GOURANGA!
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Grand Theft Auto 1997: 'Sick, deluded and beneath contempt'
Suddenly PC owners are playing catch-up with the console gamers. PC gamers have now been waiting over a year for one of gaming’s biggest and most controversial titles GTA V. I could have splashed out on the PS4 version but would prefer to wait and play it using my two new crossfired Vapor–X R9 290s. Amid rumours that I might …
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 16:01 GMT goldcd
That's because the PS1 framerate was awful
Even on my modest PC is was buttery.
Only game I ever played on the basis of a demo. I'm reasonably sure the demo was the first city with a 10 minute time limit on your game. Great fun trying to pack as much as you could into that.
Was a poverty stricken student at the time, but only game I've ever been queuing outside (HMV Dundee) to buy on day of release.
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 13:00 GMT VinceH
Re: Memories
"And a map, with that game.
Though, sadly, in-game tech has increased with outside-world tech and such games have sat-nav nowadays."
That is indeed so - but you still get a map with the physical media. The one in my GTAV box for the PS3 is slightly larger than A2, and shows Los Santos on one side, and the wider area of Los Santos and Blaine County on the other.
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 12:31 GMT Kris Akabusi
Re: Memories
Forgot the map - upvoted for the reminder.
There was a Lamborghini in the game but you could never find it, but once you did every other car would be one. Still it was a fantastic game which I still played even when I had the London add on and the sequel (which personally I thought were poor)
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 14:54 GMT Goldmember
Re: Memories
"Nah, the 18 rated was not official, that was a games industry self regulation recommendation."
Wrong. It WAS official. While most games of the time didn't require a BBFC games rating as they were under the equivalent of today's PEGI (I think it was called ELSPA), certain games which featured "gross violence" and other extreme content were referred to the BBFC for a rating. All GTA and Resident Evil games had a BBFC rating until a few years ago, when it was decided PEGI would be the universal games rating authority for the UK.
I was 12 when GTA came out and couldn't buy it in good old Electronics Boutique as I got asked for ID. When the next one came out and the same happened again, I did as another poster said and bought it from an indie shop. Good times
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 14:07 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Memories
Same happened to me. After the bad publicity, I caught a TV news article talking about how it would likely be banned. I jumped straight into my car (late 20s gamer at the time) to the biggest video game shop and picked up a copy for my PS1. Possibly a game that I would have missed otherwise. All the kids were playing it though by the end of the year.
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 10:53 GMT Lee D
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
I can remember playing multiplayer and my brother and I would see how many cars we could line up in a single screen and one of us would then rocket them while the other tried to "surf" over the cars as they exploded.
Sadly, the off-screen cars often disappeared quite quickly so it was tricky to get right.
However, I always loved that style of game, much more so than the first / third person 3D versions.
Also one of the first games to support 3DFX properly so you could run in some ludicrously high resolutions for the time.
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 11:58 GMT DJO
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
Probably apocryphal but everybody used to drive or ride on the left so their sword arm would be presented to anybody coming the other way. Napoleon was apparently left handed so he imposed riding on the right so his sword arm would be in the advantageous position and the rest as they say, is history.
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Thursday 15th January 2015 16:06 GMT PhoenixRevealed
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
"Actually you are completely incorrect as more countries drive on the left, it's just that the BIG countries do the reverse so most drivers doing it properly drive on the right."
I don't know where you are getting your info to support your wishful thinking, but most world drivers are on the right, and it's not even close. China, The old Soviet states, Europe, the Middle East, the northern two-thirds of Africa, Scandinavia, all of North America, and all but two countries in South America all drive on the right. The only way your statement is even halfway correct is to count the number of minuscule island countries which are the remnants of Anglo colonization, but even then, the actual number of drivers in those places are vastly outnumbered by those in right-driving nations.
http://www.worldstandards.eu/cars/list-of-left-driving-countries/
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 12:03 GMT streaky
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
"that most countries drive on the right hand side of the road rather than the left hand side"
He said correct; all the driver's countries drive on the left, for example Japan, which is why Japanese cars tend to have the indicator stalk on the correct side unlike many supposedly British cars (hey lets play indicate and change gear at the same time).
Driving on the right is a throwback to stagecoach driving (much like the suspension "systems" on the average US-built vehicle) and something to do with mailboxes in the USA and nothing to do with being correct - which is why many drive-on-the-right countries have to come up with weird road rules to support it.
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 13:13 GMT Boothy
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
Statistically, driving on the left is also safer.
The vast majority of people are right handed, and driving on the left means your dominant hand is always on the steering wheel, while your left hand is doing things like changing gear, If you were on the right hand side of the road, most people would have to let go of the wheel with their dominant hand, in order to change gear etc.
Also the right eye is dominant over the left eye, so driving on the left means your right eye is watching the oncoming traffic, and it also means pedestrians crossing the road, also have their dominant eye towards the oncoming traffic on their side of the road.
As far as I know, there are no positive reasons to drive on the right, only negative ones.
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Thursday 15th January 2015 16:24 GMT PhoenixRevealed
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
"If you were on the right hand side of the road, most people would have to let go of the wheel with their dominant hand, in order to change gear etc."
Bull... I'm left handed in a right-side driving country. As such I am forced to use my non-dominant hand to operate everything in the vehicle except the windshield wipers. That requires more of my attention than it would if I could use my more coordinated left hand, but I am NOT forced to take my left hand off the steering wheel to do so. When using the shifter I am sometimes forced to take my eyes off the road and look down at it since my muscle memory is less developed on that side and I find it harder to "feel" that it is in the correct position than if I could use my left hand instead. I actually find it easier to drive in a left-side drive country. Your argument is just wishful justification of what at its core is just a emotional position that makes you feel superior because your country "does it right".
Show me a scientifically conducted study that there are more accidents caused by right-handed drivers in right-side driving countries than in left-side ones (adjusted for population and overall accident rates) and maybe I'll take your argument more seriously. We all know how great the drivers are in Calcutta, and they drive on the left.
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Friday 23rd January 2015 15:15 GMT Sweep
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
It's also safer/better for cyclists (and horse riders)- most will naturally mount up by throwing their right leg over (i.e. from the pavement in the direction of traffic in a sensible country). Also the reason why bicycle drive chains are on the right hand side.
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 19:40 GMT streaky
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
So what are the "driver's countries"? Not Italy or Germany then?
I've never driven in Italy but I've experienced the roads.. I'm going with no.
They make nice cars but..
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 21:51 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
Japanese cars tend to have the indicator stalk on the correct side unlike many supposedly British cars (hey lets play indicate and change gear at the same time).
Mirror, signal, correct gear, manoeuvre anyone (mirror, manoeuvre for testing purposes)? It's actually easier if the indicator is on the left in a right hand drive car as one hand is always on the wheel - you know that bit responsible for the vehicle's direction? Make sense now? On a roundabout I can steer whilst signalling to come off the roundabout and changing gear where necessary - the movement is natural as I hit the indicator downwards on my way to the gear stick. Decidedly easier for a British car on British roads than a Jap one where they cannot be arsed moving the stalks around on the steering column. Don't mistake lazyness for aptitude.
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Thursday 15th January 2015 16:12 GMT PhoenixRevealed
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
Get over yourself... there is no "correct" side of the road to drive on, as long as everybody drives on the same side. As a southpaw I wish North America drove on the left since then I'd be able to control my stick shift, radio, HVAC, etc, and pick up my coffee cup with my left dominant hand instead of being forced to use my right, less coordinated appendage. Since the vast majority of humans are right-handed, it actually makes more sense to drive on the right. That said, it really doesn't matter unless you regularly travel to places that drive opposite to what you are used to.
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Tuesday 20th January 2015 14:58 GMT Tom 11
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
The side of the road we drive on derives from days gone by when we used to walk small trodden paths and carried swords.
We walked on the left hand side as most swordsmen sheath their sword on the left hip to be accessible by the right hand. Walking to the left ensured that the pommels of each carriers swords did not mesh when passing closely. This is true for Japan also, another civilisation with strong warrior roots.
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Thursday 22nd January 2015 16:53 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
Sweden used to drive on the left, however a lot of cars were imports from other Scandinavian countries.
They switched over to driving on the right one afternoon in the 60s.
They chose the afternoon such that people wouldn't forget first thing in the morning rush hour, and by the evening rush hour occurred it was already in place.
I loved the top down GTA games, they were like a violent Micro Machines (another great top down racing series). The London expansion packs had some great humour mocking 60s British films. The series on a 3Dfx card looked great, games until then looked blocky and low resolution, GTA ran reasonably quickly, smooth graphics and at a resolution that would put today's consoles to shame.
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Thursday 15th January 2015 16:35 GMT PhoenixRevealed
Re: I loved the top down GTA Games
Neither was China or North and South America. All those places (except two small South American countries) drive on the right. While what you say may be true for Europe and North Africa, it doesn't apply to the large number of other right-driving countries around the world.
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Wednesday 14th January 2015 10:34 GMT Simple Si
Awesome Soundtrack too!
Great game! I remember playing the demo for ages and saving up for the release and hoping I wouldn't get asked for ID when I purchased from WH Smith back in the day (Electronics Boutique/Game had turned me away earlier - bastards).
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They put a lot of effort into that soundtrack with the various radio stations corresponding to tracks on the CD and it certainly paid off. You could also put your own audio CD in too if I recall.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
