Someone posted it in the dvd bargain forum for 6/4/02. I am guessing it will be on sale as of this weekend.

hope that helps.

Why does this game not have multiplayer??!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!???!?!!!!!!!???????????!!!!!

Probably because it's a port of the PS2 version, which did not have multiplayer.

Besides, how would multiplayer work? Would it just be free for all? Or, would there be actual missions? Would it be co-operative or deathmatch? Would there be new multi-player only missions? I could go on, but you get the point.

This game wasn't designed with multiplayer in mind, and I can't figure out any way to impliment multiplayer without a serious re-working of the code. I imagine that's the real reason behind no multiplayer.

You could do free for all or teams. Did you ever play GTA1 with someone else? I thought it was better than doing the missions.

Multiplayer was supposed to be the #1 new feature for the PC version. 16-player multiplayer, in fact. This support was yanked shortly before the release of a more-or-less straight port.

Another control question:

Using the WASD setup to drive, do you steer with the mouse or the keys?

Thanks

I am not interested in PC gaming (unless there is a Caesar IV!) at all, and have never used my current computer for playing games. I have never used a PC controller or purchased a graphics accelerator of any sort, because I never cared to. I basically know nothing about computers or performace. Now however, GTA 3 has been released for the PC with a sweet BB deal coming up next week, and I would like to purchase it since I only have a Gamecube, and won't shell out $200 just to get a PS2 to play this game. My question is, will it work good and look at all decent with what I have? My computer has 1.0 gig, 128 RAM, a pretty fast CD ROM (not sure how much), and claims to have some sort of Intel AGP Graphics Processor, which I'm sure is good enough to maybe put a Pac-Man game on the screen in all its pixelly glory. Can I actually enjoy GTA3 with this? I'm absolutely unwilling to pay for any enhancements...

Also, what's the cheapest controller I can buy that is adequate in playing this game (keep in mind I am a consoloe gamer, so no huge joysticks or mouse and keyboard suggestions please). I don't care if it's $10. If it can get me through the game without problem, I will buy it.

As far as your system goes, the processor is fine...it's your AGP card that sucks.
I seriously doubt it'll be able to handle GTA3. You'd prob spend less money getting a PS2+GTA3 instead of getting a new graphics board for your PC too.

Controller? Microsoft Sidewinder
I've had it for years, and it's still great. Very cheap too.

When you're on foot, you turn with the mouse. On wheels, you use the keys to turn, and use the mouse to shoot/brake.

If that's the case, then there's pretty much no way you'll be able to enjoy GTA3 on your PC.

However, for $140-$30 MIR you can get a GeForce3 Ti200 which would run pretty well.

But it could have been dropped for any of the reasons I mentioned above. I'm a programmer by trade, and I've had too many experiences where someone in marketing promised something to the press or important clients that sounds very easy to impliment, but in reality requires a complete reworking of the code.

Marketing doesn't want to admit that something they promised won't get delivered, so they continue to mention it until the last minute, hoping that the programmers will somehow pull a miracle out of their ass and deliever. I've told marketing people for six straight months that some important feature would not be implimented and they needed to prepare the client for the fact that were weren't adding that fuctionality in this release, or very likely any future releases. Still, at the end of six months, they said "but you've had six months to work on this! What are we going to tell our clients?"

This site has a pretty good look at multi-player enhancement for GTA3 from a programmer's point of view. Could it be done? Sure. However, some fundamental points of how the game works and renders it's environments and how the game is actually played would have to be drastically changed. Depending on how this code was originally written, this could be fairly easy or nearly impossible.

My guess is that the program was written as a single-player environment, and adding multi-player required large portions of the game engine and game logic to be re-written. The developers probably wanted to deliver it, and marketing probably promised it because they weren't told "no" because it was something everyone wanted. In the end, there simply wasn't enough time to port the game, re-write the engine and game logic, and deliever the other PC enhancements. Something had to give, and given the massive undertaking of multiplayer, that was what got dropped.

I seriously doubt they were weeks away from multiplayer and decided to roll the software out anyway. When something that requires that much work gets dropped, either it was never going to be implimented in the first place or the implimentation was so flawed that fixing it would cause production problems more commonly associated with Diakatana.

What's the obsession with multiplayer? It just doesn't do much for me...

Something else I just read. In this interview, one of the developers talks about multiplayer.
In another interview the same guy says:
Despite what you may have heard, it appears that multiplayer was never going to be developed for the PC port. Notice he says that creating a multiplayer experience true to GTA3 will take a long time. Multiplayer isn't something you can just easily tack onto the existing framework.

If you are looking for a good gamepad for the PC check out the Logitech Wingman RumblePad Linky . Its not to pricy for what you get...

Also i'm an avid FPS player, so i'm using the keyboard and mouse to play GTA3...

Anyone have any hints, tricks and tips? I read the latest PC Gamer and it has tons.
Like how to pick up hookers to up your health. Jumping cars on ramps for bonus money. How to find the airplane, tank etc etc...

EDIT: I'm running the game on a P3 933, 512MB Ram, with a GF2 GTS 32MB DDR. It runs ok at 1024x768 at 16 bit color depth. It gets pretty choppy when it rains Time to upgrade soon!

Do any of you guys buy that explanation? I get what he's saying, but do you really think they jettisoned multiplayer - a feature that everyone wants and which is practically expected on every PC game - just because it didn't fit into some esoteric concept of unified style?

Perhaps he's just being diplomatic and obmitting other less noble-sounding reasons.

As a programmer, I completely buy it. If the game was not designed from the ground-up to be multiplayer (and it sounds like it was not), it could be downright impossible to impliment.

It's a common thing that looks easy on the surface, but can be very hard once you actually have to write the code. Considering how big multiplayer is (and how many game they would sell having it vs not having it), I doubt they just threw it out on a lark.

All of the cars and pedestrians are dynamically generated on the fly. You'll also notice that the game holds no information about the environment outside of your immediate locale, with the exception of some very unique objects, like weapons and the tanks. Even then, tanks do occaisionally disappear. To keep multiplayer, you'd have to redesign the game logic to dynamically generate the cars at run-time, and the environment would be relatively static (as compared to the way it is now), with limited respawing, and you'd have to maintain the state of the "world" across all three cities and any players currently in the game. This is a massive redesign of the way the original game works. That's just one small portion of the whole game.

I think the "deathmatch" argument was a good excuse for them to use, easy to explain and easy to understand, rather than trying to explain why things that seem easy on the surface can be hard to do once you start trying to do them.

Also, all the rumors about multiplayer were just that, rumors. Rockstar never mentioned that GTA3 for the PC would be multiplayer, people just assumed that. It's not like a week before launch they ripped out all the multiplayer code.

You've never played games on your computer? They're so much better graphically and gameplay wise (when it comes to FPS's anyhow) than any console. At least IMHO it is...I haven't had a console since the N64, I have played games on the computer since. I will not go back to a console...

MP3 radio station
it also had a widescreen option in the settings, haven't checked that out yet

runs great on my P3 500 with a geforce 2 Ti at 1024x768
I use mouse and keyboard on foot
joystick for driving
might get a game pad if I can find one that is close to a PS2 one in style and use that for on foot and driving

anyone tried the widescreen setting in the display options?

This is on sale this week at CompUSA for $34.99 and you get a free Rockstar hat.

I'm having problems running GTA3. It gets awful choppy. I'm running an Athlon XP 1600+, 512mb ram, Radeon 8500 64mb. I've updated my video drivers and I'm going to update my sound drivers for the Audigy as well. Is anyone else having any problems? Is there something in the setting I should tweek? I'm only running the resolution at 800x600 16bit color.

The widescreen setting makes it output an unsqueezed "anamorphic" image. It'd be cool if you had a widescreen digital flat panel or were playing on a widescreen TV. Since (I don't think you can) you can't select a 16:9 resolution, the widescreen setting is pretty pointless on a regular monitor.

FYI, Ign.com did a head-to-head for GTA3 on PS2 vs. PC. Basically, PS2 won for driving control and PC won for everything else provided that it was a top of the line PC.

What's odd is that they didn't mention in the control section that with a new adaptor, you can use the Dual Shock on your PC. I suppose on the PC you could go back a forth, using the settings, from using the keyboard & mouse for on foot and the dual shock for in vehicle, which would be the best of both worlds.


I'm in the same boat as the guy with the Gamecube and the outdated computer except that I'm tempted to buy a PS2 and update my computer.

Do you know of a website where I can buy one of these adapters. I would love to be able to play the game on my computer with the Dual Shock.

I personally am not having any difficulty with the keyboard/mouse controls on this game. I'm used to these controls for all the games I play and I don't have a PS1 or 2. But I guess it's all a matter of personal taste.

Has anyone been able to fly the airplane at the airport for more than a few seconds? Is it possible to actually fly it around the city and cause mayhem that way?

Chris