The GTA series has enjoyed a colorful and storied history. Those that had a PC in the early days of Grand Theft Auto enjoyed the silliness of the top down offerings of GTA 1 and GTA 2. It wasn’t until the birth of the Playstation 2 that Rockstar hit the perfect stride of game play and story. The three main games of this set are GTA 3, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas. Rockstar has just introduced the newest rendition of their top-line product. You will notice quite a few differences between the 3 series and the new 4 series. Some of these differences may alienate hardcore GTA gamers.
Main Character:
The GTA 3 series has characters that are mostly rooted in petty crimes. Wronged time and time again, each entry in this series builds empathy between player and avatar. But it is still hard to get past what is basically a petty crime basis for all three main characters.
GTA 4 brings to the mix a much deeper and engrossing past for its main character, Niko. Niko Bellic, a former Serbian soldier during the Bosnian War, is spectacular from his first entrance in the game. Players will find his trials and tribulations filled with more ups and downs than the entire GTA 3 series. No corners are cut in the developer’s effort to make Niko a living breathing entity that you remember past shutting down the console.
Family became a very important part of the GTA series starting with San Andreas. CJ, the main character, becomes embroiled in many issues due to the fallacies of his immediately family. GTA 4 continues this trend but expands upon with series of excellent written cut scenes.
Dating is also a game system that became popular in San Andreas, yet it felt half-baked in many ways. The Hot Coffee incident overshadowed what could have been an incredible addition to the rainbow of game play in GTA. GTA 4 streamlines the dating process giving the player much more reason to continue what is arguable a very un-video game process: meeting chicks.
City/Environment
Built on the same physics engine, all three entries in GTA 3 suffered from the same issues that plagued many Playstation 2 games. The draw distance was constantly a reminder of the artificial roots of the city. Poor spawn issues would see cars appear and disappear seemingly at a whim.
GTA 4 truly harnesses the computing power of the 360 and Playstation 3. Draw distances have been expanded immensely. Car physics have not only been tweaked, but apparently overhauled to present a much more realistic depiction of crashes, gunshot wounds, and even the sound of an engine drowning in water.
Perhaps the biggest difference in the two series is the addition of motion capture to GTA 4. It is simply indescribable what the addition of fluid life-like movements gives to the characters of Liberty City. Looking at any of the GTA 3 games next to GTA 4 in a cut scene is eye popping.
Game Play
GTA 4 continues to split itself from its video game past by reducing the HUD even further than the GTA 3 series. A simple mini map and unobtrusive life/armor bar is plopped in the lower left corner of the screen. Even the simple act of taxi rides and car jacking have a much more cinematic feel due to clever camera positioning.
The GTA 3 series never made a division between guns and ammo. In GTA 4, ammo is purchased separately from the weapon itself. While this may seem a small change, it really continues to hammer home the realistic intent of Rockstar’s development team.
During most missions, driving sequences could become muddled in the GTA 3 series as players had to deduce the best path with no help from the game. GTA 4 adds a much needed GPS system to remove the trial and error of path finding to the next bloody showdown.
Radio
There are subtle changes in the radio system of GTA 4 that may only be noticed by the most fanatic of GTA players. Tuning to different channels in GTA 4 brings up the channel’s emblem on the screen; a welcome change from simple FM numeric representation.
In the GTA 3 series, radio stations were confined to the insides of vehicles. In GTA 4, radio stations can be heard muted through car windows and during car jackings. It will be a pleasant surprise to players to hear muffled music emanate from their car as they exit the vehicle.
The amount of changes between GTA 3 and GTA 4 are many and varied. A large number of them should be pleasing to old players of the series. While some may say that the jump between GTA 2 and GTA 3 was a large leap in technology and play style, those that truly dig deep into the GTA universe will find that GTA 4 lifts the bar just as high. The depth of characters, the cityscape and nearly all game play systems has truly taken the GTA series out of standard definition fun and thrust it gloriously into the top pinnacle of high definition entertainment.
