[Legal Step]

which ones redefined gaming?

which ones are clones but involve cops and a big trouble in little china type story

what horrible thing caused the game industry to decidedly make everything in the world a free roaming car jacking simulator

????

there really is nothing more they can do to these games except maybe give you choices in them.

token inspirational picture:

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[les meat]

Going for the high score on GTA1?
or the rpg baby steps of GTA SA?

FIGHT


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[Dark Age Iron Savior]

when am I going to be able to make my futuristic dystopia GTA clone that will admittedly lack proper radio stations (instead: experimental music mixed with heavy propaganda) but will be a much tighter experience than GTA

also when am I going to be able to make my GTA clone based on Waterworld
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[chevluh]

I'd say GTA 3.

Even though its core mechanic was pioneered before by the previous GTAs, or partially by other, older stuff (Mike Singleton's stuff or Hunter on amiga come to mind, you could tell they were trying to do something big, though you couldn't quite tell what because of the technical limitations), GTA 3 was the one that made it appealing to a broad audience, the one that made it click together.

[Dracko]

First GTA is interesting. Second one even more so. Third one became a cultural phenomenon of some kind, God knows why, and nothing in the genre has seemed interesting until Crackdown was revealed.

[SuperWes]

[Lasakon]

It may have sucked, but True Crime (The first one) was a loving homage to the 80's action movie. David Lo Pan was also in it.

[GcDiaz]

[Dracko]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[raveneyesnola]

I'm still of a mind that GTA:VC got just about everything fucking right, other then multiplayer.

fucking GTA:one still fucking rocks for that.

~b

[inmatarian]

[fundogmo]

Bully is an amazing game with surprisingly less juvenile humor that is typical of its genre. But just like the rest, it becomes repetive by the third chapter.

But isn't that the problem with all of these sandbox type games? Once you know the city, its just a matter of running from point A to point B with clumsy combat sandwiched between. Some like Bully give you more stuff to do as you progress, but the diminishing returns kick in and you're left feeling "eh".

I wonder if "No More Heroes" can improve upon this idea, by either making the gameplay refined enough to carry through, or by tying it all together with a compelling story.


Two escapees from the ghetto:
Hulk Ultimate Destruction
Steambor Chroncies

[Zebadayus]

[Mr. Mechanical]

[Lasakon]

I really liked Mercenaries, if only for it's explosions and stereotypes.
I mean the game itself is pretty clumsy, but that's what the helicopters are for.

[evnvnv]

blast corps guys

ok its not free roaming but it is the game that gave me the idea for a video game adaptation of "the french connection" that eventually someone stole from inside of my brain to make gta 3.

thus blast corps 2 would redefine the genre, as long as rare didn't make it.

alternate answer: body harvest

N64 is the new dreamcast!

[fundogmo]

[tacotaskforce]

[evnvnv]

[Slonie]

I also greatly enjoyed Mercenaries. It was a lot like GTA, except instead of hookers, it had blackhawk helicopters. Mercenaries 2 might be the first-released PS3 game that I'm actually looking forward to!
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-Slonie

[JamesE]

Learning flying in San Andreas was fucking great, moreso when you attain mastery of the jets and it all becomes second nature. BARRACUUUUUDA

[Dracko]

Would the approach seen in Metal Gear Solid 4's trailers and its design concepts count as free-roaming?

[Ratoslov]

[Dracko]

Free-form may have been more accurate. Of course, a lot remains to be seen still, but the psychological warfare and relationships ideas Kojima seems to want to explore holds that level of promise, even if the narrative is as focused as all the previous games.

[SuperWes]

[Dracko]

[SuperWes]

[JamesE]

Grand Theft Auto IV needs:

1) The combat system used for The Warriors (which I hear Bully sort of used)

2) Just Cause's thing where you can switch on the fly to a Resident Evil 4 style camera

3) Not to be as boring as Just Cause

Crackdown would be great if it played like a next-gen Crudebusters. I suppose Hulk: Ultimate Destruction already did in a lot of meaningful ways.

[Iacus]

4) Less minigames / more focused design

5) Japan
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Guayaba 2600

[Rud31]

[SuperWes]

[Mr. Mechanical]

This is good to hear Wes, now my future purchase can be totally justified! Just a month to go now.

I might even go to the trouble of getting Xbox Live all up and running and such for the Halo 3 beta. Might.
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[boojiboy7]

dudes, crackdown is hella awesome. I just said hella, and i hate the word hella, but this demo is...hella awesome.

jumping from rooftop to rooftop while shooting at lots of dudes is amazing.

[Mr. Mechanical]

Oh man froth +100.

How big is the area in the demo? I read somewhere that it's an entire territory (out of like, 3 or 4 in the actual game) that one gang controls. So if you multiply the demo area by 3 or 4 you should have some idea of how large the actual game is. Somebody feel like doing the pseudo-math?
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[boojiboy7]

it should be a pretty good size then. I didn't coer the whole territiory in my playing, and there were a lot of little nooks and such that i just flew right past.

oddly enough, i don't think i iwll be driving much in this game.

[Felix]

[BotageL]

Crackdown manages to make running around at high speed, jumping atop buildings, shooting Mexicans, and driving through massive amounts of innocent people boring as shit. I don't know how they did it, but combine the fact that there's no challenge to the game, the lock-on is incredibly shitty especially given the dual-stick control scheme should make it completely unnecessary, the only difference between the boss Mexicans and the regular ones is they take an extra grenade toss or two to kill, etc., etc. Oh, and even if you piss off the cops, your ridiculous amount of Halo Shield (tm) and life means that you will never be in any real danger of dying.

Disclaimer: I have never played a GTA game.
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