Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto series logo, which has
April 14th, two thousand fifteen
Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is a long-running series of movie games, published by Rockstar Games and developed by subsidiary companies. The games are primarily developed by Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design).
There are presently sixteen games in the series, plus two expansion packs for the original and two expansions for GTA IV and including a multiplayer title. The games have been released for various platforms, including the PC, PSX, PS2, Xbox, PS3, Xbox 360, PS4, Xbox One, GBC, DC, GBA, PSP, DS, iPhone and Android with all but two of the games released on numerous platforms.
There has been much controversy involving the series. The unofficial Hot Coffee mod and subsequent uproar gave Rockstar Games a big amount of press attention.
Grand Theft Auto presently holds ten world gaming records, including the Most Guest Starlets in a Movie Game Series, Largest Voice Cast in a Movie Game (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), Largest In-Game Soundtrack (Grand Theft Auto IV), and Most Successful Entertainment Launch Of All Time (Grand Theft Auto V). The Grand Theft Auto series are also ranked five in the best-selling movie game franchises of all time.
Contents
Overview
The games permit the player to take on the role of a criminal in a big city, typically an individual who rises through the ranks of organised crime through the course of the game. Various missions are set for completion by the figureheads of the city underworld, generally criminal, which must be finished to progress through the storyline. Assassinations, and other crimes feature regularly, but at times taxi driving, firefighting, pimping, street racing, or learning to fly fixed-wing aircraft are also involved as alternate adventures, which can be done at any time during the game, with the exception of the periods performing main missions.
The Grand Theft Auto series, belonging to a genre of free-roaming movie games called "sandbox games," grants a large amount of freedom to the player in determining what to do and how to do it through numerous methods of transport and weapons. Unlike most traditional activity games, which are structured as a single track series of levels with linear gameplay, in GTA the player can determine the missions they want to undertake, and their relationships with various characters are switched based on these choices. The cities of the games can also be roamed loosely at any point in the game, suggesting many accessible buildings and minor missions. There are exceptions: missions go after a linear, overarching plot, and some city areas must be unlocked over the course of the game. Albeit you can explore the entire city or state even it is locked (but there are limited time to explore some city because some may trigger a 4-wanted level or 6-wanted level) and overlook the missions.
Setting
Games
Individual games in the series can be categorized into different "universes", which mostly depend on the storyline and the graphics engine used. The embark of a fresh "universe" is indicated by the graphics used in the game.
2D Universe
In the 2D Universe there is the original game, the subsequent two expansion packs featuring missions in 1960’s London and GTA Two, which featured an improved graphics engine and a different style of gameplay. Whilst originally just called ‘"Grand Theft Auto", the very first game and era have become known as "GTA 1" for clarity.
- 1. Grand Theft Auto (1997) – Available for the PlayStation, PC and Game Boy Color. Features the cities of Liberty City, San Andreas, and Vice City.
- Two. Grand Theft Auto (Mission Pack #1): London 1969 (1999) – An expansion pack, available for the PlayStation and PC, set in London. London is the only playable city in the series with a real name.
- Trio. Grand Theft Auto (Mission Pack #Two): London 1961 (1999) – A further expansion to London 1969, available only as a free download for the PC.
3D Universe
The 3D Universe featured the very first blockbuster GTA title, Grand Theft Auto III, and introduced a 3D game world and a third person perspective. The entire era contains interlocking storylines, and many characters show up across numerous games. Notably, games in this era were not released in chronological order, with very first game released being the last chronologically, and the last game released being the very first chronologically.
- Five. Grand Theft Auto III (2001) – Set in fictional Liberty City, based upon the real life Fresh York City. Multiplayer game mode was lost, but other areas were much improved, namely the graphics, voice acting, storyline with non-linear gameplay.
- 6. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002) – Set in Vice City, a city based on real life Miami. This sequel to GTA III is technically a prequel (set in 1986) to the game, and to GTA San Andreas, which was released after GTA Vice City.
- 7. Grand Theft Auto Advance (2004) – What was originally supposed to be a cut-down port of GTA III for the Game Boy Advance, turned out to be a fully original game, set a year before GTA III, in a slightly switched Liberty City.
- 8. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004) – Set in the state of San Andreas, featured three cities, Los Santos, San Fierro and Las Venturas, based on Los Angeles, San Francisco and Las Vegas respectively. The game is set in 1992, making it a sequel to GTA Vice City, and prequel to GTA III. The game featured a lot more customization options, for both players and vehicles.
See also: The Introduction
- 9. Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories (2005) – A prequel set in Liberty City, 1998. Originally for the PlayStation Portable, a PS2 port was released in June two thousand six without multiplayer.
- Ten. Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories (2006) – Announced on May 10th during E3, is based in Vice City, 1984, two years before the original GTA Vice City, featuring Lance Vance’s brother Victor Vance as the protagonist. It was released in October two thousand six for the PSP. A PS2 port was released later without multiplayer in March 2007.
It is generally believed that the 3D Universe has been finished, and there will be no more official expansions on the characters, storylines or engine. However modifications and fan fiction proceed to build on these.
HD Universe
The HD Universe features Rockstar’s fresh RAGE engine, also used in Rockstar Games Presents Table Tennis. This era features
- 11. Grand Theft Auto IV (2008) – Set in two thousand eight in a redesigned Liberty City, with fresh game mechanics, a multiplayer mode, and with protagonist Niko Bellic attempting to commence a fresh life. GTA IV was released for Xbox 360, and PlayStation three on April 28th, 2008, with a PC release on December 2nd, 2008.
- 12. The Lost and Damned (2009) – A downloadable gig released in February two thousand nine for the Xbox 360. TLAD is set in the same Liberty City as GTA IV, with events and characters overlapping with GTA IV. The protagonist is a biker, Johnny Klebitz, of The Lost Brotherhood biker gang. It is also available on a disc Gigs From Liberty City which includes The Ballad of Gay Tony also. It was released on PC (Games for Windows – LIVE) and PlayStation three in April 2010.
- 13. The Ballad of Gay Tony (2009) – A 2nd gig for GTA IV released in October 2009, the last DLC for GTA IV. The protagonist is Luis Lopez, a part-time hoodlum and full-time assistant to legendary nightclub impresario Gay Tony. It was released on the same day as Gigs From Liberty City disc. It was released on PC (Games for Windows – LIVE) and PlayStation three in April 2010.
- 14. Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars (2009) – Set in two thousand nine and focusing on the Liberty City triads. The protagonist, Huang Lee is the son of a murdered Triad boss who comes to Liberty City. It is set in the same Liberty City as GTA IV (excluding Alderney, but scaled down for the Nintendo DS). PSP, iPhone, Android and Kindle Fire ports were released later, the PSP version including fresh missions and characters, and all fresh versions including fresh radio stations and improved graphics.
- 15. Grand Theft Auto V (2013) – Set in two thousand thirteen in a recreated Los Santos. According to Rockstar, Grand Theft Auto V is their fattest open world game to date. The game concentrates on "the pursuit of the almighty dollar". In a break with latest tradition, the game features three playable protagonists, Michael De Santa, Franklin Clinton, and Trevor Philips. The multiplayer mode has been expanded into its own game, dubbed Grand Theft Auto Online.
- 16. Grand Theft Auto Online (2013) – Set shortly before the events of Grand Theft Auto V in 2013, is considered by Rockstar to be the series’ very first multiplayer title. The player assumes the role of an online protagonist, with the concentrate of the game being strongly centered on money. Grand Theft Auto Online was released on October 1, 2013, fourteen days after the actual game and is played from within GTA V.
The Fan Base
Grand Theft Auto has one of the largest fan bases of any game franchise. There are many unofficial Fansites about GTA games, providing the latest news, download databases, and often an online forum for the GTA community. Thousands of GTA fansites exist, ranging from petite one-person news blogs to community-edited wikis (like this one) to massive downloads databases to forums with hundreds of thousands of members.
An activity popular with fans is modding – creating fresh vehicle models, skins, re-texturing of objects, and tweaking settings in the games’ configuration files. These modifications are made loosely available on fansites for anyone to download and install into their game. Another popular pastime (since GTA III) is stunting – the act of performing wild stunts with vehicles, which are produced into compilation movies.
Another activity popular with members of the community is writing Fan Fiction – stories based on events which go after on from, or are based around events which happen in the games, but these are not to be considered canon.
The List of GTA Forums attempts to list all of the large communities, and by demonstrating just how big the community as a entire is.
These are a list of some of the most popular fan sites:
