GTA To Appear On Xbox and Gamecube In 2004

AvantLegion writes "According to this IGN article (which, in turn, is cited from Yahoo! via the Investor's Business Daily), the Grand Theft Auto series will debut on Xbox and GameCube in 2004. A month after the next GTA game is released on PS2 (thus completing Rockstar's exclusive contract with Sony), the Xbox and Gamecube versions of Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City are supposed to hit the streets. No one is safe."

Comments

Progress?

[ChaoticChaos]

I love gaming, but the GTA line of games go wayyyyyyyyyy too far for me.

Taking a Golfer's club and beating him to death with it? Using a prostitute for health?

It's sad that gaming has descended into the most degrading human activities possible. Kids play these games by the boatload. Sad.

When I was growing up, I was playing Donkey Kong and maneuvering around some barrels. Now kids are getting their knob shined from some $5 slut.

This is progress?

Will GTA4 include realistically rendered STDs?????

Re:Progress?

[quandrum]

Actually, the funny thing about the prostitution in the game, I never knew about it till the news media told me. It's not required and, honestly, not very obvious.

As for the violence, that's the norm in games, movies, tv, books, music.... our culture.

Re:Progress?

[NanoGator]

"2) I saw a study on one of the major gaming sites, and kids *are* playing this game by the ton. You're kidding yourself if you think otherwise."

What exactly is the harm in that? I've played GTA3 from beginning to end. I think it's fine for ages 13 and up. Despite what the media's made it out to be, it's really not that bad.

One of the chief complaints about the game is prostitution. They fail to mention, though, that if you don't know what a prostitute is when you play the game, you won't suddenly find out. The peak of it's graphic depiction is a rocking car. Look in the window and you see two people sitting there staring into space.

Another complaint is about being able to kill innocent people, and then making money for it. Fair point, almost. You can kill people if you like, but that's really your choice. It's not the goal of the game. (besides, wouldn'it be MORE twisted if the game didn't respond to people getting run over or hit with a bat at all? What kind of message would that send to children?) It doesn't help you in any way. If anything, this aspect of the game game teaches you a sense of right and wrong. If you beat somebody up, the cops will come get you. If you resist the cops, more of them will come. Before you know it, the entire city is against you. There's something to be said for reality here. If I kill somebody, my freedom is over. The 'money' you recieve from killing somebody is probably more a reward for taking the risk, rather than a reward for killing somebody. You have to kill a LOT of people before you can actually do anything with the money. It's kinda like getting paid 50 cents to piss off the cops. There's no benefit to murder, it only makes the game harder.

One of the other complaints about GTA3 is giving kids the urge to steal a car and try to outrun the cops in it. There might sort of be a point here. GTA3 lets you steal a car and then you can take a run at outrunning the cops, all while pulling off stunts etc. The level of physics of this game makes it seem easier than it'd really be, i.e. if you jump over a hill with your car and land on the roof, it doesn't collapse the car and kill you. Instead, if it rolls onto it's tires it can keep going. Yeah, on the surface, I can see that bothering people. However, when you play the game, you find out just how scary a police chase can be. You see, as mentioned before, this is a simulation of a city. There's all kinds of random elements that you just cannot always account for. No matter how good you are at this game, getting away from the cops is a flip of the coin that usually doesn't land in your favor. You ever see those police chases videos that Fox used to run? This game is very much like that. All it takes is for somebody to pull out in front of you to wipe you out. If this game teaches you anything, it's not that it's fun to outrun cops. It's that if you value your life at all, you're much better off being a good citizen. You'll live longer.

My biggest complaint about the media's attention on this game is that it's plain as day that they haven't actually spent any time playing the game. The news would have a much more detremental affect on your child than GTA3 would. They don't really understand what it's about, instead they take screengrabs and sensationalize it. As a result, people who have no interest in the game see these screengrabs and develop strange ideas about what it's about. You know that old saying "The camera never lies?" It's completely untrue. Cameras always lie. The entire point of a camera (or in this case, a screenshot) is to tell a story. Take a screngrab of the character from GTA3 clubbing a little old lady to death, and the story that gets told is that the game is about a guy running around killing innocent people.

I would advise anybody to not get their parenting tips from places like CNN or Donahue, especially when it comes to video games. Instead, seek the opinion of somebody who's actually played the game and can tell you what it's really about.

Framerate

[numberthree]

I'm no hardware scholar, but wouldn't porting the game to GameCube and X-Box speed up the framerate? My biggest issue with GTA Vice City was the blurry tracers you got on everything. It was like being on drugs. It sounds like a lot of work to beef up the polycount in the models in the game, but would the engine need to be re-written to feature a better frame rate?

Re:mmm, pointless violence.

[pythian]

I'm in total agreement with NanoGator here.

GTA3 is much more like an RPG than half of the RPGs that are out these days. The plot works, first of all. It may not be incredibly involved, but it's consistent and enjoyable.

The simulation aspect of the game is remarkable, and I'm eagerly awaiting Vice City on the PC to see any improvements. I've played the game most of the way through, and had a blast without the stereotypical senseless maiming and killing.

On the other hand, when I do act out in violence, I tend to do it with much gusto (; Sniping your way up to a 4 or 5 wanted level and trying to escape entertains me from time to time.

In essence, I actually play the role of the character, and that's what a role-playing game is all about. They're certainly not about stats and numbers, but most people tend to think so, heh.

With Sony exclusivity ending...

[Anonymous Coward]

This is important to both MSFT and Nintendo. Rockstar's GTA series has be extremely successful lately and it would prove profitable to both MSFT and Nintendo.

I know Sony was almost unwilling to let go this exclusive rights on the PS2, but to ROCKSTAR, hopeufully will open up the market for them and bring some innovation.

MSFT's XBOX can hopefully get ROCKSTAR to consider a network option with MSFT's XBOX LIVE!. On Nintendo's Gamecube it can consider the connectivity with their portable system, GameboyAdvance.

Even though this is exciting for non-PS2 owners. I'm hoping that they'd take the extra step and add something innovative (not necessarily new) thing on either system.