History Professor Sarge - The Evolution of Grand Theft Auto

Sit up straight class. I want to tell a story. A story of rags to riches and how a glitch became one of the most anticipated games franchises in history!

I remember the day I picked up a copy of the very first Grand Theft Auto. My Windows 95, Pentium 120 with 32 meg of RAM was a computing beast and I needed something to play on it. While waiting for it to install I read a copy of PC Powerplay. In the magazine there were two reviews side by side. One of a game called Postal, and one of GTA. In between the reviews, there was a black highlighted section titled "Innocence lost" or something like that. The editor at the time gave GTA a 6/10 and used this small section to blast the developers of both games. The editor asked who would play such "violent and messed up games" and I knew then, this game was going to ruffle some feathers.

Ruffle some feathers it did, constantly being blamed for influencing childrens violent behavior, GTA appears in news headlines almost weekly. But the controversy is not what made GTA become a successful franchise. As a matter of fact, if they stayed on the same path, Grand Theft Auto probably would have failed. Rockstar saw this and developed a shock value game into a living, breathing world with fleshed out characters and a great narrative that made gamers want to see what happened in their game.

Grand theft auto hit the scene in 1997. The game originated from a glith in another game called "Race and Chase" which saw street racers try to outrun police cruisers. The glitch made the cops attempt to run the cars off the road and play testers thought it was awesome. Rockstar, (originally called "DMA Design") created Grand theft auto around this glitch and released the classic top down game we know today.

GTA 2 released hot off the heels of the first games success in 1999. It introduced a new gang alignment system that allowed players to choose their own missions. While the game was well received by critics with less controversy than the first, the new gang system wasn't very popular and was scrapped for GTA 3.

GTA 3 was the first major evolution for the series. A deeper narrative was delivered by supporting characters interacting with a largely silent protagonist. For the first time ever, GTA was fleshed out in full 3D with very impressive graphics, physics and a day and night cycle with dynamic weather. GTA 3 was very well received and for most, this is where Grand Theft Auto began. GTA 3 also spawned several spin-offs like San Andreas (the most popular GTA title to date) and Vice City.

GTA IV had a much longer development cycle compared to the other games in the series due to it debuting on the current generation systems. The engine was rebuilt from the ground up which gave NPC's jobs and tasks to do on their every day business. The size of the game was scaled down to fit in a more detailed and interactive experience. The main character, Nico Belic, had a personality and an interesting story to uncover. Multiplayer was introduced with MMO style deathmatches and countless activities to participate in. GTA IV had 2 expansion packs, The lost and Damned which followed a bikie gane and The ballad of Gay tony, which saw players take the role of a nightclub enforcer.

The latest evolution of GTA has so many features, almost too many to list here. Since it gets released at midnight, we won't give much away except it is going to be the biggest and best GTA game to date!

Have fun tomorrow gamers as you explore Los Santos!

-History Professor Sarge (Nes.SNES.N64.PS3.GC.360.WU)