Grand Theft Auto clone

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Grand Theft Auto III is credited with popularizing a game genre based on driving and shooting in an open world environment. Gta3-pc-stealing.jpeg
Grand Theft Auto III is credited with popularizing a game genre based on driving and shooting in an open world environment.

A Grand Theft Auto clone (often shortened to GTA clone) belongs to a subgenre of open world action-adventure video games, characterized by their likeness to the Grand Theft Auto series in either gameplay, or overall design. In these types of open world games, players may find and use a variety of vehicles and weapons while roaming freely in an open world setting. The objective of Grand Theft Auto clones is to complete a sequence of core missions involving driving and shooting, but often side-missions and minigames are added to improve replay value. The storylines of games in this subgenre typically have strong themes of crime, violence and other controversial elements such as drugs and sexually explicit content.

Contents

The subgenre has its origins in open world action adventure games popularized in Europe (and particularly the United Kingdom) throughout the 1980s and 1990s. The release of Grand Theft Auto (1997) marked a major commercial success for open-ended game design in North America, and featured a more marketable crime theme, but it was the popularity of its 3D sequel Grand Theft Auto III in 2001 that led to the widespread propagation of a more specific set of gameplay conventions consistent with a subgenre. The subgenre now includes many games from different developers all over the world where the player can control wide ranges of vehicles and weapons. The subgenre has evolved with greater levels of environmental detail and more realistic behaviors.

As usage of the term "clone" often has a negative connotation and can be seen as controversial, reviewers have come up with other names for the subgenre. Similar terminology for other genres, such as "Donkey Kong-type" and "Doom clone", has given way to more neutral language. Names such as "sandbox game", however, are applied to a wider range of games that do not share key features of the Grand Theft Auto series.

Definition

A Grand Theft Auto clone is a video game that falls within the genre popularized by the 2001 title Grand Theft Auto III , [1] where players are given the ability to drive any vehicle or fire any weapon as they explore an open world. [2] These games are sometimes treated as a 3D action-adventure game, [3] or third-person shooter. [4] They are noted for frequently bearing strong violent or criminal themes, [5] though exceptions like The Simpsons: Hit & Run and American McGee Presents: Scrapland have copied its gameplay and structure with a Teen rating. [6] The game Lego City Undercover was released the same year as GTA V and drew similar comparisons, albeit generally positive, and was given an E10 rating. [7]

Other terminology

Calling a game a "Grand Theft Auto clone" is sometimes considered unfair or insulting. [8] This is because reviewers sometimes use this term to suggest that the "clone" is a mere imitation, which commonly occurs in the video game industry, designed for the sole purpose of capitalizing on the success of the Grand Theft Auto series. [9] However, this term can also be used as a neutral description of a game, [10] which can range from good to bad. [11] Reviewers have used "Grand Theft Auto clone" to describe games that rest on their own merits, [12] and do not necessarily dismiss the entire class of games as mere imitators. [13]

Games of this type are sometimes defined under the broader terminology "open world games" or "sandbox games", [2] but many games that predate Grand Theft Auto III, such as Metroid from 1986, are also called open world games. [14] Conflictingly, games such as Grand Theft Auto III and Body Harvest are credited with inventing this genre more than a decade later. [15] [16] Furthermore, reviewers have stated that this genre does not include every game with a freely explorable world and that this genre is much more specific, thus excluding the free-roaming titles Spider-Man 2 and The Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction from this class of games. [5] The terminology is inconsistent, sometimes including any game with open level design, [14] while other times focusing on a specific genre created at the turn of the century. [17]

Without clear classifications to describe the genre popularized by Grand Theft Auto, reviewers have created a number of alternate names for this genre. Some reviewers have focused on the pervasive criminal themes and mature content in the genre, using terminology such as "crime games", "crime-based action games", [18] and what CNN called the "gangsta genre". [19] Other journalists have emphasized gameplay by describing the genre as "free roaming action adventure games", [20] "driving-and-shooting games", [21] and "driving action hybrids". [22]

Game design

Driving and shooting

Grand Theft Auto clones offer players the ability to steal and drive a number of vehicles. [23] [24] Games have included all kinds of vehicles, such as cars, motorcycles, helicopters, boats, fixed-wing aircraft, and military vehicles. [5] Reviewers have compared these games based on the number of vehicles they offer, with greater choice resulting in better reviews. [5] Players can also use vehicles as weapons, either by driving into enemies, or by damaging the vehicle until it explodes. [17] Some games allow vehicles to perform stunts. [5] Games in the genre thus incorporate elements of driving simulation games. [25] Some games even allow players to customize their vehicles. [26]

Players can engage in combat using a range of weapons depending on the game setting, such as firearms, explosives, close-range melee weapons, or even exaggerated fictional weapons (e.g. laser weapons or a hand-held minigun). [5] As such, several reviewers have stated that games in this genre are partially third-person shooters. [4] Players can find weapons scattered throughout the game world, and may buy weapons in shops or take them from dead enemies. [2] Virtually anyone in the game world can be attacked by the player. In many games, excessive violent behavior will provoke a reaction by police authorities, who the player may then choose to fight or evade. [27] Players must also keep track of their health and ammunition in order to succeed in combat. [17]

These games have employed a variety of aiming mechanisms, such as free look aiming or a "lock-on" button. [28] Several games have been criticized for difficult or burdensome controls when it comes to shooting, [23] [28] and thus video game designers have tried to refine the aiming and shooting controls in these games. [5]

Open world and missions

Grand Theft Auto clones allow players to freely explore the game world, [5] which is typically on the scale of an entire city. Some games base their level design on real world cities, such as London, New York City, and Los Angeles. [5] Players are usually able to navigate by vehicle or on foot. [29] [30] Some games put greater emphasis on leaping, climbing, [5] and even swimming. [31] Exploring the world is not just necessary to complete objectives, but also to gain valuable items, weapons, and vehicles. Different parts of the game world may be controlled by different enemy factions, who will attempt to stop the player in a variety of ways. [17] More recent games in this genre allow players to acquire their own territory. [8] [32] The freedom of navigating a huge game world may be overwhelming or confusing for new players. [17] Game designers have come up with a variety of navigational aids to solve this problem. A mini-map feature is common, [33] while Saints Row and Grand Theft Auto IV go so far as to offer a GPS service. [25] Games without these navigation tools are sometimes criticized as confusing. [5]

The player's freedom to explore may be limited until they complete certain objectives and advance the game plot. [17] Players must visit specific locations and complete specific missions in order to win the game, [34] such as racing, tailing, couriering, robbing, [30] stealing, [23] shooting, assassinating, and driving to specific checkpoints. [35] There may be multiple ways to complete these missions as the game environment is designed to facilitate shortcuts, experimentation, and creative ways to kill enemies. [17] Completing a core mission will unlock further missions and advance the storyline, [8] and if the player fails a mission they will be able to resume the game from before the mission began. [23] In addition, these games usually offer optional side missions, which allow players to gain other rewards. These side missions improve the game's replay value. [17] These games are also known for incorporating numerous minigames into the game world, [36] such as circuit races. [26] Ultimately, this allows the player to follow or ignore the game's storyline as they see fit. [24]

History

Origin

Open world, 3D action-adventure games existed for years prior to the release of any similar game from the Scottish developer DMA Design. [37] Mercenary (1985) has been described as a major ancestor to the Grand Theft Auto series, because it featured an open world which the player could explore freely. [14] Turbo Esprit , the first free-roaming driving game, [38] featured an explorable city with traffic, pedestrians and working traffic lights and has been cited as a major influence on the Grand Theft Auto series. [39] [40] [41] The Terminator , released in 1991, was a free-form, open world game that set its action in a modern-day city that extended for miles, and included the ability to fire at civilians and steal cars. This game was also among the first American-developed games to feature these elements. [42]

Hunter (1991) has been described as the first sandbox game featuring full 3D, third-person graphics, thus making it an important precursor to the Grand Theft Auto series. [43] The game consisted of a large, open world in which there were numerous possibilities to complete different missions. [43] The character could travel on foot, or steal different vehicles such as cars, tanks, or even bicycles, boats, helicopters and hovercraft. [43] Moreover, Hunter also had many unique features such as day and night lighting, fuel modelling, a log book, aerial observation units, tank traps, land mines and computer-controlled rocket batteries and tracer guns. [44] It was also possible to ride a bicycle, swim, windsurf or even make a parachute jump from a helicopter. [43] [44]

DMA Design began pursuing open world game design with the first Grand Theft Auto , [15] which allowed players to commandeer various automobiles and shoot various weapons within a mission-based structure. [45] Unlike later games in the series, and indeed many earlier influences, the first two GTA games were 2D, using a top-down perspective. In 1998, DMA moved many of these design concepts into a 3D world, with Body Harvest , a Nintendo 64 game developed by DMA Design. [15] This title featured an open world with nonlinear missions and side-quests, as well as the ability to commandeer and drive a variety of vehicles. [15] As such, it has been retroactively called "GTA in space" (despite the fact that most of the game takes place in various settings on Earth), [15] and is credited with making Grand Theft Auto III possible. [46] Dan Houser has also cited the 3D Mario and Zelda games on the Nintendo 64 as major influences. [47]

In 1999, Midtown Madness was released by Angel Studios. This driving game was 3D and featured an open world in an urban environment like Grand Theft Auto. It was however not a sandbox game, as the player could only choose one of the pre-defined gameplay modes. Travelling on foot or switching cars during gameplay was not possible. Rockstar Games approached Angel Studios with a long-term partnership in 1999, which resulted in the creation of video game series Midnight Club (another open world 3D race game) and Smuggler's Run . In November 2000, almost a year before Grand Theft Auto III, Driver 2 by Reflections came out. Set in a 3D open world in an urban environment with the ability to traverse on foot and commandeer other vehicles, Driver 2 featured many aspects of what would later become known as a Grand Theft Auto clone, though violence was restricted to cutscenes.

Grand Theft Auto III took the gameplay foundation of the first two Grand Theft Auto games and expanded it into a 3D world, [48] and offered an unprecedented variety of minigames and side-missions. [36] The title was a much greater commercial success than its direct precursors, [15] and its influence was profound. [48] As such, Grand Theft Auto III is credited with popularizing this genre, [15] let alone inventing it. [16] Its release is sometimes treated as a revolutionary event in the history of video games, much like the release of Doom nearly a decade earlier. [49] GamePro called it the most important game of all time, and claimed that every genre was influenced to rethink their conventional level design. [50] IGN similarly praised it as one of the top ten most influential games of all time. [36] Subsequent games that follow this formula of driving and shooting in a free-roaming level have been called Grand Theft Auto clones. [51]

Other critics, however, likened Grand Theft Auto III to The Legend of Zelda and Metroid , [14] as well as Shenmue in particular, [52] [53] [54] [55] and noted how GTA III had combined elements from previous games and fused them together into a new immersive experience. For instance, radio stations had been implemented earlier in games such as Sega's Out Run (1986) [56] and Maxis' SimCopter (1996), open-ended missions based on operating a taxi cab in a sandbox environment were the basis for Sega's Crazy Taxi (1999), [57] the ability to kill non-player characters dated back to action role-playing games like Hydlide II (1985), [58] and Final Fantasy Adventure (1991), [59] and the way in which players run over pedestrians and get chased by police has been compared to Pac-Man (1980). [60]

Recent history

One of the first games to be compared to Grand Theft Auto's foray into the 3D video game landscape was Mafia. Its development during the same time and release a year later in 2002 had a few review websites draw comparisons, notably comparing the open world city and driving. [61] These comparisons were mostly positive, with Game Informer writing "This is a lot like GTA III. Awesome!" and "There's no shame in taking a proven gameplay formula and changing it a little bit" in its review. [62]

Rockstar North finished development of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City later that year, which expanded on the open world concept by letting players explore the interior of more than sixty buildings. [32] The game featured an expanded soundtrack and the voice talent of several Hollywood actors, including Ray Liotta. This set a new standard for the genre, making studio talent a pre-requisite for success. [63] Other game developers entered the field that year, with releases such as The Getaway . [5] The Simpsons: Hit & Run in 2003 applied the concept to a cartoon world, [5] while True Crime: Streets of LA reversed the Grand Theft Auto formula by putting the player in the role of a police officer. [64] Some reviewers began warning parents of the growing number of games in this genre, due to the violent themes intended for mature audiences. [63] The Driver series, which itself was an influence on Grand Theft Auto III, [65] [66] also borrowed elements from the Grand Theft Auto series thereafter such as gun combat, leading to Driver 3 in 2004 and Driver: Parallel Lines in 2006 also having been referred to as GTA clones. [67]

Ultimately, rival developers were unable to match the reception of the Grand Theft Auto series. [5] Rockstar North released Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas in 2004, which featured an open world on the scale of three distinct cities. [32] The game also allowed players to customize the player-character and vehicles, as well as compete for turf by fighting with rival gangs. [32] The continued success of the Grand Theft Auto series led to successful spin-offs, including Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories in 2005, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories in 2006, and the 2D Grand Theft Auto Advance for the Game Boy Advance handheld game console. [32] A market analysis in early 2006 found that new games in this genre would have more difficulty than new first-person shooters or racing games, and noted that overall revenue for this genre declines during periods without a new Grand Theft Auto game. [18] By 2006, developers were producing fewer games in this space, estimated at half the number seen in 2005. [19] Grand Theft Auto clones for mobile phones were also released by a number of developers, most notably those from Gameloft's Gangstar series, the first being Gangstar: Crime City in 2006. [68] [69]

With the arrival of the seventh generation of video game consoles, the first "next-gen" Grand Theft Auto clones were released in 2006. Beginning with Saints Row from 2006 and Crackdown from 2007 both introduced online multiplayer to the genre, a feature that had been requested by many fans. [5] Crackdown attracted attention for being created by David Jones, the developer of the original Grand Theft Auto , [19] [70] and featured the ability to develop the player character's superpowers in a semi-futuristic setting. [5] Meanwhile, The Godfather: The Game and Scarface: The World Is Yours entered the market in 2006, and attempted to apply the Grand Theft Auto formula to popular film franchises. [32] Still, reviewers continued to measure these games against the standard set by the Grand Theft Auto series. [5] Grand Theft Auto IV was released in April 2008 and featured a large, detailed environment, redefining gameplay [71] and even adopted the GPS navigation system seen in Saints Row. [25] The game broke numerous sales records, including the record for the fastest selling game in its first 24 hours. [72] Since its inception, this genre has evolved to include larger settings, more missions, and a wider range of vehicles. [15] In 2010, Rockstar Games published Red Dead Redemption , an open world Western themed game. [73] Later that year, the second entry in the Mafia series, Mafia II , was released by 2K Games and met with a few comparisons to Grand Theft Auto as well. [74] On the day of Grand Theft Auto V 's release on September 17, 2013, Volition released a free downloadable content pack for Saints Row IV titled "GATV", purposely playing the similarity in the abbreviated titles to promote their game due to the confusion raised on various social networks. [75] The Assassin's Creed media franchise, while centred around historical conspiracy fiction based on a heavily fictionalised centuries-old rivalry between the Order of Assassins and the Knights Templar, also saw comparisons to Grand Theft Auto with the 2015 sequel Assassin's Creed Syndicate , whose turf-based gang warfare mechanic was likened to a similar gameplay feature in San Andreas. [76]

Variations of the Grand Theft Auto formula have also been applied to games aimed at children and younger audiences, most notably with Lego City Undercover , first released in 2013 for the Wii U with a remastered version for Microsoft Windows, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One released in 2017. [77] As is with the True Crime and later Sleeping Dogs games, the game is role-reversed with the player taking on the role of a police officer enforcing the law, rather than of a criminal, although the player is required to commit criminal acts on some occasions in order to infiltrate criminal gangs. [78] [79] Another lesser-known example is the 2011 Wii open world sports game Go Vacation , described by IGN reviewer Audrey Drake as Wii Sports Resort meets Grand Theft Auto, in which players can freely roam four different resorts on a variety of vehicles. [80]

See also

Related Research Articles

<i>Grand Theft Auto: Vice City</i> 2002 video game

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fourth main game in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2001's Grand Theft Auto III, and the sixth entry overall. Set in 1986 within the fictional Vice City, the single-player story follows mobster Tommy Vercetti's rise to power after being released from prison and becoming caught up in an ambushed drug deal. While seeking out those responsible, Tommy gradually builds a criminal empire by seizing power from other criminal organisations in the city.

<i>Grand Theft Auto III</i> 2001 video game

Grand Theft Auto III is a 2001 action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 1999's Grand Theft Auto 2, and the fifth instalment overall. Set within the fictional Liberty City, the story follows Claude, a silent protagonist who, after being left for dead by his girlfriend during a robbery, embarks on a quest for revenge leading him to become entangled in a world of crime, drugs, gang warfare, and corruption. The game is played from a third-person perspective and its world is navigated on foot or by vehicle. Its open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main areas.

<i>Grand Theft Auto 2</i> 1999 action-adventure game

Grand Theft Auto 2 is an action-adventure game developed by DMA Design and published by Rockstar Games in October 1999 for the PlayStation and Windows, and the Dreamcast and Game Boy Color in 2000. It is the sequel to 1997's Grand Theft Auto, and the second main instalment of the Grand Theft Auto series. Set within a retrofuturistic metropolis known as "Anywhere City", the game focuses on players taking the role of a criminal as they roam an open world, conducting jobs for various crime syndicates and having free rein to do whatever they wish to achieve their goal. The game's intro is unique for a title in the series, as it involved live-action scenes filmed by Rockstar Games.

<i>Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas</i> 2004 video game

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the fifth main game in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, and the seventh entry overall. Set within the fictional U.S. state of San Andreas, the game follows Carl "CJ" Johnson, who returns home after his mother's murder and finds his old street gang has lost much of their territory. Over the course of the game, he attempts to rebuild the gang, clashes with corrupt authorities and powerful criminals, and gradually unravels the truth behind his mother's murder.

An action-adventure game is a video game hybrid genre that combines core elements from both the action game and adventure game genres.

<i>Grand Theft Auto Advance</i> 2004 action-adventure video game for Game Boy Advance

Grand Theft Auto Advance is a 2004 action-adventure game developed by Digital Eclipse and published by Rockstar Games. The eighth entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, it was released for the Game Boy Advance in October 2004. The game takes place in Liberty City, the same setting used for Grand Theft Auto III, to which it serves as a prequel. The story, set one year before Grand Theft Auto III, follows small-time criminal Mike's quest for revenge after his partner's supposed death, which leads him to become entangled in a world of organised crime, gang warfare, and corruption.

<i>Multi Theft Auto</i> Grand Theft Auto multiplayer modification

Multi Theft Auto (MTA) is a multiplayer modification for the Microsoft Windows version of Rockstar North games Grand Theft Auto III, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas that adds online multiplayer functionality. For Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, the mod also serves as a derivative engine to Rockstar's interpretation of RenderWare.

<i>Grand Theft Auto</i> Video game series

Grand Theft Auto (GTA) is an action-adventure video game series created by David Jones and Mike Dailly. Later titles were developed under the oversight of brothers Dan and Sam Houser, Leslie Benzies and Aaron Garbut. It is primarily developed by British development house Rockstar North, and published by its American parent company, Rockstar Games. The name of the series is a term for motor vehicle theft in the United States.

<i>Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories</i> 2005 action-adventure game

Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories is a 2005 action-adventure game developed in a collaboration between Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. The ninth installment in the Grand Theft Auto series, it was initially released as a PlayStation Portable exclusive in October 2005. A port for the PlayStation 2 was later released in June 2006. At the time of release, the recommended retail price of the PS2 port was around half the price of the PSP version, because the PS2 version does not feature the custom soundtrack ripping capability of the PSP version. Ports for iOS, Android and Fire OS devices were also released in December 2015, February 2016, and March 2016, respectively.

<i>Grand Theft Auto IV</i> 2008 video game

Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the sixth main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2004's Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and the eleventh entry overall. Set in the fictional Liberty City, based on New York City, the single-player story follows Eastern European war veteran Niko Bellic and his attempts to escape his past while under pressure from high-profile criminals. The open world design lets players freely roam Liberty City, consisting of three main islands, and the neighbouring state of Alderney, which is based on New Jersey.

<i>Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories</i> 2006 action-adventure game

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories is a 2006 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar Leeds and Rockstar North, and published by Rockstar Games. The tenth entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, the game was initially released as a PlayStation Portable exclusive in October 2006. A PlayStation 2 port was released in March 2007. Set within the fictional Vice City in 1984, the game is a prequel to 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City and follows the exploits of ex-soldier Victor "Vic" Vance, a minor character originally featured in said game. The story centres around Vic's attempts to build up a criminal empire alongside his brother Lance. With the initial intention of raising money for his sick brother Pete's medication, Vic comes into conflict with rival gangs, drug lords and other enemies.

<i>Grand Theft Auto: London 1969</i> Mission pack for Grand Theft Auto

Grand Theft Auto Mission Pack #1: London 1969 is an expansion pack for the 1997 action-adventure game Grand Theft Auto, developed by Rockstar Canada and published by Rockstar Games. It was released for personal computers and the PlayStation in April 1999. The expansion adheres to the same gameplay mechanics of the main game and takes place in a fictionalised version of London during the 1960s. Players assume the role of a criminal who works for several London-based crime syndicates, and complete levels by achieving a set score, within an open world environment that allows them to do whatever they wish alongside jobs to achieve their goal.

<i>Gangstar: Crime City</i> 2006 video game

Gangstar: Crime City is a 2006 open-world action-adventure video game published by Gameloft and developed by least one of its subsidiaries. It was released in October 2006 for mobile phones.

<i>Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars</i> 2009 video game

Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars is a 2009 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar Leeds in conjunction with Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. The game was released for the Nintendo DS in March 2009, PlayStation Portable in October 2009, iOS in January 2010, and Android and Fire OS devices in December 2014. It is the thirteenth game in the Grand Theft Auto series and a follow-up to Grand Theft Auto IV, and is the first entry to be released for handheld consoles since 2006's Vice City Stories. Set within modern-day Liberty City, the single-player story follows young Triad member Huang Lee and his efforts to recover a sword gifted by his late father after it is stolen from him, while inadvertently becoming caught in a power struggle amongst Liberty City's Triads.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Open world</span> Type of video game design

In video games, an open world is a virtual world in which the player can approach objectives freely, as opposed to a world with more linear and structured gameplay. Notable games in this category include The Legend of Zelda (1986), Grand Theft Auto V (2013) and Minecraft (2011).

<i>Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned</i> First of two episodic expansion packs for Grand Theft Auto IV

Grand Theft Auto IV: The Lost and Damned is the first of two episodic expansion packs of the 2008 video game Grand Theft Auto IV, developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. The game was released individually for the Xbox 360 on 17 February 2009, and as part of the disc-based package Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City for PlayStation 3 and Windows on 13 April 2010. The package also includes the second Grand Theft Auto IV expansion, The Ballad of Gay Tony, and does not require the base game to be played. Microsoft added Episodes from Liberty City to its backwards compatibility list for Xbox One platforms in February 2017.

<i>Grand Theft Auto V</i> 2013 video game

Grand Theft Auto V is a 2013 action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It is the seventh main entry in the Grand Theft Auto series, following 2008's Grand Theft Auto IV, and the fifteenth instalment overall. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, based on Southern California, the single-player story follows three protagonists—retired bank robber Michael De Santa, street gangster Franklin Clinton, and drug dealer and gunrunner Trevor Philips, and their attempts to commit heists while under pressure from a corrupt government agency and powerful criminals. Players freely roam San Andreas's open world countryside and fictional city of Los Santos, based on Los Angeles.

<i>Grand Theft Auto Online</i> 2013 video game

Grand Theft Auto Online is an online multiplayer action-adventure game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games. It was released on 1 October 2013 for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, 18 November 2014 for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, 14 April 2015 for Windows, and 15 March 2022 for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S. The game is the online component of Grand Theft Auto V. Set within the fictional state of San Andreas, Grand Theft Auto Online allows up to 30 players to explore its open world environment and engage in cooperative or competitive game modes.

<i>Grand Theft Auto</i> modding Modification in the video game series

User modification, or modding, of video games in the open world sandbox Grand Theft Auto series is a popular trend in the PC gaming community. These unofficial modifications are made by altering gameplay logic and asset files within a user's game installation, and can change the player's experience to varying degrees. Frequently created by anonymous modders, modifications are presented in the form of downloadable files or archives. Third-party software has been indispensable for building Grand Theft Auto mods, due to the lack of official editing tools from the developer, Rockstar Games. Mods for Grand Theft Auto are generally developed for use on the PC versions of the games, since the platform does not prevent modifications to installed software; however, similar content for console and mobile phone versions does exist to an extent.

<i>Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition</i> 2021 video game compilation

Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition is a 2021 compilation of three action-adventure games in the Grand Theft Auto series: Grand Theft Auto III (2001), Grand Theft Auto: Vice City (2002), and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (2004). Developed by Grove Street Games and published by Rockstar Games, all three games are remastered, with visual enhancements and gameplay upgrades. The games feature different protagonists and locations within the same continuity. Grand Theft Auto III follows silent protagonist Claude in Liberty City; Vice City, set in 1986, features mobster Tommy Vercetti in the fictional Vice City; and San Andreas, set in 1992, follows gangster Carl "CJ" Johnson within the state of San Andreas.

References

  1. ↑ Sources that refer to Grand Theft Auto popularizing or inventing a genre include:
    i. Reparaz, Mikel (2007-03-27). "Battle of the GTA clones". GamesRadar. Archived from the original on 2011-06-16. Retrieved 2008-07-21.;
    ii. Cifaldi, Frank (2006-02-21). "Analysts: FPS 'Most Attractive' Genre for Publishers". Gamasutra. Archived from the original on 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2008-08-21.;
    iii. "Hunt for Grand Theft Auto pirates". BBC News. 2004-10-21. Archived from the original on 2009-04-29. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
  2. 1 2 3 Bramwell, Tom (2007-03-27). "Crackdown Community Q&A". Eurogamer. Archived from the original on 2007-09-30. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
  3. ↑ Sources that refer to games similar to Grand Theft Auto as action-adventure games include:
    i. Parkyn, Jonathan (2006-04-18). "Review: The Godfather 3D action game". Personal Computer World. Archived from the original on 2008-09-22. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
    ii. Steve Tilley (2007-04-01). "Wii 'Godfather' for newbies only". CANOE. Archived from the original on 2007-06-23. Retrieved 2008-07-25.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link);
    iii. Bishop, Sam (2003-05-16). "E3 2003: True Crime: Streets of L.A. Update". IGN. Archived from the original on 2009-02-01. Retrieved 2008-07-25.
    iv. Will Tuttle (2006-08-30). "GameSpy Review – Saints Row". GameSpy. Archived from the original on 2008-05-17. Retrieved 2008-07-25.;
    v. Snow, Blake (2008-01-30). "Just Cause 2 announced for Xbox 360, PS3, PC". GamePro. Archived from the original on 2008-02-01. Retrieved 2008-07-24.
  4. 1 2 For examples of reviewers who have called these kinds of games third-person shooters, see:
    i. Tilly, Steve (2005-01-23). "Mercenaries". Canadian Online Explorer. Archived from the original on 2007-06-23. Retrieved 2008-08-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
    ii. Gerstmann, Jeff (2006-03-14). "Driver: Parallel Lines". CNET Networks. Archived from the original on 2012-10-04. Retrieved 2008-08-26.
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