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True Crime - Streets Of L.A. Ratchets Up The Vice
Thanks to C+VG for their interview with the producer of Activision's True Crime: Streets of L.A., the Luxoflux-developed, rather Grand Theft Auto-esque game that's due out for multiple consoles this November. The game is pitched as "...an extension of the genre... We have the cinematic flair of The Getaway with the freedom to explore like in GTA." The idea of an open-ended experience is also pushed: "...as you get into the game, you don't have to repeat a mission you get stuck on, you can carry on playing through the game, which gives you more of an ability to play through - you can always go back and try that mission again later." There's another recent preview over at UGO.com for the game, which vies with The Simpsons: Hit And Run as the only GTA-styled games out this Christmas.
I think the ways to innovate something like GTA are pretty obvious, it's just a question of hardware. Imagine the thousands of microsimulations of something like Sim City, a persistant world with individuals in it, rather than randomly generated vehicles and pedestrians. Most buildings having interiors, with real people doing real life-like stuff in them, etc.
Basically, a game like GTA could be designed to use the hardware of the next 10 years, and still have plenty of innovation left over.
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Is this our new genre to be mass-copy catted? First it was the FPS, then the RTS, then the MMO games... I guess we're all in for a steady stream of crime-game clones in the next few generations. ...
Oh well, I hope they do a good job. The largest benefit of these games is thier open ended nature. I like the ability to ditch a mission, jump in the nearest car, and drive the the other side of the city just for the hell of it. You really don't need the crime and violence to make these games entertaining. Hopefully someone can use the most appealing parts of these titles and apply it to something completely different (kind of like I'm expecting the Simpsons Hit and Run is supposed to be).
This sounds like what I wanted. Not just a great game, but a real city map.
I don't play GTA3 as much as before because I've forgotten the map. Getaway doesn't seem to have all the little streets that make London so interesting. I wish it were San Francisco, because I know that city better, but LA will be fun too. It'll make the hours I spend driving around LA more fun. It's a learning game.
Next, Dirty Harry's Streets of San Francisco.
Assembly is the reverse of disassembly.
Honestly I'd really like to see a MMOGTA game. It'd be like driving through the haitian area after completing their mission in vice city, except you and the rest of your cuban friends could all storm in there and kick ass co-op style. Your two friends could sneak onto a rooftop and snipe a path for you, foot soldiers with uzi's and what not, plus 10 cars driving in raiding a rivals turf would be a damn good game. I'm sure this would be hard as hell to implement and everything, but dammit, I want it!
BTW, GTA3 and Vice City are still fun, pick up some mods and go at it. I recently replaced all maverick helicoptors with ufo's and replaced several cars with different deloreans, installed a couple mods to the actual map, and changed some stats around with a few cars so they go faster and can't be easily destroyed...playing through this way may be cheating, but who cares, it's some fun shit.