My History with the GTA series. Part 5: GTA 4: The Next Generation!

When I heard Grand Theft Auto 4 was approaching I was filled with hope and wonder, remembering just how amazing the first three were and imagining how much better the fourth would be on the new hardware. When I heard they were distancing themselves from the first three games, as their own universe, I was filled with trepidation and disappointment. I imagine my reaction was just like anyone else who had spent countless hours on the first three games, because when the last gen games peaked with San Andreas, the franchise had become such an amazing and diverse game.

I was hoping they would sustain the level of wonder and exploration that made San Andreas such an amazing game and expand up it, albeit in a much brighter and better looking world. I wanted to roam aimlessly in a larger, more living, vibrant city that made me feel as if I were truly walking within an inhabited city, rather than a cold, empty environment. Well, they did make it a much brighter and better looking world, but GTA 4 was destined to become a bitter sweet stain on my GTA gaming history.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed GTA 4. The protagonist was humorous, the supporting characters were humorous, but the main attraction, cars, were completely and utterly underwhelming. GTA looked more realistic than it had ever before, and rightfully so, but I also feel as if Rockstar tried to push a more realistic angle that just shouldn't have been in the game. Cars would swing and sway through corners at high speed, and understeer was a major factor in getting anywhere, even at low speeds. But the bustling city landscape and environment lived and breathed as if it were truly a city.

Many new additions made the game it's own, yet I still felt that it was lacking so much that Rockstar had built up to in the previous installments. GTA 4 started a new era, a new story line, but no matter what, we were still influenced by the previous three games we had played, and hoped GTA 4 would encompass some of those things, and not just start all over again. GTA 4 brought new characters, new story lines, new inside jokes, all of which, I'm sure, most GTA fans truly wished were in addition to what we were already accustom to.

Now I know I keep bitching and complaining that GTA 4 was such a large change from San Andreas, but I do understand that it was a smart move for Rockstar and the GTA franchise itself. Admittedly it was really getting stale to keep seeing Kent Paul and  Ken Rosenberg popping up and having a panic attack over getting himself into shady business deals he should have learned from 10 years ago. But from what I see with GTA 5, it seems as if they've left almost all of that behind, with merely 1 link from GTA 4 even in GTA 5. Which is something I believe I'll miss once I get a chance to play through GTA 5.

One good thing about GTA 4 being on the new hardware was, of course, DLC. When I originally heard about it, I thought Rockstar was going to release countless updates that we could endlessly download and keep GTA 4 fresh and new. The sad truth was that we only got two; The Ballad of Gay Tony and The Lost and Damned, after that it seemed as if Rockstar had abandoned their child to fend for itself in a harmful, unforgiving world. Even the ability to play online didn't seem to appeal to people enough to keep GTA 4 alive.

Since I prefer to own a physical copy of video games, I bought Episodes from Liberty City and finally got my chance to play both DLC packs. To be honest, they're not bad. Vehicle controls seemed to be slightly tightened up and even more vehicles were added. A pair of short, interwoven episodes of characters that we didn't even really notice while playing the Niko campaign now reveal the other side of the shady business ventures Niko happened to get himself into. Which was actually quite an interesting thing: to take control of a completely different view point of the same mission.

Overall GTA 4 brought GTA back on the map, but not nearly as long as the previous installments did. Sure GTA 4 did well and was a massively better looking game than the previous "universe", but GTA 4 is, to me, a clear sign that brighter and more beautiful isn't always the better option. GTA 4 became stale very quickly and although it did spoil me away from playing San Andreas, which I love with a passion, GTA 4 simply will never and can never make me invest as much time in it as I did San Andreas.

Patrolling the streets of NYC, or Liberty City?

A few years ago I became enthralled with a phenomenon known as LCPDFR. For those who may not know LCPDFR is a mod you can add to the PC version of GTA 4, where the player takes the role of a police officer and can patrol the streets to a massively realistic extent. Nearly everything a police officer can do in real life can be done through LCPDFR, within the GTA 4 world.

Most people who play LCPDFR seem to role play very accurately, often using police lingo as well as following strict guidelines, rather than playing this as just a game. My interest in watching these videos wasn't spurred on by any desire to RP a police officer, rather I felt as if I was watching a video game version of Cops. Although I won't deny that I greatly like the idea of turning the tides of a video game where the protagonist was a career criminal, and instead becoming the polar opposite of what the game was originally intended to be.

Before I became aware of LCPDFR, I role played a cop the same way most every other GTA fan did; I grabbed a police car and simply chased down, ran over or flat out murdered anyone I suspected of being a perp. I've never actually had a chance to play LCPDFR, but I do have experience at being a video game police officer in the form of True Crime: New York City. I can hear your collective groans as you read that previous sentence, but hear me out.

True Crime was, without question, a terrible game, but the police aspect was quite satisfying. You could pat down random pedestrians, answer call outs over the radio, collect evidence and decide whether you were a good cop or a bad cop, as well as turn on your lights and siren and blast down the street at high rates of speed for absolutely no reason, other than you have a badge and the other pricks on the street don't!

True Crime was unforgivably buggy, glitchy and often times just died during normal gameplay, but I have to admit that I spent far more time than I should have role playing a police officer, collecting my paycheck and buying new cars to upgrade and race around the streets. The only thing I feel True Crime was missing was any sort of traffic stop system. The cars would pull aside of you turned on the siren, but there was no pull over mechanic, the way there is in LCPDFR.

LCPDFR is amazing, and I hope to get the chance to check it out someday. A few years ago I actually picked up a copy of GTA 4 at a flea market, but since the game was sealed in a plastic bag I couldn't check to see if the code was inside. For $5 I took a chance and lost, big time! Now I'm out $5 and have an absolutely useless copy of GTA 4, but the only reason I even bought it was to try my hand at LCPDFR. LCPDFR detected I had a legit copy of GTA 4, but thanks to Rockstars system of DRM, I couldn't play either.

My History with the GTA series. Part 4: From Grove Street to Easy Street in San Andreas.

The scene is the early 1990s, the place is a vastly expansive (fictional) state way out on the west coast of the United States called San Andreas. San Andreas encompasses three major cities: Los Santos (based on real life Los Angeles) San Fierro (based on San Francisco), and Las Venturas ( based on Las Vegas). The gang culture has taken hold, whether the youth wanted to be a part of it or not, many couldn't escape it.

San Andreas was the third installment of the Grand Theft Auto series and blew the two previous installments out of the water. Literally, as in this one you could finally swim! Not only could you swim, you could actually dive and stay submerged for a period of time, which in and of itself was an amazing feat.

Along side the ability to swim came an RPG feeling element of gaining heath and getting better at skills like driving, shooting, fighting, etc. We now had the ability to go to a gym and bulk up, or to Burger Shot and pig out. We also had an exceedingly massive landscape to explore, with woodlands, deserts, small towns and big towns, and just about anything you could imagine in between.

With a larger environment came a larger selection of modes of transportation including: various planes, boats, helicopters and you could even hijack a train and chug along the tracks from one end of the state to the other. What GTA would be complete without a copious amount of cars, trucks and motorcycles to drive around aimlessly? Not only did they give us that, but they gave it to us in large quantities, including the ability to feel as if we're really living the west coast life and giving the player the ability to customize almost every vehicle in the state of San Andreas.

To coincide with the west coast lifestyle of custom cars and movie stars, San Andreas also gave us the ability to buy new clothes and change the style of our main protagonist. We could live the champagne wishes and caviar dreams in a house in the hills, or live in a small hick town just outside of Los Santos, with plenty of other homes and assets to choose from! And last but not least, we had the small, but real, ability to interact with the fellow public. A very simplistic system, but it was fun to react a certain way to a comment directed toward our protagonist and see how that person would respond.

San Andreas blew my mind, to the point that it ruined my ability to go back to GTA 3 or Vice City. San Andreas was so massive and had so much to do that I found it impossible to go back to the previous games for more than 10 minutes without being overwhelmed with boredom and making the switch back over. From the huge list of missions, side missions, collectibles and other things you could acquire, customize or just waste countless hours doing, San Andreas was packed with fun.

For years, literally, I found myself popping San Andreas into my Xbox and sitting down for whole night sessions of finding certain cars and finding most of the ways I could customize them. Even just little personal challenges were fun! How long will it take me to get from Grove Street to San Fierro on a bicycle? The fun was endless.

With as much as I've played, I'm sure there are still places in San Andreas I haven't seen yet. Although the call to return to San Andreas isn't as strong as it once was, it's still there, and I do from time to time. I think I'll go hijack a tractor and hitch it up to the front of a random pedestrian's car and drag them around for a few hours!

My History with the GTA series. Part 3: Back in Time in Vice City.

A new place, a new time. Fresh off the plane and into Vice City. Everything looked better, fresher and the controls were marginally better than GTA 3. Tommy Vercetti is about to take over the islands of Vice City, and then the world! Well, really only Vice city.

Vice City was undoubtedly based on Miami Vice and the 1983 film Scarface. The first thing I noticed about GTA Vice City was the unmistakably 80's theme going on, which I liked quite a bit. From the 80's fashion trends to the soundtrack that was filled with unforgettable top 10 hits from that era, everything screamed 1980's. Everything that the 1980's offered is present and, just like the 1980's, filled to the brim with excess!

More so than GTA 3, Vice City felt like a living, breathing city environment, rife with beachgoers and partygoers alike. It also offered a lot more than GTA 3, while doing so in what felt like a much smaller space. Vice City offered a very well themed variety of vehicles, this time including helicopters, motorcycles and, even though you still couldn't swim, boats. There were also more things to keep you busy, such as the events you could take part in at the stadium, or you just out exploring the new city landscape and many hidden areas.

The unrefined insanity of cops trying to murder you over slight infractions, as well as pedestrians having a deer in the headlights moment just before you plowed into them, carried over from GTA 3. Some cars carried over as well, but the handling was upgraded to be more manageable. Even though cars were fun to drive, I felt that helicopters were where it was truly at. Helicopters gave me the ability to climb high above the city and see the city from a completely new vantage point than ever before.

Vice City sucked me in (no pun intended) and kept me busy far longer than GTA 3. After all the missions were done, there was still so much left to be done in the islands of Vice City. So many little places to explore, vehicles to drive, little areas to see and different events to accomplish. Vice City also had a plethora of assets for Tommy to purchase such as a used car dealership, an ice cream company, among others, which helped fill his bank account.

Once everything was seen, found, tested and the money was rolling in hand over fist, there wasn't much left to do other than find the little hidden Easter eggs that Rockstar had left within the game. After achieving 100% I still loved to find myself a Voodoo and play around with the hydraulics, run people over in the tiger striped Taxi cab and continue on with the various events at the stadium. But even with all the fun I had in Vice City, after everything was said and done it felt empty, and I knew it was time to move on. Moving on to the early 1990s in a new place called San Andreas.

My History with the GTA series. Part 2: Welcome to Liberty City!

On the back of one of my instruction booklets for either GTA or GTA 2 is an advertisement for GTA 3. At that time I didn't own a PS2 or Xbox to see what GTA 3 was all about. So when I saw the protagonist standing with a gun in the middle of a 3D environment, I simply assumed it was an amazing cutscene from yet another installment of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Later I witnessed the insanity of GTA 3 firsthand (watching a friend play) and I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Full-on 3D environments with living and breathing city atmosphere. Cars, weapons and so many other ways to cause mayhem in a completely new way, in a new setting, from a new point of view! It was simply amazing.

After acquiring an Xbox a few years later, some of the first games I set out to purchase were the GTA series. I remember sitting down and telling myself that I had to play through the missions and finish the game, because I had never finished any of the previous GTA games. The GTA series is essentially an RPG, and in GTA 3 that really drew me into the game and helped me stick it out and play through almost all of the missions. But sadly the last few missions caused me such frustration that the lust for mayhem took control and the final missions went unfinished for quite a few years.

GTA 3 really brought a lot to the table, in terms of game value. I remember stunt jumps from the original 2D games, but in the 3D world they were much more interesting, as were many of the other things such as finding the hidden "packages" and having safe houses, the ability to save your favorite type of car, etc.

GTA 3 packed in three different islands, each with it's own style and flair, meaning I could switch between each island and never get bored. From racing around the city and mowing people over in my car to blowing people up and learning that, for some stupid reason, I couldn't swim, I always found something to keep me busy, outside of the extensive list of things the game had given us to reach 100% completion.

Rife with secrets such as the hidden intro city, that required you to learn how to fly the almost inoperable Dodo, and many different styles of neighborhoods in which to cause chaos, I found GTA 3 to be worth far more than I paid for the game, used of course. Even so there came a time when the desire to find a new place and time overcame me, which is when I decided it was time to pack my bags and head to a new place. Somewhere warm, pastel, loaded with hot women, fast cars and tons of crazy people... Vice City!

My History with the GTA series. Part 1: The Playstation Years

When Grand Theft Auto hit the Playstation, I was about 14. At that time I had a Playstation, but I didn't have enough money, or the ability, to purchase many games for the console. At that age the rumors of such a game were hanging heavily in the air around school, and just in general.

I believe my first introduction to the game was at a friend's house, where I would often spend weekends at a time going on benders of soda fueled video game bingeing. I remember walking through the door and hearing "Hey, check THIS out!". When I looked at the screen I remember my first reactions were mixed as to how lame the 2D graphics were, as I was more familiar with the full-on 3D things the Playstation seemed to be geared more toward doing, at the time. But after sitting down and watching someone play the game for about 30 minutes I realized this game wasn't your average video game; this video game was going to push a lot of buttons and become a classic.

It wasn't until the Playstation was actually dying out, and I was 18, that I acquired my own copy of Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2. Playstation games were becoming so cheap that I decided it was finally time for me to buy whatever games I had always wanted but never purchased. Sure, they're the Greatest Hits versions, but they're the exact same thing! I never really cared much about the whole Greatest Hits versus original black label anyway, like I said, the games are the exact same.

Countless hours, days, and possibly weeks were spent driving around and testing out all the different cars in all the different cities, selling them for more money, obtaining more weapons, using cheat codes to obtain the tank and just generally causing as much mayhem as I possibly could. To this day I've never actually taken the time to play through all of the missions, but I have played through quite a few missions. The strange thing being that when I finally decided to play GTA 2, I purposely tried to play it as a game, instead of playing it as a free-for-all mayhem simulator.

It wasn't until even later that I bought a collector's edition of Grand Theft Auto, allowing me to finally play the London, 1969 expansion pack. I hate to say that by this time I had moved into the 3D games and had become less and less impressed with the original games, but it's true. I haven't played any of the original 2D GTA games in a handful of years, simply because I don't find them as appealing as I once did. The 3D worlds offer far more variety on how to create mayhem, rendering the original games to being merely shelf decorations.

Regardless of my lack of desire to play them today, they still hold a treasured place within my past. I still recall many nights whizzing pass as I sat in bed playing GTA. Hours of my life just draining away as I tossed molotovs in GTA 2. Hours, days and weeks I'll never get back, but I don't want back, simply because GTA made them so much fun to waste.

Video Games I need more of: Bully!

After I acquired my first PS2 I did the standard "What games can I use this thing for?" research and came up with a nice little treasure trove of games that I wanted to purchase. Among them were obviously exclusives for the Sony consoles such as Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories, as well as another Rockstar hit, Bully. The concept of Bully was a bit weird for me, at first, but after I purchased the game and gave it a bit of a play through it really sprouted out and became a game that my mind wished there was more of.

In the game Bully you play as Jimmy Hopkins, a 15 year old with a bad attitude, which is a slight departure from the main protagonists Rockstar is putting into their GTA series. Jimmy is sent to Bullworth Academy, a boarding school, to help him adjust said attitude. While at Bullworth Jimmy makes friends and enemies along his (mis)adventures through both the school yard and the adjacent town.

Bully plays a bit like a GTA game, but has its own environmental feel and works really well, although I always felt the overall area was just too small, as I was more familiar with the land masses of GTA games by this point. Even so, the game played great and there were plenty of story missions, side missions and many other miscellaneous things to do to keep yourself busy and entertained for quite some time. But once everything was collected, all the missions were done and all that was left was driving up and down the streets on Jimmy's moped, there was an undying desire to see a sequel.

A few years ago I acquired a copy of Bully: Scholarship Edition for the Xbox 360, which added more things to do, as well as beefed up the graphics and made everything look far more presentable and likewise appealing. Sadly, I had bought a copy of the game that had a hairline crack in the disc. When combining the need for the disc to be spun to be read, as well as the heat the Xbox 360's DVD drives are known for, the crack quickly grew to the point it would no longer boot up.

Although I got a fairly good taste of what Scholarship Edition was about, I never got the full experience, which only made me want an additional, more modern version of Bully even more, and I'm NOT a modern console gamer! I'm not sure where Rockstar would go with another installment of Bully, but I'm sure I'm not alone in this feeling of wanting to experience more. With all the improvements they've made in the GTA series, I bet another Bully would be nothing less than amazing.

Saint's Row 1 and 2

About 4 years ago I was cruising ebay and found a game that caught my eye. Admittedly, I am by no means a modern gamer; I don't know what games came out for the Xbox 360 unless I actively pursued them. So when I saw Saint's Row I quickly went into research mode to see what it was.

Through roughly 10 minutes of research I found out Saint's Row was a GTA clone, of sorts. After the initial search I moved ahead to the "Lets Play" type search, where I watch a few episodes of someone playing the game, to see if I'm interested in pursuing the game any further. Turns out the answer to that question was a resounding yes, yes I was interested in pursuing Saint's Row, so I did!

I can't remember exactly what I paid, but the auction included a complete copy of Saint's Row and the Brady guide. When the package arrived I noticed it cost the seller more to ship to me than I had paid for the whole auction, which made me feel slightly uneasy, because I've done this as an ebay seller as well and it doesn't feel good paying more than I was paid to ship a product. There was nothing I could do, so I just decided to set my feelings aside and pop it into my semi-functional Xbox 360.

One of the main features of any GTA, or clone, is the plethora of vehicles you can snatch and drive around, which Saint's Row doesn't disappoint! In GTA you would steal a car, total it and run off to find a new one, yet Saint's Row had an ingenious garage system where you could store, seemingly, endless amounts of cars and never have to steal another one again, unless you wanted more of any specific car. Not only that but Saint's Row also harkened back to GTA San Andreas and offered players the ability to customize vehicles in much the same way.

Although not perfect, players were given the ability to add hydraulics, nitrous, many different wheels, custom paint jobs, among other things. Once the car was customized all you had to do was drive it into any of your garages and it would save that car, never to be lost or stolen, unlike in GTA.

Since this is the first thing I brought up about Saint's Row, I have to admit that its basically all I did for the first few days I owned the game. Endless stealing cars and finding out what all I could do to them, testing many different ways of customizing them, and only doing story missions to gain money to customize more cars! But eventually I did finish the story mode, which left a little to be desired.

The final mission, which I won't spoil here just in the off chance someone might not have played it yet, doesn't go away. So even with 100% complete the final mission is left undone and sticks out on the map like a sore thumb, unless you turn all icons off, which is possible.

Overall I found the game to be interesting, not as good as GTA, but good in its own right. But personally the strong points were the cars, the ability to customize them and the way you could store them in your garage. With many different side missions strewn about throughout the city this game kept me busy for a while, but once it was over I wanted to move forward with more!

Lucky for me, and being so far behind in modern gaming, Saint's Row is currently up to 4 games in the series, so finding a new Saint's Row wasn't impossible. So my search went to finding a copy of Saint's Row 2. I wasn't concerned about whether is was a limit edition, a platinum hits edition or just a plain release version, all I wanted was Saint's Row 2, which is exactly what I got.

Before purchasing Saint's Row 2 I saw a video from Dan (aka Nerdcubed), which made me want the game even more than I already did. So, again, I went to ebay to find myself a copy of the game. After an anxious few days of waiting the game finally arrived and I popped it into my 360 and got straight back onto the streets of Stilwater, only this time they were slightly different.

Through Dan's video, and a few other Saint's Row 2 videos I had watched, I noticed that Stilwater was different in the second game, which the story explains away. This brought a very welcome element to the game, as you're essentially exploring a brand new town, with hints of something familiar. So the player starts fresh and has to regain their reign over Stilwater in Saint's Row 2.

Again, for the first day or so I spent my time finding new cars and customizing them, as well as finding cars from the first Saints Row and using the new customizing abilities on them. The very first vehicle I saw, and stole, was a tow truck, which looked awesome and actually functions, sort of, which I knew would come in handy later in my endeavor to gain vehicles and customize them. Needless to say it took me a few days to actually start the story missions.

But once I started the story missions it really didn't take me all that long to complete them all. A few side missions here and there to gain respect to continue on my way, as well as a dozen or so retries on various missions, and within a few days I had beat Saint's Row 2. Now all I have to do is finish up all the collections and other miscellaneous odd jobs to get 100% and I can move on to Saint's Row the Third!

Although Saint's Row 2 improved over the original, in some ways it is worse, such as draw distance. Many times I found myself waiting on a street corner for a certain car to drive by and noticed that cars would pop into view then almost instantly disappear, off in the distance. As well as while I'm out on water, many water vehicles can only be seen when they're within crashing distance, you'll notice their waves in the water before you'll actually see any boat or jet ski.  

Saint's Row 2 does add flying, which is another welcome change, even if the flight controls are a bit wonky. Airplanes and helicopters, as well as the ability to parachute, have helped me a few times during missions that I was just too lazy to drive to. But, again, sometimes flying, especially the helicopters or "Destroy", is more of a hassle than it is a pleasure.

Other than the few flaws I believe Saint's Row 2 is the best version of Stilwater, as it affords more freedom and air to breathe, while still packing the city with life and plenty of scenery. The first Stilwater had many annoying blockades that you'll find, especially when you're looking for the hidden CDs. All I needed to do was jump over a fence, but I simply couldn't, making it more of a chore than it needed to be.

Saint's Row 2 took care of most of the issues with the original Stilwater and made a very fun town to explore and dwell within. After I've accomplished 100% I'll be looking forward to moving to Steelport! Where I'll be staying for the next two installments of Saint's Row, beyond that who knows where we'll be.

GTA V

Since the release of GTA IV everyone has been looking forward for GTA V. As events such as E3 come and go without so much a sneeze, cough, burp or even fart from Rockstar or Take Two about a new GTA, the rumor mills still spin wildly out of control. With rumors abound ranging from cast lists to release dates, only the developers and distributors know the truth behind any of them.

I'm a massive GTA fan, as I'm sure many of the people who play GTA are, because the game draws you in and holds you tight. With each installment we're treated to a bigger and better world, which only stands to reason as they've taken their time to get things right. With the absence of a Grand Theft Auto for anything other than the handheld consoles in over 3 years, the fans are getting restless. I don't count the DLC, even though released on disc as well, as a GTA release because they were simply adding on to the base of GTA IV.

Fans are in a hurry to see GTA V and rumors say they may be holding GTA V for the next generation consoles, whatever those may be. At first I was pretty upset thinking we may have to wait for the Xbox 1080 to come out, break down within 2 weeks after people shucked out $700+ for it and go through this whole fiasco again before we see another GTA. But I was simply reading what was written and not between the lines.

To say they're holding GTA V for the next generation consoles makes perfect sense! We're due a modern Vice City and San Andreas, which hopefully we'll be allotted before we're forced to suffer through another money grubbing system scheme from Microsoft and Sony.

I'm hoping we see something soon from Rockstar, if nothing more than to cool the embers of rumors still burning up the internet. Their silence speaks loud and clear, they're working on the next biggest thing. Whether it be GTA San Andreas 2, Vice City Returns or whatever they're cooking up, we know for sure they can't afford to let the GTA series die.