Gaming Target - PlayStation 2: Grand Theft Auto Double Pack

Written by Chris Reiter on October 13, 2003

Final Glimpse: Two games, two worlds, for one killer price.

Society is going in the dump, and it's all thanks to Grand Theft Auto. Or at least that's what the media wants you to believe. The name says it all: Grand, meaning big, Theft, meaning to steal, and Auto, meaning cars, is about taking things that aren't yours in a mobster-filled world. This kind of reckless behavioral content has literally stunned and shocked millions around the globe at the same time with its direction of killing people, stealing cars, and blowing things up all for money in an open-ended environment, ever since Grand Theft Auto 3's arrival on the PlayStation 2 two years ago. Grown ups lapped the game up in all its bloody glory, and children and teens were either wishing they were playing it or had very ignorant parents who let them. Either way, the message here is that the Grand Theft Auto franchise is sick and disturbing -- and that's what people like about it. In one of Rockstar's latest efforts, they've finally made a decision to port its first two 3D iterations into the series that made the PlayStation 2 such a hot ticket for the last two years in a row over to the Xbox in this month's upcoming Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack set. But for those of you PlayStation 2 owners out there who haven't had a shot yet at becoming the bad guy doing bad things in a really bad world, then this one's for you...

Rockstar's Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack is essentially Grand Theft Auto 3 and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City combined into one wrap. It's one Grand Theft Auto adventure, and then the other. There'll be no special features here, no updates, no online, nothing. Well, there will be the two games packaged together all for the low cost of $39.99! Other than that however, the Double Pack is to be a game suggested for anyone who hasn't already played either version of the massively popular action series. If you have though, and you're interested in repurchasing the item or know someone else who may want to play it, then the Double Pack will be a great bundle offer for a lesser price. As for those who have never heard of Grand Theft Auto 3 or last year's Vice City spin-off, then you're certainly in for a treat.

Grand Theft Auto 3

Crook. Killer. Nobody. That's you, and that's who you're going to be from now on. You're a no name lowlife with a girlfriend and a plan to rob a bank. The problem however, is that same girlfriend of yours pulls a gun on you and gets you locked up. But, when fate has an unexpected turn for itself and you're let loose with help from the mob, hired by the mob, and now have to do things for the mob, your life is about to get a little more exciting. So no name guy: you're free and you've got a whole city full of people who want you to do bad guy type of things for them -- get to it.

Grand Theft Auto 3 is where the craze for the series all started. Sure it's not the very first Grand Theft Auto release, but the first Grand Theft Auto was never in 3D and never quite as paralleled to its third entry. What made Grand Theft Auto 3 bigger than everything else in its name was the scope of it all. Being in 3D for the first time is quite different from an overhead perspective. Think about being able to use a sniper rifle from any point you want inside the game's virtual city, or blow up vehicles using a rocket launcher, or steal any car that passes you by on the road, including police vehicles, and then inherit different identities such as a taxi driver or a cop. Oh, and did I mention that this was all done in 3D?

Of course, those are just some of Grand Theft Auto 3's optional objectives. Literally, you'll be stuck inside an open-ended gameplay world where you can do what you like (kill passerbys and grab their money or steal cars and park them in your base's garage for example), or earn big bucks by taking a trip to the big boy's joint. Throughout Grand Theft Auto 3's city lies numerous benefactors, all of which will pay you a bunch of money if you're willing to take the risk. Some missions will require you to pick up hookers for a police ball, or assassinate certain thugs who are in the way of yours or other people's business. And all the money you'll be able to make can go toward buying new weapons and then using them to get more. It's a cycle of life when you're a lowlife, and in this game it's quite addictive.

This being the same game as Grand Theft Auto 3 was before, you can expect the same visuals as before too. Even if that's a turn off for tech heads, don't let it be -- because Grand Theft Auto 3's good looking enough to go out with on a date...a very insane date. In the game's New York-inspired city, you'll find people bustling about everywhere. Either walking, interacting with each other, driving vehicles, or the like, there are tons of people everywhere doing every day types of things. And guess what? You can mess with all of them. With guns aplenty, you'll be able to flamethrow, shotgun, handgun, run over, fist fight, and even ignite into death any of the game's random character models. The way in which everything looks in the game will resemble a degraded quality compared to other games of its caliber, but that's okay as long as there's lots to do in a world where every action has a twisted sense of reaction.

What has been a substantial head turner for all those in the know of Grand Theft Auto 3's existence is its collection of radio stations that not only play many different music stations while you're driving any of the game's vehicles, but also tune into a talk show radio station scripted with advertisements and hilarious scenarios catered to the sickest part of our conscious. Sorted through a various assortment of selectable stations, the music from within the game isn't going to be popular songs found in Grand Theft Auto 3's follow-up release of last year, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City. However, Lazlo, who was featured on Vice City's rock station will return...or go back again that is to where he originally came from, as Liberty City's talk show host: the opinionated advice giver Grand Theft Auto 3 players all love to listen to.

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Fifteen years has Tommy Vercetti been incarcerated in the chicken coop, the joint, the lockup, the penitentiary, the slaughterhouse -- you know, prison. Fifteen years has he waited to get out and get on with life. His life before the passed time he was and will become again a figure of a tough guy gangster. When his old mob boss Sonny Forelli ships him out to the Southern coast in the fun and sun of Vice City in order to expand on the family business, however, trouble occurs as the drug deal he's involved in goes wrong and the money he was supposed to get is taken. Either Tommy is up the creek with Sonny or Tommy can find out who took the money and retrieve it. With a whole city at his finger tips in which to investigate, Tommy starts to do what he does best.

Last year was when Grand Theft Auto: Vice City released, which not only arrived on the PlayStation 2 after a year from Grand Theft Auto 3's major entry, but also became 2002's most anticipated title. You'd think that most people were sick of riding around in stolen vehicles, slaughtering the innocent, and tracking down things like hidden packages through an immense city-sized world. But no, Vice City wasn't just any ordinary Grand Theft Auto 3 -- this was something bigger. Set inside a Miami, Florida landscape, Vice City took players back to the year 1986 into not just one metropolis, but two -- making the game twice as big as its predecessor. Vice City also sports new vehicles to jack, like motorcycles and helicopters, and naturally all new missions to manage in an entirely original storyline.

Even more so than that, a fresh start in the series' gameplay engine had been implemented for the better. Instead of just killing for the money to buy new items now, in Vice City you'll be able to keep your cash flow growing for new properties to own. That's right: entire buildings will become yours, for a price. Once you become the official proprietor of these different institutions, you can make bank on some of them with a chance to play new unlocked missions; like a delivery boy for the taxi service you can call home to, or dealing drugs to people on the street with your own ice cream truck. In time, the more successfully you complete missions, the more you'll be able to collect on rolls of cash distributed to the funds of each of your monopoly sources.

Vice City's visual presentation even played a better part than Grand Theft Auto 3 did the year before it, notably with refined models and new weather effects. When you're cruising around in the rain for example, water droplets stick to the screen's camera and slide downward as though your TV's insides actually wet themselves. People and vehicles will stand out sharper than before, and the game is even capable of showing off interiors to buildings. Unlike in Grand Theft Auto 3, you can literally step inside places like a dance club, a mall, an office building, and even the police station to wreak havoc on suspicious law men. Let's just say that with Grand Theft Auto 3 looking good, Grand Theft Auto: Vice City will look better.

Just the same as in Grand Theft Auto 3, you can slip into any stolen vehicle you want and flip through the radio stations. Only with Vice City, Rockstar went and attached popular tracks you might've listened to in the 80's, and can now do the same here too. Everything from Michael Jackson, to Iron Maiden, AC/DC, Run DMC, and many more featured artists have a spot with classic hits across the airwaves. A new talk show with your host Amy is naturally included...but that's not all. Throughout the bowels of Grand Theft Auto 3's Liberty City, every person -- main character or not -- used dialogue. The difference between Vice City and the 3 before it is that Rockstar hired an astounding amount of Hollywood talent for its Vice City script, all the way from Dennis Hopper, to Gary Busey, and of course Ray Liotta as the infamous star of the game, Tommy Vercetti.