Cities of GTA and GTA3

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-04-10 07:45am

There's something which I've wondered about with the release of GTA3 and GTA Vice City.

Namely - the layout of the cities, which in GTA3 and GTAVC only vaguely resemble their GTA1 counterparts.

In both GTA3 and GTA1, Liberty City consists of 3 islands linked by bridges. However, that seems to be the only thing consistent. In GTA1, these islands vary wildly in shape and size while in GTA3 they appear to have roughly the same shape and size. However, the variation between the individual islands is much greater in GTA3 than in GTA1. (though, however, GTA3's Staunton Island bears a great resemblance to the central LC isle in GTA1) In fact, GTA3's Liberty City seems to be a hybrid between GTA1's Liberty City and GTA2's unnamed metropolis in that both GTA3's Liberty City and the GTA2 city are sharply divided into residential, commercial and industrial zones. I probably don't have to mention that none of LC's sub-areas in GTA3 and GTA1 have the same names. (I certainly don't recall a Chinatown or St. Mark's in GTA1's Liberty City)

It's a similar deal with GTA Vice City... in GTA1, Vice City is a mostly inland city but a 1/8 of it is located on the Vice Beach island. However, in GTAVC Vice City's reincarnated as two large islands and 3 smaller ones linked to each other.

Any explanation? My guess is that Rockstar Games probably felt that the GTA1 cities were perhaps a bit too monotonous and needed total remaking, and that they also wanted to use their experiences in city-building from GTA2.

Rye · Post by **Rye** » 2004-04-10 11:46am

They're based on cities that everyone knows from movies and TV shows, given the new perspective, they had to make it more similar to certain bits of popular geography so people got the reference. This wasn't really there in gta 1 & 2, due to the perspective.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2004-04-10 02:42pm

I think it may be because there's no real "continuity" between the games. I know it doesn't feel that way between GTA3 and Vice City (GTA3 had Tommy just starting up from a prison break, working his way to his infamous status (remember, he was just "small time" in that bank heist, though I will admit I have yet to play through the whole thing, so I'm not too sure if that comes back in any way), and was seemingly set in ther 90s; Vice City already has Tommy with a formidable reputation in Liberty City, but is set in the 80s).

GTA1 and GTA2 just seemed to me to have some random guy picking up whatever random jobs he could find, until you got to some money count; GTA2 had some semblence of a plot, but you could work between the three factions easily enough, and wasn't as "linear" as GTA3 and VC were (all you had to do, after earning your respect with one group and doing their missions, was to start offing their thugs around the streets until you got enough respect from one of the others, and repeat for group three, IIRC). GTA1 didn't even have that; you just found jobs from the various phones and cars around the city (though I guess it did have some overlying story in each city, to judge by the videos at the end, even though you essentially start "brand new" in each new locale).

Just my two cents.

EDIT: Remember, there may be a "Tommy" in GTA2 as you just run around as the one guy...but there was no Tommy in GTA1; Hell, you could pick from a number of different people, not all of 'em being the white guy that Tommy is (at least one black guy, one seemingly fat dude, and two chicks IIRC)! At least in the PC version I have.

Speaking of which, I wonder if it'll work in XP...

DeadM · Post by **DeadM** » 2004-04-10 04:50pm

RogueIce wrote: (GTA3 had Tommy just starting up from a prison break, working his way to his infamous status (remember, he was just "small time" in that bank heist, though I will admit I have yet to play through the whole thing, so I'm not too sure if that comes back in any way), and was seemingly set in ther 90s; Vice City already has Tommy with a formidable reputation in Liberty City, but is set in the 80s).

You play as Tommy in both GTA3 and Vice? I thought the GTA3 dude was just some random dude.

I don't know how much of GTA3 you've played, but remember the girl that betrays your character in the intro? She'll be back.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-04-10 05:00pm

The protagonist in GTA 3 is NOT Tommy. GTA3 and GTA: VC are set in the same universe, to judge by the number of personalities that make appearances in both games (especially on the radio). Tommy Vercetti would be in his 50s by the time of GTA 3; the Man in Black obviously isn't (that's what I always called him, especially when he did something hardcore like chase down a carjacker and throw a molotov coctail at his feet).

Post by **RogueIce** » 2004-04-10 05:21pm

DeadM wrote:I don't know how much of GTA3 you've played, but remember the girl that betrays your character in the intro? She'll be back.

Just getting started out in Staunton Island, kinda sidetracked there.

RedImperator wrote:The protagonist in GTA 3 is NOT Tommy. GTA3 and GTA: VC are set in the same universe, to judge by the number of personalities that make appearances in both games (especially on the radio). Tommy Vercetti would be in his 50s by the time of GTA 3; the Man in Black obviously isn't (that's what I always called him, especially when he did something hardcore like chase down a carjacker and throw a molotov coctail at his feet).

Really? News to me. I can't remember him being specifically named, except maybe by Eight Ball at the start?

They always looked so much alike though. Ah well. Is the GTA3 man ever named, anywhere?

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-04-10 05:26pm

No, the protagonist in GTA 3 was never named. I think the idea was for the player to feel like the Man in Black was him, and giving him a name would have made that more difficult. For the record, he never speaks, either. If I recall correctly from the closing credits, there's no voice actor listed for him.

EDIT: I was correct. IMDB doesn't list him at all in the cast of GTA 3.

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-04-10 06:40pm

Offically, he's known as "The Guy".

I like to call him "Charlie", because I think he looks a little like Charlie Sheen in that one carchase movie.

Pablo Sanchez · Post by **Pablo Sanchez** » 2004-04-10 07:15pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Offically, he's known as "The Guy".

I like to call him "Charlie", because I think he looks a little like Charlie Sheen in that one carchase movie.

I think he's a great character, because he's just an errand boy who single handedly dismantles every major mob in Liberty City without every having a goal beyond basic thuggery. He's like the punisher, sort of...

Oberleutnant · Post by **Oberleutnant** » 2004-04-10 08:43pm

RedImperator wrote:Tommy Vercetti would be in his 50s by the time of GTA 3; the Man in Black obviously isn't (that's what I always called him, especially when he did something hardcore like chase down a carjacker and throw a molotov coctail at his feet).

I know that this doesn't really have anything to do with the topic, but didn't Tommy say at one point in the game that he served in Vietnam?

DPDarkPrimus · Post by **DPDarkPrimus** » 2004-04-10 09:05pm

Oberleutnant wrote: I know that this doesn't really have anything to do with the topic, but didn't Tommy say at one point in the game that he served in Vietnam?

No. He was busy serving time.

Post by **RogueIce** » 2004-04-10 09:28pm

DPDarkPrimus wrote:
Oberleutnant wrote: I know that this doesn't really have anything to do with the topic, but didn't Tommy say at one point in the game that he served in Vietnam?
No. He was busy serving time.

Hm, damn. That would make it somewhat more believable that he was so kickass with such a wide variety of weapons. In the little imaginary backstory I made up for him in GTA3 as I played, I had prior military/spec ops experience in there.

RedImperator · Post by **RedImperator** » 2004-04-10 09:28pm

Oberleutnant wrote:
RedImperator wrote:Tommy Vercetti would be in his 50s by the time of GTA 3; the Man in Black obviously isn't (that's what I always called him, especially when he did something hardcore like chase down a carjacker and throw a molotov coctail at his feet).
I know that this doesn't really have anything to do with the topic, but didn't Tommy say at one point in the game that he served in Vietnam?

No. You're thinking of the conversation Vercetti had with Mitch Baker where Mitch mentioned his service. Vercetti said he missed Vietnam because he was in prison.

Peregrin Toker · Post by **Peregrin Toker** » 2004-04-11 02:24am

DPDarkPrimus wrote:Offically, he's known as "The Guy".

I like to call him "Charlie", because I think he looks a little like Charlie Sheen in that one carchase movie.

He's also known as Alex IIRC, but that's probably "fan canon".

There's another continuity glitch which I've spotted, which is related to the cars. The only car which goes again in all 4 GTA games (save for GTA London) is a sports car called the Stinger. However - in GTA1 and GTA2 it's clearly a clone of the Corvette Stingray (as its name indicates) while in GTA3 it looks like a generic sports car very vaguely resembling a MGF or perhaps a newer Toyota MR2, while in in GTAVC is pretty much identical with a Ferrari Daytona. (the Corvette clone in GTAVC is instead called the Banshee, a name which in GTA3 adorned the a car I'd describe as the lovechild of a Dodge Viper and a TVR Tamora)

I find it kinda odd that they didn't reserve the Stinger name for a Corvette clone in later games...