Grand Theft Auto PC
Its widely believed that Grand Theft Auto by Rockstar Games, changed the face of gaming forever.
Putting aside the platform for a moment, the early Grand Theft Auto titles were fairly standard in their appearance and delivery until the ‘3D Style – world map’ appeared that allowed gamers to drive, shoot and ‘live’ through the eyes of a virtual world.
Originally debuting for the PC, the first few offerings from Rockstar Games around the GTA title were top down driver simulation games. With some shooting action, some missions, it was enjoyable and sold plenty of copies but it didn’t set the world on fire so to speak.
When Grand Theft Auto 3 was released, the first person design was breathtaking. As a gamer, you could steal a car, grab a gun and travel to all corners of this virtual world. An exciting concept and one that caught on quickly.
Soon after GTA3 was released, there were a few games trying to copy the similar design. The True Crime series was a a game trying to cash in on the new first person style that GTA3 has pioneered, what about Dead to Rights? And another game called the Getaway is very similar in some parts to the GTA3 style game.
There was GTA San Andreas soon after, a minor alteration and addition to the series that had bigger maps, better graphics, more cars and insane audio soundtracks.
Smartly, Rockstar games quickly released The Vice City version of GTA3. With strong links to the 1980’s gang wars, turf wars and drug cartels – it had the cars, music and real feel of the 80s. An amazing creation, you could get into a car and radio station would be playing tunes from that era as you sped down the freeway.
But as the popularity of GTA grew, it was quickly ported to the console world. XBOX, Playstation and the new models, 360 and PS2/PS3 soon got their hands on the popular franchise from Rockstar Games.
What was concerning about this, was that as the console world soon fell in love with GTA3 and associated titles just like the PC gamer had done before hand – suddenly the new released of GTA were being ‘debuted’ on the console and the PC would have to wait months and sometimes years to get their version.
Very frustrating to keen PC gamers.
The newer Grand Theft Auto 4 (GTAIV) went to console land first and took over 12 months to legitimately reach the PC gaming shelves.
Now we watch with interest as the latest installment, GTA China Town Wars comes to life. How long will PC gamers have to wait?
Regardless, it’s still an amazing game and one that will not be forgotten. One recent development that looks exciting is the GTA Mod Scene. Starting out with SA-MP (GTA San Andreas Multiplayer) – gamers could get in game and compete against other players.
While a little buggy at first, understandable given its freeware origins. It has gained a huge following and there now are a large range of GTA Mods, many centred around San Andreas – but others are more niche based and allow the GTA series to be taken to a whole new level.
