Bad news folks: turns out Grand Theft Auto 3 could have been really cool. In a post on X, the Everything App (via GamesRadar ), former Rockstar dev Obbe Vermeij has been reminiscing about his time on the era-defining third GTA, and recalls that—for a brief, shining moment—the gam
Bad news folks: turns out Grand Theft Auto 3 could have been really cool. In a post on X, the Everything App (via GamesRadar), former Rockstar dev Obbe Vermeij has been reminiscing about his time on the era-defining third GTA, and recalls that—for a brief, shining moment—the game actually required you to obey traffic lights... Read more.
Take-Two Interactive has dismissed a lawsuit filed in 2021 against Grand Theft Auto modders over the reverse-engineered ports of Grand Theft Auto 3 and GTA: Vice City... Read more.
Take-Two Interactive has dismissed a lawsuit filed in 2021 against Grand Theft Auto modders over the reverse-engineered ports of Grand Theft Auto 3 and GTA: Vice City... Read more.
The release of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition has not gone well. In fact, we have separately described it as a " mess " and a " trainwreck " that has left fans pining for the original versions, which were delisted when the trilogy came out. Today those fans go
The release of Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition has not gone well. In fact, we have separately described it as a "mess" and a "trainwreck" that has left fans pining for the original versions, which were delisted when the trilogy came out. Today those fans got some good news: Rockstar is bringing the classic versions back... Read more.
GTA 3 cheats can bring a lot of chaos to Rockstar's classic sandbox. And now that the GTA Remastered Trilogy is almost here, there's a good reason to dust off those old codes in preparation. With that in mind, the GTA: Vice City and San Andreas cheats should come in handy, too...
GTA 3 cheats can bring a lot of chaos to Rockstar's classic sandbox. And now that the GTA Remastered Trilogy is almost here, there's a good reason to dust off those old codes in preparation. With that in mind, the GTA: Vice City and San Andreas cheats should come in handy, too... Read more.
There was a time when the Grand Theft Auto remasters Rockstar announced the other day would have everyone preparing for redeployment in the culture war. CNN chyrons would be hyping up the butchery of Rockstar's latest, promising a wave of frothy-mouthed killers. US senators would
There was a time when the Grand Theft Auto remasters Rockstar announced the other day would have everyone preparing for redeployment in the culture war. CNN chyrons would be hyping up the butchery of Rockstar's latest, promising a wave of frothy-mouthed killers. US senators would hurriedly pass along Highly Concerned Statements about the vulnerability of our youth, all of whom have been taken by the phantasmagoric crime sprees in Liberty City. Teenagers would huddle together and hatch plans—as I once did—about how to secure a copy of an M-rated game with an underaged ID. This is how we lived throughout the 2000s, when Grand Theft Auto was the most popular, and most dangerous, videogame in the world... Read more.
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition is real, and it will be out later this year. The trilogy, made up of Grand Theft Auto 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas, will feature "across-the-board upgrades including graphical improvements and modern gameplay enhanceme
Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – Definitive Edition is real, and it will be out later this year. The trilogy, made up of Grand Theft Auto 3, GTA: Vice City, and GTA: San Andreas, will feature "across-the-board upgrades including graphical improvements and modern gameplay enhancements" in all three games, but Rockstar promised they will also maintain "the classic look and feel" of the original games... Read more.
It's already pretty well established that a remastered Grand Theft Auto trilogy is happening. Publisher Take-Two Interactive said in August that it is working on three " iterations of previously released titles " that haven't yet been formally announced, and last week South Korea
High-profile Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City reverse-engineering fan projects were pulled offline for a second time after yet another Take-Two takedown. The GTA 3 and Vice City reverse-engineering fan projects known as re3 and reVC were first hit by a DMCA takedown in February,
High-profile Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City reverse-engineering fan projects were pulled offline for a second time after yet another Take-Two takedown.
The GTA 3 and Vice City reverse-engineering fan projects known as re3 and reVC were first hit by a DMCA takedown in February, with Rockstar parent company Take-Two claiming copyright infringement.
The fan-created source code for both games was made available on GitHub, offering a raft of eye-catching improvements over the original games officially available to play today on PC. (For more, check out our feature on how re3 came to be.)
A listing for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has been spotted on South Korea's game rating board's site. According to the details of the listing, the application for an official rating was made by Take-Two Interactive for an action game originating from th
A listing for Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy - The Definitive Edition has been spotted on South Korea's game rating board's site.
According to the details of the listing, the application for an official rating was made by Take-Two Interactive for an action game originating from the United States.
The game has been rated 18 or unavailable for youth in the country.
nother major project making mods for Grand Theft Auto 3-era games has shut down, with the creators citing "imminent danger to our mental and financial well-being" as the reason. GTA Underground was an ambitious project, one that sought to unify the worlds of the "3D Era" Rockstar
nother major project making mods for Grand Theft Auto 3-era games has shut down, with the creators citing "imminent danger to our mental and financial well-being" as the reason. GTA Underground was an ambitious project, one that sought to unify the worlds of the "3D Era" Rockstar games into one continuous map spanning Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, San Andreas, Manhunt, Bully, and more... Read more.
Back in February, Take-Two took notice of fan-made attempts to reverse-engineer and release Grand Theft Auto 3 and Vice City . But while the projects returned to GitHub a few days after the publisher had them removed, Take-Two has resumed its attack by filing a lawsuit against th
Rockstar is reportedly putting the finishing touches to remasters of its open-world PlayStation 2-era classics Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas for release later this year. Rumours of possible remasters for the games first bubbled up over the summer as fans began wo
Rockstar is reportedly putting the finishing touches to remasters of its open-world PlayStation 2-era classics Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas for release later this year.
Rumours of possible remasters for the games first bubbled up over the summer as fans began wondering why Take-Two's lawyers had suddenly started issuing a raft of takedown notices for classic GTA mods. Speculation grew further following Take-Two's recent confirmation it had three unannounced "new iterations of previously released titles" in the works.
Now, however, an investigation by Kotaku has revealed more tangible details, with its sources - who, the website says, have a proven track record providing accurate information on GTA Online and Red Dead Online - claiming Grand Theft Auto 3, Vice City, and San Andreas are indeed getting the remaster treatment.
The three classic PlayStation 2-era Grand Theft Auto games are currently being remastered for PC alongside modern consoles, including the Switch, according to a new Kotaku report . The report comes after recent rumors about the remasters , based on takedowns notices on mods using
The three classic PlayStation 2-era Grand Theft Auto games are currently being remastered for PC alongside modern consoles, including the Switch, according to a new Kotaku report. The report comes after recent rumors about the remasters, based on takedowns notices on mods using classic GTA material. The remasters are reportedly coming as soon as this fall after several years of internal delays. (Coincidentally, Grand Theft Auto 3 was first released on the PlayStation 2 in October 2001.).. Read more.
Great moments in PC gaming are bite-sized celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories. When Grand Theft Auto 3 came out there was much furor on the news over how it was violent and crass and probably going to end Western civilization. I was a bit younger than the target
Great moments in PC gaming are bite-sized celebrations of some of our favorite gaming memories.
When Grand Theft Auto 3 came out there was much furor on the news over how it was violent and crass and probably going to end Western civilization. I was a bit younger than the target audience at the time. But you always had that one friend with permissive parents who was willing to let you come over and play, keeping it on the down-low. I still won't betray their trust to this day.If you're reading this, you're welcome.
While I wouldn't necessarily recommend letting 12 year olds play GTA today (especially if Trevor is involved), what it really represented back when I first gave it a spin was the ultimate action playset. For years I'd been building city blocks out of LEGO and speeding Hot Wheels cars through them, occasionally causing epic wrecks and knocking over structures with dramatic, a capella sound effects. GTA let you do that in a huge (for the time) simulated Liberty City where all the work of preparing the playground was done for you.
And just as those play pretend games were at their best when you introduced some kind of crazy twist, like Godzilla or the Millennium Falcon, GTA rose to another level of awesome when you learned about the cheat code to spawn a Rhino tank. Suddenly, you weren’t just playing cops and robbers. You were cruising down the highway in 60 tons of military hardware with near immunity to retaliation and the ability to make anything you pointed at explode.
With all the pressure of school, homework, chores, and extracurricular activities, a lot of the escapism I enjoyed in GTA was simply being free to do what I wanted, when I wanted. Inside a tank, there really aren't a lot of rules you have to follow aside from the ones you make for yourself. The principal can't stop you. The cops can’t stop you. Your parents might be able to stop you if they catch you playing that hooker-killing game they saw on the news, but luckily I avoided that particular five-star wanted level. A kid who often feels powerless in their own life deserves to feel invincible every now and then.
I continued this armored tradition in Vice City, San Andreas, and all the GTAs that came after (with the exception of IV, in which the Rhino was heartbreakingly absent). Getting maximum heat and then competing to see which of my friends could stay alive the longest under assault by SWAT teams and military helicopters got us many more hours of shared enjoyment than the story missions.
At the end of the day, GTA has never really been about being transgressive or edgy for me—at least not beyond those first few preteen play sessions when I thought it was so hardcore that they were allowed to make sex jokes and say the F-word in a video game. It’s been about that glorious sandbox feeling that started with blocks and Tonka trucks and eventually moved into the digital realm. It's about freedom. The kind of freedom that is best served from the barrel of a 120mm high explosive cannon.
Joining the likes of Blizzard and Ubisoft, Rockstar has created its own games launcher allowing players to access its PC games from one place, regardless of what digital store you bought them from. The Rockstar Game Launcher is available to download right now , and also lets fans
Joining the likes of Blizzard and Ubisoft, Rockstar has created its own games launcher allowing players to access its PC games from one place, regardless of what digital store you bought them from.
For a limited time, as an incentive to install the launcher, you can claim a free copy of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas when you download it, which will be permanently added to your Social Club account's library.
As Eurogamer turns 20, we thought, you know what? It's not all about us. It's also about the developers, the people behind the virtual magic that inspired the creation of Eurogamer two decades ago. Without the developers, we wouldn't be here. And so, we thought we'd ask a few of
As Eurogamer turns 20, we thought, you know what? It's not all about us. It's also about the developers, the people behind the virtual magic that inspired the creation of Eurogamer two decades ago. Without the developers, we wouldn't be here. And so, we thought we'd ask a few of them (20, in fact!) to pick the games that defined the last 20 years, and see what would come of it.
We approached a broad range of people, from top executives and legendary talent to tiny indies. We asked them to pick a game that defined the last 20 years, but left it up to them to interpret the question. It could be a game that defined the industry, that meant a lot to them professionally or personally, or is just a favourite.
We're delighted with the responses (thank you to everyone who contributed!). There's some fantastic insight here, super cool anecdotes and the odd surprising choice. We hope you enjoy it!
Some enterprising GTA 3 YouTubers and modders have discovered some of the original tools Rockstar developers used while building and debugging Grand Theft Auto III, and they provide a fascinating glimpse into the development process. Via Kotaku , YouTubers Vadim M and Badger Good
Some enterprising GTA 3 YouTubers and modders have discovered some of the original tools Rockstar developers used while building and debugging Grand Theft Auto III, and they provide a fascinating glimpse into the development process.
Via Kotaku, YouTubers Vadim M and Badger Gooder have a video up that showcases many of the debug tools that have been discovered lingering in different builds of Grand Theft Auto III. Some of these were lying dormant in GTA III’s code, and many were created to use with PlayStation 2 devkits.
Other debug scripts for GTA 3 were discovered in the mobile port by hackers like Fire Head, who managed to port them back into the console or PC versions.
Some of the features let you see the character, vehicle, and environmental hitboxes and collision detection. Others let you attach a second controller to use developer console commands (important if you were debugging on a console), or use a freelook camera and warp your character to wherever you park it.
It’s a pleasant and informative video, and you can watch the whole thing right here:
I love the Grand Theft Auto mod scene —particularly the hobbyist projects that reach into the series' back catalogue . To this end, Xrtist//'s incoming Grand Theft Auto Advance PC Port brings 2004's Grand Theft Auto Advance to GTA 3. With reworked colours, location and asset twea
With reworked colours, location and asset tweaks, the mod—due June 1, with a downloadable beta out now—follows the original game's timeline, set after Liberty City Stories but before the event of Grand Theft Auto 3. As such, Toni Cipriani's house remains intact, tunnels are under construction, petrol stations are owned by Gas 'N Go and not AM Petrol Station, and the Callahan bridge is yet to be completed among other things.
"While creating the new places that only existed in GTA Advance map, I was really careful and chose the places/buildings that are suitable for this, " explains Xrtist// on the mod's ModDB page. "For Johnny's Bar in Red Light, i chose the empty building next to Pay 'N Spray building. I had to use State of Emergency textures for the roads, as its the best and (semi) official source for the blue-ish roads by Rockstar."
Xrtist// adds that the mod contains edited versions of GTA 3's vehicles to better reflect GTA Advance. Likewise, all weapons remain the same, bar the Katana and the Minigun.
"There are 41 story missions and they are really similar to GTA 3's," adds Xrtist//, "so I'm hoping i will quickly re-make a lot of them only editing the existing ones."
Here are some screens which compare the mod to its source:
Again, Grand Theft Auto Advance PC Port is out June 1. Download its beta from its ModDB page.
"Darkel was just a crazy bum who gave you some crazy missions," said Rockstar in this 2011 Grand Theft Auto 3 Q&A . "None of these missions involved blowing up buses of school children, although that is a funny rumor." With that, following the release of GTA 3's 10 Year Anniv
"Darkel was just a crazy bum who gave you some crazy missions," said Rockstar in this 2011 Grand Theft Auto 3 Q&A. "None of these missions involved blowing up buses of school children, although that is a funny rumor."
With that, following the release of GTA 3's 10 Year Anniversary Edition, the developer put years of cut content speculation to bed. Launched in October 2001, the series' fifth open-world crime simulator courted the same media controversy as its forerunners—this time galvanised by its first-ever three-dimensional world, and its proximity to the September 11 attacks in New York City. Liberty City, of course, is Rockstar's fictitious slant on NYC.
GTA 3 was delayed in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, but Rockstar has long maintained the decision to remove Darkel—a so-called "street urchin" who it's thought would have offered the player Kill Frenzy-style missions—was made months in advance. Nevertheless, one dedicated group of hobbyist modders has spent the last several years researching the game's files, promo materials and prototypes to create Grand Theft Auto 3 as it appeared in beta form. Named GTA3D, the project is built from the ground up and reintroduces a host of removed characters, missions, vehicle models, lines of dialogue and more.
Given Grand Theft Auto 3 turns 17 this year, my first question to the team developing GTA3D is: Why?
"The thing about GTA 3 is that it was the first ever Grand Theft Auto in real 3D," team member Angelo, aka The Hero, tells me. "If you look at early versions of Vice City or San Andreas, it's basically very similar to the final game. In GTA 3, however, the early versions are very rough still and look very different visually to the final game. They had to build the whole game from scratch—and that's what I think makes GTA 3 very interesting."
"It was a very intriguing game," adds project lead Richard, otherwise known as Mr Jago. "I think looking back and trying to get into the developers' heads, and to consider why they made the choices they did is really interesting to us. We all grew up with this game so it feels like a special project to us."
Inspired by other similar but less focused beta mod projects, work began on GTA3D in 2014. Sergiu, the mod's art director, QA tester and self-professed "eye for detail" tells me GTA3D has been a learning process for the entire team, and that while many contributors have come and gone in that time, the mod's final release will be a "major tribute" to the team's teenage years.
As for the elusive Darkel, The Hero says that despite his omission from GTA 3's final release, his name still appears in both San Andeas and Vice City's code. "There's a C++ class called CDarkel which [Rockstar] wrote for GTA 3 that takes care of all the Rampages," he says. "That same class is still used in Vice City and San Andreas. Obviously the character is not there, but it's still in the code."
Operating from GTA 3's abandoned Harwood tunnel, it's thought Darkel would have provided the player with several missions—in the same way San Andreas' Cesar doles out Kill Frenzy/Rampage-style challenges. It's also thought one of these evil tasks involved loading an ice cream truck with explosives and killing as many pedestrians as possible.
Besides the ice cream truck missions, we theorised that Darkel might have missions where he gave you special weapons such as flamethrowers, Molotov cocktails, the tank and that sort of thing.
Sergiu Camberea
"We can only speak theoretically here as we don't have much to go on," says Sergiu to this end. "Our research went as deep as old magazines, databases, concept scans and all of that. We know that Darkel was supposed to give the player five missions, one of which involved the ice cream truck. He would not give the player any monetary gains for doing the missions, but actually things that only he could give you—things like vehicles, weapons, things like that, because he was a hobo. As a hobo, he probably wouldn't have had much money.
"Besides the ice cream truck missions, we theorised that he might have missions where he gave you special weapons—such as flamethrowers, Molotov cocktails, the tank and that sort of thing. One thing I reckon is true is his relation to moonshine [bootlegged booze]. There is an advert for the game that speaks about the recent breakout of moonshine and hobos in the city. We had the idea that one of his missions would feature selling moonshine and another would be using the moonshine to cause havoc in the city with some of his groupies."
The GTA3D team agrees with Rockstar's assertion that Darkel's character ultimately didn't fit the game's tone—even if his missions sounded suitably chaotic. Strangely, the late actor Bill Fiore is credited in the game's closing sequence (here, around the 3.11 mark) despite Darkel's absence from the final product. His representatives were unable to tell me why this is the case, nor why his part was cut, but were quite certain Fiore himself was offered little explanation or elaboration at the time.
Likewise, international DJ Tom Novy was removed from the final game despite featuring in earlier builds. One of his songs, Back to the Streets, was originally intended to feature on in-game radio station Head Radio, as was his likeness as a pedestrian character model. I contacted Novy and, like Fiore's reps, he was unsure why his part was axed and implied these decisions were made without his direct input.
Another rumour which persists today is the suggestion that GTA 3's Dodo plane didn't always have clipped wings and stubborn flight controls. Despite Rockstar's rebuttal, some corners of the internet believe the aircraft's model was edited post-9/11—and that school buses were spiked for the same reason.
The original files from the year 2000 show the Dodo always had clipped wings, and that school buses weren't removed because of 9/11. Darkel was also not removed for this reason either these are all myths.
Sergiu Camberea
"We can actually confirm that that's false because we have the original files that were from 2000," says Sergiu. "They show that the Dodo always had clipped wings, and that school buses weren't removed because of 9/11. Darkel was also not removed for this reason either—these are all myths.
"There were a few pedestrian lines and also some radio commercials which were hidden in the archives of the Rockstar website and not available to the public, though. We found them and made good use of them in the mod. They reference the military, hobos, some of them reference college education, some of them reference some poverty related stuff—all very political-related stuff.
"One of them mentions Saddam Hussein, another mentions 'nasty liberals', or something like that, in an Ammunation ad. One of these was actually used in Vice City but the references to terrorism and liberals were modified to 'communists.'"
Richard adds: "The only thing they might not be telling the truth about is the police cars, because all the pictures up until then showed them with blue with the white stripes—like the New York pattern. They tried to deny that afterwards but it's possible that that's not completely true. We also looked in the game files for those pedestrian voices and they actually duplicated voices to replace certain lines. The SWAT team members [NOOSE, as they appear in the GTA universe] have these lines for when they're chasing you or shooting at you. The artist replaced them with a weird laugh. [The original lines] might have been too offensive."
Now in its fourth year of development, the GTA3D team hopes to launch its labour of love this year. And while this might be a hobbyist endeavour, a cursory glance on GTAForums suggests the project is in high demand. With this in mind, Sergiu tells me that he and the team will likely make GTA3D open source eventually, but also points out discoveries are still being made to this day. "In the actual game last year," he says, "a Russian modder found a file containing the actual vehicles and pedestrians from the game's year 2000 game files which were well hidden."
"Actually, they weren't well hidden at all, but, actually, people were too stupid to notice," interjects The Hero. "Just a few days before I was told about this, I had looked at the file and actually did think to myself: Perhaps there is something in there. But I didn't make the connection. Which was quite embarrassing in hindsight."
Despite The Hero's bruised ego, it's discoveries like this that underscore the enduring appeal, popularity and legacy of Grand Theft Auto 3 on PC. Darkel, in particular, epitomises the curious quirks that would be otherwise resigned to the history books were it not for mods and creative enthusiasts such as GTA3D and its team.
Red Dead Redemption 2, GTA Online and what we might expect from Grand Theft Auto 6 may dominate the Rockstar-related headlines of today, but for those anticipating GTA3D, the past is just as interesting, if for nothing else but to investigate the series' history and the path that's led it here.
More information on GTA3D can be found in this direction. Special thanks to team members Son Of Big Boss and Jinx who were also involved in the interviews above.
Today you can soar across Los Santos with ease in a variety of aircraft, but there was a time in the Grand Theft Auto series when flying was a luxury. The Dodo, appropriately named after the extinct, flightless bird, is the only way to take to the air in Grand Theft Auto III—a ta
Today you can soar across Los Santos with ease in a variety of aircraft, but there was a time in the Grand Theft Auto series when flying was a luxury. The Dodo, appropriately named after the extinct, flightless bird, is the only way to take to the air in Grand Theft Auto III—a task made difficult by its clipped wings and stubborn flight controls. “We were making a driving and shooting game, and even that was radical at the time,” Rockstar said in a fan Q&A. “The Dodo was never meant to be flown much at all. It was just a fun thing that people went crazy with when they figured out various bugs that let them fly it.”
Keeping the Dodo in the air for more than a few seconds is tricky, but it can be done. You can find detailed instructions here, but the general idea is keeping the plane as level as possible. If you don’t you’ll lose control and plummet to your death. And remember, silent protagonist Claude can’t swim, so you can’t just ditch safely into the water either. As a result, mastering the Dodo is a risky venture. Having to drive back to the airport in Shoreside Vale every time you screw up will deter a lot of pilots in training, but there’s nothing quite like the satisfaction of staying aloft long enough to cross the whole map.
The primitive 3D engine used by GTA III was never designed for flight. As you fly over the Staunton Island district, skyscrapers pop into view and buildings have glitchy voids instead of roofs. But that only adds to the joy of keeping the Dodo in the air, seeing things you were never meant to see. You can even fly it to the fabled Ghost Town outside the boundaries of the map, which is in fact a chunk of city used in the game’s opening cinematic. “It’s from the bank heist at the very beginning of the game,” says Rockstar. “We built these few streets floating in space and assumed no one would ever find them.”
After the September 11 terror attacks in New York City, some content in Grand Theft Auto III was cut or changed. There are a lot of urban myths surrounding this, including the Dodo’s wings being cut off to stop people flying it into skyscrapers. But Rockstar has denied it, confirming that only about 1% of the game was actually altered as a result of this. “We removed one mission that referenced terrorists,” they explain. “And we changed a few cosmetic details, a couple of pedestrian comments, and some radio dialogue."
Of course, there are mods to give the Dodo its wings back and make flying it a lot more enjoyable. But the Dodo is memorable precisely because it’s such a pain in the arse to pilot. And, at the time, there was no other way to see Liberty City from above. You had to learn how to fly the thing, otherwise you’d be stuck on land forever. Or at least until helicopters were finally introduced in Vice City. And so you’d persevere, crashing endlessly into the murky waters around Francis International, gaining a few more seconds with every try.
The Dodo has since appeared in other GTA games including San Andreas and Grand Theft Auto V, which pokes fun at its idiosyncratic handling. “It’s not called a Dodo because it’s killed more passengers than any other plane in its size class,” reads the Elitás Travel website. “Although that’s a sad fact, and a regrettable legacy for this otherwise splendid aircraft. It can’t turn, it can barely fly, but it will be able to float if you land it just right.” But these other iterations of the Dodo fail to match the beguiling shitness of the GTA III version. Back then, flying used to mean something. Now anyone can do it.
My reverence for the objectively crap Dodo may be slightly over the top, granted. But just seeing that red-and-white fuselage brings back so many fond memories of playing Grand Theft Auto III for the first time and having my mind blown by the fact that I was driving, and briefly flying, around such an incredible 3D city. It’s laughably primitive compared to the dazzling, detailed metropolis of Los Santos, but it still has a certain charm. And having returned to Francis International for another round with the Dodo, I can confirm that it’s still an absolute bastard to fly. But I wouldn’t want it any other way.
