Saturday - June 29, 2002   <11:55 PM CST>

More On DirectX 8.1B   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Summo sent in a bit on 8.1B that explains why it's not on the MS DirectX site, here is what he sent in:

"Just a quick update about your DirectX 8.1b news post. Apparently this isn't a newer version than DirectX 8.1a and is simply an updated redistribution file for developers to include with programs that require DirectX. That's why it isn't on the main DirectX site."

GTA PSX Compilation   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
LMSrebel2002 was searching around GameStop and he turned up a page for the GTA Compilation.  The compilation is a $30 Playstation release due out on August 21st. I'm guessing that it will include GTA, GTA London, and GTA2.  Now if they would only release the PC versions in a similar package deal.

Dave Chappelle & GTA3   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Dave Chappelle recently fessed up to his GTA3 addiction in a recent interview with TechTV.  Thanks to Insane2757 for the link.

GTA3 PC Reviews   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Just a few new review links:

• TechTV - Extended Play (4/5)
• PC-Gaming.com (5/5)

I can't say I completely agree with the TechTV video highlight (included with the review), but there is some truth to what they say.  My main problem is that they don't even mention the fact that you can use mods with the PC version as one of the pluses for getting the PC version.  Thanks to Insane2757 and Sam Coles for the review links.

Crazy Sh*t   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Don't ask, just click!  This is just nasty, but I have to admit that this is even worse.  Check out part 2 of stinky meat where they try to hide a plate of meat in the mall.

Site Updates   <11:55 PM CST - schu>

• ViceCity.com (the official site) did a very minor update where they added some pre-order locations.  Thanks to Tom.
• If you have an ATI based video card you owe it to yourself to download the Catalyst drivers.  This is probably the first release from ATI where I actually noticed a performance increase, especially in GTA3.  Granted I'm still running a Radeon 64 DDR VIVO, but it's nice to see that ATI might have actually gotten their driver act together.

Thursday - June 27, 2002   <11:55 PM CST>

GTA3 Patch Released   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Rockstar released a GTA3 PC patch today.  You can download the new patch from FilePlanet/Gamespy or from Take2.  Here are the installation instructions followed by the list of changes.

Grand Theft Auto 3 - Patch 1.1

Installation

• Unzip file.
• Start gta3patch.exe.
• After clicking next twice, browse to your installed Grand Theft Auto 3 directory (the directory where GTA3.EXE resides) and click next.
• The patch will check for the presence of your GTA3.EXE file. If the patch finds an unmodified GTA3.EXE, then this file will be updated to version 1.1, otherwise no patching can occur. - Click start to begin the update process. - After patching click exit.

The only file changed by this patch is GTA3.EXE which is upgraded to version 1.1. Save game and setting files are carried forward with no issues.

Changes

• Exception error after blue Rockstar load screen fixed.
• Error loading saved games fixed.
• Mouse sensitivity now saved with other settings (no changes made to existing settings).
• Option for user to play audio files directly from hard disk. Copy the contents of the PLAY discs Audio directory into your installed Grand Theft Auto III Audio directory. Grand Theft Auto III still requires the presence of the PLAY disc when started. This may give better performance on some machines (though worse on others).
• All protection checks (apart from needing PLAY disc to start) removed. Grand Theft Auto III still checks for the presence of the PLAY disc when initially started, and plays audio from the PLAY disc if not found on the hard disk (see above).

Thanks to Jeff, Mad, Danny Boy, and John.

DirectX 8.1B Released   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Apparently Microsoft has released DirectX version 8.1B, but for some reason they still have no mention of it on their DirectX site.  You can download it from the Microsoft downloads section.  It's a hefty download coming in at 24 MB, so you might want to wait until Microsoft explains exactly what changes the update makes.

Wednesday - June 26, 2002   <11:55 PM CST>

New Vice City Details @ Gamers.com   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Gamers.com recently did an article on the top ten PS2 games of 2002 and Vice City came in at #2.  Not only that, but they mention some interesting things in their description of the game.  Here are the new details:

"We can also confirm that this is not a sequel. That should be obvious, since it’s set in the ’80s and takes place in a pseudo-Miami (whereas GTA3’s Liberty City was a NY/Chicago mix)."

"The music will be ramped up - and we suspect plenty of new commercials are on the way."

"As for the vehicles, we've found out that both helicopters and motorcycles will be available this time—not to mention some phat Lamborghini clones."

"A lot of the characters from GTA3 will also be showing up...Vice City is apparently a prequel to GTA3, though Rockstar won’t confirm it."

I'll run this by Rockstar to see if I can get any confirmation on this new information.  Thanks to LMSrebel2002 for the update.

R* In Wired / GTA4 Online   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
IdeoPraxist found an ariticle on Rockstar in Wired magazine.  The article entitled, "Why Rockstar Games Rule - The Badboys of Rockstar Games" mainly covers the movement toward adult (M) titles for the 18-25 year old demographic. I can't say I agree with the entire article, especially the bit that says I should be listening to Eminem and following Xtreme sports.  The most interesting bit was toward the end of the article where it mentions GTA4 in the following quote:

"Rockstar Studios - is said to be at work on an online massively multiplayer Grand Theft Auto 4."

I don't think GTA4 will fall under the current RPG type massive multiplayer games, it seems more likely that they'll go with a Planetside type format.

GTA4 - Crime Online   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
LBhacker3k turned up a nice bit of news in the latest issue of EGM.  This was found in their "Rumors" section so it isn't exactly official:

"Well, today I got my EGM (Electronic Gaming Monthly) magazine and to my surprise they had this in the rumors section:

The Hot Q: Grand Theft Auto 4
...It's something I get asked about a lot (thanks for the E-mails, guys-you know who you are). Its Grand Theft Auto 4, and prepare yourselves for a whopper of a rumor, folks. Here goes" The just announced Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is just the beginning of what will become known as the GTA Universe. After Vice City, the next Grand Theft Auto game will be dubbed "Crime Online." And if you haven't guessed by now, it's going to be the console-networked title in the series. There will be a new stand alone GTA as well, but that's still a ways off..."

The fact that both Wired and EGM are dropping the same rumor does give it some credibility.  Guess I'll have to see if the guys at ZDNet have any comment on this.

Portland to Shoreside Expressway   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Matt sent in a GTA3 mod (1k) that will get you from Portland to Shoreside in no time at all.  The mod adds a new bridge from Portland to Staunton and another from Staunton to Shoreside.  I've tested it out and it does work quite well and it's fairly easy to install, however I highly suggest you backup any files that need to be modified, namely the GTA3.dat file.

ATI Drivers & Fog Patch   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
I downloaded and installed the latest Catalyst driver set from ATI and so far they seem to make GTA3 much, much more playable than it was before.  I'm running the ATI Radeon 64 DDR VIVO (basically it's an early Radeon 7200).  The new drivers are available here.  ATI owners might also be interested in the Rage3D Tweak util.

ATI has also released a fog patch for the Radeon 8500.  Apparently the new Catalyst drivers cause some sort of fog problem with GTA3.  Thanks to Neil for the fog patch link.

Hookers For Australia!   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
The guys at GTA3.com posted a trick that allows Australian GTA3 PC owners to pick up hookers (in the game :) ).  Basically all you do is change your Windows regional settings to the USA, or any other country that offers the uncensored version of GTA3.  According to the comments at GTA3.com, the general consensus is that you should try NZ or the UK.  You can do this in the Regional & Languages Options in the Windows control panel.  WARNING: When you do this, it may cause problems with other programs or may have other unforeseen circumstances.  You can of course just change it before and after playing GTA3 to isolate any problems.  If you try this and you f' up your computer there is no way in hell that you can hold me responsible.  If you try to, I'll be forced to kick you in the nuts.  You have been warned.  I do not live in Australia so I have no way to test this out.

G! Appears in Joystick Magazine   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
PR2005 was reading a GTA3 article in the French gaming magazine Joystick when he came across a plug for GOURANGA!.  From what I can tell they mentioned it in relation to GTA3 skins and I think they have a screenshot of one of the Crow skins near it.  Here are some scans that PR2005 sent in ( one / two / three ).

GTA2 Maps Online / Operation Black Thunder   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Chris wrote in to inform everyone that GTA2 Maps Online is back.  The latest version of the site is dedicated to multiplayer maps and GTA2 scripting help.  They are also still working on Operation Black Thunder, which was MIA for awhile.

Site Updates   <11:55 PM CST - schu>

• I actually still have more news I'm working through, but this is the bulk of it.
• I am still getting that damned Yaha virus sent to me, in fact more than half of my email is viral in nature.  Please, if you haven't done it yet, read the last update and scan your computer.  Out of 400 emails I got over the weekend, 200 of those were crap sent by Yaha and Klez.

Tuesday - June 25, 2002   <3:33 AM CST>

Site Updates   <3:33 AM CST - schu>
I'm back home again and I just started downloading about 370 email messages, although I think most of them are viruses. I think I've seen the scanner remove Yaha about a 50+ times so far.  After I get a little sleep I'll run through email and then do an update, probably late tonight some time.  Please, please, please download and run a virus scanner if you aren't already.  Even if you are, you might need to update your virus definitions, and it definitely doesn't hurt to get a second opinion from time to time.  TrendMirco offers a free online scanner or you can pick up a free scanner that you can install and update at GriSoft.  Personally I double check my virus scanners at least once a week.

Thursday - June 20, 2002   <7:10 PM CST>

Lilith Update   <7:10 PM CST - schu>
illspirit has updated his Lilith skin and he also sent a bit of information along with it.  The skin is actually wrapped around the prostitute model, he did not create a new model for the skin.  Sorry if my past update implied this.  You can get the new version here (preview shot1 / shot2).  You can read the original update here.

Site Updates   <7:10 PM CST - schu>

• I am leaving town for the weekend so the next update should occur on Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I get back.

Wednesday - June 19, 2002   <11:59 PM CST>

GTA3 PC Is #1   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
GTA3 PC is the new sales leader according to GameSpot.  It beat out SOF2 and it even bested The Sims usual stranglehold on the top spot.  Thanks to LBhacker3k for the update.

GTA3 Concept Art   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
dElAvA was checking out the new Rockstar North site when he came upon a nice stash of GTA3 concept art.  Here is what he sent in:

"This is Big Monumental Huge, no its not the sale of the century it's the wonderful people at Rockstar North (or whatever you feel like calling them, take your pick) giving us something never dreamed of by the hardcore GTA fan. I have in the safety of my hard drive and schu's inbox the following:

• 4 sketches and 1 render of 8-ball
• 8 sketches and 1 render of "GTA3 Player"
• 5 sketches of Southside Hood gang members
• 3 sketches and 1 render of Joey Leone
• 5 sketches of the wonderful world of GTA3
• 12 yes count them my friend 12 3D Studio Max screenshots
• 5 misc. renders of liberty city one of which we've seen before

I do believe there are also renders of the Cabbie, Cartel Cruiser, Securicar, and Yakuza stinger. All of these gifts were found on the new Rockstar north webpage in "The lab" there is more there so go look for yourselves

Some interesting things I noticed:

• 8-ball's sketch is titled: "Millan" aka "8-ball"
• Joey's sketch is titled "Joey Forvino"
  

Most of the map sketches and 3d studio have differences to the game see if you can find them."

dElAvA was kind enough to download and zip all the stuff up for me.  I had a look for myself and I found some other nice things there, including a GTA Rap mp3, some nice wallpaper, and a GTA3 fansite kit.  First visit the "Dropout Centre" and try out the cheat phone and the take a look inside the centre.  Next explore "The Lab" and check out character design, vehicle design, and finally the lab.  Don't limit yourself to those sections though, there is a lot to see.

In the mean time I've added a bunch of new stuff to the GTA3 Artwork sections, all of which came from Rockstar North.  The pages are a bit rough around the edges and there are wayyy too many images per page, but I'm half asleep and I have a massive headache so I'll have to fix it later.  Thanks to dElAvA for bringing this to light and thanks to Rockstar North for making this stuff available.

GTA3 Maxim Scans   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
A month or two ago Maxim Magazine did a nice GTA3 feature where they took the character portraits from the game and put them in real clothing.  It's actually done quite well and looks pretty cool.  Fury-161 has scanned and posted the pictures from the article and made them available on his website.  So all of you who missed it (including myself) can now view them.  You can check the post on Edge's forum for the links.  I've also archived them just in case the site goes down.  Thanks to Bri, Matt, and JP...

Site Updates   <11:59 PM CST - schu>

• Ok, this update was actually posted very early on Thursday morning, but I'm going to attempt another update before I leave town for the weekend so I'm going to stick this under Wednesday.  I'll probably do a quick update for Thursday before I leave, with the next update occurring on Monday or Tuesday (whenever I get back).  Was that confusing enough?
• I have about 80 million skins in my inbox that I'm trying to wade through, but my job search has been sucking away all my free time.  Paying my rent has taken precedence over GTA, for once, but hopefully I'll find some time to get through them all as the week goes on.  A better system of handling skins is in the works, but I'm not sure when it will be ready.  Manually updating the list is having serious effects on my will to live.

Monday - June 17, 2002   <6:00 PM CST>

Palm GTA RIP   <6:00 PM CST - schu>
A long, long while back a Palm version of GTA was announced and it even made it to the demo stage.  Unfortunately the project was canceled, some say because the company developing it for the Palm OS didn't even get permission from Take2 first.  You can't download the Palm demo from the developer's site anymore, but I have a link to an alternate download site if anyone is interested.  Thanks to ELL102 for the link and update.

EB's Quick Change   <6:00 PM CST - schu>
Electronic's Boutique briefly changed their ship date for GTA: Vice City to January 15th, 2003.  I'm guessing it was just a glitch because the date has returned to October 15th, 2002.  Thanks to LMSrebel for the update.

GTA3 Font Color Change   <6:00 PM CST - schu>
rammsteinman posted a quick tutorial on changing the font color in GTA3 PC.  You can find it on his site.

3D Analyze   <6:00 PM CST - schu>
The link for the 3D Analyzer tool went dead so I went ahead and updated it.  If you are looking for the tool you can get it here.

More on the Helicopter   <6:00 PM CST - schu>
John wanted to point out that he used the "Get inside the helicopter" tip successfully. I think the key to all this is that you cannot fly the thing.  So is it even worth trying to get inside at this point?  Here is what John sent in:

"I just thought I'd e-mail ya and let you know that those getting inside the helicopter screenshots and the method is 100% real and does work. What the code essentially does is set off a flag that tells the game you're inside a car, even when your not. So, the game will "warp" you back to the last car you were in and stick you inside it almost instantaneously. Since the helicopter probably has some leftover code in it (as we noticed awhile ago from its name being in the vehicle list in the GXT file), this code triggered it. All it really proves is that there is a place set for the driver to "sit" (fSeatOffsetDistance, all vehicle models must have that property regardless if you can operate them or not) that will trigger the name to show up at the bottom."

According to the thread this came from, you are really warping into the passenger seat, not the driver's seat.  LBhacker3k sent in a little on this as well:

"The Chopper they were referring too was the Catalina helicopter. They used a gameshark and did the "helicopter on" code. This makes the Catalina helicopter appear. If you press triangle you will walk around the helicopter, but not get in. You need the "warp to passenger seat of the last car you were in" code. When you do it and press the buttons to warp, the game thinks you were in the helicopter and it warps you there. You need the "rc cars" code to get out. You can't fly the helicopter YET, because it warps you to the passenger seat, not the driver seat."

Friday - June 14, 2002   <4:00 AM CST>

Rockstar Launches Vice Site   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
gta_player2001 sent word that the official GTA: Vice City site is on-line.  There isn't much there right now, but I'd imagine they'll do something similar to the GrandTheftAuto3.com site.

Skin & Win!   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
Rockstar is running at GTA3 skinning competition with a VisionTek GeForce 4 video card up for grabs.  Check here for the details.  The main catch is that you have to be a US resident.  I'm going to email Dan to see if they'd be willing to run competitions open to other countries.  I'm not guaranteeing anything, but I'll at least mention it and see what happens. Thanks again to gta_player2001 for the update!

Lilith   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
illspirit sent word that GTA3Mods.com has released their IMG tool.  Anyway, using this tool he has created a great new GTA3 skin, wrapped around the prostitute model (shot1 / shot2).  Here is what he sent in:

"woohoo, spooky just finished the IMG Tool, which allows for easy renaming, replacement, importing, and deleting of the model and textures stored in the vast .img archives.  I completely swapped the player model out and made a new skin from scratch."

Download Lilith...  Please follow the directions in the readme very carefully, illspirit's skin installs a little differently and requires the IMG tool from GTA3Mods.com.

Scraper Redesign   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
elbazo completely redesigned his already excellent site, GTA Scraper.  Check it out @ gta.sky-scraper.net.

Editing Cars in GTA3   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
LBhacker3k sent in two links to sites offering GTA3 cars for download.  Both sites also include tutorials on car editing.

• GTA3 Garage
• Liberty City Bodyshop

  
GTA3/Vice Credits   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
Gleb over at GTA Zone found a detailed listing of the GTA3 voice and production credits and a preliminary listing of Vice credits.  Check here for GTA3 & here for GTA: Vice City...

GTA3 PC In The Charts   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
GTA3 PC is selling quite well apparently.  According to the latest sales charts, it's coming in at #2, just behind Soldier of Fortune 2.  That should make RevTed doubly happy.  Thanks to JL2001 for the link.

Speed Up GTA3 PC - Part 2   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
I got a mixed reply from Bob's tip in Tuesday's update, some reported a dramatic increase, while others reported a dramatic decrease.  Personally I figured going to software T&L would just bog the CPU down and slow everything up, but apparently it works for some people.  Vark for instance noted that the tip got GTA3 running smoothly for him and he can now ramp the draw distance all the way up, while MusicalMonkey was driven to violent behavior after Bob's tip slowed GTA3 down to a crawl :).  Beast sent in a little addendum that should explain what's going on:

"Anyway, I'm just checking in to tell you some stuff about that 3D-Analyze thing. It's a tool that lets to switch around stuff from the GPU to the CPU and some other stuff for benchmarking stuff. Anyway, switching Hardware TnL from the GPU to the CPU, as Bob suggested, speeds up the game only on slower machines with older graphics cards whose GPU is slower then the CPU. When switched to the CPU, Hardware TnL allows more space on the GPU and thus the game runs faster.

Though on newer cards and more powerful machines, it could even result in slower framerates and general choppy'ness. That happened to me.

Just for the record, I run:

1.7ghz P4, 256mb PC800 RDRAM, GF3Ti200."

So, if you are running a slower machine, it might be worth a shot, but if your hardware is more up-to-date, then I wouldn't expect it to work miracles.  Thanks for everyone who wrote in.

One addendum... peterjmag has created a GTA3 website specifically for optimizing GTA3, you can find it @ www.magenheimer.com/gta3help.

GTA3 Nude Patch & Texture Editor   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
illspirit was trying to download the texture editor off of Sven's site (I posted an update on it back on June 3rd) only to be bombarded by porn ads and popups, some of which were viral in nature.  After hearing this I removed all links to Sven's site and posted a note in the old update.  illspirit also noted that if you still want the TXD editor that was available there, you can get it with a lot less hassle by going to gta3.freeweb.hu.

Chopper Hoax?   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
Peter pointed out that the "Get Inside The Helicopter" update I posted on June 11th might not be completely legit.  Here is his explanation of how it could have been hoaxed:

"A number of websites are posting the helicopter thingy, and I have reason to believe that it is a fake. Firstly, let me start off by saying it is very simple to get an inside shot of the chopper, the rear of the one on top of Kenji's is not solid, so you can take a pic with your m16, then edit out the crosshair, and then add your GTA3 person, and then wright "helicopter" in yellow using Photoshop or what-have-you.

All the others are screens from the Catalina mission, in one you can actually see 2 Colombian cartel (I think.)

In conclusion those pictures are just not solid enough proof. Just wanted to give you my 0.02$ on that one."

  
New GTA Sites   <4:00 AM CST - schu>

• GTA3 Optimization
  www.magenheimer.com/gta3help

• GTAonline.tk
  www.gtaonline.tk

Tuesday - June 12, 2002   <11:19 PM CST>

GTA3 PC vs PS2 - Revisited   <11:19 PM CST - schu>
It turns out that the article on IGN was actually just a comparison between the PC Vs PS2 versions of GTA3.  It includes screenshot comparisons as well as an overall feature comparison.  Some people sent the article in but I can't really post it here since it's part of the IGN Insider content.  Regardless, it's not quite what I was hoping for.  Thanks to Rajesh, Jono, BobJustBob, Cruzn15, Slider, Max R, and Tal.

Vice City Screenshot Hoax   <11:19 PM CST - schu>
I keep getting this email so I thought I'd clear this up before it goes any further.  A few sites have been implying that this is a GTA Vice screenshot, when in fact it has been around since June 2000.  You can view more of the shots on the GTA3 Artwork pages.

Rockstar North Opens   <11:19 PM CST - schu>
The Rockstar North site is now open for business.  Check it out at www.rockstarnorth.com.  Thanks to Tank @ GTA3.com for the update.

Speed Up GTA3 PC   <11:19 PM CST - schu>
Bob sent in the following tip on speeding up GTA3.  I have not tested this myself so I can't really say if it works, but if you've tried everything else, it might be worth a shot:

"I don't know if it's been said before but if not then I'm the first to share this great fix with everybody if you post it in the news.  Well as you know GTA3 PC plays horribly laggy on most systems but this is a great fix for it.

First download 3D Analyze here, then unzip to a new folder and startup 3DAnalyze.

Then go to the left bottom box an select GTA3.exe as the exe it will use.

Then tick the force SW TNL under Directx options and click run and GTA3 will start and will run better than ever.

Well I hope this fix works for everybody it did for me I've got it running smooth in 1024x768x32 at about 60fps.

My specs for comparison:

• Amd thunderbird 1ghz
• 256mb 133mhz
• GeForce2 GTS 32mb
• Trails Off
• Screen sync off
• Frame limiter off"

  
GTA3 Sound FX   <11:19 PM CST - schu>
LBhacker3k turned up this site where you can download a lot of the sounds from the game...  The site also includes in game videos along with maps of the packages/rampages/unique jumps.

Site Updates   <11:19 PM CST - schu>

• Can anyone tell me what became of GTA Sentinel?  I can't seem to find them at their old 3DAP url...
• If anyone knows of any GTA3 skinning tutorials, please let me know so I can post links to them in the GTA3 Skins section.  I've been getting a lot requests lately...

Monday - June 11, 2002   <11:59 PM CST>

GTA3 PC vs PS2 Multiplayer?   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
I really wish I could say more than what the headline says, but I'm not an IGN Insider so I'm not sure just yet what they're going on about.  If you are an insider, please click here and let me know what this is all about.  The title of the story is "Head-to-Head: Grand Theft Auto III PC vs. PS2 in gangland warfare". Thanks to FiReStArTeRo0o for the link.

Get Inside the Helicopter   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
LBHacker3k sent in NeoSeeker Forum link where some GTA3 fans have discovered how to get inside the helicopter.  Take a look.

GTA3 PC GameGuide   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Gamespot has posted their GTA3 PC Gameguide here.  As far as I can tell, it's free to access, but you need to be a member to get the downloadable version.  The guide includes lots of information, including hidden package rewards, hidden package maps, item locations, and unique jump locations.

The Competition   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Here are a few more links to stories on GTA's upcoming competition. Check out True Crime, The Getaway, and Stuntman, all at IGN.

More on Shibby   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Tomas contacted me on behalf of GTA3:Shibby so I thought I'd post his side of the story:

"I saw your news post on gouranga.com and was a little surprised. None of the tools on my website are made by me. gta3.shibby.nl is intended as a resource for those seeking such information without having to deal with the enormous time you'd have to wait to get anything from gta3*.com (read: the sites have been stormed lately because of the gfx problems with gta3:pc). Also I had another close look, and couldn't find exactly where you got the idea that I claim the utilities on my website to be mine?"

I replied to Tomas that the main problem is not that he advertised the GTA3 Mods editor as his own, but rather that he didn't give them any credit, nor did he contact them to get permission before posting their software.  GTA3 Mods has been having a lot of problems with other websites posting their software without getting prior consent.  While the software license may be classified as Freeware, it still doesn't allow for redistribution without prior consent.

My update on Friday was mainly posted as a correction and to inform other websites about the problem.  Check the lastest update on GTA3Mods.com for more on this.

GTA3 Radio   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Nino sent in the following about a new German GTA3 site, looks pretty interesting:

"Hello, well, my English is not so good, but I want to try to tell you about a new German GTA3 website. On this website you'll find the first official radiostation for GTA3, called Liberty City Radio. One of the features of this great radiostation is, that the users can send greets and musicwishes to the editors- they put them into the radioversion. The radiofile (an MP3 File) is will be updated every week- so, you would never hear the same again. There are a lot of different shows in the radio, news, weather report, traffic, and even much more. The installing of the radio station is really easy, you have to download an installer (500kb) this installer downloads the mp3 file (and replaces the name to "LCG Radio" in the game), and the installer checks out, if there are any updates !

Well, this Radiostation is really great- you found it @ www.gtaradio.de - [English Translation]"

  
New GTA3 PC Review   <11:59 PM CST - schu>
Ferrago.co.uk has posted their GTA3 review here, take a look.

New GTA Sites   <11:59 PM CST - schu>

• GTA Central
  www.gta3-c.tk

  
Site Updates   <11:59 PM CST - schu>

• I have returned, only to find a billion skins to greet me in my inbox :).  I'll work on getting those posted as the week goes by, but for now I'm still working through email.
• The addition RAM for the server has been ordered and will hopefully be installed this week.  I don't think there will be more than 15 minutes of downtime when they add the new RAM.  Hopefully the additional RAM will solve the problems we've been having lately.

Thursday - June 6, 2002   <8:00 PM CST>

Shibby's GTA3Mods' Utils   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
Upon closer inspection (and an email from stilton :) ), it's come to my attention that Shibby's TXD editor is actually just a repacked version of Spooky's work on GTA3Mods.com.  While were on the subject of GTA3Mods.com, you might want to give them a visit and pick up the latest version of their TXD editor that was released today.  For all you other GTA3 sites out there, you might want to get their permission BEFORE posting their files.  That should really go for any file you post that is not your own work.

Ben Affleck & GTA3   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
Apparently Ben Affleck is a GTA3 fan.  Insane2757 was watching an interview with Ben on TechTV where he talked about playing GTA3.

New GTA Sites   <8:00 PM CST - schu>

• Liberty City
  www.liberty-city.tk

  
Site Updates   <8:00 PM CST - schu>

• I'll be out of town the next few days so the next update won't be until Monday or Tuesday.
• I added 12 new skins in the GTA3 Skins section.

Wednesday - June 5, 2002   <8:00 PM CST>

Jenna Jameson In GTA Vice?   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
The GameFAQs rumor mill is at it again.  A post by KingKilla77 is reporting that the "actress" [cough] Jenna Jameson is doing voice acting for GTA Vice.  The information was found on her official site.  See the post on GameFAQs for more information.  Thanks to JCronic for the link.

One Shot One Kill   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
IdeoPraxist created a GTA3 PC hack that will allow you to do one-shot kills on cops and gang members.  Here is what IdeoPraxist sent in:

"This is nothing special. I created a tiny hack where you can do one-shot (one hit) kills on cops and gang members. I left the peds alone since they need all the help they can get (hehe).

The instructions:
Make a backup of your /GTAIII/data/pedstats.dat file and replace it with this one.

All I did was reduce their attack strength and increase their defend weakness."

Thanks to IdeoPraxist for the hack :) .

Ex-DMAers   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
This might interest some of you long time GTA fans...  I was checking out the site for the soon-to-be-released PC title, Mobile Forces, and under "Team Bios" I discovered that 90% of the team came from DMA.  Most of them worked on GTA, GTA2, Wild Metal Country, and Space Station Silicon Valley.  You can check out the team BIOS here and here.  Just click on Team BIOS

Shibby's GTA3 Utils   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
Adam sent word that GTA3:Shibby has a new TXD tool and screenshot/framerate grabber.  Check it out here.

SETI@GTA   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
Tony wanted to remind everyone about the sort of official, GTA SETI team.  Actually its the GTA newsgroup's SETI team (AGGTA), but it might as well be the official group. If you run the SETI@Home client you might want to become a member of the group.  You can visit the group page here and if you want to join, you can do so here.  Currently there are only 16 members, including myself, but we need more members to move on up the list.  If you aren't familiar with the SETI@Home program, you might want to visit their site and check it out.  Basically the SETI client downloads data and crunches it on your computer whenever your screen saver activates.  If you are an experienced SETI user and want to maximize your output you might want to look into SETI Stash, which foregoes the graphical interface for pure speed.

The Little People of GTA3   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
Primox found an interesting bug in GTA3.  Rather than reiterate what he sent me, I'll take the easy way out and paste it below:

"First it happened to me when I was driving Yardie Lobo car and when I pressed horn (''shift'' button) the car ''pumped up'' his shocks and lift itself a few inches (this only happens to Yardie Lobo car). But when I looked at the replay I noticed that the driver has shrinked, become smaller, the same time I pressed horn! This happens almost every time I press horn in any car. I also send a picture when I was in LCPD truck and that happened again, but this time I wasn't pressing horn button! Pretty weird, ha?"

The screenshots are here and here.

Best of E3   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
Insane2757 sent in a few links to IGN's Best of E3 awards.  GTA3 isn't included in there anywhere because they really didn't show anything new this year, but it's still worth a look.

• IGN.com's PS2 Best of E3 2002 Awards
• IGN.com's PC Best of E3 2002 Awards
• IGN.com's Main Menu of Best of E3 2002 Awards

  
New GTA Sites   <8:00 PM CST - schu>

• gta_player2001's Live Journal
  www.livejournal.com/users/gta_player2001

  
Site Updates   <8:00 PM CST - schu>
12 new skins have been added to the GTA3 Skins section.

Tuesday - June 4, 2002   <5:30 PM CST>

Lazlow Interviewed   <5:30 PM CST - schu>
gta_player2001 sent an interview in to Chatterbox's Lazlow, and got a reply.  You can read the full interview here.  PSX2.com also did an interview with Lazlow awhile back, you can read that here.

Replays Revisited  <5:30 PM CST - schu>
Yesterday I did an update on using the mouse during replays to move the camera around.  Today, mozy sent word that you can zoom in and out as well.  To zoom, just hold down the left and right mouse buttons and move the mouse up and down during the replay.  Thanks to mozy for the update.

Site Updates   <5:30 PM CST - schu>
I added about 30 new skins to the GTA3 Skins section.  All authors with new skins in this update are marked with an *.

Monday - June 3, 2002   <9:45 PM CST>

GTA3 PC Object Swapping   <9:45 PM CST - schu>
IdeoPraxist sent in a report on the latest from the GTA3 PC mod front.  Apparently it's going quite well and objects and new chunks of land can now be placed on the GTA3 PC maps.  If you want the full story, visit this thread on the GTA3.com forums.  IdeoPraxist cut out a few of his posts and sent them to me, you can read those here.

GTA Wave 4.0   <9:45 PM CST - schu>
Adrian has updated his GTA Wave utility to support GTA3 audio files.  It won't allow you edit the files, but it will let you play and export sounds from GTA3 PC.  Here is the update Adrian sent in:

"GTA Wave 4.0 can now open GTA3 street sounds for playback or exporting to WAV files. GTA Wave 4.0 won't open other GTA3 sounds such as radio station music or cut-scenes. These can already be found on the CD as MP3 and WAV files. Although GTA Wave 4.0 can modify GTA and GTA2 sounds, it doesn't support modification of GTA3 sounds, and there won't be any future versions of GTA Wave that do."

You can download GTA Wave here (1.9MB).

GTA3 Nude Patch & Texture Editor   <9:45 PM CST - schu>
This update has been removed because the owner of the site hosting the patch and texture editor apparently couldn't deal with the lure of ad money and decided to mine his site with 8 million popup ads, some of which were viral in nature.  He should feel free to fuck off and die at his own convenience.
Sven has updated his GTA3 nude patch (see the last update for details) and he has also released his GTA3 Texture-Tools that he used to create the patch.  Here is the update Sven sent in:

"We are proud to present the latest version of the GTA3 Nudepatch as well as the GTA3 Texture-Tools which allow to extract, manipulate an patch back the textures of GTA3. With them you can modify the design of the cars, create new clothes for the mafiosi, rename stores, change advertising banners and whatever you want!

Everything is possible with my new Texture-Tools."

Visit >removed< to download the new files.

GTA Thug Life   <9:45 PM CST - schu>
Roland sent me some screens from his latest GTA mod, GTAThugLife.  The screens below are from the alpha version of his mod:

• Kong Ranch
• Me, My Bike, and a Dead Body
• Peaceful

The current feature list for GTAThugLife includes:

• Gangsta missions
• Mob stronghold
• ranch
• cleaning service
• race track
• a big interstate
• bikes
• new tiles cars the whole bunch

If you have any ideas for his GTA mod you can contact Roland @ gtathuglife@fatcock.net or dubbel_r@hotmail.com.

GTA3 PC Reviews   <9:45 PM CST - schu>
Telefragged joins the fray with their GTA3 Review, giving it at 94%.  Gamer's Hell also recently did a review (9/10), check it out here.

Replays Revisited  <9:45 PM CST - schu>
Primox sent in something he noticed while he was doing a playback in GTA3 PC.  Apparently you can control the camera during playback by moving your mouse around.  Give it a try...

More R* Icons   <9:45 PM CST - schu>
dElAvA is still at it.  His latest set of icons replaces the recycle bin icons with a R* version.  Get the icons here.

GTA3 PC @ BestB   <9:45 PM CST - schu>
peterjmag noticed that Best Buy is currently running GTA3 PC at $34.99.  I'm not sure if that price applies to their local stores as well, but it seems fairly likely.

New GTA Sites   <9:45 PM CST - schu>

• GTA Vice City
  www.gtavicecity.tk

  
Site Updates   <9:45 PM CST - schu>

• I added a bunch of new skins to the GTA3 Skins section.  All the authors with * by their names have new skins in this update.
• I revised the warning statement above the GTA3 PC cheats based on feedback from people testing out the cheats and from some new information from Rockstar.