Tags: GTA, Grand Theft Auto, Vice City , GTA series, GTA all versions, GTA all gamesGrand Theft Auto (commonly abbreviated GTA) is a video game series created in the United Kingdom by Dave Jones, then later by brothers Dan Houser and Sam Houser, and game designer Zachary Clarke. It is primarily developed by British developer Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design) and published by Rockstar Games. The name of the series is derived from grand theft auto, a term referring to motor vehicle theft. The series has won multiple awards.
The series is set in fictional locales heavily modelled on American cities, while an expansion for the original was based in London. Gameplay focuses on an open world where the player can choose missions to progress an overall story, as well as engaging in side activities, all consisting of action-adventure, driving, occasional role-playing, stealth, and racing elements. The subject of the games is usually a comedic satire of American culture, but the series has gained controversy for its adult nature and violent themes. The series focuses around many different protagonists who attempt to rise through the ranks of the criminal underworld, although their motives for doing so vary in each game. The antagonists are commonly characters who have betrayed the protagonist or his organisation, or characters who have the most impact impeding the protagonist's progress.
Video game developer DMA Design began the series in 1997, and it currently has ten stand-alone games and four expansion packs. The third chronological title, Grand Theft Auto III, was widely acclaimed, as it brought the series to a 3D setting and more immersive experience, and is considered a landmark title that has subsequently influenced many other open world action games and led to the label "Grand Theft Auto clone" on similar games. Subsequent titles would follow and build upon the concept established in Grand Theft Auto III. Film veterans such as Michael Madsen, Ray Liotta, Burt Reynolds, Dennis Hopper, Danny Trejo, Gary Busey, Samuel L. Jackson, Chris Penn, James Woods, Joe Pantoliano, Jenna Jameson, Frank Vincent, Robert Loggia, Kyle MacLachlan, Phil Collins and Peter Fonda have all voiced major characters, and the series is critically acclaimed and commercially successful, having sold more than 114 million units, as of September 2011. The fourth era of Grand Theft Auto included lesser known actors, such as Michael Hollick, Jason Zumwalt, and Scott Hill.
Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto, the first game in the Grand Theft Auto series, was created by video game developer DMA Design, and was released for Microsoft DOS/Windows in 1997/1998 and also for the PlayStation. The game is set in three different fictional cities, Liberty City, San Andreas and Vice City. A reduced Game Boy Color port was later released.Subsequently, two expansion packs, Grand Theft Auto: London, 1969 and Grand Theft Auto: London, 1961, were released on 31 March and 1 June 1999, respectively.
Grand Theft Auto 2
The second game in the series, Grand Theft Auto 2, was developed for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation, and Dreamcast and released in the year 1999. Set in the indeterminable future,it featured updated graphics and somewhat different gameplay based upon the player's appeal to various criminal organisations. Grand Theft Auto 2 takes place in a retro-futuristic setting, in an unnamed American city.
A reduced Game Boy Color port was also produced. It is the only Grand Theft Auto game to have a "T" rating for a PlayStation console, it is also the only numbered sequel to have a digit in the title instead of a Roman numeral.
Grand Theft Auto III
Grand Theft Auto III was released in October 2001, and served as the breakthrough for the franchise. The game's setting takes place around that time, in fictional Liberty City,which is loosely based on New York City, but also incorporates elements of other American cities. Grand Theft Auto III brought a third-person view to the series, rather than the traditional top-down
view of earlier titles (although the view is still made available as an optional camera angle). For the first time, the problem of navigating in the huge sandbox game was solved by implementing a constant GPS triggered mini-map that highlights the player's position as well as those of current targets. Graphics were also updated with a new 3D game engine. The gameplay engine expanded the explorable world of GTA III, using a mission-based approach. Multiplayer was discarded (third party mods were later released, allowing for multiplayer gameplay), but GTA III improved in many other areas such as voice-acting and plot (in previous games, there was speech only in short animated cut scenes between levels, while other communication was simply subtitles running on the bottom of the screen).On 13 October 2011, Rockstar announced the release of Grand Theft Auto III on iPad, iPhone 4S and various other handheld consoles, celebrating the 10th year of the game's relea
se.
After the success of Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was released in 2002. This game was set in 1986 in Vice City, which was based on Miami, Florida. The game's plot focuses on the cocaine trade during the 1980s. Vice City was the first game to introduce fully functional flying vehicles that could be used by the player, such as seaplanes and helicopters. It also featured a variety of new weapons and vehicles.
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, released in October 2004, is set in 1992, focusing on California gang life and the awakening of the drug epidemic brought on by crack cocaine. The setting was in the fictional state of San Andreas, which was based on some California and Nevada cities, specifically Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Las Vegas. Their counterparts are Los Santos, San Fierro, and Las Venturas respectively. The game also included a countryside in between Los Santos and San Fierro and also between Los Santos and Las Venturas, and a desert in between Las Venturas and San Fierro.
Grand Theft Auto Advance (simply called Grand Theft Auto in the cover), for the Game Boy Advance, was also released in 2004. Originally developed as a top-down conversion of GTA III, it eventually became an original game. Unlike the Game Boy Color ports of Grand Theft Auto and Grand Theft Auto 2, Grand Theft Auto did not tone down the violence and pro
fanity common to the GTA series. The game received an "M" rating from the ESRB. It was developed by an external developer, Digital Eclipse.
In 2005 and 2006, Rockstar released two games for the PlayStation Portable, both developed by Rockstar Leeds. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a prequel to Grand Theft Auto III and set in Liberty City in 1998. A PlayStation 2 port was released by Rockstar on 6 June 2006.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was released for the PlayStation Portable on 31 October 2006 and set in Vice City in 1984, two years before the events of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. A PlayStation 2 port of the game was released on 6 March 2007. It is the last game of the third generation series, and the final game in the Grand Theft Auto III canon.
In in-game chronological order the third generation Grand Theft Auto games are:
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories; set in 1984, released in 2006
- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City; set in 1986, released in 2002
- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas; set in 1992, released in 2004
- Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories; set in 1998, released in 2005
- Grand Theft Auto (Game Boy Advance); set in 2000, released in 2004
- Grand Theft Auto III; set and released in 2001
Grand Theft Auto IV
Grand Theft Auto IV was released on 29 April 2008, after a six month delay. It was the first Grand Theft Auto game to be released simultaneously for both Sony and Microsoft's video game consoles. In August 2008, Rockstar announced that it was going to publish GTA IV for PC.
Grand Theft Auto IV has much more realistic gameplay than its predecessors, no characters from previous games appear in GTA IV; according to Dan Houser "virtually none of the characters from the previous games returned, as a lot of them are dead anyway."The game once again takes place in a redesigned Liberty City that very closely resembles New York City, much more than previous renditions.
Microsoft officially announced a "strategic alliance" with Rockstar Games over the rights to episodic content through their Xbox Live service at their X06 event. This content was released as Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned on 17 February 2009, and it was available for download, exclusively for the Xbox 360. This was because of the substantial $50 million that Microsoft paid Rockstar to keep it exclusive. The strategic alliance was however timed and both DLC episodes and the compilation pack were released on 13 April 2010 on PS3 and PC. The expansion adds some new elements to the existing game and focuses on Johnny Klebitz, the vice president of "The Lost" motorcycle gang.
The second and last Grand Theft Auto IV downloadable content episode was called Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony and was released on 29 October 2009. Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City is a compilation pack released for the Xbox 360 at the same time as The Ballad of Gay Tony. It contains The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony on one disk and does not require an original copy of GTA IV.
Grand Theft Auto IV officially introduced online multiplayer to the series. In most games, a customisable character is used to play, and money earned in game is translated to levels, with more customisation available at higher levels. The game does not offer split screen or local area network (LAN) multiplayer modes on PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360, but there is LAN on the PC mode. Up to 16 (32 on PC) players can play together, doing a variety of games including Death Match, Cops 'n' Crooks, races, Deal Breaker, and Mafiya Work as well as team varieties of Death Match, and Mafiya Work to name just a few.
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is the first Grand Theft Auto game to be released on the Nintendo DS, and was announced at the E3 Nintendo Press Conference on 15 July 2008. This game has several new features, such as touch screen mini-games. The game was released on 17 March 2009 in North America and 20 March 2009 to Australia and Europe. The game is rated 18+ by PEGI and the BBFC (Europe, UK) and M by the ESRB (North America). A PSP version was later announced on 22 June 2009 and was released in North America on 20 October 2009. It was also released on the Apple iOS platform 18 January 2010.
In chronological order the fourth generation Grand Theft Auto games are in order:
- Grand Theft Auto IV; set and released in 2008
- Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned; set in 2008, released in 2009 for Xbox 360, in 2010 for PlayStation 3 and PC
- Grand Theft Auto: The Ballad of Gay Tony; set in 2008, released in 2009 for Xbox 360, in 2010 for PlayStation 3 and PC
- Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars; set and released in 2009
Grand Theft Auto V
On 26 February 2011, five websites were discovered which seemed to indicate a new title in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. There have been several minor leaks of supposed GTA production including websites, casting calls featuring GTA characters, and an IGN editor who has said the next game will be released in 2012.
On 25 October 2011, Rockstar changed their homepage to display the logo for Grand Theft Auto V with the 'V' styled like a bank note. A message was printed below the logo stating that a trailer would be released on 2 November 2011.
On 2 November 2011, Rockstar released a debut trailer for GTA V. Giving fans a first look at the upcoming title, the trailer revealed the setting to be Los Santos, the fictional version of Los Angeles and its California surroundings, including Hollywood ("Vinewood") and rural hills and valleys. Additional features revealed in the trailer included golf, planes, jet skis, a working gym, and police chases, making it look like a spiritual successor to 2004's GTA: San Andreas. The song used in the trailer is "Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake" by the British band the Small Faces.
On 3 November 2011, Rockstar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto V was in full development and that it would take place within Los Santos and its "surrounding hills, countryside and beaches", and that it would be "the largest and the most ambitious game Rockstar has yet created". Rockstar parent Take-Two calls GTA V "a bold new direction in open-world freedom, storytelling, mission-based gameplay and online multiplayer," while confirming that its story will focus on "the pursuit of the almighty dollar in a re-imagined, present-day Southern California."
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