Slashdot Mirror
Rockstar Announces GTA San Andreas
Tickenest writes "According to a Yahoo-reprinted press-release, Rockstar Games has officially announced Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the latest in the GTA series. The press release continues: 'Developed by world-class designers Rockstar North, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be available exclusively for the PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system and is expected to be in stores in North America on October 19, 2004 and in Europe on October 22, 2004.'" This confirms earlier rumors of (initial?) PS2 exclusivity and possible name for this much-awaited game.
Is this is going to be something new or just the GTA engine with some minimal improvements and a new locale? My guess is that it's the later, from what I remember GTA 4 was supposed to be an all-together new game.
Mike
I was looking forward to the xbox edition.
SIGFAULT
=P Seriously it would be awesome to have an earthquake in a game, I don't think any other GTA-style game has done something like that (i.e. disaster scenarios).
Is this console exclusivity or won't it be reaching the PC at all. They've been vauge in the past and having just released 3 & 4 for the xbox I expect that cash will speak the loudest words.
San Andreas? Where'd they get that name? How about Grand Theft Bicycle: Vatican
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Oh yeah, I hope the game is fun too.
blarg.
Do they make tools for building your own world yet? It would be fun to cruise around your hometown a la Doom.
Stay tuned for new sig...
San Andreas sounds rather based on L.A....
"You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villainy in all the galaxy...."
I.E., a perfect setting!
"A group of words expressing something other than their literal intention. Now that... is... irony!" - Bender
instead of having a generic ambulance mode, we'll have it transformed into a mode where you chase after gang fights and save the hatians lives after being injured by the evil cubans.
then in grand theft auto: los vegas, you'll deliver hatian hookers to cubans and vice versa to promote love between them and settle the gripes of the previous game by the cuban community.
No screenshots? Aw man...
GTA is fabulous in that in manages to blur the distinction between genres, something that many have tried but few have succeeded.
It's interesting, because I've always loved RPGs, but never been a fan of shooters or racing games. I would never call GTA an RPG, but I would call it a shooter/racing game - but I love it!
The weirdest thing for me is that it's actually making me appreciate consoles. I've been a PC game snob, and my first GTA was Vice City on the PC. I was convinced that superior graphics + smaller load time was better, but having just bought a PS2 with GTA 3 + Vice City, I'm starting to understand that some games are just *made* to be played on consoles.
My religion forbids the use of sigs.
1. Umm, swimming, a little bit, please?
2. More indoor environments.
3. More flying (helicopters were hands down the best improvement to the vehicles in GTA: VC).
4. The property buying in GTA:VC was a good first step, but it can be expanded so much further.
5. NPC drivers, accomplices, bodyguards for hire, etc, etc.
And while I know everybody is clamoring for better graphics, am I the only one that thinks the current engine from GTA:VC got the job done? I'll take gameplay over graphics any day.
ce n'est pas un Sig.
Sony has the rights to the franchise, so they grant themselves a period of time where it is only available on their platform (the PS2). After that, if they choose to, they allow other platforms to pick it up. That's why it took so long for PC & Xbox versions of GTA3 to come out, etc.
It will probably be as exclusive as the last games... meaning they aren't ready to release the PC version yet, but maybe next year...
Windows
Windows 2.0
Windows 3.0
Windows 3.1
None of them can see the clouds; The polished wings don't care.
developer #1: i have an idea
developer #2: what?
developer #1: you know how no one had ever really heard of GTA 1 and 2, but 3 was a great success right?
developer #2: of course
developer #1: well, lets take the already written game engine and capitalize off it's success by making the same game over and over with different cities!
developer #2: brilliant!
developer #1: brilliant!
- tristan
I was going to moderate this, but I couldn't find -1 bitter.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
Seriously it would be awesome to have an earthquake in a game, I don't think any other GTA-style game has done something like that (i.e. disaster scenarios).
One of the objectives in Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3's LA level is "start the earthquake". Later on the same level you have to deal with a car teetering over the top of the broken freeway.
The PS2 title Disaster Report places you in an earthquake ravaged city.
Quake, on the other hand, doesn't seem to be earthquake related.
In case are wondering about the city
Libery City = New York City (Modern Day)
Vice City = Miami (1986-87 there or about)
San Andreas = (I Imagine that is Los Angeles, but when?)
Do not read this
Weren't GTA3 and VC big sellers on the PC? Until the consoles get some equilavent of "mouselook", I have zero interest in playing games like GTA on a console.
GTA San Andreas gives new meaning to the term "shake down"
e
Build Your Own PVR/HTPC news, reviews, &
Resident Evil: Codename Veronica was a dreamcast excluive... Code Veronica X came out for PS2 later, the X makes it a whollllle new game.. Now resident evil is a gamecube "exclusive"..
GTA3 & Vice City were PS2 "exclusives", until the PC versions, and later XBox versions came out.
The Final Fantasy series is PS2 "exclusive", nevermind that Crystal Chronicles thing.
It may be exclusive on PS2 for awhile, but I have no doubt a PC version, at least, will surface some time next year.
The only real exclusives are from the console makers themselves, Nintendo's franchise players, etc..
It just doesnt make sense for third party developers to lock themselves into one platform in such a fragmented market.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Uh, people loved both GTA 3 and GTA: Vice City because there were constant improvements. Each had its own story, its own gameplay enhancements and above all, both were fun.
In fact, many many video game sequels are of superior quality to the original, and hence they sell very well.
Call it beating a dead horse if you like, but if horse beating is what people want, you'd be crazy not to do it, marketing or no.
Hey freaks: now you're ju
Being able to set off some explosives etc along the fault-line and CAUSE an earthquake. Not sure if it would fly in the anti-terrorist US, but it would somewhat fit in with the GTA theme of mayhem and mass-destruction.
Many of you will remember the brouhaha over GTA3: Vice City and the phrase "Kill all the Hatians."
It was a big stink - bigger than any of the stuff you thought would be worse (you can kill police, or anyone for that matter, in the game) that ended in Rockstar actually changing the game - they now only push a "patched" version to stores AFAIK.
I was wondering why we don't demand an apology from Francis Ford Coppola about the Godfather movies (to which the GTA series is often, for obvious reasons, compared). After all, there's a line in one about black people being animals "who have no souls."
Then again, that was said by a character, not by the screenwriter.
Isn't it interesting that sometimes we're capable of knowing the difference, and other times we're not?
People apparently love these "gotcha" stories. They have no relation to the facts, and are frightening in their ignorance about the basic issues. I mean, distinguishing between something a character is saying and something the game/movie's makers are saying is a pretty basic feat of human intelligence. Of course the context is everything - the context of the line in the game is a gang war (and "the hatains" are one of the gangs in the game). But when it's time to worry about how many people are watching your news program rather than the competitions, a scare story, a little race baiting, even when the facts aren't exactly straight, can slip through.
Especially when it's a video game.
Where are the defenders of all Hatians now? Probably advocating Edward Norton be locked up for being a Nazi (since he played one in American History X).
Apparently we still hold games to a different standard than movies, even when these games are obviously made for adults, and are rated accordingly. If the game were a movie you'd be laughed out of the room for talking about it like that.
And the amazing thing is that Rockstar has caved to this kind of idiocy.
So what's the point of all this?
If Rockstar feels they have to edit everything in their products to fly this far under the stupid-radar, then they will essentially be neutering their product - which succeeds in a large part on the basis of its funny, irreverent, transgressive "creative" (i.e. game design and story, which are, in this as in many cases, inextricable).
I'm wondering how San Andreas will stack up - if they still have their spine after the "Hatian Incident." If they PC'd and PG-13'd the series, I predict an adverse response from the audience, and at the "box office."
Want to Know How to Cheat the GPL? Read On!
My buddy has a 3 year old. During the time his wife was away, my buddy would play GTA: Vice City, and his son would watch. The son thought it was cool when daddy "beat the shit" of of other guys with the bats. Well, Mom came home to see her son, and saw her son going to town on his favourite teddy bear with a kid-sized hockey stick. He said to his mom that it was because daddy did this "on tv". (And yes, the son would say daddy "beat the shit" out of somebody on tv.)
Whether you decide to play these games is up to you, but I believe we do have to be careful with our kids. We need to make them understand the difference between reality and fantasy, and if they can't tell the difference right now, then that's a lesson for later.
I believe it's called parenting.
The game is mostly a huge bunch of data on top of Renderware Platform. The difficulting in creating the game is the huge amount of artwork required. Unlike a racing game or DOOM, you need to fill an entire city where every building needs all four sides and the roof defined, plus needs a multitude of models so it looks good both close up and at a distance.
Does my bum look big in this?
I find the most fun way to do this mission is to fight my way to the trash truck and then the goons in the comets just bounce off you. much more satisfying than the helo method (unless you use the apache, but that is another post)
I used to have a cool sig, back when I cared
is over here: http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/
Hack your mind out of its sandbox.
I'll preface by saying I don't want to start a flame war between hardcore X-Box fans, PC gamers, and the Sony elite.
:)
:)
That said, before saying how limiting the PS2 hardware is, you should read up on how the PS2 hardware design is supposed to be used. The emotion engine opens up some insane possibilities...the problem is with developers and not with the hardware. Look at games like Gran Turismo. Disgustingly beautiful, disgustingly smooth. The X-Box can't touch that, even if MS has guides to programming for it. The problem is that the technology is too complicated for most American (and in many cases European) developers to truly comprehend and utilize without trying to hack together.
Couple that with the extra dev time Rockstar had between the PS2 and X-Box versions of the game...your argument there is weak, at best. Just because the same software seems different on two different platforms doesn't mean that software was developed for both on the same schedule or with the same resources. I think it's fair to say Rockstar had a lot of feedback, research time, and some newly-grown muscles when porting their games. I could be wrong, in which case time will tell when GTA: SA comes out. Otherwise your crankiness is unwelcome.
That said, if you don't like a sequel, thank goodness that there are about 50,000 internet review sites, gaming mags, and published reviews of games that hit the streets in advance of a game's release...well, that and the fact that you can rent a game for anywhere from $1-$3 to try it out yourself. In the PC world you can't rent games, which is why the crowd is so unforgiving. When you sink your $50 into a game you just bought because of the pretty box and the reputation (and poorly-set expectations you put on the game's shoulders), you get a little bitter. With console games, the only person to blame for buying a bad game is yourself. This is one of many reasons I try my best to limit my gaming to a console. Not only don't I develop a snappy attitude about my games, but I have an opportunity to sample games I'd normally never look twice at, just because I can spend a few dollars testing it out, then buy it cheap in a few months when the marketing craze for it is over.
Why is it that so many titles are released exclusively for consoles, and never released for the PC? Do the game companies NOT realize that the most hardcore, high spending gamers use the PC as their primary gaming platform? Granted, there are a lot (A LOT) of PC titles that don't do so hot. But that is because the genious creative minds behing all the great console hits aren't creating them. PC exclusive games are usually buggy as hell upon release, with poor game play and even more poor acting. If we could get some of these top developers to start releasing their console exclusive hits on PC, I think they would notice that we, as PC gamers, are just starved for good content. Our market SUCKS.
Listen to my experimental-industrial-techno!
"Vice City was a huge disappointment."
How's that?. It had better graphics than the first one and even ran better on the same hardware. How many games can claim that in the PC world? The city was bigger and you got to do things like fly helicopters. Really it was an improvement in many ways but didn't ruin the basic game formula. Sure maybe you wanted multiplayer and custom maps etc, but as far as sequels goes this one was a nice extension of an already great game. I don't know how interesting it will be if they just move it to a new city but Vice City should stand as a solid improvement for those who are fans of the genre.
"That would never happen in the PC world. If you produce a shit sequel, you are done."
Vice City was available on the PC. If if really did suck shouldn't this be the end of GTA?
If you wanna get rich, you know that payback is a bitch
Is that when I was 3 me and my older brother made these little cardboard cut-out replicas with gold and silver marker of all the items in the original Legend of Zelda.
The fighting part was no different ^.^
There's a GTA game in the works for gamecube.
They haven't got the big wheel, tricycle and razor scooter models just right.
The water pistol effects are fabulous, though!
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
New lead designer Harvey Smith, of Deus Ex: Invisible War fame, has announced some changes to the GTA format.
/still bitter about DX:IW
-To better accomidate the casual player market, there will only be one car model. It will come in 196 colors, but they will all have the same handling and radio station.
-The "New and Improved" physics engine will allow players to jump their car over a mile. Crashing into a fence, however, will still ruin your ride.
-There will approximately 600 blocks to explore, each one requiring a 30 second loading delay.
-To avoid the "What do I do next?" question, the mission system will be replaced with a multiple choice plotline which will feature the same exact missions but one path will always lead through a vent.
Parenting Group officially releases "Lawsuit 2: We're back"
Developed by world-class lawyers and parents that want to blame everyone else for their children problems, will be exclusively targeted at GTA: San Andreas. The lawsuit is expected to be released in North America on October 20, 2004.
Josh
An official site is up (but no content yet):
http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/
One thing worthy of note: the script in the logo for the words "San Andreas" is in that faux-English "newspaper-title" font that is popular among Latinos who put it on the back of their pickup trucks (often along with a decal of the virgin Mary - I don't get it either) and what not. Dunno if that means anything...
RadicalBender.com
To those complaining that Rockstar lacks production polish, citing games that came out 3 years ago like 'Oni' (see Bungie for that one)Let's just have a little history lesson, shall we?
Manhunt - Excellent twist on the stealth genre, great game play, killer sounds. Hollywood stars rounding out the voice casts. "..the most important game in the last 5 years..." -The Chicago Tribune
Max Payne 2 - Love it or hate it, this game on Xbox/PC is gorgeous. The textures and level designs are top notch. Story is on par with most movies being churned out by any major hollywood studio. Artistic storyboards, full mo-capped character models, and again, excellent voice acting round out this game. Several PC GOTY and Action GOTY nods.
GTA:VC - Dozens of authentic tracks from the time perioud. Amazing radio stations and voice acting. Full hollywood cast. Beautiful cut scenes. Immersive, large locale. Game of the year almost everwhere, including an Academy of Interactive Arts and Sciences award.
Midnight Club 2 - 9.1 out of 10 IGN. 91 out of 100 Gamerankings. Killer music, awesome graphics and killer gameplay including online component. Set a new standard for environment freedom in a racing game.
What makes Rockstar great is not just their awesome games, but their attention to production and detail which blur the lines between games and other traditional forms of entertainment, such as movies. I have a feeling GTA:San Andreas will be no different.
I heard it was going to be GTA: Spira. You'd play as Paine after she goes insane from snorting tainted megalixer crystals. They said you'd be able to jack chocobos, do jobs for the LeBlanc syndicate and pick up lesbian hooker nuns in Bevelle.
And Spider Jerusalem from Transmetropolitan was going to be a playable character with a +7 bowel disruptor.
Or maybe I just dreamed it all.
Oh well.
--- Ban humanity.
1) The ability to turn around on the spot without all the cars disappearing;
2) Some semblance of draw distance so that if you're standing on top of a building there are actually cars and people to shoot at?
This is 2004; we have decent hardware now!
Is it too early to sue them yet for warping my impressionable, young child's mind, or do I need to wait until the game is actually released?
No, I think he means that sane people will have more fun playing the game than they might expect out of a sequel which probably will have only incremental improvements to its engine.
Expectations about stupid, homicidal people being stupid and homicidal are already high, regardless of their playing a video game or desire to have a scapegoat for their stupid and homicidal actions. As such, I'm pretty sure he was mentioning just the game aspect.
If not now, when?
that makes me sad to hear that. You may think that the GTA3 engine had dated graphics when it was released on the PC, but I just finished playing it last month, probably 2 years after its release, and my 1ghz Athlon with Geforce2 could barely run it at 640x480. 640x480 is the minimum resolution you can possibly run the game at.
Meanwhile my roommate who has a 1.4ghz Athlon and Geforce3(?) also had terrible framerates.
You may think that GTA3 has dated graphics, but there's not much sense in releasing a game that people won't be able to run on $3k PCs for another 3-5 years...
But yes, the innovation part is a good point to think about. Even though I loved GTA3, it spent a LOT of time playing it, and don't intend to get Vice City if it's the same routine in a new city.