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.

Comments

awesome

[reptilezero]

i can't wait for this game to come out. hopefully it'll push rockstar to innovate even more in gta in order to compete!

Re:awesome

[GigsVT]

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.

w00t

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Why LA?

[theantix]

I love the idea, but hate the city they chose to set the game in. Why couldn't they pick a better city for this type of a game. I'm thinking of something like NYC which has lots of famous buildings, parks, bridges, etc. L.A. has... well... suburbs, and lots of them.

Re:Why LA?

[bigman2003]

LA is a good city for this.

It has crime-

It has streets you can actually drive on-

It has famous buildings, parks, etc.

What about Hollywood? What about Griffith Park? (You might not know the name, but you know the park) Interesting stuff like the La Brea tarpits- imagine sinking your enemies car into that- loaded with a trunk full of thugs.

LA city hall is far more recognizable than NY's (you've seen it on TV a million times.) And what about General Hospital? Yes, it is a real place- once again, very recognizable.

This game is about a cop, who uses violence to get the job done. You don't think that the LAPD has a reputation for this?

LA has a Chinatown/Little Tokyo (always important for crime syndicates!) as well as just about every other ethnic group having a stronghold. Seen the LA riots? (that was a popular show on TV a few years ago) You do NOT mess with Korean shop-owners.

The game could have a lot of missions in East LA, Compton, Inglewood, etc. You might remembers stories where people get shot for just driving down the wrong street (avenida de asesinos I believe).

LA is not all suburbs- in fact, by definition, the suburbs are not part of the city. Yes of course there is sprawl, but if you are looking for recognizable landmarks, LA is full of them. True, the MTV studios are not here, and being able to blast Carson Daly with a shotgun would be great- but the Church of Scientology HQ's would be a nice place to go on a rampage.

All hail the new RTS!

[neostorm]

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).

Re:All hail the new RTS!

[robson]

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. ...

Yes, precisely. And what really burns me up is that many developers seem unable to divorce the genre from the mechanic. I honestly think the magic of GTA3/VC was in the mechanic -- free, non-linear, mission-based, emergent. These elements could be applied to *any* genre. You mention RTS -- the RTS needn't be wedded to war. What if you did an RTS based on shopping in a mall? Or putting out forest fires? Or termites eating out the foundation of a house?

It's this inability to distinguish between mechanic and genre that results in endless "clones" of games. I'd love to see a bunch of GTA3/VC clones, but I just wish they'd clone the right part!

Tiddings of great joy!

[August_zero]

Behold!!!!

The birth of a brand new genre, isn't it cute?

the early 90's gave us FPSers...
The late 90s gave us RTS
Now the low 00's give us the GTAesques.

Rejoice! the angel of imitation and the archangel of rehash are upon us! The Angel of originality however just went and hung herself.

Re:Tiddings of great joy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Seeing as how GTA is the only game I still play every day 9 months after it came out- I am all for the imitators. Bring them on. thank god that levels and linear design are dying off.

Granted, I would hate to see the genius of GTA overlooked for it's violent content. Its breakthroughs have less to do with content and more to do with structure.

Copying the underlying game design of GTA isn't lack of originality- it is embracing a radical new way of presenting a game to a gamer. No more 'on rails' gameplay.

Tony Hawk 4 (and the forthcoming Underground) and the next Spiderman game show that you can 'immitate' GTA w/o having to make a game about killing old ladies. These games aren't guilty of lacking originality- they are taking the 'free-roaming' ball and running with it.

That all being said, True Crime DOES look like a GTA knockoff. Okay, you play a cop instead of a gangster, but it is still pretty much GTA. Luxoflux, however, would be at the top if my list for devs I would like to see rip-off GTA. Vigilante-8 was a ripoff of Twisted Metal- a ripoff that blew the original out of the water.

Re:Tiddings of great joy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Actually, Vigilante 8 was a sequel to Interstate 76 of sorts, most of the same dev team and defiantely the same style even if the gameplay was a lot more arcady than the original.

No arguments, GTA is a great game, but that doesn't mean that every game should include its core design. You also have to keep in mind, that most of the imitations will be crap rather than improving descendents. Look at the fighting game boom of the 90's. After Street Fighter every other game released on a home system or the arcade was a fighting game, and most of them were utter shit. GTA is a great game because it put a new spin on existing game structure, and spawned a unique expereince, not because it coppied an existing game, suppose they had made it like Halo because Halo was big at the time?

Re:Tiddings of great joy!

[Anonymous Coward]

Point is, even the rip-offs can be great- or better. GTA somewhat ripped off Driver 2 but it is a far better game. We aren't talking about 'every' game being a GTA clone anyway. As the main post states, True Crime and the Simpsons game are the ONLY free-roam driving games this holiday season. How many FPS games are there? How many RPGs?

We are not yet at the point where 'every' game is a GTA clone. So far they are less than a handful. And roughly a third of those aren't even 'crime' games. They incoprorate the free roaming aspect into a new setting.

And whatever Vigilante 8 is a sequal to... it really is a Twisted Metal clone. A superior clone on all counts.

Double-take

[The Munger]

"...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."

You mean like GTA3?

Re:Double-take

[Wonko42]

In GTA3 and Vice City, if you don't complete a mission, you can't accept any more missions from that source until it's completed. Of course, you can still run around all you want, and you can go on missions from other sources, but at a certain point, the storyline requires that incomplete mission to be completed, and before long you'll run out of other missions you can take. If you want to reach the end of the game, you must complete every mission.

Re:Double-take

[bigman2003]

This was a big problem for me. I couldn't pass one of the (earlier) missions, so I just got stuck. I blamed it on the crappy controls on the PC- driving with a keyboard is never good- but maybe it is just because I'm not very good at the game.

Not fun anymore...

[Thedalek]

For me (and most everyone I know who played it to any extent) GTA and it's offspring stopped being fun long ago. The only true joy I can squeeze out of it now is dropping a Rhino tank out of the sky, and that gets repetitive quick.

Now, if there was a Sim City-line GTA-style game in which you create your city and then wreak havoc on a personal level, that might get my attention.

Re:Not fun anymore...

[Anonymous Coward]

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.

Bah

[randomizer9]

If I want 'cinematic flair' I'll go to the movies!

Dont forget...

[Recoil_42]

Driver 3 (ps2 link, but it also comes out on XBOX, GC and PC), and T.H.U.G. (tony hawks underground, XBOX link, and its on everything but PC) Driver 3 will be a grittier, more realistic, more rigid GTA, with some of the nicest graphics ive ever seen; THUG will be tony hawk, just with some GTA features... I think they are trying to take a bite out of GTA's market share by adding some gimmicks. The city building feature, however, is pretty cool.

Re:Dont forget...

[bobbozzo]

Hmm, several of the screenshots for Driver 3 look like Miami.

Makes me wonder if they were trying to beat GTA:VC to the punch. Others look like they're set in Europe though, so I could be way off.

Real City - Real Cool.

[obtuse]

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.

Freeways?

[bobbozzo]

I wonder if it'll have freeways...

1. High Speed Freeway Chases!

2. re-enact movie scenes driving the wrong way on the 405!

It sounds like it should be a LOT of fun.

European versions

[lovebyte]

I just wish we had a european version of these games, with real cars! It was great to play the gateway with cars that I knew and that can turn (not like in VC). Other than that the game was pretty boring.

Maybe these games could be adapted to your favourite town. You could have the London, Paris, Roma versions.

Re:European versions

[bigman2003]

New York
London
Paris
Munich

On the radio?

Pop Muzik of course.

The Getaway did it badly

[British]

I love GTA3 and Vice City. Two games that set the bar excessively high for PS2 games in overall attributes.

But I bought The Getaway, and it just was badly done. They jacked up the difficulty (IMO) too high at the beginning. I haven't even passed mission 2. Found out on a newsgroup that you had to hold down three buttons simultaneously to shoot someone w/ autotargeting.

Also, driving around is a hassle. Not the problem of the rush-hour in London, but there's no map, and sometimes your turn signals make you go down the wrong way on a one-way street.

No freedom to do anything either, until you've completed the game. A shame, really.