Grand Theft Auto Grieving Thread - Yep, I've been drinkin' again...

[Bob Barbas]

Speaking of Vice City, while it definitely isn't the best GTA game, I will say it has my favorite aesthetic out of any GTA game and maybe I'm the only one but I think the fact that GTA seems to only be focusing on modern day settings now to be kind of lame. Like, I know they were the exception but I personally preferred Vice City's late 80s setting and San Andreas' early 90s setting to a modern day setting anyday.
I dunno maybe it's just because I'm living in current day and want to get away from it but it just feels like a boring choice too especially because you know they're too pussy to do anything entertaining with the choice or do any actually scathing criticisms of society like they used to. It's gonna be all sanitized crap.
(Need I remind you they refused to do a heckin' racismerino in the game they made set in the fucking late 1800s unless the person doing it was blatantly a bad guy even though pretty much everyone was inherently racist around that time. But no guys, we can't have people throwing around nasty racist words that hurt feelings even if they would've been the norm at the time.)
Like choosing past settings just feels more entertaining than today but maybe that's just me.
Considering what they did with RDR2 though I guess my point is moot, they're gonna fuck it up either way, present or past.

 

[Captain Syrup]

Like choosing past settings just feels more entertaining than today but maybe that's just me.

We already have GTA with horses and Prohibition GTA. I quite liked the Godfather games. You walk around extorting bakeries.



GTA is barely about crime anymore, it’s about being an influencer who murders people. Here is your McMansion, here’s a helicopter, here is the yacht. It’s late capitalism fantasy.

 

[Crypt Kicker]

Speaking of Vice City, while it definitely isn't the best GTA game, I will say it has my favorite aesthetic out of any GTA game and maybe I'm the only one but I think the fact that GTA seems to only be focusing on modern day settings now to be kind of lame. Like, I know they were the exception but I personally preferred Vice City's late 80s setting and San Andreas' early 90s setting to a modern day setting anyday.
I dunno maybe it's just because I'm living in current day and want to get away from it but it just feels like a boring choice too especially because you know they're too pussy to do anything entertaining with the choice or do any actually scathing criticisms of society like they used to. It's gonna be all sanitized crap.
(Need I remind you they refused to do a heckin' racismerino in the game they made set in the fucking late 1800s unless the person doing it was blatantly a bad guy even though pretty much everyone was inherently racist around that time. But no guys, we can't have people throwing around nasty racist words that hurt feelings even if they would've been the norm at the time.)
Like choosing past settings just feels more entertaining than today but maybe that's just me.
Considering what they did with RDR2 though I guess my point is moot, they're gonna fuck it up either way, present or past.

I've said it before I'll say it again, Mafia 3 didn't have any qualms about throwing the word "nigger" around.
They flat out said "yeah, unfortunate but it's more of a disservice to pretend hicks in the south in the 60s weren't constantly calling them niggers"
That game did a pretty decent job of making YOU feel like a nigger to the point I think white women will clutch their purses tighter if you run around close to them and white men will tell you don't belong here if you go the fancy suburbs

 

[Bâtard Consanguine]

GTA is barely about crime anymore, it’s about being an influencer who murders people. Here is your McMansion, here’s a helicopter, here is yacht. It’s late capitalism fantasy.

Which was done 15 years ago with Saints Row the Third, where it took that concept as self-critique by making it a liability. Then the reboot tried taking the crime sandbox into a gay retarded version of Robin Hood.

 

[The Last Stand]

Huang is a pretty interesting GTA protagonist to me because of what @The Last Stand touched upon in his post. I would've expected a spoiled, sarcastic young brat to be unbearable to play as, but it works very well thanks to the overall crazy tone of the game. Also, his constant sarcasm and snide comments never got grating to me because other characters give him plenty of shit in return and put him in his place.

Personally, I prefer the PSP version to the DS version. While the lack of touchscreen controls makes the microgames slightly less fun, literally everything else is better. I just wish the radio stations weren't completely without voice tracks.

Should I try it?

I forgot to answer, but yes, I would recommend it. If you play it on an Android/iPhone/iPad, as I do, I would say that the touch controls can be touchy. You are able to scale, move and adjust them, but compared to haptic feedback from buttons and analog sticks, it's not always reliable.

It's a self contained story so you don't necessarily need to play GTA IV to enjoy it to its fullest. The comic book style to atone for DS limitations was nicely done. You can tell that Rockstar Leeds brought their A game with knowing the hardware's capabilities.

 

[Captain Syrup]

It's a self contained story so you don't necessarily need to play GTA IV to enjoy it to its fullest.

I never got into the handheld GTA games. Maybe LCS, it's a good prequel to GTA III. Chinatown Wars is way too serious.



The 2D games are pretty humorless, you run errands for thugs. It’s like watching a mediocre crime show on a tiny screen. I was skipping all the cutscenes, didn’t feel like I was missing anything.

 

[The Last Stand]

Chinatown Wars is way too serious.

Well, it takes its absurdity and cliches seriously.

The 2D games are pretty humorless, you run errands for thugs.

Well, what did you expect from a bunch of Londonians?

 

[Bob Barbas]

I never got into the handheld GTA games. Maybe LCS, it's a good prequel to GTA III.

I can recommend Vice City Stories if you never tried it, it's alright. It kinda feels like an unholy fusion of San Andreas and Vice City gameplay wise.
The story is... alright, I guess? It gives you more reasons to hate Lance than just him being a whiny bitch as well.

 

[The Last Stand]

Nice little surprise this morning.

TLDW: GTA III was "double-encrypted," once from SafeDisk, another from Obbe Vermeji's specific measures. Load in cranes, game crash. Go from one island to another, game crash. Screen shakes however possible, game crash. Helicopter needs to spawn in, game crash.

It bought Rockstar Games a few days of time instead of having GTA 3 cracked before release.

 

[Captain Syrup]

I can recommend Vice City Stories if you never tried it, it's alright. It kinda feels like an unholy fusion of San Andreas and Vice City gameplay wise.
The story is... alright, I guess? It gives you more reasons to hate Lance than just him being a whiny bitch as well.

I have actually played VCS. The trailer park characters are doing all the heavy lifting. (Unsurprisingly) The whole “Victor reluctantly sells coke” thing is so stupid. "Oh no, I accidentally became Scarface.”

LCS at least took the cool stuff from III and threw out the annoying crap. VCS just makes me want to play Vice City.

 

[The Last Stand]

View attachment 8312362

I have actually played VCS. The trailer park characters are doing all the heavy lifting. (Unsurprisingly) The whole “Victor reluctantly sells coke” thing is so stupid. "Oh no, I accidentally became Scarface.”

LCS at least took the cool stuff from III and threw out the annoying crap. VCS just makes me want to play Vice City.

Curious, what is it that you look for from GTA? What's a GTA that meets your expectations?

 

[Crypt Kicker]

Curious, what is it that you look for from GTA? What's a GTA that meets your expectations?

BEEG AMERICAN TEETEES

 

[The Last Stand]

The story is... alright, I guess? It gives you more reasons to hate Lance than just him being a whiny bitch as well.

The story was the best part of VCS. Everything else felt lesser or more cumbersome. Music would cut out prematurely, the performance would hitch during high traffic areas, random bugs would occur, minigames were poorly handled. Not a bad game, just less polished.

 

[Bob Barbas]

The story was the best part of VCS. Everything else felt lesser or more cumbersome. Music would cut out prematurely, the performance would hitch during high traffic areas, random bugs would occur, minigames were poorly handled. Not a bad game, just less polished.

Did you play on official hardware or emulator?
Also was it the PSP or PS2 version? Also important.

 

[The Last Stand]

Did you play on official hardware or emulator?
Also was it the PSP or PS2 version? Also important.

PSP, official hardware. Two glitches come to mind, a car under the bridge between Little Haiti and Downtown and falling into Blue Hell where the screen glitches out.

 

[Bob Barbas]

PSP, official hardware. Two glitches come to mind, a car under the bridge between Little Haiti and Downtown and falling into Blue Hell where the screen glitches out.

Was only asking because I heard some reviewers mention specifically that the PS2 version doesn't emulate well, but it worked decently for me on the actual console. Probably because it came out after the PSP original so they had time to fix some glitches.

 

[Captain Syrup]

Curious, what is it that you look for from GTA? What's a GTA that meets your expectations?

The only good ones are when the game understands that the city itself is the main character. Grove Street missions only work because it’s Los Santos. Otherwise it’s just 'crime guy goes to dot on map.'



Now, most of the cities are themed backdrops. You could swap V's Los Santos with IV's Liberty and the mission structure would be the same.

 

[winderson_silva]

Obbe Vermeji

I like his posts on social media; it's always nice to see a talented developer talk about the production and inner workings of old games.

 

[The Last Stand]

F

I like his posts on social media; it's always nice to see a talented developer talk about the production and inner workings of old games.

Fuck Rockstar for whatever NDA they had him sign to prevent him from talking about old games. It’s not like he was divulging company secrets.

 

[Would]

a car under the bridge between Little Haiti and Downtown and falling into Blue Hell where the screen glitches out.

This also happens in VC and is due to a vehicles.dat error.

minigames were poorly handled.

How? Compared to everything else prior, the empire business was the best we had until CTW.

The story was the best part of VCS.

Considering VCS' story is IV's but with a half-white half dominican, I can see why you believe this.

The only good ones are when the game understands that the city itself is the main character.

Agreed to an extent. 2 and III understood that the city is the star and you are just one of millions of denizens with a story to tell. Live and succeed or die trying, the city lives on.
SA is IMO the sole exception to the rule. No one city is the main character and the state is too disjointed in vibes and atmosphere to gel as one... yet I still consider it the definitive GTA experience even if it's not my favorite.