GTA2 China Town - Exclusive Beta <11:30 PM CST - schu>
Luxe is in process of creating a new map for GTA2 entitled GTA2 China Town. The map is currently in beta and may contain some bugs. I haven't had time to test it yet but at 151k I hardly see how you could go wrong. If you run into any bugs or have any comments you can contact Luxe @ vlad150yahoo.com.

Site Updates <11:30 PM CST - schu>

• Well I'm finally back from my Thanksgiving holiday but there wasn't much news in the old inbox.
• I've made some updates to the Links section, the Download/Cars section, and the Message Board section.  Mainly just updating the links on all the pages, but changes none the less.
• If you are looking for some more news you might want to check out the GTA Gaming Army. Teknics has gleaned a few interesting bits of news from the GTAzz forums including details on the GTA Stock Market.

Empire City Beta <9:00 PM CST - schu>
Jimmy notified me that Empire City beta 1 for GTA is now available at Matrix Studios. You can find Matrix Studios @ www.matrixstudios-online.com.

Site Updates <9:00 PM CST - schu>
Thanksgiving is coming up this week so I will probably only be updating today.  Tuesday I'll be on the road and I won't be back at my computer until Saturday or Sunday.  Feel free to send in news and updates, but it probably won't get posted until Monday, November 27th.

"Gamer's army (same addy) has just released the Car Vault which will be run by phatrat, paladin, and I.  It is fully automated via Aqutiv's car manager script and we want everyone to send in any cars they might have.  The upload page is gta.niteshade.net/carupload.shtml and the actual pages are gta.niteshade.net/cars.shtml.

We will also be giving away a weekly award called "The Gearbox" which will be given to of course the best quality car we received that week.  So if you're a newbie car maker or even the god of car making drop your car off at the Car Vault and you'll have a chance at our award... and have all your cars available to all our visitors.  You can also preview your cars at our car preview forum at gta.niteshade.net/ie so everyone can give you tips on what to improve, including us the guys who rate your car, so you can get the best score possible!"

  
Join The Counter Coup <11:59 PM CST - schu>
If you are more than a little pissed about the election process in the US and you happen to live in a major metropolitan area in the US you might want to take part in the nationwide demonstrations going on tomorrow.  Check out www.coutnercoup.org and see where the demonstration is taking place in your town.

GTA Tanks Hits 5k <10:00 PM CST - schu>
Harry notified me that his site, GTA Tanks, passed the 5000 hit mark.  Read on for Harry's update:
 

GTA Tanks has passed the 5000th hit mark today!
"To celebrate I have completely restyled the sidebar on the site to make navigation quicker and more clear.  I have also altered the images and switched to Cascading Style Sheets to speed up the website (the total size of the site has been reduced by a few hundred Kb).  And, I've finally finished the monster that was the Powerup Index, by completing the final multiplayer map. If your worried about the moral implications of using the powerup index to beat your friends at GTA, just take a look at the FAQ! No, really."

  
Site Updates <10:00 PM CST - schu>

• Due to connection problems, I did not update yesterday, but since there wasn't anything to report on anyway it didn't make much difference in the end...
• Here is an article that might interest DC owners or actually PC owners thinking about buying a DC.  Apparently Sega is considering releasing a card that would make it possible to play DC games on PC's equipped with DVD drives.

Site Updates <11:53 PM CST - schu>
I have nothing to report today, however if you live in the US and you're pissed about the election you may want to check out the page at countercoup.org.  It gives a listing of Democracy demonstrations that will take place across the country on November 18th.

"Long time no update! =-)

I've added a bunch of new cars, mugshots and graphics since I last checked in with G! Come on over to the GTA Shrine!"

  
EpiCenter Interviews ElBazo <11:45 PM CST - schu>
The GTA Epicenter recently conducted an interview with ElBazo.  You can find Epicenter @ epicenter.niteshade.net or just click here and go straight to the interview.

Matrix Studios Updates <11:45 PM CST - schu>
Matrix Studios, home of the GTA Empire City mod, has updated their site.  Go to www.matrixstudios-online.com for more information.

GTA3 On XBox & Gamecube? <11:50 PM CST - schu>
The Gamespot article mentioned above was mainly about Take-Two's plans for next-generation platforms.  As you can imagine Take-Two/Rockstar will be publishing games for PS2, Dreamcast, Xbox, and Gamecube.  The article makes no direct mention of GTA3 on Xbox, Gamecube, or Dreamcast, but it did say that Take-Two will be releasing two games for the launch of Nintendo's Gamecube system and a total of eight games for the Xbox.  Two of the games on Xbox are scheduled for its Fall 2001 launch date.  You can find the full article on Gamespot.  Xbox seems like an obvious choice to support, simply because porting a game from PC to Xbox should be a rather simple process.  I don't know much about Gamecube at this point so I'm not too sure how hard it would be to port GTA3 to Gamecube, but Dreamcast should be another fairly easy port assuming they are still supporting Sega at that point.  Sam's last interview suggests he is a pretty big Dreamcast fan, but it will probably come down to raw sales figures in the end.

Site Updates <11:50 PM CST - schu>
Well, looks like I'm going to have to move to Canada.  George Bush for president?  Are Americans really this stupid?  I think I'm ready to secede from the union and form a country unto myself...

GTA MAX Returns <11:23 PM CST - schu>
Viper informed that GTA Max AKA GTA Scrap Yard has returned to the scene.  You can find the site at stas.net/2/gtamax or the easier to remember redirect, www.gtamax.net.

Custom Center 1.0 <11:23 PM CST - schu>
Johan is back with us and working on his latest utility, the Custom Center.  Here are the details he sent on his latest work:

"Do you want to keep track on all your homegrown GTA missions? or do you want to create new missions out of the existing missions?

CC is definitely different from the Custom Map Center / Custom Mission Center that I developed last year. These are the features that I feel would fit into the program.

• Edit missions / compile missions within the program.
• Launch the game with your mission.
• Preview maps.
• Will support all previously released GTA products (GTA1 GTAUK and GTA2), and it will also support GTA3 when the product is out on the market. No GTA clones.

Why no clones ? Simply because this program is for "the real game"

Release date... Somewhere mid March I guess...

What kind of programming help do I need?

• A way to display a GTA map as a small BMP 256x256."

• GTA3 is definitely in development.
• GTA3 will definitely be in 3D.
• Still no definite release date but it looks like a 3rd or 4th quarter 2001 release is what they are shooting for.
• I'm guessing that the PS2 and PC versions are being developed simultaneously, but so far no other platforms have been mentioned.  I'm also betting that GTA3 will be released on PS2 and PC initially with possible ports to other platforms in the future.  I.E. Dreamcast, XBox, and Gamecube releases will probably come down how hard it is to port and the bottom line of possible sales.  You can also get a feel for where Rockstar stands on the different systems by reading the first two questions in the interview.  I didn't post them here because they don't directly apply but it will give you a feel for where they stand.
• They are hoping to bring back the original spirit of GTA but in true 3D.
• I'm guessing when he mentions that "the game is currently fully running on PS2", he means that the game engine is fully running with the maps in place, NOT THE FULL GAME.  Judging from what I've heard its still solidly in development and not anywhere near testing yet.
• All the maps are built, but probably not tweaked.
• The camera position is currently being worked on but they can put the camera anywhere.  I'm hoping they will give us the option of choosing multiple angles so we aren't stuck with one camera angle.  As we all know, lack of decent angles, or even worse, sh*tty camera control, can ruin an otherwise perfect game.
• The name has not yet been determined.  The only names that have been mentioned in the past are GTA3D and GTA3.  My source has been sticking to GTA3 recently but nothing is confirmed.
• After you read IGNPS2's question and Sam's answer make sure you read the GTA Online piece just below this one.  I've heard rumors of a persistent online GTA world before but never in writing, until now that is.

"IGNPS2: What about your games on PS2? Are you in development with Grand Theft Auto for PlayStation 2?"

"Sam: Well, I'm not really allowed to talk too much about GTA, you know the powers that be always like to tape my mouth up. But Grand Theft Auto 3 is in development, and with the version of the game that we are coming out with on PS2 at the end of next year we really are looking to bring back the rawness that the original had. We want to relate that in the 3D power that the PS2 enables us to. The PS version really wasn't the game that we are now able to bring out on PS2 in 3D. We just couldn't do it. We couldn't have enough cars on the screen, we couldn't have enough pedestrians roaming the streets. And now, we really can do that and we're really excited about what we can create. We really want to come out with something that's truly, genuinely gameplay-led and genuinely fun to play. And it's got humor and it's got wit, and it's got all of the things that we have tried to pack into Grand Theft Auto before. And now we're really taking it to the next level and it's PlayStation 2 that's allowing us to do that.

I don't want to give away too much... but the game is fully running on the PlayStation 2. We have all of the maps built, you can drive around, you can walk around, you can get in and out of cars... I tell you, having worked on the game from that 2D top-down perspective, it feels very, very different. When you go up to a car, and press the infamous "carjack" button, and in 3D the person gets the driver out of the car, throws him on the street, and jumps in and scoots off, it feels very different than it did before. It's going from top-down animated to live action 3D, if you understand what I mean. You will see the game from a classic third-person perspective position, like Tomb Raider; it's going to be that perspective, inside and out of the car. We can put the camera anywhere we want to put it and we're still playing with exactly where we want to put it, but we're still working on it.

And we are playing with the camera in GTA. You will no longer have the top-down viewpoint, instead you'll have a game that is viewed from a third-person perspective, and we're working on a lot of different ideas. Wouldn't it be cool to play the game from the driver's perspective? We want you to feel like you're in the game far more than in GTA and GTA2, and with this next generation system, we now have that ability.

It's going to be called Grand Theft Auto...something. Maybe GTA 3, something like that. We haven't decided yet."

 
GTA Online - Need I Say More? <12:45 AM CST - schu>
If you scroll down the IGN interview a little further you run into what is possibly the future of GTA.  GTA's online play has always been sketchy at best and I hope to God, Allah, or whoever can make it happen, that GTA3's multiplayer kicks ass.  If I could play a multiplayer game based on GTA, over the Internet, and without it looking like a slide show I think I could die a happy man.  Now the question posed by IGNPS2 is:

"IGNPS2: Does GTA lend itself to online play?"

The answer Sam gives doesn't necessary mention GTA3, he instead goes off on a tangent talking about an "online persistent world based on the Grant Theft Auto franchise."  This isn't the first time I've heard this but I think its the first time its been put in writing.  It may have been in Edge magazine at some point in the distant past, but this is the first time I've seen it in writing since Take2 bought DMA.  Anyway, Sam Houser's full answer to the question is:

"Sam: Definitely. We are in the process of thinking about how to create an online persistent world based on the Grant Theft Auto franchise. We've talked about it, and if we get it right, it will be very compelling. We'll branch off certain, compelling games from the Grand Theft Auto franchise and try to make new, fun versions of it. We will also look at other projects for online as well."

I have to admit that this is the first time in recent memory that I am actually truly excited about the future of GTA.  If they can pull this off and maintain the gameplay that made GTA kick ass then maybe, just maybe I will stop hearing this "GTA is dead" bullshit every three months.

The GTAzz Challenge Returns <6:55 PM CST - schu>
Azz sent me the following update on the return of the GTAzz challenge:

"The GTAzz Challenge has returned, after about 2 years away. As always it's open to anyone, regardless of skill levels and abilities. If you want to try you hand pop over to azz.gouranga.com/challenge.html and learn how.

Also the largest GTA help section on the web continues to grow.  I've posted two articles related to palette hacking and how to install hacked cars. I hope they come in useful."

  
The World of GTA2 Reopens <6:55 PM CST - schu>
The headline pretty much says it all.  You can check out the newly reopened World of GTA2 site at www.worldofgta2.net