Grand Theft Auto Series

Grand Theft Auto
Grand Theft Auto (abbreviated as GTA) is a 1997 action-adventure open world video game created by games developer DMA Design (now Rockstar North) and published by BMG Interactive. The game allows the player to take on the role of a criminal who can roam freely around a big city. Various missions are set for completion, such as bank robberies, assassinations, and other crimes. It is the first in the Grand Theft Auto series that has thus far spanned ten standalone games and three expansion packs. The game was originally intended to be named "Race N Chase" [3]  and was nearly cancelled due to production issues. [4]  An original design document[5]  dated 22 March 1995 was posted online by Mike Dailly. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[6] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[7] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[8] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> GTA was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto 2<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and both games were made available as a free download by Rockstar Games<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> on their website in 2004. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[9] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> The game was made available on Steam<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> on 4 January 2008. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[10]

Gameplay
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto is made up of a series of levels, each set in one of the three main cities. In each level, the player's ultimate objective is to reach a target number of points, which is typically achieved by performing tasks for the city's local crime syndicate. Each level has its own unique set of tasks. Successful completion of a mission rewards the player with points and opens the opportunity to attempt harder missions for higher rewards, while failure awards few points and may permanently seal off opportunities for more tasks. Completing missions also increases the player's "multiplier", which increases the points the player gets for doing other tasks.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">If the player is arrested then their multiplier is halved. If the player is hospitalised then they lose a life. In both cases the player loses their current equipment. If the player is hospitalised too many times they lose and must restart the level from scratch.

[edit] Freedom
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The player is free to do whatever he or she wants. The player can gain points by causing death and destruction amid the traffic in the city, or steal and sell cars for profit. To get to the large target money required to complete a level, players will usually opt to complete at least some missions to build up their multiplier. Some criminal acts have an inherent multiplier; for example, using a police car for running over people doubles the number of points received.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Even during missions there is still some freedom as most of the time the player is free to choose the route to take, but the destination is usually fixed. It is this level of freedom which set Grand Theft Auto apart from other action based computer games at the time.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-manual-techdets_1-1" style="line-height:1em;">[2] <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;">[11] Some places in the game have to be unlocked by completing missions.

[edit] Setting
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">These three cities would later become the settings used in the Grand Theft Auto III and IV games to follow, but not in the Grand Theft Auto: London mission packs nor in Grand Theft Auto 2.Grand Theft Auto takes place in three primary settings, all of which are modelled on real locales: Liberty City which is based on New York City, Vice Citybased on Miami, and San Andreas based on San Francisco (a later title, Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, would re-model San Andreas into multiple sectors of its own inspired by regions of California and Nevada). All three suffer from rampant crime and corruption, with constant feuding between the local crime syndicates, random acts of violence from street gangs, organised thievery and murder, and corrupt city officials and police officers.

[edit] Characters
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Players are able to choose to play as eight characters in the game, four male and four female: Travis, Katie, Nikki, Divine, Bubba, Troy, Kivlov, and Ulrika (the PlayStation version only lets players choose the four male characters, however). In actual gameplay, there is no real difference, since the characters all wear exactly the same yellow sweater, although they do wear different coloured trousers and hair colours to each other and have the correct skin colours. You may also name your character, which, with the correct name, acts like a cheat code and alters gameplay.

Grand Theft Auto 2
Grand Theft Auto 2<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> (abbreviated as GTA2<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">) is a video game<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> that was released worldwide on October 25, 1999, by developer DMA Design<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> (now Rockstar North), initially for the Windows<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> operating system and the PlayStation<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> console. The game was later ported to the Dreamcast<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> console and the Game Boy Color<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. It is the sequel to 1997's Grand Theft Auto<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The PC and Dreamcast versions of GTA2<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> are both rated M by the ESRB<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The language and violence were toned down for the PlayStation and Game Boy Color versions which received a T rating. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-0" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[1] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Rockstar now offers the PC version as registerware<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> for free download at their website with free subscription to their mailing list. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[2] <span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> GTA2<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> was preceded by the original Grand Theft Auto<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> and ultimately succeeded by Grand Theft Auto III<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;">. The game was made available on Steam<span style="color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;line-height:19px;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> on January 4, 2008. <sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2" style="line-height:1em;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">[3]

Setting
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">GTA 2 is set in an unspecified time in a retrofuturistic metropolis referred to only as "Anywhere, USA",<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-rockstargames.com_3-0" style="line-height:1em;">[4] but the game's manual and website uses the phrase "three weeks into the future";<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1em;">[5] fictional journal entries on the GTA2 website suggest the year to be 2013.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-rockstargames.com_3-1" style="line-height:1em;">[4] Radio host Johnny Riccaro mentions in the game that "the millennium's coming," which would set the game shortly before 2000.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The City is split into three levels, or "districts." The first level, Downtown, is a hub of business activity as well as the site of a large mental institution and university. The second area, the Residential District, contains the city's prison, a trailer park with an Elvis-themed bar dubbed "Disgracelands", a shopping mall, and a giant hydroelectric power plant. The third and final area is the Industrial District; it holds a large seaport, a meat packing plant, a Nuclear Power Plant and a Krishna temple.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">There are a total of seven criminal gangs in the game: the Zaibatsu, a corrupt corporation, is present in all three areas. The Downtown area is also home to the Loonies, a gang of mentally ill people who have taken over the city asylum, and the Yakuza. In the Residential area, the gangs include SRS Scientists and the Rednecks, who live in a trailer park and drive around in pickups with largeConfederate flags. The Industrial area contains the Russian Mafia and the Hare Krishna. Each gang has their own special characteristics, car, and behavior.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The game can be played in two modes (only in the PC version), noon or dusk. On the noon setting the lighting is bright making the game clear to see (also lowering the graphics overhead on low-end hardware because of the fewer lighting effects). On the dusk setting the game is darker, with multiple dynamic lights from explosions and car headlights. The Dreamcast version of the game can only be played in the dusk setting. The PlayStation version of the game can only be played in the noon setting. This feature was expanded further in Grand Theft Auto III where the daylight changes with the time of day in the game.

Gangs
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto 2 includes a pool of seven gangs, with each of the city's three levels containing only a group of three gangs.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;">[7] The Zaibatsu Corporation gang is included in every level, with the remaining two different gangs. The gangs are as followed:


 * Zaibatsu Corporation (symbol: yellow 'Z') - They appear in all of the areas and are a seemingly legitimate corporation who manufacture everything from cars and weapons to medication, but beneath the surface they are involved heavily in narcotics, contract-killing and shadowy politics. Their car, called a Z-Type, is the second fastest gang car available. The Zaibatsu is apparently led by at least three leaders, or at least have three executives through whom they organize their criminal activities: Trey Welsh in the Commercial District, Red Valdez in the Residential District, and Uno Carb in the Industrial District. The executives refer to the player as 'Gecko'. Their gang color is black. In all districts, their territories can be distinguished by large red 'Z' banners hanging from buildings bearing their gang symbol. Their name comes from zaibatsu, the Japanese word for conglomerate.
 * Loonies (symbol: winking smiley face) - They appear only in first area and they are quite crazy and very violent since all their missions are always involved in killing someone, destroying a car or create massive explosions. Their gang car, the Dementia, is a green microcar with their mark painted on top and is probably named after their apparent insanity. Their small section of turf is in the vicinity of the city's mental institution, named "SunnySide" after the Mental Institution in Montrose, Scotland, near Dundee, where the game was originally created. Their boss is Elmo. Elmo refers to the player as 'Jumbo'. They use surgical green as their gang color.
 * The Yakuza (symbol: blue yen '¥') - They also appear only in the first area. They make drugs at the so-called J-Lab, which is always at risk because of the near-continuous attacks perpetrated by the Loonies. Their boss is Johnny Zoo. Johnny Zoo refers to the player as 'Kosai'. Deep blue is their gang color. Their gang car is a Y-Type (also known as the Miara), not to be confused with the Zaibatsu Z-Type. Their headquarters is near the docks in the Commercial District, as well as J-Lab and various buildings owned by them near the docks.
 * SRS Scientists (symbol: a golden shield) - They are headquartered in the Residential District, and are a clandestine research institute involved in slightly questionable practices. Their business is advanced weapon development along with cloning, genetic engineering and robotics. Their leader, Dr. LaBrat, is Icelandic, and all of their 'street' members appear to be genetically engineered clone soldiers. LaBrat refers to the player as 'THC-303'. Their gang car is called a Meteor and is the fastest gang car available. Their 'turf' is the Scientist Research Center, a very compact, sterile, oppressive-looking campus with a profusion of complex equipment and machinery. Their gang color is pale gold.
 * Rednecks (symbol: the Confederate flag) - Led by Billy Bob Bean, they appear in the second area, are rabid fans of Elvis Presley, and specialize in explosives and vehicles. Their business is the brewing, running and selling of moonshine. Their car is a wide pick-up truck. The Rednecks' turf is the trailer park at the northwest of the Residential Area. Their gang color is light blue. Billy Bob Bean refers to the player as 'Rooster'.
 * Russian Mafia (symbol: a red star) - They appear in the third area and specialize in contract-killing and gun running. Their car is the Bulwark, a station wagon, which is the most durable gang car in the game (capable of surviving one direct hit from a rocket propelled grenade, hand grenade or Molotov cocktail, if the car is in perfect condition). They can be seen in the seaport areas. Jerkov is the name of their boss. Jerkov refers to the player as 'Comrade'. They use red as a gang color.
 * Hare Krishna (symbol: an orange flower) - They appear in the third area and their car, the Karma Bus, is a big love bus with flowers painted on its roof. The Krishna's turf is around their temple. Their boss' name is Sunbeam. Sunbeam refers to the player as 'Grasshopper'. They use orange as a gang color, and they are always doing conversions. The GTA2 manual states that their criminality is entirely based around stealing and destroying technology, due to the fact that they are tired of being run over by cars with nothing but tambourines to defend themselves (a reference to the first Grand Theft Auto, where the player was rewarded for running them down).

Grand Theft Auto 3
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto III is a 2001 open world action-adventure computer and video game developed by DMA Design (now Rockstar North) in the United Kingdom, and published by Rockstar Games. It is the first 3D title in the Grand Theft Auto series. It was released in October 2001 for the PlayStation 2, May 2002 for Microsoft Windows, in November 2003 for the Xbox and in November 2010 for Mac OS X. It was made available on Steam on January 4, 2008<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;">[6] and on the Mac App Store on August 18, 2011. The game was released for iOS and Android mobile devices on December 15, 2011. The game is preceded by Grand Theft Auto 2 and succeeded by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">GTA III is set in modern Liberty City, a fictional metropolitan city based on New York City. The game follows the story of a criminal named Claude<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Claude_6-0" style="line-height:1em;">[a] who was betrayed by his girlfriend in a bank heist and is required to work his way up the crime ladder of the city before confronting her. GTA III is composed of elements from driving games and third-person shooters.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The game's concept and gameplay, coupled with the use of a 3D game engine for the first time in the series, contributed to Grand Theft Auto IIIs positive reception upon its release; it became 2001's top selling video game<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-2001salerank_7-0" style="line-height:1em;">[7] and is cited as a landmark in video games for its far-reaching influence within the industry.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gamepro_8-0" style="line-height:1em;">[8] GTA IIIs success was a significant factor in the series' subsequent popularity; as of 2008, five GTA prequels set before events in GTA III have been released, particularly Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories which revisits GTA III's setting just three years prior. GTA III's violent and sexual content has also been the source of public concern and controversy. According to Metacritic, GTA III and Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 3 both hold an average critic score of 97 out of 100, making them the highest-rated PlayStation 2 games of all time.

[edit] Setting
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto III takes place in Liberty City, a city on the East Coast of America, which is loosely based on New York City, but also incorporates elements of other American cities.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;">[9] GTA III's Liberty City has also been used for Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories, Grand Theft Auto Advance and Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (only for one mission in San Andreas), and is one of four renditions of "Liberty Cities" featured throughout the series; the other three are present in Grand Theft Auto (GTA1), Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars, and Grand Theft Auto IV (GTA IV). GTAIII is set around the autumn of 2001, when the game was first released; this was indicated by the Liberty Tree website, which included plot points that connect to events in the beginning of the game in its last existing monthly entry, dated October 18, 2001. The player progresses from the east (Portland), to the west (Shoreside Vale) during the game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gta3_timeline_10-0" style="line-height:1em;">[10]

[edit] Story
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Claude (whose name is not revealed until Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas)<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Claude_6-1" style="line-height:1em;">[a] has robbed the Liberty City Bank with his girlfriend, Catalina, and a male accomplice. While running from the scene, Catalina shoots him and leaves him to die in an alley;<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;">[11] the accomplice is also seen lying nearby. Claude survives but has been arrested and subsequently found guilty and sentenced to jail. While he is being transferred, an attack on the police convoy aimed at kidnapping an unrelated prisoner sets him free.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-12" style="line-height:1em;">[12]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">With the help of a fellow escaped prisoner (later revealed as 8-Ball), Claude then takes on work as a local thug<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-13" style="line-height:1em;">[13] and rises in power as he works for multiple rival gangs, a corrupt police officer<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-14" style="line-height:1em;">[14] and a media mogul. In the process, Maria, the wife of a local Mafia boss, begins to take a liking to him.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-15" style="line-height:1em;">[15] The Mafia leader, Salvatore, grows suspicious and leads him to a death trap; but Maria saves him, remaining close to him throughout the storyline.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-16" style="line-height:1em;">[16] He later goes to work for others, including the Liberty City Yakuza<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-17" style="line-height:1em;">[17] and media mogul Donald Love. Eventually, his exploits attract the attention of Catalina, now affiliated with The Colombian Cartel, resulting in the kidnapping of Maria.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-18" style="line-height:1em;">[18] This gives him the opportunity to face Catalina once more, which results in a firefight and Catalina's death. Claude and Maria leave the area.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19" style="line-height:1em;">[19] During the end credits, it is implied that Claude kills Maria because she won't stop complaining.

Characters
Main article: List of characters in Grand Theft Auto III <p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In addition to the exploits of Claude, the storyline, while not as integral to the game as its successors, depicts Claude's development of several non-player individuals and bosses, through cut scenesbefore the start of each mission, as the player progresses through the game. Most of the characters encountered revolve around corruption, crime and a fictional drug called "SPANK," which is a growing menace in the city.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">With the success of GTA III and its sequels, several of these characters or their relatives reappear in future GTA titles with major or minor roles, and their personal background expanded, particularly Leone family DonSalvatore Leone, media mogul Donald Love, Maria, Phil, the One-Armed Bandit, 8-Ball, Catalina and Toni Cipriani.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The voice cast for the game's characters features several established celebrities. Notable voice actors include: Frank Vincent, Michael Madsen, Michael Rapaport, Joe Pantoliano, Debi Mazar, Kyle MacLachlan, Robert Loggia, Lazlow Jones and late rapper Guru.

Grand Theft Auto 4
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto IV is a 2008 open world action-adventure video game published by Rockstar Games, and developed by UK game developer Rockstar North. It has been released for the PlayStation 3and Xbox 360 video game consoles, and for the Windows operating system. The game involves a separate timeline and world than its predecessors<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed], starting the fourth "era" in the Grand Theft Auto series, and is set in fictional Liberty City, based heavily on modern day New York City.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;">[a] The game follows Niko Bellic, a veteran of an unnamed war in Eastern Europe, who comes to the United States in search of the American Dream, but quickly becomes entangled in a world of gangs, crime, and corruption. Like other games in the series, GTA IV is composed of elements from driving games and third-person shooters, and features open world gameplay, in which players can interact with the game world at their leisure. Grand Theft Auto IV also features several online multiplayermodes.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Two expansion packs have been developed for the game, originally released as downloadable content for the Xbox 360 version throughout 2009. Both The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tonyfeature new plots that are interconnected with the main GTA IV storyline, and follow new protagonists. The two episodes have been released together for all platforms as a stand-alone game calledGrand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City. A bundle that contained both the original GTA IV game and the Episodes was also released, titled Grand Theft Auto IV: The Complete Edition. The 2009handheld game Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars revisited the Liberty City of GTA IV.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">As the first game of the critically acclaimed series to appear on seventh generation consoles, Grand Theft Auto IV was widely anticipated. A major commercial and critical success, it broke industry records with sales of around 3.6 million units on its first day of release and grossing more than $500 million in revenue in the first week, selling an estimated 6 million units worldwide.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1st_week_mtv_10-0" style="line-height:1em;">[10] As of September 2011, the game had shipped over 22 million copies.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-Sales_22M_11-0" style="line-height:1em;">[11] Grand Theft Auto IV won numerous awards from both gaming and mainstream press, including several recognitions as Game of the Year, and is in the highest ranks on several professional game critic review-aggregating websites. In late 2011, Rockstar Games announced that Grand Theft Auto V was in full development.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gtav_announcement_12-0" style="line-height:1em;">[12] On 2 November 2011 after much speculation a trailer of Grand Theft Auto V was released.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gtav_trailer_release_13-0" style="line-height:1em;">[13]

[edit] Plot
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto IV follows the story of Niko Bellic, a thirty-year-old veteran of an unnamed war in Eastern Europe, who is haunted by the betrayal of his 15 man army unit. Ten years later, after a smuggling run goes bad due to a betrayal from a partner, Niko leaves Eastern Europe<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-egmmarch_30-0" style="line-height:1em;">[30] to escape the anger of his employer, Ray Bulgarin. Under persuasion from his cousin Roman, Niko comes to Liberty City to pursue the American Dream as well as Florian Cravic, the man he believes to be the traitor. After his arrival, however, Niko quickly learns that Roman's tales of riches and luxury were lies concealing struggles with gambling debts and loansharks.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Niko defends Roman from his loansharks several times, eventually killing Vlad Glebov, Roman's Russian loanshark, for having sex with Roman's girlfriend Mallorie. Niko also begins dating a girl named Michelle and befriends Jamaican drug and arms dealer "Little" Jacob Hughes and steroid junkie chop shop owner Bruce "Brucie" Kibbutz.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">After Vlad's murder, Niko and Roman are kidnapped by members of the Liberty City Bratva, on order of Mikhail Faustin and his associate, Dimitri Rascalov. However Faustin is not angry with Niko for killing Vlad, and instead hires him. Niko quickly learns that Faustin is a psychopath when Faustin orders him to kill the son of Kenny Petrović, the most powerful man in the Liberty City Bratva. Dimitri tries to negotiate an agreement, but Petrović demands revenge and Dimitri is forced to have Niko assassinate Faustin. However, when Niko meets with Dimitri to collect on the assassination, Dimitri betrays Niko to his angry former employer Ray Bulgarin. Niko manages to fight his way through the ambush but Dimitri and Bulgarin escape.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Immediately afterwards Niko and Roman are forced to escape to Bohan when their apartment and taxi company are destroyed in arson attacks by Dimitri's men. To make ends meet Niko takes jobs for former gangbanger Manny Escuela, prominent drug dealer Elizabeta Torres, Irish mobster Packie McReary, and Algonquin drug dealer Playboy X. Niko also becomes an errand boy for both Mafia Capo Ray Boccino and crooked Deputy Police Commissioner Francis McReary.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">However, things go poorly in Bohan: one of the drug deals that Niko is working for Elizabeta turns out to be a sting and another is busted. Niko's current girlfriend Michelle then reveals that she works for a government agency and entraps Niko into working for Michelle's agency, known only by its cover: United Liberty Paper. Niko kills several known or suspected terrorists for the agency in exchange for the promise of assistance in finding the man who betrayed Niko's unit. The Liberty City Police Department begin to close in on Elizabeta, who kills Manny Escuela when he attempts a citizens arrest. Soon afterwards Elizabeta is arrested and, according to Weazel News, sentenced to 300 years imprisonment.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Niko assists Ray Boccino in a conflict diamond deal with Jewish Mafia Capo and diamond dealer Isaac Roth, which goes badly and leads to the diamonds being stolen by Luis Lopez and the money being stolen byJohnny Klebitz. In retaliation Boccino sends Niko to kill Roth and Johnny's friend Jim Fitzgerald.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In exchange for Niko's help, Boccino locates Florian Cravic, the man that Niko has been searching for. But when Niko confronts Cravic he discovers that Florian has changed his name to Bernie Crane and become an effeminate homosexual. Niko immediately determines that Bernie is not the person responsible for his unit's betrayal, leaving him one remaining suspect: Darko Brevic.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Niko also works for both Playboy X and Playboy's mentor Dwayne Forge. After Niko kills Playboy's business partners as a favour for Forge, the relationship between Playboy and Forge becomes so poisonous that each asks Niko to kill the other, leaving Niko a choice between the two.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">While in Algonquin Niko develops a strong connection with the McReary family, including Packie's older brothers Gerald and Derrick, and their sister Kate, with whom he begins a non-sexual relationship. Together Niko, Packie, and Derrick, along with "Saint" Michael Keane, heist the Bank of Liberty in Algonquin. However, the robbery does not go smoothly; Michael is killed and the others are forced to shoot their way out past the police to escape. After the robbery Niko works with Gerry McReary to destroy the relationship between the Ancelotti Crime Family and their Albanian muscle-men.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Meanwhile Derrick spends most of his share on drugs and alcohol, and sends Niko to eliminate former partners he believes are informing on him. Soon Francis McReary becomes concerned that Derrick's drug behaviour could ruin his plans to become police commissioner, and tells Niko to kill Derrick. Soon after Derrick asks Niko to kill Francis first giving Niko a choice between the two. In either case Niko is invited to the McReary funeral and informed that Gerry has been arrested.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">After his incarceration, Gerry contacts Niko and asks him to help in the kidnapping of Gracie, the daughter of the Don of the Ancelloti Family, in exchange for a ransom of the "cursed" conflict diamonds stolen by Luis Lopez. However after exchanging Grace to Gay Tony for the diamonds, Niko and Packie are surprised by Ray Bulgarin, who claims the diamonds are his. In the ensuing gunfight the diamonds are thrown into a passing dumptruck and lost.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Niko also does work for the Pegorino family in Alderney, mainly with Associate Phil Bell, stealing heroin, and later for Don Jimmy Pegorino. This leads to a war between the Pegorinos, Pavanos, and Ancellottis. Eventually, after working for Pegorino several times, Niko is sent to kill Ray Boccino because Pegorino is convinced Boccino is an informant.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Toward the end of the story, United Liberty Paper locates Darko Brevic and brings him to Liberty City as a final reward. Niko confronts Darko, who is now a drug-addicted wreck, and learns that Darko betrayed the group for $1,000. The player is then left with the option of either executing or sparing Darko. Having dealt with his past Niko is summoned by Pegorino, who demands one final favour: to help with an extremely lucrative deal on the heroin in collusion with Dimitri Rascalov.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gtaiv_29-1" style="line-height:1em;">[29]

[edit] Finale
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The story features two possible endings depending on the choice made by the player at this point in the game: to strike a Deal with Dimitri or exact Revenge on him. In both endings Niko sees Pegorino as an enemy for allying so closely with Dimitri, and both antagonists are killed. The major difference in each ending is that either Roman Bellic in Deal or Kate McReary in Revenge dies.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">If the player chooses to go through with the Deal, Niko meets Phil Bell to retrieve the money once Dimitri delivers the heroin to another location. However Dimitri takes the heroin for himself instead. Niko and Phil are forced to fight to escape, but retrieve the drug money regardless. Kate McReary, who was against making the deal, is disappointed with Niko and refuses to attend Roman and Mallorie's wedding. At the wedding an assassin sent by Dimitri kills Roman with a stray bullet as Niko disarms and kills him. A devastated and vengeful Niko follows some henchmen to where Dimitri and Pegorino are hiding. There he witnesses Dimitri betray and kill Pegorino out of greed before escaping in a chopper. Niko chases Dimitri to Happiness Island, where Niko kills Dimitri in the shadow of the Statue of Happiness. The story ends with Niko concerned for the well-being of his soul. After the end credits, Mallorie reveals to Niko in a phone call that she is pregnant with Roman's child.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">If the player chooses to exact Revenge, Niko ambushes Dimitri on the cargo ship Platypus and executes him. In the aftermath, Roman and Mallorie's wedding takes place and Jimmy Pegorino, furious after Niko's betrayal, commits a drive-by shootingoutside the church killing Kate McReary. However, now that Pegorino has lost his ally Dimitri and angered both Niko (and thereby his many friends) and the five mafia families, the entire underworld of Liberty City wants him dead and he goes into hiding. Niko follows some henchmen to Pegorino's location where Niko attempts to kill him, but Pegorino escapes. Niko chases and executes Pegorino in the shadow of the Statue of Happiness. After the end credits, Roman reveals to Niko in a phone call that he and Mallorie are expecting a child and if it is a girl, they will name her Kate.

[edit] Setting
Main article: Liberty City (Grand Theft Auto) <p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto IV takes place in a redesigned version of Liberty City consisting of four boroughs, based on four of the boroughs of New York City. Broker is the equivalent of Brooklyn; Queens is Dukes;Bronx is Bohan and Manhattan is Algonquin. Adjacent to the city is the independent state of Alderney, based on Northern New Jersey and named after the Channel Island of the same name. The developers omitted a Staten Island-esque area, believing that gameplay based in such an area would not be fun.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-OPM_UK_June_2007_32-0" style="line-height:1em;">[32] There are two minor islands present: Charge Island (based loosely on Randall's Island), and Colony Island (based on Roosevelt Island). Initially, the city's bridges are locked down due to a terrorist threat, and the player is constantly pursued by police if they are crossed, but eventually the blockades are lifted and the player is able to cross the Broker, Algonquin and Northwood Heights bridges and explore the rest of the city. The "Francis International Airport" is based on several New York City-area airports, most notably LaGuardia and JFK.

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Main Characters

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;"> Main article: List of characters in Grand Theft Auto IV

<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The characters that appear in Grand Theft Auto IV are diverse and relative to the respective boroughs of Liberty City they are based in; belonging to various gangs and ethnic groups. The player controlsNiko Bellic, a veteran of the Yugoslav Wars.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-egmmarch_30-1" style="line-height:1em;">[30] According to Dan Houser, virtually none of the characters from the previous games would return, as "most of the characters we liked were dead,"<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-OPM_UK_June_2007_32-1" style="line-height:1em;">[32] further evidenced by in-game graffiti bidding farewell to these characters.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gtaiv_29-2">[29] Unlike previous games in the series, the voice actors of Grand Theft Auto IV do not include notable and high-profile celebrities, instead opting for lesser known actors, except for such as Michael Hollick, Jason Zumwalt, Timothy Adams and Coolie Ranx. Katt Williams and Ricky Gervais, one of the more famous cameos that appear, have their likenesses and comedy depicted in an in-game comedy club.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-gtaiv_29-3" style="line-height:1em;">[29]

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is a 2002 open world action-adventure video game developed by Rockstar North (formerly DMA Design) in the United Kingdom and published by Rockstar Games. It is the second 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise and sixth original title overall. It debuted in North America on October 1, 2002 for the PlayStation 2 and was later ported to the Xbox, andMicrosoft Windows in 2003. It was made available on Steam on January 4, 2008, and on the Mac App Store on August 25, 2011.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-1" style="line-height:1em;">[2] Vice City was preceded by Grand Theft Auto III and followed byGrand Theft Auto: San Andreas.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Vice City draws much of its inspiration from 1980s American culture. Set in 1986 in Vice City, a fictional city modeled after Miami, the story revolves around psychotic Mafia hitman Tommy Vercetti, who was recently released from prison. After being involved in a drug deal gone wrong, Tommy seeks out those responsible while building a criminal empire and seizing power from other criminal organizations in the city. The game uses a tweaked version of the game engine used in Grand Theft Auto III and similarly presents a huge cityscape, fully populated with buildings, vehicles, and people. Like other games in the series, Vice City has elements from driving games and third-person shooters, and features "open-world" gameplay that gives the player more control over their playing experience.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Upon its release, Vice City became the best-selling video game of 2002. In July 2006, Vice City was the best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time. Vice City also appeared on Japanese magazineFamitsu ' s readers' list of the favorite 100 videogames of 2006, the only fully Western title on the list.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-top_100_in_Japan_2-0" style="line-height:1em;">[3] Following this success, Vice City saw releases in Europe, Australia and Japan, as well as a release for the PC. Rockstar Vienna also packaged the game with its predecessor, Grand Theft Auto III, and sold it as Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack for the Xbox. Vice City's setting is also revisited in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories, which serves as a prequel to events in Vice City.

Plot
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Tommy Vercetti, a member of the Liberty City mafia, has been just released from prison in 1986 after serving only 15 years for killing eleven men.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-3" style="line-height:1em;">[4] Tommy's old boss, Sonny Forelli, fears that Tommy's presence in Liberty City will heighten tensions and bring unwanted attention to his organization's criminal activities.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-4" style="line-height:1em;">[5] To prevent this, Sonny ostensibly promotes Tommy and sends him to Vice Cityunder the guardianship of Mafia lawyer Ken Rosenberg to act as their buyer for a series of cocaine deals.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-5" style="line-height:1em;">[6] During Tommy's deal with the Vance Crime Family at the docks, an ambush by an unknown party results in the death of Tommy's bodyguards and the cocaine dealer, Victor Vance (the main character of Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories). Tommy narrowly escapes with his life and loses both Forelli's money and the cocaine.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-6" style="line-height:1em;">[7]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">When Tommy informs Sonny of the ambush Sonny loses his temper and threatens Tommy with the consequences of attempting to cheat the Mafia. Tommy promises to retrieve the money and the cocaine and kill whoever was responsible for the ambush.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-7" style="line-height:1em;">[8] Towards this end, Tommy meets up again with Ken Rosenberg, who leads Tommy to mid-level drug dealer Juan Garcia Cortez. Cortez expresses regret about Tommy's bad deal and promises that his own lines of inquiry are being made. Tommy also meets Cortez's daughter Mercedes, who becomes Tommy's confidant shortly thereafter.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">While Tommy waits for the outcome of Cortez's investigation he meets British record producer Kent Paul, real estate mogul Avery Carrington and local free-lance criminal Lance Vance.,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-8" style="line-height:1em;">[9] the brother and business partner of the dealer who was killed in the ambush, who is also seeking revenge.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-9" style="line-height:1em;">[10]

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">As time passes, Tommy befriends Cortez and begins to do regular work for him as an errand boy and hitman. On one such job Tommy provides protection for drug lord Ricardo Diaz during a deal which is ambushed by a gang of Haitians. Tommy saves Diaz's life, leading Diaz to begin hiring Tommy for his own agenda. Tommy takes this work because it pays well, in spite of his distaste for Diaz's character.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Tommy learns from Cortez that Cortez's own lieutenant, Gonzalez, was partially responsible for the ambush on Tommy's cocaine deal, and Cortez asks Tommy to kill Gonzalez as a favor. Afterwards Cortez lays suspicion for the ambush on Diaz. Tommy initially continues the status quo to prepare for his attack, but his hand is forced when Lance attempts to take revenge by himself and fails, forcing Tommy to rush across the city and rescue him. With the die cast, the two move quickly to raid Diaz's mansion and execute Diaz. With Diaz dead, and Colonel Cortez fleeing the country to escape arrest, the established drug empires in Vice City quickly crumble and Tommy and Lance personally take over, becoming Vice City's cocaine kingpins.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Tommy becomes the head of his own organization, the Vercetti crime family, and the more powerful and rich Tommy becomes, the more Lance begins to exhibit paranoid and sociopathic behaviors, to the point that he begins to abuse his own bodyguards and constantly calls Tommy in states of hysteria.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Tommy makes alliance with Umberto Robina's Cubans against Auntie Poulet's Haitians, even though he is at the same time hypnotized by Poulet's voodoo into helping the Haitians. However after Tommy and Poulet part ways Tommy and the Cubans sneak explosives into the Haitian drug factory disguised in Haitian gang cars and blow it up, effectively ending the conflict.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">As his drug business expands, Tommy buys assets in nearly bankrupt companies such as a car lot, a cab depot, a strip club, a night club, a boathouse, a print shop for counterfeit money, an ice-cream company, and an adult film company, all of which he turns back into competitive businesses. He also becomes a personal bodyguard to a rock band, an honorary member of a biker gang, and pulls off a major bank heist.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Eventually the Forelli family discovers that Tommy has taken over much of the action in Vice City without sending a cut to Sonny as required. Sonny sends collectors to force money out of Tommy's assets, but Tommy disposes of them. An angered Sonny Forelli arrives in Vice City with a small army of mafiosi, intent on taking their tribute by force. When Sonny and his henchmen arrive at the Vercetti Estate, Tommy attempts to give them their tribute in counterfeit money. However, Lance, resenting Tommy's substantial share of their profits, makes a back-room deal with the Forelli's to topple the Vercetti family, and informs Sonny that the tribute money is counterfeit. In the game's climax, Tommy stands alone as Lance, Sonny, and Sonny's henchmen raid Tommy's Mansion.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Tommy first chases, ridicules, and finally kills Lance then storms downstairs where he faces off with Sonny. During the gunfight, Sonny admits he is the one who set Tommy up fifteen years before, sending him to kill the eleven men who were expecting him. Tommy eventually kills Sonny in the main hall of his estate. With his enemies vanquished, Tommy establishes himself as the undisputed crime kingpin of Vice City.

[edit] Setting
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The game is set in fictional Vice City, which is based on Miami, Florida. The game's look, particularly the clothing and vehicles, reflect (and sometimes parody) its 1980s setting. Many themes are borrowed from the major films Scarface, Carlito's Way and Blow, along with the hit 1980s television series Miami Vice. Vice City also parodies and pays tribute to much of 1980s culture in the cars, music, fashion, landmarks, and characters featured in the game.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Ricardo Diaz's opulent mansion and the climactic battle which takes place in it at the story's end, are very similar to their counterparts in Scarface.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GTAScarface_10-0" style="line-height:1em;">[11] Another reference is the game's overall storyline, as it is highly similar to the film, as is the design of the final mission. There are also more subtle references, such as an apartment hidden within the game with blood on the bathroom walls and a chainsaw (in a nod to the film's "chainsaw torture" scene),<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GTAScarface_10-1" style="line-height:1em;">[11] or the pair of detectives which come chasing Vercetti in a car resembling the Ferrari Testarossa after a three-star wanted level is attained, which look like characters portrayed by Don Johnson and Philip Michael Thomas in Miami Vice.

[edit] Characters
Main article: List of characters in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Vice City features dozens of characters, many appearing only in the cut scenes which describe each mission. The voice-talent includes Ray Liotta as protagonist Tommy Vercetti, Tom Sizemore as Sonny Forelli, Robert Davi as Colonel Juan García Cortez, William Fichtner as Ken Rosenberg, Danny Dyer as Kent Paul, Dennis Hopper as pornography Director Steve Scott, Burt Reynolds as Avery Carrington, Luis Guzmán as Ricardo Diaz, Miami Vice star Philip Michael Thomas as Lance Vance, Danny Trejo as Umberto Robina, Gary Busey as Phil Cassidy, Lee Majors as "Big" Mitch Baker, Fairuza Balk as Mercedes Cortez, and porn actress Jenna Jameson as Candy Suxxx. The voice of the taxi dispatcher is provided by Blondie singer Debbie Harry.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Although the main character is not the same as the one in Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City contains a few characters from GTA III at an earlier point in their lives. Donald Love, a business tycoon in GTA III, makes an appearance as an apprentice to real estate mogul Avery Carrington. The one-armed Phil Cassidy from GTA III appears in Vice City as well, with both arms intact, and one mission actually explains when and how he lost his arm.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Several of GTA III’s radio hosts can also be heard in Vice City: Lazlow, who was the host of Chatterbox, the talk radio station in GTA III, is the DJ for the hard-rock station, V-Rock, in Vice City (he mentioned in passing in GTA III that he used to be a DJ on a rock station). Toni, the burned-out, female disc jockey of Flashback 95.6, the 1980s music radio station in GTA III, also appears as a young, club-hopping DJ in Vice City's pop music station, Flash FM. Finally, Fernando, a self-glorifying procurer of women ("not a pimp... a savior," he claims) who appeared on Lazlow's show in GTA III, runs Emotion 98.3. Also naturist Barry Stark, a caller for Chatterbox in GTA III, appears as a guest on VCPR in Vice City.

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas is a 2004 open world action-adventure video game developed by games developer Rockstar North in the United Kingdom and published by Rockstar Games. It is the third 3D game in the Grand Theft Auto video game franchise, the fifth original console release and eighth game overall. Originally released for the PlayStation 2 in October 2004,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-ps2release_1-1" style="line-height:1em;">[2] the game has since been released for the Xbox and Microsoft Windows (PC) in June 2005, and has received wide acclaim and high sales figures on all three platforms. It is the best-selling game of all time on PlayStation 2. It was made available on Steam on January 4, 2008,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-10" style="line-height:1em;">[11] and on Intel-based Macs running a minimum of Mac OS X 10.6.6 in September 2011. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas was succeeded by Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories and was preceded by Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The game is set in the fictional state of San Andreas, which contains three metropolitan cities: Los Santos, based on Los Angeles, San Fierro, based on San Francisco and Las Venturas, based on Las Vegas. Set in late 1992,<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-11" style="line-height:1em;">[12] San Andreas revolves around the gang member Carl "CJ" Johnson returning home from Liberty City to Los Santos, San Andreas, after learning of his mother's murder. CJ finds his old friends and family in disarray. Over the course of the game, CJ gradually unravels the plot behind his mother's murder.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The high-level plot strongly resembles the LAPD Rampart Scandal and the game even culminates with a spoof of the 1992 Los Angeles riots.

Setting
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas takes place within the state of San Andreas, which is based on sections of California and Nevada. It comprises three major fictional cities: Los Santos corresponds to Los Angeles, San Fierro corresponds to San Francisco, and Las Venturas corresponds to Las Vegas.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-GameSpotReview_13-3" style="line-height:1em;">[14] The environments around these cities are also based on settings within the Southwestern region of the United States. Players can climb the half-mile (800 m) tall Mount Chiliad (based on Mount Diablo), parachute from various peaks and skyscrapers, and visit 12 rural towns and villages located in three counties: Red County, Flint County, and Bone County. Other notable destinations include Sherman Dam (based on the Hoover Dam), a large secret military base called Area 69 (based on Area 51), a large satellite dish (based on a dish from the Very Large Array), and many other geographical features. Interestingly the bridges in San Fierro are based on the Forth road and rail bridges which link Edinburgh, the home of Rockstar North, to Fife even although the road bridge is highly similar to the Golden Gate Bridge. San Andreas is 13.9 square miles (22.3 square kilometers),<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-19" style="line-height:1em;">[20] almost four times as large as Vice City, and five times as large as the GTA III rendition of Liberty City. The three cities are linked by numerous highways, a train system, and air travel. While its predecessors' areas were limited to urban locations, San Andreas includes not only large cities and suburbs, but also the rural areas between them. It also has a fictional version of the Nellis Air Force Base<sup class="Template-Fact" style="line-height:1em;white-space:nowrap;">[citation needed] called ingame the Verdant Meadows Airfield.

Characters
Main article: List of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas characters<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The characters that appear in San Andreas are relatively diverse and relative to the respective cities and locales which each of them based himself in. This allows the game to include a significantly wider array of storylines and settings than in Grand Theft Auto III and Vice City. The player controls Carl "CJ" Johnson, a young African-American gang member who serves as the game's protagonist.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Los Santos stages of the game revolve around the theme of the Grove Street Families gang fighting with the Ballas and the Vagos for territory and respect. East Asian gangs (most notably the localTriads) and an additional Vietnamese gang are evident in the San Fierro leg of the game, while three Mafia families and the Triads who all own their respective casino are more prominently featured in the Las Venturas section of the game.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Like the previous two GTA games, the voice actors of San Andreas include notable celebrities, such as David Cross, Andy Dick, Ron Foster, Samuel L. Jackson, James Woods, Peter Fonda, Charlie Murphy, Frank Vincent, Chris Penn, Danny Dyer, Sara Tanaka, William Fichtner, Wil Wheaton, rappers Ice T, Chuck D, Frost, MC Eiht and The Game and musicians George Clinton, Axl Rose, Sly and Robbie, and Shaun Ryder.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-20" style="line-height:1em;">[21] Young Maylaymakes his debut as the protagonist, Carl.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The Guinness World Records 2009 Gamer's Edition lists it as the videogame with the largest voice cast, with 861 credited voice actors, including 174 actors and 687 additional performers, many of those performers being fans of the series who wanted to appear on the game.<sup class="reference" id="cite_ref-guiness_2009_21-0" style="line-height:1em;">[22]

Plot
<p style="line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">The story begins in 1992 when Carl "CJ" Johnson (Young Maylay) returns to Los Santos to attend his mother's funeral after five years living in Liberty City following his brother Brian’s murder. Upon returning, corruptC.R.A.S.H. police officers Frank Tenpenny (Samuel L. Jackson) and Edward "Eddie" Pulaski (Chris Penn) threaten to frame him for a fellow officer's murder unless he assists them.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Carl returns to his former allies in the Grove Street Families gang, working with his brother Sweet (Faizon Love), and fellow gangsters Ryder (MC Eiht) and Big Smoke (Clifton Powell) to reestablish Grove Street as the predominant gang in Los Santos. Carl is also forced to assist Tenpenny and Pulaski with several jobs, as well as helping his neighbor OG Loc, a wanna-be gangster rapper with no talent, get started with his music career by ruining the career of prominent rapper Madd Dogg (Ice T).

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Shortly before a gang battle, Carl receives a call from his sister Kendl’s boyfriend Cesar Vialpando (Clifton Collins, Jr.), who shows Carl the vehicle involved in his mother’s shooting being escorted by Big Smoke, Ryder, a group of Ballas, and Tenpenny. Carl is too late to save his brother from being ambushed and is arrested and dumped in the San Andreas contryside to assassinate a witness threatening Tenpenny and Pulaski. Meanwhile, Ryder and Big Smoke, now openly in league with the Ballas, take over Los Santos, flooding it with crack cocaine.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Tenpenny has Carl work with the aged marijuana farmer hippie "The Truth" (Peter Fonda) in preparation to discredit a DA. In the meantime, the similarly exiled Cesar sets Carl up to assist in a robbery spree with his cousin Catalina and joining in underground street races. Through these races, Carl meets the blind Triad leader Wu Zi “Woozie” Mu and wins the deed to a garage in San Fierro from Catalina. With help from The Truth, Carl works to convert the garage to a chop shop.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Besides performing jobs for Tenpenny, Carl insinuates himself into the Loco Syndicate, Smoke and Ryder's supplier. Carl eventually assassinating the Syndicate leaders, killing Ryder, and blowing up their crack factory. He also helps Woozie fend off a rival San Fierro Vietnamese gang, the Da Nang Boys.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Carl is contacted by the presumed-dead Loco Syndicate leader Mike Toreno (James Woods), who reveals he's a secret government agent and agrees to secure Sweet's release from jail in return for Carl's help.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Later, Carl is invited by Woozie to become a partner in the Four Dragons Casino in Las Venturas, where they are facing harassment from the Mafia-run Caligula's Palace casino. To displace the Mafia, they begin planning to rob Caligula's. Through The Truth, Carl meets music producer Kent Paul (Danny Dyer) and through him Caligula's manager Ken Rosenburg (Bill Fichtner), under pressure for support from the three Liberty City families. When Salvatore Leone (Frank Vincent) comes to Las Venturas to take over all of Caligula's for himself he takes Rosenburg, Kent Paul, and Maccer hostage, but Carl helps them escape under the guise of helping Salvatore. Whilst working for Salvatore Carl is sent back to Liberty City in order to take out a mafia family operating at Saint Mark's Bistro. Only the front of the bistro and the background viewable from the front were made from GTA III. The interior of the bistro was made from scratch. After final planning Carl and Woozie carry out their heist, taking millions of dollars from Salvatore's Casino. After the heist Carl receives a phone call from an enraged Salvatore who repeatedly tells Carl he's, "Dead!" along with threats of murdering his friends and family. Carl mocks Salvatore and hangs up. Salvatore isn't heard from again for the rest of the game.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Meanwhile Tenpenny and Pulaski, now under indictment, try to kill Carl, but Carl manages to kill Pulaski. Carl also saves the fallen Madd Dogg from killing himself, becoming his manager, and reestablishing him in Los Santos. Shortly afterwards, Sweet is finally released and has Carl once again help him restore Grove Street.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">Tenpenny goes to trial for several felonies, but the charges are dropped for lack of evidence, as – thanks to Carl – all the prosecution's witnesses are either disgraced, missing, or dead. Tenpenny's release sends anger and shock throughout Los Santos, triggering the in-game rendition of the 1992 Los Angeles Riots.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">During the riots Sweet manages to track down Big Smoke who is living in a fortified crack fortress. Carl breaks through all of the defenses and kills Big Smoke in a shootout only to be confronted by Tenpenny who steals all of Big Smoke's drug money and escapes in a fire truck. Carl and Sweet pursue Tenpenny through the streets of Los Santos until Tenpenny loses control and crashes off a bridge, landing at the entrance of the Grove Street cul-de-sac. Tenpenny manages to crawl free of the wreckage before collapsing. As Tenpenny is dying Carl considers shooting him, but Sweet stops him, saying that they shouldn't leave evidence that Tenpenny was killed instead of it just being an accident.

<p style="margin-top:0.4em;margin-bottom:0.5em;line-height:19px;color:rgb(0,0,0);font-family:sans-serif;text-align:-webkit-auto;">In the aftermath Carl's family and friends arrive at the Johnson house for a meeting. Madd Dogg announces that he's received a gold record for his new album. Cesar also proposes to Kendl. As his friends and allies celebrate their success, Carl turns to leave. When asked where he's going, he replies, "Fittin' to hit the block, see what's happening."

Credits
Grand Theft Auto Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_(video_game)

Grand Theft Auto 2 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_2

Grand Theft Auto 3 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_III

Grand Theft Auto 4 Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_IV

Grand Theft Auto - Vice City Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_Vice_City

Grand Theft Auto - San Andreas Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto:_San_Andreas

Grand Theft Auto (series) Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grand_Theft_Auto_(series)

Grand Theft Auto Wikia: http://gta.wikia.com/Main_Page

All information, citation, and reference can be found on these Wiki's.