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When I set out to write this Grand Theft Auto feature, I didn't expect that the article's length would spiral out of control. I wanted to provide readers with real insight into the Grand Theft Auto series, not just another listing of the games in the series with a few pretty screenshots. Once it was apparent that we couldn't cut the content down without sacrificing the quality of the article, the Internode overlords afforded me the opportunity to have a special mid-week edition of the Warp Pipe in order to let the fans read all about the series before the release of GTA IV on Tuesday.

The first part of our retrospective covers from the conception of the first game through to the release of the second. Today's second part concentrates on the period following the release of Grand Theft Auto 2 up to the release of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

Read full article by Matt K

Nice and comprehensive.


Do you mean 2 weeks ?

NA - October 27, 2002
AUS - November 8, 2002
EU - November 8, 2002

We allegedly got ours at the same time as the European PAL release. Don't recall waiting until the end of the year to pick it up, could be wrong, was a while back.

I distinctly remember it being December 12, 2002. The release date kept rolling back gradually - was really quite frustrating.

good read, found it interesting on what was cut from the game due to the events on 9/11

I still think Vice City was the best of the PS2 iirations and Vice City Stories the best Portable implentation of the GTA games. The story is just told so well in both games.

vice city was my favourite

Agreed. While San Andreas was technologically superior, it lacked the style evident in Vice City. IMO anyway.

Still struggling to get into Vice City Stories on PSP, though. Picked it up for cheap to get me in the mood for GTA4, but it isn't really doing it for me. Great implementation, just lacking something, can't put my finger on it.

thanks for the great article!

Well written article, good reading and well done

great article, love it!

I don't think so, i have an original AUS copy, and i am pretty sure i can do that stuff, i havent played it in so long, mainly as i got it on pc later

Even Gamespot AU have this.

Nice article

Good Internode, looking kind of Wikipedia there.

As the article hints at, I think people forget what a surprise hit GTA3 was. It had pretty much zero hype unlike its sequels, and while it got great reviews upon release, so do a lot of games with no hype which end up with bugger all sales.

GTA3's success - at least initially - was driven almost solely by word-of-mouth recommendations. The fact it a) got banned and b) just happened to be the first truly next-gen game didn't hurt either

It's so good I own two copies. The original uncut Australian PS2 release, and (because I sold my PS2) the Xbox version that comes in the Trilogy pack

My Collection:

PC

GTA
GTA2

PS2

GTA3
GTA: Vice City
GTA: San Andreas

Xbox

GTA3
GTA: Vice City
GTA: San Andreas

PSP

GTA: Liberty City Stories
GTA: Vice City Stories

Xbox 360

GTAIV Special Edition (preordered since July last year!)

Agreed.

Great Article Matt K.