Insane Stunt Bonus   <2:30 AM CST - schu>
IGN continues their GTA3 media overload with a great article on the stunts and jumps in GTA3.  The Insane Stunt Bonus returns in all its glory from the days of the original GTA.  Check the article out for full details on the twenty hidden jumps in GTA3.  Below are the shots that appear in the article and links to the movies.

I left one shot out because it was a photoshopped repeat from GrandTheftAuto3.com.  The three shots below are equally amazing and in the first shot we have our first glimpse of the dune buggy:

The stats that appear the end of each jump seem a little strange.  I guess height only refers to the amount of height gained off the top of the ramp.  Because that first jump obviously puts the car well above 10 ft off the ground :)...  Another thing you'll notice is that the cars are very durable, almost a little too durable considering what they've gone though, then again, that's part of the fun.  It's almost like watching the Dukes of Hazard, as the jump ends it looks like the car should be planted in the dirt but then they cut to the next scene and it's flying down the road without a scratch on it.

Perfect Insane Stunt Bonus: The first jump is off of a rooftop onto the street below.  Half way through the jump you can see a plane flying overhead.
		Small (1.7 MB) Medium (4 MB) Large (10.5MB)
Unique Insane Stunt Bonus: The second jump sends the car flying onto the rooftop of a hanger and then into another hanger positioned behind the first.  If you look closely you'll see powerups, cash, weapons, or something inside the open hangers.  The entire jump nets $16,000.
		Small (1.6 MB) Medium (3.8 MB) Large (10 MB)
Unique Insane Stunt Bonus 2: The last jump launches your Cheetah up onto a set of elevated train tracks right in front of a train.  The driver quickly moves the car onto an adjoining set of tracks, and finally to the ground below.  The entire jump nets $64,000.
		Small (2.1 MB) Medium (5.5 MB) Large (12.8 MB)

Thanks to Shannon, Fester, and Andy H for their help on this one.

Crazy Sh*t   <2:30 AM CST - schu>
Don't ask, just click!

Site Updates   <2:30 AM CST - schu>

• Apparently some of the movie links changed or were wrong in Wednesday's update, I went ahead and changed them all and then double checked them, so they should be working correctly now.
• If IGN does another GTA3 update again, I'll probably have a another update later today or early tomorrow.

The IGN Onslaught Continues   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
I'm running out of IGN related headlines...  Today, IGN released the second part of their Pet Sounds of GTA3 article.  This time they are covering Game Radio, Liberty City's Hip-Hop station.  Once again they provide a clip of the station and once again I can't get it to work, however Download Accelerator downloads it just fine.  Thanks to caustic, James15, HoRNS456, Eric, and Andy H for the heads up on this one.

Site Updates   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
A few days ago Lugzy sent word that Maxim magazine has a small GTA3 article...  Another Maxim reader, Gary, wrote in and said that Maxim has given GTA3 five out of five stars.  Not bad for a game that isn't even out yet :) .

IGN Under The Hood   <2:15 AM CST - schu>
IGN does it again with another great article.  This time they cover some of vehicles in GTA3.  The article includes six great new shots and four of the best GTA3 movies released yet.  I'm not going to repeat anything the article says so I'd suggest reading it first, lots of interesting things about the different cars and their drivers.  I'll go over the shots first, and then I'll cover the movies.  By the way, I messed around with IGN's file names and found the large versions of the shots.  They only show the medium sized shots in their article.

Cheetah	Diablo	Land Stalker
Ice Cream Truck	Armored Van	Checker Cab

These are the first shots we have of the ice cream truck and the armored van (Securicar).  I'm trying to determine if the Cheetah is an overhauled Rocket.  The Cheetah looks much cleaner but shares a lot in common with the previously released Rocket.

The movies in this article are nothing short of amazing, lots of racing around the city with loads of different camera angles.  It makes me wonder if we'll have access to some sort of playback feature, seems like it would be rather difficult to actually drive with some of those views.  The first thing I noticed was that all the movies include ambient sounds, you can hear the roar of the engines and some different city sounds.  There isn't any music, but you can hear the different police reports over the police radio.  All the movies also take place at night time showing off all the great lighting effects.  Here are the movies:

Banshee Vid Small / Large	This is one of the shorter movies.  It's a police chase of sorts, but the Banshee is so fast the cops never really catch up :).
Cheetah Vid Small / Large	Out of all the movies, I think this one is my favorite.  The Landstalker movie has more action, but I really like seeing this thing fly through the alleyway like that, simply awesome.
Landstalker Vid Small / Large	I watched this one again and it ties the Cheetah vid in my opinion.  The movie starts out with your SUV getting slammed into a building by a police car, it recovers and you get away, just in time to see the cops mow down a bunch of peds.  It then cuts to a side view and the player finally gets a chance to shut the door as he drives away.  Make sure you watch the animation of the guy steering the car and getting bounced around inside.
Stinger Vid Small / Large	Not much to this one, it's the largest of the bunch but its just your standard car jacking with a police chase.  Once again, the police didn't have a chance against this thing.  All the videos appear to have less traffic and peds around, I almost think they did this on purpose so they could race around without having to worry about lots of traffic.  Traffic might also be rather slow in the downtown area at night.

Thanks to James15, Andy H, Jared, and Eric for the heads up on this one.  I also wanted to thank James 15 for pointing out the peds getting run down in the Landstalker vid.  James also pointed out the side mirrors don't appear to reflect the environment like some of the screen shots suggest.

Site Updates   <2:15 AM CST - schu>

• If for any reason you don't like QuickTime vids, Gamespot has an MPG version of the GTA3 trailer posted here.
• Sorry about Tuesday's update, I'm sort of halfway sick at the moment.  I'm trying to keep this thing from turning into a flu if I can, so I spent most of the day sleeping.

New GTA3 Box Art   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
A number of you noticed that Rockstar changed the box art once again.  There is a small shot of it on GrandTheftAuto3.com in the Info section.  I just got a hi-res version of the box art from some friends of mine who work with Rockstar, check it out:

280K

Interesting New Site / New GTA3 Wallpaper  <11:55 PM CST - schu>
madasafish found in interesting link over at Gamespot UK.  The site appears to be set up by one of Rockstar's PR agents or something.  It has four really nice GTA3 desktop wallpaper files and the background sounds for the site appear to be taken directly from GTA3's ambient sound track.  The trailer available on the site is the same as the one at IGN and a GrandTheftAuto3.com.  Lastly, if you are a UK resident you can enter a contest there where you can win a trip to play GTA3 before it's released in the UK.  Along with the hands on trip you also get a copy of Grand theft Auto 3, and a GTA3 goodie bag, and a chance to win a PS2.  The five runners up will win a GTA3 T-shirt. Thanks to madasafish for making this update possible.

Screen Shot Studies   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Here are just a few things I noticed in the new shots:

• Does this car look jacked up in the back or is the angle just skewed?  It looks rather odd to me.  The interior is the same as this car, looks like the same model.
• Check out the main character, he is up on the roof of that outdoor market, in the upper right side of the shot.
• Nice new shot of the Army transport truck.
• We finally have a shot of the front of the blue convertible, any guesses as to its identity?
• I got a lot of email on this one.  It looks like the crusher is back.  It was on the Portland map when GrandTheftAuto3.com launched but this is the first shot we have of it in action.
• The shot with the car in mid air really doesn't need to be pointed out, however it looks like you'll be landing right inside of or on top of a mechanic's garage.  It also looks like there might be another ramp to the left of the garage.
• Looks like the tunnel gives you access to all three areas.  I guess it opens up after you finish enough missions in the downtown area, giving you access to all three areas.  Hopefully this indicates that you will have reason to go back to the other areas even after you've competed them.
• This is another shot that really doesn't need to be pointed out.  Although, that vehicle really isn't a tank per se, looks like some other sort of armored vehicle.  I guess it's more along the lines of an APC.  The front of it can be seen in this older shot.
  

GTA3 In Maxim   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
According to Lugzy, the current issue of Maxim magazine has a short GTA3 preview that is about a paragraph long with a one shot.

Virus Alert   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
I usually don't post stuff on these, but I got hit this time so I figured I should say something.  Sometime over the weekend, while I was gone, my computer was infected with Nimda, and consequently sent out at least one email.  I say one, because I got an email back from someone who said I sent them an infected email, I'm still checking into the validity of this claim.  Anyway, I ran a full virus scan, and then ran utilities to check for and remove a few of the more popular worms going around (I only found Nimda, the others were not found - so my machine should be clean now).  I would suggest that anyone who receives a decent amount of email should run removal programs for Nimda, CodeRed, and SirCam.  All the utils are free from Symantec, so all it will cost you is some time out of your day.  This especially applies to anyone who might have gotten an email from me on Saturday, Sunday, or very early on Monday (these days are important because I wasn't around to send email at those times).  I would also suggest that all the broadband users out there should run at least a software firewall and you should get all of the security updates for whatever OS you're running.  You can get a pretty good free firewall for Windows from ZoneLabs.  Currently I'm running two separate virus scanners and a firewall, so I'm not even sure how it got through, I can only guess that my roommate might have run into a web page that infected my computer over the weekend and somehow hit the wrong button when the virus scanner found something.

Site Updates   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Yes, I realize that I forgot about Crazy Sh*t on Friday, I guess I was a little distracted by all the stuff that was released.  So, don't ask, just click!  Or perhaps you prefer SNL.

GrandTheftAuto3.com & L-Tree Updated!   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Both GrandTheftAuto3.com and Liberty Tree have been updated.  GrandTheft Auto3.com has a new Staunton Island section with lots of new audio clips and hidden sites to explore.  R* also added loads of new screens but there are no new movies, other than the trailer.  Here is a list of the new and old hidden sites that appear on Liberty Tree and GTA3.com:

• AmmuNation
• Capital Auto Sale$
• Dormatron
• Kenji's Casino
• Liberty City College
• Love Media
• Pets Overnight
• Pogo The Monkey

One interesting thing I noticed in the new batch of screens is that the new LC police cars are black and white as opposed to the old blue and white.  I'm not sure if this is part of the changes they are making or if they just decided the black and white version looked better.  They even re-released some old shots with the new car, here is an example:

Finally, here are a few of the more interesting shots:

The rest of the new shots start on the twenty-first screenshot page.

GTA3 Trailer - Open To The Public   <11:25 PM CST - schu>
Previously the GTA3 trailer was only available to IGN Insider subscribers, but now IGN has going live with the trailer, making it available to the general public.  There are three versions of the trailer available, small, medium and large.  They are all the same content wise, the only difference is in quality.  No shoving please, make your way to the theater in an orderly fashion.  You can also download the trailer from GrandTheftAuto3.com.  Thanks to Jason, Crashton, Andy H, OutForBlood, Axer, James15 and dElAvA for heads up on this.

The movie itself is more like a movie trailer than a game trailer, lots of cutscenes, and very very clean looking.

GTA3 Radio   <11:25 PM CST - schu>
IGN again, this time on GTA3's radio stations.  Their article covers three of the radio stations featured in GTA3 with details and three samples, one from each station.  So far they've covered Head Radio, Lips 106, and Double Clef FM with more stations on the way.  I noticed the samples don't won't to play correctly, at least on my computer they don't.  For some reason they switch over to an MP3 file when it's supposed to be downloading a WAV file.  I was able to successfully download all the samples using a download manager, like Download Accelerator. I added the two new radio logos to the third GTA3 artwork page if you care to take a look.  Thanks to Lostboy, Axer, and illspirit for sending in the URL and making this update possible.

GTA3's Voice Actors   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
Yet another IGN update...  This time they are covering some of the voice actors in GTA3.  Rockstar has been keeping pretty quiet about some of the top talent they've recruited to do the voice acting in GTA3, but IGN got some details on a few of the cast members.  Get over to IGN and check out the full update.  Thanks to Andy H for bringing this to my attention.

Site Updates   <11:55 PM CST - schu>
I'll go back through all of this stuff on Monday when I get back from Chicago to see if I missed anything.

Release Delay Confirmed   <1:25 PM CST - schu>
I received a reply from Sam Houser confirming that a few of Rockstar's titles, including GTA3, have been delayed, but only for a few weeks.  Here is what Sam said:

As you may already know 3 our biggest games including Grand Theft Auto 3 have been delayed slightly.

This decision is based on 2 factors, firstly it has been a little difficult to get work done in downtown Manhattan in the last week since basic communications infrastructure has been intermittent at best, and secondly we felt that a full content review of all our titles was absolutely necessary for us in light of the horrifying event we all witnessed in NYC last week.

As for Grand Theft Auto, since the game is so huge the review is no short process. So far we have come across certain small contextual references that we were no longer comfortable with, as well as a couple of very rare gameplay instances that no longer felt appropriate to us. We apologise to you and all the people waiting for this game to ship for the delays that have now ensued, but I'm sure you can understand our reasoning. Rest assured the game will be phenomenal...and you can expect it to hit shelves in late October!

As ever, we really appreciate your continued support.

Caustic informed me that GameStop is currently showing an October 22nd release date.  Perhaps this is the new release date.  You can read full press release here.

Old GameSpot UK Quotes   <1:11 AM CST - schu>
Since news is running rather slow I thought I'd post something on this.  Nick sent me an URL for a Gamespot UK hands on preview of GTA3, but it turned out to be an older preview from April that I already updated on, but there were a few quotes in there I didn't mention the first time around.  Here they are:

"Once in your vehicle, you will then be presented with side missions that relate to it. So if you steal an ambulance, missions will flash up on the screen prompting you, for example, to attend an emergency in a particular area. As a cab driver you will be sent all over the city to pick up members of the public, who will of course pay you."

"No GTA would be complete without a goodly amount of violence, and GTA3 is no exception. As we watched the demo, we saw our character blow the legs off passersby - who would then hop around, blood gushing from the stump, before collapsing to the floor. We witnessed him mercilessly decapitating, mugging or shooting innocent bystanders, and setting fire to cars and ambulances. Some of the missions include drive-by shootings and stealth sniper assignments requiring you to assassinate powerful drug lords."

Once again, thanks to Nick for the selections.

Snowball City 2 Update   <11:50 PM CST - schu>
illspirit has released version 0.9.5 of Snowball City 2.  SC2 is a GTA2 map and is the sequel to illspirit's GTA map, Snowball City and a prequel to his other masterpiece, SpaceStation GTA.  The map portion of Snowball City 2 is complete, but illspirit still has to add some more cars, missions, powerups, and killfrenzies.  The map looks amazing, just make sure you play it on dusk mode so you get all the lighting effects.  Here is the backstory for SC2:

Basic Story (blah blah):
This is a sequel to Snowball City and a prequel to spacestation:gta.
It takes place in Snowball City (I know, it doesn't look a thing like
the original) and basically whuts going on is that global warming has
flooded all but the mountains, and melted the snow.  You work for a
group who is trying to stop the "corporation" from destroying whuts
left of the earth before they escape to their spacestation (hence the
prequel part). Sorry if its a generic story, but who plays GTA2 for
the story?

Things that aren't done:
It's only got a couple of missions so far... and I still need to replace
the rest of the cars, and add zones (which I can't do till I find my win
98 cd).  It does have a few kill frenzies, a bunch of weapons, a working
crane (follow the tv van dishes), 2 respray/weapon shops, and a few
surprises.

I tried it out and it looks pretty cool, definitely worth the 2.8MB download.  Some parts of the city are flooded with other areas under construction, and as is the case with all of illspirit's work, it's quality.  You can get the latest version from members.home.net/illoominati.

Site Updates   <11:50 PM CST - schu>

• A few different people sent in translations for the German cards I posted on Friday.  I went ahead and posted the translations below the cards in last Friday's update.  Thanks to wsm.bernd and Rob.
• Most of the email I got was in regards to GTA3's release date and if it would be affected by the recent events in NYC.  I was hoping to have a reply to that question today but I haven't heard back from Rockstar yet.  Hopefully we'll have a reply soon.

Five New GTA3 Shots @ Gamespot   <2:50 AM CST - schu>
Gamespot has posted five new GTA3 screen shots.  Pay close attention to the first shot, possibly the first view of Liberty City's stadium.  Also among the shots we have another view of the airport and another shot of the Army trucks.  Thanks to Insane2757, JL2001, and Jason for sending email about these new shots.

Take-Two Germany's GTA3 Cards   <2:50 AM CST - schu>
GTA-3.com previously posted something on this, but I figured I'd go ahead and give it a mention.  The German Take-Two site has added a new section to their site where you can email GTA3 cards to your friends.  The site is in German and you have to live in Germany, Austria, or Switzerland to sign up.  I signed up with a fake address and downloaded all the cards so anyone outside those countries can see them.

Play With Me!		Goodnight!

GTA3's Australian Release Date   <2:50 AM CST - schu>
busted sent word that the October issue of HYPER>> magazine is reporting an October 26th release date for Australia.  HYPER>> is an Australian gaming magazine.  No official word from R* on whether different countries will have different release dates.

Crazy Sh*t   <2:50 AM CST - schu>
Rev Ted comes though once again with another great link.  Don't ask, just click!

Site Updates   <2:50 AM CST - schu>
I've come across a few rather strange coincidences related to Tuesday's tragedy.  First, Art Bell's site has some photos posted related to the incident, and one of them is an album cover for a group called Coup.  Coup's album cover was originally posted on July 19th, 2001 but it depicts a similar scene to the one that took place on Tuesday, weird.  The other thing I came across was a newsgroup post that Art Bell mentioned.  The post was in the alt.prophecies.nostradamus group with the subject, 911.  The strange thing is that post was originally made on August 31st...

Everyone OK @ Rockstar   <6:30 PM CST - schu>
I spoke with Sam Houser, president of Rockstar Games, and he said that both he and Dan are safe, I assume the rest of the Rockstar staff are safe as well.  The Rockstar offices are in Soho on Broadway, you can see on this map where Soho is in relation to the the World Trade Center.  Currently the Rockstar offices are closed, Sam didn't specify when they would reopen.  If you're interested, here is a page with a few more maps related to yesterday's tragedy.

More on the GTA3 Radar   <11:30 PM CST - schu>
I've gotten a lot of email on this so I thought I'd list some of the prevailing theories on the GTA3 radar mystery.

• The radar changes color depending on whether it's day or night to improve visibility.  This one is pretty easy to disprove, just compare this day and night shot with the blue radar and this day and night shot with the yellow radar.
• The color changes depending on what gang territory or what section of the city you are in.  Once again, pretty easy to disprove.  Here is a shot from ChinaTown with a yellow and a blue radar.
• The last theory is that the radar changes color depending if your target or mission objective is in range or not.  I can't really disprove this, but I'm not really convinced either.

Personally, I think the radar color is either an option that can be adjusted or GamePro and IGN are playing two different versions.  Maybe they are still trying out different colors to see which color is easier to see.  Thank to Johan, Phil, Jacob, Caustic, and Rob for sending in email on this.

Terrorists Attack The United States   <11:50 PM CST - schu>
Earlier today at least four commercial airliners were hijacked by an unknown terrorist group.  The terrorists then flew two of the planes into the World Trade Center towers.  Soon after the collisions, both of the towers collapsed.  A third plane was flown into the Pentagon an hour later, and a fourth crashed in Pennsylvania.  It is rumored that as many as eight planes may have been hijacked, and that the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania may have been forced down by US fighter jets. 

When my roommate woke me up to tell me about all of this I thought I was dreaming, and I can still can't believe what has happened today.  I can't really think of anything useful to do at this point, other than to give blood to the Red Cross.  If you have the opportunity I urge you to do the same, the Red Cross blood supplies in the NY area are very low and I'm sure any donation, regardless of where you live in the US, would be helpful ( 1-800-GIVE-LIFE ).  For more information on this tragedy, turn on your local news station, or go to CNN.com, MSNBC.com, or Indymedia.org.

Some other facts about this attack are that all of the planes were bound for the West coast, and therefore were loaded with fuel.  Someone on CNN also pointed out that today is September 11th, 9-11, or 911 (the US phone number you call in case of an emergency).  All the updates below this were made prior to this horrific event, no further updates will be made today.

Three New GTA3 Shots   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
Andy H found two new GTA3 shots over on Take-Two's site.  Both of shots are cool, but that second one is just amazing.  After Andy wrote me I went to the Italian GTA3 site and found another new shot, at least I think it's new.  They also have a few of the IGN shots without the watermarks:

Thanks to Andy H for tracking down the new shots :)

Dan Houser Chat   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
GTA Scraper has posted the log from the Dan Houser chat on Saturday.  Unfortunately, I was unable to attend because my new cable connection wasn't cooperating.  I had my cable modem replaced earlier this evening and everything appears to be working just fine now.  Someone with the nickname schu did pop into the chat for a few minutes, but that wasn't me.  Anyway, here are some of the more interesting questions and answers from the chat:

Q: In terms of the PC System Requirements are there any that you could provide us with or is that information still unavailable?
A: Yes - doesn't exist yet because we haven't begun thinking about it, but... bear in mind the extra time is going to be used to everyone's satisfaction, but more than that I cannot say.

Q: We're all dying to hear about this.. Will the PC version of the game have multiplayer implemented? Any ideas on pros/cons of having multiplayer?
A: No comment possible at this point - sorry - I know you all want this, but we have no plans finalized yet.

Q:We read on your main site that we'd be seeing the official GTA3 trailer this week along with an updated Liberty Tree and official site. Any news on this and when exactly it will happen?
A: No exact time - we're just finishing the trailer off - it looks amazing and is all shot in the game - really spectacular.  Should be Tuesday, I'd guess, but no promises.

Q: Do you have any plans finalized on cheats in the game?
A: Not really - I'm sure we'll have the obvious ones - weapons cars no police etc, but not sure of any specials yet.

Q: Now I asked this a long time ago in one of our interviews but everyone is still looking for a definite word, that is of course a GTA3 Demo. Will there be a demo for any system?
A: Not for PS2... Don't know anything about other systems yet.

Q: Do you have any plans for editors and/or skinning applications to come with the game?
A: No plans because we've made no plans yet, if you see what I mean - we've only focussed on creating a game and then getting it working on PS2, PC is coming later, so I don't want to promise anything and not deliver.

Q: Will the drawing distance be increased by the time the game will go gold, or will it stay the same as we've seen in the movies and screenshots?
A: Shouldn't be a problem in final game... but remember the game is drawing a city, open plan... so we are asking a lot of it, but I think you'll be very pleased with the end results.

Q: Will we be able to hijack things besides cars?
A: Boats... tanks... ambulances, taxis, buses, ice cream vans.  Just not the big stuff - choppers... jumbo jets and oil tankers, you are a criminal, not an airline pilot.

As you can see, it's rather pointless asking questions about the PC version because they haven't done enough development on it to answer any questions.  Once again I apologize for not attending, but I really didn't have choice in the matter.

EGM's October GTA3 Preview   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
I haven't seen the October issue of EGM yet, but Sonnybone4 has and he was kind enough to send me some choice quotes from that issue:

More Taxi Info:

"Tired of a life of crime? The Man keepin you down? No problem, just steal a cab and start delivering fares.  Try to think Crazy Taxi here, except you can run over any pedestrians who get in your way. The fares are ridiculous, too. You'll often make thousands of bucks for a few minutes' work. At those rates, who needs to steal for a living?"

New Mission Info:

"Although the main objective is to take on one mission after another, you can do so much more with your time. Walk the streets and pick the pockets of nearby citizens, or just beat the crap outta them with your baseball bat. You can even take part in a street race once you've got enough street cred."

Cool Car Rolling Info:

"Rolling your car is a good way to drop its resale value, not to mention get yourself dead. If you see any flames from the engine area (middle image), get the hell out of there. Otherwise, you're barbecue."

(The preview shows 3 pics, the first one has a hummer upside down with the main character climbing out, then a pic of him running like hell as a small fire starts near the fuel tank, then a shot of the hummer exploding.  Also, in the background, there seems to be a bus station with two buses parked outside.)

The article also has a great pic of the overhead view and a pic of a drive-by. There is also a gory pic of a head shot via the sniper rifle, and a shot of two guys lying in puddles of blood as the main character beats them with a bat.  I really wish I had a scanner, but oh well. Also, some of these pics may have already been released, I'm not really sure.

Thanks to Sonnybone4 for the update.  I guess I'll have to check the bookstore tomorrow to see if this issue is available to non-subscribers yet.

GTA3 Radar Mystery   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
tDemaxx made a rather interesting observation after looking at the latest batch of shots from GamePro.  Awhile back we got our first glimpse of the new GTA3 radar when all the E3 movies came out.  In those movies, the radar background was yellow.  A few weeks ago IGN posted a new set of shots showing off the interface, but this time the radar was blue.  Now GamePro posted their fifteen shots, all with a yellow radar.  I presume GamePro has the same beta version of the game that IGN has, so why is the radar a different color?  tDemaxx was thinking that the radar might change color when the cops are looking for you (apparently that happens in Driver).  I'm not really sure, it doesn't appear to change when your wanted level increases, because as you can see in this shot and this shot, the wanted level is zero in both shots and the radar is yellow in one and blue in the other.

Sam Houser Interview @ IGN   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
JL2001 turned up a nice bit of news over at PS2.ign.com.  The guys over at IGN recently got a chance to conduct an interview with the President of Rockstar Games, Sam Houser.  The interview mainly covers GTA3 related topics, get over to IGN and take a look.  You might also want to check out a new Rockstar URL revealed in the interview.  Thanks to JL2001 for making this update possible.

Gamespot's GTA3 Shots   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
JL2001 sent in another bit of GTA3 news, this time at Gamespot.  Gamespot posted the same set of GTA3 shots that were posted previously on IGN, however, the Gamespot shots are slightly bigger and weren't Photoshopped, unlike the IGN shots.  For some reason, IGN always seems to brighten all of their screenshots.  Anyway, take a look at the first and second screenshot pages over at Gamespot.  Once again, thanks to JL2001.

PSX2UniCom's GTA3 Hands On   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
Nicholas Scott sent in a link to a rather interesting article on PSX2UniCom.  The article is a great play by play write-up detailing the author's experience playing GTA3.  Nothing new really, it's just kind of cool how he describes driving around causing random acts of violence.  Thanks to Nick for sending in the URL.

The Boat on the Box   <2:00 AM CST - schu>
madasafish was looking over the GTA3 box art and he turned up something rather interesting.  If you look in the upper right hand corner of the box you'll notice a red speedboat.  So far we've only seen one screenshot of a boat and that was more along the the lines of a yacht, but from what I've heard from Dan, there will be a few different types of boats.  Thanks to madasafish for the observation.

Site Updates   <2:00 AM CST - schu>

• Sorry for the wait, but as you can see, I've been getting lots of email lately.  That combined with my cable problems delayed everything.  Thanks to everyone who wrote in with news, I really appreciate it :).
• As you can see by the Dan Houser chat log, it looks like GrandTheftAuto3.com MIGHT be updated today.  I guess we won't know for sure until later in the day.  Sorry about the mix-up on Friday, I did say the message was cryptic :) ...
• The GTA3 news item in Dutch that I mentioned in the last update was removed shortly after I posted a link to it.  Anyway, I got a translation from The Clown before it was removed.  Nothing ground breaking, but here it is:

"There are games we just can't get enough of. GTA III is such a game. The graphics, the excessive violence, who can resist it?! Before, we had our doubts about the 3D gameplay, but after E3 we were convinced. This is going to be one of the most enjoyable games for the PS2"

Thanks to everyone who offered their translation services.

• I updated the GTA3 PS2 control list again because of something dElAvA saw in the US Playstation Magazine:

"As you know, any vehicle in GTA3 can be hijacked. But some of those vehicles offer special function. Hop in to a police car, fire truck, taxi, or ambulance, hit the R3 button, and you'll be able to chase down criminals, put out fires, pick up fares, or rush people to the hospital. Neat, huh?"

• A few people still don't agree with Rev Ted's Sentinel / 300M theory and I was a little skeptical until Rev Ted found a shot of the back of the Sentinel that matches up quite well.  Take a look and see what you think.

GrandTheftAuto3.com   <3:00 AM CST - schu>
I received a rather cryptic message from a source close to Rockstar that seems to indicate that both GrandTheftAuto3.com and Liberty Tree will be updated later today.  I'm not positive on this, but it seems rather likely (well, I have been wrong before :) / maybe Saturday?).  Don't want to wait for that update?  Well, along with that message I also got my hands on some new logos and character art, take a look:

Colombian Cartel	SouthSide Hoods
Misty	Mafia Man

The Mafia Man name was derived from the file name, I'm not sure what his actual name is.

15 New GTA3 Shots   <3:00 AM CST - schu>
GamePro did a short "hands on" article about GTA3 and posted fifteen new shots.  Thanks to Big Sexy and dElAvA for the tip off.  Check the twentieth screenshot page or just click over to GamePro to check out the new shots.  Here are a few samples showing the main character in his prison outfit, another angle on the custom paint muscle car (or Diablo Car - possibly a car belonging to the Diablo gang), and another angle on the pickup:

A few of the more interesting shots show a large red arrow indicating a mission vehicle, a red transparent dome indicating a target area, a cutscene about the mission where you take a few of Luigi's girls to the clinic, and lastly a nice transparent popup window helping you along with the controls early in the game:

GTA3 Car Debates   <3:00 AM CST - schu>
I really didn't get too many emails on yesterday's vehicle update, which means one of two things, either you hate those updates almost as much as Tek does or everyone agrees with what was posted :).

• KnightRida isn't buying Rev Ted's 300M/Sentinel theory, he thinks we're looking at a Chrysler Concorde minus the front grill.  My only complaint with that is the raised back end.  KnightRida thinks the back end on the 300M is too high to match up correctly, but if you use the 360 view and rotate it to match the Sentinel shot, it matches up better than the Concorde, the Sebring, or the LHS.  I really don't think we can do any better until a shot of the back end shows up, it may just be the way the shot is skewed, at this point it could go either way.

  
Dan Houser Chat Tomorrow!   <3:00 AM CST - schu>
This is a repost/reminder about the Dan Houser chat session.  In order to attend the chat session you will need to use an IRC client like MIRC, or a web based java IRC client.  You will then need to change/add the server transbay.fdf.net. After connecting you will need to join the #GTA chat room:

You may recall that El Bazo was organizing a chat with Rockstar's Dan Houser a few months back.  Well, that chat event fell through because Dan was in the middle of audio recordings for GTA3.  Dan apparently has a little more free time now and has agreed to take part in a chat event over at El Bazo's newly redesigned, GTA Scraper.  Here are the chat details:

Date: Saturday, September 8th 2001
Time: 8pm GMT
Place: transbay.fdf.net, channel #GTA

8PM GMT is:  3PM Eastern, 2PM Central, 1PM Mountain, and 12 PM Pacific.  You can also bring up the time and date settings in Windows to see how far you are behind or ahead of the GMT listing (listed under time zone).  

I.E., I'm in the central time zone which is -6 GMT time, so you simply subtract 6 from the time listed.  If you live in Moscow for instance, you are +3 GMT so you simply add 3 hours.

  
Crazy Sh*t   <3:00 AM CST - schu>
Don't ask, just click!  For more stupidity, click here.

Site Updates   <3:00 AM CST - schu>

• Assuming GrandTheftAuto3.com updates today, I'll have another update later today.
• Can anyone translate this from Dutch to English?  Axer sent this in, but neither of us can speak Dutch :) ... If it doesn't load properly, just click on the Violence link, it should take you to the proper section of the page.
• If your site was hosted on Niteshade and you have a new host, please let me know so I can update my links and post an update about your site's new URL.
• I've updated the list of controls in GTA3.  You can check out the update in the GTA3 Info section or right here:
  
  

  Button	Action - On Foot/In Vehicle
  Square	Jump
  Circle	Hit / Kick / Fire
  Triangle	Enter / Exit Vehicle
  X	Accelerate
  R1	Aim / Hand Brake
  R2	Change Weapons
  R3	Activate Vehicle Function/Job
  Analog Sticks	Movement
  D-Pad	Movement
  Select	Change Camera Angle

The Vehicles of GTA3   <3:30 AM CST - schu>
Sorry it took so long to get to this update, but I've been a bit pressed for time lately.  Most of these guesses came in based on the latest batch of GTA3 shots:

• Convertible 1 / Dodge Viper - Both Rev Ted and Eilegiest are going with the Dodge Viper for their guesses.  Seems to fit quite well.
• Custom Paint Muscle Car / Convertible 2 - Dyar1 submitted both the Plymouth Barracuda and Ford Mustang (1968 Mustang / Boss).  Rev Ted's first guess is an early model Camaro.  Ted also mentioned that the blue convertible is the same car, which does appear to be true.  No positive ID so far though.
• Van / Ford Transit - I may have actually posted a guess on the Van before, I can't really recall.  I remember that Jap guessed that the delivery truck was based off a Ford Transit Van.  dyar1 came to the conclusion that the van is also a Ford Transit, and after comparing some shots of of it, it seems to match quite well.  You can learn more about the Ford Transit Vans on Ford's UK site.
• Pickup Truck / Toyota Tacoma - Axer and OutForBlood, both sent in the Tacoma and it seems to be the best fit, the only problem is that the Tacoma has an extended cab and the one in the shot doesn't.  The back isn't really an exact match either, but the front matches pretty well.  OutForBlood & Rev Ted also suggested the Ford Ranger Splash as a possible substitute.  GTA: Gaming Army has a shot of the back of this pickup.
• Hard Top Shark Thing - Still no real guesses on this one.  Ted doesn't think it's a modified Shark and Eilegiest just thinks it falls squarely in Porsche territory.
• Sentinel / Chrysler 300M - Ted is abandoning his earlier guess Sebring guess and falling back on the 300M because of a closer body match.
• Maurice (Station Wagon) / 1960's Chevy Nova Wagon - Rev Ted sent this one in, but I'm almost positive I covered this before.
• SUV / Isuzu Rodeo - Just a few SUVs you might also want to compare to the front end of the SUV (Honda Passport, Ford Escape, Nissan Pathfinder), after a while they all start looking the same :) ...

  
GBH Released   <3:30 AM CST - schu>
Turbo_King, creator of the CarCrime County GTA map has created an entirely new game partially inspired by GTA.  His new game is entitled GBH.  Here are some details on Turbo_King's new creation and a link where you can find it:

"The game is a crime-sim in which you have to travel from town to town dealing drugs and doing jewelry store/bank jobs to make money. If you give the gangs a decent cut they'll allow you to do arson, GBH and murder for them against other gangs. You have 10 lives and as much time as you need to make your mark and your fortune over 26 towns using 17 different guns. Check it out at www.drawdevelopment.co.uk."

A little known fact is that GTA2's working title was actually GBH (Grievous Bodily Harm), they later changed it because GBH is an acronym more commonly used in the UK and they didn't think us Americans would catch on.  I'd imagine that Take2 also wanted to capitalize on the GTA series recognition to help sell the game.

Help Wanted   <3:30 AM CST - schu>
Rob is working on a GTA utility and he needs to speak with anyone who has experience reading the .CMP, .GRY, and .G24 file formats.  Apparently the J25 site is dead and Mendel's old address doesn't work.  If anyone out there can help, send me an email and I'll put you in contact with Rob.

New GTA3 Trailer Coming Soon   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
Axer has been watching RockstarGames.com and found something interesting in the news there.  R*'s site is reporting that GrandTheftAuto3.com will be updated this week, here is the announcement posted in the news section at R*:

"The official Grand Theft Auto 3 trailer will be unleashed on the masses this week.  Along with the launch of the Staunton Island on the Official Site.  All new screens, audio, info - and the aforementioned downloadable trailer that rock your wig back.  Stay tuned.  Check back obsessively at www.rockstargames.com/grandtheftauto3."

No specific time or date is given for the update, but I'd guess both Liberty Tree and GrandTheftAuto3.com will be updated at the same time.  Thanks to Axer for making this update possible.

R* Clarifies Release Date Reports   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
I sent a quick email to Dan Houser about the recent release date rumors.  Here is what Dan had to say:

"October 2nd seems about right - it will be released when it is done, and it could be any time between now and mid or even late October but October 2nd is a roughly accurate guess."

  
GTA Scene Updates   <4:00 AM CST - schu>

• New GTA3 Info @ GTA: Gaming Army
  Tek tracked down some new information and a new GTA3 ad in the October issue of NextGen.  Tek scanned and posted the article and the ad over at gta.niteshade.net.  The article has a nice new shot of the back of the pickup truck.  While you're visiting Tek's site, make sure you also check out the three new exclusive GTA3 wallpaper images posted there.

• GTA3 Tankwatch
  Harry over at GTA Tanks asked that I post the following announcement on his GTA3 Tankwatch:

Tankwatch is back - And this time it's ahead of the game
"With the PS2 release of Grand Theft Auto 3 looming on the horizon, the time has come for GTA Tanks to launch a new tankwatch initiative. Tankwatch 3 is on the lookout for any GTA3-related pictures, movies or other media featuring military (or otherwise explosive) vehicles. We need your help over the coming months to track down anything and everything from the GTA3 media that appears in khaki. If you spot anything, do not hesitate to call Tankwatch 3 on gtatanks@electricweb.org.uk, and get your hides over to the official Tankwatch 3 page to see what we've found so far."

• GTA Sentinel Returns
  "GTA Sentinel 3dactionplanet.com/gta is back in business. We have a new design, new content, new features, and our favorite 10 new cars. Want to skip this crap and go right to the cars then click here.
  
  One of our new features is GTA Story. These are user submitted stories about and Grand Theft Auto game. Click here or click on the side bar. We also have new forums provided by Forum Planet, so go sign up now. We would have 14 new cars by the way but Zentor, being lazy didn't upload his, to bad. We are now using ASP now by the way.
  
  Have fun."

• Four New URLs for Zaibatsu: Polskie Centrum Graczy
  The official Polish GTA site has four new URLs for you to choose from:

  http://gta.nano.pl
  http://www.gta.pl
  http://www.gta2.pl
  http://www.gta2.com.pl

GTA3 In September?   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
GrandTheftAuto3.net is reporting that GTA3's release date has been pushed up a few weeks to a late September release.  This information was originally posted on Gamespot in a Duke Nukem related article.  Here is the quote:

"Currently, the company plans to release Grand Theft Auto 3 for the Sony PlayStation 2 in late September, several weeks earlier than the original mid-October release date."

Håkon wrote in with similar news, saying that Norwegian news sources are claiming a September 15th release.  I sent off a quick email to R* to see if any of this can be confirmed.

New GTA3 Previews   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
Wanna play a cop in GTA3?  How about some more details on drive-bys?  Read on...

Game Revolution's GTA3 Preview
Rev Ted sent me an URL for Game Revolution's updated GTA3 preview.  The new preview is based off of their hands on experience with GTA3 and contains some great new information and some clarifications on older stuff.  Here are a few quotes from their preview, check out the full article at Game Revolution.

"Some of the missions are actually time-of-day specific; if you don't get it done on time, you'll have to wait 24 hours. But that's not a problem since you can always pick up a side mission. The story itself features a whopping 60 missions, though there are plenty of side missions to take on, totaling around 100."

The main reason I've included this quote is because some previews say that missing a time specific mission will cause you to fail it, while others say that you can retry it the next day.  

"But why take public transportation when you can drive? Thankfully, the core gameplay from earlier games is kept intact. You can operate just about any vehicle you come across, from run-of-the-mill boxy cars to high speed sportsters. See that school bus? Go nab it. Need to cross a river? Go hijack that boat. With over 50 different operational vehicle types (as well as variations on each), there's plenty to test drive."

I just thought the part about the boat was rather interesting.  It just sounds so cool to be able to jack a boat and drive it to a different section of the city, hop out and continue the mayhem.

"Want even more depth? When you steal a taxi, you can then actually pick up passengers and drop them off to make extra cash. Grab a cop car and you can chase other criminals down, take 'em back to the station and get paid. You can even jack a fire truck and put out fires around town for extra bread. None of this is essential for completing the single player story - it's just in there because, well, it's cool."

Before I comment on this, I should mention that I originally heard about playing a cop in GTA3 from KnightRida, who saw it in EGM, and this quote confirms it.  Previous previews have mentioned other vehicle side missions including answering emergency calls in the ambulance, putting out fires with the fire truck, and possibly selling ice cream from the ice cream truck.  I can't say it's very realistic, but it sounds like a lot of fun.  Thanks to Rev Ted and KnightRida for making this update possible.

Gamespot's Hands-on With GTA3
Tom Sirc informed me that Gamespot posted a short hands-on GTA3 article with a few interesting bits.  Here are two quotes that contain some new information, check out the full article at Gamespot:

"You can also shuffle through a variety of view modes using the select button, including a first-person mode, a variety of third-person views, a cinematic angle, and a classic overhead view. The first-person mode, though, is where you can activate one of the game's more compelling features: the drive-by view. When in this view, the camera actually points out of either of your windows, capturing your gun hand in the frame. From there, you can shoot any unfortunate passerby. It definitely isn't the most practical camera view for the purpose of driving, but it can't be matched when you have to make some quick kills with a bit more finesse than vehicular homicide allows for. Drive-bys, however, don't feel quite as satisfying as they should at the moment. There's currently little response from the weapon, and the only indication that you're actually shooting something is the barely perceptible trails the bullets leave when shot. This will hopefully be remedied in the coming months."

I really hope the people at Rockstar & DMA take some time to read Gamespot's comments on drive-bys, it sounds as if that features needs some tweaking.

"When night falls, all the automobiles, street lamps, signs, and so on ooze colored light sources that bleed into one another, forming a tangible mood that's hard to pinpoint. Couple this with generous motion blurs, and you have something that looks pretty special."

Judging by the second quote, I'd say the motion blur/blood loss blur debate is pretty much over.  Thanks to Tom Sirc for making this update possible.

  
GTA On WindowsXP   <4:00 AM CST - schu>
Taylor Busch sent word that he has installed the final build of WindowsXP and that he is running GTA on Micro$oft's new OS without a hitch.  Hopefully this will be the case with both GTA and GTA2 on all machines and not a select few.

Site Updates   <4:00 AM CST - schu>

• I'm still moving into my new apartment, believe it or not, and I'm still showing my old apartment, but I will continue regular updates assuming my Internet connection cooperates.  I'm going to have a cable connection installed on Thursday, but I should have dialup until then.  
• I'll cover some new vehicle IDs in the next update.