This girlie's got an evil streak... (Grand Theft Auto III (PC))

Member Name: xadoc

Product:	Grand Theft Auto III (PC)
Date:	02/04/03 (161 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Amazing gameplay., Freedom to roam., Excellent Missions

Disadvantages: You can't choose a girl character :o(, You need a good PC, Hopelessly addictive.

I don't like driving games. I don't even like violent games, but this is truly the best game I have ever played, without question.

I was addicted for about 2 months, then I loaned it to my Dad and he became similarly addicted; so much so, that if mum mentioned I had phoned or e-mailed, all he asked was if I'd said anything about the game, so I guess that’s a recommendation!

The people who made this have really thought about it. Right down to the detail on the radio stations, the things people say as you walk past, the different handling and speeds of the cars, the different weapons, the celebrity cameos. There is so much to do, I won't be finished playing with this for a long time, even though I did all the missions a while ago.

Let me start with the basics.

GTA3 is primarily a driving and shooting game based on missions. It is set on three islands, which you can travel between by means of bridges, tunnels and a subway. The three islands are populated by a variety of gangs warring with each other, who tend to occupy certain areas. You can walk around, steal cars, collect money and guns, kill people, do stunts, pick up prostitutes, drive a boat, fly a plane and lots more besides.

The game starts with you escaping from a police van on the way to prison. You can only explore one of the islands to begin with (because of an explosion on the bridge - the reason you escaped, and construction work in the subway and road tunnel). The bridge and tunnels are gradually opened as you complete the various missions.

One of your co-escaping convicts (8-ball) shows you the way to your hideout (where you go to save the game) and introduces you to a mobster, Luigi, who becomes your first employer. After this, you are free to do as you choose.

There is a path through the game via the different missions and employers you meet. Sometimes you can have as many as three different employers on the go at once
, which is a good idea as occasionally when you find a mission too difficult, you can leave it for a while and pursue a different employer's missions instead.

There are other missions too. Pick up a police car (try not to get caught) and you can complete vigilante missions for money. Similarly there are taxi, ambulance and fire engine missions too.

If you drive somewhere and think you hear a phone ringing, it's not the radio station you're listening to, it'll be a phone booth somewhere nearby with yet another person on the end of it wanting you to do something for them, usually bumping someone off.

But you don't have to do the missions at all (except in order to get onto all the islands). You can explore and just shoot people at random, do stunts and pick up prostitutes if you like, it's up to you.

If you get shot too many times, or blown up, or drown, you end up back at the hospital, minus your accumulated weapons and a little lighter in the wallet. If your wanted level gets too high (more about this later) and you get caught by the police, you end up at the police station, again minus your weapons, and some dosh.

There are things to collect as you travel around - health bonuses (obviously you need to be patched up occasionally), shields to protect you, various weapons (baseball bat, shotgun, sniper rifle, Uzi, grenades, Molotov cocktails, bazooka etc), sheriff badges which reduce your wanted level, and secret packages – for every ten of these you get a weapon or other useful item at your hideout, which come in very handy.

There are also things called “rampages” (blue circles with skulls in) which give you a time limit to kill a given number of members of a certain gang, blow up a specified number of cars etc., and reward you highly if you manage it, although you can only do these once.

If you spot a group of planks leant against something, chances are you have
found a jump. There are plenty of these around the place, and they can be great fun. Try doing stunts in coaches, fire engines, juggernauts or just in fast cars, they are great. There’s even a purpose built bridge for doing the James Bond Goldfinger car jump on the third island.

If you do a stunt well enough, you get a slo-mo replay and a "stunt bonus" payment. If you manage to land it straight and keep driving, you get even more money. If you do it really well you can get "insane" or "unique" stunt bonuses which can be as much as £20,000, £30,000 even £50,000. If, however, you mess up, roll your car and don’t get out of it sharpish, it blows up, which is hazardous to your health. However, this can come in very handy if you need to blow a building up and can’t find or afford grenades or a car bomb at 8 ball’s garage.

More about your wanted level: Basically the more bad things you do, especially if the police see you, the more this goes up. If you get a wanted level star, police cars you pass will start to follow you, lights flashing, and policemen on the beat will try to pull you out of your car if you stop, and chase you if you’re on foot.

If you manage to lose the police and generally stay out of the way for a little while your star will go, but only if you have one, if you get two or more they don’t just go away. If you get lots of wanted stars it gets really fun, the Feds come after you, then helicopters (great to shoot down with a bazooka) then tanks. Hurrah!

If you get a high wanted level, there are a few things you can do apart from collect sheriff badges, which can be quite spread out, and if you’re being chased by FBI cars who are setting up roadblocks and choppers firing on you, this isn’t the most efficient method. You can go back to your hideout for a cooling off period, or visit the pay & spray shop, which will give your car a new coat of p
aint; thereby fooling the police into believing you’ve disappeared.

There are different benefits to the different weapons; you can use the Uzi when you’re in the car for drive by shootings, you can use the bazooka to blow up cars and helicopters with one shot, but my personal favourite is the sniper rifle. If you get yourself into a good vantage point, and focus in with the scope, you can use it to pop people’s heads, arms or legs off, which then spurt blood until the person collapses onto the floor. Marvellous fun!

Usually shooting people results in a couple of piles of money, occasionally a weapon and after a little while, a chalk outline on the floor. Occasionally someone you shoot will be carrying lots of loot and will be surrounded by piles of it, which is always nice.

Picking up prostitutes boosts your health temporarily. Just stop by one (they’re not hard to spot), she’ll get in your car, then drive to a quiet location, stop the car and it will start to rock. After the rocking has stopped, she’ll get out of the car and you’ll have a bit less money, but a bit more health (110% ish), although you can just jump out and beat her up then and get your money back if you’re in a stingy mood.

There are four Toyz ‘n the Hood vans dotted around. If you get into one of these you get a remote control car complete with bomb and a time limit to blow up cars belonging to a specified gang. There are other cars parked in various places, which start up driving missions for you to collect things too.

At the docks on the first island and on the hill by the dam on the third island there are import/export garages. On the wall is a list of the vehicles they require and if you take them there you get paid for one car of each type. If you take all the cars on the list you get a bonus payment and from then on, if you go to the garage, you can choose as many cars as you like from the selec
tion you took there.

Also at the docks there is an area of yellow hashing on the tarmac. If you take emergency vehicles here, they get lifted onto the waiting ship and you get paid - another source of cash.

On the third island there is an airport with a plane you can fly, although it’s tricky. My strategy is to tap the down key (never tap up) constantly, and eventually the plane gets up speed and takes off. Flying the plane around corners requires practice and there’s even a site on the net devoted to hints and tips for how to do barrel rolls, loop the loops and the like.

The radio is fab. There are stations for pop, rock, 70’s and 80’s music, hip-hop, dance, and my favourite, the talk radio station with Lazlow and his inane guests and callers. The music isn’t bad, but the tongue-in-cheek ads are what make the radio stations so good. One benefit of playing this on the pc is that you can put shortcuts to your mp3 files so the radio also acts as a CD player. Another benefit of playing on pc is that if you are an arty type, you can create different clothes for your character, which isn’t possible on PS2.

There are a number of cheats: type “ilikedressingup” and your character will change costume, perhaps into a fireman, perhaps an old lady, who knows. Type “itsallgoingmaaad” and the pedestrians will start killing each other. Type “ilikescotland” and it becomes overcast, “ilovescotland” makes it start raining. Perhaps my favourite cheat is “bangbangbang” which makes all the cars you can see spontaneously explode. There are other cheats to give you more money, more guns and less of a wanted level, but there are plenty of sites listing them, so I won’t here.

I only have a few quibbles. Firstly you can’t choose to be a female character, but this would affect some of the story lines, so I can forgive this oversight. Secondly
, you need to have a pretty capable pc to be able to play this happily. I have a 1Ghz AMD processor and a 32 meg video card, which is way over the minimum spec on the box of 450Mhz +16meg video, but I had to download updated software for my video card, turn down the graphics detail, draw distance etc, and close all non-essential programs running in the background, so don’t believe everything you read on boxes. Having said this, this game would be an excellent reason to upgrade if your computer is a little tired…

Also, the lucky owners of PS2’s can already buy the next instalment of this classic game – Grand Theft Auto – Vice City, which has motorbikes and helicopters to play with, but unfortunately, although destined for release on the pc, there is no release date as yet…

There’s probably more stuff I’ve forgotten to mention about GTA3, but basically this is one cool game. It doesn't try to be nice, it doesn't try to be politically correct, but it does what it does very well indeed. Go get shooting!

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