Ideas for Another Grand Theft Auto...

[Commander 598]

Both Tokyo and London would be excellent choices...possibly London since Jason Statham has to stop killing Koreans and come home sometime.

[Tolya]

I played it on PC a few years back. And the racing level, easy? What game did you play?

After I got the idea that steering had to revolve around careful, short taps to the keyboard rather than GTA style full left/right steering, I got to the point that I was able to overtake some of the slower racers for the second time. At first it took me a few times to finish the race without crashing, but it was a part of the challenge. Certainly it wasn't even half difficult as the last level of Interstate 76.

[2000AD]

GTA: Austrailia could work, plenty of beautiful areas. Maybe a pastiche of Mark "Chopper" Read?

GTA: La Resistance. WW2 occupied France, would get around the PC brigades bleeting if the 'cops' were Nazis. Criminal who is busted out of jail at the same time as some resistance members and hooks up with them. Would also provide a legitmate reason for why the army would come out to play at 6 stars.

[Rye]

I'll second the Mafia love, by the way. The game rocked though it was pretty hard (and I did get stuck on the racing level until it was patched), but the difficulty was mainly down to the controls being too unresponsive. I loved driving through the city in the stolen racecar, the rainy barn level and towards the end where you're running across rooftops and avoiding goons.

Also, nice of you to bring up Interstate 76, which I also loved. I think a GTA-engined I-76 would be a great idea, especially if you could explore the world and why it is like it was a bit more. For GTA itself though, yeah, see my previous post, the Getaway was amazing, doing a GTA with it would be the next best thing.

[Big Orange]

I'm sorry, but 1960s London sounds a little too limiting and dull, but 2000s Tokyo Bay sounds promising and could have legs; the urban areas would be dense, high-tech and vibrant, while external rural areas would be an interesting change of scenery (you could have Edo era castles, fishing villages, paddy fields, and a fictional Mount Fuji, which of course be host to a supervillain's lair ). How about Carcer City, a Detroit/Pittsburgh style city where the Manhunter games take place, and is also mentioned many times in the GTA games? It would be a much more grim and unpleasant place than Liberty or Vice, with the local countryside full of slag heaps and abandoned industrial works.

[Coalition]

One stunt would be where you start off as the petty thief, trying to break even, and out of the corner of your eye you spot someone with a lot of gold, jewelry, etc.

Seeing your ticket out, you decide to kill him. A quick stab to the back, and he is down for the count. The boost in cash there lets you skip past several of the grinding missions, and you get better gear, equipment, contacts, etc.

At the end of the game, where you are a crime lord, you find yourself walking down to where you remember growing up. While walking along, you feel a stab in your back.

Yes, basically another person has come along, seen your jewelry, and decided that you would make a good target.

[Mr Bean]

GTA is not about Dramatic Irony Coalition. GTA is about loads of cynaism, period jokes. Dark Humor and giving you a world to play in. High Brow concept this is not.

Which is why GTA-3 Sand Andreas is the outliner, every other GTA game features big giant open world cities(London does not count) with an immigrant of uncertain heritage arriving in the big city with nothing but a dream and a total disregard for all laws.

Which is why the more I think about it the better it sounds for 60's era GTA-4 Chicago(Or whatever pseduoname) or 2010 Toyko sounds like the best possible new game. Your Chicago game should be a South America immigrant of some kind while your Japan game could be a half-Asian something.

Idea the third
Washington state, Seattle's not a major crime area but it's about the only place where I could see a possible Native American centered game being pulled off.

[Rye]

Las Vegas seems a perfect location for a potential GTA game. Lots of gangster films to parody/copy, big lush locations, seedy underbelly, dirty sluts, a big desert to play in, corruption, and hundreds of potential mini-games in the casinos.

[Big Orange]

Las Vegas seems a perfect location for a potential GTA game. Lots of gangster films to parody/copy, big lush locations, seedy underbelly, dirty sluts, a big desert to play in, corruption, and hundreds of potential mini-games in the casinos.

Already happened in GTA San Andreas, but an update to the GTA IV engine would be welcome. I'm already drawing up a map of GTA Florida and Cuba, which I may submit tomorrow.

[Jade Falcon]

That'd be cool. Very much The Sweeney and Life on Mars, but as the (really) bad guys.

Shut it, you SLAG!!

London could be cool, or what about GTA:Glasgow.

[TithonusSyndrome]

I always liked the idea of a GTA taking place during a new depression, where fuel is a concern because of peak oil. Characters and factions would be motivated less by gangster greed and more by simple security and survival.

[chitoryu12]

If a GTA game has large expanses of desert or forest, I'd like to see it done better than in SA. They were mostly boring stretches of land with little humanity outside the towns. The GTA IV engine could do it better, but I'd like to see a bit more life to the countryside. Like wandering into a gas station overlooking the local farms, hicks and truckers all over the place. You decide to hold up the gas station and suddenly you've got the cashier pulling a shotgun and half the store with .44 revolvers. You could run into campers, hikers, crazy mountain men, etc.

The police could also be tailored to tracking you through the forest and dunes. You run into a forest at night with 4 stars and the cops start following you in with rifles and flashlights, a helicopter hovering overhead with a blazing searchlight. Out in the desert they'll drive down the sandy landscape in 4x4s with mounted floodlights. It could add some real suspense to the chases.

One other thing I'd like to see in general gameplay terms is more ways to rob someone. If you steal a car you could enter first-person like in Alone in the Dark and check the glove compartments and under the seats. You could find drugs (sellable), weapons, ammo, spare cash, etc. You could pickpocket unsuspecting tourists, hold up people with guns or knives until they surrender their cash, and so on and so forth.

[Pablo Sanchez]

Given all the high tech functionality they introduced in GTA4 (cell phone, the internet, GPS) I don't think they'll go back to a bygone era because it would entail losing those functions. That makes me a little sad, because I could see 1960s London being very fun. Also, looking at the care given to constructing Liberty City as a gameplay model of NYC I don't really anticipate them going outside the USA, because it wouldn't be as feasible to do the same job in another country.

I think Chicago is a good candidate, though, because it has a lot of the characteristics that go into a good gameplay environment while still being distinctive. The main counter-argument would be that it isn't distinctive enough, because it's still on the general model of the American metropolis. There are some American cities that break the mold a lot more and are still fairly large. I think a game set in an analogue of Dallas/Ft. Worth (GTAIV: Lone Star City) would be pretty fun, though you would probably need to make it look a bit more metropolitan than it is in real life.

[Enigma]

I'd like to see a new True Crime game? Maybe a True Crime: Streets of London?

Why would you want a new True Crime game? Apart from the "we map real cities" gimmick? They're just poor GTA clones with bugs and completely ridiculous bosses (oh hay I'm fighting a Chinese crime syndicate, of course their leader is a fireball-shooting dragon! Realism ho!).

So? That game didn't exactly take itself seriously. I love the little quips the protagonist makes. *drives over a pedestrian* <paraphrasing>"Ding! Five points. Oh wait that wasn't funny."

The first True Crime game was great and I love the extras in the game.

Bonus Ending Clip
EOD Training Vid 1
EOD Training Vid 2
EOD Training Vid 3
EOD Training Vid 4
EOD Training Vid 5
EOD Training Vid 6
EOD Training Vid 7
My favourites:
EOD Training Vid 8
Lesson Lost

True Crime: New York City took itself seriously but it was better in various areas than San Andreas. Hell, the hand to hand combat from the TC series has GTA beat. I'd love to see the next one in the series.

[Flagg]

I'd set it in modern day Los Santos, stretching down into Mexico with there being a border wall and everything. Really do the sprawl that is southern California/ San Andreas as opposed to the compactness that is LC/NY. Maybe at one point have the protagonist be forced to flee into Mexico to evade some antagonist and then have to sneak back into the states. Play up the Illegal Immigrant paranoia the way the terrorism paranoia was in GTA4.

As far as who the main character is, I wouldn't mind seeing the first true sequel bringing back Niko or if not that, then maybe a Latino character.

I'd also have the border be a huge gameplay feature, with illegal crossings giving multiple stars to your wanted level.

[Big Orange]

As said, I liked the back of beyond in San Andreas, with better draw distances, more realistic spawning, and sharper AI improving that kind of landscape. You could also find hidden Easter Egg dangers if you stray too far from the roads and small towns in the more remote areas: alligators in the swamps and inbred serial killers in the hills. Maybe even Bigfoot.

Here are some rough map sketches based on my idea of a GTA style Florida and Cuba:

Pic 1 Pic 2
Pic 3 Pic 4
Pic 5 Pic 6

They're sub-maps that can be put togther to make one big map of the whole play area.

[Starglider]

That makes me a little sad, because I could see 1960s London being very fun. Also, looking at the care given to constructing Liberty City as a gameplay model of NYC I don't really anticipate them going outside the USA, because it wouldn't be as feasible to do the same job in another country.

Why not? The Getaway games had a fairly realistic version of central London. You do realise that the GTA games are made by a team based in Edinburgh (Scotland)?

Personally I liked the GTA:SA world layout best of all the games and while the storyline wasn't as good as GTA4, the outside-storyline activities were a lot more fun than in GTA4.

[Crazedwraith]

How about Vice City 2: The Revenge of Ken Rosenburg?

Outrage buy Tommy's abandonment of him in San Andreas, Rosenburg turns gun toting coke snorting maniac and rolls back into town to try and take down Tommy's longstanding criminal empire...

[Bounty]

So? That game didn't exactly take itself seriously. I love the little quips the protagonist makes. *drives over a pedestrian* <paraphrasing>"Ding! Five points. Oh wait that wasn't funny."

"Boyz 'n' the hood - of my car"

It was still seriously schizophrenic, wasn't it? 90% of the game is like a half-serious cop game, then it drops a dragon in your lap.

The rest of the game wasn't all that great either - fun in bursts, no doubt about that, but it got very repetitive very fast and both the driving and fighting engines were half-finished at best. Bum fights shouldn't be about random chance.

[salm]

I´d love to see a GTA: DDR.

You can join the Stasi, try to dig tunnels into West Berlin and race around in Trabants. Your ultimate goal is to become the boss of the Levi Strauss Blue Jeans smuggler cartell.

[Enigma]

So? That game didn't exactly take itself seriously. I love the little quips the protagonist makes. *drives over a pedestrian* <paraphrasing>"Ding! Five points. Oh wait that wasn't funny."

"Boyz 'n' the hood - of my car"

It was still seriously schizophrenic, wasn't it? 90% of the game is like a half-serious cop game, then it drops a dragon in your lap.

The rest of the game wasn't all that great either - fun in bursts, no doubt about that, but it got very repetitive very fast and both the driving and fighting engines were half-finished at best. Bum fights shouldn't be about random chance.

Half finished it may be but the fighting aspect was much better than any of the GTA games released to date. Graphic wise, the first TC is on par or better than GTA:SA. Story wise, the first TC game is about on par with Vice City where the second TC game is on par with SA. TC may be a clone of GTA but it s a good clone with some variations. Again I wouldn't mind seeing a third TC game and wish it would be semi serious like TC:SoLA.

[Lusankya]

They should do GTA: Shanghai.

It could be a realistic driving sim. Except with more guns.

[weemadando]

Given all the high tech functionality they introduced in GTA4 (cell phone, the internet, GPS) I don't think they'll go back to a bygone era because it would entail losing those functions. That makes me a little sad, because I could see 1960s London being very fun. Also, looking at the care given to constructing Liberty City as a gameplay model of NYC I don't really anticipate them going outside the USA, because it wouldn't be as feasible to do the same job in another country.

I don't see how it couldn't be similarly implemented. Instead of a mobile phone you could have a "little black book" and a CB or phone-booths everywhere. Same thing - instead of internet cafes you could have PO boxes. It's just about putting a new skin on things.

I maintain that GTA: Manchester 1972 would be awesome. Just as long as we get to have Gene Hunt as one of the main antagonists.

[Bounty]

Story wise, the first TC game is about on par with Vice City where the second TC game is on par with SA.

Now I know you're taking the piss. TC had a story? I thought it just had a few cutscenes between interchangeable gameplay sections. I'm not even sure what it was about or who the characters were. Some cop? Russians? Hobos?

TC may be a clone of GTA but it s a good clone with some variations.

It's not. It tried to clone the driving sections and those sorta work, if it wasn't for the start-and-stop gameplay; I actually prefer TC's driving model and shoot-while-driving system to GTA. Making a separate fighting system was brave, even if it didn't quite work. But in the end it was still more a collection of short, boring, hard-to-tell-apart missions set in a big city rather than a sandbox game.

[Zixinus]

I say, take a page from Burn Notice: An ex-elite forces, highly trained and successful spy gets burned for some unknown reason in a god-forsaken, unstable country. Perhaps he was made to look like he sold out, perhaps he got into a big ploy, perhaps the entire operation he was in was compromised to the point of it going public, thus everyone got burned.

Perhaps its a Middle-Eastern or South American country with an oil dispute. Perhaps its an Asian country with political problems. Perhaps its an African country trying to get up to 21str century standard only for some bullshit to ruin it. Perhaps its some Mediterranean war zone over. Perhaps its set in an ex-soviet country and the turbulence it would involve.

Either way, the result is the same: Lots of guns, lots of crime (hey, its called covert cause its illegal), interesting missions, good possibility of a story and likely some neat gadgets.

The gadgets are the most important: say the guy in question is an ex combat engineer or green beret. O you can choose background, character customization is liked nowadays. Hell, the story has very good, flexible potential while being fresh.

As for charecter background, it would effect the game significantly. For example, being female or male gives you different missions, gives you different goals. A pretty woman can get into a warlord's villa with an ease that a man just can't have. However, a pretty woman might have more problems with fitting into a gang of big, tough manly men who believe that traditions are sacred.

Of course, interesting questions can be touched in a possible story: say, if you are a women, how much chauvinistic shit would you take up with to get the job done? Can you work alone or would you accept help? This place is a shithole, can it be redeemed?