When starting off, you get to name the character whatever you like. Now, you're truly immersed in the GTA world, standing right on the gritty, brutal streets of Liberty City, faced with the knowledge that you're about to commit brutal acts of violence, anarchy, and total destruction, and all for the fun of it.įlexible, Open Gameplay In Grand Theft Auto 3, players take on the familiar role of a low-level thug who must work his way up the Mafioso ladder to achieve greatness. Hell, you can even pull off stunts with these puppies. The once famous variety of cars is now even more grand, but one-time 2D sprite vehicles are fully outfitted in clean 3D, complete with gleaming hoods, totally destructible chassis, and with the ability to reach unprecedented levels of speed. The tiny little sprite people are now fully polygonal, highly detailed people that are closer because of the closer third-person perspective. It's true, they were, but in an old, arcade-style, 2D world that could only be seen from the eyes of a distant, high-flying bird. Many of these actions, you're probably thinking to yourself, were a big part of the old GTA series. Cars and trucks drive through the city obeying traffic lights, and fire trucks, ice cream trucks, and ambulances go about their business in everyday fashion. The whole game runs on a diurnal-nocturnal system that takes place every half-hour (a half-hour in the game is equivalent to 24 hours realtime). Businessman and women rush around in the morning and then stow themselves away at night when the prostitutes, thugs, and pimps take control of the city. People walk down the street and talk to each other. The world of Grand Theft Auto 3 is totally bristling with life, so much so that it looks and feels like a real city that runs on its own, even after you turn off the console. Even at this early stage in the game Grand Theft Auto 3 just feels right. Instead it was the incredible amount of fun I had playing before I'd even tried out a mission. But what was so striking about it wasn't that I finally had the chance to see it in 3D. It's made the jump to 3D, all right, with a much closer third-person camera perspective, along with the traditional top-down look. As one would expect, being on a next generation system, Grand Theft Auto 3 is a three-dimensional game, with a massive city to explore, a garage bursting with vehicles to drive, and some of the best weapons a lowdown gang can buy. The game is due this September, and already it's up and running at an impressive playable state. The Living City Grand Theft Auto 3 is the most wildly imaginative, darkly funny, and wonderfully playful games I have seen in many a year, and it has become one of the most impressive PlayStation 2 games I have seen in development.
But more likely it's because the team is furiously toiling away at a completely new iteration of Grand Theft Auto, which looks to bring PlayStation 2 owners one of their biggest thrills yet.
Perhaps that's because they hadn't had any beer yet. But when asked about it, the DMA guys just shrugged quietly and smiled.
Grand theft auto 3 logo driver#
I thought that Driver 2, with its horrible get-out-of-the-car action, poor control, and lack of craftsmanship, might have vexed DMA because Reflections was "first" to bring DMA's 2D idea into the third dimension. At the studio there was a little conversation about Driver 2. And so it was with a sense of humor and quiet dignity that I experienced the company's newest game, Grand Theft Auto 3.