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GTA - San Andreas Looks to be Next
Rayonic writes "US publisher Take-Two Interactive went on a pre-Christmas trademark registration spree, the products of which point us tantalisingly towards the likely name of the next installment of the massive Grand Theft Auto series." Of course it won't actually be out for many many many moons, but expect much speculation on this one. I s'pose great game sequels deserve it.
I wonder if there is going to be some post earthquake looting in the game. That would be a nice feature.
the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
GTA really rocks!
:) Go see the course site!
:)
The best part is that its got such a cool narrative and storyboard, and the way it takes you through it is awesome.
You wouldn't believe it, but an Interactive Fiction & Media class that I'm taking this semester taught by this guy actually requires us to play GTA3 and analyze the gameplay!
And its kinda fun seeing why it really succeded - the whole story sometimes follows what seems to a post-modernist approach to storytelling, and its a great mix of both narrative and game-theory approach with a non-singular series of puzzles. And believe it or not, its success has really changed the way acadmic people look at gaming and at simulation and storytelling.
I can't wait to see whats coming up next!
I always thought GTA: Baghdad would be an interesting concept.
That's what I'd like to see as well- the star system could go a lot higher, with much more devastating counter attacks- killing a soldier would bring in helicopters and trucks full of more soldiers, and then taking some of those out would have the area get shelled. There could be more of a strategic bent to those encounters (instead of the police simply forgetting about you the next day as in GTA3): The more invaders you kill, and the more violent their response (killing lots of innocent locals), the more people will support you and resist the invaders- but of course there's dozens of other insurgent groups to work for or fight against, as well as local gangs, corrupt police, and international terrorists, and some interaction with journalists.
Soon you'll attract a lot of attention and be on the news, wanted posters on the walls (to be replace by murals celebrating you near the end).
In the opening portion of the game the city would be wide open for travel, but then after some successful missions the invaders will really crack down and roadblock everything, and then after some more successes you'll have made parts of the city too dangerous for the invaders- and then you'll push them out entirely, and win.
It wouldn't actually have to be set in Baghdad, but in an alternate universe with Russia invading the U.S. or more imaginary settings to make the game more marketable- but the parallels would be obvious.
There comes a point in time when, after you finish the game, driving around killing cops for 3 hours becomes a little boring. I think the next iteration of Grand Theft Auto could really make use of some sort of random mission generator. The missions could be assassination missions, delivery missions, gang war related missions, etc, but randomizing vehicles, locations, times, gangs, etc. :)
Also, more variety of vehicles (both drivable and non-drivable) would be cool. Some I'd like to see: air boat, jet ski, regular air plane, jumbo jet, cruise ship, horse!, hot air balloon
Of course there are some features that a lot of people want that I would like as well: more indoor areas, the ability to swim, more cars, weapons, more everything. What I'd really like, though, is a more immersive environment. How about news choppers following high speed chases and live news reports on the radio. Deeper storylines with more action among the NPCs.
My biggest complaint is that the game is quite boring after you actually finish it. It's as if all of a sudden the world just shuts down. Maybe for a random mission generator, you could go to your friends (the ones that are still alive, of course) at the restaraunt, club, bar, whatever and do small jobs for them. Anything to keep the action going.
That being said, even if it's just more of the same (i.e. new map, new missions, a few new vehicles and weapons) it will still be very fun for a few days.
I've thought that a great sequel to GTA would be where you play from the cops' perspective. You could start as a rookie out of the academy, and they'd stick you with a partner and you'd have a beat.
At first it'd be just simple stuff like traffic violations, and work up to more serious stuff like robberies, gang fights, murders, etc. Maybe your partner could be just a tinge on the bad cop side, and you'd get to choose whether to play it by the book or bend the rules.
It would be sort of like the way "Knights of the Old Republic" does it with Light/Dark Points. If you accept a bribe to let a speeder off, you'd get a "bad cop" point for instance.
There could be several paths for your character. The good cop path might lead to you becoming police commisioner, and the bad cop one might lead to being a drug lord or mafioso type.
So many possibilities. Wish I was a video game designer... 8-)
Lets see, what sort of stuff would a gangsta find in ol San An'..., 10 curches, 2 bars, one of which is the VFW post (no. 2600, nice number though), 4 small banks, high school, elementry, defunct cement plant, historic courthouse/jail (former jail of the goldrush stage robber Black Bart), um government center, hospital, DMV, CHP (hmm maybe has some possibilities), Forestry, sherrif (unincorporated city), government center, one 24 hour mini mart, the other four are only open till about 9 or so. Lots of back streets, though not the cow-path roads like Jackson and Angels Camp...also a good place for a side trip to jump frogs
Oh, it is in "Calaveras County" (Calaveras, spanish for skull, rumoured to be named after the discovery of a riverbed with skulls from some ancient native skirmish). And a former spanish mining camp (that's how San Andreas got it's name from Saint Andrew).
No stop lights... many streets with no sidewalks! ..and bunches of old gold mine shafts and tunnels all over the place,
Though San Andreas does have it's share of nationaly recognized crime sprees!
"Enjoy what you're doing! If it becomes drudgery, you're doing it wrong!" - Jim Butterfield