GTA history of events in the game. History of the GTA game. Cities and locations

Greetings to all readers. Today I would like to talk about, perhaps, the main game series on the planet. About a game that consistently sells in huge numbers even during the most severe financial crisis. About a game whose developers can afford to spend tens of millions of dollars and several years on one new series. About a game with three treasured letters in the title, and I really hope that what popped into your head right now is not the three letters written on the fence in Call     of Duty 4: Modern Warfare . G.T.A. or Grand Theft Auto. The story of the development of a great game series.

I understand that the idea of ​​such a feature is, to put it mildly, unoriginal. In many gaming magazines, with the release of each new part of the series, a list of previous episodes was compiled, supplemented by pleasant memories of innovations and dozens of hours of exciting gameplay. Here I will not burden the reader with details, but will simply talk a little about each part of the series and my attitude to both the main games in the series and G.T.A. generally.

I’ll start, of course, with the very first parts, the existence of which, as it turned out, many young players did not even know about, sincerely believing that the series started with super-successful and revolutionary G.T.A. 3, which the whole world loved. So, let's go.

G.T.A. - the very first

And by and large there is nothing to tell about him. The gameplay here hasn't changed at all. Only the city has changed. It was still fictional, but now the names of the districts in it repeated the names of real-life places in London like the famous Hyde Park. Because “plot-wise” the game moved back several decades, then motorcycles disappeared from the range of transport. Everything else remained in place. The cars were still fictional, some even had funny names like

(if someone is not good at English, this is a diminutive name for ahem... products of human activity). The missions have become a little more difficult, but in general their meaning remains the same. A squeaky cartoon voice urged you on, and the text of the task, as in the first part, was displayed as a creeping line on the pager screen. Side quests from the first part have moved to

1969. It was nice to get into an almost impenetrable tank and start blowing up everything around and crushing cars for a while. Subsequently, similar tasks were encountered in three-dimensional

Also, the game has noticeably improved, it has become more friendly with higher resolutions, and in general, it was much more interesting to play. Plus, of course, the soundtrack has changed. Yes, even in those distant times

took care of the musical accompaniment of the game.

In the same year, personal computers were visited by another addon called . I don’t see the point in writing a separate paragraph about it. I don’t see the point in the addon itself. Apart from a new story campaign, the city of Manchester, which is visually no different from London, and cars, there was nothing at all in it. By the way, the developers were a little too clever with the physics of transport. Some cars cut through the air through the streets of London at such a speed that the flickering of the picture on the screen began to hurt your eyes. But it was a PC exclusive.

G.T.A. 2, being nominally the same game, made a noticeable qualitative leap. My friends and I could sit behind it for several hours, and the gameplay did not get boring at all. The thing is that in the sequel, Rockstar improved every aspect about a hundred times. G.T.A. 2 was a project on a completely different level. It was clearly made on a new 2D engine, it looked fantastically bright, beautiful, detailed, with excellent special effects. Plus, with a new lighting system. At night (the time of day had to be turned on separately), the lights on the city streets came on, and the cars had headlights. In general, looking at it, one would think that this is a 3D game in which for some reason the camera was placed under the very sky. There were a lot more weapons, grenades and Molotov cocktails appeared. Cars have become much more detailed, varied, with normal physics. In the second part of G.T.A. has already become much more similar to what we play now - factions appeared for which the player could complete quests. Moreover, working for one of them inevitably worsened relations with the other. Normal radio stations appeared in cars. Minor innovations in G.T.A. 2 was plenty, but the main thing was the varied gameplay. Dozens of entertainment for every taste, apart from the story campaign. Ability to install upgrades on vehicles such as onboard machine guns. Even just running around and shooting at everything living was still interesting. Stylistically, the game was reminiscent of the near future, and among the factions there were even Russians, in which your employer called you “comrade”. By the way, in one of the quests for the Russians it was necessary to recruit a bus full of passengers and bring them to a factory for the production of meat pies as filling. Do you feel it? This kind of fun was not even in the last parts of G.T.A. In general, the sequel turned out to be perky, lively and bright. In addition to the main game mode, there were absolutely crazy tests like “ Blow up 15 ice cream vans in 5 minutes" Also, the game finally has the ability to save: for this you had to come to the Church and leave a donation of 50 thousand dollars there...

Overall, G.T.A. 2 is quite possible to play today, fortunately, thanks to the efforts of ““ it was officially released in Russian.

G.T.A. 3 in 2002 (actually in 2001, but let’s agree to continue counting here based on the PC versions) made the erotic dreams of millions of players around the world come true, giving them the opportunity to participate in the same chases, shootouts and other lawlessness, but in full 3D. I still remember the indescribable feeling that was caused by the first sight of a completely three-dimensional city and cars passing by. Any of them could be stopped, the driver thrown out, followed by a couple of blows with a baseball bat, and rolled off over the horizon. Despite the fact that the main entertainment was still the opportunity to cause total mayhem, the game now had a normal story campaign, which aroused no less interest. We played as a petty criminal without a name (it wasn’t called in the game, but in one of the subsequent parts you could accidentally find out that his name was Claude), who gradually began to work for more and more influential personalities in Liberty City. The city clearly hinted at New York in a modern setting - people familiar with the city could recognize the neighborhoods of Manhattan and Brooklyn. The story itself was already quite twisted, but there was basically nothing to tell the developers. Many characters were present, and cutscenes appeared between missions. At the same time, no attention was paid to the hero himself - he was even deprived of his voice. In the cutscenes, you just looked at his employers or partners, who, exchanging gangster words, had highly intellectual conversations in the spirit of “ take your trough, go to that area and bring us three prostitutes - have fun!“All the most interesting things in the story campaign happened at the beginning, when the main character and his friend were freed from a prison van, and at the end, when you had to kill your former accomplice. In the game itself, there was no special development of the plot or relationships between the characters.

However, it was not the plot that was strong in G.T.A. 3. The main thing in it was, of course, the gameplay, which many clone projects then unsuccessfully tried to repeat. Free exploration of the city (at first some parts of it were closed, but with the passage of story missions access to them opened), shootouts (the hero could shoot from light weapons while running, as well as from the car window) and chases (the physics of the cars was very pleasant and simple, doing tricks was not difficult). All the most interesting things happened in the story missions, however, there were also side quests, as well as work as a taxi driver, policeman, ambulance driver and fireman. The meaning was approximately the same - to quickly get from point A to point B and perform a certain action. Also, there were special places in the city where the player was given money for performing car stunts. And for dessert, you could use the services of courtesans on the street for a small fee. It was enough to take the priestess of love to a deserted place, after which the car began to twitch and creak characteristically, just like a newlyweds’ bed. And the camera bashfully moved lower and lower, under the wheels of the car, in order to hide the piquant scenes from the fragile minds of gamers. However, this was more of a joke from the developers, because... with a certain rotation of the camera, one could see that the process of all this disgrace was not even animated - the prostitute continued to sit motionless next to the main character. By the way, many players then killed the unfortunate woman and took their money back. This opportunity became the cause of one of the dozens of scandals associated with the game. And also, from the second G.T.A. Groups have moved here. Each with their own clothing style, car and weapons. The player could work for some of them according to the plot, but there was no longer any reputation system.

Graphically G.T.A. 3 did not stand out as anything special at that time, but the RenderWare engine itself became almost a living legend in its time. It was used in console versions Max Payne 2, racing series Burnout(in fact, it was created by its authors), in fun fighting games and, and even in domestic action “ A fight with a shadow"and its sequel. Rockstar itself also actively used it in its projects, like Manhunt and PS2 versions Bully. The full list of games on it can be found in the table on this page. Thanks to this G.T.A. engine. 3 was very easy to modify. The number of cars, airplanes and weapons models created for it came close to the population of China. For example, many Russian players did not like the fact that the M-16 in the game was three times more powerful than the Kalashnikov assault rifle. However, even without special programs, any student could correct this universal injustice by correcting the characteristics of the required barrels in the “notepad” file with a description of the weapon.

In G.T.A. 3 played for a long time. A very long time. This game rightfully deserved a long life, and not so long ago it was revived on portable platforms. The average score of the game hovered between 9.5 and a solid ten. In 2002, G.T.A. 3 was quite rightly nominated for “Game of the Year”, but even then it had a strong opponent - Mafia: the City of Lost Heaven. Both games performed superbly, but “Mafia” performed extremely poorly on consoles due to its perceived difficulty, leaving only good memories for PC players. As a result, the country's main computer and gaming magazine, ““, gave the honorary title of “Game of the Year” to both projects.

P.S.: In Russia, through the efforts of “Buki”, the English version of G.T.A. was released. 3.

G.T.A. Vice City - the most stylish

A year later, the next part of Grand Theft Auto came to us from consoles. She came and in exactly the same unceremonious manner pushed all other projects into the background, forever remaining in the hearts of the players. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was absolutely the same game, with the same gameplay, with the same mechanics and on the same graphics engine. They didn’t even add any numbers to it, making it clear that this was an addition to G.T.A. 3, and not a full-fledged fourth part. However, this “addition” managed to grab the same rave reviews and enviable ratings. The action took place in the city of Vice City, written off from Miami, included in the subtitle, in the mid-eighties. The main character was exactly the same petty bandit who got into trouble. Only now he had his own name and voice. Our protagonist Tommy Vercetti, came to Vice City after a long prison sentence to make a deal for his boss. However, in the best traditions of crime films, everything fell apart at the last moment, and Tommy, left without support and with a huge financial debt, started life from scratch in Vice City. After the beginning, the same scenario followed as in G.T.A. 3 – new acquaintances, betrayals and attempts to get as high as possible in the criminal world.

Despite the similar plot structure and absolutely identical G.T.A. 3 gameplay, Vice City compared to the third part was a completely different game with a different mood. In it, Rockstar showed themselves to be people with excellent taste and sense of style. The era of pop music and cocaine was held up to the mark. The city itself turned out to be bright and sunny. I wanted to live in it. It was small and cozy. From all sides - beach, sea, sand. Residents, of course, walked around in T-shirts, shorts and swimsuits. The radio stations and music were just as bright and sunny.

The gameplay remains the same, but has been supplemented with a thousand pleasant little things. Tommy could buy various properties. In some buildings it was possible to save the game, while others brought in constant cash income. There are more side quests, and the main ones have become much more original. Also, Tommy learned to change clothes - there were about a dozen costumes in the game (however, with the ability to modify the game, the number went into the tens of thousands). The number of available weapons has increased; now Tommy could carry one type from each class. There are also much more cars, helicopters and motorcycles have been added, which were so lacking in G.T.A. 3. To the standard side missions for a fireman, policeman, taxi driver and ambulance doctor, the ability to deliver pizza to customers for a while has been added.

If we talk about my personal impressions, Vice City has always remained my favorite part of the series. Bright, beautiful, sunny. I, like many players, spent several years playing this game, even after completing it. Once, after spending several evenings in a row playing the game, I realized with horror and at the same time with a feeling of deep satisfaction that for a whole week all I had done was deliver people in taxis to the music of the radio station , and it didn’t bother me at all. After all, every five passengers the player was given a cash bonus!! Seriously, even now I would install the game and could just as easily work as a taxi driver for seven evenings in a row and listen to music. The city was compact and beautiful, the physics of the cars was simple and pleasant. The game literally imbued the player with its mood. There was a lot of humor in the videos, and Tommy himself, as mentioned above, found his voice (the actor tried) and could talk with the characters, as well as on a mobile phone, which replaced the pager from the previous parts of G.T.A.

G.T.A. Advance - the most unknown

Between Vice City and the next 3D part, in 2004 the developers decided to remember the GameBoy, which was once one of the platforms for the very first part of the game. Grand Theft Auto, like any project released on the GBA, received the Advance console and was, in fact, a two-dimensional version of G.T.A. 3, with the same city, graphical interface, weapons. It told a rather unoriginal story of another criminal named Mike, who had to survive the loss of a faithful friend and, in search of retribution, join various groups, performing missions for them. Due to the technical limitations of the console, the developers (it was made not by one of the Rockstar studios, but by a certain Digital Eclipse) the city had to be significantly modified.

G.T.A. San Andreas - the largest and most diverse

And the next step in development was Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas 2005 release (and, accordingly, 2004 on consoles), which qualitatively improved the mechanics of G.T.A., adding many interesting little things to it. The game, in fact, did not bring any innovations, but it gave the player about twenty tons of content, the diversity of which was dizzying at first. In this regard, it was subsequently never surpassed even by the fourth part.

So, the new game told the story of a young

... an African American named Carl Johnson. For friends - CJ. He came to the city of Los Santos after a long absence, for the funeral of his mother. Already at the very beginning, after getting off the plane, fake police officers were waiting for CJ, who were clearly glad to meet the guy so much that they wanted to give him a ride in their car, simultaneously taking away his things and wallet. And then - throwing him out for laughs on the territory of a group hostile to CJ. This is how San Andreas started. Returning to his parents' house, the main character learned that his old gang had almost collapsed, and the city was run by hostile thugs and corrupt police. The entire storyline is dedicated to reviving your gang, getting more money and achieving everything you can. All. The plot need not be told further, because... Traditionally, he showed almost no signs of life until the finale, and the cutscenes here still acted as a humorous glue between missions. Stylistically, the game sometimes resembled “black” comedies like ““. The soundtrack, of course, was chosen completely differently and consisted mainly of works by prominent representatives of hip-hop and gangsta rap. Although music of other genres was also present.

So, the first change in San Andreas was the scale. The action took place in the huge state of San Andreas, where the developers crammed as many as three cities (one of them is the same Los Santos, the prototype of which was the City of Angels), several villages and large open spaces. The territory was truly huge, and it seemed that the new game world had no boundaries at all. You could drive around the surrounding meadows and enjoy nature.

Also, the developers have introduced leveling and customization of everything possible into the game. Stunts on cars and motorcycles increased driving skill, making control smoother and more manageable. Constantly using the same type of weapon led to CJ firing it without any recoil. And so on. Part of the leveling was tied to the physical condition of the hero. The fact is that food in San Andreas not only served to restore energy, but also added extra weight to CJ. I had to visit gyms to get my figure into a more or less decent shape. CJ started the game skinny and bony, and with such a build it was almost useless to build muscles. But with a normal figure and developed lungs, CJ could run for a long time and swim under water, and also hit harder. All this only added points to the game. After all, the player had something to do apart from missions.

However, even without gyms, there was plenty of optional entertainment in San Andreas. Strip clubs (which appeared in Vice City), bars with billiards, discos, cafes - there were places to go. It also became possible to go on dates with girls. After the relationship developed to a certain point, the friend invited CJ to come to her house for coffee, which invariably led to unambiguous sounds of hot love, which the player left on the street was forced to listen to, unable to observe. However, the most persistent mod makers managed to correct this shortcoming and released the Hot Coffee modification, which makes it possible to see spicy scenes with your own eyes and even take an active part in their development by pressing buttons in time. And the funny thing is that the modders didn’t even have to do anything themselves. As it turned out, this mini-game was originally built into San Andreas by the developers, but out of harm’s way was blocked by them. Thus, people who understood the game's resources only had to slightly change the program code, and voila! Of course, this modification made a lot of noise and still caused trouble for Rockstar, but it also attracted even more attention to their already scandalous project, which was it just suits them.

CJ, unlike the heroes of the previous parts, learned to swim, shoot with two hands, call his gang mates as partners and much more. The action in the game became a little better, although it still remained primitive. The cars now had visible gas tanks, and shooting at them instantly led to an explosion. It would seem like a trifle, but sometimes it significantly influenced the outcome of the shootout, because... Rival gangs sometimes arrived at the shooting site in cars and used them as a hideout. By the way, one of the important additions to the game was the faction war for territory.

For me, San Andreas turned out to be the same long-playing record as Vice City. This was a game that, in principle, could not be deleted from the hard drive at all. Even after completing the story campaign, shooting, driving and exploring the world in it was interesting.

G.T.A. Liberty City Stories

The next part of G.T.A. was officially announced by the developers as a completely new project and announced only for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, which had not yet seen the light of day. However, it was clear that fans wanted more and would devour a new series of their favorite game in any form. Therefore, Rockstar, using the same engine, only with simplified graphics, assembled two spin-offs and released them on the PSP portable console (and then on the PS2). Released in 2005 Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, in which the player had to return to the city from the third part of G.T.A. and play for one of the minor characters - Tony Cipriani. The gameplay of the project was no different from the “big” versions, adjusted for the control of the console, which did not have a second analog stick. Players were treated to a new story campaign, several new features, and a couple of new types of side quests. The weapon arsenal moved into the game from Vice City, and the radio stations from G.T.A. 3. The game received excellent reviews and became one of the best-selling games for the portable console. And a few years later, combined with sales of the PS2 version, it broke the barrier of eight million copies. Didn't appear on PC.

Six months later, a similar story repeated itself with Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, the events of which took place in the already mentioned Vice City two years before the beginning of the story of Tommy Vercetti. The main character was an army corporal Victor Vance, brother of one of the heroes of the original Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. The gameplay in the game was the same. Like Liberty City Stories, the new game offered the player familiar scenery, weapons and factions. She also happily missed the date with PC, but came out on PS2 a year later.

You can still get acquainted with the projects today. They are more than a worthy reason to purchase a PSP, which in recent years, and even now - with the release of the PlayStation Vita - has fallen significantly in price. The games themselves have also become cheaper in the PlayStation Store. Also, they can be run on a PlayStation 2 emulator.

Grand Theft Auto 4. A new round in the development of the series. Development on a completely different level. The game the whole world has been waiting for. A game that, as expected, broke all sales records in the first days of release and returned the millions invested in it many times over. Almost until the release, Rockstar remained deathly silent and were not very willing to share details, as if leaving more surprises for the public to discover on their own. The first to try the game in April 2008 were the owners of the current generation consoles: Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Older platforms were immediately discarded, because The game was released on a completely new graphics engine. In the winter of the same year, G.T.A. 4 unexpectedly quickly came knocking on the door of PC players.

So, the new Grand Theft Auto told another gangster story. The main character was a Serb named Niko Belic, who came to visit his brother Roman in the States, in the city of Liberty City, which had already appeared in previous games, having read his letters about a good life and great opportunities. Oddly enough, the game did not begin with the now familiar gangster setup. The brothers calmly met and went to Roman’s apartment, which turned out to be a dirty, shabby kennel infested with cockroaches. Niko became convinced that all his brother’s letters to him were nothing more than the fruit of Roman’s pipe dreams. However, everything was not so bad. It turned out that Roman owns a small taxi company and earns his modest bread from this. Niko decided to help him in business and after that he found himself embroiled in an unpleasant story with one of the local bandits who kept Roman under his thumb. This was only the introduction of the game, but it already turned out to be incredibly detailed and interesting. And ahead of the player awaited an equally interesting plot. Yes, nominally it was built on the same patterns as before: new acquaintances, betrayals and friendship. But Rockstar took its presentation and level of drama to a completely different level. The videos in the game are no longer a collection of jokes and references to classic gangster films. Sometimes truly terrible things happened in them. Even a simple conversation between the characters “for life” was perceived completely differently.

Another qualitative change was the graphics. G.T.A. 4 was based on the new RAGE engine, which Rockstar had previously used in their sports project Rockstar Games presents Table Tennis. The game looked absolutely fantastic, from the car models, people and weapons, to the sunrises, sunsets and very beautiful water. But at the same time, the computer required a very powerful one for its time. About 5-6 times more powerful than what was required to run Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Moreover, obviously, having already learned from the bitter experience of computer piracy, on PC the developers included some kind of completely sadistic protection system in the game. And we’re not talking about the service here (although many had minor difficulties with it), but about the fact that the hacked G.T.A. 4 was unbearably slow, lost objects on the map, and the camera in it was constantly shaking, as if Niko had planted a couple of bottles of strong beer. Of course, it was impossible to play this. However, a pirated patch that eliminates the software consequences of excessive alcohol consumption has arrived quite close. Nevertheless, all this made it possible to increase sales of the PC version, which in Jewel cost, in general, little money and worked quite well.

The new graphics engine was successfully connected to a physical one, called Euphoria, previously used, for example, in Star Wars: the Force Unleashed. Thanks to him, the bodies of opponents reacted adequately to shots and blows, and also very effectively rolled down inclined surfaces such as stairs. Previously G.T.A. I could only dream about this.

Rockstar, traditionally, never had problems with sound, and the fourth part was no exception. About a dozen radio stations with music of various genres. On one of them, with a romantic name Vladivostok.FM, they even played songs by Russian performers, among whom were, for example, even the group ““. Previously imagine this in G.T.A. it was impossible.

Yes, the game made a noticeable bias towards the theme of Russians and everything connected with them. Here was the Hove Beach area, where mainly our compatriots who emigrated to Liberty City lived. You could meet all of them on the streets, hear their native dialect, go into a clothing store, where, among other things, they sold hats with earflaps.

According to the gameplay of G.T.A. 4 was a completely different game. Instead of once again adding a dozen new features and quadrupling the amount of content, Rockstar decided to deepen and qualitatively improve what was already there and, at the same time, cut off everything unnecessary. Pumping, scuba diving, two-handed shooting, car tuning and some other things went under the knife. But in return, the fourth part gave players high-quality action, more complex and realistic car physics (now their weight could really be felt) and a lot of opportunities to have an interesting time. Gunfights have always been the weakest part of the series, and G.T.A. 4 corrected this annoying miscalculation, giving the player a cover system and the ability to shoot on the move or while running, as well as from a car (this could be done before, but only in the fourth part it became possible to aim normally - in San Andreas you had to use a code for this , the reverse effect of which was crippled animation).

Hand-to-hand combat was also made more detailed - the camera moved sideways so that the player could better see the process, and Niko had several punches and kicks in his arsenal (CJ from San Andreas could learn one of three fighting styles - here this was removed by the developers).

The mobile phone, which previously served only to receive game-prescribed calls from accomplices, has now become a full-fledged interactive element of the game. With its help, you could call Niko’s friends yourself, make an appointment, or take a screenshot photo. And meetings with friends themselves, as well as dates with girls, have now turned into a much more interactive process than before. You could play bowling, billiards, go to a strip club (this feature was added and improved), and thanks to the new graphics, the models of stripper girls now at least looked decent). Also, the game has an almost full-fledged Internet, cabaret with theatrical performances and much more. In G.T.A. 4 it was really possible to spend your free time interestingly away from the story missions.

Also, multiplayer appeared in the game. If in San Andreas it was subsequently added by modification, then it was sewn into the fourth part from the very beginning. A team of police officers confronted a team of bandits and had to catch them.

If we talk about my impressions, then I certainly do not regret the time spent playing the game. I didn't like some of her innovations. For example, there was a real lack of some crazy missions in the spirit of the old G.T.A. like " bomb an ice cream truck and bring it to the enemy group's base, dressed as a clown" However, I understand that this was part of the program to bring G.T.A. 4 to a full-fledged crime drama, so I don’t consider this a particular drawback. Moreover, since then the genre “ G.T.A. for those who like to fool around» firmly occupied by the series Saint's Row. Also, I didn’t really like the color palette of the game chosen by the developers; there weren’t enough bright colors, but again, it worked for the atmosphere. Although, I kept dreaming that after G.T.A. 4 developers will revive Vice City using modern technologies. Well, it was a little disappointing that even in 2008, the main character never learned how to automatically regenerate health.

G.T.A. 4 Lost and Damned

Some time later, the Xbox version of G.T.A. 4 has acquired two full-fledged addons, called Episodes from Liberty City. In terms of mechanics and graphics, they were no different from the original, except for a couple of new features, mini-games, weapons and an updated playlist of radio stations. The Lost and Damned told the story of biker Johnny Klebitz, who was a member of the Lost gang and had disagreements with its leader because of his desire to make peace with a hostile group. In some places, the addition had plot similarities with G.T.A. 4. One of the innovations was checkpoints on missions and the need to ride a motorcycle next to your comrades, respecting the formation. The game was very highly rated. The next addition was Ballad of Gay Tony, which follows a young Latino named Luis Lopez who works for his boss, Blue Tony, in the nightclub industry. Here Liberty City has already been shown from the other side. On the side of luxury, glamor and promiscuity. Louis had to settle matters with the opponents of his hapless boss and even work for them. The game featured, among other things, the Russian mafia. The list of weapons, cars, mini-games and music tracks has been replenished again, and missions to manage the affairs of the club have been added. Both additions extended the life of an already super-successful project. And by and large, Rockstar could have continued to make addons on the same engine and get money for it, but, nevertheless, the experiments continued.

P.S.: both add-ons were later released on PS3 and PC.

G.T.A. Chinatown Wars - the most yellow

Because During the development of the series, the developers tried not to neglect any console and constantly experimented; in 2009, it was the turn of the Nintendo DS to play out a gangster story involving car theft on its small screen. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars again moved the player to Liberty City, this time to Chinatown. The main characters were predominantly Asian. The technical capabilities of the console did not allow displaying the city with the already familiar third-person view, so in Chinatown Wars the series returned to its roots - the game had to be played while watching the hero from above, and even in cartoonish cell shading graphics. Video inserts were replaced by stylized comics, and the controls used the entire touch screen. The player had to perform many actions by moving the stylus. The story this time revolved around the Chinese Huang Li, who came from Hong Kong to give his uncle, the head of one of the Liberty City Triad clans, the family treasure of his family. And as has long been customary in G.T.A., big troubles begin with small ones, and then lead to a dramatic denouement, during which Juan had to find out the names of his father’s killers and, no less, become the head of all the Triads of the city. The game received very good reviews and sold well, then visiting PSP, iPad Redemption, in G.T.A. 5 animals will migrate, such as dogs, which could be seen in the November trailer for the game. I’m looking forward to seeing the change of seasons and the visual change of the city from another game of their authorship, the school action game Bully, move into the series.

P.S.: The game still does not have an official release date.

In general, this is the Grand Theft Auto series. Bright, daring, scandalous, not afraid of prohibitions and sharply ridiculing the current problems of modern society. A game intoxicating with its freedom. A game that leaves no one indifferent: it is equally loved and hated by millions of people. A game that replaces all possible genres. A game that people wait for every episode of, not doubting Rockstar’s success for a second. The most striking gaming phenomenon, has long been known outside our beloved industry. A game that invariably produces only one interjection. WOW!! Great Auto Theft.

The developers of the Grand Theft Auto series have never stood still. Constant experimentation, often on the verge of a foul, significant changes in gameplay and the desire to open new horizons - all this has made the cult series of games what it is today.

In anticipation of the release of the new part of the game, which, according to the guys from Rockstar, promises to be filled to the brim with innovations, FURFUR decided to trace the evolution of one of the most popular gaming franchises of all time.

How it all began

The concept of the game that was to become Grand Theft Auto was born back in 1995. Then the game was supposed to be called Race’n’Chase, and most of the missions were related to racing around the city.

However, the features of the future hit could be discerned already in the early stages: three unique cities copied from real prototypes, a bunch of cars, the ability to run over pedestrians, and some of the missions conceived by the authors involved bank robbery and other illegal acts. But crime in the game was not yet an end in itself, although the developers were going to introduce the opportunity to steal a cooler car.

Fortunately for all of us, Race’n’Chase remained just a concept on paper, but two years later a game with a provocative name - Grand Theft Auto - was released.

Grand Theft Auto

The DJs deserve special mention, often featuring celebrities such as Iggy Pop, Axl Rose, Funkmaster Flex and Karl Lagerfeld.

All the most important features of the series first appeared here. Complete freedom of illegal actions - from carrying out mafia tasks to cheerful senseless massacres on the streets, a rich assortment of cars and one of the iconic features of the line - the radio.

Developers have always taken in-game radio very seriously. A huge number of radio stations, each of which specialized in its own style, cynical DJs spouting jokes on the brink of a foul, and a very high-quality selection of songs.

If in the first parts of the series the music filling of the games consisted of tracks from not the most popular artists, the most famous among whom were Symarip and Upsetters, who were played on the radio in GTA: London 1969, then starting from the third part everything changed a lot.

The list of famous artists who appeared in the soundtracks of games in the series tends to be infinite. Everyone was here: from Aphex Twin and Slayer to Kino and Ranetok.

The favorite pastime of the players in the first part was the destruction of people in yellow robes wandering single file through the streets of cities. If you managed to crush all the Hare Krishnas, the player received the Gouaranga achievement. By the way, Gauranga is a real Hare Krishna saint. It is believed that he is one of the incarnations of Krishna, and his name, spoken out loud at least once, bestows good luck and blessings.

In the first part, three key cities of the series appear - Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City. True, you can only admire their beauties from a bird's eye view - three-dimensional, and especially HD graphics were not even a thing in those days.

The choice of weapons was limited - only four items: a pistol, a machine gun, a grenade launcher and a flamethrower. But the choice of missions that our nameless gangster could take on was already quite extensive: contract killings, bank robberies and, of course, hijackings.

There were also echoes of the arcade games that were popular at that time. For example, all kinds of bonuses are scattered throughout the city, by picking them up you could increase the number of points earned several times, reduce the level of police attention, or get a key to the prison.

GTA: London 1969 and London 1961

The series has never gone this far in time and space. Developed on the engine of the first GTA, these two add-ons transported the player to the swinging sixties.

Of course, the surroundings of that time, or rather a parody of it, were created by the developers with the utmost meticulousness and great love. Just look at the characters speaking thick Cockney and driving on the left, which infuriated many players.

Subsequently, nostalgic mockery of different eras will also turn into signature techniques of games in the GTA series.

By the way, these are the only games under the GTA brand where the action takes place in real cities - London and Manchester - and not in parody versions of them invented by the developers.

The changes in the game were more of an aesthetic nature: cars and music of the sixties. In general, the gameplay differed little from the first game in the series. However, some gamers believe that their acquaintance with the origins of their favorite franchise should begin with this game, and not with the first part.

GTA II

In the second part, the developers continued to experiment. The game was moved to Anywhere city in 2013. The developers are silent about whether the city had a real prototype, but many suspect that the game depicts the New York of the future.

The game’s authors saw the future as quite gloomy: aesthetically, they were clearly guided by films like “Escape from New York” and cyberpunk aesthetics. However, the innovations affected not only the pictures. Firstly, the main character now has a name. Secondly, each gang began to differ from the others in appearance and vehicles. In addition, the hero acquired a reputation: by helping one gang, he incurred the wrath of others.

Other innovations include: the ability to save the game, car thieves and robbers on the streets hunting for your money and cars, as well as legal work as a taxi or bus driver. There are far more weapons in the game, and the vehicle can now be equipped with a heavy machine gun, a tank of oil that spills onto the road, or even turn your car into a “martyr mobile.”

Wreaking havoc in the city is a lot more fun when you're wearing a police uniform. In GTA 2 such a masquerade is possible. At the second level, you need to go to the possessions of the Zaibatsu corporation, find a green phone there and take on a mission called “Flame It”. To complete it you will need to steal a police car. Having stolen it, the main character will change into a police uniform and will be able to walk around the city in this form. In order not to lose your new outfit, you just need to not complete the mission.

GTA III

The new millennium has raised the bar for the gaming industry. And although games without 3D graphics did not yet look like an anachronism, they were rapidly losing ground. Rockstar, however, continued to keep up with the times in all respects: the first three-dimensional GTA takes place during the years of the game's release - in 2001.

The car damage system also added to the coolness of the picture, although the damage has not yet affected their technical characteristics. The main character for some reason lost his name (it will become known only in GTA: San Andreas), and therefore responds to either the derogatory “Kid” or the dog name “Fido”.

The series has always been famous for the fact that players can do things for which in real life you can quickly get either a prison sentence or a bullet. But few people know that in the third part of GTA you can break not only state laws, but also the laws of physics. To verify this, just arm yourself with a sniper rifle and shoot at the Moon. After this, the only satellite of the Earth will decrease in size. The second shot will return the Moon to its previous size. The same can be done in GTA Vice City.

The third part was marked not only by absolutely stunning graphics for that time and the usual cool gameplay, but also by the presence of a clear plot. If previously the hero carried out missions aimlessly, working for this or that mafioso, now such defections from gang to gang are plot-based, and following the adventure of the nameless “Fido” becomes really interesting.

It is worth noting the appearance of colorful secondary characters speaking in the voices of many celebrities. In particular, Kyle MacLachlan, rapper Guru and Michael Madsen were noted here.

The arsenal has expanded again compared to previous parts, as has the fleet of vehicles. Boats appeared and the real nightmare of all inexperienced gamers - a helicopter and a Dodo plane, which are very problematic to fly. There are rumors that the developers specially made the controls of the plane more difficult so that players would not dare to recklessly ram skyscrapers on it - the game was released a month after the events of September 11th.

GTA Vice City

To make a game about the criminal world and ignore the movie “Scarface” is truly criminal. Therefore, the action of the next game in the series was transferred to the prosperous 1980s, to the city of Vice City, painfully reminiscent of the drugged Miami of those years.

The main character is Tommy Vercetti, a not-so-high-flying mafioso who greatly annoyed his boss. By the way, Tommy speaks in the voice of Ray Liotta. Among the new products, we can note the ability to purchase means of destruction in weapons stores or from dealers.

In addition to new cars, half a dozen planes and helicopters have appeared in the game. In addition, for the first time in the history of the series, damage to vehicles directly affects their technical characteristics.

GTA San Andreas

Gangs of blacks and Latinos, slums, low riders and all the other attributes of life that gangsta rappers have been telling us about for so long - this is what GTA San Andreas presented to the player.

You will have to play as a simple guy from the ghetto, CJ, who, after a five-year absence, returns to his native Los Santos for his mother’s funeral, and remains here, creating his own criminal empire.

The gameplay has undergone significant changes. The game has turned into a real life simulator: here you can eat, drink, paint walls from a balloon, build muscles and even make a girlfriend. Now you can literally dress the main character from head to toe, choosing not only clothes and shoes, but also accessories. The game also acquired a role-playing element in the form of leveling up skills, which are most often used by the protagonist.

Here we will also add a lot of mini-games from basketball to betting on horse races, and a decent number of legal activities for the main character: in addition to the work of a taxi driver already familiar from previous games, the player will be able to try on the role of a fireman and even become a vigilante, destroying criminals.

Hot coffee

A serious shift towards realism has left many players wanting more. In particular, many did not like the fact that while CJ was secluded with his beloved, the player had to see only the facade of the house, guessing what was happening only from the sounds. For such voyeurs, a special Hot Coffe mod was released, which revealed hidden sex scenes in the form of a mini-game.

A terrible scandal broke out, sales of the game were temporarily suspended, and the game's rating was changed from “M” (“persons over 17 years old”) to “AO” (“adults only”).

As a result, the developers announced a free exchange of the scandalous game for a version from which everything indecent was carefully cut out. But there were a little more than two thousand such people.

There are so many hints and funny bugs in GTA SA that it would fill a whole book. Here is an example that is not the easiest to perform, but quite spectacular. It is advisable to play together. We bring the wanted level to the point where helicopters will be sent for you. We find a higher hill, wait for the helicopter to hover above you and shoot it down. The main thing is that its frame falls directly onto the slope. Then, with your joint efforts, you push what is left of the helicopter down the slope, and when its remains crawl on their own, jump on top and enjoy the ride.

Finally, the protagonist learned not only to swim, but also to climb over obstacles, and also to shoot “Macedonian style” - with two hands.

The map, which had simply grown to indecent sizes, created a real sensation. You can now carry out criminal affairs not just in different areas, but in different cities: San Fierro (San Francisco), Los Santos (Los Angeles) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas). In addition, the world has become “seamless” - when moving from one location to another, a loading screen no longer appears.

The number of vehicles is simply off the charts: cars, helicopters, planes, bicycles, trains and even a jetpack. Let's add to this the opportunity to pump up the car to your liking, turning almost any four-wheeled jalopy into a super-fast roadster or a low-rider rolling imposingly through the streets. And yes, the mission with the train was right here.

GTA Advance

This game, released specifically for the Game Boy Advance, returned to the classic top-down view. Initially, it was planned to publish GTA III in this form specifically for a portable console, but then the developers decided to tell a completely new story.

The game's plot is a prequel to the third part, and tells the story of the misadventures of petty criminal Mike, obsessed with revenge for the death of his partner and mentor Vinnie.

Despite the fact that the first two parts of the game look like two peas in a pod, it contains elements that appeared already in the 3D era - the opportunity to be in the shoes of a law enforcement officer or an ambulance driver and an expanded arsenal.

GTA Liberty City stories

A spin-off to the third part, also released specifically for consoles. This time the protagonist of the game is Toni Cipriani, one of the employers of the nameless hero of GTA III, and the plot revolves around the Italian mafiosi of Liberty City.

In terms of innovations, there are not a lot of innovations here: the developers slightly expanded the vehicle fleet, abandoned the old RenderWire engine especially for the PSP, and made some cosmetic changes to the graphics.

GTA Vice City stories

Another completely independent game, made specifically for PSP and PS 2. The main character of this part, Victor Vance, is interesting because, unlike the other protagonists in the series, he is not a seasoned criminal from the very beginning. He, like Michael Corleone, enters the criminal path by coincidence, which does not prevent him from achieving fame as one of the most dangerous people in Vice City.

This time the developers decided to bring an economic component to the game. Brothels, pawn shops and brothels are scattered throughout the city, by owning which the player can strengthen his influence, earn authority and chop cabbage.

The main character is a retired military man who is forced to become a bandit. But if you are disgusted by this prospect, you can always go back to serve in the army. To do this, you need to find a small house to the right of the entrance to the military base, jump onto its roof, and from there jump over the wall. Now you're in the army, son!

Perhaps this is the part of the line that is closest and dearest to the Russian player. It’s not surprising, because the main character, a simple Balkan guy Niko Bellic, is exactly like the guy who, sitting on the courts near your entrance, asked: “Is there a phone with a camera to call?”

A fundamentally new engine, cool graphics, a completely new combat system and all this in the surroundings of Liberty City, which is like two peas in a pod like New York.

Shootings began to look completely different. Instead of standing like a pillar, pouring lead on the enemy, Niko hides behind cars, partitions and garbage cans, sometimes shooting blindly. The character damage system has also undergone changes: a hit in the hand will cause the enemy to drop the weapon, a shot in the leg will slow him down, and a bullet to the head will calm him down forever.

In the game, you can make money easily, not only by robbing a bank in one of the story missions. You can pinch Liberty City bankers in your free time. Armored trucks with the inscription Gruppe 6 on the back are driving around the city. These are not paddy wagons at all, as it might seem at first glance, but cash-in-transit vehicles. Having stolen such a car, take it to a quiet place and blow it up with any explosives at hand. After this, all that remains is to collect a bountiful harvest from the green packets that spilled out of the exploded armored car.

In this part, the system of relationships with other characters, the beginnings of which could be observed back in San Andreas, blossomed wildly. You need to talk to them on the phone, periodically go to a diner or bar. True, this new product quickly began to irritate many players: there are a lot of situations when Niko rushes at full speed into the oncoming traffic, escaping from pursuit, while talking on the phone with his brother Roman.

The role-playing part and the beginnings of a life simulator, which were present in GTA SA, disappeared in the fourth part. You can no longer pump up your muscles or upgrade your skills. But there was an extensive in-game Internet and a multifunctional mobile phone.

The list of media entertainment is complemented by television, however, such a large city as Liberty City has acquired only two television channels. But they can be used to watch funny videos that parody modern television and pop culture.

The multiplayer in this part offered players a wide scope for joint activities: several types of deathmatches, cooperative tasks, the opportunity to play “Cossacks-robbers”, taking on the role of SWAT fighters or bandits opposing them.

In addition to the main campaign, two additional episodes were released, telling the story of minor, but no less colorful, characters - Jewish biker Johnny Klebitz and Blue Tony's Latino bodyguard, Luis Lopez.

GTA China town wars

The Chinatown wars episode, also related to the plot of the fourth part, was released exclusively on consoles and mobile devices. The appearance of the game has undergone changes again. The isometric projection has become something between the classic top view and the “behind camera” that has already become familiar to us. Unlike the graphics of the previous parts, which were as close to reality as possible, the picture here is completely cartoonish.

But the process of car theft came very close to reality. So, for example, there were several ways to start a car: by tinkering with the ignition switch with a screwdriver, in the old-fashioned way - by connecting the wires, or by resorting to the help of high technology in the case of expensive cars.

It is impossible not to mention such an important new feature that appeared in this part, as the ability to rummage through trash cans in search of various goodies.

GTA V

It has already become a good tradition to expect some changes, good or bad, from each new GTA series. What will happen in the new part can only be judged from the words of the developers themselves.

So, in GTA 5 we are waiting for: three characters at once, between whom you can switch almost at any time; the largest map of all games in the series; return to sports; scuba gear and bathyscaphe; hobbies for characters and the opportunity to rob banks.

The main characters, as it happens, are not ordinary scumbags, but dudes with a complex and strange fate. Two former bank robbers, one of whom began to lead a quiet life, and the second slid to the very bottom, and an aspiring bandit, forced to work part-time at a car dealership.

Games... we launch some to distract ourselves for the evening, and others for a couple of minutes. Games are a part of our life, another way to brighten up gray everyday life. However, there is a game, by launching which you become part of her life. You are a friend of its main characters, you are a plot building tool. Here you are not the center of attention, but only part of the game world. Alive and real... sometimes even more real than this. GTA- a game that plays people...

Grand Theft Auto did not immediately become so popular. Before turning the world of interactive entertainment upside down, GTA had a relatively short, but not at all easy, path. Having changed several generations of video cards, processors and hard drives, the game has transformed from a two-dimensional square world into something stunningly beautiful.

Scottish town of Dundee, early 80s, computer club "KACC" - this is where we hung out Dave Jones, 14 years old Mike Daly, Russell Kay And Steve Hammond. Over the course of several years, the guys became bosom friends, united by a love of games, or more precisely, their development. The city was also home to Ebertay University, which offered some of the world's first courses in game programming. Jones, without hesitation, quit his job and enrolled in these courses. Everything that is not done is for the better! And even before finishing the course, he began to develop his first projects, the money from the sale of which would later become a very important factor in the creation of the legendary GTA.

In 1987, Jones decided it was time to start something serious and opened a company called "DMA Design" with the money mentioned above. Russell Kaye and Steve Hammond were also part of the original line-up, followed by Mike Daly a little later. A cool fact is the decoding of the name "DMA", which at first sounded like "Direct Access to the Brain", and then even cooler - "Doesn't Mean Anything" ("Doesn't mean anything at all"). The company first became famous with the release in 1990 The year of "Lemmings", which sold 20 million copies in total, built DMA's name and money brick by brick. However, this would not last forever and DMA would eventually disintegrate if not for the muse that visited the company in 1994.

Already at the end of this year, work on Grand Theft Auto is in full swing at the DMA. For almost three long years, the company was preparing a revolution that even they themselves did not suspect. Three years before the new millennium, in November 1997 GTA comes out on PC and PlayStation. Looking from a bird's eye view at the fist-sized pixels and pseudo-3D, you don't immediately understand why the game captivates you so much. It is believed that the fewer tools an artist has and the narrower the scope of his capabilities, the more realistic and accurate he will convey his feelings in his work. This is exactly what happened with GTA: the hands of the developers, shackled by the technology of the time, created freedom... For the first time in the game you could do absolutely whatever you wanted. At the same time, the plot was generally for the fad: it consisted of poorly connected tasks that you could simply not care about and go destroy and steal everything. The chaos on the streets of the game was also paid for with in-game money, which provided access to new cities. These cities, by the way, were called Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas =)

GTA is love at first sight: either you don’t like it at all, or you like it strongly and forever. For the originality of the game, you can forgive the outdated look and a bunch of other shortcomings, which the magazines did not do. The game didn’t make a splash in the gaming press, but it didn’t sink to the plinth either. At the same time, like every successful project, GTA began to form a community of fans who did not even doubt that there would be a sequel. And it was. While some of the employees were busy finishing the PlayStation version of the game, DMA Design had already begun development GTA: London 1969(the first expansion) and a sequel called GTA 2.

This is where things begin to change: bad for DMA and hopefully good for GTA (it's not clear how things would have progressed if DMA had continued to work on the rest of the game). The publisher of the first part of the game was bought by Take2 Interactive, which acquired the rights to GTA. However, this was not enough for Take2 and they openly stated that they would like to master DMA Design itself. Dave Jones at that time had not yet realized what happiness he had in his hands (I'm talking about GTA:), so he considered the offer profitable. So in 1999, DMA became part of the Rockstar Games studio.

There is not much to say about the add-on, as well as about the second part of GTA. GTA: London 1969 - a new city that was a very good copy of London, a new soundtrack, 20 new cars and slightly more believable pedestrians. This is where the differences probably end. GTA 2 with the Rockstar logo on the cover, it hit store shelves in 1999. But there was nothing particularly new here either. The graphics have improved slightly, the sound has also improved and has a new soundtrack. There was no division into cities - one huge metropolis with unique cars in each district (there were 40 types of cars in total). It was in GTA 2 that clans (6 in number) appeared, which one could join and quarrel with other clans, but this innovation went unnoticed due to heavy criticism from both the press and players. It became obvious that such a free-spirited game was being stifled by graphics and technology. Therefore, the Rockstar team began work on a new game, planned for 2001, when the world will tremble from the three-dimensional GTA 3...

Popularity varies not only in show business, but also in the world of computer games. Civilization forever went down in history thanks to its smart gameplay. DOOM everyone remembers it as the first online and first three-dimensional game (although this is not entirely true). The Sims and its numerous add-ons grabbed the palm in terms of the number of copies sold. And the most scandalous popularity in the history of the industry was, of course, won by Grand Theft Auto. Moreover, unlike the mentioned “champions” GTA It did not become famous and popular right away. Before getting into the gaming charts, appearing on the pages of newspapers, causing lawsuits and falling under a barrage of puritanical criticism, she had to go through a not very long, but very interesting path. The path from an ugly two-dimensional “duckling” to a seasoned black “swan”.

20 million lemmings can't be wrong

“Preparation” for the greatest game car theft began in the Scottish town of Dundee back in the early 80s. Despite the fact that the history of the PC at that time was only a couple of years old, and Dundee itself was not at all considered the center of civilization, there was a computer club even in this small town. This place was called KACC (Kingsway Amateur Computer Club), and it was located on the territory of the local technical college Kingsway ( Kingsway Technical College).

Its regulars were not only college students, but also quite adult men, such as, for example, Dave Jones- company member Timex, which supplied components for Sinclair Research Ltd. Boys also often visited KACC, including a fourteen-year-old Mike Daly. Despite the age difference, Dave and Mike shared one hobby - computer games. Moreover, both of them were more interested not in games as such, but in their development. Two more regular visitors to the club were interested in the same thing - Russell Kay And Steve Hammond. All of this “magnificent four” met each other at the KACC club, and by 1984 they had become bosom friends.

Fun fact: Ebertay University ( University of Abertay Dundee) located in their hometown, one of the world's first game programming courses was opened at the time. Jones, who went straight out of high school to work at Timex without ever receiving a college degree, decided to take advantage of this chance. After some consideration, he quit his job and enrolled in Ebertay for the above-mentioned courses. The preparation was not in vain: even before completing his studies, Dave began developing his first projects. His first gaming experiments in the early 80s were arcade games Moonshadow and a couple more similar games for Commodore 64 And Amstrad- they weren’t anything remarkable. However, they allowed me to earn good money and gain the most valuable thing - experience.

At the same time, Mike Daly also took his first steps in game development, but his achievements were even more modest - the game Freek Out, a black and white clone of the famous Arkanoid.

Finally, Jones decided that it was time to move on from artisanal experiments to serious business. And so in 1987 he opened a company called DMA Design(with the money he earned from selling his first projects), whose original lineup includes Kaye and Hammond. A little later Mike joins them. The abbreviation DMA originally stood for Direct Mind Access(“Direct access to the brain”), thus playing on a well-known technical term Direct Memory Access. However, a few years later, DMA Design employees began to decipher the name of their company in an even funnier way - as Doesn't Mean Anything(“It doesn’t mean anything at all”).

The first DMA games were games Menace And Blood Money- classic side-scrollers with a space theme. Gamers appreciated the graphical appeal of these simple shooters, but quite rightly criticized them for their brutal complexity.

The first fame came to DMA already in 1990, with the release of the game Lemmings. The original strategic gameplay with interesting puzzles and a healthy sense of humor did not leave players indifferent, and in the first year the game sold more than 60,000 copies in the version for Commodore 64. You can read more about “Lemmings” in the previous issue “ Gambling addiction” in the section Game Over?, let's just say that with all the sequels and re-releases, this game sold a total of more than 20 million copies. We can rightfully say that until the mid-90s, DMA earned its main money (and name!) on “Lemmings”.

Key to start!

At the end of 1994, at the suggestion of Dave Jones, DMA Design began work on a new project - Grand Theft Auto, or, in short, GTA. It was developed for two platforms at once (PC and PlayStation ) almost three years. And in November 1997, the game went gold. On this day, one of the most important revolutions in the gaming industry took place. True, no one has noticed this yet, including the “revolutionaries” themselves. What was the very first GTA?

Launch a fresh one GTA: San Andreas, switch the camera to “top view” mode. Now remove a good half of the features from the game, lower the resolution to 640x480, and replace the 3D graphics with a typical mid-90s sprite engine. This is the original GTA.

Nominally, GTA was considered an ordinary arcade game, but in fact it had many different elements mixed in: 2D racing, action, quests and even (unprecedented for an arcade!) a non-linear campaign. For the most accurate description of the newborn genre, the term “banditry simulator” would be suitable. But this definition is lame on both legs, because the reckless arcade nature of what is happening was preserved even in the latest versions of the game, not to mention the first part.

The main highlight of GTA from its very first part was freedom, and most of it was in the first part of the game. There wasn't even a plot, just a series of loosely connected missions that could be completed in almost any order. Moreover, you could not care about tasks at all and earn money in any convenient way. And in the first GTA they gave out money for everything. Stole a car? Get a cash bonus. Sold your car? Get even more. Run over a pedestrian? Keep your pocket wider - literally. Two pedestrians at once?! Open even wider!

After a certain amount was accumulated as a result of paid lawlessness, access to a new city was opened. By the way, do you know what the cities were called in the first GTA? Liberty City, San Andreas And Vice City.

Unfortunately, the graphics in GTA were far from perfect even by 1997 standards. The only significant achievement of the engine was the ability to change the scale depending on the speed of movement, which made it possible to expand the field of view at high speeds (by the way, the mini-map works on exactly the same principle in GTA III and later versions). There were obvious problems with the visualization of everything else: flying bullets were displayed as tiny piles of pixels (just like in prehistoric shooters), crushed pedestrians most closely resembled cockroaches squashed with a slipper, and the animation was simply terrible. The sound was also not impressive: the effects were done to a C level, there was no speech at all - it was replaced by meaningless muttering in one of the dialects of Sims gibberish. The only good thing was the soundtrack, which included more than an hour of music from the most popular styles of those times: techno, funk, hip-hop, industrial, country and heavy.

But despite its technical backwardness, GTA was fascinating. It was a game from the “love at first sight” series - either you didn’t like it at all, or you liked it right away, and then you could forgive all its shortcomings. And simple graphics, and lack of voice acting, and high complexity, and inconvenient navigation in a huge virtual world, and much more.

Gaming publications greeted GTA quite predictably - with coolness. During the times of total craze for 3D graphics, it was customary to greet games by their clothes, or more precisely, by their engine. However, the “loss” of GTA was also “not counted”, noting its original gameplay, black humor and perfectly seasoned style. At the same time, a stable community of fans began to form around the game, without which not a single worthwhile project could do. And no one doubted that GTA was a successful project, and therefore worthy of continuation.

While some of the DMA Design employees were busy finishing the PlayStation version, the rest began developing the first add-on - GTA: London 1969 - and a sequel Grand Theft Auto II.

At the same time, another significant event occurred. The publisher of the first GTA was bought by one of the industry giants - Take2 Interactive. And the rights to GTA, accordingly, passed to her. Take2 did not intend to stop there and openly expressed interest in purchasing DMA Design itself. Dave Jones, who never understood what kind of diamond he found in a pile of... uh... lemmings, decided that it would be a sin not to take advantage of such a tempting offer, and in 1999 he sold the company. DMA became the property of Take2 and was included in the studio Rockstar Games.

If Jones had been able to appreciate the genius of the gameplay he himself invented, he would now be a millionaire. But Dave backed the wrong horse when he founded a new company in 2002 Real Time Worlds, which released only one mediocre shooter Mobile Forces. Meanwhile, the gaming locomotive called GTA was picking up speed.

Three huge virtual cities.

Countless roads, highways, boulevards and streets with a total length of almost 10,000 kilometers.

Hospitals, banks, strip clubs, military bases, police stations, ports.

There are 20 types of cars in each city, all with their own unique behavior and speed.

Availability of city services: police, firefighters, doctors and public transport.

Different levels of police aggressiveness depending on the player’s actions - from complete ignorance to a hunt for complete destruction.

Supports up to four players when playing over a network or modem.

More than an hour of music in the styles of techno, dance, funk, hip-hop, industrial, heavy metal and country.

Over 200 different missions, including car thefts, drug smuggling, kidnapping, terrorist attacks, contract killings and robberies.

Bloody things!

Weapons: pistol, machine gun, grenade launcher, flamethrower.

Game bonuses: armor, extra lives, bribe to the police, “excuse” from prison, “multiplier” (all money received is multiplied by a coefficient), accelerator (running, driving and shooting become faster).

GTA: London 1969

The whole virtual London, including the Tower, Big Ben and other architectural landmarks.

More than 20 new cars in the style of the 70s.

New soundtrack, also in the style of the 70s.

New missions, even more diverse, even more difficult.

Bloody things! Bigger and more realistic!

There is a small break between the first and second

The first add-on for GTA appeared just a year after the release of the original game. The innovations in London 1969 could be counted on the fingers of one hand: a new virtual city (almost an exact copy of London), 20 new cars, crushed pedestrians lying in pools of blood began to look a little more believable, the soundtrack was completely updated. Everything else hasn't changed one iota.

In 1999, GTA III was released - already with the Rockstar logo on the cover. However, in the sequel, the dosage of innovations was more than modest: the graphics were a little prettier, the sound effects were improved, and new music appeared again. In GTA II there were no longer three cities, but one huge metropolis of three parts with a unique set of cars in each area. There were a total of 40 cars in the game's fleet.

Unlike the first part, GTA II was received much more hostilely by both the press and players. The effect of novelty was no longer there, and the main shortcomings of the series - inconvenient navigation and lagging video sequences - were never eliminated. Carried away by the criticism, almost everyone overlooked another interesting innovation of GTA II - the presence of six different and often warring crime clans, each of which the player could join at will.

After the second part, it became finally clear that the ingenious concept was simply too tight within the existing technological framework. The free-spirited gameplay needed another degree of freedom - visual. And Rockstar began developing a new, fully three-dimensional Grand Theft Auto III. Its release was planned for 2001...

To be continued...

Today it is difficult to imagine a player who has never played a game from the Grand Theft Auto series. She has a multi-million army of fans of different ages around the world. Total sales have already surpassed 125 million copies. This series is criticized by politicians, lawsuits are filed against its authors, but it continues to be published. GTA has come a long way from a 2D top-down action game to one of the most famous franchises of all time. Therefore, today, when the release of Grand Theft Auto V is just around the corner, and there seems to be no strength left to wait, I invite you to plunge into nostalgia, or perhaps learn something new for yourself about this wonderful series.

I draw your attention to the fact that, starting from the third part, there will also be fan modifications among the screenshots. On PC, the series has formed a powerful community of mod makers, which is impossible to ignore. Screenshots with modifications tend to look better than others, or contain real-world elements and brands.

Above you can see art from Australian artist Patrick Brown, known for his work based on computer games. Grand Theft Auto is one of his favorite themes for creativity. This particular art depicts the main characters from the games in the series.

Grand Theft Auto

• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: BMG Interactive

Platforms and release dates:

• MS-DOS and Windows: November 8, 1997
• PlayStation: December 14, 1997
• Game Boy Color: November 22, 1999

Could anyone at that time have predicted that in the future GTA will become one of the most famous, popular and scandalous brands in the entire gaming industry? That its budgets and box office receipts will compete with the biggest blockbusters in the world of cinema? Hardly. In fact, the first part bears little resemblance to its famous descendants, and for its time it was not at all brilliant.

Grand Theft Auto is a 2D top-down arcade game. Many games at the time were already 3D, so GTA was part of a dying genre. However, the game still managed to stand out and attract the attention of players. To understand why this happened, you need to understand one thing: the vast majority of games of that time were not... violent. They were created with the expectation that most potential players would be children. They certainly didn't feature teddy bears and pink ponies, but they also didn't demonstrate cruelty against law-abiding taxpayers. The same cannot be said about Grand Theft Auto.

GTA had a rare, for its time, age rating of 18+ and, to tell the truth, was a gangster simulator. That's right: under the leadership of the player, there was a obviously bad character who was engaged in various criminal activities. First of all, it is the theft of vehicles, which is why the game got its name. And also shootouts with other gangsters, police, and even attacks on ordinary passers-by on the street.

The second key feature of GTA is the freedom of movement around the city, which was even more unusual for games at the time. Here you could simply forget about all the tasks, steal a car and go wherever your eyes lead you. And during missions, the city was also not locked: the player is free to choose the path to the goal. There were actually three cities: Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City, which are based on real New York, San Francisco and Miami, respectively. During the story, after gaining the required number of points, the player was transported to a new city.

The game begins with choosing one of eight characters. Moreover, some of them are women, which is also not typical for subsequent games in the series. Despite its scale, there are still levels in the game. In order to move from one to another, you need to score a certain number of points. They are given for various actions - for stealing cars, for accidents, for murders. But the main source is the mandatory story missions. In addition to them, you can also find a number of side missions, for example, “rampage” missions, during which you need to earn a certain number of points by killing people and blowing up cars using the issued weapons. Interestingly, the number of lives in GTA was limited: if you died several times, start again. It was impossible to save the game, just like in old platformers.

The arsenal in GTA was not rich: a pistol, a machine gun, a flamethrower and a grenade launcher. And even a bulletproof vest that can withstand three hits. But with transport, things were much more fun: the game had cars, trucks, limousines, as well as motorcycles and the holy trinity - police cars, fire trucks and ambulances.

Relations with the police in the GTA have always been very interesting. As soon as you break the law, the cops immediately begin pursuit. And the more you violate, the more aggressive they become. There are four levels of pursuit in total, the further you get, the more difficult it is to survive and escape. To do this, you need to find a police badge, or repaint the car at a car repair shop. But if you fail to escape, the police will arrest you, take away all your weapons and body armor, and your score multipliers.

The original game was ported to Sony PlayStation And Game Boy Color. But the easiest way to get acquainted with it is to download its free version from our website:

Or from the official website Rockstar:classic games R*. You will need to enter your age and email address, where you will receive a link to download the game.

Grand Theft Auto: London 1969

London 1969 is an add-on for the original Grand Theft Auto. In it, as you might guess, the action moves to London. Surprisingly, without the usual antics, such as changing the name of the city to a fictitious one (like New York and Liberty City, for example). The style corresponded to the sixties of the 20th century. In the game you can find a lot of references to the events of that time. For example, in appearance the main character looked like James Bond, the first film about which appeared in the sixties. Traffic in London, by the way, as expected, was on the left.

Grand Theft Auto: London 1961

There was also a third addition to the game - London 1961 of the year. It was free, but required the installation of London 1969, which in turn requires the original Grand Theft Auto.

Grand Theft Auto 2

• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Rockstar Games

Platforms and release dates:

• Windows: September 30, 1999
• PlayStation: October 25, 1999
• Dreamcast: July 28, 2000
• Game Boy Color: November 10, 2000

The English version of the game can be downloaded for free from the website classic Rockstar games

Although the second part received a 3D engine, it still had a top-down view, which delayed global recognition a little longer. Nevertheless, the progress compared to the first part inspires respect. DMA Design they correctly understood what the players want from them: more violence and mayhem! GTA 2 came out brighter than the first one. There was a switch in the menu between daytime and nighttime. It had more and cooler everything. But first things first.

The main character of the game has already been determined in advance - his name is Claude Speed. It's hard to say whether this is the same Claude, who later is the main character GTA III, and appears in GTA: San Andreas- his last name is not mentioned there at all. But the events of GTA 2 take place many years after these games - in 2013. It's funny because it's this year. Presumably, in 1999, for developers it seemed like something distant, which might not happen due to the predicted end of the world. Now Claude faces a path to the top of the city's underworld " Anywhere» ( Anywhere City). Presumably, with this name the developers were trying to disown any connections with reality, or the need to more reliably model the city.

“Anywhere” is traditionally divided into three parts: Downtown, Residential and Industrial areas. As before, the journey goes from one area to the next. To transfer, you first need to accumulate $1,000,000 in the first region, then $3,000,000 in the second, and $5,000,000 in the third to end the game. A new way to spend money has emerged: going to church. You can find it by sitting in a news service minivan with an antenna always pointing towards the church. The cost of the hike is $50,000, but it is worth it: you will hear the cry of “Hallelujah!” Another soul saved!” - and the game will be saved! But if, during a visit to church, Claude did not have the required amount, the curse “Damn it!” No offering - no salvation!

A key role in GTA 2 is played by gangs that have launched their tentacles into the metropolis: the Zaibatsu Corporation appears in all areas. Besides her, the first district was inhabited by: Yakuza and Thugs. In the second region: SRS (Sex and Reproductive Systems) Scientists and Hillbillies. In the third district: Hare Krishnas and the Russian mafia.

Each gang has its own characteristics: corporate colors, logo, cars and weapons. But most importantly: they have tasks for Claude, which can be obtained from a pay phone. Apparently, the developers did not even suspect that by 2013 this type of communication would practically die out. But to get a task from the gang, you need to be on good terms with them. In the corner of the screen is a reputation meter for the three gangs in the current area of ​​the city. If the counter went to the left, then the gang's missions became unavailable. When the player killed members of a gang, he worsened relations with it, but improved them with other gangs. At the same time, the gang with a bad attitude towards Claude acquired more powerful weapons (friendly ones are always armed with pistols). Also, each gang had a boss, and at the end of the events in the city area, these bosses decided to remove Claude, but he did it first.

In addition to representatives of gangs, there were also two types of independent bandits on the streets: car thieves and thieves. They could act both against ordinary townspeople and against gang representatives, and even against the player! You could simply be pulled out of the car and thrown on the asphalt, or robbed at a rate of $10 per second.

Generally speaking, the AI ​​in the second part has improved significantly. Some drivers are armed with pistols, and after a player steals a car, they may try to get it back. In the city, clashes can occur between gangs, police and civilians - without any participation from the player!

Vehicles have also been improved. Now their physical qualities vary: the game has learned to take into account their mass. Taxis and buses began picking up passengers. Claude could also now work as a taxi driver and bus driver. But for some reason the motorcycles were removed from the second part.

Relations with the law have become even more interesting. Firstly, there are now 6 wanted levels. With each subsequent level, the authorities are taking increasingly stringent measures to capture or kill Claude. They chase him, set up barricades, SWAT arrives, government agents arrive, and then the army gets involved - jeeps, armored cars, and even tanks are brought in! In order to escape from the police, as before, you need to find an asterisk icon, or repaint the car in a workshop. But you can also hide from sight, then over time the search will stop.

The arsenal of the second part has become much richer: a pistol, dual pistols, an Uzi submachine gun, an Uzi with a silencer, a shotgun, a flamethrower, an electric shock, a grenade launcher, grenades, a Molotov cocktail! You can get a new cannon by picking it up from the ground or by killing the owner. Also, quite surprisingly, the weapon can be installed on the car! Including: ultrasound, mines, motor oil and a bomb that explodes along with the car. Some cars may already have weapons installed: a heavy machine gun on an army jeep and a stationary flamethrower (alas, only in one of the missions). Yes, and you can still find a tank in the game!

Grand Theft Auto III

• Developer: DMA Design
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Localizers: Buka (2002) / 1C-SoftClub (reissue 2010)

• PC: May 20, 2002
• PlayStation 2: October 22, 2001
• Xbox: October 30, 2003
• iPhone: December 15, 2011
• Android: December 15, 2011

It is no exaggeration to say that GTA III has left its mark on history. Thanks to its three-dimensionality (I say this because “3D” today is more associated with movies and red-blue glasses), it attracted the attention of many more players than the previous parts. Not to mention, the game looks and plays much cooler this way. As a result, Grand Theft Auto III sold many, many millions of copies and gained a lot of fans. But this is not the only point. The game turned out to be so popular that it even formed its own genre, the representatives of which began to be called simply: “GTA Clone.” For example, these are games and series such as: , , , , , , , and many dozens of others.

But this is not the only thing the game is famous for. And not even the numerous “Game of the Year” awards, and the average rating in 97% out of 100 possible on the site Metacritic.com, although it certainly had its impact. But much more interesting are the numerous scandals and public crusades against the game. She was accused of being overly realistic in cruelty and of having a negative impact on the minds of children and even adults. In it you can kill policemen and civilians, and also, which greatly outraged the public, you could film a prostitute who got into the car and, in fact, did her job. Allegedly, after playing GTA III, someone might try to repeat what they saw in real life. Some horrific incidents in the US have been attributed to violent games, particularly Grand Theft Auto. Politicians talked about this, although scientists could not prove any influence of violent games on the human mind. And about the trial Jack Thompson I haven’t heard anything against Rockstar, I’m probably just lazy. Needless to say, all this played to the game’s advantage? It’s so interesting to see for yourself, but what’s all the fuss about? And most of the players were probably satisfied.

The popularity of GTA III, as well as the ease of unpacking the files, led to the creation of one of the most powerful modding communities in history. Everything was changed: models, textures, scripts. The number of new cars, including well-known real models, numbers in the hundreds. Buildings, trees, models of passers-by and other little things were also subject to changes. There were also many global modifications, for example, those that brought winter to Liberty City, or turned the game into a movie “ Matrix", or the game "". And, of course, one cannot help but remember Multi Theft Auto- multiplayer, which appeared in the game only thanks to the fans!

The main character of GTA III is a silent guy who doesn't say a word throughout the entire game. Why, we didn’t even know his name - everyone just called him “guy.” True, looking ahead, the guy also appeared in GTA: San Andreas, where I met Catalina at illegal races. And there Catalina calls him Claude. Not Claude Speed what was the hero's name GTA 2, Just Claude. There are no compelling reasons to believe that this is the same person, although there are also no facts that deny this possibility.

Grand Theft Auto III takes place in the city Liberty City, based in New York City. Let me remind you that it was also the first city in the first part of the series. Traditionally, the "City of Liberty" is divided into three areas: the islands of Portland and Stanton, as well as part of the mainland Coastal Valley. Initially, only the first of them is available - Portland. Later, as the story progresses (and not after gaining the required number of points, as before), two more districts open one after another. Moreover, the forced move to the next district of the city did not block access to the previous one, as was the case before. You can move between them via road tunnels, hanging bridges and even by subway. Each district has one apartment, upon entering which you can save your progress for free and indefinitely. The closest one is always shown on the radar. Unlike previous games in the series, GTA III introduced dynamic changes in the time of day and weather conditions. Interestingly, one day here is equal to 24 minutes.

Portland is predominantly poor and the main attractions are a small park, a port (hence the name), Chinatown and a small mansion on top of a hill, and only Portland has a railway above the city with several stations. Roughly in the middle of Stanton is a business center, many skyscrapers, a stadium, a large construction site for the Stanton Plaza building, and a small marina. "Coastal Valley" is dominated by private mansions, there is a dam, and most importantly, "Francis International Airport", where you can find the only plane in the game that can be used. By the way, so that the players do not try to repeat the incident " 11 September", Dodo's wings were shortened, which made control very difficult. Well, who cares?..

In fact, due to a tragedy that occurred almost before the game's release, its release was delayed by three weeks due to the need to change some aspects of the game in order to reduce the similarities between Liberty City and New York. For example, the blue and white colors of police cars were replaced with black and white. Children, school buses, and female taxi drivers also disappeared from the game. A character named Darkel, who gave out crazy tasks similar to terrorist attacks, has disappeared. The last reminder of him is four homeless people in a Portland tunnel, “guarding” a Molotov Cocktail. However, it is impossible to say for sure whether all the changes were made in the last three weeks; the fact is that some of the content of the beta version was cut out. And it’s hard to blame the developers for this.

GTA III begins with the fact that the same Catalina, who was with Claude for about 9 years (the events of San Andreas - 1992, GTA III - 2001), unexpectedly betrays him during a bank robbery, shoots him, and leaves with a Colombian named Miguel. So our guy ends up behind bars. He faces ten years, but while being transported to prison, a police convoy is attacked by unknown people in order to free one of their own. At the same time, they free Claude and his fellow traveler with bandaged hands, and then the Callahan Bridge, where all this action took place, suddenly explodes, taking the raiders with it. So only Claude and the guy named Bald(in original - 8-Ball- eighth, black, ball in the pool). Together they leave the bridge and stop at Eddie's garage to change out of their prison clothes and sit out their time. After this, Claude, on the recommendation of Baldy, goes to work for the Italian mafia. And then - a long road in the footsteps of Catalina.

At first, Claude is not very trusted, and is forced to do the dirtiest and most petty work, such as delivering prostitutes and stealing cars. But then, when he catches the eye of people occupying a higher position, he gradually gains authority and receives the attention of the Don himself. Salvatore Leone. However, as you know, being too close to your superiors is not only beneficial, but also dangerous. Claude will have to experience this rule the hard way. Later, he will work for many very strange characters, such as a torture lover and a man who hides from the FBI in a public toilet. The whole thing is demonstrated through small videos at the beginning and end of the mission. By the way, they no longer start in a phone booth. Instead, Claude needs to come to the point indicated on the radar (by the way, he first appeared in the third part), marked with a large red circle.

Although “telephone missions” also remain in the game. Through them, representatives of the gangs call Claude and offer him work that is not related to the plot. There are three such phones in total, and after completing the tasks of each of them, Claude will quarrel with one of the gangs, whose representatives will now always be aggressive. There are also “Fury” tasks, in which it is proposed to destroy bandits or cars using the proposed weapons. And if you get into a van with the sign “Serious Toys,” a mission begins using small radio-controlled cars filled with explosives, with which you need to blow up gang cars. And in several cars it is proposed to overcome uneven terrain, collecting checkpoints. It's a risky business, because Claude could fall into the sea, and, by the way, he doesn't know how to swim. There are 20 jumps around the city, where you can make “unique jumps” - when time slows down and the jump is shown from a cinematic camera. In the last area of ​​the city you can find a garage into which you need to drive certain types of cars. The reward is money (the more intact the car, the more), as well as the opportunity to order here any of the previously stolen cars. Well, of course, it remains to remember the “professional” missions - they can be activated by getting into a taxi, ambulance (now it’s clear how they recruit drivers without a license), fire and police. The last of them, “Vigilante,” can also be played on some other vehicles, such as army vehicles, and even on a tank!

If you think that GTA is played for the sake of completing some tasks, then you are mistaken. The main distinguishing feature of this game is the living city. Here passers-by walk the streets, cars drive along the roads, bandits shoot at each other, and the police patrol the city. And they all follow the rules of the road: do not exceed the speed limit, stop at intersections. This idyll can last forever. Until someone, namely the player, decides to intervene. One shot is enough (if you are just walking down the street with a Kalash at the ready, it doesn’t bother anyone) for a chain reaction to begin: passers-by start screaming and rush away, armed bandits may start shooting back, and the police attempt to arrest the offender. But the player doesn’t stop there: you can shoot at fleeing civilians, killing them and shooting off their limbs, from which blood gushes out like a fountain. Grand Theft Auto III is not called a violent game for nothing. An ambulance immediately arrives at the scene, and doctors try to revive the victims. If successful, they can get back on their feet and immediately try to take revenge by attacking Claude! But if the doctors don’t have time (they are mortals too), then the bodies on the ground disappear, and in their place chalk markings appear, as if the police had visited the crime scene and taken the body.

But such crimes do not go unpunished. The police are ready to decisively attack the criminal, calling for backup as necessary. There are 6 levels of search in total: at the beginning it is only the police themselves, from the third level a helicopter is added to their aid, then special forces, the FBI and the US Army with soldiers and tanks. To lower your wanted level, you can hide from view, find a star icon, or repaint your car. However, the fight itself with the forces of law and order can be very interesting! Cops can be killed, cars can be blown up, helicopters can be shot down, and tanks can be destroyed with a grenade launcher. How long will you stay alive at the sixth wanted level? It must be said that instead of death, Claude ended up in a hospital, where all his weapons and some money for treatment were taken away from him. And in case of arrest - the same, adjusted for the police station and the bribe. There was no talk of any end to the game. And then, no one forbids you to simply download the game so as not to look for all these weapons again.

There were 50 cars in the game, as well as 3 boats and 1 Dodo plane. The most famous Easter egg of GTA III is connected with the latter: the fact is that on Dodo you can fly to the “ghost island” - the area with the bank from the opening video. Unfortunately, there were no motorcycles at all. But, to be honest, there were quite enough cars. Among them there are family jalopies, simple coupes, pickups, minivans, buses, trucks, limousines, sports cars and so on. All of them are fictitious. The physical model is far from perfect, even by the standards of that time. Damage is only visual and does not affect driving performance. When the hit points run out, the car catches fire and explodes. The same thing happens after a rollover onto the roof.

The weapons in the third part were the following: your own fists, a baseball bat (can always be found near the safe house), a pistol, an Uzi, a shotgun, a Kalashnikov assault rifle, M16, a sniper rifle, an RPG-7, a flamethrower, a lemon grenade, a Molotov cocktail and detonator for a car bomb. All of these weapons could be carried with you, and the ammo limit was set at 9999. It was also possible to find armor that gave the character an additional 100 points of damage, which he could withstand until disabled. All this stuff can be found on the street, bought in stores, or received for free if you collect hidden packages. For every ten packages found, a new weapon appears near each of Claude's apartments. There are a hundred packages in total, and to collect them it is better to use a map that can be easily found on the Internet.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

• Developer: Rockstar North
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Localizer: 1C-SoftClub (2009)

Platforms and release dates:

• PC: 09 May 2003
• PlayStation 2: October 28, 2002
• Xbox: October 31, 2003
• iPhone: December 06, 2012
• Android: December 06, 2012

If you remember Vice City- also called the second city from the first part Grand Theft Auto. The game starts with a splash screen stylized as a computer command line Commodore 64. And soon after the launch, you realize that you find yourself in the past - in Miami 1986 In the game, however, the city is called by a fictitious name - Vice City, but there can be no doubt about which city served as the model. Vice City strikingly different from Liberty City: It's a little bigger and only divided into two districts, and a lot more colorful. Half-naked girls walk along the streets, palm trees sway in the wind, yachts are docked, rich people play golf, and the main character, Tommy Vercetti, judging by his clothes, he was just going on vacation. Everything here is saturated with the “Eighties”: music and conversations on radio stations, cars on the streets, clothes on random passers-by.

It is secretly believed that the main inspiration for the creators of the game was the movie " Face with a scar» ( Scarface). So, on the radio that you can listen to in the car, you can hear songs from this film. It also took place in Miami. On the airship in the sky you can see the film's slogan: The World is yours. After purchasing the strip club, Tommy can wear the costume of the main character of the film - Tony Montana. The Malibu club is a copy of the Babylon club, Diaz's estate is very similar to Tony Montana's estate, and the office is actually a copy of it, and the drug lord himself Ricardo Diaz, in its impulsive nature, it resembles the main character of the film. Needless to say, the final mission is reminiscent of the ending of Scarface?

The basic mechanics haven't changed much over the year, but the authors have focused on expanding the player's capabilities. So, it has now become possible to purchase real estate. Part of it is intended to create additional save points, and the other brings profit. In the second half of the game, the player is tasked with acquiring particularly important enterprises: a taxi company, an ice cream factory (a front for drug dealers), a Malibu club, a car dealership, and even a porn studio. They also give out assignments related to production and distribution matters. So that the player does not get lost in this huge city, in addition to the radar, a full-fledged map was finally built into the game.

Unlike Claude, Tommy is not averse to changing his wardrobe from time to time, although standard Hawaiian shirts and jeans suit him very well. Many costumes become available after certain missions. Dressing up also reduces the police's wanted rate.

Perhaps not the most important, but still quite an interesting innovation, can be considered a change in the hotel room in which Tommy stays. After some story missions, he brings a “trophy” to the room - for example, a mask from a bank robbery. And, of course, here you can find "infinite" weapons - which continue to appear as hidden things are found - this time figurines, inside of which drugs were transported. And for completing the game 100%, a T-shirt appears in the issue with the inscription “I completed GTA 100%, and all I got was this stupid T-shirt.”

The weapons have also been seriously reworked. Firstly, there is now much more of it. In this regard, not everything can be carried with you - weapons are divided into several types: brass knuckles (instead of fists), melee (bat, knife, chainsaw, as well as an assortment of tool stores), pistols (9mm pistol and revolver), shotguns and guns (shotgun, shotgun, automatic shotgun), machine guns (M4, Ingram, Tes 9, Kruger, MP5), as well as heavy weapons (M60, Sniper rifle, PSG-1. Gatling, Flamethrower, Grenade launcher). Taking another weapon from the same cell would throw the old weapon out of it.

In addition to hundreds of car models, in Weiss you can find six types of motorcycles, seven aircraft (mostly helicopters) and five boats. Tommy, like Claude, cannot swim, but he flies perfectly. It must be said that the transport has become more similar to its real prototypes.

Most of the side quests have been carried over from previous parts. First of all, these are “professional” missions in city service vehicles. Added to these was the task of delivering pizza, which lasted an insane amount of time - more than an hour. You can also steal cars using the list; it is now in the car dealership. Fury missions have not changed. There are only more races, as well as various tasks with overcoming obstacles. The game even has a stadium where stunt competitions take place. To earn extra money, you could rob store cash registers, after which you had to hide from the police, since the siren went off in the store. Instead of exploding toy cars, helicopters and airplanes, as well as “neutralized” racing cars, are now in fashion. Racing them is still fun. At one time, many players struggled with a story-driven mission in which they had to place explosives using small but deadly radio-controlled helicopters inside a building under construction.

There were more modifications for Vice City than for GTA III. It also includes a myriad of new vehicles, clothing, weapons, buildings, and even locations. The most famous is perhaps Deluxe- it contains a replacement for all (!!!) vehicles in the game, with real, highly detailed models. Among them: Mercedes SLR Cabrio, Aston Martin Vantage, BMW X5, Audi RS6, Ferrari 360 Modena, Mitsubishi Lancer Evo VII, Subaru WRX STI, Nissan Skyline and others! Also, the new transport was assigned new physical characteristics. In addition, Deluxe redraws many buildings in the city. And what's more: it adds several new areas, including motorcycle parks for stunts. And finally, it makes more than a hundred small changes. Naturally, playing through the game will not be very comfortable. But for free play (which, in my opinion, is the most important thing in the Grand Theft Auto series) - just what you need!

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

• Developer: Rockstar North
• Publisher: Rockstar Games
• Publisher in Russia: 1C-SoftClub

Platforms and release dates:

• PC: June 07, 2005
• PlayStation 2: October 26, 2004
• PlayStation 3: December 11, 2012
• Xbox: June 07, 2005

Not long ago, the founder of the studio Rockstar Dan Houser, said: “the best games of a generation come out at sunset, not at dawn” - commenting on the fact that Grand Theft Auto V will be released on consoles Xbox 360 And PS3, just before the release of a new generation of consoles. These words have a weighty argument behind them, in the form of what is still the largest and most scandalous game in the series, released at the end of PlayStation 2.

The Russian version appeared quite recently - only in February 2010, almost five years after the game was released. Traditionally, only subtitles were translated. However, fans had already managed to translate the game very well on their own. True, this does not apply to the very first machine translation, which produced phrases like “spent”, “the cackling rooster is not ready yet”, “signs thrown out”, etc.

The game attracted a big public scandal: among the game's resources, an erotic mini-game cut from it was discovered. It was cut out so badly that folk craftsmen instantly returned it to functionality - just throw a few files into a folder and press the launch combination in the game, after which you can go on a date with one of the girls. After a successful date, the girl could invite C.J.“for a cup of hot coffee” (for which this episode received the name Hot Coffee). Without modification, the girl’s house will simply be shown, from which unambiguous sounds are heard, while the camera staggers in different directions. With the modification, everything is much cooler: we can watch an erotic scene inside the house. During it, the girl completely undresses (although Karl for some reason remains in clothes), after which a mini-game begins by pressing the keys quickly and frequently, the goal of which is to satisfy the girl. The outcome, by the way, influenced the final result of the date.

After the discovery of content on the game discs, a big scandal broke out, because the game was sold with an age rating Mature in the USA (17+), which does not include such explicit scenes. The game's rating quickly changed to Adults Only(18+, that is, you just had to wait a year...), under which many stores were forced to move the game to the pornography section, or even return all copies to the publisher. Later, a new edition was released with the same Mature rating, which no longer contained controversial content. For the PC version, along with patch 1.1, which contained some fixes for game bugs, the functionality of the Hot Coffee modification was also disabled, due to which the patch is also known as “No More Hot Coffee”.

Rockstar explained this content only as an experiment by its employees, which it decided to abandon in favor of a lower age rating. In fairness, it should be noted that without the intervention of hackers in the game archives, this content would never have become available to the player. To activate it, you need to download a modification called Hot Coffee from the Internet and drop the files into the game folder. But is the process very different from installing numerous erotic modifications for many other games? In both cases, the user was aware of what exactly he was installing and what changes would occur in the game.

The Hot Coffee scandal soon added a new one: in 2006, a famous prosecutor and lawyer Jack Thompson, who opposes violence in games, turned his attention to GTA. He accused the game of inciting violence in reality, encouraging people to take up guns and leave the house with them. Similar episodes really happened and still happen in the USA, but Jack Thompson was seriously convinced that games were to blame for everything. He has repeatedly demanded that the sale of the Grand Theft Auto series be banned. However, already in 2008, the Supreme Court of Florida stripped Thompson of his lawyer's license for misrepresentation of facts and insults, including to the judge, after another denial of his claim. This was the end of Jack Thompson's public career.

How did all this affect GTA: San Andreas and Rockstar? Oh, they have gained a unique reputation. And although the legal costs obviously cost the publisher dearly, their game received incomparable PR. Many people bought the game simply to see for themselves what was so cruel and terrible about it. If you believe Kotaku, then according to information as of September 2011, the game sold a total of 27.5 million copies. Perhaps comments are unnecessary.

GTA: San Andreas takes place in 1992 in a fictional state San Andreas. Presumably, it is named after the crustal fault of the same name in the state of California. If you thought that San Andreas, like the third city in the very first Grand Theft Auto game, was based on San Francisco, then you are somewhat mistaken. The fact is that the game no longer has one city, but three: Los Santos, San Fierro And Las Venturas. Moreover, in addition to each of them, there is also a rural area (in the case of Las Vernturas, desert), which for the most part in the game are used as tracks for illegal racing. Thus, the total area of ​​the San Andreas game world is five times larger than in GTA III and at four than at GTA: Vice City. The cities and surrounding areas are separated from each other by a wide river, across which many bridges have been built. The railway runs between all three cities, where it has several stations. You can also quickly move between cities using airports.

Los Santos is based on Los Angeles. There are a lot of completely different areas in it. There are plenty of references to the real Los Angeles here. Just look at the Walk of Fame and the huge inscription “ Vinewood"on a hill, behind which there is also a district of the same name, consisting of rich villas of celebrities. But there is also a dysfunctional ghetto here, where dysfunctional families live, many of whom have been forced to steal since childhood in order to survive. Los Santos is torn apart by a confrontation between gangs consisting of blacks and Mexicans. The business center of the city is home to many skyscrapers, from the highest of which you can jump with a parachute. The stadium here hosts miniature Nascar car races. The countryside around Los Santos is not very remarkable. Just farms, a factory, and a few small villages.

San Fierro is the name of the city based on San Francisco. Most of all, it is interesting for its hills - it’s very cool to jump down them in a fast car or on a motorcycle, but it can take quite a long time to climb. It also has its own tram system. The tram cannot be destroyed or slowed down. There is a ship at the docks that buys stolen cars from lists. San Fierro is the automotive capital of the state. There is an extreme driving school here, after which CJ is invited to take part in illegal races. As for the legal ones, a derby is held at the stadium here. The city is ruled by triad families, as well as pimps and bandits who have connections with the gangs of Los Santos. The countryside is interesting only for the presence of a real mountain - Chiliad, from the top of which the most difficult championship is held - downhill mountain biking.

Las Venturas, as you might guess from the name, is a local Las Vegas. The main and only attraction, like the famous prototype, is the very long main street, occupied by casinos and hotels. In the casino, by the way, you can play some gambling games, winning or losing up to a million dollars at a time. These same casinos are run by three families of the Italian mafia, Leone, Forelli and Sindacco, as well as triads familiar from San Fierro. There is also a stadium where two disciplines are held at once, depending on the day of the week: motocross and extreme motorcycle stunts. Not far from the city there is a huge mining quarry where you can earn extra money driving a dump truck (relevant if you just lost a couple of million in a casino). But the most interesting thing begins further, in the hot desert. There is an abandoned airport turned into an airplane graveyard, a highly classified military base called Area 69, and a huge hydroelectric power plant on a dam.

The main character in GTA: San Andreas is Carl Johnson, or just C.J. ( C.J.). He is black and grew up in a dysfunctional family in the Los Santos ghetto. The game begins with C.J. flying in from Liberty City, where he had lived for the past five years, for his mother's funeral. Upon arrival, he is immediately attacked by corrupt cops, accused of murdering an officer (which he committed himself), and abandoned on the streets of a hostile gang. Late for the funeral, Karl, however, finds his brother Sweet and sister Kendle, as well as childhood acquaintances Ryder and Big Smoke, at the cemetery. From them he learns about the plight of the Grove Street gang, after which he decides to stay to help fix things. Then several shocks await him, an escape from his hometown into the rural wilderness, and then through all three cities of San Andreas.

The plot may not have enough stars in the sky, but how else could it be possible to bring so many unique and different characters onto the stage! There is an old hippie who sees government conspiracies everywhere, as well as a government agent who knows about a lot of things and has impressive connections. There is a strict boss of a Chinese triad, two black feuding rappers, a 27-year-old genius who creates very dangerous toys, a casino croupier who changes her formal suit to latex at night... I could go on and on.

The game also has a lot of references to previous parts of the series. In fact, GTA III, Vice City and San Andreas are often called a trilogy because they take place in the same universe and their events often overlap. So, hot Mexican Catalina meets Karl to commit a couple of robberies, after which she leaves him for an illegal racer Claude, who takes her to Liberty City. We know how this romance ended from GTA III. One of the owners of the casino in Las Venturas will also go to the “City of Freedom” in the future, his name is Salvatore Leone, and in front of C.J. in the Caligula casino, he meets a waitress Maria Latore, to whom he is married during GTA III. Salvatore also arranges for C.J. to visit Marco's Bistro in Liberty City. And straight from Vice City A lawyer arrives in Las Venturas Ken Rosenberg and record producer Kent Paul. And that's not all the references.

For the first time since GTA 2, the ability to interact with the gang has returned to the series. Los Santos is divided into four largest ones: “ Groove Street"(this is the gang of CJ and his family), " Varrio Los Aztecas" (friendly), " Ballas" And " Los Santos Vagos" It is with the last two that there is a war ahead: Los Santos is divided into sectors, the colors of which are marked on the map depending on the gang that owns them. The ultimate goal is to completely green the entire map. You'll have to start with a small piece, including the streets around CJ's home. To conquer at least one new piece, you need to start a war with a gang on it: kill several of its members, and then withstand three attacks from this gang, one more powerful than the other.

You can take several comrades from the Grove Street gang to help you - the higher the authority (increased by capturing territories), the more fighters you can take. They can also climb into a car with Karl, or sit on the back seat of a motorcycle. After capturing the territory, members of the Grove Street gang begin to patrol it. Also, near Karl's house, it will be possible to take profits received from the held areas. But not everything is so simple: enemy gangs often try to recapture their territories - you need to go and suppress the rebellion, otherwise the territory will be lost. But when the entire map turns green, the riots will immediately end, and there will be no more Ballas and Vagos in Los Santos.

Interestingly, strip clubs have appeared in the game, which Karl can visit, and where he can even order a private erotic dance. Prostitutes, who can be “picked” while in the car, are also not canceled.

But what's even more interesting is that Karl can now have girlfriends. They are found in both cities and rural areas. Two of them are found during the storyline, but the rest must be found on your own. Naturally, none of them suspects the existence of the others. The benefits of good relationships with girls can be obtained even without modification of Hot Coffee. So, a girl from San Fierro has connections in a medical institution, thanks to which Karl’s weapons will no longer be taken away if he ends up in the hospital. The same goes for a girl from a desert village near Las Venturas, she has similar connections with the police. In addition, each of the girls can allow Karl to take her car, and can also give him a unique costume. CJ looks great in a police suit, next to the corrupt cops Tenpenny and Pulaski, and in a village suit he only rides on a tractor and rides.

But in order to receive these bonuses, you will have to work hard. Each girl requires personal attention: you need to go on dates with her (for example, to a bar, restaurant, eatery, or to a nightclub, where you have to go through a mini-game with dancing), give gifts and ride in expensive cars at a certain speed. All girls have different tastes and morals.

There are a lot more side missions than before, even though the rage missions have been lost. But the “professional” tasks have not gone away: ambulances, taxis, police, and firefighters are still waiting for their hero. They were also joined by pimps (distributing prostitutes to clients, as well as their security) and even local train drivers (they can be hijacked!). In addition, you can work as a burglar, a truck driver, a courier, a parking attendant, a mining dump truck driver, and a motorcycle racer at stadiums. There are also amazing activities such as triathlons (swimming, cycling and running), high-powered motorcycle jumping on the docks and BMX bike jumping on the construction site, and mountain biking down Mount Chilliad. Plus to all this - several dozen racing tracks, including flights on various aircraft.

The game also added more mini-games. So, when you go to a bar, you can play billiards for money. Using the arcade machine, or home console, in CJ's house, you can play several ancient video games. Entering the basketball court, you can pick up the ball and try to set a record of hits from different points on the court. You can dance in clubs, and some cars can be equipped with hydraulic suspension, after which you can participate in low-rider competitions.

Gambling can be mentioned in a separate line. Already in Los Santos, you can find machines that accept bets on horse races. But the most interesting thing awaits Karl at the Las Venturas casino. Here you can play roulette, blackjack, poker, wheel of fortune and numerous “one-armed bandits”. At the beginning, Karl is not allowed at the high stakes tables. First, you need to win or lose a lot of money, thereby gaining a reputation, after which you can bet millions. Of course, the risk of losing is very high, but no one has canceled the ability to load saves until fortune smiles on you.

It is worth noting that CJ can do much more than the heroes of previous games. Much was borrowed from the previous Rockstar game (in San Andreas, by the way, there is one location from this game). The crosshair no longer constantly hangs in the center of the screen - it only appears when you hold down the right mouse button. Karl knows how to move stealthily while crouched, and by sneaking up from behind with a knife, he can kill an enemy by cutting his throat. Can jump and climb over obstacles, such as numerous fences. Karl can learn one of three types of martial arts from masters in the gyms. He is also not afraid to fly on a jetpack, jump with a parachute and even... knows how to swim and dive!

Carl can expand his wardrobe by shopping at the many clothing stores in San Andreas. Purchased clothes are immediately duplicated in the closets of all (well, almost) houses that can be purchased in the game. What’s even more interesting: it’s not suits that are bought, but individual elements: tops, bottoms, shoes, hats, glasses, watches and chains. They can be worn in any order, so Karl can look like a clown, a cowboy, or a gentleman. Or completely ridiculous - in shorts with hearts, cowboy boots, a hockey mask and with a chainsaw in his hands...

There are two more ways to make your CJ unique (or just make fun of him) - a trip to the hairdresser, where for a modest fee you can choose one of many hairstyles, and also a tattoo salon, where you can cover most of Karl's body with different tattoos.

Well, since houses were mentioned. CJ prefers to purchase residential buildings for himself, for himself. Both luxury and cheap village apartments. You can save in all of them. Yes, you can still get housing during the story. But it is also very advisable to buy a new one: it is convenient, because the game world has grown a lot, and dragging through the entire city to the only save point is long and often dangerous.

Perhaps one of the most surprising innovations in GTA: San Andreas was the parameters of the main character. CJ has the following indicators: fat, endurance, respect, lung capacity, appearance, muscles, driver skills, pilot skills, motorcyclist skills, cyclist skills, as well as gambling experience and the ability to shoot each type of weapon separately!

If you suddenly imagine throwing away skill points when you level up, like in some role-playing game, then forget it right away. To build muscle and become more resilient, you need to go to the gym and do exercises that involve pressing one or more keys very often. At this time, Karl is on the screen lifting dumbbells, or riding an exercise bike, losing fat. To keep the fat from running out (it will drag down your health indicator), you need to go to an eatery and binge on junk food. This is done long and tediously, but the results are visible: Karl becomes muscular. And if you just get drunk, he will become fat, like Big Smoke. The rest of the parameters are similar. Some of the side missions gave bonuses to characteristics: the ambulance mission increased health, the burglar - endless running, and to improve vehicle driving skills, you need to attend special schools.

CJ's arsenal is almost no different from what it was in GTA: Vice City. However, explosives now include things like a gas grenade and C4 with a remote detonator. Some useful things appeared: a fire extinguisher, a can of spray paint and a film camera. In connection with the appearance of girls, you can find gifts for them: a bouquet of flowers, a cane, a dildo and a vibrator. Just for fun, they can be used in battle. And lastly: a night vision device with a thermal imager, as well as a parachute (disposable).

As mentioned earlier, there is a separate skill scale for each type of firearm. The higher the skill, the more accurately the weapon shoots, and at the maximum level of one-handed guns (9mm pistols, sawed-off shotguns, micro-Uzi and TEC-9) - you can take them one in each hand! The fastest way to improve your skills is at the shooting range, in the Ammu-Nation network of traditional weapons stores.

Instead of the usual hundred hidden things, there were many unique collectibles in San Andreas. So, in Los Santos it is proposed to paint over 100 graffiti of enemy gangs, for which four types of weapons will appear in CJ’s house. There are 50 photo angles in San Fierro - icons that are only visible through the camera lens - and they also spawn four weapons near the garage workshop in Doherty. 50 lucky horseshoes were scattered in Las Venturas, for which four types of weapons appear near the Four Dragons casino, and also increases luck in gambling. There were also 50 shells scattered throughout the state (you need to dive for them, and the reward is increased lung capacity and attractiveness) and 70 unique jumps, for which you pay with money.

If you suddenly thought that the previous games in the series had too few vehicles, then the same definitely cannot be said about San Andreas. And we’re not even talking about the banal addition of new cars and motorcycles, although the game is fine with this too. The main thing is that whole new categories have appeared: these are two bicycles, many planes (including a huge passenger airliner, a smaller passenger plane, a corn truck, an airplane and a military fighter armed with homing missiles), trailers with trailers that detach and attach, a tow truck with a controlled crane, a combine harvester, an ATV, a go-kart and even a train, even if you can only ride it on rails. And there is also a wonderful thing called a jetpack. Having put it on, you can fly and even shoot, aiming as if you were outside of a vehicle. Just so you understand, there are a total of about two hundred vehicles in San Andreas!

All transport is conditionally divided into the following categories: cars, motorcycles, bicycles and aircraft. Each category is responsible for a separate skill. The more you ride, the better Carl gets at it. This is most noticeable on bicycles, and in the case of cars and motorcycles, high skill is the key to entering stadiums. There is, however, one more category - swimming equipment, but there is no skill for them.

Starting from San Fierro, it will be possible to find special schools for extreme driving of cars, boats, motorcycles and aircraft. By completing tasks in them, CJ improves his skills. In each school you can get medals: bronze, silver and gold. If there is at least one bronze among them, then there will always be one ruined building near the school. If there is no bronze, but there is silver, then something better will be added to the wreck. And for gold you can get really cool vehicles. So, for gold in driving school, you can get a single game copy " Hotknife", based on Ford Model A(1920-30s), of which there are only a few units left in the real world. And at the flight school you can get a military helicopter at your disposal.

In addition to the usual painting station, you can visit a workshop where most cars can be “pumped up” to the fullest. Body parts, rims, spoilers can be replaced, a roof can be installed on convertibles, a hydraulic suspension can be installed on some cars, nitro acceleration can be installed, you can separately choose the color for the interior and exterior paint, and even choose a vinyl pattern!

Karl’s relationship with the police is not much different from his “colleagues” from previous games. Unless now, to free yourself from pursuit, you don’t have to look for stars - you can hide from view, and then they will quickly go out on their own. Cops also no longer use spike strips. But, generally speaking, thanks to the scale and expanse of San Andreas, the war with the forces of law and order here is acute and interesting as nowhere else!

If there were just a lot of modifications for previous games in the series, then for San Andreas there are just an insanely many of them! More than several thousand. And they are still coming out! Among them there are not only numerous replacements for cars, textures of everything, but even new locations with their own stories! Of course, the vast majority of them are of very low quality, but still. There are many mods based on other games and universes, such as numerous lightsabers. And the most interesting and original, in the author’s opinion, are modifications containing Russian content - Soviet and Russian cars, clothes, and so on.

In a separate line I would like to mention a well-known addition called ENBSeries. This is a graphical improvement that adds many new graphical effects to the game, such as shaders version 3.0 (in the game, only version 2.0 is used) and many others.

However, the main achievement of folk craftsmen can be safely called modifications that add multiplayer modes to the game. The most famous of them: Multi Theft Auto And San Andreas Multiplayer, which are also used on website (GTA.ru) and support up to hundreds (!!!) of players simultaneously! Fortunately, the scale of San Andreas allows this.

In the desert near Las Venturas, near a row of huge satellite dishes, not far from Area 69, you can find Lil' Prob's. A flying saucer is spinning on a pillar next to her, hinting at the contents of the tavern. Inside, the walls are decorated with numerous photographs of UFOs, and in the back room there is a certain apparatus for detecting UFOs, as well as a map of San Andreas with points marked on it.

It must be something like this that gave birth to the idea that there really should be a UFO somewhere in GTA: San Andreas! Or something otherworldly, like Bigfoot and Nessie. Many players simply began to invent that they had seen this or that strange event in the game, forcing other players to waste time checking these ridiculous legends. But take my word for it: there are NO UFOs in San Andreas! This is all just fiction. Yes, and there is no “Area 69” either, and there cannot be. This is true, otherwise the government would not hide such information from its taxpayers.

Grand Theft Auto Advance

• Developer: Digital Eclipse
• Publisher: Rockstar Games

• Platform and release date: Game Boy Advance: October 25, 2004

The action takes place in Liberty City from GTA III, with minor changes such as the absence of ramps, tunnels and subways. This is because the game was two-dimensional, with a top-down view, like GTA And GTA 2. Well, what did you expect from the Game Boy Advance? Nevertheless, the game should be of interest to fans of the third part. GTA Advance takes place a year before GTA III. Among the characters there are old acquaintances, "Eight Ball" and King Courtney, as well as previously poorly disclosed Yardie gangs and the Colombian cartel, and others. You will play as a petty criminal, Mike, who, with his friend Vinnie, was trying to earn money to get out of Liberty City. The last thing was supposed to be work for the mafia Salvatore Lione, but Vinnie was killed, and Mike decides to take revenge on the killers. The game still featured flashes of rage, hidden packages, and trampolines that were moved. And there were also professional missions - police, ambulance and others. As well as an expanded set of weapons.

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories

• Developers: Rockstar Leeds
• Publisher: Rockstar Games

Platforms and release dates:

• PSP: October 25, 2005
• PlayStation 2: June 06, 2006

The action takes place in Liberty City 1998, the game is a prequel to GTA III. The main character is Tony Cipriani, already familiar to GTA III players. There, in the future (relatively LCS), he occupied a high position under Don Lyon and gave Claude tasks against the triad. He was also a real mama's boy: his elderly mother scolded him even in front of her subordinates. Interestingly, he seemed quite full, although he had not yet been this way in the LCS. Apparently, my mother fattened me up.

But let's get back to Liberty City Stories. Here Tony just arrives in the city, where he enters the service of Don Salvatore Lion and other mafia bosses. Generally speaking, the story campaign is quite long - 70 missions. In addition to Salvatore, there are other old acquaintances: Donald Love, Phil Cassidy, Maria Latore, « Eight ball" And Miguel(Colombian, future ally Catalina).

Interestingly, Liberty City here is not the same as we see him in GTA III. Still, the difference is three years. Much to our horror, the city's districts are still isolated from each other, but the tunnels and subway will never be completed during this game. Like the Callahan Bridge, which can only be crossed by jumps. It turns out that the islands were strongly isolated from each other and from the mainland for quite a long time. In addition, many buildings and establishments that at different times belonged to different owners underwent changes.

The LCS had the following side missions: garbage truck driver (delivery of bodies to a landfill), “Karmageddon” (Karmageddon, probably a reference to the famous game -) - you need to create riots on a fire truck, delivering pizza, selling cars (namely selling, not stealing ), sale of motorcycles, guide to Liberty City, “angel of vengeance” - a costumed mission to catch troublemakers, shooting from the seat of a motorcycle at the specified cars. In addition, old acquaintances have also been preserved: professional missions, outbursts of rage, races, telephone missions, hijacking, unique jumps, collecting secret packages.

Generally speaking, it's surprising that there are motorcycles in the LCS! Later, their absence in GTA III is also explained - the public insisted on a ban on motorcycles. Arsenal was practically copied from GTA: San Andreas.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories

• Developer: Rockstar Leeds
• Publisher: Rockstar Games

Platforms and release dates:

• PSP: October 31, 2006
• PS2: March 6, 2007

But that will happen later, and in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories- Victor Vance is an honest guy entering military service at Fort Baxter, under the command of a sergeant Martinez. Unlike Victor, Martinez has first-hand knowledge of the underworld of Vice City. He even hires Victor to do some dirty work. At the end of the last task, Martinez frames Victor, for which he is fired from the army. After which he has no choice but to continue to join the criminal world of Vice City. At a certain point, he begins to build his own criminal empire together with his brother Lance. They are involved in many activities together, including racketeering, loan sharking, robbery, drug trafficking, pimping and smuggling.

To the traditional missions of a policeman, ambulance, taxi and fireman, new ones have been added: a medical helicopter, a helicopter for extinguishing fires, and the work of a beach patrolman. You also had to deliver vehicles according to lists, as well as collect 99 balloons to get free weapons, complete fury missions and unique jumps.

The city in VCS is slightly different from the original one. Some buildings can be found unfinished or not existing at all. There was an opportunity to ride a Ferris wheel and visit a trailer park. A floating restaurant has appeared in the port.

Grand Theft Auto IV

• Developer: Rockstar North
• Developer: Rockstar Games
• Localizer: 1C-SoftClub

Platforms and release dates:

• Xbox 360: April 29, 2008
• PlayStation 3: April 29, 2008
• PC: December 19, 2008

The first thing that catches your eye when looking at it is the graphics. At the time of release, the game was very technological and demanding on hardware. So, having recently bought a system unit for a thousand dollars, you had to put up with the fact that you couldn’t see the maximum graphics settings. However, soon a lot of patches appeared for the game and the brakes, for the most part, disappeared, and the dynamic shadows only became more beautiful.

Which is surprising, because before, games in the series have always seriously lagged behind others in terms of technology, scale and gameplay. This was primarily due to the weakness of the console PlayStation 2, and the scale was incomparable with other games. Now there were no such restrictions, PlayStation 3 And Xbox 360 allowed us to create a much more detailed and technologically advanced game world. The game used a new proprietary engine: RAGE (Rockstar Advanced Game Engine). He supported the technology DirectX 9 and used it to the fullest. The game also had an outstanding physical model of the behavior of vehicles, and even some destructible objects. For the first time in GTA you could feel the suspension working, and the cars received very realistic external damage.

In addition, the game used innovative technology Euphoria, on which the character animation was made. For example, now in a head-on collision at high speed, you can fly through the windshield, constantly hitting objects, gradually losing speed and health. What can we say about realistically knocked down pedestrians. Also, the reaction to wounds from firearms was implemented very well.

The game takes place again in Liberty City. Not the one that was in GTA III. IN GTA IV a new “era” starts: the game no longer intersects with the events of the previous parts. There are no old characters in it, not even mentions of them. Although the game retained many previously invented parodies of brands. Mostly these include the names of vehicles, which are now unambiguously similar to some real models. There are also fashion brands that sell clothes, eatery names like Burger Shot or Cluckin Bell, beverages Sprunk And eCola, and much more.

The new Liberty City is much more similar to the real one NY, than ever. It is traditionally divided into three parts: Broker (based in Brooklyn), Algonquin (Manhattan) and Alderney (New Jersey). In addition to them, there are also “islands”, like Bohan (Bronx), the largest of them, as well as an island with “ Statue of Happiness"(parody of Statue of Liberty- in the game she has a face Hilary Clinton, and holds a glass of coffee in his hand). All together they are connected by numerous bridges, tunnels and a high railway. In addition, for the first time in the series, it was possible to take a taxi, which could take you to any object marked on the map (including player markers anywhere on the map). The main character got into the car, chose a route and speed (faster - more expensive), after which the taxi began to drive, and the player could look at the streets around him throughout the trip. You can also book a bird's eye tour of Liberty City at the helicopter station. Well, or steal one and inspect everything yourself.

The following problem became the subject of jokes and indignation among players: only taxis could drive in the city. This happened when there was a lack of RAM, the diversity of traffic directly depended on the number of gigabytes. However, this is how Liberty City became more like New York - there are also a lot of taxis there.

The main character in Grand Theft Auto IV was an emigrant from Eastern Europe - a Serb named Niko Bellic(in fact, the Serbian surname Bellic is pronounced Belic, but Bellic is better to the English ear). He sails on a ship to the “Land of Great Opportunities” to start life from scratch. In the past, he had the opportunity to fight in a real war, where he saw enough of everything, after which he began to see the world very cynically. And upon returning to his homeland, Niko could not find an honest job - no one wanted to hire a soldier. Then he had to engage in criminal matters - in particular smuggling, transporting illegal goods, and even... slaves. But one of the enterprises failed, the ship sank along with all the goods. Niko miraculously managed to escape, but his boss, named Ray Bulgarin, felt that Niko owed him money. And then he had to go to Liberty City, where his cousin had been living in a luxurious mansion, surrounded by supermodels, and with many sports cars in the garage for ten years. Roman Bellic. At least, that’s how he himself described everything in his letters.

Stepping off the ship onto solid ground in the port of Liberty City, Niko discovers Roman, dirty, drunk and driving a taxi. Instead of a mansion, he lives in a dirty one-room apartment, and the only cars he has are taxis from his small taxi fleet. And even he still only miraculously stays afloat: Roman owes money to a loan shark, and besides, he often loses at cards. It’s not hard to guess that now Niko will have to take care not only of himself, but also of his unlucky cousin. The plan to start a new life quickly turns into the same blue dream as Roman’s mansion. He will have to work for the loan shark, then for his boss, and then for the drug dealers, the mafia... or anyone who has money.

Rockstar loves to explore topics that are often glossed over. This time they turned to immigrants from Eastern Europe and Russia. The south of Bokhan, the first of the game's regions, is completely given over to the Russians. There are such establishments as the Perestroika cabaret and the Comrades bar. Here, passers-by on the street often talk in Russian, with Niko or simply on the phone. And in the first clothing store you can buy different types of sweatpants, and even a hat with earflaps with a hammer and sickle on the forehead. As Niko notes, “these clothes look like they came from our homeland.” A very nice feature of the game was the radio station Vladivostok FM, on which only domestic songs are played! Ukrainian singer performed as DJ Ruslana, and the rapper Seryoga recorded an exclusive track for the game called “Invasion”.

GTA IV took up quite a few gigabytes. To fit it, it took two double-layer DVD discs. In fact, the lion's share went to music for radio and... television. In his apartment, Niko can simply sit in a chair or on the sofa and start watching TV. It had several channels and TV shows, including historical chronicles, cartoon series, glamor TV shows and more. All this was performed on the game engine and voiced by actors. Like everything else in the game, the TV programs were filled with satire, parodies and just plain hilarious humor.

Two more important innovations are the mobile phone and the Internet. If earlier you could only receive calls on your phone (and Claude only had a pager), now there are many more functions. Firstly, you can now call all the characters you know yourself. So you can invite a girl on a date, or a friend to a drinking party. The phone also has a camera, pictures of which can be saved. Using a mobile phone, you could enter the video editor and multiplayer game mode. Well, also enter cheat codes.

If GTA: San Andreas and previous games only brought new missions to the series, then GTA IV lost most of them. The only professional tasks left were police and taxi tasks (for Roman's taxi fleet). There are still numerous (although not as unique as in San Andreas) races and car theft missions. The latter have now changed somewhat: Niko’s phone receives a photo of the car and the name of the street where it is parked. So the player had to first identify the place and the car, and then drive it to the garage. From the well-forgotten old days, missions received through a telephone booth, which consisted of committing contract killings, returned. That's all. Unless, there are unique jumps and hidden things, which this time are played by 200 pigeons (“flying rats” - in the English version), cooing when approaching, and which need to be shot. To our great surprise, there is no bonus in the form of free weapons after exterminating the pigeons.

But not everything is so bad: many side quests with a plot appeared. There are many characters dotted around the streets who need Niko Bellic's help. As a rule, the tasks are monosyllabic - give a ride, or kill someone. What’s more interesting: during the main storyline, it is possible to keep the “ordered” characters alive. In this case, you can find these characters somewhere in the city and receive a task from them.

In addition to the dates from the last part, hangouts with friends have also been added. Niko can meet friends during the course of the story. But you will have to look for girls on a dating site. Both of them are practically the same, in fact, with the exception of the beginning (each girl has different tastes in terms of clothes and Niko’s car) and the ending - Niko does not come home to his friends for a cup of coffee. The goal of these events is to win favor, in numerical terms. When it becomes high, the characters begin to provide Niko with services: they arrange a well-paid job, bring and sell weapons at a discount (therefore now there is practically no point in looking for them on the streets), load a bomb into a car, ward off the police, organize a discount in a fashion store, etc. in that spirit.

To organize a meeting, you need to call the character and indicate the place where you intend to take him (her). You need to meet different characters at different times, because everyone has a different life schedule, and if you wake them up, they will be offended. They can also call and invite Niko to hang out. Dates and meetings can be held in the same places. In a diner, in a club, in a bar, in a cabaret where they show a show, and even in a strip club where you need to order a private dance. There were also mini-games: bowling, billiards and darts. During one meeting or date, you can visit several places, after which you need to take the character home.

The most beneficial thing, in terms of improving relationships, is going to a bar. There, Niko and his boyfriend or girlfriend get drunk and start telling what they really think. Very interesting at times. And on the way out, both are so drunk that they start walking backwards and constantly fall. It is very difficult to drive a car in this condition - the camera sways, the car itself turns wherever it wants, and the police also start a chase if they see it.

Because of this feature, another small scandal broke out around GTA IV. Some people saw this as promoting drunk driving. Allegedly, the game teaches people how to drive a car while intoxicated. A video even appeared on the Internet: a man played GTA IV for two weeks, where Niko drove a car while drunk. After which he drank himself and tried to drive a car in the game. Result: the game does not teach any drunk driving skills at all.

In terms of customization of the main character, GTA IV is much inferior to San Andreas. There are no longer hair salons or tattoo parlors in Liberty City. And the range of clothing stores is not amazing. However, the trip to them is more interesting: you can go up to any product and try it on. All clothes are still available in the wardrobe in Niko's apartment.

In terms of arsenal, the fourth part is again inferior to San Andreas in quantity - there are only 15 weapons. Gifts and almost all types of cold and heavy weapons completely disappeared from the arsenal. See for yourself what's left: a knife, a baseball bat, Glock 22 and Desert Eagle pistols, an Uzi and SMG, a pump-action and combat shotgun, an AK-47 and an M4, two sniper rifles, an RPG-7, a Molotov cocktail and a fragmentation grenade.

But the combat system has undergone significant changes. First of all, this concerns the introduction of the increasingly popular system of shelters from. Niko and his enemies can attack almost any obstacle, including cars. Shootings have become much more realistic and tactical, although they have lost some of the excitement and dynamics. However, in your free time from missions, no one will stop you from taking an RPG and going to blow up all oncoming cars and helicopters, although Niko will not live long in this case. However, it is no longer necessary to get out of the car to open targeted fire. Niko can break glass and stick out light weapons (pistol or submachine gun), as well as throw grenades and incendiary mixtures. But as for shooting: when you hold the button, a sight now appears on the screen, allowing you to shoot 360 degrees, although previously you could only shoot left and right.

There are also fewer vehicles in GTA IV. All controllable airplanes, bicycles, an amphibious hovercraft, a parachute, a jetpack and even the holy of holies - the Tank - have disappeared from the game! However, we still have: cars, motorcycles, boats and helicopters. In GTA IV, they are more similar than ever to their real prototypes. It became quite obvious whether it was a Mercedes, a Lamborghini or a Ferrari. The physics model has also become much more realistic, the suspension is well felt, and crashes have never looked so realistic. And yet, tuning has disappeared from the game. But the paint shop has now added a car wash. Well, will it really replace tuning and customization? Interesting features of transport in GTA IV include the appearance of GPS in cars. During missions, the radar marks the shortest path to the target. You can also put your own mark on the map. In expensive cars, GPS is even voiced; it can warn about turns in advance.

Along with the tank, the military forces also disappeared from the fourth part. However, the police are still assisted by FIB agents (the game equivalent of the FBI) ​​and special forces. And the search system itself has undergone serious changes. During a chase, you can see a circle on the radar that marks the search area. The higher the wanted level, the larger the territory. To evade the police, you need to hide from view, leave the marked area and not be seen by law enforcement for some time. If Niko is spotted, the search area moves and centers on him. The police stars are gone, but you can still repaint the car. This action will now fast forward time six hours.

Rockstar finally listened to common sense and now they themselves have developed a multiplayer mode for the game. It includes 15 interesting modes that support up to 32 players. Among these modes there are death matches, racing, completing mafia tasks, bandits against cops, bandits against special forces, capturing control points, hunting for “goods”, industrial hijacking, planting a bomb on a ship, and, finally, the good old “Free mode”.

The system was used as a platform for multiplayer Microsoft Games for Windows Live. It was also mandatory to register with an incomprehensible service. Rockstar Games Social Club. As copy protection - SecuROM. The game also had built-in additional protection against NoDVD, nicknamed by players as “a drunken camera and a brick on the gas pedal.” It was as follows: if the game decided that you were using NoDVD, then when you got into the car, you soon found it smoking and with the brakes off, while the camera wobbled just like after drinking alcohol! To be fair, all owners of licensed copies avoided a similar fate; in addition, they could download an alternative launch file that allowed them to run the game without a disc, while maintaining multiplayer. Registration of the game remained mandatory.

It's no secret that the most frequently released fan additions have always been new cars. You can see many of them here in the screenshots. And if those already in the game were very similar to real ones, then what can we say about fan-made transport models, whose creators were not bound by any legal restrictions. For example, now, at the will of the player, the Benshee car could become not just like Dodge Viper, she literally became her, as if it were so.

You can also remember the real tuning created by craftsmen, with blackjack, vinyl and neon lighting! Well, the most important thing is a huge number of graphic modifications. Often, looking at their screenshots, you seriously doubt whether this is a photograph?

Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City

• Developer: Rockstar North
• Developer: Rockstar Games
• Localizer: 1C-SoftClub

Platforms and release dates:

• Xbox 360: October 29, 2009
• PlayStation 3: April 13, 2010
• PC: April 13, 2010

The Episodes take place in the same Liberty City, as GTA IV. The city is almost identical, except for some important places. The add-ons contain their own main characters, new characters and story missions. The connecting link is the line about the diamonds belonging to Ray Bulgarin. They slip out of his hands, after which each of the heroes tries to take possession of them - Niko Bellic from GTA IV, Johnny Klebitz from TLAD And Luis Lopez from TBOGT, for their own reasons. In addition, all three heroes are also connected with a large shipment of drugs, which are closely monitored by the police. Together, the three plots form one, shedding light on many blind spots in each other's plots. In terms of the length of the storylines, each addition is approximately equal to 1/3 of the GTA IV plot.

In addition, they add some new features to the game, such as mini-games, additional tasks, new weapons and vehicles. As well as new sites on the Internet, new programs on TV and new tracks on the radio, including several new radio stations. Interestingly, in Episodes all areas of the city are open initially and available for exploration, unlike GTA IV.

According to the author, Episodes from Liberty City is a great addition that neutralized most of the complaints about the original. It greatly expanded its capabilities, diversifying its arsenal and fleet of vehicles. In addition, GTA IV, together with the episodes, forms the overall plot. Each of the heroes has their own point of view on Liberty City. Niko Bellic is an immigrant who is trying to settle down in an unfamiliar world, having no friends and family here, with the exception of his cousin, and not having a peaceful profession. Johnny Klebitz is a biker for whom the motorcycle and the well-being of his gang, the Lost Ones, are his raison d'être. The atmosphere in TLAD is so thick that you begin to get used to the role - a stern biker who despises four-wheelers and Japanese knockoffs, and Liberty Rock Radio must be playing on the radio. Luis Lopez, in turn, sees Liberty City as one big glamorous hangout full of majors, fagots and whores. Playing as him, you start stealing only sports cars and dressing in expensive suits. The most remarkable thing about Ballad is that it brought the Tank back into the game!

It came as a surprise to many that Rockstar originally released the first episode, The Lost and Damned, exclusively for the Xbox 360. It was only many months later that a port to PC and PS3 was only announced. History repeated itself with the second expansion, The Ballad of Gay Tony. Two editions of the Episodes were released in Russian: Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City - it contains two workable episodes, without the original GTA IV, and also as part of the “Complete Edition”, which contained both the Episodes and the original GTA IV. However, 1C again translated only the text, and, moreover, not in the best way; you can find much better fan translations on the Internet.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned

The plot of "" starts at a time when Niko Bellic begins working for Mikhail Faustin. This is evidenced by the story of one of the bikers that he is dating the daughter of some Russian, who is Mr. Faustin.

The game's protagonist, Johnny Klebitz (yes, he's Jewish), is the vice president of the biker club The Lost. "The Lost" is a real gang of armed thugs who prefer chopper motorcycles. They are armed not with some kind of clubs, but with real firearms. It is needed for protection from other gangs, or for attacking them, as it turns out. The gang has its own club, The Lost Liberty, with drinks, strippers, a pool table and other attributes of a biker club. Johnny sleeps right here, on a mattress in the utility room, where the computer and TV are also located.

The president of the club and gang is Billy, who is just leaving prison after completing a rehabilitation course. Before his return, Johnny coped well with the duties of a manager: he negotiated peace with another powerful gang, the Angels of Death, and also kept the business afloat. But now, after Bill’s return, he again takes the reins of power, first of all declaring war on the “Angels of Death”. He also forces Johnny to do menial jobs for the Jewish mafia. Thus, the game pays a lot of attention to the confrontation between Johnny and Bill. Other gang members also have their own attitude towards both leaders.

The first and most important innovation in TLAD is the appearance of your own gang, ready to come to the rescue at the first call. These are not faceless clones, like in GTA: San Andreas. You will know the name of each of them, and even... the level. Levels are gained by surviving raids on enemy gangs, which were also added to TLAD. The deceased comrade is replaced by a newcomer, leaving behind a photograph on the wall in the club of the Lost gang.

If the gang leaves, then Johnny's accompanying people will try to follow him in strict combat order. Also, in some missions, Johnny himself needs to ride behind Billy, in this case he will restore health and armor, and will also be able to talk with other bikers riding nearby.

In addition to his “comrades in arms,” Johnny also has friends with whom he can spend time. They can also provide services from the very beginning - customizing motorcycles and weapons.

Air hockey was added to the entertainment and competitions. In addition, in the club you can play a card game “over-under” and compete in arm wrestling. And in the city you can take part in biker races, in which you can also use a baton. Interestingly, Johnny does not visit stores. It is impossible to change his club leather jacket, and why? It would be ridiculous. The interface has also undergone changes; it has “aged” and acquired more details. In addition, the palette of the city has changed greatly: it is now completely yellowish-gray, and there is little that disturbs it. And instead of pigeons, now you need to kill 50 seagulls, and the Innovation motorcycle will become available as a reward.

The TLAD add-on is primarily dedicated to motorcycles. Therefore, it is not surprising that the most of them were added - as many as 17 pieces. Near the club, Johnny is always waiting for his faithful chopper - “Hexer”. In addition, 4 trucks and 2 cars were added.

Johnny's signature and first available weapon was a sawn-off double-barreled shotgun, which was not in the original GTA IV. In addition to it, they also added: a billiard cue, a new semi-automatic pistol, an assault shotgun that fires bursts, a real grenade launcher that fires 40mm projectiles flying in a parabola, and homemade explosives.

The addition also affected the multiplayer mode, adding five new types of competitions at once: chasing a motorcycle with an armed helicopter (in the English version there is a play on words - Chopper vs. Chopper), a number of tasks for the club, “wolf hunt” - when all players try to kill one biker , a gang war for territory, and the latest - the battle of the Lost against the police special forces.

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Ballad of Gay Tony

"" begins at the moment when Niko Bellic, along with the McReary family, robbed the Liberty City bank.

“Ballad” is entirely dedicated to everything glamorous and dirty. Gay Tony, aka Blue Tony, aka Anthony Prince, is the owner of two nightclubs in Liberty City, one for gays and one for straights. But, fortunately, we play not for him, but for his bodyguard and partner Luis Lopez, a Latino of a traditional orientation. Louis helps Tony by working as a bouncer in clubs and doing many illegal things on his orders. The fact is that Tony owes a lot of money here and there, and if he doesn’t pay off, he may lose his business. In addition, Louis has to take care of his family and friends, who constantly get into trouble.

A distinctive feature of “Ballad” is its deviation away from realism. Unlike GTA IV and TLAD, it doesn't try to be serious anymore. TBOGT in this regard is much more reminiscent of Vice City and San Andreas. She is bright, colorful and very cheerful. Finally, she returned the Tank! Almost. An armored personnel carrier is an armored personnel carrier with a turret with a large-caliber gun mounted on it. It is much faster than any tank, and also has a high rate of fire, so it is simply perfect for making noise in Liberty City.

In The Ballad, Rockstar continued to actively make up for the lack of side missions in the original. So, “drug wars” were added - tasks for transporting drugs, for completing every ten pieces in which a weapon was delivered to Louis’s apartment. In Louis's hometown, there are hand-to-hand fights without rules, in which you can participate for money. There was an opportunity to play real golf. And the “triathlon” here is not the same as in San Andreas: first Luis jumps with a parachute, then gets into a boat and floats on it to the car in which he finishes. Yes, yes, the parachute is back. New tasks are also associated with it - you need to fly through “crowns” marked in the air, and then land at a specified location, or even on a moving truck. Also worth mentioning is working in a nightclub. Louis can take over duty as a bouncer. There is also a mini-game with drinking champagne, as well as dancing (again, waving the San Andreas pen), where you can pick up a girl.

The weapon that Louis initially carries with him is a very powerful .44 caliber pistol. Also added: a shotgun with explosive bullets, an assault submachine gun, a golden (!!!) Uzi, a light machine gun, a new improved sniper rifle and sticky bombs. In addition to weapons, the game also added dozens of vehicles, music tracks, and made several changes to the multiplayer mode.

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

• Developer: Rockstar Leeds
• Publisher: Rockstar Games

• Nintendo DS: March 17, 2009
• PlayStation Portable: October 20, 2009
• iPhone and iPod Touch: January 18, 2010
• iPad: September 10, 2010