Well, today GTAIV is released with perfect review scores across the board, and more features that you can poke a gun at. Today has made me reflect on the time that the GTA series made the leap from 2D isometric to 3D, and not only did the game prove more immersive than its predecessors, it proved to be a richer world. Here?s how.
We all look back fondly on the isometric naughtiness that was trying to mow down a line of Elvis impersonators and trying to keep all the factions happy. Even the most ardent ?classic? gamer would not argue that with GTAIII, the franchise went to the next level.
I remember the hype surrounding GTAIII, and thinking that it would be little more than a mod. ?It?s in 3D? So what?? I thought as I looked at the screenshots. Little did I know that the biggest changes weren?t graphical, but under the hood.
Whereas the storylines of GTA and GTAII were slight at best, GTAIII presented a storyline ripped straight from the crime/noir feature film. Our hero was double crossed and put in jail, only to be busted out, and now he seeks revenge and to prove that he?s more than just ?small fry?.
Police attention was all that more invasive and constricting. Sure, the ardent player could still shake them, but it was a lot harder to ditch the pigs than in the previous versions, where repeated handbrake turns would confuse the cops no end. There was relatively realistic physics, with driving at right angles no longer possible.
There were love interests, from the mafia belle to the yakuza shark. There were also prostitutes that boosted your health, but that?s not the point. The wanton destruction was that much more satisfying when you could see parts of cars flying off, and you could EVEN SHOOT THE MOON!
Moon shooting aside, what GTAIII did in comparison to its predecessors was to raise the stakes. This was no longer a bit of slap and tickle, this was a fully fledged affair. GTAIII took the series from fun amusement to interactive action movie.
That isn?t to say that GTAIII lost any of its ?fun? factor, far from it.
Who here who has played the game can not remember the wizened words of Lazlow (who got kicked off the radio station), and his all-pimping, descending from the rafters, puppeteering guests?
Then there were the ramps left at convenient locations, and if you went over them just right, you?d get an action-style slow-mo camera making your jump epic. Hell yes. Having pedestrians throw themselves in front of your car looking for a lawsuit, hilarious.
Then there was the free-roaming fun that only the imagination of the player and the GTA series could provide. But now, thanks to the 3D engine, the world felt that much more alive. There was a day/night cycle, weather effects, and it felt that anything you did affected this world.
There was all the old standards there, you know, running down pedestrians, blowing cars just because you can etc. but everything you did felt bigger. The explosions, bigger. The carnage, bigger. The action, bigger.
That is what the transition from GTAII to GTAIII boiled down to in the end. Everything was bigger. The action, the world, the laughs and the adrenaline rush you got were all bigger. We can only hope that the jump from previous-gen to current-gen proves to have similar effects for GTAIV. GTAIII raised the stakes in gameplay, humour and verisimilitude (my big word for the day).
You could even say that GTAIII added an extra dimension to the series.
Buy it, if you?re not already playing GTAIV
We all look back fondly on the isometric naughtiness that was trying to mow down a line of Elvis impersonators and trying to keep all the factions happy. Even the most ardent ?classic? gamer would not argue that with GTAIII, the franchise went to the next level.
I remember the hype surrounding GTAIII, and thinking that it would be little more than a mod. ?It?s in 3D? So what?? I thought as I looked at the screenshots. Little did I know that the biggest changes weren?t graphical, but under the hood.
Whereas the storylines of GTA and GTAII were slight at best, GTAIII presented a storyline ripped straight from the crime/noir feature film. Our hero was double crossed and put in jail, only to be busted out, and now he seeks revenge and to prove that he?s more than just ?small fry?.
Police attention was all that more invasive and constricting. Sure, the ardent player could still shake them, but it was a lot harder to ditch the pigs than in the previous versions, where repeated handbrake turns would confuse the cops no end. There was relatively realistic physics, with driving at right angles no longer possible.
There were love interests, from the mafia belle to the yakuza shark. There were also prostitutes that boosted your health, but that?s not the point. The wanton destruction was that much more satisfying when you could see parts of cars flying off, and you could EVEN SHOOT THE MOON!
Moon shooting aside, what GTAIII did in comparison to its predecessors was to raise the stakes. This was no longer a bit of slap and tickle, this was a fully fledged affair. GTAIII took the series from fun amusement to interactive action movie.
That isn?t to say that GTAIII lost any of its ?fun? factor, far from it.
Who here who has played the game can not remember the wizened words of Lazlow (who got kicked off the radio station), and his all-pimping, descending from the rafters, puppeteering guests?
Then there were the ramps left at convenient locations, and if you went over them just right, you?d get an action-style slow-mo camera making your jump epic. Hell yes. Having pedestrians throw themselves in front of your car looking for a lawsuit, hilarious.
Then there was the free-roaming fun that only the imagination of the player and the GTA series could provide. But now, thanks to the 3D engine, the world felt that much more alive. There was a day/night cycle, weather effects, and it felt that anything you did affected this world.
There was all the old standards there, you know, running down pedestrians, blowing cars just because you can etc. but everything you did felt bigger. The explosions, bigger. The carnage, bigger. The action, bigger.
That is what the transition from GTAII to GTAIII boiled down to in the end. Everything was bigger. The action, the world, the laughs and the adrenaline rush you got were all bigger. We can only hope that the jump from previous-gen to current-gen proves to have similar effects for GTAIV. GTAIII raised the stakes in gameplay, humour and verisimilitude (my big word for the day).
You could even say that GTAIII added an extra dimension to the series.
Buy it, if you?re not already playing GTAIV
