Grand Theft Auto Xbox 'Double Pack' Explored

Thanks to GameSpy for their brief interview with Rockstar Vienna's managing director over the forthcoming Grand Theft Auto/Vice City 'double pack' for the Xbox, which ships on 4th November. He reveals this conversion of both GTA games has "upped the resolution for HDTV usage, enabling 480p support along with a 16:9 aspect ratio for widescreen TVs", significant other graphical enhancements, including "much higher resolution textures", "specular lighting" and "reflection maps", and best of all, that "...players will also be able to create their own stations and can make multiple soundtracks by ripping their favorite CD's onto the Xbox hard drive. Grand Theft Auto 3 recognizes each soundtrack as a CD that can be changed by the new CD changer."

Comments

Fuckin' hell

[SpatchMonkey]

They're surely milking the tits off the goat with this one. And I bet loads of suckers will still shell their cash out for another GTA3 that's almost exactly the same as the last two editions.

OOohoh ho oh ho

Feh!

[jvmatthe]

Incidentally, this is also coming out for the PS2, although without the graphical upgrade and soundtrack enhancements, AFAICT. But that's not why I posted.

Biggest Missing Feature:
Motorcycles in Liberty City.

Honestly, that would suck me into playing GTA3 all over again, just trying out the bikes for hours seeing what I could pull off. If they added that, I'd consider selling my GTA3 and GTA:VC for the PS2 just to have the upgraded version of GTA3 in the double pack.

Surely they thought about this. What's holding them back? Make it an easter egg, if need be, so you can avoid the "we couldn't test all situations and it wouldn't pass QA" argument.

Oh, and while you're reading, I always love plugging this little article. In short, GTA3 much better than GTA:VC, and that's all there is to it. Flame on! :^D

Re:Feh!

[Babbster]

Oh, and while you're reading, I always love plugging this little article. In short, GTA3 much better than GTA:VC, and that's all there is to it. Flame on! :^D

Besides the bugs - many of which I found exceedingly annoying in Vice City - most of that article seemed to be written by someone who was simply nostalgic for the "original" (as original as the third in a series can be), like the people who claim that Pac-Man is superior to Ms. Pac-Man. There's nothing wrong with that, since it's always going to be a matter of taste, but Vice City is certainly defensible as a superior game.

also 720p

[gearheadsmp]

It also supports 720p, aka 1280x720.

Re:also 720p

[Babbster]

Unfortunately, even 720p is a stretch for the video memory in the Xbox when high-resolution textures and anti-aliasing are used. The games so far that have implemented 1080i (Dragon's Lair and Enter the Matrix) have used relatively low-resolution textures or cel shading, typically with no hardware anti-aliasing (admittedly, less of a problem at higher resolutions), to squeeze the higher resolutions into available memory. After all, despite 1080i being interlaced, you still need to render 1440x1080 or 1920x1080 - the two common 1080i resolutions - per frame to get the benefits.

I would prefer that for now they use high-resolution textures and anti-aliasing to achieve nice 480p pictures, rather than applying workarounds to get to the HDTV resolutions. With the next console generation, I expect that all the consoles (at least I hope all, but I'm 99% certain for Xbox2) will have NTSC/480p/720p/1080i options built into nearly every game. I'd rather wait a bit for the real deal rather than get a half-assed result now.

The tilting point

[aacool]

Let's not underestimate the significance of this release - granted it's a dated game, and agreed that most XBox owners have probably played the PC version at least.

The point is GTA3/VC was seen as a killer app for the PS2 and it's availability on XBox will have an impact on console purchase decisions, IMHO. Also, TTWO gets a bundle more of money, which should drive the schedule of GTA4? up

That being said, check out Max Payne 2 and True Crime - Streets of LA - both multi-console for some more awesome gangster-noir riffs in the genre, both also out soon

On another note, do read Jim Thompson's classic novels for a feel of life in the fast lane:)

My unusual opinion...

[okayplayer]

I had the wonderful fortune of being able to work at Rockstar Games as a tester for the GTA Double pack as well as a few other games. I thought I should just share my two cents as I have a lot of hands on experience with the games.

Firstly, in my OPINION, GTA3 is better than VC. Its just my opinion, no linked articles needed. Thats not to say that I do wish GTA3 included motorcycles but the way I see it, motorcycles just aren't part of the game. Much in the same way that children aren't in the game. They are just not there. Understand?

Now down the the details.

In GTA3 the graphics really are much improved even over the PC version. Vienna really did a good just with the graphics hardware of the xbox. Check out the new car models, they even have engines under the hoods. The rims on the banshee are fly. They are different enough that the first time you pull the e-brake and slide through the turn, you notice them. The reflections as well have been improve A LOT. You can see the traffic lights on the top of the cars, and the people on the sidewalks as you drive by. The editable sound track feature is also a plus. Especially when your testing the game for as many hour as I did and can recite the Dormatron commerical in my sleep, All in all the improvements are really worth the look.

One important note is that a lot of care was taken in NOT changing the feel of the game too much. Like I said before, I'm a GTA3 fan so I was quite happy with the results.

VC gets the same type of makeover. The pastel colors never looked truer. I never got a chance to test the final control scheme (I had to go back and finish college) but I'm sure everything got ironed out.

I got to see the game in HD a couple of times and I think those of you lucky enough to take advantage of it will be very pleased.

I never got a chance to see any PS2 version as it wasn't being tested at my office. It was all done by North I believe.

Well I know there was more I wanted to post but I'm sure I'll get a chance when replying to the flames.

Buy the Double Pack, you will be paying my salary.

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