approving made me laugh. My friend was able to borrow a copy of GTA from a family friend for awhile, and when he brought it back to them, he found out that the family friend was a mother who had bought it for her *9 YEAR OLD*. Those concerned mothers really need to spend their time hunting down the other unconcerned parents ;)

Re:Good for them

[RTPMatt]

I'm glad to see that Rockstar is being successful and not taking a pounding in sales for having some content that several concerned mothers don't approve of. eh, i dunno, does that mean that everytime microsoft has to go to court for being a monopilistic beast it does nothing but help them...how depressing

/. & Patience

[Anonymous Coward]

Patience & tolerance is usually not /. reader's virtue.

Vincent says

[bcwalrus]

"You don't mess with another man's automobile. You just don't do that."

Duke Nukem Forever

[$$$$$exyGal]

That "Duke Nukem Forever" joke is made every single time any software on Earth is behind schedule. I, for one, am a little sick of it.

--From 0 to 1,000 fans in less than 2 months.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Anonymous Coward]

from 0 to 1000 fellow fags in 2 months...

$$$$exygal, you are soooo a she-male

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Stanley Feinbaum]

yeah agreed, especially with things such as Gnu HURD being something like.. 20 years late ?

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[deadsaijinx*]

wow, congrads on being the single biggest karma whore /. has ever seen.

One of your 1,000+ Fans,
Deadsaijinx*

STOP DLING PR0N, THERE IS MORE TO LIFE, trust me...

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[jrstewart]

Actually I think there were some signals crossed here. The next GTA isn't late, it's just not scheduled out this FISCAL year (i.e. not before Oct. 31, end of Take Two's fiscal year). Nobody so far has claimed that it was ever scheduled to be released earlier.

Also Take Two had to write down charges related to Duke Nukem Forever (as mentioned in the article). Right now they're taking the whole development as a loss. That could mean that there's no game coming out ever, it could mean that it's just going to take so long they don't want to keep the expenses on their books, or it could just be that they're taking the charge in a good quarter when they can offset it against high profits.

Since they've already treated the devlopment costs of DNF as a loss they can treat the sales when (if) it comes out as pure profit. This is the kind of game that accountants play to keep earnings statments balanced. Like in physics, no money is created or destroyed but when you report what affects how the quarterly numbers look.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[ergo98]

How is it a "joke"? The article specifically states that Duke Nukem Forever is basically a write off at this point: It materially relates to the story at hand.

In a related note, what a disaster DNF has been, and what a tremendous example of an incredible software project management failure. I mean using the "we're making it super, duper good!" excuse works for so long until pretty soon you're just perpetually fighting the natural curve of technology. I really feel sorry for that team, or anyone who works on it.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Apreche]

Yes, the trueness. I think we should use the Team Fortress 2 joke for a little bit instead, because it's slightly fresher. Then after that we can start making jokes about missile command 2.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[ramzak2k]

how dare you call that a no joke.
timeless slashdot classics like
Duke Nukem ..
All your Base..
Beowolf clusters are here to stay !

wait i think i forgot something.
1.Now Imagine a beowolf cluster of all those jokes
2.......
3.Karma Profit !!

Rinse, drywash and Repeat.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[ramzak2k]

mr.ergo, how did you get inbetween. The grandfather was my parent !!

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[vistic]

Oh hey! I'm a fag... (seriously)

If $$$$exygal were a transvestite or drag queen or something... that would make her just that much cooler in my book!

Fun links, too.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[swv3752]

I've actually have seen the HURD. A friend at our LUG actually demoed it. So until someone can say the same about DNF, then it keeps its joke status, unless the game is worse than Daikatana... then i don't think we could heap enough derision.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Hard_Code]

In Soviet Russia, bad joke repeats YOU!

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Anonymous Coward]

Man, you look like a fag too. By the way, did you see that short film on Channel 4 last night, after Bitter Moon? You probably would have enjoyed it, it was set in a gay club.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[Anonvmous Coward]

"That "Duke Nukem Forever" joke is made every single time any software on Earth is behind schedule. I, for one, am a little sick of it. "

I think it's great! It's so much better than 'Soviet Russia'. You really don't want Smirnoff's voice in your head.

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[gheidorn]

In Soviet Russia, the "Timeless Slashdot Classic Jokes" make fun of YOU!

Re:Duke Nukem Forever

[vistic]

You think those pics are bad... you should see the pic of me in drag I posted on hotornot.com... I can't believe those guys can't tell it's not a girl... I got 30 double matches in one day!

I don't get Channel 4 in america.

weapon selection?

[johny_qst]

Why oh why did rockstar replace the rocket launcher with the minigun? how am i supposed to kill those pesky helicopters? Every other shooter loves to include the rocket launcher, but not vice city.... why?

Re:weapon selection?

[Xtifr]

If you haven't got a rocket launcher, it's because you're not looking hard enough!

Re:weapon selection?

[SushiFugu]

Just for the record there is an RPG, similar to the original Rocket Launcher from GTA3, in Vice City.

Re:weapon selection?

[Anonymous Coward]

You can get the rocket launcher- but the heavy machine gun fires a lot faster and can blow up a car in two seconds.

Re:weapon selection?

[Gunnery Sgt. Hartman]

The rocket launcher is obtained easily by entering the weapons 2 cheat: R1,R2,L1,R2,left, down, right, up, left, down, down, left. This cheat also gets you the python. This is the revolver with the one shot one kill.

Re:weapon selection?

[Wyatt Earp]

Rocket Launcher, sitting in the pool of the hotel by the airport.

Re:weapon selection?

[Theaetetus]

You're just not trying hard enough. I took down a copter with an assault rifle... Had to get on the roof of a building to avoid the cops shooting at me, though.

Incidentally, saw a neato thing - as the copter hovered, I saw lines drop from it and 4 SWAT guys start rapelling down to the rooftop!

-T

Re:weapon selection?

[Anonymous Coward]

GTA: Vice City has both the minigun and the rocket launcher. They occupy the same inventory space, so you can only carry one at a time, much like the baseball bat/police baton.

influences...

[jeffy124]

some people claim that that games like GTA:VC cause influences in their behavior.

i think they're right. ever since i've been playing, i've been on a kick for 80's music.

Re:influences...

[wossName]

In another Slashdot discussion about GTA3 someone mentioned that the 80s station played most of the music from "Scarface" with Al Pacino. I found this pretty surprising, especially since I thought that the music had been made up, crappy as it was. :)

the ONLY part of GTA3 that I thought was better

[512k]

was the comercials..they were over the top, silly, and fun to listen to..some of the ones in GTA:VC are just a little too realistic, in that they're anoying, and you want them to end, and get back to the music.

New solution for crime control

[Lothar 0]

Between encouraging people to act out violence on a TV rather than on the street, and these numbers refuting the "modchips cut into sales" arguments, I think we have the next crime-control device on our hands. Beats anything Ashcroft would come up with.

Re:New solution for crime control

[Anonymous Coward]

Sounds kinda Orwellian when you put it that way...

Manhunt...

[ArmyOfFun]

Perhaps Manhunt is the long awaited sequel to Hunt the Wumpus?

GTA and vaporware?

[appleprophet]

"Also, there's still a couple people waiting on Duke Nukem Forever, and their patience is wearing thin."

Sorry, but I don't understand the correlation between GTA and vaporware. Has Take Two ever not released promised software?

Re:GTA and vaporware?

[ArmyOfFun]

Huh? What's there to get? Duke Nukem Forever was/is/will/never to be published by Take Two, the same publishers (though not developers) as GTA. Of course, my genius comes from the simple fact that I read the article....

Re:GTA and vaporware?

[appleprophet]

Oh, I see. I don't like to read articles.

Re:GTA and vaporware?

[ArmyOfFun]

I don't think you're supposed to read the articles actually. I think I broke a rule or something.

Re:GTA and vaporware?

[Anonymous Coward]

With Intel and AMD delivering faster and more powerful processors at a rate which makes your head swim, the consequences are plain as day. Apple is hurting, its spindly financial footing sinking ever deeper into that fiscal bog of no return. Frankly, many prominent industry analysts have crunched the numbers, concluding that Apple's outlook is bleak indeed.

In Apple's latest numbers released in January for its fiscal first quarter of 2003, revenue fell from a year earlier and all of the company's major computer lines saw diminished numbers. PowerMac sales were down 20%, while iBook sales fell 8%.

At the same time Apple's sales were falling, PC sales rose, though just slightly, according to figures from IDC released last month.

The last time Apple was in this state, it brought back co-founder Steve Jobs to fix its issues. He fostered the development of the iMac and secured a US$150-million investment from Microsoft. But there aren't any new iMacs in Apple's future and Microsoft, bolstered by its victory over the U.S. Department of Justice, is clearly not going to help the beleaguered computer maker this time.

So what have you got left? Apple is a company that controls around 3% of the computer market, has recently undergone a restructuring and is slowly fading into nothingness. Software makers don't even have Mac users on their radar and it's not like Apple can bring Mr. Jobs back to right the ship this time -- he's already there.

Stick a fork in 'em -- this Apple is cooked.

guess i'm one in 8 mil

[Anonymous Coward]

I spent my 50 bucks for the game... but it was worth it.. i have betten it, but still play from time to time.. who can beat blowing everything up with an Apache helicopter?

May 13th

[Anonymous Coward]

Heard it to be released May 13th with advanced options, improved graphics, and better quality sound. Woohoo!

Re:May 13th

[Anonymous Coward]

Funny, on that same date primates will be emerging from my anus.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

this is a classic example of the pussification of men..

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

Amen brother.

Overall?

[Senator_B]

Anyone know how this ranks in comparison to all other games? I remember last year an article on slashdot (I can't seem to find it right now) telling us that The Sims had overtaken Myst as the top selling game of all time.

Re:Overall?

[n0wak]

I believe that The Sims passed Myst at around the 13 Million Unit mark for the, so called, "top selling game of all time" title. What is wrong with that? Well, whenever anyone reports the Sims as "best selling game of all time" -- they fail to mention "... for the PC".

I think that Super Mario 3 still has the crown for units sold: in excess of 17 Million.

GTA still has a waaaays to go.

Next Game's Time Period?

[Galahad2]

I'd like to see a Grand Theft Auto game set in 1930's Chicago. That'd be so awesome -- the mob, the depression, prohibition; there's huge number of possiblities! I just hope they don't do the 1970's... I mean, Vice City already did all the "boy, people were weird back then... look at their clothes/hair/idioms!" jokes.

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard that Vice City takes place 20 years before GTA3.

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[Cyph]

While I doubt that there's ever a chance of a 1930s GTA happening, you might find a game called Mafia to your liking. In that game, you assume the role of a gangster, working for the mob in the 1930s. You drive cars and shoot people. :)

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

The eighties just don't appeal to me very much - the stuff that does (Metallica) is unfortunately missing from the game. Course, it's funny when some vietnam vet phones the rock station and threatens to bring some pain to the host (Laslow) if he doesn't play some real rock and stop with the hair bands.

Anyhow, I want the seventies as a setting. Course, if it was the seventies, there'd be disco.

Hmmm....

Disco Stu: Did you know that mah bitches take is up over 4000%? If these trends continue... heyyyyy!

No, maybe not...

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[Dark Lord Seth]

I'd like to see a Grand Theft Auto game set in 1930's Chicago.

You sure? Cars that go 80km/h max, nearly no automatic weapons except for street sweepers (That's what they are called iirc) which are about as inacurate as it gets, there would be FAR fewer cars because they were largely still considered a luxury back then, no rocket based weapons, no good sniper weapons and tanks that would make a Sherman tank cry...

I ask again, are you sure?

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[Anonymous Coward]

are you sure you want 1930's Chicago ?
It will be all b/w then man.

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[gc3]

They did. It's called MAFIA...

http://mafia.godgames.com/

GC3

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[racerx509]

"I'd like to see a Grand Theft Auto game set in 1930's Chicago."

Yea, its called mafia

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[skyhawker]

I just hope they don't do the 1970's... I mean, Vice City already did all the "boy, people were weird back then... look at their clothes/hair/idioms!" jokes.

Gee, thanks.
Although the gas lines really did suck!

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[Tarpan]

Yes, but if you are expecting to get a GTA-clone when playing Mafia you will be disappointed, I know I was. The fun in GTA was that you could do things your own way, didn't really matter how you did the missions just that they were done. If you took a tank and drove over people and killed everyone in the way and got the FBI chasing you didn't really matter just that you got the mission done.

In mafia I felt it was much more controlled, you had to do things as the makers of the game intended, and the plot was much more linear you had to do mission A, then B, then C etc...

I also felt that the engine/graphics was much more boring, it didn't feel as smooth as gta (and no, not in the we-get-more-fps-in-game-a way). Just that I thought the graphics in GTA felt like it enhanced the game while in Mafia it felt like it was something just needed to play the game.

So all in all, I was quite disappointed at Mafia, not that it is a bad game just that I kept comparing it to GTA all the time and compared to that it falls short.

Now I just can't wait until GTA4 comes to the pc.

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[nazh]

I ask again, are you sure?

well, it wouldn't be any helicopters for sure

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[Mark (ph'x)]

Mafia is a fantastic game. The graphics really give the feel of the city back then, the slums are downright depressing.

Gameplay is more scripted than GTA, but fun nonetheless. You have the option of a 'free-ride' mode to muck around with... but the gameplay is fairly linear.

Its more satisying to commit mass genocide too because of the gritty realism.

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[Anonymous Coward]

Well, d'oh! Vice City is the eighties, III is the noughties.

Re:Next Game's Time Period?

[tomkins]

I'd like to see a Grand Theft Auto game set in 1930's Chicago. That'd be so awesome -- the mob, the depression, prohibition

Not to mention the Tommy guns! Yeah, Tommy guns...

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

If there is a moderator reading this that is currently not under the influence of a narcotic, please mod this idiot down.

Re:what idiosy

[Anonymous Coward]

why not concentrate on getting to the top, retire at 25 to the playboy mansion, is that not fun?

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[jkabbe]

If I never meet a woman who won't let me say, "it's just fun to kill hookers with a chainsaw"....well, then, I'll have more money for games!!!!

Re:The true American spirit

[JeffSh]

Yeah, because the only place in the entire world this game is sold is in the United States.

Turd.

I love it

[mao che minh]

GTA Vice City was the best game that I have ever played in my 16 years of video game playing (I am 23 years of age). It had an entertaining story line, great dialogue, unbeatable gameplay, and is just plain fun. The sheer volume of what you can actually do in this game, aside from the actual somewhat-linear story line, is worth 100 hours of game time.

GTA Vice City made this Nintendo fan boy buy a PS2 last week. I love it, and it's developers and designers deserve every penny they are making from it.

But don't think for one second that I didn't preorder the new Zelda. =)

Re:I love it

[crumbz]

For me it is still M.U.L.E.

Re:I love it

[jvmatthe]

Did you play GTA3? I think that Vice City is not nearly as good as GTA3. Sadly, I'm mostly alone in that view; many reviewers proclaimed it a great sequel, better than the original. I honestly can't see how that can be.

Re:I love it

[kyrre]

I agree to some extent. Vice City has better graphics more variety and is has a much larger playground. However the I liked the city, and story line of the original gta3 much better. But then again I do like sky scrapers and urban surroundings. The gangs where just too anoying in gta3 though. Hopefully the next gta will be in a bigger city. (New York again)

He had Cancer

[Anonymous Coward]

I heard on CNN's Daybreak this morning (yeah that's early, and im in PST too) that Mr Rogers died of stomach cancer early this morning. Apparently he had been battling it for the past 2 months or so.

At least he went in his sleep.

Mr Rogers, you'll always be my neighbor!

Just proves that...

[403Forbidden]

8.5 million drones will buy a buggy, unpolished game just to:

1: Say they have it (it's teh uber 1337 with da' t33nz0rs!!!)
2: Run around and shoot people some more, ignoring the missions
3: Annoy me all day by talking about 80's music and how great the freaking game its.

It's gotten so annoying, in fact, that I will never buy this game... ever... I will never fall to the same level of the ignorant little shits that buy it currently.

Re:Just proves that...

[ArmyOfFun]

Yea, how dare people talk about the things they enjoy! The nerve!

It's the same reason I never go see movies, people are ALWAYS talking about movies they saw. And apparently, millions and millions of people watch movies, that just makes me want to see movies less so I can feel better than them! God, what mindless sheep they are!

Re:Just proves that...

[Anonymous Coward]

Mmm...

15 years old?

So, I'll take it that your mother wont let you play the game due to the violence and this is how you make yourself feel like it doesn't matter?

Re:Just proves that...

[Anonvmous Coward]

"8.5 million drones will buy a buggy, unpolished game just to: "

If that were remotely true then the console market would be a lot more successful than it really is.

Honestly, I don't see why your post is 'Insightful'. The only insight that you've provided is that you don't like the game.

Re:Just proves that...

[Anonymous Coward]

You're pretty fucking arrogant for a little boy. I hope someone brings you down a peg or two .. soon.

Re:Just proves that...

[Anonymous Coward]

hey fag, go back to the dreamcast. i hear they might get a full framerate SNES emulator ANY FUCKING DAY now.

Re:Just proves that...

[403Forbidden]

Actually they don't give a flying fuck what I play... I'm all into GOOD violent games, CS, Unreal Tournement, etc.

Re:Just proves that...

[403Forbidden]

You try to do fucking better, it's all about the idea of it, we all know that a PC emulator is loads better.

Oh me oh my! I insulted GTA3, I shall burn in slashdot hell where wanna-be skaters will laugh at me and make untrue alligations toward me... oh me oh my.

RTFA

[Anonymous Coward]

8.5 million copies *WORLDWIDE*

Note: emphasis added to aid the stupid.

Ah, Laslo!

[Willow_mt]

I'd love to see what happened to Laslo, as he himself says "This is Laslo on Chatterbox, cause I got thrown off the rock station"...dying to see the game! "I save your daddy! I save your husband! It is a miracle!!!"

Re:Ah, Laslo!

[weeboo0104]

Two Words... KILLER BEES! or... FREE KEVIN!

Re:Ah, Laslo!

[Scanline]

On the V-Rock CD in the soundtrack box set you can hear when Lazlow gets thrown off the station.

For GTA4

[Anonymous Coward]

Bring back multiplayer! For PS2 Online, or at least for the PC version plz!

Re:RIP...weird.

[fuzzywuzzyhadnohair]

Grand Theft Auto & Mr. Rogers in the same thread. How weird is that? One advocating "show love & kindness to your neighbor" ...the other recommends a nice 12 ga. shotgun...

Aren't there other ways?

[(1337) God]

Aren't there other ways for people to relax and have fun.

I personally would rather make love to my wife a couple times than sit around all Saturday afternoon staring at the TV screen.

Maybe that's just me though.

Read my journal, join my Slashdot clan, enjoy!

Re:Aren't there other ways?

[Anonymous Coward]

the two activities are far from being mutually exclusive

Re:Aren't there other ways?

[ArmyOfFun]

Yet, posting on Slashdot outweighs that whole "sex-with-the-wife" thing.

Or is that just on Saturday afternoons?

Zing!

Re:Aren't there other ways?

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally would rather make love to my wife a couple times than sit around all Saturday afternoon staring at the TV screen.

Same here.

That trick she does with the Mentos and the ice cubes is mind-blowing. To say the least.

Re:Aren't there other ways?

[Anonymous Coward]

Naw, he's just waiting for his turn...

Re:Aren't there other ways?

[Theaetetus]

That trick she does with the Mentos and the ice cubes is mind-blowing. To say the least.

Damn you! Beat me to the joke!

Re:Aren't there other ways?

[Anonymous Coward]

I didn't like it when she did it to me, but her ass is plenty tight.

What about video game piracy??

[Pentagon13]

Compared to the piracy-laden music industry, the video game industry seems to be doing quite well. I'll keep this short and sweet: perhaps people are putting what little extra money they have in their pockets these days into products that offer more "play" than just a list of songs. Shuffling the playlist to make track 2 come before track 1 just doesn't seem as interesting as defeating the next big boss, or trying a different course/weapon/whatever. Maybe that could explain for the downturn in music sales. I don't have any stats or pages to back this up, but video games in general seem to be doing respectably well even in the down economy right?

Re:What about video game piracy??

[nfg05]

You also don't see video game piracy of playsation games because Sony has copy controls on its games and getting around it requires soldering a chip onto your motherboard in most cases. Most people aren't going to do that, so piracy isn't mainstream. You don't hear the outcry about PS copy protection, just CD copy protection. But I digress, the point is that the video game industry doens't suffer from mainstream piracy because it is prevented by strong copy controls that are a bitch for normal users to get around.

Re:What about video game piracy??

[A Bugg]

everything you said and the fact that it takes one hell of a computer just to emulate the nintendo 64 so you know that PS2 and gamecube emulation are well beyond the reach of most people and their computers.
a bugg

Re:What about video game piracy??

[Anonymous Coward]

I play a pirted copy. PC version, of course.
I'm waiting to see a PC version of Vice City. Althought i don't even know if there is one.. :)
I'll probly buy it sometime though. It's just too great of a game. I bought RTCW after beating the whole SP.. had to buy it to get me a good code to paly online with :)

Re:What about video game piracy??

[Babbster]

Actually, *organized* piracy is indeed still a problem for the video game industry, though not as much in this country. China, for example, has a thriving industry in piracy of video games, as do other countries.

Breaking copy protection, while it's often not an easy exercise, only has to be done once for distribution so that's clearly not the reason [console] video game piracy isn't as common right now. Here are a couple of good reasons that consumer piracy isn't quite as rampant (it still exists) and both are related to the adoption of DVDs:

1. The larger the game, the bigger the hassle in transferring it over the net. While it's relatively easy to download a 650-800MB .iso file for a Playstation or Dreamcast games, downloading a DVD's worth of info (assuming the game actually utilizes the space) is much more difficult.
2. Consumers are currently lagging behind the console storage medium. It's a very rare computer these days that is sold without a CD burner (and a DVD-ROM for that matter) but DVD burning is still in the process of being adopted (format wars - DVD-R/+R/-RW/+RW/-RAM - don't help) in the mainstream, and you still can't get one for $27.
3. The third reason is only applicable to Nintendo, but it's still worth noting that using uncommon formats (cartridge and mini-DVD) still prevents a lot of the "casual" piracy.

Personally, I hope that console video game copy protection keeps getting tougher. I can count the number of times I've had to replace a CD or DVD video game (stored properly) because of media failure on one hand and still have fingers left over, so I'm not a big fan of the back-up copy "excuse."

While I'm realistic enough to recognize the video game prices won't be going down (US$50, pre-tax, new release), I can certainly envision them going up if piracy becomes as rampant on the new consoles as they were on the Playstation and Dreamcast. It won't affect games like GTA which will get their sales anyway, but I certainly don't relish the idea of spending $70 or more for another game that might not be as well known just because others are breaking the law.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

More time to play vice city.

it's not just you...listen to any real life 80s

[512k]

station, and you'll hear music that was in GTA:VC And when they picked the music for that game, they didn't pick the biggest hits from each artist..ie "Thriller" isn't on there, but there are some other Michael Jackson songs

Re:it's not just you...listen to any real life 80s

[bezza]

I know...

Toto - Africa is on there!

I almost fainted when I saw it in the back of the manual!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[2megs]

So your viewpoints are completely different, and she disapproves of the things that you think are fun, and you have to lie to her about your opinions just to be allowed in bed with her...

Do you really want to be marrying this chick?

Oh boy, such horrendous failure....

[Anonymous Coward]

YOU FAIL IT worse then Custer's Revenge. I mean cmon man, you're like 10 posts down!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Verteiron]

That's why I love my wife... she'd be right there blowing up polygon hookers with me :)

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[kfg]

You know, you should probably file a patent on the non troll troll now.

What I find interesting in all the obits I've read is that none of them really talk about what a controversial figure he sometimes was. He was "Mr. Nice Guy," and he truely was in many ways, but sometimes being Mr. Nice Guy brought him public criticism for it, sometimes perhaps justified.

An interesting man though, and yes, truly an American Icon.

KFG

No Playstation

[shoemakc]

That's all well and good, but what about the rest of us unwashed heathens without a playstation? :::cutting to the point:::

Has anyone heard anything about a PC version? I know with the original the PC version lagged the PS2 by almost a year, but you'd think they'd have most of the heavy porting aleady done.

Unless of course the sales of the PC version were lackluster and they don't have any interest in investing the time in porting it. Notice this time around there hasn't been :::any:: mention of a PC version what-so-ever.

I'd really like to play it, as I loved the first...but i'm not buying a $250+ console system just to play one game.

-Chris

PS-I know at least one person who :::did::: buy a PS2 just for one game. Hello Steve.

Re:No Playstation

[Anonymous Coward]

from gtavice.com

New York, NY- February 14, 2003- Rockstar Games, proudly announced today that the PC version of the global blockbuster, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, is set to hit retail shelves in North America on May 13th and in Europe on May 16th. The PC version will possess enhanced features including improved graphics and sound, additional PC controls, as well as several options for players to customize the game.

Re:No Playstation

[Anonymous Coward]

as well as several options for players to customize the game.

Sounds like Rockstar noticed the active GTA3/PC modding community. For those of you who didn't know this, check out codename:gta3 for more information. It's pretty insane what people have been doing with the PC version these days. Lamborghini Murcielago in GTA3, anyone?

Re:No Playstation

[Anonymous Coward]

Good luck. GTA3 for the PC is buggy enough. You can get a PS2 used for like $150 at EB, that plus Vice City used for $45 will get you playing it the way god intended.

Re:No Playstation

[wackybrit]

Yeah, and it aims 'for you' which is pretty damn lame. GTA3 was way better on the PC, unless you had a shitty ass video card.

Re:No Playstation

[DaemonGem]

Hmm, I don't know what country you live in, but in the US, the PS2 is not $250+.

-Dae

Re:No Playstation

[nazh]

Has anyone heard anything about a PC version?

from rockstar's homepage
Rockstar Games, proudly announced today that the PC version of the global blockbuster, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, is set to hit retail shelves in North America on May 13th and in Europe on May 16th.

Re:No Playstation

[nazh]

duh, gave ofc the wrong link ;)
go to rockstar games and click to news.

Re:No Playstation

[Anonymous Coward]

God never intended for video game consoles to exist, they are an abomination to His creation. =-)

Re:No Playstation

[Anonymous Coward]

GTA3 for pc is buggy?

thats weird, after 100s of hours playing i have yet to find anything major, it hasnt crashed or anything.

that being said, i cant imagine trying to play this game with a PS2 controller.

perhaps its time for you to replace that old pci voodoo card

Re:The true American spirit

[finkployd]

Remember back when Super Mario Brothers was popular? You know, when all Amercians aspired to be overweight, Italian plumbers with a 'shroom problem?

Or perhaps they are just video games after all.

Yeah, thought so.

Finkployd

Re:The true American spirit

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

Uh huh, yeah, there's a lot of rape in that game alright. Dumbass.

Incidently, you can also be a "good guy" in this game (more so than GTA 3). You can stop criminals (through non-lethal methods) and get jobs (ie/ pizza boy), save up and buy a house, all without committing crimes.

I'm not trying to justify the game (the whole point of the game is to commit crime and that's how it is sold and we like it like that - nothing wrong with escapist fantasy, depending on the shrink you talk to :), but it's interesting that you can abandon the game plot and lead a moral life within the game.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

I agree. He should have said "Why don't you look like that?" then cuffed her one upside the head.

Who the fuck does she think she is. Fuck, I mean, Fuck. I'd kick Ghandi's ass if dinner wasn't made for me when I got home. Beat him like he stole something from me. Let's see how far his 'passive resistance' would go when I'm fucking hungry. I'd only stop when my arm got tired of whoopin', then I'd holler out the front door to get my cousin inside to keep beatin till I could finish off my beer and nap. Then I'd whoop s'more.

Tom Likus would be proud of you. And all your kinfolk too.

In case you couldn't tell, I was being Sarcastic

Correlation

[t0ny]

Doesn't this now mean that there should be a phenomenal increase in crime rates across the US?

All I know is I cant wait for this game to be released for the PC in a few months. I love GTA3!

Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[(1337) God]

OK, I'm trying to decide which new video game to pick up.

My heart's content wants me to get Metroid Prime since Super Metroid was my favorite game of all time, but then again my brain is screaming for the hilarious drop dead fun of Vice City.

I can only afford one so it's quite a tough decision.

Any advice, geeks?

[Read my journal, join my Slashdot clan!]

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[shepd]

>My heart's content wants me to get Metroid Prime since Super Metroid was my favorite game of all time, but then again my brain is screaming for the hilarious drop dead fun of Vice City.

>I can only afford one so it's quite a tough decision.

>Any advice, geeks?

Sell one of your two systems and then you can afford the game of your choice, and you'll be able to spare enough for a second controller.

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[finkployd]

I have both, and let me say that while I am a huge Metroid fan (ok, I'm only 190lbs, but that is still a pretty big fan), AND while metroid prime is very very well done....I have to recommend GTA:VC. ONLY because there is just so much to do. If you get bored with the game's plot, you can just try to do cool stunts, or play one of the many sidegames. Just exploring around the city is very entertaining.

If you get bored in Metroid Prime (or if you cannot beat the damn giant plant thing with the mirrors pointing sunlight at it), there is not much else to do.

If you can only buy one, go with GTA:VC. Then do what I did, wait until Circuit City has a deal where you get metroid prime free with the purchase of a gamecube, then buy a $130 open box gamecube :)

Finkployd

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

well whichever one you choose I doubt you'll regret the decision. If you can't get both I'd steer towards Metroid though.

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[SamBeckett]

The giant plant thing is easy, only took me two tries... Just aim for the mirrors, go into a ball when the plant shrivels and fucking hit the turbo boost asap to get into the canals

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[one9nine]

Okay, let's look three posts before this one (depending on your threshold, I suppose):

Aren't there other ways for people to relax and have fun. I personally would rather make love to my wife a couple times than sit around all Saturday afternoon staring at the TV screen. Maybe that's just me though.

Now you're asking which video game you should buy.

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[Osty]

and fucking hit the turbo boost asap to get into the canals

Silly, you don't get the turbo boost until later in the game. I can understand the parent's frustration with that boss, as it was pretty difficult when you have to hit more than one or two mirrors -- by the time you get to the last one, the first has usually dropped already so you have to start all over. The trick is to use missiles or charged blasts to quickly hit up the mirrors, and use your targetting to hit them from farther away. If you're quick enough on the later tasks (3 and 4 mirrors), it's not too bad, but it took me 10-15 tries. Most of that was due to Metroid Prime's poor controller interface, though.

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[so1omon]

actually, the real trick is to keep shooting the plant as you go around and hit the mirrors. you'll stun it again before it can start knocking the mirrors down.

Re:Fuck, I'll do my own Ask Slashdot

[Anonymous Coward]

METROID PRIME!!!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[AvantLegion]

Gee, my girlfriend is about as pure as snow, but even she thinks Vice City is cool.

Does your fiance' ever watch violent movies? If so, what weak argument does she offer to excuse that but still condemn GTA?

Re:what idiosy

[Kurt Russell]

why not read the art of war, play chess to develop skills, or write code for the next big thing.

W00T party on BoB!!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[garett_spencley]

You poor, poor soul.

My cousins have the game but I don't own a PS2 nor own the PC version. My fiance and I play it everytime we're at my aunt's house. My fiance likes it more than I do! (yes we're heterosexual and she's female... lol)

Anyway she's bugging me to spend the money to purchase a PS2 just so we can get that game. As much as I'd love to we just can't afford it.

Moral of the story... there are attractive females out there who enjoy what men do and are completely "feminine" as well.

- Garett

In Totally Unrelated News

[ihatewinXP]

Fourth quarter sales were down for: puppies, toy trucks, jacks, and bikes. Meanwhile oddly enough sales for duct tape and plastic sheeting continue to rise based on a scared populace that thinks "There are madmen running loose int he streets!"

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

Quite a difference between gassing your own civilians and using a controler to shoot a polygonal person with a polygonal gun on a damn tv screen. MORON

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Malkuth]

What?! Violence is a part of human nature. Every living organism on this planet destroys and consumes other organisms to survive. Humans, America specifically, thrives on violence. The back bone of this horribly mediocre society is the Bible, one of the most violent works ever written. As a whole, we need to stop fearing violence and death. We need to teach our young ones that death is a part of life, and vice versa. Before I go off more and become flame bate, I will stop here and leave you with a neat quote. "If adult entertainment killing our children, or is killing our children entertaining adults?"

Re:The true American spirit

[deadsaijinx*]

i assume that all the assholes of /. have told you that would be worldwide sales, so i wont mention it any further...
though i will offer you this link to a very important speech that might answer your... questions

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn, man, you're WHIPPED

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[Fentekreel]

http://entertainment.msn.com/news/article.aspx?new s=116004 it may be msn but its more of a tribute mr. rogers was a childhood hero

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[Anonymous Coward]

damnit, i will keep on posting this until the moderators get it right! it is *not* off topic

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[retro128]

Now as all the married and almost married men out here know, that if i was to say what i was thinking, it would have been a very lonely night for me and my PC! :-)

Yeah, but you would have to got to blow away some hookers!

My girlfriend cackles like a banshee and says things like "Come here and die, bitch!" when she runs over people in Carmageddon. I'm almost afraid what's going to happen if I hand her GTA3.

Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[sdo1]

8.5M copies. That means a fairly large percentage of the population has played this game.

So if the "fake violence breeds real violence" crowd is right, we should be seeing a fairly significant spike in violent crime, right?

No? That's what I thought.

-S

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Anonymous Coward]

mod parent up!

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[BWJones]

So if the "fake violence breeds real violence" crowd is right, we should be seeing a fairly significant spike in violent crime, right?

No? That's what I thought.

Dude, spend a little time in an inner city emergency room some Friday or Saturday night. Make sure that it's a level one trauma center too as that's where all the gunshot victims go to. My point is not to draw a direct correlate between video games and violence, as the causes of violence are complicated, but desensitization *does* play a role.

For instance, I've pointed this out before, but one of the real difficult problems that the military has is desensitizing folks to pulling the trigger to take another human's life. Recently the Corps (Semper Fi) have experimented with the integration of video games to "help" desensitize recruits as well as attempting to teach squad theory. The only thing I do worry about is this issue of desensitization.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[bobbozzo]

According to that theory, then there should have been huge increases in violent crime following each major war.

I know there was after the Civil War (in the Wild West), but what about WWI, WWII, Korea, & Vietnam?
Doesn't seem like it.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[ramzak2k]

So if the "fake violence breeds real violence" crowd is right, we should be seeing a fairly significant spike in violent crime, right?

Its the conditioning thats more important. Kids can grow up thinking that guns, shooting and looting are cool. The effects can only be determined in the future.

Having said that it has been rated "R", rightly so.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Anonymous Coward]

Do you even know anyone who went to 'nam? Oh, well there's that biker gang downtown....

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[RollingThunder]

And then come to another country, very similar, but slightly different in a few critical social ways... which is exposed to just as much desensitizing viloence, and see much, much less of said gunshot victims.

If you can't figure it out - go north, and don't blame the games for your overall culture.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[bobbozzo]

Several.
And none are violent criminals.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[BWJones]

According to that theory, then there should have been huge increases in violent crime following each major war.

Well, I suppose it could also be cumulative. If you figure that there are well over 20,000 murders in the U.S. every year, you could make the argument that we are a pretty violent culture. Additionally, I seem to remember a congressional report in 1990 or 91 that concluded the US far and away leads the world in rape, and robbery rates as well as murder rates with the number of crimes outpacing the increase in population by something like 12 times.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[BWJones]

And then come to another country, very similar, but slightly different in a few critical social ways... which is exposed to just as much desensitizing viloence, and see much, much less of said gunshot victims.

If you can't figure it out - go north, and don't blame the games for your overall culture.

I actually talked about this very issue in my journal some weeks ago.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[tiny69]

The military has been working on desensitizing for some time now. It was noticed that during both WWI and WWII only a small percentage of soldiers would actually fire their weapons in combat. I saw a show on the Discovery Channel a few years ago that talked about this. One of the ways to desensitize soldiers is by using a conditioned response. The Army's weapons qualification (a yearly requirement at minimum) currently does this by using human shaped pop-up targets. The condition, a target pops up. The response, the soldier pulls the trigger and the target goes down. One of the people being interviewed during the show mentioned that conditioned response is the same technique that is used to train dolphins to respond to sounds and rabbits to respond to lights.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[nathanh]

So if the "fake violence breeds real violence" crowd is right, we should be seeing a fairly significant spike in violent crime, right?

Dude, spend a little time in an inner city emergency room some Friday or Saturday night. Make sure that it's a level one trauma center too as that's where all the gunshot victims go to.

"Dude, don't take a general view of the entire population to form a balanced opinion. Instead come and look at my heavily biassed samples in an unusual situation and draw wild conclusions."

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[fenix down]

Good lord yes. You have to look somewhere where the war actually happened, not Iowa, but hell yeah there's a spike in crime. Admittedly, I think your parent's still wrong, in that war just provides an opportunity for violence, not so much desensitization, but what do you think, the war just ends, all the guns vaporize and everything goes back to normal? Go look at Germany after WWI, Japan after WWII, and anywhere around Korea or Vietnam/Laos/Cambodia after the other two. (Cambodia might be in a bit out of the leage of the rest, but I guess a spike in human skull-mountain construction still supports my point)

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Lord Ender]

"Dude, spend a little time in an inner city emergency room some Friday or Saturday night."

Your argument was lost to me (and most other logically minded folk) as soon as you started trying to appeal to emotion instead of make a logical argument. Thanks, try again!

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[WiPEOUT]

I don't know about desensitisation, but years of LAN parties playing team-based FPSes such as Quake Clan Arena, Counter-Strike and such had my friends and I absolutely devastate all opposition the very first time we played skirmish/paintball, just because we knew how to work as a team in a squad-based combat. This despite only one of eight of us having every used a firearm.

I can see it now: special forces recruiting from CS tournaments. :)

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[scaramush]

It's interesting. I used to work in the intersection of biology education and computers. During my work day I would spend half a lot of time swearing to dubious professors that computers were an ideal method to teach students skills (everything from aid in memorization to surgery skills). And yet, at the same time, I was (and still am) in love with violent video games, and would absolutely scoff at the idea that there was anything wrong with games like Doom (human targets) or "lethal enforcers" (plastic guns and human targets).

I don't know what made me recognize the contradiction, but one day I realized that I couldn't have it both ways: If you believe that holding a "virtual" scalpel and doing a dissection can teach you how do perform a dissection, then it follows that holding a virtual gun and shooting someone can teach the SKILLS (not give you the desire to, mind you) to shoot real people. You can't have it both ways. Either virtual skills transfer, or they don't.

Before anyone starts yelling, I understand that there's a big difference between fantasy play and real life -- Clearly, people can imagine all sorts of things without acting on them and still be "healthy". Additionally, I understand that having the hand-eye coordination to shoot someone and the desire to shoot someone are two difference things. Nevertheless, as the parent post points out, surely the action/sight of violence must have an affect. If we're stimulating that part of the brain, and building up neural pathways, what is the outcome?

BTW, this doesn't mean I've turned against violent videogames (I own GTA3 and I love it). It just means I'm much more thoughtful about what we're learning and getting from video games, and much less quick to dismiss all criticisms of them.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Anthony Boyd]

So if the "fake violence breeds real violence" crowd is right, we should be seeing a fairly significant spike in violent crime, right?

No? That's what I thought.

Uhhh, we're going to war on Iraq. Hello?

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Mac Degger]

I agree with you there...but for two things:

-a video game doesn't teach youhow to frie a gun. It might teach you how to aim one, and how to walk around corners, but it doesn't teach you anything about handling a gun
-this is actually very much an argument for more realistic gore/violence in games/movies. That will teach that violence actually has consequences. Having no gore 'teaches' that violence has no consequence beyond the bad guy falling to the floor. Having 'real' gore teaches that if you were to shoot someone, there would be guts, death and mayor consequences. Even if one were to be desensetised by that, there is no question that the concious mind will know that fact, and would therefore refrain from violence.
Therefore, I truly beleive Germany's policy on videogame-violence to be couter productive....you get people who have less of an idea of the impact and consequences of violence; and that leads them to be more inclined to follow that path.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[cluke]

Playing games may give you the hand-eye coordination required to aim quickly but firing a gun is a world away from clicking a mouse button.
The one and only time I fired a shotgun, I took careful aim (at a fench post) squeezed the trigger and *blammo* massive recoil, bullet goes God knows where up into the sky. All my FPS experience was useless when it came to the real thing.

With the sheer force and noise, it's actually quite physically traumatic to fire a gun.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Malc]

I the overseas wars that happen longer ago, it took them a lot longer to bring the men home. This gave them more chance to unwind. By Vietnam, they could at home in a civilian environment 12 hours after being a war zone. I believe this did cause people quite a few problems, either with violence, or psychologically. That's very short time to have adjust so radically.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[visgoth]

I can see it now: special forces recruiting from CS tournaments. :)

Yes there's a pretty picture. A bunch of pasty white overweight geeks crying like little girls as a sadistic drill sergeant tries to get them to do a single pushup. :)

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Sarcazmo]

Do you similarily think that firearms sports or hunting are in the same category? They most definitely are the same skills.

The NRA likes to point out that kids that are trained to use guns safely for sport are drastically less likely to kill someone deliberatly or accidentally.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Anonymous Coward]

your shotgun fired a bullet?

the first time I used a shotgun I found I had fair to middlin accuracy.
You don't need a lot of accuracy for skeet shooting.
Actually found a considerable similarity with FPS.
FPS is incredibly boring, btw.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[SuiteSisterMary]

I don't know what made me recognize the contradiction, but one day I realized that I couldn't have it both ways: If you believe that holding a "virtual" scalpel and doing a dissection can teach you how do perform a dissection, then it follows that holding a virtual gun and shooting someone can teach the SKILLS (not give you the desire to, mind you) to shoot real people. You can't have it both ways. Either virtual skills transfer, or they don't.

The contradiction doesn't exist, because 'doom' or 'lethal enforcers' aren't 'murder' simulators. Lethal Enforcers won't teach you how to use a real firearm. Real firearms don't magically reload when you fire them off to one side. Real shotguns don't fire with the 'ctrl' key, Doom not withstanding. Gatling guns are NOT man portable, let alone accurate while firing at a 40 mp/h run, contrary to Doom.

Or are you saying that because I played Life & Death on a CGA Tandy, I'm qualified to perform appendectomies and remove aortic anyurisms(sic)? Because I played L&D 2 on a VGA 386, I'm competant to deal with haematomas and brain cancer? Because I played Nascar 2002, I'm capable of actually driving a Nascar class vehicle in a Nascar event?

Sure, if you're using an actual firearms training simulator, you're learning how to use a gun, and to kill people. But nothing you can find in a computer store or an arcade is going to teach you those skills.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[SuiteSisterMary]

I remember seeing a video some teenage buggers had made, 'How to use the skills taught in Counterstrike in real life.'

It was bloody hilarious; a bunch of guys wearing black jumpsuits with nice model guns *bunny hopping* through a room, becuase, as counterstrike teaches you, hopping repeatedly makes you harder to hit.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[SuiteSisterMary]

Also, it's very important psychologically to let people know that what they were doing in war mattered, that it was for a good reason, and that they can put the gun down, now.

Vietnam vets would get off the plane, 12 hours after being shot at in the jungle, and would be spat upon and jeered by anti-war protesters. That's damaging.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[rikkards]

Remember that the Hell's Angels were formed from former WWII vets who had nothing better to do with their time.

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[JaxGator75]

My friends and I discussed this and we determined that any one of us would be better equipped to pull a trigger on someone in a tense situation than if we had not played hours of FPS games. That doesn't mean that I would HIT what I was aiming at, but we all agreed that exposure to virtual situations would make it easier to pull the trigger on a person in a real situation... Having said that, I DON'T think any of us would be able to deal with the psychological impact of actually shooting a person in the real world any better (or worse) than someone who has never played a FPS. Very NON-scientific, but it's my opinion anyway. . .

Re:Where's the accompanying spike in crime?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah. Cuz war is a new thing....

Read up on the cursade's, Cromwell's campaign in Ireland, or just about any war predating the increase in violence in the media.

Some wars have always been fought for bad reasons going back to the dawn of history. And they have all been brutal, some of them as brutal as any modern war. Compare the culture that came up with the rack or the iron maiden to todays culture and we look downright comatose.

I'd like to see what happened if we tried some of the things done before modern video games (catapulting dead bodies into a walled city, masacares of entire cities (that have surrendered..._not_ a modern invention Cromwell did it in Ireland 'round the same time as the pilgrims came to North America), and so on and so forth.)

Then, turn around a look at the _drop_ in violent crime rates in america (and in violent teen crime as well) starting in the early 1990's and continue to today.

Yes, that's right violent crime has been dropping consistently for most of the last 10 years.You don't hear it very often over the background noise of _anecdotal_ evidence that its increasing.

Odd... this is just as the teens raised on the first wave of violent video games has become mature enough to have reasonable access to gun, knives and so forth. As the first people exposed to very violent movies (clockwork orange,etc.) as teenagers are in their middle ages and the first generation exposed to "evil", "violent" rock-n-roll are collecting their Social Security.

Basically, it boils down to: We don't need to be desensitized to be assholes to each other. Some percentage of us seem to be perfectly fine with doing that early on....And sadly, you can't always tell the difference until they get in a position to do something bad.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

Then why are you marrying her? So she can divorce you and take all your money? Why not just buy someone a house that you don't like and keep the car? Pussy.

You can try the Mafia playable demo...

[antdude]

Link.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[bconway]

Now as all the married and almost married men out here know, that if i was to say what i was thinking, it would have been a very lonely night for me and my PC! :-)

That's funny, I've been married for 10 years, and on the things that my wife and I don't agree on, she'll listen to my opinion and consider my viewpoint. I think there's something seriously wrong if you're letting someone control your life and tell you what you should think.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

do the math

[Anonymous Coward]

8.5M x $50 = $425M ranks up with some of the top hollywood movies.

http://movieweb.com/movie/alltime.html

Too Late :/

[mestoph]

Heh, while working i was posting the same story and its pending, oh well another rejected story. But in the meantime i'll put my questions here. With the massive profit margins of games these days. Do the designers see any of it. Or have the days of the Multimillionaire games designers gone like those of Adrian Carmack, John Carmack, Tom Hall, and John Romero from id software. If they don't see a share of the profit should they be paid like a movie star, after all there work is bringing in the same $'s at better profit margin. CD ~10c? (with front label), Box+paperwork ~$1? Shipping ~$5 per 100? So what $1.15 for a game that sells for $50. Who gets what out of the other $48.85.

Re:Too Late :/

[Anonymous Coward]

Hellooooooo Mr. Middleman! It's called the R-E-T-A-I-L Market. It's the guy who gets 10-80% of your money from *every* transaction just for standing around! Sometimes it's even more, but with something like this(one source regulates wholesale price and caps allowable retail price), probably in the 20-40% range. Remember with Music there's the RIAA, record shops do not reap the full benifits of the free market.

Hey, if it's not one monopoly it's annother be it retail, delivery, or AT&T. Sorry for the AC.

Re:Too Late :/

[Micro$will]

Id probably sees most of their money come from licensing the engine, so in the long run you can probably double or triple the initial returns from the original game. MOHAA, ST Elite Force, and Fakk2 were all based on the Quake3 engine, and RTCW is just a major modification of Quake3 Team Arena, and most of the art, levels, and gameplay was farmed out by Nerve and others. Activision also gets their cut for promotion.

I'd like to know whether Croteam (Serious Sam) has any engine licensing deals in the works. I don't know of any other FPS shooter that can handle the amount of enemies Serious Sam throws at you at one time.

Re:Too Late :/

[mestoph]

True, Middleman/Retail market does most probably take most of the money. Also i suppose that most top game programmers are probably on 100k UKP when they've had a decent title release (based on adverts in EDGE magazine for Rare of starting wages of 30-70k+benifits). And if the later reply suggests, they can get a cut of money from licencing the engine its not a bad living. Just wondering/thought, how long will it before Game shops and even online retailers start to die due to the biggest games companies selling direct from download. Its probably still not 100% possible to do 'pay then download' systems, as broadband needs to be a little more common place than it is now (and then 1meg+ at home not 512k, due to size of games today). But a year or so more? This would also cut out alot of piracy if i think about it. By stopping the stealing of serial keys, by being embedded in the software. Which is alot easier if done live, rather than on discs.
Who knows.

Re:Too Late :/

[Repugnant_Shit]

Heh, while working i was posting the same story and its pending, oh well another rejected story.

Ahahaha, just wait a few hours, you still have a chance ;)

Re:Too Late :/

[nelsonal]

The retailer's and wholesaler's cuts, which are probably about 20-25% of a game's price. The game's physical costs are likely to be less than 10% of a hit's price. Take Two specifically appears to be more of a distributor with a total payment to the Rockstar subsidiary, and doesn't do a very good job of breaking out that subsidiary's costs. But in EA's case, since EA does quite a bit more in house development, of the roughly $2 billion the company has gotten so far this year, development costs have been about $300 million, development costs will probably finish the year at about $350-$400 million, but revenues won't be much more than $2.2 for the whole year. Some of that $300 million goes to computers, buildings, and development executives, but I would guess that a significant chunk goes to the development staff. Other big expenses, are licensing, and purchase of outside developmed gaimes, in both cases its about 40% of each company's sales, and I can't tell how much their suppliers are spending on development, but would guess that it is probably 20% or so of sales. The executives, accountants, and any other general costs are about $100 million, and this does not include any payments from options. The last major cost is advertising and sales force costs, which are about $260 million in EA's case. The remaining pre-tax income of $400 million is ostensably owned by the shareholders, but is reinvested in the company for the promise of more income in the future. In unit terms, the developers probably get about $7.50-$10 per copy of an average selling game.

Re:Too Late :/

[nelsonal]

I forgot the console owner, in this case Sony, gets some of the product costs, probably about 20% of the wholesale price.

Re:Too Late :/

[mestoph]

As sony said at the start of the PS1 and also on the PS2. They dont care about making a loss on the console itself. Games profit will make up it 10 fold for average owners.

games vs. movies as entertainment

[anonymous loser]

GTA:VC is still selling for $50 on store shelves, which means that Take Two has probably grossed at least $400 million (using conservative numbers) on this title in three months.

Few movies ever rake in that kind of cash, and let's face it: the movie market has been saturated for 50 years while the gaming market is still growing rapidly. When you think about it, it makes sense. Games are much more interactive (with the possible exception of pr0n, I guess) and typically deliver a lot more "bang for the buck". I can spend $6-$10 to own a 2-hour movie, or I can spend $20-$50 to play a 20-60 hour game.

Games also traditionally cost less to produce, meaning MUCH higher net profits for the publisher.

Frankly, I'm amazed that EVERY company in the movie business doesn't also produce games, as there's a lot of overlap between the two media. Sure, a lot of big-budget films (usually targetted at kids) end up with movie tie-in games, but I mean why not take some of the stories that are pitched and spend the money on making a game *instead of* a movie? It's going to be the same-or-lower risk, and potentially much greater profits.

Re:games vs. movies as entertainment

[asparagus]

The $50 you spend in the store doesn't translate to another $50 in the pockets of the company. I'd be surprised if they were getting more than 25% ($12) a copy. That puts the numbers more in the range of $100 million gross in three months.

Unfortunately, these numbers are the same for the movie business. That $10 you spent for a ticket at the theatre is maybe $2.50 to the producers of the film. However, there are far more revenue streams for movies. Foreign + video/dvd alone triple revenues, without even beginning on PPV or licensing to the networks. Add in merchandising and the other major revenue streams and it starts to add up.

So, there's still a bit more money to made in the movie industry. However, games have been coming on strong, I'll grant you that. I think they will be a much more accepted form of culture (prehaps even considered art by the general populace) in ten years.

-Brett

Re:games vs. movies as entertainment

[Mac Degger]

Actually, games cost a lot to produce. AAA titles now take up to a hundred people to make, and take anything from 2-4 years to produce.
As for costs, they're rapidly approaching movie budgets.

ANd for your final point: to true...look at the new Matrix game coming out...it does exactly that: hell, an extra hour of Matrix moviefootage was shot (with all the actors) specifically for the game. Plus there's all these paths in the Matrix game which have bearing (and lead to insight) on the movies themselves, and visa-versa.

Oh, and all the actors of the Lord of the Rings did voice-acting for the LotR video game.

Just FYI :)

Re:games vs. movies as entertainment

[Eric Savage]

Question: does anyone know of any info on how much the average game costs to produce? I'm really curious to see how it stacks up to other mass-market entertainment like movies/tv/music/etc. I could price up a business app pretty well but games are a whole different world.

Re:games vs. movies as entertainment

[TheLoneDanger]

Frankly, I'm amazed that EVERY company in the movie business doesn't also produce games, as there's a lot of overlap between the two media. Sure, a lot of big-budget films (usually targetted at kids) end up with movie tie-in games, but I mean why not take some of the stories that are pitched and spend the money on making a game *instead of* a movie? It's going to be the same-or-lower risk, and potentially much greater profits.

Except that there isn't nearly the prestige or glamour associated with Video Games. While some celebrities are showing up at parties thrown by game companies, by and large, you don't meet too many of those famous directors and movie stars while you're making a videogame.

Also, while movies and videogames seem to share common elements, they are entirely different mediums. Videogames are NOT movies with the occasional button press, or the good ones aren't. This lesson has been painfully learned by many companies including some from the movie industry. It takes a very different type of mindset to allow someone to create their own story than to just show a story from one very focussed point of view.

Mod parent down!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

this guy is the leader of a clan on ./
http://slashdot.org/~(1337)%20God/journal/2543 1
i dont know about everyone else, but i think thats the gayest thing ever

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[finkployd]

playing with boobies every night is a hell of a lot better than looking at ones with 16 million colors

I think I just found my new .sig :)

Finkployd

WTF is wrong with your bitch?

[WIAKywbfatw]

GTA3 is the only game that my girlfriend (of 8+ years) has given a name to: she calls it Carjack.

Although she's yet to pick up a joypad and start racing around town, gunning down cops, putting out fires whilst picking up secret packages, she does see the lighter side of the game. It's fun, it isn't meant to be taken seriously, so why treat it as anything more than light entertainment?

Honestly, if your girlfriend can't appreciate that playing GTA3 doesn't make you an evil person and that it won't turn you into an Uzi-totting, maas-murderer then she's the one with the problem, not you. (Unless, of course, you are an Uzi-totting, maas-murderer, in which case you're both screwed.)

Re:WTF is wrong with your bitch?

[Henry V .009]

You sick pedophile bastard.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

I'm going to be laughing so hard at you 5 years down the road. It's okay, though, I'm pretty sure you will be, too.

I'd rather make love to your wife too.

[Anonymous Coward]

But as it is, it doesn't look like it's gonna happen. So I play this damn game.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[2megs]

My girlfriend runs Linux. 'Nuff said. :)

I would like to offer the Buddhist perspective

[kfg]

Dude, they're only *pixels.* Lighten up.

Also, at the end of a game of chess no one has *really* commited Regicide. It's just symbolic.

Don't get me going about Chutes and Ladders though. That game is disgusting. Oh, the humanity!

KFG

Re:I would like to offer the Buddhist perspective

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

If any game is ruining our world, it's scrabble. Did you know you can play it in the nude?

Oh, that's just me?

Nevermind.

Re:I would like to offer the Buddhist perspective

[tarquin_fim_bim]

You can play paint ball in the nude, but it's not wise.

Re:I would like to offer the Buddhist perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

He's safe, those guns aren't that accurate.

Re:I would like to offer the Buddhist perspective

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

He's safe, those guns aren't that accurate.

Cute, but let's not try to make a molehill out of a mountain, ok?

Re:I would like to offer the Buddhist perspective

[Anonymous Coward]

OWWW! Those paintball thingies HURT!!!!

Re:The true American spirit

[(1337) God]

You're taking what I said out of context.

My statement indicated that Americans enjoyed being able to carry out the actions of criminals. They like living a lifestyle of crime and being able to have sex whenever they want with any hooker they want, and then getting the chance to beat them up afterwards.

In Mario Brothers, the graphics were child-like and the plumber brothers just went through pipes and smushed plants. It was all very kid-like and innocent fun.

Vice City is nothing at all like that. It's rude, crude, and downright degrading to women and policemen alike.

I stand by my original statement. Anyone who has a sick fetish for being a crime boss should be tossed into jail.

Like I said earlier, it's no wonder you are all such privacy nuts -- you're busy at home raping and killing on your videogame systems.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[IIRCAFAIKIANAL]

I get to play with boobies every night (no, not my own) and GTA:VC - sometimes at the same time - neener neener neener to infinity.

Plus 1. :)

Vice City

[ziplux]

Why isn't Vice City on the PC yet? Why did they release it on an old console that has no life left in it? Oh yeah, I forgot there for a second....Sony is frucking greedy! They're obviously delaying or even stopping Rockstar from releasing it on the PC or XBox because they want to sell more consoles. Bullshit.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

Hilarious!

Duke nukem?

[Bendebecker]

Hey man, don't ya know? It's coming out in July of 99!

Think different

[WIAKywbfatw]

That's a tough call, so why make it?

Get a part-time job, "borrow" the money from your parents (or grandparents), hold up a bank (but not a small store - always rob from the rich, never from the poor), sell a kidney or just wait 12 months for them to appear as budget titles.

Buy both and you'll never be bored (or seen in public) again.

YOU SHOULD HAVE USED RPN!

[Anonymous Coward]

It would have saved keystrokes!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have one sound for you:

WAAAAPISSSSH

Oh, wait, there's another sound I can't quite make out. Oh yes, its your faint wimper when your wife is done working you over with the whip

Re:The true American spirit

[rampant mac]

" The true American spirit really shines through these sales results.

So, who is it that loves violence, terror, and rape so much again?

Yeah, thought so."

Nice stereotype. I can play too.

Rockstar's next game: Le Reddition (The Surrender)

Welcome to France.

From the country who rolls over like a flock of sheep, snootiness and horrible hygiene comes a story of one man's rise to the top of cowardice. Le Reddition is a huge urban sprawl ranging from that half-finished skyscraper know as the Eiffel Tower to Marseilles, and is the most varied, complete and alive digital city ever created.

why not read the art of war, play chess...

[Yito Graft]

, or write code for the next big thing.

But I do! I am going to school to be a computer system administrator. I program in visual Basic, I play chess decently, and while i haven't read the art of war, i have read are fair amount of books.

And yet, while I do all of this, I still went out and bought the game. Am I an idiot if when i graduate I get a job for $20 an hour? Am I an idiot?

Oh ya, I also play EQ, known for being one of the biggest time wasters of all...

Re:why not read the art of war, play chess...

[Anonymous Coward]

yes. an admintorstrator or job for $20/hour is hardly significant or at the top

I'm Confused?

[joelil]

I'm confused how did this post start with GTA and end up with Mr. Rodgers?

Duke Nukem Forever June 2003?

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes, we all know many on-line and off-line stores have been setting release dates for Duke Nukem Forever, but from corporate HQ of one of the most (if not the biggest) well known game-related sellers for console & PC have a release date set for June 2003. Interestingly enough, any posts made on the 3drealms forums which mentioned this release date WERE NOT deleted, like the others have been, but MOVED to other forum areas unrelated to Duke Nukem Forever. This is very interesting to note if you've participated on 3drealms' forums for as many years as I have.

I'm betting on June 2003. I'm sure the game is done or nearly done, and they're working on a massive ad campaign to promote it. If it's not done this year, however, I never want to hear about it again. Ever.

This year is the deciding factor, IMO whether Duke Nukem Forever lives to see its well deserved release, or reveals itself as a project of never-ending engine switches and excuses.

TALK HARD! -- Pump Up The Volume The Movie

Re:Duke Nukem Forever June 2003?

[fatboyslack]

I understand you not wanting to know about it... I waited for years for Command & Conquer:Tiberian Sun to come out, frequented fan boards, downloaded all the movies and screen shots. By the time the game came out (Oct 99 - I remeber cause I was starting exams) it was a huge let down. But, looking back it never could have met those huge expectations that the community put on it. I sort of fear that the same will happen to DNF (Did Not Finish?) where despite being good without hype, results in being crap with the hype.
Strangely enough, last year I went back to C&C:TS and its not too bad a game, I quite enjoyed it. One thing Westwood always did well was the FMV (Full motion video). And I like the music in it better now, especially since I found a cool little patch that I could import my music into the game. (Insert Rage Against The Machine!)

/ramble

Re:Duke Nukem Forever June 2003?

[Anonymous Coward]

I just LOVE how my thread received a score of 1 initially, with a 100% interesting rating, and now it's considered 50% offtopic and labeled as such. B.S.! The story was about GTA and mentioned Duke Nukem Forever. How can I go offtopic by discussing something mentioned in the story? Hello? McFly? Is anybody in there? Of course the mods probably won't even read this anyway so I'm just wasting my time. Useless llamas.

Great News!!

[aiyo]

Im going to go beat some hookers to celebrate.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

I know, I'm in rare form.

8.5 million copies SOLD

[phorm]

That's a huge amount of sales. How many people would have pirated this if it had come out on PC instead of console?

This is perhaps one of the upsides to being a PS2 game, at least at first. If it had come out on PC earlier... a lot of people probably would have just pirated it instead of buying. I know I would have, though I would have bought it later had it met approval (judging by popular opinion, it would have) - though of couse on PS2 I can also rent it.

It makes a good statement about the popularity of console games though, wonder if anti-piracy is one of the reasons it's still console-only?

And yet, I'm aware one could play a pirated version with a chipped PS2... but it is *much* more a pain in the butt (and DVD+R is expensive) than PC piracy. Of course, on PC, people may have bought more than 1 CD to play multiplayer between machines.

Not to spark the software-piracy holy war, but it's an honest consideration for console games, and such high sales numbers may prove their increased profitability.

Re:8.5 million copies SOLD

[jandrese]

On the other hand, how many people would have downloaded the pirate version (or even *gasp* the demo) found that it was good and actually bought it? It's impossible to speculate on the affect piracy would have on the sales because nobody ever takes reliable numbers.

Besides, don't most PS2 games get cut down to CD size when they're pirated?

Re:8.5 million copies SOLD

[TheLink]

Seems my brother intends to pay for GTA3 after playing a copy.

The originals aren't available here - it's probably banned or something. He went to a neighbouring country to get it and it was banned there too.

So he's considering sending them a bank draft!

I think software authors should add a pay online website, just for those of us who get software through unauthorized distributors. Heck give us a discount off list price - they can afford it - someone else has paid for the raw materials and distribution. Same for music.

The "unauthorized distributors" do a good job of distributing what the market wants - more market driven. They can stock competing brands if they want, they stock how much they want not what the supplier wants etc.

Why don't more authors, musicians and artists have a "pay me online" site? Years ago I proposed something like that to the FSF- provide a service for people to pay directly to free software coders who sign up, but they didn't take it up.

Re:8.5 million copies SOLD

[minister of funk]

I think one of the reasons GTA3: Vice City hasn't been released on the PC is because of a contractual obligation to Sony... similar to the release of GTA3.

Re:8.5 million copies SOLD

[phorm]

Just an idea... try Ebay, I've got many a good piece of software there - usually at a better price.

If you can't find it through a direct source (e.g. the product creator/manufacturer/etc), Ebay is often a good second bet.

Re:8.5 million copies SOLD

[TheLink]

But why? If you already have the software (from the "unauthorized distributors" for USD1+) why pay for shipping, distribution and raw materials?

Seems like a waste to me. Might as well pass some of the cost savings directly to the author/creator.

The problem like I said is finding online payment sites.

Re:8.5 million copies SOLD

[geekoid]

why do you assume you would commit an illegal, and immoral(IMO, of course) act, then a lot of people would?

Re:8.5 million copies SOLD

[phorm]

If I buy the CD in the end, it might still be illegal but definately not immoral. More PC software should be available as shareware nowadays before having to buy full versions.

How many more could they have sold?

[Spamhead]

If the thing were only available on the PC platform...

I seriously don't understand the whole Rockstar/Sony rights-marketing-distribution-restriction thing. I'd have bought this game the second that it was available for my computer.

Dammed if I'm going to shell out over $200 US dollars on hardwired-console-crap for the 'privilege' to play one game.

Do I spend that much on my PC+graphics card? Yes. Why? Oh, I dunno. Other games not available for the PS/2, AutoCad work, tinkering with alternative operating systems, you name it.

It all comes down to flexibility.

Bah! Enough of you kids and your fancy new consoles. I'm going back to 1978 and kicking my older brother's ass at old-style-console "Coleco" hockey!

Re:How many more could they have sold?

[Anonymous Coward]

That's why it's coming out for PC in May.
Patience, young padawan.

Re:How many more could they have sold?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because everybody has a PS2. Not everybody has a PC. Good enough answer?

interpretations

[oqti]

> Also, there's still a couple people waiting on Duke Nukem Forever, and their patience is wearing thin.

And so did God unleash the rabid game fans upon the world, and they laid waste, and no stone upon stone was left where once great warehouses stood.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Angry White Guy]

Why, he'll still be able to play with the boobies, they'll just be lower.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

My girl hates GTA. She thinks it's stupid, violent, and pointless.

I play it anyway. She understands.

If you need to lie about your video game preferences, get out now. You WILL get laid again, I swear!

Next Grand Theft Auto message board

[pheph]

GTA-SA.com is a message board dedicated to the new Grand Theft Auto (SA is for San Andreas) as well as all of the previous Grand Theft Auto games...

News Flash for ya pal,

[Anonymous Coward]

She most definately aint as pure as snow. What she does have in common with snow however, is that she has a team of guys plowing her all night long.

Re:News Flash for ya pal,

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn, I nearly pissed myself when I read that! There's some comedy insults going on tonight, for sure!

Re:News Flash for ya pal,

[Anonymous Coward]

Yeah, the mods are a-sleeping tonight. This keeps up, I'll start posting non-ac.

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

naw, the graphics were much better

[Anonymous Coward]

The controls were not much improved.

And I also liked the modern music of GTA3 plus Lazlo's talk station better than the retro of GTA:VC (although I bought the soundtrack).

The lighting in VC is much better (the neon, for example) and the helicopter views are incredible. Also, notice how you can see the other islands nearly all the time.

And ever watch a sunset in VC? The sun sets in the Northwest if I remember correctly. Watch the sun set, the sky change and the street lights come one. Far better than GTA3 in that respect.

... and then ,,,

[Anonymous Coward]

and then i take out my chainsaw and rip the bitch to shreds..

Metroid Prime

[Anonymous Coward]

VC is great, but Metroid Prime is the game of the last two years, easily. A total joy to play. That'd be my choice.

I have all three systems, no game on any platform can match Metroid Prime.

Re:No Playstation, No problem !!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

Hey man,

Hopefully you'll see this reply in the flood of posts, if not I'm sure you'll find out anyways.....

GTA:VC for the PC hits stores on May 13th. They did the same thing for GTA3 as far as not mentioning it, prolly to boost their exclusive console only sales. It took some digging for me to find out it WAS coming out for PC in the Spring, but the date just got finalized. Hope that helps. ;)

Ref link - http://www.bluesnews.com/cgi-bin/articles.pl?show= 535

Fett

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

Mario is a severe serial murderer, you sick bastard! Child-like, indeed. The bright colors and happy music only serve to make his neverending drug-addled murder spree more disturbing. It's downright degrading to plumbers to see them portrayed as heartless serial killers with mushroom addictions. Not to mention the message it sends to women-- "You are completely useless, and must be rescued by a fat, murdering, sewer-obsessed, blue-collar italian man on hallucinatory drugs despite the fact that your captors are a bunch of slow-moving, predictable walking mushrooms, awkward duck-turtle hybrids and one largish dragon-guy who isn't even guarding your room during most of the game!"

Oh, wait-- it IS just a game, after all. Twit.

getting older?

[bascheew]

I don't know if it's a sign of getting older but after playing GTA for about ten minutes I put the game down and decided not to play it or its sequels again.

Just something about courting prostitutes and being a druglord's monkey that wasn't appealing to me. Sure it was fun to drive around, but when I killed innocent sprites on the side of the road I felt bad.

Oh well, I think I'll go to kill some people in [insert your favorite first person shooter here] now.

Re:getting older?

[Anonymous Coward]

how old are you? 90? GTA:VC is an adult game, yeah my bro whos 15 plays it and his friends, but its supposed to be for adults. Jay Leno plays it.

postmortem and analysis

[Anonymous Coward]

I would be interested in seeing how long the project lasted, at what staffing, who they outsourced and an approximate cost. Basically I am curious how much the dev's got and how much was pocketed by the middlemen. The publishers often seem oddly like the RIAA. Perhaps that is why it is so frustrating that indy games and "non traditional" production/distribution loop games get ignored regardless of their value and by the very people who stand to benefit the most (short term by playing that game, long term by introducing/upping the bar for other games in the future through competition). But when the majority of people's reviews start with "the graphics are..." you are not exactly expecting much from them (unless they are referring to a graphical interactive game like Myst)

Bring back the game play, bring back the immersion, bring back the innovation, bring back the stories, bring back the non-linear play options, bring back the well designed internal mechanics, bring back the occasional uniqueness, bring back the fun

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Do you really want to be marrying this chick?"

Yeah, because if he's posting on Slashdot, you know he can choose from any woman he wants!

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

Now, 2megs, you probably don't know what it is like to be in love, but it is sure a hell of a good thing!

BWAHAHAHAHAH!!!!!!!!

You think you're the only person who has ever been in love? Listen, I know if feels like that, especially the first time you find a girl who likes to fuck you three times a day, but everyone's been there.

You're just a wussy-ass whipped motherfucker. You enjoy your life of caring about nothing other than her happiness, and I'll give you the name of a good divorce lawyer in ten years.

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

Give it three years...

-1 Overrated

[Anonymous Coward]

Do it. CowboyNeal likes pretend girlies.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

Can you honestly say that you would not fuck a clone of you?

metaphor

[joehahn]

I don't even play the game, but am always making jokes about how I or one should ravage the environment in context. ex: "GTA Downtown Naperville. " "GTA Kmart."

Comment removed

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

Re:The true American spirit

[finkployd]

You're taking what I said out of context.

There was no context. It was three sentences

My statement indicated that Americans enjoyed being able to carry out the actions of criminals. They like living a lifestyle of crime and being able to have sex whenever they want with any hooker they want, and then getting the chance to beat them up afterwards.

As others said, the sales figures were worldwide. But let's pretend they were not. What you are saying is still false. I play Gran Turismo, yet I do not enjoy driving fast. I play NCAA Football 2003, but I don't like playing football in real life (or perhaps I just suck at it). I loved Max Payne, but I have no desire to be a cop pushed too far with nothing to lose.

That, and the 2001 census estimate on the US is 284,796,887 people. If 8,500,000 bought this game, that is only 3%. Not a good sample to base such a statement off of.

It's rude, crude, and downright degrading to women and policemen alike.

No arguement here, it certainly can be that. However I personally know some women and policemen alike who thought it was very entertaining. Either they are very masochistic people, or they are capable of seperating entertainment from real life.

I stand by my original statement. Anyone who has a sick fetish for being a crime boss should be tossed into jail.


I'm relieved you personally do not direct public policy in such matter. Any other thought crimes that should be punishable by jail term?

Like I said earlier, it's no wonder you are all such privacy nuts -- you're busy at home raping and killing on your videogame systems.

I don't use gpg and ssl to protect my credit card numbers, or keep marketers from getting personal information on me with which to market to me. Nope, I only want to conceal my unmentionable video game fetish.

Seriously, I get your point and belive it or not, I kinda agree. It is a pretty rude, crude, and sometimes degrading game. Certainly not something for kids.

However, if I can legally listen to gansta rap, watch 'shoot em up' movies, and read mystery novels where people get horribly murdered, how is the more of a crime? I'm certainly not emulating the game in real life. Feel free to look down on me, curse me, or experiment with voodoo while thinking of me, but don't equate playing a game with something that warrants jail time.

Finkployd

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

Every minute of the day, I'm gorgeous and kinky.

Re:No Playstation, No problem !!!!

[shoemakc]

Awesome....thanks guys.

-Chris

Reserve play according to proportions.

[Hao Wu]

A good parent will buy this game for their child. HOWEVER, they should partition the length of time with other games so that influences are spread evenly.

Use ration like: 1 hour Grand Theft : 1 hour Flight Sim : 1 hour Bean Hunt game : 1 hour Race Rally.....

No one game is good or bad. Only a distinct combination can damage your child by making him either dumb, slow, perverted, ETC.

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonvmous Coward]

"Uh huh, yeah, there's a lot of rape in that game alright. Dumbass."

Heh. I'm sick of stupid comments like that too. I've noticed that the people who are loudest about GTA 3 are people that have never actually played it.

The funny thing is that it's more like a sim. Which means, just like the parent poster said, you can choose to be a good guy if ya like. You get out of what you put in. I think that's pretty much why the ppl who've played it aren't complaining.

Re:The true American spirit

[bobbozzo]

It ain't rape if you have to pay for it! :P
e.g. in GTA3.

GTA GT Hybrid

[warnerve]

I always thought Rockstar should take Grand Theft Auto and mix it with a game like Gran Turismo. Get some actual cars in the game instead of the Cheetah and such. I'd be much more happy swiping a Grand Am than I am a fictional gang car.

Re:GTA GT Hybrid

[Anonymous Coward]

GTA + Max Payne would rock too.

Re:GTA GT Hybrid

[corsec67]

Yeah, but car companies are far more willing to put their cars in a game where they don't get damaged. EA has a virtual monopoly on damaging licensed cars. Lamborguini, Ferrari, etc GT doesn't even cary those brands. GTA would have to be toned down way too far for there to be any chance of a company putting their car in there.

Re:GTA GT Hybrid

[Anonymous Coward]

OF course, he could always try The Getaway: http://www.thegetaway.co.uk/

Re:GTA GT Hybrid

[kisrael]

Huh. Why do companies have to be for licenses? If I write a book where the character drives a 1996 Green Honda Civic Hatchback, would I have to pay royalties?

Or is it about the shapes and images somehow?

To the contrary

[SuperKendall]

Those of us still left that are still fans of Duke Nukem Forever have an epic level of patience, and will easily be able to wait until it is released - and that include cryogenics if necessary!

Re:To the contrary

[Belgand]

I'd have to agree. I'm not certain off the top of my head just how long it took Duke3d to come out, but it was quite a long time although perhaps it was only 3-4 years.

Re:does anyone besides me wipe standing up?

[Anonymous Coward]

Damn, I really shouldn't read these disgusting porn stories you boys post to Slashdot. They're starting to give me hardons.

You're turning an entire generation of straight males gay, I tell you!!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[coday]

CRRRRRRAAAAAAKKK! goes the whip! On a more seriosu note, my fiance loves the game, because it is fun, and because she realizes it is just a game.

11 titles?

[daVinci1980]

Wow. I wish the best of luck to Rockstar, but going from one title to two to eleven is a recipe for disaster.

That's probably one of the main reasons that a lot of studios become one hit wonders.

Ahh well, as I said, best of luck to them. I hope they prove me wrong.

It's all about the motorcycles.

[ChaosDiscord]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City does have it's weaknesses. It's hung on me several times. Bad guys have the amazing ability to shoot through walls. The save your partner mission was particularlly difficult given that someone I needed to kill was inside an object. In certain parts of the city, if you're zipping along quickly, it can't load geometry fast enogh, sometimes causing an object to pop into view just as you hit it. The missions by and large lack the "fun" that Grand Theft Auto 3 had.

But it's all worth it for the motorcycles. Roaring down the streets on the PCJ-600, leaning slightly forward to get the slight speed boost (nice touch in the game), racing between cars, knowing that a slight miscalculation will throw you a hundred feet. That's my addiction.

Re:It's all about the motorcycles.

[Anonymous Coward]

Your PS2 is broken, that never happened for me or 5 other people i know of playing it. And this is after literally days of playing.

Re:It's all about the motorcycles.

[YorkshireONE]

I agree with AC here, I have not experienced any of the problems you mentioned, PS2 version.
Best mission in GTA:VC is the one where you have to jump from roof to roof for miles on the motorbike, I ended up making the last jump as my bike was just a fireball with a seat.
I don't think any of the previous versions beat VC, the aiming of weapons in GTA:3 was annoying and seems to have been improved in VC.
God, games don't come any better than this for me.
Also I agree with another poster who wanted Las Vegas for the next episode, that or 60's london.

Re:It's all about the motorcycles.

[nathanh]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City does have it's weaknesses. It's hung on me several times.

I've clocked 120 hours on this game (took a few weeks!) and it hasn't hung on me.

Bad guys have the amazing ability to shoot through walls. The save your partner mission was particularlly difficult given that someone I needed to kill was inside an object. In certain parts of the city, if you're zipping along quickly, it can't load geometry fast enogh, sometimes causing an object to pop into view just as you hit it.

I haven't seen any of that and I've finished all the core missions. Have you tried the disc on another PS2? I remember with my PSX that some games were "dodgy" and it turned out to be a bad CD assembly. New PSX and the problems went away.

Re:It's all about the motorcycles.

[iainl]

I've seen the odd glitch on a mission myself, actually. First was a Vigilante mission where the criminals were inside a building, and the second was on the "blow up the drug factory" one where the first time I tried it I had problems getting into the factory as the two cars in front were getting held up by pedestrians in the way.

Its nothing major, though.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[duffbeer703]

You should have "told" her that good wives don't sit their fat asses on the couch watching TV and lecturing their husbands.

After that you could have "asked" her to scrub the bathroom and do the laundry.

You wouldn't have been laid for a few days, but it might encourage her to keep her preachy bitchiness to herself.

Humorous Story

[Msptato]

I personally really enjoy this game, but my girlfriend was at my house, and I was playing the game and she (naturally) was informing me of how horrible the game was, and I decided to go downstairs to get a drink, when I come back up, I find my girlfriend playing this game. She had managed to become hooked on the game that not five minutes ago she thought was horrible. Long story short, she "borrowed" the game, and I have not seen it since... God am I bitter...

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[zemote]

My wife loved GTA3. She couldn't stop playing it, and she is not a gamer. Rent the game and have her play it and see how addicted she becomes. People need to realize that games and real life are separate worlds and that it's ok to enjoy something violent for entertainment value as long as it's fiction.
--zemote--

Fine but...

[Anonymous Coward]

"The good news is Rockstar Games has 11 titles in the works."

Can you imagine a Beowolf cluster of these!?!

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[Anonymous Coward]

fuck him, that kid lovin' mother fucker!

So why isn't in a Sony Greatest Hits title?

[Inoshiro]

Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City sold over a million copies, but it's not retailing for 19.99$ USD.

Consider this before purchasing the game.

Re:So why isn't in a Sony Greatest Hits title?

[Anonymous Coward]

Because they're still in demand, DUH..

Re:So why isn't in a Sony Greatest Hits title?

[Anonymous Coward]

stupidest post ever.

Re:So why isn't in a Sony Greatest Hits title?

[Jonny Ringo]

I believe they have to be out for a certain amount of time first as well. I forget how long that time is. It's either 6 months or a year.

PS2 gamer market it larger than the PC market.

[Viewsonic]

PS2 has an installed gamer base of around 25 million. The PC market, while larger overall, has a MUCH smaller "gamer" share. You would see around 3 million sales at the most. Console gaming sales have eclipsed PC game sales years ago. This is nothing new.

However, it is a bad idea to just limit yourself to just a single platform, I agree. They should have released it simultaniously to the PC and Gamecube as well.

Re:PS2 gamer market it larger than the PC market.

[Anonymous Coward]

Except for one teensy little point. Sony made a deal with Rockstar for GTA to be a PS2-only game. In exchange, Sony Music provides the '80s tunes.

Seeing it on PC, Gamecube or Xbox would be quite a surprise, at least for the duration of the exclusivity clause.

Re:The reason Vice City isn't very complex

[Anonymous Coward]

WTF are you talking about??? Vice City doesn't require any expensive graphics card, because it isn't played on the pc, it's ps2 exclusive, but it wasn't exactly programmed in C either, the ps2 uses a derivative of C, but I see you are okay with C#, so I take it that you are ok with derivatives of C.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

No, that's me she's working over with the whip.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

but it is nice to make her feel like her opinion on that topic is shared. ... what is important is that my fiance is happy and i am happy.

...
You may call me whipped, you may call me femanized, but it is worth every little bit of it.

You're being a complacent, pandering, pussywhipped fool (albeit "in love"), bordering on co-dependent. In 10 years you'll ache for the ability to say and act the way you really feel, as you two blend more and more into the same mediocre person.

And yes, this is speaking as someone who's currently in, and has had a few, long term (>1 year) relationships. Maintain your personality, your uniqueness, your vigor that makes us human. The boobies, the body parts, will sag -- make sure your personalities (you know, the things that you really fell in love with) don't!

Just a cottin pickin minute

[finkployd]

Waiiiiiiit a second.

I know you, you are the guy I just gave advice to on whether to buy GTA:VC or Metroid here

You sneaky bastard. You've been playing me like two bit violin :P

Finkployd

Re:what idiosy

[Anonymous Coward]

What are you doing /.'ing form the playboy mansion? Or are you only 12 and plan on retiring by the time you're 25?

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[PepsiProgrammer]

um unfortunately, no not everyone has

What!?

[fenix down]

"Say it!"
"Nena is civilization!"

Re:I WAS GOING FOR FUNNY!

[Anonymous Coward]

Just because they may think different than you once in a while, doesn't mean that they are evil or that the guy (myself) is a sissy (although, it is nice to see her happy!).

which is more important: her happy, or you expressing your real, honest, heartfelt opinion?

fast forward 5 years and answer again!

GOING FOR FUNNY! we dont believe you

[ramzak2k]

I was going for +5 funny, not plus five +insightful

Now,son, you dont have to lie to us. You have a valid problem out there and we at SLASHDOT (yes, of all the fucking places in the world) are going to fix it !

Can we have your fiance's email address please?
She needs to look have a look at this post.
The situation is SERIOUS.

Stupid Sellouts...

[pimpinmonk]

Damn sellouts... I bought an X-Box banking on GTA3 coming out for it (the release date was Spring 2002 at once point). Then Sony had to go and pay them obscene amounts of payoff money (heh much like in their games, talk about twilight zone)

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

Me neither!

We have so much in common!

Will you marry me?

8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to ZD!

[Theaetetus]

Was going to reply to a troll comment, but came across surprising information, so I didn't want this nested.

Here be comment:
Why isn't Vice City on the PC yet? Why did they release it on an old console that has no life left in it? Oh yeah, I forgot there for a second....Sony is frucking greedy! They're obviously delaying or even stopping Rockstar from releasing it on the PC or XBox because they want to sell more consoles. Bullshit.

So, I google(tm) for "PS2 sales figures 2003" and the top article is one from ZDNet with "PS2 sales up 24 percent" (Jan 2003)
It's since gone, but the google cache has it. The relevant paragraph is the first one:

Sony said on Thursday that it sold 8.5 million PlayStation2 game consoles during the key holiday shopping season in November and December, up 24 percent from a year ago and holding well ahead of rivals.

Now, that's just about the same time period the sales figures from Take Two are referring to, which means that almost everyone that bought a PS2 bought Vice City! Cool!

Now, in reply to the troll:
(also from ZD) The Sony figures followed an announcement by Nintendo on Wednesday that it sold 1.5 million of its GameCube machines in Europe in all of 2002.

Also, according to Sony, they've sold 41 Million PS2s. :)

-T

In The U.S.A.

[ackthpt]

In Soviet Russia, bad joke repeats YOU!

In the U.S.A. we're learning to call it Duke Nukem...

Whenever

If Ever

Whatever

I wonder what would be considered the most egregious vaproware. I'm sure in the past there have been non-ware as highly anticipated. Sometimes ultimately delivered (and we wish it wasn't.)

Re:In The U.S.A.

[nelsonal]

Battlecruiser 3000 AD, the developer, was it Derek Smart, went as far as to insult most of his potential customer's mothers, and could barely even get people to try the free version several years later. I guess something that was playable was finally released.

Re:In The U.S.A.

[Anonymous Coward]

I wonder what would be considered the most egregious vaporware.

Linux on the desktop.

Re:The true American spirit

[Rayonic]

The true American spirit really shines through...

You mean trolling?

Who s buying this game?

[setrops]

It s obvious, that parents are not monitoring what game their children play with. The next 16 year old kid that goes nuts with a car they'll take legal action against RockStar game and the parents will seem totally blameless.

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[critter_hunter]

I don't know who Mr Roger is, but Mr Nice Guy is Jackie Chan. It's another movie about a cook that kicks ass. Not very good, either - but then it's directed by Sammo Hung, waddya expect?

GTA MMORPG please :)

[Lord Bitman]

need persistent worlds! Need be able to level the entire city!! >

Re:GTA MMORPG please :)

[fenix down]

Mmmm. Sounds great. Driving around, trying to hijack a car from another player who won't stop or slow to below 40 for the entire game, streets littered with burned-out shells of taxis, hundreds of tanks rolling around chasing everyone in the game... Yep. I bet you could play for as long as 30 seconds between deaths if you hide out real good!

Seriously though, something that lets maybe a dozen players act as rival gangs would be great. Cruising around in a pickup with a friend manning the rocket launcher in the back... sweet.

Re:GTA MMORPG please :)

[Quazion]

Indeed Gangwars would be a great setting, or mayeb something like Counter Strike, Gangers VS Swat teams and FBI :)

GTA Vice City is great

[linux2000]

GTA-VC is the greatest console game I've ever played. I absolutely love it. The cool slow-motion jumps, being chased by the police, harassing pedestrians, eavesdropping on pedestrians conversations, and so much more.

The attention to detail is amazing - at the right time of day, the sun can be "in your eye", so it's hard to see where you're going, AND the light will glint off the sides of the cars in traffic!

I especially love all the secret stuff in the game. I don't just mean the 100 or so "hidden packages", but the real stuff you can find if you try. Have you managed to get a golf-cart out of the country club? You can do it - and drive it around on the regular streets. Have you found "the" motorcycle, the one that lets you try to complete a sequence of highspeed jumps in a 2 minute time period? How many Unique stunt bonuses have you gotten? Have you been up in the top of the lighthouse?

Then - when you get tired of the game (I assume that may actually happen to me some day), there s many pages of cheats out there, some that are really original, and a lot of fun. Don't go and download a cheat-sheet until you've played the game for a few weeks, though.

I haven't owned the game for very long, but I bought a PS2 just so I could play it. GTA Vice City rocks.

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

Any other thought crimes that should be punishable by jail term?

They are called 'hate crimes'. Your sentence is increased based on your thoughts.

Re:The true American spirit

[Wesser]

Dude, you've just given the parents a target for the reason their kids do drugs! Now every time some kid does shrooms they're going to be boycotting Nintendo! Oh no, he crushes small creatures as well! We're all done for!

GTA3 vs VC: Music comparison

[calstars1]

I wonder if anyone else out there enjoyed the original music in GTA3 as much as I did. 'Fadeaway,' 'Forever,' 'Rubber Tip,' 'Life Is But a Mere Supply,' 'Stripe Summer.' While perpaps not fully realized, neverthless the production and feel were there, and I preferred it to that in VC, which after the initial rush (like hearing 'Automatic' by the Pointer Sisters for the first time since a roller skating birthday party in '86) became annoying. I also thought the missions were more interesting and challenging and the city was better designed. VC felt like a huge sprawl.

Re:GTA3 vs VC: Music comparison

[kisrael]

For all you VC hatas out there...
I think a lot depends on which game you start with. I got a PS2 for VC (well, actually in hope that THundertanks was a decent game, but that's a different story), enjoyed it a lot, and bought GTA3...I really missed the new stuff VC added (in particular, having your character be mute was distracting, I felt like I was being assigned missions ala "Wing Commander" rather than playing a real human) and the city seemed small and cramped, with boats as more of an afterthought, and only the "middle island" interesting at all.

Re:GTA3 vs VC: Music comparison

[angle_slam]

One cool thing about GTA3 for the PC was the ability to use your own MP3s. Once you got tired of the music, switch to your own music.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[CrazyDuke]

Umm..not to piss on your parade, but this kind of attitude in a relationship will likely come back to bite you in the ass later. I'm not saying you should curb stomp her opinion, but you are entitled to have one of your own, too. And, no, having your own opinion dictated to you by her doesn't count. :P

There is a difference between understanding and subservience. Oh, but maybe you like bein a sub. N/M *reads on*

play too much?

[mrselfdestrukt]

I realized a while back that I played VC WAY too much. When I drive down the street I just keep looking for a bike and I have to force myself not to ram the dude and steal his bike. Another funny thing. The other day me and a friend were talking about games in my garden. He was going on about some RPG and I just said," No thanks, I'd rather be shooting people and stealing cars" just as the neighbors walked past. I got some strange looks...

Re:play too much?

[Anonymous Coward]

:) :) Great comment, at the time of GTA3 I called my brother about the game while he was drinking somthing in a bar and he replied; "but how can I kill Salvatore?". The same reaction from the people around him :):)
Another friend got drunk with other friends and after playing too long they decided to go driving around town with the music from GTA3 playing loud. When they arrived in a bar they got into a fight and went after this guy. Again the music loud and they make up fantasy stories, like "Toni asked me to kill this guy" so they end up throwing glasses to his car while driving... The next morning after the hangover they decided to stop playing for a few weeks :)

Re:play too much?

[0xA]

I hear you. I was walking up the street one day and saw this really beautiful Jag.

My first thought was to haul the guy out and steal it.

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

I "hate" digital people, and love murdering them on occasion. Book me for murder in the first, baby!

Death to 1s and 0s!

May the champions of decency never quench there passion of regurgitating bullshit in defense of making moral decisions for others, because if that happened, the world wouldn't be half as funny as it is now!

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

I understand that there is not rape in the GTA series, but sometimes I wonder why. Why is mass murder an acceptable escapist fantasy, while rape is a taboo escapist fantasy?

Just something thats always bugged me...

Bought a PS2 for GTA3

[Anonymous Coward]

Never have regretted it.

Violent Passion Surrogate please, extra-strong.

[MsGeek]

Aww man, that's no fun at all!

The whole point of GTA is to run around doing stuff you could never get away with in Real Life (tm). Some of the misogynistic stuff in it raises hackles, but hey, considering the age/sex of most gamers, I understand completely why that's in there.

The fun of the game is just to drive around and create as much havoc as possible. Mission? What mission? Bloodshed, mayhem...and nobody...NOBODY...gets hurt for real.

In Huxley's Brave New World there was a hormonal/psychotropic treatment given on occasion called "violent passion surrogate." You had to get it done at least once. In a world without anything resembling pain or violence, where survival was assured and the happiness of their subjects the prime duty of the World State, apparently people needed the occasional safe release of adrenaline to maintain health.

Perhaps GTA3 and other violent games are this civilization's answer to this adrenaline safety valve. I know I feel REAL GOOD after blowing bots away in UT. I know that back when I was building websites for people who couldn't make up their fsckn minds what they wanted, a nice round of Doom 2 was just the ticket. "You want me to change the counter? Good! I'll make the death count go up, beeyatch! BLAM!!!"

Just as long as you don't go over the edge and start acting things out IRL, like those lamers in Oaktown did.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[dswensen]

Funny, I'm in love too, and my biggest problem is getting the girlfriend to stop playing Vice City long enough to get the controller in my hands.

So while I'm certain we all appreciate that you sacrifice your game-playing privileges in order to get some, understand that not everyone has to. So there's no need to crow quite so loudly.

You should post this every day.

[Anonymous Coward]

Sort of like the "BSD is dying" or Stephen King trolls.

YHBT

[pr0ntab]

YHL, HAND.

Note that God (recently created annoying poster) is a troll. G'day mate.

Duke Nukem Forever

[f13nd]

Also, there's still a couple people waiting on Duke Nukem Forever, and their patience is wearing thin. THAT'S why it's called Duke Nukem Forever I mean, come on, it's not called Duke Nukem Any Time Soon

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[dswensen]

And yes, this is speaking as someone who's currently in, and has had a few, long term (>1 year) relationships. Maintain your personality, your uniqueness, your vigor that makes us human. The boobies, the body parts, will sag -- make sure your personalities (you know, the things that you really fell in love with) don't!

Amen to that.

Segways

[tekunokurato]

I want to see Segways in the next GTA. It'd be so much fun to kill people in smooth efficiency!

YHBT

[pr0ntab]

YHL, HAND!

(hint, treat post from high slashdot acct # with caution)

Jugglers, Clowns, and the prettiest ponies EVER

[tenzig_112]

Too bad the Wal-Mart version swapped out blood for grape juice, hookers for happy juggling clowns, and stolen cars for pretty, pretty ponies.

From a review of the cleaned-up version:

No longer interested in stealing cars, busting caps, and clocking hos, players mount ponies and ride down rainbow-colored avenues sharing home-baked cookies and cakes with other characters.

Don't be fooled. This new version of GTA is by no means the "cake walk" it appears to be. The ponies must be meticulously groomed, and mastering the optional baking set is horrendously difficult.

GTA:VC and The Sims

[Anonymous Coward]

We all know, the sims online sucks. So they should do a merger with Vice City online... :)

Be glad you posted anonymously...

[pr0ntab]

the ps2 uses a derivative of C,

Because if you hadn't, I'da marked you down -1 Fucking_Idiot.

a) You fed the worst troll ever, (1337) God
b) Someone wasted mod points on you
c) The PS2 is not like a fucking LISP machine or JVM hardware thing... you program it in whatever. If they used C, they used C. If C++, then C++. etc. The PS2 dev kit doesn't come with uber-pseudo-C, just an SDK and toolchain. It could be ADA, the language of criminals, for all you know.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anthony Boyd]

My girlfriend cackles like a banshee and says things like "Come here and die, bitch!" when she runs over people in Carmageddon.

She sounds fun.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[bitwiz]

There is nothing wrong with saying what you think.
You are living a lie.

Re:Duke Nukem ForNEVER

[writertype]

That was my take on it too--it's dead. Geez--talk about frittering away a brand name. At least when Pets.com went under, they were able to sell the sock puppet.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Tronster]

Way off topic, but this thread has hit nerve...

I can see you are taken off guard by the response, as your intended post was not have people pick a part your personal life. It comes off (to me) as a post intended to show a "true-ism" which happens in all relationships. To a degree these true-isms hold, but from the language used in your post and rebuttle, it appears there is a problem in your relationship with your fiance'.

If you've been dating for a long time (6+ months), haven't had any break-ups (or time-outs), and no periods of an overwhelming desire to be left alone (even for a little while) then your okay. If any of these have occurred, tread lightly.

I speak from my own experience. I've been in about half a dozen serious relationships, with one that seemed to mirror your situation. I found it more important for me to be sure my girl-friend was happy than for me to admit I enjoyed "The Man Show" or do one of a dozen other things I enjoy. Just like your situation, my girl-friend had valid points but I also LIED to her in order to make her feel good about her statements and that I shared her opinion.

These may seem like innocent statments, but in the context of the thread they act as a warning:

"I don't need to lie to her to be alowed into bed, but it is nice to make her feel like her opinion on that topic is shared."

"Playing this game would not make me as happy as being with her."

P.S.: In my above situation, I was in love too...the physical relationship was the best I had ever had (or yet to have)...but it cost me my identity, which I found is much more important than playing with boobies.

Do the math...

[atgrim]

Think about the numbers here...
8,500,000
X $49.95
----------
$424,575,000

Does anyone have more concrete numbers? Cost to manufacture, advertisement, packaging... ETc...

I mean those are freakin' HUGE!! numbers for one game. What kind of profit is that??

Re:Do the math...

[Anonymous Coward]

3) Profit?

Re:Do the math...

[Anonymous Coward]

i remeber reading it wasnt cheap to make, i think the soundtrack alone was $12,000,000

any, kudos to making the game - it was a high risk, but paid off

Re:Do the math...

[djbesser]

the soundtrack, royalties for all those songs...plus look up gta vice city on www.imdb.com and check out the cast of voices list...EVERYONE is in this thing...even the girl from Blondie.

http://us.imdb.com/Credits?0314123

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anthony Boyd]

Now as all the married and almost married men out here know, that if i was to say what i was thinking, it would have been a very lonely night for me and my PC! :-)

That's funny, I've been married for 10 years, and on the things that my wife and I don't agree on, she'll listen to my opinion and consider my viewpoint. I think there's something seriously wrong if you're letting someone control your life and tell you what you should think.

Methinks you failed to notice that you're responding to what we call a "humorous anecdote." These are not meant to be taken seriously or literally. I know, it's probably a foreign concept to those of us interacting with computers all day. Perhaps you should ask your wife to explain it. :)

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

Just admit it... you're WHIPPED!!!!!!!!!!

Nope.

[Anonymous Coward]

I think you're thinking wrong.

Here's proof. Things haven't changed in the past few months, I'm sure. Most especially X-Box magically overtaking Game Cube _and_ PS2.

woo hoo

[machine of god]

Duke Nukem Forever Forever!!!

PC version?

[Stranger4U]

Does anyone know if/when the PC version of GTA: Vice City is coming out? I had to wait several months for the PC version of the original (it was worth it) and I was wondering how much longer I had to wait for this one.

Woe for we with no console systems.

Re:PC version?

[MartyC]

The PC version is due on May 13th in the US and May 16th in UK (and europe?). This is according to a Gamesdomain news story I saw yetserday.

Wow, 8.5M guys who haven't kissed a girl!

[Anonymous Coward]

[EOM]

Incredible!

[silvakow]

Wow! 8.5 Million copies! Image that! That makes me want to run my car through the glass wall in the video game store, steal the game, shoot some random person and bust out my flamethrower or bazooka to take out the cops when they come by. Megapoints here we come!

8.5 million WORLDWIDE

[Anonymous Coward]

8.5 million WORLDWIDE, there are another 270 countries on this planet other than USA, it really is true that you people live in bubble

people are playing this game from timbuctuu to the north pole

Controversy = Name recognition

[TheCyko1]

I think such a sucess can partially be attributed to the media's facination with this game. Simply by being controversial, this game has managed to do the brunt of it's advertising in the news.

DOES ANYONE REALIZE

[Anonymous Coward]

Does anyone realize what this thread has devolved into?

A bunch of guys.

On slashdot.

Talking about relationships.

GOOD GOD WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU PEOPLE.

Re:DOES ANYONE REALIZE

[Fesh]

Dude, some of us actually do have a smidge more sensitivity than a neanderthal on thorazine... Give it a rest, huh?

Re:GOING FOR FUNNY! we dont believe you

[Anonymous Coward]

dibs on the post-breakup rebound fuck

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

hey now, i might not be able to change my nationality (though i did grow a big mustache), but i did get overweight and gain a 'shroom problem. who says video games dont influence some peoples' behaviours?

Criminals are all playing GTA3 still

[Mustang Matt]

I think the only "crime" spike you'll see is the number of copies available on gnutella!

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[Anonymous Coward]

I never heard of any controversy. What do you mean? Failing to take a public stand on something that someone else thought he should, perhaps?

I barely remember him from my childhood (though I now notice I was born the same week his half-hour show started), but a few years ago I read a little interview with him - probably when he retired from producing the show. I was deeply struck by the quiet insightfulness of the man.

I don't believe in mourning people like that, though - they should be appreciated for the lives they lived.

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[Anonymous Coward]

Don't sweat it...most people are very bad at moderation. Keep in mind that there isn't really any "the moderators" - it's different people every day, and most mods are pure luck (especally since it's all about snowballing, and the first mod determines the direction for the sheep to come).

Anyone with a clue reads at -1 or maybe 0. Trusting the moderation system to flag what you should read is idiocy.

Re:8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to

[Ack_OZ]

Now, that's just about the same time period the sales figures from Take Two are referring to, which means that almost everyone that bought a PS2 bought Vice City! Cool!

Also, according to Sony, they've sold 41 Million PS2s. :)


I think that maybe your logic is a bit flawed... it's highly unlikely that all the sales of Vice City were for PS2s bought in the same period.

Sad News ... Duke Nukem dead at 5

[iamacat]

I just heard some sad news on talk radio - famous hero and womenizer Duke Nukem was found dead in his Los Angeles, CA penthouse this morning. There were no more official details, but the rumor has it that he was surrounded by radioactive green babes and was looking good even dead. I'm sure everyone in the Slashdot community will miss him - even if you didn't enjoy his exploits, there's no denying his contributions to popular culture. Truly an American icon. May his soul respawn in a nice, seedy place where hotels can be rented by the hour.

Re:Sad News ... Duke Nukem dead at 5

[Quixadhal]

Whew! That's a releif!

I had heard the ugly rumor that Duke Nukem was crossing the street on the way to a contract signing and some punk drove by in a Banshee and gunned him down for his ever-present weapon cache.

No fucking kidding

[Anonymous Coward]

Reading that turned me on.

TF2

[rsax]

Also, there's still a couple people waiting on Duke Nukem Forever, and their patience is wearing thin.

I, on the other hand, am still waiting for Teamfortress 2. Has it been an eternity already?

Re:TF2

[GrantZ]

ME TOO! btw... it's not eternity yet. You still have to wait an eternity for eternity to pass. Then TF2 will come out.

This is only the beginning

[LS]

I'm sure Rockstar knows what they have on their hands. The story is nice with GTA3, but the engine is also just as important in it's success. Expect an extremely explorable GTA3 type universe, except set 150 years in the future with crazy weapons, floating cities, flying cars, moon bases, etc. Ohhh, I can't wait for such a game!!! Hey, do you all remember Mean Streets (one of the first VGA games, it was awesome!). That would be a great game to remake with the GTA engine...

LS

Re:This is only the beginning

[Slack3r78]

Saying I remember it would be an understatement. I wasted more hours than I'd like to think about playing that game :) and it was *THE* first 256 color VGA game made. plus Access' RealSound tech was unbelievable. Fully digitized sound effects and voice through the PC speaker! An incredible game both gameplay wise and technically for its time.

Re:8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to

[Theaetetus]

I think that maybe your logic is a bit flawed... it's highly unlikely that all the sales of Vice City were for PS2s bought in the same period.

From the /. headline: Take Two Interactive Software reports that Grand Theft Auto: Vice City has sold more than 8.5 million copies in the first three months since its late-October launch

8.5 million units sold in October, November, December.

From the ZDNet article: Sony said on Thursday that it sold 8.5 million PlayStation2 game consoles during the key holiday shopping season in November and December, up 24 percent from a year ago and holding well ahead of rivals.

8.5 million units sold in November, December.

Unlikely that there's a direct correlation - for instance, I bought my PS2 last spring, so I bought a copy of Vice City without buying a PS2 at the same time - but it's likely that a strong number of new PS2 sales also bought Vice City.

Anyways, my point was the interesting coincidence of sales numbers.

-T

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[indiigo]

uh, dude, your married. There is NO benefit to the male side of marriage. You lost the war 10 years ago, he still has time to get out while the going is safe.

Reality check, on why would I WOULDNT play the GTA

[Anonymous Coward]

I dont want to have a game, where I pretending to have a "real life" job to do. I have a real job, and it is the last thing I want to do when I get home, is to due more meaningless jobs for other dumbasses and pretend to get AIDS while I bang a whore in the house. That is why, I dont understand this game. I guess this game was made for unemployed, so it will keep them busy, and make them feel all good. And pretending to have sex? Ummm I think that is the selling point of the game. Old storysex sells. The game is patheticno the people who bought the game are. I just rented itI had to go to work the next day, and I didnt care much for driving some pimp around the block and picking up the hos in time for his party.

haven't you ever heard the term irony?

[Anonymous Coward]

(...please tell me this was meant as an ironic post)

i for one can sympathize with the words - being wed is a matter of living with someone who maybe has different opinions - but that - as a couple these differences can be overcome.

there is no reason not to have a laugh about the facts.

jeez. lighten up.

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[kfg]

Well, his advice during Desert Storm that parents advise their children they would always be safe stired up the child psychologist set. There were a few other such incidents.

And sometimes just being a sweety is enough to be controversial in itself.

They've assasinated a distressing number of people just for saying "be excellent to each other."

People were prone to making rude comments when passing by his house. (My brother went to Carnegie-Mellon and Mr. Rogers house was just outside the campus. He got to see a lot of this first hand)

KFG

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[Anonymous Coward]

Bullshit. If not for the crapflooders, people with a clue would read at -1 or 0. But because of the page wideners, goatse guys, YOU FAIL IT / all your base / Natalie Portman / meme-of-the-month and gratuitous profanity posts, the SNR there is awful.

Yes, there are some diamonds in the rough. If you have plenty of time to wade through the crap, you can find them. But then again, anyone who's that serious about the geek news is over on k5 anyway.

correction

[Anonymous Coward]

"Don't fuck with another man's vehicle.You don't do it"

GTA Controversy.

[Grendel Drago]

What is up with the 'controversy'? I remember being shown the original GTA3, where you could pick up the hooker, get the blowjob/health, beat the shit out of her and take your money back. Yet suddenly Vice City is appearing in various media, and is a Joe Lieberman target. What happened? Did someone troll or astroturf all the parents' groups to drum up controversy?

--grendel drago

Re:GTA Controversy.

[TheCyko1]

well, what i think it is is timing. after seeing that sort of game GTA3 was, people who didn't know better assumed that Vice City would be the same thing, only worse, because they presume that the only way to sell something similar is to add more of what's popular to the product. So, by thier logic, since vice city came out after GTA3, it would undoubtibly have more violence, more lewdness, and a whole lot more sinning.

Re:GTA Controversy.

[Anonymous Coward]

I personally am not a fan of GTA 3. I only assume that Vice City is worse. I enjoy the game up to the point that you can pick up hookers, do your thing with them and then kill them. Hmmm... sends a great message in this twisted world. You may not think so, but when a 13 year old is playing it it subtly sends them a message that violence against women is ok.

I do not like GTA. If it got pulled from the shelves today, I wouldn't be hurt by it.

Re:8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to

[Anonymous Coward]

Thats no suprise. Vice City was talked of as being "the best game for the PS2" and when you have a console, it's no problem to just buy the game because it's "the best game" for your console. Who wouldn't. And when everyone you ask says "Yeah its the best game" then you get the best possible sales pitch.

Hell I bought VC and I hadn't played my PS2 for a year!!

Can't wait for VC to arrive on the PC in May.

Why the PC version is taking time...

[Mark (ph'x)]

Well lets have a bit of analysis... the GTA3 pc version took a while to come out... not just for the port, but also the hi-res graphics and additional code for effects and multiplayer.

Yes, multiplayer. There is multiplayer code inside the original GTA3... gamespy imports and graphics for the menus, etc. Guess in the end they found the synchronisation issues to be too tricky.

So fast forward to now. Vice City is being ported across. Now while the artsy folks are doing the hi-res textures and sounds, the coders are doing the quick job of porting it... theyve done it before.. they end up with time on their hands. They also know that with working multiplayer they will probably sell double the copies.

Think they might have a crack at finishing the multiplayer? I suggest so ;) I hope so!

Im sure the team wants to play it multiplayer as much as we do :)

Re:Why the PC version is taking time...

[Mac Degger]

Heh...check google for multiplayer for GTA3 (not VC!): there's group of modders who're working on making those code stubs actually working :)

Re:Reality check, on why would I WOULDNT play the

[i chose quality]

naaaa! the selling point isn't having sex. we're not talking leisure suite larry here... ;-)

the selling point is committing senseless slaughter on pedestrians while being chased by an angry flock of police cars!! isn't it obvious?

---
YOU
ARE
OUT

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[stevey]

She loves the things i love and she has the same feeling i do

Unless she's lying too ..

That's the thing, once you start modifying what you say you like for other people you can never stop ... and you don't know if they're doing it too.

In relationships honesty really is the best way forward; besides if she knows you don't like watching something she does, for example, you get brownie points for going along too ;)

Re:8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to

[lovepot]

Man, you are so right.
I hadn't played videogames for the las 3 years and i had always said i would never buy a console. But the other day a friend stopped by my house with is PS2 and GTA:VC.
All i know is that the next morning i was buying a PS2 and GTA, and have been playing a lot since then. I love it.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[iainl]

Curious. I take it she's heard about this game from the news, and believed every word of it, then.

I didn't have any problem explaining to my wife why I'd bought the game, but then as I've managed to clock up upwards of 30 hours on GTA3 without once feeling the need to use the "pick up hooker" feature that I wasn't even aware of until the media told me about it, I think its less of an issue.

The evil stuff you can get up to in the game is just that. You CAN get up to it; you aren't generally forced to. Yes, you can kill women in the game. Thats because you can kill people in the game, and coding an explicit "don't kill these ones, they are nice people" routine would be a flaw in the game world.

Obligatory quote

[TheLink]

"if Pac-Man affected us as kids, we'd all be running around in darkened rooms, munching magic pills and listening to repetitive electronic music"

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[kubrick]

The first time I parsed that sentence, I missed the word 'up'. :/

Re:weapon selection? **IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE YOU

[Anonymous Coward]

This I found this on a site;

Grand Theft Auto Vice City Walkthrough:
**IMPORTANT - READ BEFORE YOU CHEAT**
I *really really really* advise you NOT to cheat at all in Vice City. I have heard hundreds of reports from frustrated gamers who used a cheat code once during their game and then could not finish it! Some cheats cause hidden packages to disappear so you can't reach 100%. Other cheats do annoying things like cause the boatyard door NOT TO OPEN on the 'fastest boat' mission so that you can't ever finish that mission! People then have spent days and days trying to undo the damage but the ONLY thing which appears to work is completely wiping the memory card and starting again from scratch.

If you've completely won the game and now want to have fun, cheat away. But if your intention is to actually enjoy playing the game, stay away from cheat codes. You will end up hugely frustrated if you cheat.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

You can tell your girlfriend that she has inspired one more person to actually purchase a copy of GTA3 (and I even paid the extra few bucks for 2-day shipping from Amazon) who would not otherwise have done so. I wasn't even going to pirate it because I'm normally too lazy to go get my PC monitor fixed in order to be able to game effectively again, opting instead to use my work laptop. But some things are worth it.

Oh and, for the record, the actual charge just went on my girlfriend's credit card (we keep tabs via Quicken). She's sitting next to me, boobs and all, waiting to be played with. Apparently, putting out doesn't always go hand in hand with being an overbearing shrew.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

I have some advice for you....

Find your running shoes... put them on and run! run man run.... and dont look back.

I dont care how pretty she is, or how good she is at doing something or whatever...

she is a control freak from how you put it.

I was married to one of those for 5 years, and I had to decide on either divorce or putting a gun muzzle in my mouth and pulling the trigger.

run away, you do NOT want her.

Re:The true American spirit

[Mac Degger]

I think this quote sheds some scarily spooky light on the matter:

"If life immitated video games, we'd be running around in rooms, listening to repetetive music and popping pills all night".

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[rikkards]

The thing that concerns me is he should have known what her opinion was before he even bought it. Especially if he has proposed. My wife hates GTA3 and what it stands for (she questions the morality of it) but she could care less if I like it and I play it a lot in front of her, actually she understands why (me being a guy and all that)

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[caveat]

amen! too bad i don't have any mod points. excellent point though; you know you're with The One when you *don't* have to LIE like that to keep things smooth - you can just say "naw, screw that, they're just polygons...i respect your opinion, but i'm going to go play for awhile" and then still be allowed into bed.

Re:The true American spirit

[Khaed]

Slashdot needs a "-1 Didn't RTFA" moderation.
Idiot.

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

Because it'd be a bitch to program.

Re:8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to

[ax_42]

Sony said on Thursday that it sold 8.5 million PlayStation2 game consoles during the key holiday shopping season in November and December, up 24 percent from a year ago and holding well ahead of rivals.

Now, that's just about the same time period the sales figures from Take Two are referring to, which means that almost everyone that bought a PS2 bought Vice City! Cool!

Quick lesson in causality in statistics. Just because the numbers are the same doesn't mean they are related. If 100 people bought PS2s and 100 people bought GTA:VC in a day doesn't mean that the same who bought a PS2 also bought GTA.

It also doesn't mean that the same people who bought GTA that day bought a PS2 that day (one is allowed to own the console before buying a kickass game).

ax_42

GTA Vice City outsells XBox?

[kismar]

so how soon will it be before the number of gta vice city games sold will be greater than the number of xbox's sold?

X-Box too? - Re:No Playstation

[Malc]

So, if they're porting it to the PC, does that mean there's a chance we'll see it on the X-Box? As ports go, it can't be that hard porting from PC to X-Box.

Then again, I've got say I'm disappointed with a lot of cross-platform game ports for the X-Box. They seem to go for the lowest common denominator (obviously), which results in the lower PS2 quality :(

Re:X-Box too? - Re:No Playstation

[Anonymous Coward]

From what I've read, PS2 has all rights to GTA:VICE and GTA3 for console systems. No Xbox since its a console. Just PS2 and PC versions.

Crap web site - Re:No Playstation

[Malc]

Don't they just have the most annoying of web sites too? Designed by a fool. Why the hell did it have to be implemented in Flash with every link popping up a new window? That's why browser has bach and forward buttons. I can't even right-click on the links and select "open in new tab". Grrr. Idiots.

Humidity

[H3lm3t]

I don't think the graphics in VC are worse then in GTA3. In fact, I've read that the looks are just different because of the setting. Since Vice City is based on Miami, they tried to give it the touch of humidity and heat, that makes your vision blur. And I think they succeeded in creating an atmosphere.

Re:Games on Slashdot?

[Anita Coney]

Yeah, who could ever take a multibillion dollar industry serious?! Especially when one considers that the gaming industry is actually profitable and is GROWING when other tech sectors are failing.

Heck, Sony only, yes ONLY, makes 40% of its profits from Playstation. It's a drop in the bucket!

And the fact that GTA: Vice City sold twice as many copies in the last 3 Months than the best selling CD sold last year! Who cares?! It's still JUST gaming! And because it's merely gaming, and utterly profitable, and successful, it's not worthy of anyone's time!

Yep, the gaming industry is a joke. Anyone associated with it is a loser. Slashdot should stick to industries that lose money, have shrinking markets, and no future!

Off Rockstar's GTA-VC site

[FirstNoel]

February 14 - Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Coming to the PC Today, Rockstar Games announced that the PC version of the global blockbuster, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, is set to hit retail shelves in North America on May 13th and in Europe on May 16th. The PC version will have enhanced features including improved graphics and sound, additional PC controls, as well as several options for players to customize the game. Stay tuned for more details and for the launch of the PC-version dedicated area of the official Vice City website.

Finally... Sean D.

Re:8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to

[ShelfWare]

One thing that may have inflated the GTA Vice City sales is that CompUSA was advertising that you could get a PS2 for $150USD with purchase of GTA Vice City (or maybe other games).

Console vs. PC -- a myth?

[Milktoast]

Not exactly true. The Sims have sold 19 million copies so far - which may outdistance the installed userbase of the PS2.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Lxy]

yeah, but at least you'd still have GTA :-)

Re:The true American spirit

[Anonymous Coward]

its made in scotland!
True scottish sprit bitch!

Yay!

[Anonymous Coward]

More proof that PS2 owners buy shitty games with crappy control and poor physics. Hooray for Rockstar!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

Ahhh, nothing like the smell of fresh teen angst. Talk to us in 20 years, okay?

Re:The true American spirit

[Rayonic]

Sprit?

If I just knew what game you're talking about

[Schugy]

I don't need games that don't run natively on Linux. I'll buy other games and I'll give love to small publishing houses. http://apex-designs.net

not total profit

[anonymous loser]

The $50 you spend in the store doesn't translate to another $50 in the pockets of the company. I'd be surprised if they were getting more than 25% ($12) a copy. That puts the numbers more in the range of $100 million gross in three months.

I'm familiar with the subject to know other costs exist. Just so you know, gross traditionally means "revenue before before costs are taken out".

Unfortunately, these numbers are the same for the movie business. That $10 you spent for a ticket at the theatre is maybe $2.50 to the producers of the film. However, there are far more revenue streams for movies. Foreign + video/dvd alone triple revenues, without even beginning on PPV or licensing to the networks. Add in merchandising and the other major revenue streams and it starts to add up.

While I'll give you the fact that video/DVD sales are additional revenue streams that movie makers can count on (at least for movies that make over $30 million nowadays), foreign sales, licensing, and merchandising all exist for games. In fact, game tie-in merchandising is becoming even more popular given the success of stuff like Pokemon and Yu-gi-oh, but even years ago you could find Link (from Zelda) and Mario figures in stores. Some of the more popular and marketable games (like Tomb Raider) even pull in movie and video sales revenue as well.

Re:not total profit

[mapmaker]

He was talking about gross, not profit. The $50 per game goes to the retailer, not to Rockstar. The retailers pay about $35-$40 per copy to Rockstar, of which $10 goes directly to Sony. So Rockstar's gross is $25-$30 per copy. Times 8.5 million gives about $250 million gross.

Re:not total profit

[anonymous loser]

I don't see how this is different from movie grosses, which are measured in terms of total box office receipts of which the studio only gets a portion. The whole point of my example is to use the same unit of measure as the movie industry. So, if you'd like to say that Rockstar only gets $250 million gross, please go ahead and calculate how much each studio makes off of a film (good luck) so we can keep the comparison consistent.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[alexpage]

The first time I played GTA I ended up with some chick going down on me to try and distract me from the game.

Of course it didn't work. If it had, she might have stopped!!!

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[jimmyCarter]

Funniest post.. EVER.

THIS IS YESTERDAY'S NEWS!!!

[Anonymous Coward]

n/m

Pfft...

[Kashif Shaikh]

Why does everyone think GTA3/VC games are violent? Has anyone played SOF/SOF2 on the PC? Now THAT is violent.

I have so much pleasure unloading my shutgun and blowing a body to a bunch of gibs. Death. Kill. Very satisfying in this game.

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

But either way, I AM IN LOVE, NEINER NEINER NEINER! And playing with boobies every night is a hell of a lot better than looking at ones with 16 million colors and 256 graphics!

Playing with boobies != getting married, son.

Try to understand this before it's too late.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[sdcharle]

Heh heh, my wife bought Vice City for me for Xmas...

Re:8.5 Million Units sold... of PS2s according to

[Theaetetus]

Could be, could be... I bought my PS2 on Gamestop last spring when they were offering a PS2, 2 controllers, memory card, DVD remote, and GTA3 and the strategy guide for $250. Bundles rock. :)

-T

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do you need Quicken to tell what credit card you used? Short-term mammories, er...memory?

Re:PC version Confirmed

[op51n]

by Rockstar themselves, and Amazon's preordering info.

Re:Games on Slashdot?

[Mr. No Skills]

Agreed. Let's get back to the more serious topics of Anime, Star Wars, LOTR, Star Trek, and comparisons to Soviet Russia...

Re: I gots no SHINS!

[JaxGator75]

I got my wife hooked on Medal of Honor, and she's not been the same since. She now has her own PC so she can game whenever she wants... She's pretty good, too! She killed her fitty men before the Nazzies machine-gunned her shins...

mods

[phriedom]

As much fun as the open gameplay is, the most fun I had playing GTA3 (the PC version) came from altering the cars. I made Borgnine's "Escape From New York" taxi AWD, 300mph, 9000lbs, max. acceleration, max. traction, and max. durability. Then I put the center-of-gravity 2 feet below the bottom of the tires so it would always roll back to rubber-side-down like weeble-wobbles. Finally I lowered it until the bumper scraped the ground so that I could get under the other cars and trucks and pop them up in the air.

I could then ram even the big box vans and send them flying through the air in lazy circles, while I would giggle with glee like a 3 year old. The challange became to see how far from the river I could hit another car and still get it into the drink on the fly. The danger became getting your own car stopped, and you couldn't stop if you were airborne or on your side.

So that is why I am waiting for the PC version of Vice City, and I bet I'm not the only one.

Where's the level one trauma center?

[Anonymous Coward]

>Make sure that it's a level one trauma center

Where's that level one trauma center? I have been driving around for ages but i cannot find any on level one.

Vice City ports

[WebMasterJoe]

I can't wait for it to come out on the Degenatron!

And in other news, hook your PS2 up to your vid capture card and make a crime spree divx clip! Rack up as many stars as you can, and show the world!

Re:cough*meladramatic*cough

[Anonymous Coward]

That's pretty messed up, dude.

There seem to be a lot more Slashdot readers than you think, who have wives/girlfriends. And I'll wager you're in a pretty thin minority, as far as feeling like you can't say certain things without suffering "relationship repercussions."

And the remaining Slashdot readership, who don't have girlfriends? I'll further wager that none of them would be willing to suffer that kind of crap in exchange for "booby toys."

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

I think i hear a Tom Leykis listener :P

I checked into it today.

[Inoshiro]

It's 10 months + 500,000 copies or more.

So why isn't GTA 3 Greatest Hits? The same reason that Halo for Xbox isn't a Platinum Hit -- too much money into people's pockets. This subverts the spirit of the Greatest Hits/Platinum Hits line, which is supposed to make budget gaming easier for people (especially with younger children).

Vice Sells

[geekoid]

who would of thought?

Re:Sad News ... Fred Rogers dead at 74

[Anonymous Coward]

Interesting. It seems to me, then, that the obits wouldn't mention that controversy because the criticism originated entirely with dumbasses. Which is another way of saying there was no controversy - since there are always dumbasses (particularly when the war drum is being beaten), but we all learn to ignore them.

Re:Ohhhhh the violence...

[Anonymous Coward]

goddamn... marry this woman, retro!

NVIDIA� sponsored Vice City Capture Contest

[dolo666]

Vice City is amazing. Check out our NVIDIA® sponsored Vice City Capture Contest.

As a note to what I'm replying to:

Your woman will get the picture or she should not be your wife. PERIOD.

It's bad enough if you have OTHER problems, but if she doesn't get what you're about -- forget HER.

NVIDIA� sponsored Vice City Capture Contest

[dolo666]

Visit our NVIDIA® sponsored Vice City Capture Contest! You could win some wicked NVIDIA® gear while playing Vice City! All you have to do is run from the cops for about fifteen minutes, evade the law and don't cheat. Hurry contest closes soon!