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A General Grand Theft Auto Discussion Thread


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1 hour ago, odessasteps said:

Part of me wants to hookup the PS2 to play Vice city.

I've debated this too because of the full soundtrack being in there. Seeing what was missing reminded me how fun driving to some of those were.

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6 hours ago, Technico Support said:

Spent the morning gathering hidden packages in Portland.  I will say the implementation of rain in this games is godawful.  Just the fucking dirt worst.  Apparently, the rain is not a 3D object but rather a 2D overlay over the whole screen.  Regardless, raindrops are not supposed to be thick white rectangles that fall in a perfect pattern and make it impossible to see anything.

I had three moments collecting hidden packages on Portland where the game teleported me somewhere else from the buggy jumping physics, the hill above the tunnel in the northwest corner is particularly buggy. Luckily there’s auto save, as I had one crash during some taxi missions but didn’t lose much. It really sucks, I want to like these games, and the graphics are great, but they really don’t feel complete or field tested to me. I also feel like I’ve had more issues with cars popping in abruptly with this version than the PS2 or PS3 versions, even tho technically it has better draw distance. They’ve seemingly solved an old problem and created two new ones with a lot of things. I am playing the Switch version, which is always the most buggy version of every game, but I never thought playing these I’d be considering just going back and playing my PS2 copies. 

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8 hours ago, Neil Koch said:

Essh, this release keeps sounding worse and worse.  Glad I still have the originals on my tablet and OG Xbox.

I've been playing Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City originals on my original PS2 but that's starting to slow down.

Edited by The Natural
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Gonna put on my judging hat here and get real high 'n mighty...

Do NOT pre-order any games, particularly a certain kind of Western-developed open-world game, EVER.

Do NOT spend FOMO money on a buggy mess waiting for a patch.

Do NOT forget that most studios that operate at a AAA level exist solely to turn your dopamine into money.

Part of the reason I feel like shouting about this is because I spent the morning coaching my girlfriend through some truly stupid late-game bugs in Subnautica on PS4 (which by all accounts is a good game). I'm predominantly a console game collector and 85% of what I play is indie or made by a big Japanese developer, 65%+ is at least 10 years old, so I don't really understand "glitch culture" if you will. It's just crazy to me how much of this stuff the market actually chooses to bear.

I picked up the GTA Trilogy box set w/ the case + maps + everything for OG Xbox last year and I was about halfway through Vice City when they announced the remasters. Guess I can go back to playing it without feeling like a dummy.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
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Modem Vintage Gamer just eviscerated the new trilogy, particularly the rainfall. He showed a sequence where he went under a boardwalk - and it rained UNDERNEATH it with him. He then showed that rain stopped at the edge of the water while on the beach. Really, really amateurish looking. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrEwriFBEi4

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I've spent some time with all three games, and I don't hate the remasters, but I don't think I'm going to love them either.  It's reminding me a lot of the Batman: Arkham remasters which are probably the best ways to experience first two games, but made some fairly significant changes that didn't always work out well and left a lot of people with a very meh feeling overall.  On Series X, I haven't seen a lot of bugs or frame rate problems yet and mostly think the game looks better.... except when it doesn't.  Most of the time, I think character models and scenery look fine and then I come upon an npc who somehow looks worse than they did in the PS2 version of the game. 

I"m going to wait until a couple patches drop and play through all three games sometime next year, but mostly I think I'll be fine with it.  The writing and the gameplay still mostly holds up. 

I do wish Rockstar had left the digital versions of the original games up.  I was never a huge fan of the PS2-era GTA games, but I did become a fan of Rockstar during the X360 era.  Despite that, I never bought the PS4 editions (which were just the PS2 editions with trophy support added).  Even when I heard Rockstar was removing earlier versions of the game from digital storefronts, I wasn't that interested,  Kicking myself for that,

I own all three games for the original Xbox, and I just bought a retail copy of the San Andreas remaster today (it's backwards compatible), so i think i can put up with the Definitive Edition for two games, but, yeah, it's not looking like the sort of package I was hoping for.

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5 hours ago, The Natural said:

Not just Hot Coffee...apparently the entire source code and developer comments was included.  Ridiculous.

I can't say a lot about it because the board is publicly searchable, but I worked for a software company the ESRB paid to help them gather info on how Hot Coffee worked.  I have no idea how the business arrangement came about because it was definitely outside the norm for us, but there we were, helping the ESRB go after Rockstar.  Life is strange.

Edited by Technico Support
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On 11/15/2021 at 2:32 PM, Technico Support said:

Not just Hot Coffee...apparently the entire source code and developer comments was included.  Ridiculous.

I can't say a lot about it because the board is publicly searchable, but I worked for a software company the ESRB paid to help them gather info on how Hot Coffee worked.  I have no idea how the business arrangement came about because it was definitely outside the norm for us, but there we were, helping the ESRB go after Rockstar.  Life is strange.

You have the best job.  We don't get to do any fun IT stuff in the Department of the Army.  It's all very by the book.

It is cool trying to stay one step ahead of network intrusions from foreign intelligence services though.

Edited by J.T.
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Following the release of GTA: The Trilogy, Rockstar has not only apologised for it, but will be re-releasing the original games for PC.

It may not be as bad as Cyberpunk 2077 but Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition has been the highest profile technical disaster this year. Despite consisting of three classic Rockstar games, this ‘definitive edition’ has been blasted by both the press and public for the state it released in.

Its numerous technical issues have earned it one of the lowest possible user scores on Metacritic, and while Rockstar Games isn’t offering refunds like CD Projekt did, it has issued an apology.

'We want to sincerely apologise to everyone who has encountered issues playing these games,’ reads a statement on Rockstar’s website. ‘The Grand Theft Auto series – and the games that make up this iconic trilogy – are as special to us as we know they are to fans around the world.

 

'The updated versions of these classic games did not launch in a state that meets our own standards of quality, or the standards our fans have come to expect.’

Aside from promising several updates to improve the trilogy (the first of which has already been released and you can view the patch notes here), Rockstar also plans to bring back the original PC versions of the three games. The same ones it delisted in the run up to the release of the remasters.

Not only that, but anyone who purchased the remasters for PC will be entitled to the original games for free, at least until June 30, 2022.

There’s currently no release date and, what’s more, these versions will only be re-released for Rockstar’s own launcher, meaning they’re not coming back to Steam. A rather curious choice considering the PC version of GTA: The Trilogy, along with every other Rockstar game, became literally unplayable when the launcher went down.

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On 11/13/2021 at 8:26 PM, Tabe said:

Modem Vintage Gamer just eviscerated the new trilogy, particularly the rainfall. He showed a sequence where he went under a boardwalk - and it rained UNDERNEATH it with him. He then showed that rain stopped at the edge of the water while on the beach. Really, really amateurish looking. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rrEwriFBEi4

The rainfall looked like milk drops which is apt, milking a cash cow. Less Definitive Edition, more Defective Edition.

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4 hours ago, The Natural said:

There’s currently no release date and, what’s more, these versions will only be re-released for Rockstar’s own launcher, meaning they’re not coming back to Steam. A rather curious choice considering the PC version of GTA: The Trilogy, along with every other Rockstar game, became literally unplayable when the launcher went down.

Not entirely sure the bolded part is correct.  GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas reappeared on the North American PS3 store over the weekend (as well as a couple other regions).  GTA III and Vice City are the emulated PS2 versions (PS2 Classics).  Not sure about San Andreas, but I think it's the HD version that was released on Xbox 360 and PS3 (a port of the mobile port).  But... the GTA Collection also reappeared, which is supposed to be a bundle of all three PS2 Classics versions.  So I dunno.

I'm kind of conflicted.  I would like to have digital versions of the original games on an HD console, but I'd prefer PS4 to PS3.  I first thought the PS4 versions would be returning in the next few days.  Now I'm wondering if I should grab the PS3 bundle in case it's some sort of error and the PS3 games get removed again.

Edited by Mario
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37 minutes ago, Mario said:

Not entirely sure the bolded part is correct.  GTA III, Vice City, and San Andreas reappeared on the North American PS3 store over the weekend (as well as a couple other regions).  GTA III and Vice City are the emulated PS2 versions (PS2 Classics).  Not sure about San Andreas, but I think it's the HD version that was released on Xbox 360 and PS3 (a port of the mobile port).  But... the GTA Collection also reappeared, which is supposed to be a bundle of all three PS2 Classics versions.  So I dunno.

I'm kind of conflicted.  I would like to have digital versions of the original games on an HD console, but I'd prefer PS4 to PS3.  I first thought the PS4 versions would be returning in the next few days.  Now I'm wondering if I should grab the PS3 bundle in case it's some sort of error and the PS3 games get removed again.

I regret never buying the trilogy on the PS4 myself. I kind of said the limited soundtrack would be the reason, and it was a bad reason.

I hope they hit the store again. I have a physical copy of Vice City on PS2 and San Andreas on XBOX.

I briefly debated buying the Xbox two pack as well. 

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On 11/20/2021 at 10:44 AM, J.T. said:

You have the best job.  We don't get to do any fun IT stuff in the Department of the Army.  It's all very by the book.

 

Working for a game company was really a mixed bag.  I remember in 2005 or 06, we finished some subcontract work we'd done for Microsoft and we all got Xbox 360s.  But there were also times where a regular client whose huge contact covered our payroll didn't pay on time because they were nitpicking some work and we all had to go without pay for a month.  And then there were awesome parties.  But there were layoffs, too.  In the end, it's just a shit industry where companies ramp up for projects and then lay people off when they're over.  So the nature of work for programmers, artists, etc. is that most jobs are temp jobs that nobody tells you are temp jobs.  I figured, human nature being what it is and hope springing eternal, a lot of people who take a job in that industry probably think they're the special ones who will be kept when the project is done.  Anyway, in the third round of layoffs in my four years there, they were fixing to fire the whole IT staff and keep just me, and I noped right the fuck out of there.

It's funny because you'll read these dark Kotaku exposes about crunch time and layoffs and it's hilarious because that's just how it works.  Like, "oh, developer X finished a project and laid off a shitload of people?  Must be Tuesday."

Edited by Technico Support
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I soured on the Definitive Edition games and uninstalled them yesterday.  I had finished 1/3 of GTA 3 and booted VC just to drive around and listen to music.  Me giving up on these games wasn't even a matter of the glitches (I didn't encounter any).  For me, the issue is how lazy this remake is.  They just gussied up the graphics of the mobile ports and added a few features and called it a day.  I guess I was hoping for these old games rebuilt in GTA 5's engine.  The stuff I'd been hoping for was poorly implemented or not done at all:

  • Weapon wheel: works okay, glad time slowed down when using it, but they kept the original "click L1 to cycle weapons" functionality as well, which was dumb.  So to turn off your current weapon, you have to open the wheel and choose the fist.
  • Radio wheel: works okay, glad time slowed down when using it, but it doesn't show the current station or song.  Mapped to a different button than in GTA 5.
  • Checkpoint/continue: This sucked.  Your "checkpoint" is your meeting with the mission giver.  No mid-mission checkpoints.  If you fail "Bomb Da Base II," for example, you should continue from the docks.  Instead, you continue from picking up 8 Ball and still need to drive across town.  Fucking garbage.
  • GPS: can't use it during a mission. For example, the mission where you need to make several trips to pick up prostitutes, GPS refused to map their locations.  Also, pathfinding is wonky.
  • Combat: Rockstar touted "enhanced combat" or some such marketingspeak.  What we got was better camera controls and free aim, which is nice.  What we needed was a GTA 4 or 5 cover system.  I don't care if it's a remake of an old game.  In 2021, I'm not standing 6 feet from a Triad guy and just pumping lead into each other until one drops. 

Again, this is all stuff completely non-related to the glitches and graphical issues.  This is purely gameplay shit that was over promised and under delivered.

 

Edited by Technico Support
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35 minutes ago, Technico Support said:

On the plus side, I have a technician coming to my house.  For real, his name is Roman and he is eastern European.  I hope he wants to go bowling, play darts, or go find some big American titties when he's finished his work.

If he invites you to his upcoming wedding, decline politely.

 

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