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GTA San Andreas Goes Swimming, Gangbanging, Smuggling

Posted by simoniker on from the positive-role-models dept.

Thanks to Eurogamer for its article revealing a number of new details on Rockstar's forthcoming Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, as printed in the UK's Official PlayStation 2 magazine. Topics discussed include the 'invention' of swimming ("We just got pissed off with people saying, 'We can't do swimming'... so if you drive off a bridge you're not going to drown"), the advent of gangs ("You can now recruit a gang and take over territories with them, and then lose territories if you don't look after them. So you've got the idea that bits of the map become personalised to you as much as your own character becomes personalised to you"), and the widening out of the game world ("We love, from a technical point of view, the driving in the open spaces on Smuggler's Run. It's awesome. Now you'll be able to do that in GTA, with all of the GTA gameplay.")

17 of 81 comments (clear)

  1. GTA:XXX by BigDork1001 · · Score: 5, Funny

    Now with more gangbang action!

    --
    "Armed forces abroad are of little value unless there is prudent counsel at home" - Cicero
  2. It has to be said... by netvoid · · Score: 5, Funny

    On stupid hair: "If you've got a stupid haircut, people will say, 'You look stupid'."

    Something i'm sure the Slashdot crowd is already used to.

    Sadly no mention of supported online play. But I suppose it's still early days.

  3. Bitch at What Makes You Rich by illuminata · · Score: 3, Insightful

    On characters and satire: "We've developed our characters a bit more and to that extent it's more serious. But it's still very much trying to be funny at all points. The satire... I suppose it's levelled at the broader weirdness of America and American consumerism and American action movies as well."

    Oh no, consumerism didn't do an ounce of good for this game. Nor did this game try not to exploit consumerism with it's giant advertising campaigns.

    I've noticed this since GTA3, but it still find it funny how they crack jokes at the very culture that makes their games sell in the millions.

    --


    Until Slashdot fixes the funny modifier, use insightful or interesting. The poster knows your intentions.
    1. Re:Bitch at What Makes You Rich by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Very true...

      But explain why this is a bad thing?

    2. Re:Bitch at What Makes You Rich by Frizzle+Fry · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Or maybe it's just a joke. You're not allowed to notice or point out some of the absurdities in consumerist culture without completely rejecting our culture or fighting against? No one is ever allowed to find humor in himself or something of which he is part? The world would be a much worse place if everyone had to take themselves as seriously as you suggest, being afraid to point out any of the absurdities of their own society lest they be labelled a hypocrite for being part of that society.

      --
      I'd rather be lucky than good.
  4. what's the magic word? by asveepay · · Score: 5, Funny

    If this game doesn't have gourangas, i'm gonna be super pissed.

    --
    "I'm not sure which is the bigger disappointment; my failure to formulate a unified field theory, or you."--Stephen Haw
  5. Oh, the possibilities... by KDR_11k · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I'm still waiting for them to implement an XBTF-style fully functional economy into the game and maybe add permanent consequences (i.e. if you die or get arrested you have to load your last save). Basically I'd like to see an Elite-style game but on earth, with cars, cities, etc. But then turning GTA from a crime simulator (well, as far as you can call a game where death isn't permanent a simulator...) into a "simulation" game would probably drive the core audience away.

    --
    Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.
    1. Re:Oh, the possibilities... by (trb001) · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They designed it so you wouldn't HAVE to load your save game when you died. One of fundamental principles in making a video game is that you want to suck your audience in and not let them go. If you die and you have to reload, that's a perfect time for the player to decide "Well, I just died, time for me to go [do something useful]". That's not what they want. In GTA:III, you came back at the hospital/police station. In GTA:VC you had a taxi waiting to take you to the last mission you were on. It's all very well designed ploys by Rockstar to make sure you never say "This is too time consuming, I'm going to go [do something useful]".

      --trb

    2. Re:Oh, the possibilities... by sindarin2001 · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's also useful if you have to try the same mission over and over and over and over...You can just keep playing without begin hindered by menuing system of the game.

    3. Re:Oh, the possibilities... by Mechanik · · Score: 4, Insightful

      They designed it so you wouldn't HAVE to load your save game when you died.

      I dunno about the rest of you but regardless of how well done and user friendly the "you just died" functionality was, if I failed a mission, I bloody well loaded up my last save point to maintain my previous stats and inventory. I'm willing to bet just about everyone else did this too.

      Hell, I'm the kind of guy that used to hit the reset button back on my 486 DX33 while playing X-Wing because I didn't want my pilot to get captured or killed, and if I hit reboot before it saved the stats to the hard drive, I could just restart the mission.

      Face it, these kinds of schemes are just way too easy to circumvent. As long as there are stats or an inventory that count for something, people will "cheat death" in the game.

      Mechanik

    4. Re:Oh, the possibilities... by kisrael · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Yeah, the first time through i was pretty quick on the reload sequence...after a while though, once I figured out how to quickly get an arsenal, I would just try to play it straight. GTAs are nice in that your character doesn't powerup (except for the health/armor bonus possibility) and is basically the same at the end as at the begining...you're just a smarter player, and have more knowledge of getting guns, or more money.

      --
      SO YOU'RE GOING TO DIE: The Comic for Dealing with Death
    5. Re:Oh, the possibilities... by Ectospheno · · Score: 2, Interesting
      I dunno about the rest of you but regardless of how well done and user friendly the "you just died" functionality was, if I failed a mission, I bloody well loaded up my last save point to maintain my previous stats and inventory. I'm willing to bet just about everyone else did this too.

      I have to admit that for the first half of my play through Vice City I did exactly that -- reloaded any time I died. The main reason I did this was because it took longer for me to get new weapons than it did to reload.

      However, after playing for a while I gradually began to realize that there are weapons and cash everywhere. It was actually more fun to continue playing rather than reload. Sure, I no longer have a zero deaths count, but I don't have to look at a loading screen anymore either.

      Later in the game you have so much money that its fairly pointless to reload. Once you have a few million you can just head on over to the store on your way to the mission and buy anything you want.

      My favorite way to get money in the game is to stand behind the wall near the sidewalk outside the Northpoint Mall and snipe people until I get six stars and the tanks start rolling. Turns out if you are behind the wall the cops can't hit you and they are too stupid to just walk around the wall. You can snipe the driver of a tank through the very tiny window in front of the tank. Then you walk around the wall, grab a tank, and park it in your garage.

      Vigilante missions in a tank = easy money.

    6. Re:Oh, the possibilities... by GTownBeast · · Score: 2, Funny

      Fuck building up stamina. Do the ambulance missions and get infinite run.

      --
      Rumor has it... that Catholic School Girls Rule
  6. best single player ever? by ndrtkr · · Score: 2

    does anyone else agrees with me that this franchise makes it for the best single-player experience ever? i'm really looking forward GTA:SA... i just hope there's some "Espantoso" radio in it...

    --
    - live from Costa Rica !
    1. Re:best single player ever? by Rethcir · · Score: 4, Funny

      Since this one takes place in the early 90's, I'm hoping we get some Hammer and Vanilla Ice. Espantoso could probably play Rico Suave. (Hopefully Rockstar is watching "I Love the 90's" this week on VH1!)

  7. Re:conspicuously absent by NanoGator · · Score: 2, Insightful

    "from the article is the multiplayer option... no dice?"

    I don't think the PS2 would be the best system to launch a multiplayer option. That's what PCs are for.

    --
    "Derp de derp."
  8. Suicide Button? by ziggles · · Score: 4, Interesting

    The trouble with driving off a bridge and not dying is.. now you have to swim to the nearest coast. I hate it when a game strands me somewhere and then forces me to do something very mundane to get out of the situation. I experienced this occasionally in GTAVC. It'd be nice if I could make my character kill himself so I don't have to find a way out, I can just start back at the hospital. I'm not a fan of loading a previous save when I get stuck. I'm more likely to just quit playing instead.