GTA and Me.

Posted by Prashanth | Filed under Technology

This post is all about GTA. The Grand Theft Auto has always revolved around one concept, Liberty. Liberty to choose the kind of life you want to lead, liberty to frame tactics to solve a certain mission and liberty to do just about anything from shooting around wildly to hanging around with hot chicks…;-p

When it comes to storyline based gaming, mostly the action sorts such as Half-Life, Call of Duty, or Ghost Recon there are two approaches into the game-play type - Linear and Non-linear. Nope, its nothing mathematical. Linear games such as Half Life, Doom, etc have a fixed storyline and each user goes through almost the same experience that the developer intends to create. There is little customisability and choice offered in such games. Usually such games are level/chapter/plot based and go through a fixed sequence. GTA, atleast the release comes under the second type, Non-Linear. Here, the objective of the game is not exactly very well defined. You have great choice in the way you want to proceed playing the game. To a very large extent, each user experiences or feels the game differently. You have a good amount of choice in how you start your game, you have multiple methods in finishing a mission… and that just doesn’t differ with the kind of weapons offered. Such games are also refered to as - Sandbox-Style. GTA is the quintessential example of sandbox-style gameplay and with each new release (Linux distros are growing on me!), the keep getting more and more addictive and great fun to play.

GTA: San Andreas must be my favorite game of all time followed by Half Life 2. It doesn’t have gorgeous cutting-edge graphics, no great physics, no deeply knit storyline, nor beautiful looking babes (debates in the comment form please!) but then it is just so much fun without anything at all… Despite being technically inferior to many of its contemporaries, it tops the sales of several big games combined. Think of it to be the insane part of me justifying itself here. I like GTA for the same reason that I don’t like many Bollywood Movies and the same reason I like MTV Roadies. GTA has that feeling of being outlaw, the feeling of liberty to do anything, and with all those swear words and and grunge attitude, it has been a wonderful stress buster for me and many gamers and non-gamers I know. Just the feeling of being insane with crazy driving, picking and blowing up objects, destruction all around, shooting like a maniac is a feeling that I cherish sooo much. The missions themselves provide food to keep the wilder side of me tamed for the rest of the world to see me as a decent kid. One of the first games I played when i got my first PC in mid 2005 was GTA San Andreas. I really regret to not being able to enjoy the previous versions of the game - Vice City, III as they appeared unplayable after San Andreas even though they were blockbusters themselves in their time. I have been impatiently waiting for the next installment to be out at the same time checking out other GTA wannabees such as Just Cause, Godfather, and other šhìttÿ stuff including Mafia failed to please me as they weren’t just small scale rip-offs of the same game but also technically inferior. Some of the most fun parts of the game were omitted from it.

I am not exactly too much of an avid gamer, but then I kind of fancy multi-player gaming for several reasons. One thing GTA never had that other games like Unreal, Quake, Counter Strike and Half Life was a cult following. It had more of the underground circuit kind of following. What it always needed was a fully fledged multiplayer mode with all sorts of controls present in the GTA single player in a setting similar to the cityscapes in the game. The closest things could get to that is MTA or Multi-Theft Auto which was nothing but a modification or a hack over the base of the original offering from Rockstar. It somewhat didn’t have me addicted, neither managed to get GTA a cult following.

So well, after years of waiting, Rockstar finally fulfilled pending demands on the game. Added expandable content, the much demanded Multi-player with 15 modes, and of course, killer graphics as seen in those trailers. Last year, I stayed up all night with another GTA freak Varun just to have a first look at its trailer. I know people who get crazier than this, but well Rockstar once again simulated an American region with so much more life in it. I don’t think I can ever describe the feeling, but GTA is alive and immersive. And I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

The XBOX and PS3 versions release today with the PC version rumored to be due sometime in October, which is several ages after. Perhaps Rockstar has big plans for the PC version. I wish I knew more about it… For now, i would be just surfing around for first account reviews from professional gaming sites and see a few gameplay videos and trailers. A few reviews came out even before the release date, which seem a lot like summaries of the leaked info. The trailers show the amount of attention Rockstar has put towards detail to replicating New York by taking place in a redesigned Liberty City consisting of four boroughs, based on four of the boroughs of New York City. Broker is the equivalent of Brooklyn, Queens is Dukes, the Bronx is Bohan and Manhattan is Algonquin. Adjacent to the city is the independent state of Alderney based on New Jersey and named after the Channel Island of the same name. This time, it looks like Rockstar has knit an intriguing storyline as well, along with its winning gameplay. Read more here. Another thing I am excited about is the radio system which was great in all versions of GTA I have come across.

The trailer shows the wonderful lighting and shadow effects, especially in the first one in which a car is shown speeding on a bridge and the shadows of the beams on the bridge cast brilliantly with photo-realism along with a realistic car. Some more work had to be done on the people, but then it can all be forgiven for the gameplay offered. Anyway, do let me know if anyone of you is as crazy about GTA as I am… Let me know that I am not alone…

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Permalink | April 29th, 2008

3 Responses to “GTA and Me.”

Uma Says:
April 29th, 2008 at 6:25 am
“…The missions themselves provide food to keep the wilder side of me tamed for the rest of the world to see me as a decent kid…”Hmmm…you think so ? I don’t ;-p
Prashanth Says:
April 29th, 2008 at 7:00 am
Well, I might not have been the same person to the world if it had not been for games like these…
Ankur Banerjee Says:
May 2nd, 2008 at 10:26 pm
BTW, talking of GTA IV, Rockstar Games, or any marketing wing of it, has been sending SMSes around to publicise it’s release. I got one, so did Arjun.