GTA creator questions Sony News

i agree, san andreas wasnt very good

Crackdown is looking very, very good, though.

Vice City was the best in the series.

Can't wait for Vice City Stories, it gives you all the abilities of San Andreas plonked on the Vice City map what more could i ask for.

Vice City was great - the things that ruined SA were the exercise, eating, and the size made it dull.

The story was not engaging after you got out of the first section either

He's got a point. The lack of managed online stuff is the main drawback for PS3 for me too. In Live everything just works and anything new you get, you know will work the same. Thats massively more important to mainstream takeup than other issues like number of units at launch.

Online is not the World.

Online is not the World.

QFT.

I'm not going to put my credit card details with five different companies for some bits of downloadable content.

No, of course not. Trust Microsoft.

WRONGE

GTA SAN ANDREASE = BEST GTA YET!

GTA 1 and 2 were average games, 3 and above were brilliant.
So basically, he's never worked on the great GTA's....

Steam, Battle.net, even Gamespy Were all done by FOR FREE on PC and work fine. I'm sure many developers can do it, including Sony.

Loved the San Andreas map (Vice city too flat in comparison) - but happily gave up stuck at the flying school (why there's no mission skip cheat, I don't know).

Without a doubt vice city was the best gta ever simply because there was nothing in it that didn't need to be there, almost every bit of vice city was used for some mission, where as in san andreas 90% of the map was pointless as you never went there.

@smoison

Fook me I have never heard anyone claiming GameSpy works properly.

Made me laugh though.

smoison,

GTA was glorious, GTA2 was even better, GTA3 was utter shite, GTA:VC was marginally better than 3 and GTA:SA was just irritating, with the ludicrously over-done 'satire' of niggers popping their homies or whatever stopping being entertaining and starting getting annoying after about 30 seconds.

No, of course not. Trust Microsoft.

That's his point though. We don't trust either so lets go with the one that allows you to buy points in stores without a card. Isn't it?

DUM DUM DER DUM DUM DA DA...

The legend of DAVEY JONES...ARRR

smoisone!

IE can'te believee thate youe thinke thate GTA SAN ANDREASE iss thee beste GTAE gamee. ;)

No really you are a 15 year old deluded sony fanboy with no respect for videogame heritage.

I think part of the problem with San Andreas, other than its large empty spaces and unengaging charachters, was that it was the third game where very little had changed, so we were basically left doing variations on the same themes that had been introduced two years previously. Add to the that the fact that it was very long and it really starts to drag, definately by the third city.

Actually, I like GTA3 better than Vice City or San Andreas, but the passion lies with the first GTA. That was the game deserving of the name: Grand Theft Auto.

so jones hasnt worked on a gta game since it was shit

hmmm????

GTA3 was utter shite, GTA:VC was marginally better than 3 and GTA:SA was just irritating, with the ludicrously over-done 'satire' of niggers popping their homies or whatever stopping being entertaining and starting getting annoying after about 30 seconds.

Fortunately, Zomoniac, most of the rest of the game's playing world disagree with you.

"so jones hasnt worked on a gta game since it was shit"

Exactly. But just what you'd expect from an EG headline... It's only because other sites are even worse that I frequent EG (and because the comments section is great fun :) ).

"so jones hasnt worked on a gta game since it was shit "

It's a well known fact that shit games get loads of money invested in them by publishers. Some shit games like GTA:VC and GTA:SA only get made because they have have a series of shit forefathers to inherit there shitness from.

theodg: problem is that the mass market couldn't give a toss that it's the same thing. Look how many copies Liberty City Stories has sold, despite to all intents and purposes being the same game as 3 but with a different structure in the box. They don't need to improve the engine because the name guarantees record-breaking sales anyway.

jack_klugman: when there was no GTA game out last year, most of the game playing world (or the GTA-playing world at least) bought 50 Cent: Bulletproof as an alternative, so you'll forgive me for not taking their opinions too seriously.

"Online is not the World."

Context, Englisher. Context.

"when there was no GTA game out last year, most of the game playing world (or the GTA-playing world at least) bought 50 Cent: Bulletproof as an alternative, so you'll forgive me for not taking their opinions too seriously."

Uhhh Zomoniac, I think you are mistaken. If you notice sales, 50 cents game didn't do very well at all.

That is because there is no GTA like that comes close to GTA.... Yet

If you notice sales, 50 cents game didn't do very well at all.

Actually that's completely untrue. It sold 'gazillions', despite receiving many a critical panning.

My favourite GTA game is still GTA3 (did it have a subtitle?). The cars seemed to be more fun to drive, and the environments were full of much more character. San Andreas was so huge that the poor old PS2 couldn't even keep up with generating things in middle-distance, let alone skyscrapers and huge clumps of trees a bit further on. The whole exercise/eat thing was tedious too - it detracted from the fun.

Oh, and am I the only one that thinks Crackdown looks just a tad...rubbish?

*runs*

Weren't sony teaming up with gamespy to provide the service for PS3 anyway?
/Tries to keep straight face
/Sniggers

@Les

From an EG headline?! What are you on about. The headline is absolutely appropriate.

The guy who created GTA (which he did) questions Sony policy (which he does). You might not like what he had to say, but how did you get to a point where that was EG's fault?

I thought GTA was the best in the series to be honest. I thought he did very well with it.

Yes, it might be good to remember that this guy is now practically working for Microsoft, and no longer with Rockstar ... but ok. ;)

It would have been nice to know whether this is actually based in any way on fact though. Does he already know how Sony's online stuff works? I thought they had the whole thing sussed out. And what if you could always use PayPal?

Oh well.

smoison, 50 Cent sold through the roof, it was number two (behind the unmoveable NFS:MW) for the bulk of the Christmas period. And it was terrible, backed up by 47% average review score from 21 major publications according to Metacritic. If you have a car-modding game or a gangsta game and have a big advertising budget and/or license, it is going to sell, quality isn't an issue, and I don't believe the 3D GTA games have anything like the quality their sales figures suggest.

GTAIII; The Daddy; everything after that has just been about making money off the back of GTAIII's success.. no real innovation worth mentioning.. unless you consider motorbikes an innovation of course.. I dont.

VC; too flat, too pink.. parts of town too samey.. no character..

SA; Designers lost it completely thinking that eating and exercising were interesting and fun gameplay mechanics... and stretching it out so large (and empty) no doubt this came down from HQ in YankLand; 'supersize it and they will come'

GTA4.. .. .. why waste yer money.. hardly gonna be a new experience.

GTA had it's day with GTAIII.. downhill since.. unless you like the same thing over and over and over and over............

I read these exact quotes in Edge yesterday, so this "news" must have happended at least three weeks ago.

Oh thank god, someone else that didn't like San Andreas much. I was starting to think I was the only one. Felt like it lacked soul. Yeah I know that sounds lame, but it just didn't do it for me. Vice City was brilliant.

I don't like GTA games in general..its the whole forced to do crime thing that botheres me. But Vice City was funny and had a superb soundtrack so I gave in and had a great time. GTA SA was different, I hated the idea story visual style and gameplay...I tried my best to like it but just loathed it all, 15 hours in I gave up and played something else. Does it get good after 16 hours?

Vice City was the best in the series.

I disagree. GTA was the best in the entire series, after that it just went downhill.

I completely agree with everthing the guy said. A unified online system liek Microsofts just seems a better way of doing it. We currently dont fully know what Sony plans but it does sound to be much like the PS2 model. Will will know in a couple of months, just not this side of the pond.

As for GTA3 Viceo city was by far the best, I thought San Andreas was while technically the most impressive it was far far less interesting. This might be an age thign but the whole 80's tongue in cheek Miami Vice setting was genius. I also just played better, too much empty space on the map in SA.

Saints Row even with its lack of true humor is a far better game than San Andreas to me. It has a scale you can get your head around in a few hours and is just plain fun. SA wasn't. I put in down within a few hours.

Why are you all taking a murder simulator inventor's word seriously?

Ban this sick filth.

i actually liked san andreas the best. not sure why really. i guess i quite liked cj (seemed more humble than tommy). i liked the customisation options (you didn't have to do them after the initial tutorial missions if you didn't want to) the sheer scale of the map (i always enjoyed exploring in the other gta games - incl. gta1) and i loved flying.

as for live, i can see his point, if the service covered everything for a flat fee. but if i want to play ffxi i still have to pay square a subscription.

i think sony are doing well to offer a free service, but i think they are lacking in standards across the board. i.e. people are familiar with live because it is implemented the same across every game, whereas with ps3 it'll be up to the developers and publishers to do as they please, making it more difficult for the consumer to get to grips with if there are significant differences between games. in reality i guess it will end up being a carbon copy of xbox live with most cases, since there'll be quite a few cross platform releases why drastically change something you already have coded (gui wise) for 360 to be different when you don't need to.

by the way Dave Jones (iirc) was one of the founders of DMA and lead designer of ?GTA and GTA2, so he really does deserve credit for it's conception.

He's right about MS/360. It's the obvious/sane choice right now if you want "HD gaming". Wii will sort out the other stuff.

I wonder if there is a little bias in his words though as he would love to temp more buyers into 360 as it expands the audience for Crackdown ;) A bit far fetched but you never know!

And he is bang on the money with "Vice City" being the best, it is still the standout game from the whole series and even with dated gfx is a joy to play. The atmosphere and general feeling is still one of the best found in a computer game.

San Andreas was ok but it lost something (and I hate the whole cliched hip-gop gansta culture as it's potrayed in games). Hope GTAIV re-captures the vice city feel for the HD generation.

I am referring to the PC version of Vice City which was sweet (in high res).

i agree, san andreas wasnt very good

He didnt actually say that. Unless theres a page two where he states "LOL!! GTA:SA IS TEH SUXXORZ!!!!!".....

Anyway, yeah, SA has its faults and, yeah, the gangsta theme does get a little tiresome, but how anyone can say its shit is completely beyond me.......

Its a game of incredible size and scope that was very well executed. I could have done without the stat progression and being forced to eat all the time, but that certainly didnt make it a bad game.

Fwiw, Vice City was probably the most instantly enjoyable, but I did like the depth of SA.

I wonder if there is a little bias in his words though as he would love to temp more buyers into 360 as it expands the audience for Crackdown ;) A bit far fetched but you never know!


not to mention APB

i was the biggest GTA fan up untill Fifteen hours into San Andreas when i thought "eh whens it gonna get good", and gave up.

GTA3 was the game that will define the PS2 but i agree that Vice city was the one i enjoyed the most. as far SA i agree with psychokitten it definately lacked soul and seemed to be like a copied GTA game like Saints Row and all the others.

Hmm, just had a look at Crackdown shots... seriously looks like some geeky kids have modded GTA, looks wee bit brown pants to me. As ever... It could be good.

As for GTA... loved Vice City, but after playing my brothers copy of SA for a while decided it was simply too bloated with stuff I didnt want to do to warrant a purchase!

*puts name in box marked 'Vice City was favourite'*

I have probably played San Andreas more since finishing the game than I did with Vice City, but I enjoyed playing through the Vice City story more. It was excellent.

Crackdown does look quite excellent.

Wasn't this story about the concern over sony's online strategy, not which GTA you liked the best?

to continue off topic: Vice city was the best, total scar face rip off but i loved it.

I thought San Andreas was ace but that the whole needing to eat/exercise thing was a little too much. And while it was sometimes fun to drive around the countryside for several minutes, other times it was just annoying if you were trying to get to a specific place.

Vice City was too flat for me. For whatever reason I just could never get into it. GTA3 is still my fav.

Actually I liked SA the best out of the whole series. The immense scale of the world was amazing and i liked the theme's it was tackling since it was a nice change from the norm......though I hate any clones of the series and other shit gangsta games like that 50 cent piece of shit that I wouldn't touch with a 10foot clown pole.
But yeah, I liked that GTA did it's thing with that theme since it hadn't been attempted properly in gaming previously and I think they pulled it off decently enough.
However, I didn't like th lack of depth in the semi-rpg elements like the girlfriends, changing cloths and eating/working out and think they should have been fleshed out much further....but still kept optional so that it doesn't become a pain.
On the whole though, I think SA is the best so far, then VC and finally GTAIII