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It could be the greatest action game ever. It could be the greatest MMORPG ever. It could be rubbish and a massive anticlimax. It could be the greatest game ever...much has been said if the unborn baby GTA4. After numero tres, many touted IV to follow with complete online support both on the PS2 and PC, but with Vice City out in the States, and coming here next Friday I guess we'll have to make do with more great single-player fun. But the question is...if Rockstar DID make an online GTA, how exactly would it work? But then, what if they decided to go in a completely different direction altogether? Here are some ideas.
1. MMORPG
You all pick a skin, a name, and you get dropped in the lobby...let's say the Liberty City Centre (assuming that's where the game's set). You could start straight away trying to make friends and chatting, a bit like Habbo Hotel really, and then you could head out the door and over to Ammu-Nation to buy an Uzi to get stuck into the action. You'd see shots being fired from sneaky snipers on higher levels, gunfire spraying from car-windows in drive-bys, and other players on their way to hold up a local jewellry store being run over by other players in fast cars. You could form gangs, create your own uniforms, customize a normal car to make a signature vehicle, and walk around menacing old ladies, or going to battle with other groups. It'd be what Rockstar's other 'big' PS2 game, State of Emergency, should have been - a huge crimespree.
Microphone support would be fully integrated of course, so instead of 'young man!' you'll hear 'I am gonna get you fag!'. Maybe pick a career as a robber, an assassin, or even a shopkeeper, and play through to gain a certain amount of money. There'd be taxi services with cabbies, and a whole bunch of emergency services to play for; you could be a mugger, or the man driving the cop car, siren wailing, trying to catch him.
Pros: Unlimited life-span, endless possibilities, like The Sims Online but with guns, and Chatterbox.
Cons: Would take a hell of a lot of time and money to make, and could be full of bugs like most MMORPGS.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Electric City
For want of a better title, this would be the opposite to Vice City. Rather than moving the series back in time like London 1969 and Vice City, Rockstar could move forward, to a futuristic America (in this case, Electric City). Let alone cars, motorbikes, boats and helicopters, all manner of possibilities could be opened up here. Tube technology (ala Futurama), jet packs (ala Tribes) and flying cars (ala Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and every other sci-fi flick) could all be featured, as could futuristic weapons like laser-guided pistols and sniper rifles that can hit people from the other side of the City and maybe even stuff like levels, with lowlifes living on the ground levels with smog, and nice, respectable businesses higher up.
Of course the setting would be incredible, but there'd also be great mission options, stuff like a daring chase through the air, or having to carry out a hit on someone surrounded by vicious weapon-wielding cyber future robot police.
Pros: Wonderful environmental, vehicular and weaponry options opened up, lots of cool things to see and do.
Cons: Would need a complex engine to run properly, along with decent graphics to make the future vibe realistic.
3. Team Based GTA
Taking the gang idea I mentioned in number one, this could see you starting in an online lobby and HAVING to form a gang/clan/group/team of people in order to fight others. Sort of a missions cum deathmatch thing, you could either both try and do the same mission, competing to blow up the truck first, or complete the Rampage with a higher score. Alternatively, you could set a challenge and cause as much damage as possible in a time limit. You may be trying to get 50 cop kills before the opposition, or steal a checklist of cars and get them to your base. During the game you could always sabotage your opponents efforts by attacking them, and then there'd still be a fully populated city full of pedestrians and drivers.
Pros: Would be really really cool, being in a no-good gang of thugs without the threat of the long arm of the law wringing your neck.
Cons: Would have a short lifespand, would take dedication to really get into.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chicago 1922
This time round, it's more like the London '69, only with the prohibition era and the smoky backdrop of Chicago clubs replacing swanky sixties Lahndahn. Nicking old-style cars and huge black cabs, ferrying booze and whacking informants, this could be a great game. You could make homegrown booze...maybe even hold-up an underground brewery and nick their beer. Some extra missions could be as a police officer stopping beer trafficking by intercepting shipments, be it by running over blokes pushing wheelbarrows or carrying kegs, or smashing into a truck.
Rat-a-tat-tat tommy guns and stylish lugers would be the weapons (just like in TimeSplitters 2) and rather than taking a normal cut-scene view, it could go in the Max Payne direction as a sort of comical film noir. The suits, the hats, the booze, the birds, the clubs, the crooks and everything else that contributed to more alcohol being consumed during prohibition than any other amount of time before or since.
Pros: Another great idea not seen enough in games (film noir), and an even cooler period of the past.
Cons: The main missions could drag on as 'drive here and collect this', wouldn't have a very strong storyline.
Well, there you go. Four perfectly do-able (well, with time) ideas for the GTA franchise. But where do YOU think it should go next? Online? 2D? Cel-shaded? Films? Post it in here.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey
1. MMORPG
You all pick a skin, a name, and you get dropped in the lobby...let's say the Liberty City Centre (assuming that's where the game's set). You could start straight away trying to make friends and chatting, a bit like Habbo Hotel really, and then you could head out the door and over to Ammu-Nation to buy an Uzi to get stuck into the action. You'd see shots being fired from sneaky snipers on higher levels, gunfire spraying from car-windows in drive-bys, and other players on their way to hold up a local jewellry store being run over by other players in fast cars. You could form gangs, create your own uniforms, customize a normal car to make a signature vehicle, and walk around menacing old ladies, or going to battle with other groups. It'd be what Rockstar's other 'big' PS2 game, State of Emergency, should have been - a huge crimespree.
Microphone support would be fully integrated of course, so instead of 'young man!' you'll hear 'I am gonna get you fag!'. Maybe pick a career as a robber, an assassin, or even a shopkeeper, and play through to gain a certain amount of money. There'd be taxi services with cabbies, and a whole bunch of emergency services to play for; you could be a mugger, or the man driving the cop car, siren wailing, trying to catch him.
Pros: Unlimited life-span, endless possibilities, like The Sims Online but with guns, and Chatterbox.
Cons: Would take a hell of a lot of time and money to make, and could be full of bugs like most MMORPGS.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Electric City
For want of a better title, this would be the opposite to Vice City. Rather than moving the series back in time like London 1969 and Vice City, Rockstar could move forward, to a futuristic America (in this case, Electric City). Let alone cars, motorbikes, boats and helicopters, all manner of possibilities could be opened up here. Tube technology (ala Futurama), jet packs (ala Tribes) and flying cars (ala Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and every other sci-fi flick) could all be featured, as could futuristic weapons like laser-guided pistols and sniper rifles that can hit people from the other side of the City and maybe even stuff like levels, with lowlifes living on the ground levels with smog, and nice, respectable businesses higher up.
Of course the setting would be incredible, but there'd also be great mission options, stuff like a daring chase through the air, or having to carry out a hit on someone surrounded by vicious weapon-wielding cyber future robot police.
Pros: Wonderful environmental, vehicular and weaponry options opened up, lots of cool things to see and do.
Cons: Would need a complex engine to run properly, along with decent graphics to make the future vibe realistic.
3. Team Based GTA
Taking the gang idea I mentioned in number one, this could see you starting in an online lobby and HAVING to form a gang/clan/group/team of people in order to fight others. Sort of a missions cum deathmatch thing, you could either both try and do the same mission, competing to blow up the truck first, or complete the Rampage with a higher score. Alternatively, you could set a challenge and cause as much damage as possible in a time limit. You may be trying to get 50 cop kills before the opposition, or steal a checklist of cars and get them to your base. During the game you could always sabotage your opponents efforts by attacking them, and then there'd still be a fully populated city full of pedestrians and drivers.
Pros: Would be really really cool, being in a no-good gang of thugs without the threat of the long arm of the law wringing your neck.
Cons: Would have a short lifespand, would take dedication to really get into.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chicago 1922
This time round, it's more like the London '69, only with the prohibition era and the smoky backdrop of Chicago clubs replacing swanky sixties Lahndahn. Nicking old-style cars and huge black cabs, ferrying booze and whacking informants, this could be a great game. You could make homegrown booze...maybe even hold-up an underground brewery and nick their beer. Some extra missions could be as a police officer stopping beer trafficking by intercepting shipments, be it by running over blokes pushing wheelbarrows or carrying kegs, or smashing into a truck.
Rat-a-tat-tat tommy guns and stylish lugers would be the weapons (just like in TimeSplitters 2) and rather than taking a normal cut-scene view, it could go in the Max Payne direction as a sort of comical film noir. The suits, the hats, the booze, the birds, the clubs, the crooks and everything else that contributed to more alcohol being consumed during prohibition than any other amount of time before or since.
Pros: Another great idea not seen enough in games (film noir), and an even cooler period of the past.
Cons: The main missions could drag on as 'drive here and collect this', wouldn't have a very strong storyline.
Well, there you go. Four perfectly do-able (well, with time) ideas for the GTA franchise. But where do YOU think it should go next? Online? 2D? Cel-shaded? Films? Post it in here.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey
I think the GTA chicago is the only i dea that would really work. Whilst taking on a MMORPG might seem like a good idea, it would just degenerate into the usual deathmatch mode, and when playing in a gang, team deathmatch. The beauty of GTA was its originallity, it was created to be a one player experience as its the only way it really works. For example you say that you could snipe and drive-by shoot other people, as well as running them over. Whilst this may seem like a good idea, when you actually consider it, it would degenerate into a total rammy.
People would just drive about running people over, then you respawn and you get popped in the head by a sniper in a camped spot. It would get really frustrating dying all the time.
The electric city idea would perhaps be the next natural progression, however these days it is hard to think of any original futuristic weapons, lasers, electricity, plasma, etc... they have all been done before.
I do think you chicago idea could actually be quite a cracker.
People would just drive about running people over, then you respawn and you get popped in the head by a sniper in a camped spot. It would get really frustrating dying all the time.
The electric city idea would perhaps be the next natural progression, however these days it is hard to think of any original futuristic weapons, lasers, electricity, plasma, etc... they have all been done before.
I do think you chicago idea could actually be quite a cracker.
If anything, I'd imagine Rockstar would be asked by Sony to create a Battlefield 1942-esque GTA. Like the "MMORPG" you talked about in point one. Not only would there be 30-odd players running around all causing havoc, but you could have gangs, people running legitimate businesses, mafia troops defecting and joining the other team.
The options are almost limitless, and with Vice City being a surefire hit, (IGN.com - 9.7) there every chance that we'll see GTA Online in the not too distant future. It'll probably front Sont Corps. Play-On-Line package that Sony will launch to compete with X-Box Live, and what an asset it will prove to be with Perfect Dark Zero AND Halo 2 both Online, not to mention an X-Box version of Battlefield 1942!
I wouldn't really want GTA to be On-Line in any other way than point 1. As for the next Off-Line GTA, I'd imagine it'll be more of the same. I'd like to see a 1960's GTA in full PS2 glory, but having said that, I'll be happy with the Getaway, and I've a feeling the two would be quite similar. The Futuristic GTA you mentioned was certainly quite exciting, and an idea that would have my support. As Futurama, and Back to the Future before it, has shown, making up futuristic ideas such as gadgets, cars, adverts etc can be quite fun, and having someone turn on you with a knife and then blast them with a Plasma Gun would be quite amusing, if a little unauthentic.
But hey, I haven't even played Vice City yet. I've got ED and Timesplitters 2 this Friday... Ratchet and Clank and Vice City the Friday After, then we've got Haven, Tiger Woods 2003, StarFox, Mario Party, Nightfire, and a plethora of other titles to get through. I haven't got time to look to the future just yet, but I guess I could make an exception for an On-Line GTA game!
Game
The options are almost limitless, and with Vice City being a surefire hit, (IGN.com - 9.7) there every chance that we'll see GTA Online in the not too distant future. It'll probably front Sont Corps. Play-On-Line package that Sony will launch to compete with X-Box Live, and what an asset it will prove to be with Perfect Dark Zero AND Halo 2 both Online, not to mention an X-Box version of Battlefield 1942!
I wouldn't really want GTA to be On-Line in any other way than point 1. As for the next Off-Line GTA, I'd imagine it'll be more of the same. I'd like to see a 1960's GTA in full PS2 glory, but having said that, I'll be happy with the Getaway, and I've a feeling the two would be quite similar. The Futuristic GTA you mentioned was certainly quite exciting, and an idea that would have my support. As Futurama, and Back to the Future before it, has shown, making up futuristic ideas such as gadgets, cars, adverts etc can be quite fun, and having someone turn on you with a knife and then blast them with a Plasma Gun would be quite amusing, if a little unauthentic.
But hey, I haven't even played Vice City yet. I've got ED and Timesplitters 2 this Friday... Ratchet and Clank and Vice City the Friday After, then we've got Haven, Tiger Woods 2003, StarFox, Mario Party, Nightfire, and a plethora of other titles to get through. I haven't got time to look to the future just yet, but I guess I could make an exception for an On-Line GTA game!
Game
It could be the greatest action game ever. It could be the greatest MMORPG ever. It could be rubbish and a massive anticlimax. It could be the greatest game ever...much has been said if the unborn baby GTA4. After numero tres, many touted IV to follow with complete online support both on the PS2 and PC, but with Vice City out in the States, and coming here next Friday I guess we'll have to make do with more great single-player fun. But the question is...if Rockstar DID make an online GTA, how exactly would it work? But then, what if they decided to go in a completely different direction altogether? Here are some ideas.
1. MMORPG
You all pick a skin, a name, and you get dropped in the lobby...let's say the Liberty City Centre (assuming that's where the game's set). You could start straight away trying to make friends and chatting, a bit like Habbo Hotel really, and then you could head out the door and over to Ammu-Nation to buy an Uzi to get stuck into the action. You'd see shots being fired from sneaky snipers on higher levels, gunfire spraying from car-windows in drive-bys, and other players on their way to hold up a local jewellry store being run over by other players in fast cars. You could form gangs, create your own uniforms, customize a normal car to make a signature vehicle, and walk around menacing old ladies, or going to battle with other groups. It'd be what Rockstar's other 'big' PS2 game, State of Emergency, should have been - a huge crimespree.
Microphone support would be fully integrated of course, so instead of 'young man!' you'll hear 'I am gonna get you fag!'. Maybe pick a career as a robber, an assassin, or even a shopkeeper, and play through to gain a certain amount of money. There'd be taxi services with cabbies, and a whole bunch of emergency services to play for; you could be a mugger, or the man driving the cop car, siren wailing, trying to catch him.
Pros: Unlimited life-span, endless possibilities, like The Sims Online but with guns, and Chatterbox.
Cons: Would take a hell of a lot of time and money to make, and could be full of bugs like most MMORPGS.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Electric City
For want of a better title, this would be the opposite to Vice City. Rather than moving the series back in time like London 1969 and Vice City, Rockstar could move forward, to a futuristic America (in this case, Electric City). Let alone cars, motorbikes, boats and helicopters, all manner of possibilities could be opened up here. Tube technology (ala Futurama), jet packs (ala Tribes) and flying cars (ala Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and every other sci-fi flick) could all be featured, as could futuristic weapons like laser-guided pistols and sniper rifles that can hit people from the other side of the City and maybe even stuff like levels, with lowlifes living on the ground levels with smog, and nice, respectable businesses higher up.
Of course the setting would be incredible, but there'd also be great mission options, stuff like a daring chase through the air, or having to carry out a hit on someone surrounded by vicious weapon-wielding cyber future robot police.
Pros: Wonderful environmental, vehicular and weaponry options opened up, lots of cool things to see and do.
Cons: Would need a complex engine to run properly, along with decent graphics to make the future vibe realistic.
3. Team Based GTA
Taking the gang idea I mentioned in number one, this could see you starting in an online lobby and HAVING to form a gang/clan/group/team of people in order to fight others. Sort of a missions cum deathmatch thing, you could either both try and do the same mission, competing to blow up the truck first, or complete the Rampage with a higher score. Alternatively, you could set a challenge and cause as much damage as possible in a time limit. You may be trying to get 50 cop kills before the opposition, or steal a checklist of cars and get them to your base. During the game you could always sabotage your opponents efforts by attacking them, and then there'd still be a fully populated city full of pedestrians and drivers.
Pros: Would be really really cool, being in a no-good gang of thugs without the threat of the long arm of the law wringing your neck.
Cons: Would have a short lifespand, would take dedication to really get into.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chicago 1922
This time round, it's more like the London '69, only with the prohibition era and the smoky backdrop of Chicago clubs replacing swanky sixties Lahndahn. Nicking old-style cars and huge black cabs, ferrying booze and whacking informants, this could be a great game. You could make homegrown booze...maybe even hold-up an underground brewery and nick their beer. Some extra missions could be as a police officer stopping beer trafficking by intercepting shipments, be it by running over blokes pushing wheelbarrows or carrying kegs, or smashing into a truck.
Rat-a-tat-tat tommy guns and stylish lugers would be the weapons (just like in TimeSplitters 2) and rather than taking a normal cut-scene view, it could go in the Max Payne direction as a sort of comical film noir. The suits, the hats, the booze, the birds, the clubs, the crooks and everything else that contributed to more alcohol being consumed during prohibition than any other amount of time before or since.
Pros: Another great idea not seen enough in games (film noir), and an even cooler period of the past.
Cons: The main missions could drag on as 'drive here and collect this', wouldn't have a very strong storyline.
Well, there you go. Four perfectly do-able (well, with time) ideas for the GTA franchise. But where do YOU think it should go next? Online? 2D? Cel-shaded? Films? Post it in here.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey
1. MMORPG
You all pick a skin, a name, and you get dropped in the lobby...let's say the Liberty City Centre (assuming that's where the game's set). You could start straight away trying to make friends and chatting, a bit like Habbo Hotel really, and then you could head out the door and over to Ammu-Nation to buy an Uzi to get stuck into the action. You'd see shots being fired from sneaky snipers on higher levels, gunfire spraying from car-windows in drive-bys, and other players on their way to hold up a local jewellry store being run over by other players in fast cars. You could form gangs, create your own uniforms, customize a normal car to make a signature vehicle, and walk around menacing old ladies, or going to battle with other groups. It'd be what Rockstar's other 'big' PS2 game, State of Emergency, should have been - a huge crimespree.
Microphone support would be fully integrated of course, so instead of 'young man!' you'll hear 'I am gonna get you fag!'. Maybe pick a career as a robber, an assassin, or even a shopkeeper, and play through to gain a certain amount of money. There'd be taxi services with cabbies, and a whole bunch of emergency services to play for; you could be a mugger, or the man driving the cop car, siren wailing, trying to catch him.
Pros: Unlimited life-span, endless possibilities, like The Sims Online but with guns, and Chatterbox.
Cons: Would take a hell of a lot of time and money to make, and could be full of bugs like most MMORPGS.
2. Grand Theft Auto: Electric City
For want of a better title, this would be the opposite to Vice City. Rather than moving the series back in time like London 1969 and Vice City, Rockstar could move forward, to a futuristic America (in this case, Electric City). Let alone cars, motorbikes, boats and helicopters, all manner of possibilities could be opened up here. Tube technology (ala Futurama), jet packs (ala Tribes) and flying cars (ala Blade Runner, The Fifth Element and every other sci-fi flick) could all be featured, as could futuristic weapons like laser-guided pistols and sniper rifles that can hit people from the other side of the City and maybe even stuff like levels, with lowlifes living on the ground levels with smog, and nice, respectable businesses higher up.
Of course the setting would be incredible, but there'd also be great mission options, stuff like a daring chase through the air, or having to carry out a hit on someone surrounded by vicious weapon-wielding cyber future robot police.
Pros: Wonderful environmental, vehicular and weaponry options opened up, lots of cool things to see and do.
Cons: Would need a complex engine to run properly, along with decent graphics to make the future vibe realistic.
3. Team Based GTA
Taking the gang idea I mentioned in number one, this could see you starting in an online lobby and HAVING to form a gang/clan/group/team of people in order to fight others. Sort of a missions cum deathmatch thing, you could either both try and do the same mission, competing to blow up the truck first, or complete the Rampage with a higher score. Alternatively, you could set a challenge and cause as much damage as possible in a time limit. You may be trying to get 50 cop kills before the opposition, or steal a checklist of cars and get them to your base. During the game you could always sabotage your opponents efforts by attacking them, and then there'd still be a fully populated city full of pedestrians and drivers.
Pros: Would be really really cool, being in a no-good gang of thugs without the threat of the long arm of the law wringing your neck.
Cons: Would have a short lifespand, would take dedication to really get into.
4. Grand Theft Auto: Chicago 1922
This time round, it's more like the London '69, only with the prohibition era and the smoky backdrop of Chicago clubs replacing swanky sixties Lahndahn. Nicking old-style cars and huge black cabs, ferrying booze and whacking informants, this could be a great game. You could make homegrown booze...maybe even hold-up an underground brewery and nick their beer. Some extra missions could be as a police officer stopping beer trafficking by intercepting shipments, be it by running over blokes pushing wheelbarrows or carrying kegs, or smashing into a truck.
Rat-a-tat-tat tommy guns and stylish lugers would be the weapons (just like in TimeSplitters 2) and rather than taking a normal cut-scene view, it could go in the Max Payne direction as a sort of comical film noir. The suits, the hats, the booze, the birds, the clubs, the crooks and everything else that contributed to more alcohol being consumed during prohibition than any other amount of time before or since.
Pros: Another great idea not seen enough in games (film noir), and an even cooler period of the past.
Cons: The main missions could drag on as 'drive here and collect this', wouldn't have a very strong storyline.
Well, there you go. Four perfectly do-able (well, with time) ideas for the GTA franchise. But where do YOU think it should go next? Online? 2D? Cel-shaded? Films? Post it in here.
Thanks for reading.
-El Blokey