Grand Theft Auto

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Grand Theft Auto

As I made my way to the register to pay for this game, I began reading the back of the box "Liberty City, USA: The Worst Place in America" it proudly stated before setting up the story "You've been betrayed and left for dead. Now you're taking revenge, unless the city gets you first." blah blah blah same old spiel I thought. I throw the game up on the counter and as the clerk scans the game, a screen pops up asking the cashier "Is customer over 18?" Wow I thought this game MUST rock!

Once I got home and popped this bad boy in the ol’ PlayStation 2 I can safely say it was not a disappointment. This game is not for the faint of heart. There are no plumber brothers and you for damn sure won’t be rescuing any princess. Grand Theft Auto III is about knocking people off, it's a game about criminals and the nasty things they do. You can shoot gang members or just innocent pedestrians; comprised of homeless people, businessmen, policemen, bag ladies, shoppers, among many others, with simple 9s or run them over in a car (accompanied by a funny squish sound), or toss a grenade at their feet.

You start off as a nameless criminal, who in the midst of a bank robbery, is double-crossed by his girlfriend, shot, and left for dead. You are arrested and sent to prison however you escape from the police through a mysterious high-level hit-and-run involving a bridge (hmmm didn‘t that happen in the Chris Tucker movie "Money Talks"?) and begin life again with the help of your friend 8-Ball and the Italian Mafia. From there, the game leads players through an odyssey of missions for various factions of organized crime, from the Italian to the Japanese mafia and on. Not to mention you want exact some revenge on your ex and all the bloody carnage filled fun that comes along with it. The world of Liberty City is on a scale that's truly epic, consisting of three large urban areas, the industrial, commercial and suburban districts, each with appropriate architecture, landscapes, and aggressive, distinctive AI.

You can get your missions in a variety of ways via telephone or pager, but most often, there are central characters whose missions drive the story, and whose missions tell the story. Thus, players find that in amongst the throng of distracting missions and the humungous landscape that must be traversed, there is a central focus, and it's there when they're ready. Players can play the game as fast and as by the book as their skills allow, or just go crazy and explore the city for a while. It's just another way in which Grand Theft Auto III offers freedom, non-linear game play, and variety like never before.

What's just awe-inspiring about Grand Theft Auto III is its sheer size, geographically, and utter volume, in terms of missions. The three cities are dozens of miles in relative size. Players can walk into buildings, in some cases, to balconies, apartment building rooms, or even rooftops, and they can explore, jump off and die, shoot helicopters, whatever. What creates an even larger sense of scale is that nearly everything can be explored. Adding to that, little things can be found in the most remote places. "Secret packages" are located throughout Liberty City; along with narcotics (they pretty much just slow you down) Rampage icons (you get 90 seconds to kill 30 gang members or crash 9 cars), Health icons, Cop Stars (to reduce your "Wanted" level), Secret Instant Stunt Jumps, and loads of weapons are scattered throughout. There are hidden alleyways, second-story rooftops, and secret locations placed in every nook and cranny of the game. You can car jack any vehicle if your tired of walking around the city and once you wreck that one or just get tired of it you can just move on and get another one of the 81, that’s right 81, vehicles. Each car has their own handling, shocks, turn radius, speed, among other things.

The arsenal at your disposal includes everything from the mundane baseball bat, to the exotic like a rocket launcher or flamethrower which among other things keeps this game fresh no matter how many times you play it. Also adding to the replay value are the little extras like in your car jack cop cars, fire trucks, ambulances, or taxis there is an option that lets you take on those jobs allowing you to go "straight" and make money delivering people to their destinations in a taxi, rescue people in an ambulance, bust criminals in the cop cars, or put out fires in the fire trucks. This review has already dragged on for way to long and I have yet to even talk about the graphics (which are amazing) or the sound (you can control the music in the stolen cars by changing the radio stations which have over 5 hours of music covering 9 different styles from hip-hop to classical).

I feel like I haven’t even started to describe everything this game has to offer so to save you and I some time just go out to the nearest store and plunk down 50 bucks for this amazing game, but don‘t come crying to me after you flunk out of dear old McNeese for skipping classes to play just "one" more mission.


	Steamer Trunk \| home NCAA Final Four 2002 \| Grand Theft Auto \| EA NHL 2002 \| Dave Mirra BMX \| Nascar Heat 2002 \| Crazy Taxi \| Madden 2002 \| NCAA Football 2002 \| Madden 2001 \| Triple Play \| Knockout Kings \| NBA Live 2001 \| ESPN Hockey Night \| NCAA Final Four Grand Theft Auto As I made my way to the register to pay for this game, I began reading the back of the box "Liberty City, USA: The Worst Place in America" it proudly stated before setting up the story "You've been betrayed and left for dead. Now you're taking revenge, unless the city gets you first." blah blah blah same old spiel I thought. I throw the game up on the counter and as the clerk scans the game, a screen pops up asking the cashier "Is customer over 18?" Wow I thought this game MUST rock! Once I got home and popped this bad boy in the ol’ PlayStation 2 I can safely say it was not a disappointment. This game is not for the faint of heart. There are no plumber brothers and you for damn sure won’t be rescuing any princess. Grand Theft Auto III is about knocking people off, it's a game about criminals and the nasty things they do. You can shoot gang members or just innocent pedestrians; comprised of homeless people, businessmen, policemen, bag ladies, shoppers, among many others, with simple 9s or run them over in a car (accompanied by a funny squish sound), or toss a grenade at their feet. You start off as a nameless criminal, who in the midst of a bank robbery, is double-crossed by his girlfriend, shot, and left for dead. You are arrested and sent to prison however you escape from the police through a mysterious high-level hit-and-run involving a bridge (hmmm didn‘t that happen in the Chris Tucker movie "Money Talks"?) and begin life again with the help of your friend 8-Ball and the Italian Mafia. From there, the game leads players through an odyssey of missions for various factions of organized crime, from the Italian to the Japanese mafia and on. Not to mention you want exact some revenge on your ex and all the bloody carnage filled fun that comes along with it. The world of Liberty City is on a scale that's truly epic, consisting of three large urban areas, the industrial, commercial and suburban districts, each with appropriate architecture, landscapes, and aggressive, distinctive AI. You can get your missions in a variety of ways via telephone or pager, but most often, there are central characters whose missions drive the story, and whose missions tell the story. Thus, players find that in amongst the throng of distracting missions and the humungous landscape that must be traversed, there is a central focus, and it's there when they're ready. Players can play the game as fast and as by the book as their skills allow, or just go crazy and explore the city for a while. It's just another way in which Grand Theft Auto III offers freedom, non-linear game play, and variety like never before. What's just awe-inspiring about Grand Theft Auto III is its sheer size, geographically, and utter volume, in terms of missions. The three cities are dozens of miles in relative size. Players can walk into buildings, in some cases, to balconies, apartment building rooms, or even rooftops, and they can explore, jump off and die, shoot helicopters, whatever. What creates an even larger sense of scale is that nearly everything can be explored. Adding to that, little things can be found in the most remote places. "Secret packages" are located throughout Liberty City; along with narcotics (they pretty much just slow you down) Rampage icons (you get 90 seconds to kill 30 gang members or crash 9 cars), Health icons, Cop Stars (to reduce your "Wanted" level), Secret Instant Stunt Jumps, and loads of weapons are scattered throughout. There are hidden alleyways, second-story rooftops, and secret locations placed in every nook and cranny of the game. You can car jack any vehicle if your tired of walking around the city and once you wreck that one or just get tired of it you can just move on and get another one of the 81, that’s right 81, vehicles. Each car has their own handling, shocks, turn radius, speed, among other things. The arsenal at your disposal includes everything from the mundane baseball bat, to the exotic like a rocket launcher or flamethrower which among other things keeps this game fresh no matter how many times you play it. Also adding to the replay value are the little extras like in your car jack cop cars, fire trucks, ambulances, or taxis there is an option that lets you take on those jobs allowing you to go "straight" and make money delivering people to their destinations in a taxi, rescue people in an ambulance, bust criminals in the cop cars, or put out fires in the fire trucks. This review has already dragged on for way to long and I have yet to even talk about the graphics (which are amazing) or the sound (you can control the music in the stolen cars by changing the radio stations which have over 5 hours of music covering 9 different styles from hip-hop to classical). I feel like I haven’t even started to describe everything this game has to offer so to save you and I some time just go out to the nearest store and plunk down 50 bucks for this amazing game, but don‘t come crying to me after you flunk out of dear old McNeese for skipping classes to play just "one" more mission.