REVIEWS OF GTA GRAND THEFT AUTO III

When it comes to portraying the world in which we live through a darkly humorous, rough-and-tumble lens, the folks from Rockstar and DMA surely win the prize. I mean sure, there is corruption in the world, there is lots of crime and undoubtedly far too much drug-dealing, prostitution, cruelty, etc., etc. These things we get to read about in the newspaper, if not live out in our own little lives. They're not pleasant. So can these elements comprise a game?

What happened to simply solving happy little puzzles, saving penguins, and receiving kisses from princesses?Let's get one thing straight: This game is not for the weak. It's not for people who like a little poofy dragon chase or a double butt-bump for shiny coins. Nah.

Grand Theft Auto III is about knocking people off, it's a game about criminals and the things they do. You can shoot gang members with simple 9s or run them over in a car (accompanied by a funny squish sound), or toss a grenade at their feet, and watch them split apart at the seams, transforming into a puddle of blood. It's visceral. And, you can do this with innocent pedestrians, too; homeless people, businessmen, shoppers, (no kids), and bag ladies.

As far as videogame content goes, it's about as far from Super Mario 64 as you can get.Mob bosses need favors, crooked cops need help, the street gangs want you dead; so to compensate you'll have to rob, steal, and kill in order to stay alive, while using your resources to track down the woman who betrayed you and earn your rightful revenge.

When playing GTA3, most of the game takes place in a vehicle, and a few on foot. It's another variable that people tend to forget when they first see GTA3. The point is not only size but also ability.

Players are offered an amazingly free and easy sense of movement in the game, and the level of commands -- the input list -- is huge and dynamic. Players drive cars, and have a huge list of car-related things to do (carjack, jump out of a burning car, steer, accelerate, brake, power slide, etc.), but they get to do lots of things on foot, too. One can walk, run, sprint, jump, pilot a boat, handle 11 weapons, open doors, and carjack any one of 81 (yes, 81) vehicles in the city. It's all handled with a simple interface and an ease of use that's instant and gratifying.

The cars are just amazing. They each have their own handling, shocks, turn radius, speed, and more. The slow ones, such as dump trucks ("dust trucks") military vehicles, and police vans, are plodding and cumbersome, but they take an incredible beating. Most of the cars in the game are mid-sized. And they never seem to stop coming. Once you've driven the fastest one though, if you're anything like me, you'll only want to drive them, and only them, again.

As the game opens up, and different parts of the city are freed up, newer, faster cars can be carjacked. Cars such as the Mafia Sentinel, or the Sentinel, which looks like a Mercedes, are sweet in the beginning, until you drive a Yakuza Stinger, Cheetah or the like. Then the game gets incredibly fast.

You can pull off the most amazing stunts in mid air. You can flip, twist, spin, roll or move your car in any way, shape, or form, as long as you hit your jump right, and the results are almost always insane (I guess that's why they call them the "Insane Stunt Jumps"). Plus, DMA slows down the camera and provides a lovely little cinematic still shot of your vehicle flying throug the air and landing. It's remarkably fun.

And in case you didn't know, each car is totally and happily destroyable. There are about 17 parts to each car that can be broken, dented, or that can fall or fly off. And you'll be surprised find how quick one can total any single car. A typical car is smashed in the front first. Next the hood loosens up, so that it's right in your face, and the your doors fly open uncontrollably, and it goes on from there.

It may be broken off later, as your fenders are crushed, windows are pummeled, and eventually your engine starts taking damage. First, you see just a little steam, later it becomes a darker more noxious fan of smoke, and once you see flames, it's over, bub. You need to get out before the vehicle blows up (and which rattles everything around it).

As for the weapons, there are loads of them, starting with your hands. Players can get into a fight with any single character in the game by simply hitting and kicking (oh yeah, and head butting). As soon as you find your home (the save place), you get a bat. Soon after, there're handguns and more. The full list includes your body (melee), the bat, a Colt Pistol, Uzi, AK-47, M16, sniper rifle, shotgun, rocket launcher, Molotov Cocktail, grenades, and the flamethrower.

My personal favorites are the sniper rifle, the Molotov Cocktail, and the Uzi, but only while in a drive-by shooting. The Molotov Cocktail is a dangerous weapon to use because just as easily as you can throw it, you can catch your own body on fire. The fire spreads, causing great collateral damage, and well, it's nice and violent, and it kills real quick-like. The Sniper Rifle is superb.

It's easy to zoom in and out, and it's incredibly accurate. It's a little amazing to see that DMA, which doesn't specialize in first-person shooters or anything, can get a gun, such as the sniper rifle, so dead-on right. You can quickly move it about, there's a good range of distance that it can cover, and it's easy to move tiny little distances without disturbance or fudging it and having to start over. Plus, as with so many things in Grand Theft Auto III, it just feels right. The weapons are great.