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Categories: 2001 computer and video games | Grand Theft Auto | PlayStation 2 games | Third-person shooters | Windows games | Xbox games Grand Theft Auto 3(Redirected from Grand Theft Auto III)
Grand Theft Auto 3, or GTA 3, is a video game developed by DMA Design, published by Rockstar Games in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2 video game console, May 2002 for Windows-based PCs, and in November 2003 for the Xbox video game console. It is the third in the Grand Theft Auto series.
Setting and GameplayThe player controls a character in Liberty City, a fictitious East Coast city (often said to be very loosely based on New York City), who is never named (though he is referred to variously as "Fido", "The Kid", or "Mr. Black", and "Claude" in a brief cameo in the series' later game Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas; he is also theorized to be "Claude Speed" from Grand Theft Auto 2), who is double-crossed by his partner/girlfriend, Catalina, during a bank robbery and sent to jail. While he is being transferred, an attack on the police convoy sets him free.
The player has a degree of freedom in his actions that was groundbreaking in 2001 and today arguably has only been surpassed by the game's sequels. He is able to go on missions (shaking down a local business for "protection money", clearing the streets of drug dealers, or assassinating leaders of rival gangs, for example) in order to advance in the ranks of his current gang. Alternately, he may choose to drive around the city, stealing cars, running over pedestrians, and avoiding (or opposing) the police. If the player acquires a taxi cab, he can pick up designated non-player characters as fares and drop them off at different parts of the city for a cash payment; carjacking an ambulance lets the player pick up injured NPCs and drive them to the hospital for a cash reward. Police and Fire Brigade missions are similarly available.
The PC version of the game has been criticized for performance problems, especially in light of the much smoother performance of the next game in the GTA series, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. Market Performance and Critical AcclaimUpon release, GTA 3 unexpectedly emerged as a smash hit at its initial US$49.95 price and became the #1 selling video game of 2001 in the United States. Later discounted to $19.95 as part of Sony's "Greatest Hits" program, it continued to sell well and went on to become the second best-selling video game of 2002 (behind only the next game in the series, 2002's Grand Theft Auto: Vice City). This was a remarkable achievement in an industry where most games experience strong drops in sales despite price drops, as gamers have a strong tendency to purchase only the "next new thing". The game was touted as revolutionary by several game review websites and publications, and received such rewards as Game of the Year from Gamespot, Gamespy, and Cheat Code Central, and Best Action Game of 2001 by IGN, receiving an average of about 95% from the review websites and publications. [1], [2] ControversyGTA 3 is controversial because of its graphic content, and it generated moral panic upon its release. The player is rewarded with cash for various illegal and immoral actions: one allegation, frequently cited in the press, was that in the game, players had to carjack a car, pick up a prostitute, have (implied) sex with the prostitute, and then kill her and steal her money. This action, while permitted ("sex" restores the player's health, up to 125% of its normal maximum), is never actually required and like all in-game crimes incurs the wrath of the police. Non-mission crimes such as this also lower the player's criminal ranking in the statistics screen. The game was banned in Australia—the only country to do so—and a censored version of the game was released in its place. Various critics hypothesized that if children were to play the game, they might acquire sociopathic attitudes toward others. Several minors arrested for car theft in the United States claimed their motivation was derived from playing the game. It was because of GTA 3 that the Wal-Mart chain of retail stores announced that, for games rated "M" by the ESRB, its stores would begin checking the identification of purchasers who appeared to be under 18. On October 20, 2003, the families of Aaron Hamel and Kimberly Bede, two young people shot by teens William and Josh Buckner (who in statements to investigators claimed their actions were inspired by Grand Theft Auto 3) filed a USD$246 million lawsuit against publishers Rockstar Games and Take Two Interactive Software, retailer Wal-Mart, and PlayStation 2 manufacturer Sony Computer Entertainment America. Rockstar and its parent company, Take Two, filed for dismissal of the lawsuit, stating in U.S. District Court on October 29, 2003 that the "ideas and concepts as well as the 'purported psychological effects' on the Buckners are protected by the First Amendment's free-speech clause." The lawyer of the victims, Jack Thompson, denied that and is trying to get the lawsuit moved into a state court and actioned under Tennessee's consumer protection act. The lawsuit is still pending as of the end of 2004. However, GTA 3 has saved a family near Houston, Texas in a rather humorous way. [3] External links
Categories: 2001 computer and video games | Grand Theft Auto | PlayStation 2 games | Third-person shooters | Windows games | Xbox games The contents of this article are licensed from Wikipedia.org under the GNU Free Documentation License.
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