 |
|
| Old
News - April 2003 |
Contents
04-25-03
04-23-03
04-17-03
04-16-03
04-10-03
04-03-03 |
|
Friday
- April 25, 2003
<3:50 PM CST> |
<Top> |
IGN
Goes Hands On With VC PC
<3:50 PM CST - schu>
IGN posted a nice one page "hands on" VC PC article
which should give you a decent idea of what to expect from the final
version. Here are a few points I pulled out the article:
- VC
will run in just about any resolution, assuming you have the hardware
to do it. IGN reports that Rockstar had it running at 1920x1440
with a very high draw distance and no instability.
- There
are new 32 bit textures giving VC a cleaner, more believable look
than the PS2 version
- Replays
are back and work in much the same manner as they did in GTA3.
This time around you can rotate the camera around your character
during the replay. You still can't save replays unless you
want to jump out of the game and backup the replay file.
- Rockstar
has no plans to do multiplayer until they can "design a multiplayer
experience that's as solid as the single player game."
Thanks
to Richard.
New
GTA Sites
<3:50 PM CST - schu>
Announcements
<3:50 PM CST - schu>
- GTA
Scraper's forums are back up and running, you can check them out
at www.gtascraper.com/forums.
- The
state of Washington is close to passing a new
bill that would fine any retailer "who sells a game that
depicts violence against a police officer to a minor." Thanks
to Andrew for the link. Hopefully protecting minors won't
ever come in the form of government censorship.
|
|
Wednesday
- April 23, 2003
<4:50 PM CST> |
<Top> |
Next
GTA In 2004?
<4:50 PM CST - schu>
In a recent "Off
the Record" entry at IGN they covered the future of GTA.
The IGN rumor mill is reporting that Rockstar North may take
up to two years to turn out the next GTA game, meaning that we wouldn't
see the next GTA: "Insert City Name Here" game until later
in 2004. Earlier rumors and the Take2 stock report seemed
to indicate that the next game might be out as early at late 2003
/ early 2004.
The
IGN article goes on to say that Rockstar North has been split into
two teams, one team is working on the next GTA city based game while
the other team works on the true sequel to GTA3. The sequel
is rumored to be in the early planning stages for the PS3 so it
obviously can't be released until the PS3 is launched, putting it
squarely in 2005/2006 depending on how long Sony waits to release
their next console. IGN also said there is some talk that
the sequel may be based in Los Angeles, "with a focus on the
movie industry in Hollywood."
IGN
does bring up a lot of good points so definitely read and re-read
this one, just bear in mind that at this early stage these are all
rumors and should not be taken as fact. Hopefully Rockstar
will shed some light on the future of the GTA series at E3. Thanks
to Taylor for the link.
New
VC PC Previews
<4:50 PM CST - schu>
GameSpy has released a new set of Vice City PC previews covering
a variety of topics, check them out below:
Most
of this is repeated information, but the Graphical Enhancements
article is definitely worth a read if you plan on buying the PC
version and the Vehicles and Physics article has some nice wireframes
and vehicle renders in it...
Computer
and Video Games also has an extensive Vice City preview that
clocks in at six pages, but once again there really isn't anything
new. If you're new to VC then they are all worth a read at
least once, if not, then you might just want to go and enjoy the
screenshots :) ... Thanks to Rev Ted and Craig.
Vice
City Exclusive Shots
<4:50 PM CST - schu>
I've gathered up a listing of fan sites that featured an exclusive
VC shot. If you posted one on your site and you're not mentioned
here, please let me know:
Thanks
to AoD.
Announcements
<4:50 PM CST - schu>
- I
have added 30 VC PC screenshots to the VC
Media Index. I think that is the majority of the shots
that are available so far, not including the fansite exclusives
and I haven't added the renders and wireframes on GameSpy
which will end up in the Artwork section sooner or later.
- Richard
sent word that Vice City won the GameStar award in the UK for
best action game of 2003.
- I'm
still catching up on email, so if you haven't heard from me yet,
give it another day or so.... Just trying to get back on
top of things.
|
|
Thursday
- April 17, 2003
<11:50 PM CST> |
<Top> |
GOURANGA!
Exclusive
<11:50 PM CST - schu>
I haven't got much time to update today, but I wanted to make sure
I got this out there. Rockstar was kind enough to send me
an exclusive Vice City PC shot. It's hard to do it justice
because the original is 6MB zipped so I had to scale it back a bit.
If you'd like to see a larger version, let me know and I'll
resize and repost it. Thanks to Rockstar for the shot and
be sure to check the other VC fan sites out there for more exclusives:
If
you have a site with an exclusive shot, please let me know and I'll
be sure to plug it in my next update.
|
|
Wednesday
- April 16, 2003
<2:00 PM CST> |
<Top> |
Official
VC PC Site Launched
<2:00 PM CST - schu>
Rockstar has launched a slick new site for the PC version of Vice
City. So far the site features ten shots with more shots and
movies on the way, system specs, system support, and more. Check
it out at www.rockstargames.com/vicecity/pc.
Thanks to Richard and Forelli_Boy.
Multiplayer
GTA3
<2:00 PM CST - schu>
S3KT0R sent in some interesting news on a new multiplayer mod for
GTA3 that supports both Windows and Linux servers. Find out
more at GOE
GTA Multiplayer. The other multiplayer mod that I mentioned
previously is also still being developed, more information on that
can be found on their site, GTA3:MTA.
New
GTA Sites
<2:00 PM CST - schu>
Announcements
<2:00 PM CST - schu>
- I've
been very busy lately but I'm trying to get daily updates back
on track so I keep on top of the new VC PC coverage.
- IGN
started a listing
of titles being shown at E3. So far the list doesn't have
any entries for Take2 or Rockstar, but hopefully at the very least
we'll get some new information on Manhunt and The Warriors. I
can't say I'm really expecting anything at E3 on the next GTA,
but maybe we'll get lucky. Thanks to Insane2757.
- The
XBox version of State
of Emergency is now in stores now and at only $19.99 it's
pretty hard to pass up. I'll admit that I was never really
into the regular story mode in SOE, but chaos mode more than makes
up for that.
- On
the PS2 front, Midnight
Club 2 is now in stores and the MC2 site now features a new
trailer that automatically loads when you visit.
- Johan
has posted some new information on his GTA MisPak over on his
site.
- Lieberman
is at it again, check out Gamers.com
for details. Thanks to Insane2757 for the link.
- This
one is a little outdated, but if you are keeping up on the development
of Payback (a GTA clone) then you'll want to read the latest progress
report.
- Bob
found a great cartoon about VC's release, take
a look.
|
|
Thursday
- April 10, 2003
<2:30 AM CST> |
<Top> |
New
Vice City PC Previews
<2:30 AM CST - schu>
As many of you noticed, IGN
and Gamespy
have both released previews for the PC version of Vice City. From
what I can tell there are 10
new shots total. IGN has some others but they are all
PS2 repeats. Both previews cover a lot of the same Vice City
basics, so I'm going to skip ahead to a list of the new stuff we
can expect for the PC version:
- DirectX
9 support with resolutions as high as 1600x1200
- EAX
3.0 audio support
- New
high-res textures which can suck up as much as a full gig of disk
space depending on the video card.
- Enhanced
effects like floor reflections and widescreen support.
- The
"trail" effect option has been removed which should
make a lot of people happy.
- Custom
MP3 support will return from GTA3 PC. Simply tune into the
10th station and listen to your own music.
- The
"replay" feature also returns from GTA3 PC and works
in much the same manner.
- User
made skins will also be supported once again.
- Rockstar
is putting more time into testing which should result in less
bugs and fewer compatibility problems.
- IGN
reports that VC will not support pixel shading or bump-mapping.
- No
word yet on any multiplayer support.
If
you've been living under a rock for the past year and you know absolutely
nothing about Vice City then I'd suggest reading through the entire
IGN article. Otherwise Gamespy's two-pager should suffice.
Thanks to Richard, Nick, Rev Ted, JCronic, Josh, oompalicius,
IdeoPraxist, JL2001, and illspirit.
VC
Requirements
<2:30 AM CST - schu>
Take2 has updated their VC
page with the expected PC system requirements:
Minimum
Hardware
-
800 MHz Intel Pentium III or 800 MHz AMD Athlon or 1.2GHz Intel
Celeron or 1.2 GHz AMD Duron processor
- 128
MB of RAM
- 8
speed CD / DVD drive
- 915
MB of free hard disk space (+ 635 MB if video card does NOT
support DirectX Texture Compression)
- 32
MB video card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers ("GeForce"
or better)
- Sound
Card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers Keyboard & Mouse
Recommended
Hardware
- Intel
Pentium IV or AMD Athlon XP processor 256(+) MB of RAM
- 16
speed CD / DVD drive
- 1.55
GB of free hard disk space (+ 635 MB if video card does NOT
support DirectX Texture Compression)
- 64(+)
MB video card with DirectX 9.0 compatible drivers ("GeForce
3" / "Radeon 8500" or better with DirectX Texture
Compression support)
- DirectX
9.0 compatible sound card with surround sound
- Gamepad
(USB or Joystick Port)
- Keyboard
& Mouse
|
|
Thursday
- April 3, 2003
<10:30 PM CST> |
<Top> |
First
Vice City PC Preview
<10:30 PM CST - schu>
The latest issue of PC Gamer features a number of previews for new
PC games and Vice City is among them. I haven't read the preview
personally but IRCool sent in the following on it:
"Just
got my newest issue of PC Gamer in the mail today, and the cover
story is on Vice City for the PC. Basically, the article describes
Vice City as we already know it from the PS2 version. The PC-specific
features are similar to those of GTA3 (better res than the ps2,
your own radio station, replays, and keyboard/mouse stuff). They
did mention modability for the PC version, but they didn't go
into specifics. I suspect that they are just basing this on the
mods for GTA3 PC (as they mention a couple of them in the article)."
Thanks
to IRCool for the update.
GTA
On Chappelle's Show
<10:30 PM CST - schu>
Dave
Chappelle recently did a GTA spoof. I missed it, but luckily
for both you and I, IdeoPraxist found it on the web. I'm not
entirely sure if I'm supposed to give out this
link, so I'd suggest downloading it quick in case the file is
removed. Thanks to IdeoPraxist and solidglass.
April
Fools
<10:30 PM CST - schu>
Just a quick notice that this
update on GTA: Sin City is in fact an April fools joke. Rockstar
has not released any information the next GTA game. The Sin
City article was originally posted on ShackNews but has made its
way around to other
news sites as well. Thanks to Richard at Rockstar and
to Chris.
Tiffany
Signs Off
<10:30 PM CST - schu>
Tiff, of Tiffany's
GTA Shrine sent me the final update for her shrine. As
you may or may not know she has been active in the scene since the
release of the original GTA but she no longer has time to run her
site. Here is her farewell message:
"I
wish to thank everybody for submitting their cars, mugshots, graphics,
cheats and everything else that has been sent to me since I opened
my site almost 5 years ago. Sadly, however, I have made my final
update. I know it is sudden, but I just won't have the time to
commit to maintaining a web site anymore, as I have too many things
going on in my life right now. I'm going to leave the site up
for as long as I can anyways, seeing as there are just so many
things to download, and it wouldn't be fair to the people who
made this site this successful just to delete them. I had so much
fun doing this, and I thank the entire GTA community for welcoming
this hippie chick in the first place. If you wish to post any
of the things sent in to my site on your own site, please be courteous
enough to ask the person who created said things. So for the last
time, and with tear filled eyes, thanx so much and c-ya 'round!
=-) "
Sorry
to see you go Tiff...
New
GTA Sites
<10:30 PM CST - schu>
|
 |
 |
 |
<Top> |
|
|
 |
|
