GTA-Styled True Crime Gets Final Verdict

Thanks to 1UP for its review of Activision's multi-platform driving/shooting hybrid, True Crime, which starts by pointing out that "there aren't very many true console competitors for GTA... True Crime: Streets of LA is the first real contender since The Getaway." The reviewer praises the "plot-oriented makeover", but is concerned about game shortness: "You can get all three endings... in a weekend once you master the controls." Gaming Age is delighted by the title, suggesting it's "one of the best games to come out this holiday season", and IGN PS2 rules True Crime as "an enjoyable game if you can clear your mind of Grand Theft Auto expectations", while GameSpot points out that the just-shipped title is another to boast an advertising tie-in, as hero Nick Kang is "modeling new apparel and footwear from Puma's spring 2004 collection."

Comments

Special Combat Moves!

[BrookHarty]

If you beat 100% of an entire episode you get a bonus cruise through LA where you can choose to unlock a special weapon, special car or special combat move.

And they said LA was fully detailed. Cant wait to see this game in action, always liked the freedom you get in these games, and a kick ass collection of music. Mafia was pretty good with the open freedom you could drive around, just missed going into buildings more often in the game, but didnt have the GTA type soundtracks.

TV ad.

[saden1]

I saw the TV ad for this game and I wasn't impressed. Maybe I'm getting to old but this game seem excessively violent and the plot seemed non-existent. Beat up couple of guys and get the job done. Nothing special if you ask me.

Re:TV ad.

[Enucite]

Which is why I like The Simpsons: Hit and Run. Not overly violent, a decent plot, variety in missions, and just a good game all-around.

My girlfriend and I have both been playing this quite a bit the past couple days. Fun game and highly recommended for anyone who likes the GTA-style play.

Re:TV ad.

[bigman2003]

Simpsons Hit and Run is great...for a few days.

I, and other people I know who have played, got very bored with the game, VERY quickly. After just a few days.

The game is great, but somehow it just gets boring.

(This of course is my opinion, yours may be different...)

Re:TV ad.

[chaoticset]

HERETIC! HERETIC! Let's burn him! We burn gamers who talk like that!

Advertising in games

[Anonymous Coward]

"modeling new apparel and footwear from Puma's spring 2004 collection."

Fuck that bullshit.

Re:Advertising in games

[Talonius]

Why? I mean, who cares? If the developer of the game earns a bit more because Puma paid them then more power to them -- I hope your mind is strong enough that you can shrug off this sort of thing and make an independent decision.

If not then you're already adrift in a world of advertising whoredom aren't you?

Re:Advertising in games

[Anonymous Coward]

dude, you need to settle down, maybe have a break today, I mean have you had your break today?

Re:Advertising in games

[Hes Nikke]

my family has a habit of yelling "Product placement!" at the TV... it's starting to carry over into games too! (played SSX3 yet?)

Re:Advertising in games

[cbirdsong64]

I think it's funny the graphic for the Honda Element is a horribly done sprite. dNL is far too prevalent, though. At least it fits in SSX. Been to a sporting event lately?

Re:Advertising in games

[h0mer]

I was a bit pissed off when I bought 4 new boards for $4000 and I found that I had bought a Element logo, 2 Stuff magazine logos, and a dnL logo.

Re:Advertising in games

[Hes Nikke]

thats why i saved up for the $50,000 cardboard box ^_^

Re:Advertising in games

[Anonymous Coward]

Hope you don't mind what it will lead to, these paid avertisements will do to video games the same thing that they do with TV today.

Get use to 5 minute interuptions now. Maybe they will make them interactive if you are lucky, and won't think of forcing you to pay attention to them.

"GTA-Styled True Crime gets final verdict"

[FannyMinstrel]

Did anyone else think that this was relating to the court case where they guys shot the other guy, and blamed GTA3?
I was looking at the text and going "wtf, where is the verdict!"

Re:"GTA-Styled True Crime gets final verdict"

[Anonymous Coward]

Congratulations on posting a "Did anyone else think..." post that was plausible. Most similar posts are centered around such arcane mistakes as to make the reader scratch his head, wondering, "Did they really make that mistake, or is there some ulterior motive to this insanity?"

Re:Grammar?

[Anonymous Coward]

not in the queens english. institutions are plural.

Took a look at it.

[Sheetrock]

I'm not too big on the controls. Although I liked the idea of taking on crime rather than perpetuating it in a video game, I have to admit GTA3/GTA:Vice were easier to control.

Well, except for aiming guns, which is already nearly impossible with a joystick unless you're too young to be playing such a title, and whatever shoulder button you had to hold to aim always went to the lady in the walker instead of to one of the five people beating the holy hell out of you.

And I agree with a former poster, the violence is way over the top. Not an effective substitute for game quality, and probably warping the only people with the time to play the things.

Take a look again

[Anonymous Coward]

If I remember correctly, Preset B is basically the same controller layout as GTA.

Anonymous Coward? Tommy???

[mo^]

Although True Crime borrows heavily from GTA for its basic game structure, there is one very plain difference: instead of an anonymous gangster, you play Nick Kan.....

even my drug addled brain can recall Tommy Vercetti.

Re:Anonymous Coward? Tommy???

[TommyH1000]

I think they're referring to the nameless, voiceless wonder from GTA 3, not Tommy Vercetti. That was, IMHO, one of the biggest reasons that the plot for Vice City was better than GTA 3. Even if they had just made him grunt at people it would have been an improvement.

Re:Anonymous Coward? Tommy???

[mo^]

yup, good point...... too long playing vc, i forgot the original GTA3

Out today!

[obtuse]

Just in case you didn't RTFA, it's slated for release today.

I'm excited to see it. I loved driving through London in Getaway, and I know LA much better than London.

In Getaway, they missed all the tiny streets that make London so fascinating, but it was very fun when I realized that I knew where I was. For example when I saw King's Cross, I popped over to my honeymoon hotel on Bloomsbury Square. I just want the game map that the British got, so I can see which streets are in the game in more detail.

Rollin' down Rodeo with a shotgun...

[Sodade]

Accurate modelling of the streets of LA? That makes the game worth checking out by itself. That a game is "too short" doesn't turn me off at all - I don't have time in my life for another Vice City. BUT - the fire breathing dragons and demon heads? Give me a break! How friking lame is that? Don't get me wrong - I am all into fire breathing dragons - but not in modern LA!

Re:Rollin' down Rodeo with a shotgun...

[jobbleberry]

Well my first thought was the same when reading about the Dragons and the Demons, but then I rembered this is a game, someones imagining of the world, as long as there is some good story telling to go along with these events they should not be a problem. In the end it is all about the entertainment.

blah

[Anonymous Coward]

Just finished the xbox version... boring. The game has it's moments (city detail, some of the plot) but suffers heavily in other areas (graphics, repetitive comments, annoying control). This is a C quality game at best.

Too Real ??

[jobbleberry]

I was just thinking about how people have been reacting to the effect of violence in GTA on the real world. GTA is a cartoonish representation of the real world, with exagerated situations, characters and locations, and yet people still blame it for real world violence.

This True Crime game is based heavily in the real world, with all the violence from GTA but now in realistic setting and location. Can anyone else see the crazy people out there latching on to this and complaining. I mean they have a problem with simulated cartoon violence imagined what they can do with this realistic game as an argument.

simpsons

[cheezus]

hit and run was a good rental. I was sick last weekend so I rented it an played through it in about 6 hours (didn't do most of the side missions). It's the best simpsons game ever (not saying much, really), simpsons fans will love the details in the levels. It's really half GTA, because all the weapons are gone and there's basically 2 kinds of missions:
1) drive somewhere before time runs out
2) collect dropped items (kinda like big n veiny in gta3)

in short: a good weekend rental, but i wouldn't buy it

stop it!

[cheezus]

Languages evolve. If they didn't, we'd all still be talking like we're reading beowulf

Dragons and skulls?

[zero_offset]

Firebreathing dragons and flaming skulls... and yet the review continues to babble on about what a realistic game this is. Mmm hmmm... in a game that I can burn through in a weekend, I'm not about to consider it at all realistic if it has firebreathing dragons. My memory isn't that short.

Also, I'm wondering about the jab at GTA's "arm flapping weirdos". I thought the motion cap in GTA's cut scenes was pretty good, actually. The hands were disturbingly inanimate club-fists, but the GTA models weren't so hot, and were helped enormously by the decent mo-cap.

Similar to the way I avoid movies which are highly recommended by certain specific people, this review leads me to believe this game rates a "rental" rating (at best) rather than a "buy" rating for me...