Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto is a game franchise comprised of 17 games
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Grand Theft Auto
Developed by Rockstar North, the original Grand Theft Auto was released in 1997, at a time in which gaming hadn't yet hit mainstream society. GTA left it's mark as it was one of the few games at the time which rewarded criminal or anarchistic behavior (the others being Postal and Carmageddon), and for being laudably violent. It was presented in a top-down point of view, with the camera set about 40 or 50 feet above the ground and the player's character in the very center. There was a chapter system which placed players in the role of one of eight different characters across three cities - Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City - but focused more on the completion of individual missions in each chapter rather than focusing on a specific overarching narrative. In each city, the player is tasked with earning a specific amount of money, which they can attain in any way they see fit: stealing cars and selling them, running over lines of Hare Krishna monks (in what the game calls a GOURANGA!), dealing pain and massive destruction, and completing missions for other criminal elements based in the various cities. Players could use their own music in the game in place of the seven radio stations, and the PC version provided multiplayer gameplay over a network. Two mission packs were made available for later release:
Grand Theft Auto 2
Released a few months after London 1961, GTA 2 was launched on multiple platforms initially (Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, PlayStation, PC), and later offered for free download via the Rockstar website. Set in a huge metropolis called Anywhere City, the game put players in the role of Claude Speed, an ex-con released from prison after being awoken from cryogenic suspension for his crimes. Claude has one goal on his mind: to become the King of Anywhere City, through any means necessary. Grand Theft Auto 2 had in it several "firsts" for the franchise, including the implementation of a story and plot based on a singular character, use of day and night modes (which would later be expanded on in Grand Theft Auto III as a day/night cycle), as well as the first inclusion of some common elements of future games, like the Zaibatsu Corporation and several different criminal organizations that the player must deal with throughout the course of the game (Yakuza, Russian Mafia).
Grand Theft Auto III
Released to much anticipation in 2001, Grand Theft Auto III represented a significant shift in both the franchise and the state of gaming as a whole.
It pushed the medium to new graphical and technical heights, delivered a new style of open-ended sandbox gameplay, and grabbed the attention of the non-gaming press for its excessive violence. While initially depicted from a top-down point of view, Liberty City was now a vibrant, enormous and fully 3D world, filled with people going about their business both by car and on foot. Players took on the role of a nameless protagonist (later called Claude in GTA: San Andreas), who, after robbing a bank with his girlfriend, is shot and left for dead. He's subsequently arrested, judged guilty and sent to prison. The player escapes during an attack on a police convoy aimed at freeing an unrelated prisoner, and runs off with a fellow escapee, who puts the player in touch with the right people, starting him on a life of crime as a thug for various Liberty City gangs, criminal syndicates and powerful individuals. Grand Theft Auto III was notoriously attacked by mass media outlets for having excessive violence, allowing the player to kill police officers, old women, and just about anyone else that could be found in the game. Of particular note was the ability of the player to pick up and have sex with a prostitute (implied through sound effects and the car rocking back and fourth), and then the player could choose to kill the prostitute to collect his money. As a result, the game was completely banned in Australia, and gave rise to many unfounded critical opinions that children might begin to develop sociopathic tendencies were they to be exposed to the game's content.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
The success and popularity of Grand Theft Auto III led to the production of a sequel, set in Vice City (modeled after Miami, Florida), in the the year 1986. Developed in an enhanced version of GTA III's engine, Vice City similarly depicted an active, vibrant city, dotted with skyscrapers, hotels, pedestrians, various businesses, and vehicles. In GTA: Vice City, players take on the role of mafia thug Tommy Vercetti, originally a Liberty City-based mobster, recently released from prison and sent to Vice City to oversee a drug deal. Half-way through the deal, the participating parties are ambushed, with the attacker making off with both the drugs and the money. Tommy vows to retrieve the money or die trying. As Tommy tries to find out who stole his money and how to get it back, he gets involved in several avenues of "business" that allow him to rise up and form his own crime syndicate. GTA: Vice City was noted for having many more vehicles the player could control (including helicopters, motorcycles, and boats), as well as several graphical improvements over its predecessor, including better lighting and sharper textures. Several modifications adding multiplayer over the internet were released for the PC version, and the game was just as if not more controversial then GTA III, being cited for racism and inciting genocide against Cubans and Haitians.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Probably the most controversial game in the franchise, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is also the largest in scope. Players fill the shoes of Carl "CJ" Johnson, as he returns home from Liberty City and slowly picks apart the reasoning behind his mother's murder while establishing a small criminal empire based around the revitalization of his old gang as well as various businesses and individuals he encounters throughout the course of the game. Unlike previous titles, which occurred within the confines of a single city, San Andreas represents the borders of an entire state, made to represent parts of California and Nevada. The player travels between three cities, each of which corresponds to a real location. Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). GTA: San Andreas is noted for having even more vehicles available for the player to control than Vice City, as well as diverse cast of celebrities supplying the voice for many important characters, such as Samuel L. Jackson, Andy Dick, James Woods, Peter Fonda, Charlie Murphy, and Axl Rose. Additionally, the game provided several minigames, allowed the player to participate in or incite gang wars, allowed cars to be modified, and let the player commit robbery in the form of home-invasion. GTA: San Andreas also included a diverse system of RPG mechanics, letting players increase CJ's speed and strength, improve his weapon handling and unarmed combat techniques, change his clothing and haircuts, and otherwise modify his appearance, to which NPC pedestrians will react differently, insulting or complimenting him accordingly.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Released initially for the PSP and later for the PlayStation 2, GTA: Liberty City Stories took players back to the Liberty City of Grand Theft Auto III, but set in 1998, three years before the story of its predecessor. Players fill the shoes of Toni Cipriani, a mobster who recently returned to Liberty city after laying low for a few years as favor to Don Salvatore Leone. Gameplay changes are minimal, and simply serve to limit the size of the world and the number of controllable vehicles the player can use.
Grand Theft Auto IV
GTA IV once again returns players to Liberty City, only in the most detailed version yet, built to resemble New York City.
GTA IV integrated several recent advances in technology, including Rockstar's new and revamped RAGE engine (previously used for Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis) and Euphoria physics and motion technology. The player takes on the role of one Niko Bellic, an Eastern European immigrant and veteran of the Bosnian War, who travels to Liberty City in search of the American Dream. After he arrives in Liberty City, however, he discovers that the letters sent to him by his cousin regarding the ease of life, abundance of money and decadent luxury of the west were all lies, and Niko sets out on his true goal, to find and kill a certain "special someone". The franchise has undergone a significant change in this latest iteration, with an exceptionally strong and critically acclaimed story, advanced vehicle physics and pedestrian behavior, re-worked third-person combat gameplay, and for the first time on consoles, online multiplayer content. While the game was released simultaneously for both Xbox 360 and PS3, the Xbox 360 is known to have more additional downloadable content.
Live the life of a criminal in this celebrated and highly controversial series of games that have generated more mass media attention than any other franchise in the history of gaming.
Overview
Developed by Rockstar North, the Grand Theft Auto franchise has spanned a decade of gaming culture, receiving critical acclaim for some titles, and public controversy for others. The franchise was on of the first to provide a completely open-ended environment, even from its initial iterations, and has built upon those roots to produce it's latest title, Grand Theft Auto IV, which has become the single best-selling game in history, making over 500 million dollars and selling six million units within its first week.Grand Theft Auto
GTA I
- Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969
Instead of taking place in a fictional city based on a real location, this mission pack took place in London, England, and is one of only two games to take place in a real city, the other being the sequel. GTA: London 1969 was released two years after the first game for multiple platforms, and was built on the same engine, reusing the tried-and-true format of mission-structured gameplay inside a non-linear environment, or a sandbox. - Grad Theft Auto: London 1961
Released only two months after its predecessor, London 1961 was unleashed upon GTA fans as a freely distributed product, available only for the PC through the Rockstar North website. Set 8 years (chronologically) before the previous mission pack, London 1961 provided players with new missions, 22 new vehicles to drive, a new cutscene, and a single new multiplayer map for deathmatch based on Manchester, England.
Grand Theft Auto 2
Released a few months after London 1961, GTA 2 was launched on multiple platforms initially (Dreamcast, Game Boy Color, PlayStation, PC), and later offered for free download via the Rockstar website. Set in a huge metropolis called Anywhere City, the game put players in the role of Claude Speed, an ex-con released from prison after being awoken from cryogenic suspension for his crimes. Claude has one goal on his mind: to become the King of Anywhere City, through any means necessary. Grand Theft Auto 2 had in it several "firsts" for the franchise, including the implementation of a story and plot based on a singular character, use of day and night modes (which would later be expanded on in Grand Theft Auto III as a day/night cycle), as well as the first inclusion of some common elements of future games, like the Zaibatsu Corporation and several different criminal organizations that the player must deal with throughout the course of the game (Yakuza, Russian Mafia).Grand Theft Auto III
Released to much anticipation in 2001, Grand Theft Auto III represented a significant shift in both the franchise and the state of gaming as a whole.
GTA III
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
The success and popularity of Grand Theft Auto III led to the production of a sequel, set in Vice City (modeled after Miami, Florida), in the the year 1986. Developed in an enhanced version of GTA III's engine, Vice City similarly depicted an active, vibrant city, dotted with skyscrapers, hotels, pedestrians, various businesses, and vehicles. In GTA: Vice City, players take on the role of mafia thug Tommy Vercetti, originally a Liberty City-based mobster, recently released from prison and sent to Vice City to oversee a drug deal. Half-way through the deal, the participating parties are ambushed, with the attacker making off with both the drugs and the money. Tommy vows to retrieve the money or die trying. As Tommy tries to find out who stole his money and how to get it back, he gets involved in several avenues of "business" that allow him to rise up and form his own crime syndicate. GTA: Vice City was noted for having many more vehicles the player could control (including helicopters, motorcycles, and boats), as well as several graphical improvements over its predecessor, including better lighting and sharper textures. Several modifications adding multiplayer over the internet were released for the PC version, and the game was just as if not more controversial then GTA III, being cited for racism and inciting genocide against Cubans and Haitians.Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
How does he do a wheelie on grass? With skill. With skill.
- Hot Coffee
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas created what was at the time the most pressing controversial video-game issue to ever appear in mass media publications by inadvertently allowing players to engage in a crudely rendered, fully naked sex minigame, in which the player comes into their in-game girlfriend's house to get a cup of joe, but ends up engaging in sexual intercourse. This explicit mini-game was actually excluded by Rockstar, who accidentally left the source code in the game. Someone hacked the finished game and brought to light what is now called the "Hot Coffee" mod. Shortly thereafter versions making use of the Action Replay service for both Xbox and PS2 were released onto the internet, gaining the attention of several United States politicians, lawyers, parent groups, and social organizations, eventually resulting in the game's recall, modification and re-release. The re-release also coincided with the Entertainment Software Rating Board revising it's initial rating of the game to Adults Only (AO), making GTA: San Andreas technically the only mass-released AO title in the United States.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories
Released initially for the PSP and later for the PlayStation 2, GTA: Liberty City Stories took players back to the Liberty City of Grand Theft Auto III, but set in 1998, three years before the story of its predecessor. Players fill the shoes of Toni Cipriani, a mobster who recently returned to Liberty city after laying low for a few years as favor to Don Salvatore Leone. Gameplay changes are minimal, and simply serve to limit the size of the world and the number of controllable vehicles the player can use.Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories
Similarly released for the PSP and later the PlayStation 2, GTA: Vice City Stories is a prequel of sorts to GTA: Vice City, and featured several gameplay changes that the previous releases (on any platform) lacked. For example, players were able to bribe police and hospital staff when either killed or arrested, allowing them to retain their equipment that otherwise would have been lost. Additionally, players can partake in an empire-building mechanic, allowing them to operate a variety of businesses on seized territory, including smuggling, robbery, protection rackets, and prostitution. In GTA: Vice City Stories, players are Victor Vance, a dishonorably discharged United States Army soldier. Victor takes on a series of missions for a variety of characters from previous Grand Theft Auto games, and ultimately confronts the corrupt sergeant that got him dishonorably discharged in the first place.Grand Theft Auto IV
GTA IV once again returns players to Liberty City, only in the most detailed version yet, built to resemble New York City.
GTA IV
Grand Theft Auto games
Edit
| Name | Platforms | Developer | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
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Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City |
X360 | Rockstar North |
|
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Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars released on March 17, 2009 |
PSN, PSP, DS | Rockstar North, Rockstar Leeds |
|
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Grand Theft Auto IV released on April 29, 2008 |
X360, PC, PS3 | Rockstar North, Rockstar Toronto |
|
|
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories released on Oct. 31, 2006 |
PSP, PS2 | Rockstar North, Rockstar Leeds |
|
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Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy released on Nov. 5, 2005 |
PS2, XBOX | Rockstar North |
|
|
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories released on Oct. 24, 2005 |
PS2, PSP | Rockstar Leeds |
|
|
Grand Theft Auto: The Classics Collection |
PS1, PC | Rockstar North |
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Grand Theft Auto Advance released on Oct. 26, 2004 |
GBA | Digital Eclipse Software, Inc. |
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Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas released on Oct. 26, 2004 |
XBLM, PS2, XBOX, PC | Rockstar North |
|
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Grand Theft Auto Double Pack released on Oct. 21, 2003 |
PS2, XBOX | Rockstar Vienna |
| Name: | Grand Theft Auto |
| Total games: | 20 games |
| First game: | Grand Theft Auto |
| Aliases: |
|
Lazlow Jones first in Grand Theft Auto III |
10
|
|
Claude Speed first in Grand Theft Auto 2 |
6
|
|
8-Ball first in Grand Theft Auto III |
5
|
|
Phil Cassidy first in Grand Theft Auto III |
5
|
|
Salvatore Leone first in Grand Theft Auto III |
5
|
|
Maria Latore first in Grand Theft Auto III |
5
|
|
Donald Love first in Grand Theft Auto III |
5
|
|
Lance Vance first in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City |
4
|
|
Avery Carrington first in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City |
4
|
|
Umberto Robina first in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City |
4
|
| See all » |
