With tomorrow’s international release of Grand Theft Auto IV, I thought it would be appropriate to write up a brief history of the series for the blog. I could probably write twenty pages on controversy the series has caused alone. Even after all this controversy and the hot coffee scandal from Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the series is still going strong.
Humble Beginnings
Anyway, onto the history lesson. It all started with the original, 2D Grand Theft Auto, which was released back in 1997 for the PlayStation and PC. The game was set in the three fictional cities of Liberty City, Vice City and San Andreas. They sound familiar, don’t they? While today the game sounds like something from the stone ages, for its time the game was revolutionary and it started it all for the Grand Theft Auto series. The first game in series, like it’s sequels, had a M (Mature) rating from ESRB in North American markets and wasn’t without controversy. Two expansion packs were released for GTA1 in 1991. Both of them were set in London. The first was called Grand Theft Auto: London 1969 and the second Grand Theft Auto: London 1961.
Next up was Grand Theft Auto 2, released for the PlayStation and PC in October 1999 and for the Dreamcast and Game Boy Color in 2000. The from-the-sky point of view from Grand Theft Auto 1 was retained in the sequel, as well as the basic gameplay mechanics. A new feature introduced in GTA2 was the ability to do missions for different gangs. GTA2 also had a unique method of saving. If one walked into a church with $50,000, a voice announced “Hallelujah! Another soul saved!” and the game saved. If the player didn’t have enough money, the voice would say “Damnation! No donation, no salvation!” Safehouses were introduced in the 3D games and saving became free.
Going 3D
Arguably the most revolutionary for the series, Grand Theft Auto III was released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2001 and PC in May 2002. Grand Theft Auto III took place in the fictional city of Liberty City and was in 3D. No longer were you looking down from the sky when playing; now you felt like you were actually in the game thanks to the 3D view. The game’s protagonist was nameless and betrayed by his girlfriend in a bank heist. [Nice girlfriend he had there] He then works his way up the crime ladder of the city, and well, you get the message.
Again, Grand Theft Auto III was not without controversy. Many television news broadcasts would play a scene of the game where the protagonist was shooting pedestrians and blowing up police cars. The game was also banned in Australia for a period of time and then a censored version was released. Oh, and spread some more icing on the cake, the families of Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede, two people shot by William and Josh Buckner filed a $246 million lawsuit against publishers Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive, retailer Wal-Mart and Sony Computer Entertainment America, the manufacturer of the PlayStation 2. Apparently the teens claimed their actions were inspired by Grand Theft Auto III, and as we know, it’s always the video game’s fault because video games are ruining the world one child at a time. Sorry, I thought I was Jack Thompson there.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City was released in 2002. The game was set in a fictional city called (you guessed it!) Vice City during the year 1986. Vice City was a representation of Miami, Florida. Vice City was much brighter than Liberty City but don’t worry - Rockstar wasn’t making a Hello Kitty game or anything. In Vice City, you play the role of Tommy Vercetti, a hitman who has been released from jail in Liberty City after serving a 15-year sentence in connection with eleven murders. I won’t get into detail into the plot (mostly because I don’t remember the plot that well) but the game was one of my favorites in the series.
After the success of III and Vice City, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was released in October 2004. The setting for the game was the fictional state of San Andreas, which featured the cities Los Santos (Los Angeles, CA), San Fierro (San Francisco, CA) and Las Venturas (Las Vegas, NV) as well as a distinct countryside. Grand Theft Auto San Andreas followed more of a gang-style story and had RPG-style elements such as eating, gaining and losing weight and working out in the gym. San Andreas also attracted major controversy when it was found that a sex minigame (”Hot Coffee”) could be unlocked using third-party hardware. On July 20th, 2005, production of San Andreas came to a halt and the game received a revised Adults Only (AO) rating from the ESRB. Many retailers then pulled the game off the shelves due to their policies prohibiting the game of Adults Only-rated games and Rockstar then released a “Cold Coffee” patch for the PC version which removed the content and re-released the other versions with a M (Mature) rating.
Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas have since been released in a “trilogy” package. It’s of great value (currently $30 for all three games) and can be found at Amazon or other retailers.
Grand Theft Auto On-The-Go
Now, back to the history. Grand Theft Auto Advance was released for the Game Boy Advance on October 25th, 2004. It again went back to the from-the-sky point of view. Since I don’t know much about Advance and since it wasn’t really a big release, I won’t spend too much time talking about it and instead I’ll go straight to the PSP series.
Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories was the first Grand Theft Auto game released for the PlayStation Portable. It was released on October 25th, 2005 in North America and was eventually ported to the PS2 on June 6th, 2006. The game is once again set in the Liberty City from Grand Theft Auto III, however it takes place in 1998, three years before Grand Theft Auto III did. The protagonist of Liberty City Stories is Toni Cipriani, first saw in Grand Theft Auto III as a non-playable character. The game ran surprisingly well on the PSP’s hardware and the game sold over 8 million copies.
On October 31, 2006, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories was released, again for the PSP. This time the protagonist is Victor Vance, a United States army solider. The following plot was taken and reworded slightly from Wikipedia since I don’t have a lot of Vice city Stories experience. His sergeant, Jerry Martinez, gets him involved in drug trafficking, against Victor’s morals. He is soon discharged for the drugs found in his room and for bringing a prostitute to the barracks, both intended for Martinez. The plot goes on and I don’t want to spoil it too much and from the 30 minutes of the game I’ve played, it’s another amazing entry in the franchise.
The next generation of Grand Theft Auto
Whew… we’re almost finished! Grand Theft Auto IV, set for release tomorrow (at time of writing), April 29th, 2008 worldwide is the latest entry in the series. Grand Theft Auto IV features a new protagonist in a completely redesigned Liberty City, this time set to be similar to the real-life New York City. The Liberty City in Grand Theft Auto IV will feature representations of the boroughs in real-life New York, including Manhattan, Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and New Jersey (though the boroughs will have their own names in the game). Grand Theft Auto IV is for the XBOX 360 and PlayStation 3 and extra downloadable content is going to be released exclusively for the XBOX 360 later this year.
…and we’re finished!
Sorry if that was a long read but at least you know more about the roots of Grand Theft Auto now, right? Now, lets all start the countdown to tomorrow - April 29th, 2008 - the international release of Grand Theft Auto IV - my candidate for Game of the Year. Until next time!
