We know that all you GTA heads are neck-deep in the beautifully rendered corpses of mid-level irritating crime-boss douchebags, but let’s take a moment and consider our roots. Liberty wasn’t always this chock-full of cell phone blabbing pedestrians, road raging grandma SUV pilots, and rights-violating officers of the law. In a simpler time, there was only one camera view looking down on all the chaos and the citizens were jaggy ... » Read More

25 Apr 2008

The complete history of Grand Theft Auto

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Crime doesn’t pay. But virtual crime? That does pay. And by the bucket-load. Even by the time the series reached Florida, it was breaking records in a major way, with Vice City becoming the fastest-selling PS2 title ever - until San Andreas beat it. And that’s despite four million Americans pre-ordering Vice City, and a million more buying it upon its release (here in the UK, the Miami Vice-vibed title shifted over a quarter of ... » Read More

15 Apr 2008

What type of GTA player are you?

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Anticipating the approach of the latest Grand Theft Auto isn’t the same as yearning for a new Halo or Resident Evil. Most games make you anticipate the experience that the designers dole out to you in a prescribed way, whereas with GTA, you anticipate all the ways in which you will create experiences of your own design. Even if the main draw for some players is the story - and the marketing for GTAIV aims to show this will be the ... » Read More

28 Mar 2007

Battle of the GTAs

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Ever since the release of 2001's groundbreaking Grand Theft Auto III, there've been seemingly hundreds of games that shamelessly rip off its free-roaming, carjacking open-world formula. But as hard as the pretenders try, there's still only one ... » Read More

13 Jul 2006

The Making of Grand Theft Auto

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Before the controversy, before the massive sales, before hot coffee, Grand Theft Auto was simply a top-down action game with wild ambition and a driving concept of a "living city." Who knew that concept would one day transform the entire videogame industry? Probably nobody, so it's worth taking a look behind the scenes to see how GTA got its start, complete with the conflict, concepts and chaos that went with it. Thanks to our friends at Edge magazine in the UK, we're happy to provide this ... » Read More

13 Jul 2006

The Making of Grand Theft Auto - part three

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Just joining us? You'll want to read part one and part two first, then c'mon back. While the original vision of Grand Theft Auto was scaled back for PC, the PlayStation version, although preserving the core of the game, lost even more features, including fire engines and trains. But 18 months into development, the entire city had to be razed and rebuilt, as programmer Brian Baird recalls. "[Programmer] Mike Dailly came up with a new technique to draw 24-bit color tiles instead of the low-res ... » Read More

10 Jul 2006

The Making of Grand Theft Auto - part two

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Did you miss part one? No sweat - click here and take it from the top. Once a firm idea was in place and pitched to publisher BMG Interactive, work began on Race 'n' Chase (the early name for Grand Theft Auto) straight away, putting flesh on the living city's bare skeleton. "We went a little overboard on the simulation," says developer DMA's studio boss Dave Jones. "Buses following routes, people getting on and off, traffic lights working properly, a rail network. The more we could make it a ... » Read More

10 Jul 2006

The Making of Grand Theft Auto - part one

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

The one thing that everyone agrees on is that they didn't make Grand Theft Auto, but that's not strictly fair: the other thing that everyone agrees on is that everybody made Grand Theft Auto. Talking to those that worked for DMA Design back in the late '90s it's difficult to get anyone to claim significant credit for themselves, although they're generous with praise for others. Development of Grand Theft Auto - or Race 'n' Chase as it was originally known before a clash with a Matchbox ... » Read More

7 Jul 2006

The making of Grand Theft Auto

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Wednesday 5 July 2006 The one thing that everyone agrees on is that they didn't make Grand Theft Auto, but that's not strictly fair: the other thing that everyone agrees on is that everybody made Grand Theft Auto. Talking to those that worked for DMA Design back in the late '90s it's difficult to get anyone to claim significant credit for themselves, although they're generous with praise for others. Development of Grand Theft Auto, or Race 'n' Chase as it was originally known before a clash ... » Read More

7 Jul 2006

The making of Grand Theft Auto

PC Feature | Grand Theft Auto

Click here to read part one of our three part 'The making of Grand Theft Auto' feature Click here to read part two of our three part 'The making of Grand Theft Auto' feature Friday 7 July 2006 While the original vision of Grand Theft Auto was scaled back for PC, the PlayStation version, although preserving the core of the game, lost even more features, including fire engines and trains. But 18 months into development, the entire city had to be razed and rebuilt, as one programmer Brian Baird ... » Read More

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