Grand Theft Auto III

Other products by 2K Games

Product Features

• It features all-new graphics and perspectives, and an incredibly wide city for you to explore
• Work your way up in the syndicate with over 80 gangland missions to choose from
• Work your way up in the gang and fight for a position of power
• Follow a story of deadly revenge as you steal cars and make incredible getaways
• All those cars are just waiting to be stolen -- steal parked cars, or take out the drivers with fists, bats, Uzis and more

Product Details

• Our recommended age: 17 - 20 years
• Manufacturer recommended age: 0 months and up
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00005YTYJ
• Media: CD-ROM
• Release Date: May 21, 2002
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars See all reviews (264 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #9,788 in Video Games (See Bestsellers in Video Games)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

• This is item 4 in The Grand Theft Auto Game Series.

Product Description

Platform: PC

Amazon.com Review
With Grand Theft Auto III, Rockstar proves that not all developers are concerned with toning down the violence in their games. This sequel is even more bloody, violent, and sadistic than its popular predecessors, offering up an enormous 3-D city in which nearly any criminal act is possible. Players are free to steal cars, beat up the local population for their money (or weapons), make time with prostitutes, or simply roam to their heart's content. Those seeking more structure can embark on dozens of plot-driven missions or steal cars that let them play minigames. Nab a cop car and go on vigilante missions. Grab a cab and play a deadly version of Crazy Taxi. Take a fire truck and earn money putting out fires. The game just never gets boring.

As in real life, there are consequences for your criminality. As your random acts of mayhem mount up, the police start hounding you, eventually calling in SWAT trucks, the FBI, and even the army if you continue down the path of destruction. Shaking these pursuers is easily the most fun part of the game, especially when a bunch of friends are packed in the room to witness your narrow escapes.

Grand Theft Auto III is fine-tuned to near perfection in every category. All the vehicles, from slick sports cars to lumbering dump trucks, handle exactly as you'd expect and smash apart realistically when abused. The three islands in the game are rendered in terrific detail considering their size, and are packed with traffic, pedestrians, and hidden jumps. The audio is equally amazing. Pedestrians talk, cops scream at you, and you can tune in nine different radio stations whenever you are in a car. It all adds up to a monumental achievement: the rare console game for adults that manages to get everything right. --T. Byrl Baker

Note: This review refers to the PlayStation2 version of this game.

Pros:

• Offers an enormous world for players to exploit, rendered in staggering detail
• Equally fun whether you go on plot-based missions or run around as a freelance crook

Cons:

• Ultraviolence, foul language, and adult situations mean you'll want to keep this far away from kids
• It takes too long to get from one island to another, making some missions tedious

Product Description
Grand Theft Auto 3 puts you in a new adventure in the seedy underworld of Liberty City! Avoid damage and bad weather to get away clean, or else!

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

44 of 49 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars For wannabe thugs and gangsters everywhere - GTA3 delivers, May 22, 2002

By	Derek G (Redneck, South Carolina) - See all my reviews

I won't spend time going into how the game is played, I'm sure you already know. I can say, though, that it's true in gameplay to the two previous releases and the graphics are very, very nice! I play it at 1024x768x32 on my 1gig with a GeForce2 Pro with no hesitation whatsoever. Plus it only takes about 300MB of hard drive space to install. So far, no bugs in the game either. Another plus. Finally, the load times are almost nonexistent, even the cutscenes. If only all games were put together this well... (game developers, are you reading this??)

The music is awesome. Choose from reggae, rap, opera (!), techno, jungle, and even some really bad 80's music. Another interesting addition is the talk radio station. In one conversation obviously directed at the detractors of the game, a woman calls saying her son was playing 'Pogo the Monkey' and now all he does is jump around the house looking for gold coins.

The violence is over-the-top, mostly involving stealing something or beating up or killing someone, but the tongue-in-cheek humor is evident. In one mission you plant a car bomb and sit back to watch the show. As this happens, you notice the sign at the restaurant says "eat till you explode." The physics of the different cars, while not realistic, is still evident as you switch from a Hummer to a BMW and the hoods and bumpers go flying as you smash up your vehicle.

My only complaint, and one that I've had about this series since it started, is there is no way to adjust the difficulty settings. Granted there will probably be a million cheat codes floating around the internet very soon, but I hate using them as I feel they take away from the game itself. It doesn't seem like it would be too difficult to include options that would allow us to increase/decrease the mission times or make our cars able to withstand a little more or a little less damage. The missions aren't particularly difficult (they actually seem easier than the previous GTA games), but they are challenging enough that I'm sure I'll probably end up stuck on a mission at some point in the game. Usually when this happens I'll end up looking for something else rather than deal with the frustration of playing the same mission over and over again. If you don't suffer from this hangup, I'd suggest you get this game - that is, unless you want me to send Luigi over there to rearrange your face!

Hope my review helped!

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars It Was Like Playing a Video Game for the First Time, February 13, 2002

By	C. Serafini "Gamer" (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Grand Theft Auto 3 (GTA3) is being released for PC after much speculation that it might not. I am in line for my copy.

As it is not on PC yet, I played the Playstation 2 (PS2) version. Not knowing anything about this game, I picked up the control expecting to play some kind of racing game. And then...

I am standing on a bridge in a prison jump suit. My buddy, who is shot, is climbing into a car before me. He tells me to drive, he "Knows a guy" who can help us.

Without pause, I climb into the car and I am driving. I can go anywhere in this city! I can stop ANYWHERE in this city and get out of my car. I can car-jack anyone's car I want. (Some are junk, some are hotrods and some are fire-trucks!)

I could choose to work my way up the ranks of the mob. Or, I could just choose to go around town and cause trouble! It was like playing a video game for the first time. All I wanted to do was explore this rich world and story-line.

And that is exactly what I plan to do when I get my PC Version. I highly recomend this GTA3 for adult gamers.

If you are a parent, be aware, this game contains very mature subject matter. Including the ability to pick-up ladies of the evening. Nothing graphic, mind you, but the car does rock back and forth as your money disappears.

37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Destined to be a legend!, June 16, 2002

By	Mark Lahren (Bismarck, North Dakota USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I'm 42 years old and really hesitated about buying a game that looked like it was designed by punks for punks. After several fascinating hours of wholly immersive gameplay however, I am so glad I put my preconceptions aside and bought this game. Or should I say 'city simulator'? GTA 3 breaks away from the first two in the series by going with a true 3-D first and third-person design. There's many camera angles that you can choose from on the fly. Drive cars, boats, and even planes, or just walk around enjoying the fantastic sights and sounds. This ambitious and extremely well-executed simulator was originally designed for a console, but the PC version is much better, with ultra-high resolution graphics, no loading once you're in the game, and removal of barriers that were in the console version. I'm still on the first of three islands. I haven't yet discovered how to get to the other two, but discovery is part of the fun here, and my anticipation is half the fun. You can accept missions from a variety of sources, or you can simply run (and drive) freely, experiencing the little dramas unfolding around you throughout the city and even taking part in these little dramas if you choose. The possibilies are endless and it's this free-form design that is what pushes this game way beyond any other. It combines the very best elements of games like 'Carmageddon', 'Thief', and yes, even 'The Sims' of all things. Beware however, there are adult themes here without doubt. Controls are super-easy and easy to customise to your liking. The game is easy to play, and easier to lose yourself in. There's practically no learning curve. By far, easily the best game I've bought in the last year, and I buy many. Every time you steal a car, you'll find there's different radio stations to choose from, with all different kinds of music, advertisements, and talk shows going on. You can switch between them or shut them off entirely. This adds a huge amount of atmosphere to the game, and you can even customize the game by importing your own MP3s to the game files! A note to the developers: In the add-on pack, please include a couple more CDs of this great radio stuff!

However, it has to be said that a 32 meg video card is the very absolute minimum you should have to run this. I've tried it on several of my systems, and on my PII 450 with a 16 meg TNT 1 card and 256 megs system ram, it ran, but very slowly; hardly playable on that system. On my self-built 1.2 ghz. Athlon with a 32 meg GeForce 2 card and 256 megs ram, the game ran fairly well at 640 X 480 and it was indeed playable with options turned down, but it became clear to me that a video card upgrade was needed. So yes, I did purchase a GeForce 4 Ti 4200 with 128 megs video ram just to play this game. And I don't regret it. I can now run the game (and all my other new games) at 1280 X 1024 with all options maxed, and it's super smooth.

Simply put, this game is very graphically intense and there's a living city with lots of pedestrians and cars and buildings and scenery to render, all of it accessible to you with no loading times, so a great video card is crucial! Your computer's CPU is also important, but not as important as your video card. I'm thinking a PIII 600 with a 32 meg video card is minumum, and that same processor with a 64 meg video card will make a dramatic difference in your enjoyment level. I've played this game roughly 10 hours thus far, and haven't yet encountered a single bug, crash, or lock-up. This game is destined to be a classic and I'm looking forward to whatever add-on packs or sequels come along.

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