Grand Theft Auto: Director's Cut

by Gathering of Developers

Product Features

• Grand Theft Auto:A unique, zooming, top down view / Over 6,000km of freeways, back streets, roads, alleyways and dead ends
• Grand Theft Auto:Complete freedom of movement, no fixed track / Outrageous Hollywood style car handling
• Grand Theft Auto:Open ended mission structure / Hidden missions, secret areas and insane power-ups
• Grand Theft Auto - London:Play as a stylish hooligan, in London 1969 / 32 Missions / 30 vehicles
• Grand Theft Auto - London:Unlimited criminal opportunity / Drive, run and shoot your way into all sorts of trouble

Product Details

• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00001SHOU
• Media: CD-ROM
• Average Customer Review: 4.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #52,772 in Video Games (See Top 100 in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

GameSpot Review

It's hard to say why Grand Theft Auto is so much fun to play, since many people seem to get bored with it quickly. The simplicity of the gameplay might be one factor: You spend most of your time driving a little car through city streets, collecting points for committing crimes. It might sound like a good time initially, but for how long? For many, the answer will be "not very long."

So what type of gamer will enjoy GTA? Let's reflect on your childhood for the answer. First, did you like Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars a lot when you were a kid? Second, did you spend most of your time ramming the aforementioned toy cars into one another and lighting them on fire?If you answered "yes" to these questions, there's a good chance you'll enjoy .

But enough psychoanalysis. Sure, it's fun to cruise around the cities in GTA, running over innocent pedestrians and hijacking cars, then using them to crash into others for points. But your real purpose in the game is trying to get noticed by the local crime syndicate. To do that, you must successfully complete jobs for big points. Get enough points, and you'll advance to the next level and go on to other cities and bigger jobs. The more successful you are, the more difficult the jobs get. Some will be in multiple parts; others will have a time limit. And just because you work for the wrong side of the law doesn't mean you're safe from harm. Blow up a car with a rocket launcher while standing too close, and you'll be a crispy criminal. The life of crime is dangerous and risky. Even if you don't get killed or severely hurt, the cops will be after you all the time.

That's why patience is important. You can drive around recklessly all you want, but you'll constantly have the cops on your tail, interfering with your assigned job and the points you'll need to get to the next level. The easiest way to get the cops after you is by running over people or crashing into a squad car, and, unless you're sadistic, you usually run over people accidentally because of reckless driving.

It can take as long as two hours to achieve one million points and proceed to the second level. Later on, you'll need three million, which can take as long as five to six hours to achieve. This is somewhat frustrating because you can't save your game during levels. Since the game comes with a Windows 95 version you can multitask, so you don't have to tie up your PC playing the game, but if your system crashes, you're out of luck.

GTA is fun, and it has some excellent features. Vehicles all have appropriate physics. They steer, brake, accelerate, and handle like you might expect. Sports cars can stop and turn on a dime, but aren't very durable (if your car takes too much damage, it won't run properly and might even explode), while trucks have a large turning radius and take a long time to get up to speed, but are fairly durable. Small details - like the beeping sound a truck makes when it backs up, the various engine sounds, or the way pedestrians scream and run if you drive on the sidewalk - add to GTA's cool factor.

Once you get good at driving the cars, especially the fast sports cars, you can really zip through traffic. On roadways, if you gently tap the turn buttons, you can change lanes to avoid traffic without compensating for recentering the car, since it does so for you automatically. That makes a big difference when you're speeding down one of the multilane interstates. Another feature that really helps is how the perspective zooms in and out, determined by your rate of speed - it zooms in when you're going slow and out when you're going fast to expand your field of vision. The only flaw with this technique is that it doesn't always zoom in right away, so a tall building can block the view of your car until it does.

GTA is a good game that is highly recommended at a bargain price, but won't win any awards. Wanna-be sociopaths who can deal with the shortcomings will have a lot of fun, and if you could save games within levels, it would come even more highly recommended. --Tasos Kaiafas
--Copyright ©1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or medium without express written permission of GameSpot is prohibited.

Product Description

Product Description This is a pack of two Grand Theft Auto titles for your PC. Grand Theft Auto places you in the role of a common street thug whose job is to carry out the will of ruthless crime bosses. Stealing cars and settling drug deals are just some of your dirty tasks as you run, gun, steal, and drive through three different crime-infested cities. Fail and you get cussed out by your superiors. Succeed and you rise through the ranks of the organization, get more respect, and tackle tougher missions. In Grand Theft Auto: London Mission Pack, if you want to stay legal, you'll want to stay on the left side of the road. You'll also be entering and exiting vehicles on the right side of the car. All the speech has been replaced with the slang and accents you'd expect to find in London around 1969. The music has also been completely revamped, and it fits the scenario nicely. The graphics are mostly new as well, providing new textures for buildings and new cars, including an Austin Powers-esque ride, complete with accompanying secret-spy music.

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars GTA is a great game, December 25, 1999

By 

Rory Pfotenhauer (Southwest, Colorado) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grand Theft Auto: Director's Cut (CD-ROM)

I think Gta was really addicting and it is really fun to get to grab any car you want. The missions are quite excitng, especially when you fight the other gangs and get to go out of your car. The game is not for little kids under 12. This game RULES!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a very good game, December 24, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Grand Theft Auto: Director's Cut (CD-ROM)

This game is the only game about cars I ever play. I was hooked after I stole the first police car. Better than driver's ed with a blind instructor.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great, April 13, 2000

By 

"stanky" (Downtown, Coolsville.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Grand Theft Auto: Director's Cut (CD-ROM)

I don't know about the London version(don't own it), but the original is great. I've spent hours playing this, but I've gotten frustrated. You have a lot of freedom here, but Gamespot's right, in level saving would be a big plus. The music is awful and gets tiresome very quickly. Its better than bad its good!(Log, log, its big, its heavy, its wood!). But, yeah, most of the reviews are right, though its not the best, doubt it would even be in my top thirty, it still rocks.