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GTA San Andreas Official Site Launched
Oshuma.Shiroki writes "Rockstar Games has launched the official site for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. This is particularly notable because it comes complete the very first trailer for the game, as well as some new screenshots. In any case, GTA:SA is due out for PlayStation 2 on October 19th. Head on over and take a look."
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the sites been up for a while only new thing is the trailer and some more screenshows
...I can't ever seem to finish one. I loved GTA2 for the PC, then got GTA3 and played it a long time, got bored, never finished. GTA3:Vice City was the same way, though the plot was more interesting. I'll probably pick this up (and a playstation 2) when it comes out, but I probably won't beat it :(
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Although - and you wouldn't know this, since you get your entire GTA info from crappy, one-paragraph /. articles - the GTA games have all used heavily fictionalized cities, so I'm not sure how you would specifically identify a European location, aside from using local accents and a tourist area of 1000-year-old buildings.
Well, you're technically right about them being fictionalized cities, but come on. Vice City is Miami, Liberty City is New York, San Andreas is a cross between San Francisco and Los Angeles. That's not really a big secret. The only reason real city names were/are not used is that Rockstar/Rockstar North feel it limits what you can do - people expect you to be faithful as much as possible to the real city. So you spend all this time trying to mimic reality even when reality doesn't really lend itself to quality gameplay - it just wastes a lot of time. Having fictional cities lets you have a little more fun with the design of the cities, and lets you customize them for the best gameplay. But it's obvious what cities the GTA cities are based on, and it's intended to be.
Not to mention, there was GTA London, you know. This was the only GTA featuring a real city. It didn't do too well in the marketplace so it was never tried again; the thinking afterwards was people don't seem to much care about real cities in their games.
One side note - it may seem a bit of a contradiction what Rockstar San Diego does with the Midnight Club series, which does feature real cities and they're not entirely faithful to reality. But a) Rockstar really had nothing to do with the original Midnight Club (whereas many people who worked on the original GTA still work at Rockstar and Rockstar North), and b) the cities do not have to feature as much variety in Midnight Club as they do in a GTA game, since all you need to do in MC is race. There need to be a whole bunch of different types of areas and things to do in a GTA game, all spaced fairly close together (so you're not wasting too much time just driving around, and to fit in the system's memory and storage constraints). So it's really a different type of game.
When is the PC version coming out? I'm not interested in aiming with a dual shock 2, I want to use the mouse. Being able to use a combination of my driving wheel (actually the original logitech wheel for the PS2, but it works on PCs and Macs as well because it's a HID-class device) and my mouse (also a logi) :) along with the keyboard is the only way I want to play.
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
As much as I salivate at the prospect of even more features, more weapons and larger areas, I feel that GTA is running itself into a rut now. Rockstar, obviously concerned, have started introducing features such as 'eating unhealthily makes you fat' or 'jogging frequently makes you run for longer.' This conjures up worrying memories of The Sims or even Tomb Raider's latest incarnation.
This is one of the few directions they can take the game, I guess, since the missions are going to get stale eventually. GTA3's addition of a stronger narrative and side missions really helped but even by Vice City the side missions were boring and I felt something was missing.
Not that the game wasn't fun - it was - but GTA4 obviously can't continue down this path of 'bigger is better' without adding something cool. GTA:London was the first to have an actual city, GTA2 added real gangs with different loyalties towards you, and GTA3 obviously added a whole slew of features alongside the 3D - quite ambitious and impressive, looking back at it.
I think that GTA4 should either have multiplayer (although GTA3 sorta has it) or a real gang structure, or maybe both. Imagine starting up your own gang and sending out orders, or having the police enter your territory and get shot down by your goons. You could do drugs on the side, Dope Wars-style, and arrange bribes with the cops to let it happen. Then spend the money on plastic explosives and rob a few banks.
With the asset-buying and bank-robbing side mission in VC, I definitely think this is where GTA4 is going - not just a bigger area, but more freedom as well.