Game Informer's June Issue has a cover story on SA. Here's the entire article with pics. Some of the pics are a little orange colored, that's just from the scannings. The mag will be on news stands on the 21.
Enjoy.
Rising In the West
There's really never been a video game franchise quite like Grand Theft Auto. Both passionately loved and deeply reviled, it's sold more copies than any console series of this generation, all while causing more public outcry than any game in memory.
However, it’s important to remember that GTA is significant for much more than simply moving units or ruffling the feathers of "family values" watch-dogs. For millions of people around the world, Grand Theft Auto quite simply changed the definition of what a video game could be. After playing GTA iii for the first time, you realize that games aren't just about action; they aren't just about exploration; they aren't just about story; they aren't just about racing - they can now encompass all of these things at once. Nearly every company in video games has learned the lessons taught by the success of Rockstar Games' flagship franchise, and each passing month sees developers attempting new ways of cross-breeding genres that were once thought mutually exclusive.
But a simple mixing of styles isn't the sole reason the series has struck such a chord with its audience. Unlike most game franchises, which take familiar characters and place them in new settings and situations, GTA takes its wide-open gameplay, darkly satirical aesthetic, and violent leanings into whatever time period and geographical setting its creators see fit. Like the Final Fantasy series, each new Grand Theft Auto is a fresh start for the franchise: new worlds to conquer, new stories, and new experiences. Because of this, much of the speculation regarding the next iteration of GTA has been regarding its setting. Where could Rockstar North take the saga next? Early speculation had it that the game would be subtitled "Sin City" and set in an ersatz Las Vegas. Then, after it was officially confirmed that the next chapter would be named Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, rumor soon spread that the title would take place in a fictionalized Los Angeles.
So, who's right? Well, as is often the case in the world of Rockstar, the truth is considerably more complex than we could have dreamed. Because, as it turns out, everybody was right - and that's only half the story. If this is all a bit confusing, we suggest you read on, because we can guarantee one thing: You have no idea what Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has in store.
The Golden State
Perhaps sensing our anticipation, Rockstar’s Dan Houser, the game’s vice president of creative and one of the people most centrally involved in crafting the GTA universe, cuts through months of innuendo and gossip regarding the direction of San Andreas with a simple statement.
"San Andreas is not a city - it's a state," declares Houser. "Probably the most interesting thing you [need to] think about for a second is that we're not setting the game in a version of Los Angeles or San Francisco or Las Vegas, but in all three - and with the countryside in between."
Let that sink in for a minute, and you'll begin to understand just how large an undertaking this game has become for Rockstar North. Despite all their success, Houser makes it clear that the team is taking nothing for granted. "We take this GTA stuff really seriously and we work like f— on it, and we don't just do it to try to chum out a game. We think we've got some clever ideas and some clever angles on things," he comments.
While Vice City demonstrated remarkable progress in several key areas, the level of improvement being implemented in San Andreas might be best described as exponential. As Houser stated, the state of San Andreas incorporates three distinct urban areas: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturra (Las Vegas). Each of these cities is relatively the same size as Vice City, and will be fully open to the player at different points in the story arc - all in all, Houser estimates the entire game area is approximately four to six times as large as the entirety of either of the previous entries in the series. Add to this the fact that you'll actually travel between cities over roadways that stretch through a vast countryside, which are home to their own unique characters and gameplay sequences. In essence, Rockstar finally seems to be closing in on its goal of crafting GTA as a living, breathing world.
The three cities also allow the designers to create a much more diverse set of experiences for the player, and each city is tailored to emphasize different aspects of the amazingly varied gameplay package.
"San Francisco has been done to death in games, but San Francisco has hills and GTA III had hills," Houser illustrates. "For good driving, one of the things that we missed [in Vice City] was hills. It just adds that third dimension; it's not as fun without it. So, in San Fierro, things are a lot more driving-focused and that’s when the game becomes a lot more about cars and driving and the environment reflects that. But the story also reflects it. Then, the specialty vehicles unlock, and you can do some wild s— you've never done before."
The rolling countryside will also expand the dimensions of the GTA experience, adding a dramatic scale that couldn't be accomplished in the urban confines of previous titles. "One of the things that the country-side gives you is a mountain; you’ve never had a mountain in a GTA game before," opines Houser. The idea of being able to drive from LA through the countryside, up a mountain into San Francisco and on to Vegas is just freakish, and it feels amazing! It's a real big change of experience - you feel like you're in this world, and the world feels completely 3D. It's got depth."
The game's scope has expanded not only in size, but in detail as well. Thanks to new streaming and rendering technology designed by Rockstar North's programming staff, the game will boast environments that are both more intricate and more interactive than those in previous titles.
"I think looking back to Vice City, we had a much bigger map, but not everything was as dense and interesting as it could have been " observes Houser. "This time, every bit of the map looks much crisper and has a lot more stuff going on. Obviously, the desert is deserted but there's still some weird s— to see and the map still feels very vibrant and alive."
This sense of immediacy will be heightened by a number of nuts-and-bolts technical improvements to the game's graphics engine, which has been overhauled to incorporate real-time reflections on cars, windows, and mirrors, as well as new techniques like radial lighting, which allows for more realistic shadowing, and soft-shadow lighting for interior levels. Also, everything in the game now has independent models for day and nighttime, in order to make sure that objects look as detailed and vivid during the evening hours as they do during daylight.
Speaking of interior environments, this is yet another area in which Rockstar North is pushing the boundaries. While Vice City introduced interior gameplay into the equation, a vast majority of the buildings were little more than glorified save points. This time, tons of interiors have been fully rendered out, and tailored to facilitate new types of gameplay, most notably robbing houses...but more on that later.
Of course, what's the use of all this new real estate if you can't make it a part of your budding criminal operation? To this end, the purchasing of buildings - which was also present, but not fully developed in Vice City - has been given a much higher importance in San Andreas.
"It was something that we touched on in Vice City, when you acquired property and got this sense of starting to build an empire," said Houser. "That whole thing has been taken a lot further...In Las Venturra, you'll be able to run a casino there, which you will have bought and built."
Home Of The Body Bag
The architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said, "They turned the country up on its side, and everything loose fell into California." This quote goes a long way towards describing the state that is probably one of the most culturally diverse regions on Earth. From hustlers of the Sunset Strip to the intellectual elite of Berkeley, California embodies the entirety of the American experience. All the crass commercialism and hippie idealism, the ghetto misery and Hollywood glitz, all the money and glamour, and suffering and dashed hopes that the country has ever given birth to somehow fought its way out west to lie down by the ocean.
If Rockstar was looking for rich source material for the cultural satire that's become the trademark of Grand Theft Auto, it couldn't do better than California, the state of Ronald Reagan and Ice Cube, hippie icon Jerry Garcia and high-class hooker Heidi Fleiss, the Beach Boys and Charles Manson. As any number of stand-up comedians have pointed out over the years, California is as strange and silly a place a; you could imagine. Houser more succinctly summed up the Golden State vibe with a simple phrase: "Call wierd-ness."
Enjoy.
Rising In the West
There's really never been a video game franchise quite like Grand Theft Auto. Both passionately loved and deeply reviled, it's sold more copies than any console series of this generation, all while causing more public outcry than any game in memory.
However, it’s important to remember that GTA is significant for much more than simply moving units or ruffling the feathers of "family values" watch-dogs. For millions of people around the world, Grand Theft Auto quite simply changed the definition of what a video game could be. After playing GTA iii for the first time, you realize that games aren't just about action; they aren't just about exploration; they aren't just about story; they aren't just about racing - they can now encompass all of these things at once. Nearly every company in video games has learned the lessons taught by the success of Rockstar Games' flagship franchise, and each passing month sees developers attempting new ways of cross-breeding genres that were once thought mutually exclusive.
But a simple mixing of styles isn't the sole reason the series has struck such a chord with its audience. Unlike most game franchises, which take familiar characters and place them in new settings and situations, GTA takes its wide-open gameplay, darkly satirical aesthetic, and violent leanings into whatever time period and geographical setting its creators see fit. Like the Final Fantasy series, each new Grand Theft Auto is a fresh start for the franchise: new worlds to conquer, new stories, and new experiences. Because of this, much of the speculation regarding the next iteration of GTA has been regarding its setting. Where could Rockstar North take the saga next? Early speculation had it that the game would be subtitled "Sin City" and set in an ersatz Las Vegas. Then, after it was officially confirmed that the next chapter would be named Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, rumor soon spread that the title would take place in a fictionalized Los Angeles.
So, who's right? Well, as is often the case in the world of Rockstar, the truth is considerably more complex than we could have dreamed. Because, as it turns out, everybody was right - and that's only half the story. If this is all a bit confusing, we suggest you read on, because we can guarantee one thing: You have no idea what Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas has in store.
The Golden State
Perhaps sensing our anticipation, Rockstar’s Dan Houser, the game’s vice president of creative and one of the people most centrally involved in crafting the GTA universe, cuts through months of innuendo and gossip regarding the direction of San Andreas with a simple statement.
"San Andreas is not a city - it's a state," declares Houser. "Probably the most interesting thing you [need to] think about for a second is that we're not setting the game in a version of Los Angeles or San Francisco or Las Vegas, but in all three - and with the countryside in between."
Let that sink in for a minute, and you'll begin to understand just how large an undertaking this game has become for Rockstar North. Despite all their success, Houser makes it clear that the team is taking nothing for granted. "We take this GTA stuff really seriously and we work like f— on it, and we don't just do it to try to chum out a game. We think we've got some clever ideas and some clever angles on things," he comments.
While Vice City demonstrated remarkable progress in several key areas, the level of improvement being implemented in San Andreas might be best described as exponential. As Houser stated, the state of San Andreas incorporates three distinct urban areas: Los Santos (Los Angeles), San Fierro (San Francisco), and Las Venturra (Las Vegas). Each of these cities is relatively the same size as Vice City, and will be fully open to the player at different points in the story arc - all in all, Houser estimates the entire game area is approximately four to six times as large as the entirety of either of the previous entries in the series. Add to this the fact that you'll actually travel between cities over roadways that stretch through a vast countryside, which are home to their own unique characters and gameplay sequences. In essence, Rockstar finally seems to be closing in on its goal of crafting GTA as a living, breathing world.
The three cities also allow the designers to create a much more diverse set of experiences for the player, and each city is tailored to emphasize different aspects of the amazingly varied gameplay package.
"San Francisco has been done to death in games, but San Francisco has hills and GTA III had hills," Houser illustrates. "For good driving, one of the things that we missed [in Vice City] was hills. It just adds that third dimension; it's not as fun without it. So, in San Fierro, things are a lot more driving-focused and that’s when the game becomes a lot more about cars and driving and the environment reflects that. But the story also reflects it. Then, the specialty vehicles unlock, and you can do some wild s— you've never done before."
The rolling countryside will also expand the dimensions of the GTA experience, adding a dramatic scale that couldn't be accomplished in the urban confines of previous titles. "One of the things that the country-side gives you is a mountain; you’ve never had a mountain in a GTA game before," opines Houser. The idea of being able to drive from LA through the countryside, up a mountain into San Francisco and on to Vegas is just freakish, and it feels amazing! It's a real big change of experience - you feel like you're in this world, and the world feels completely 3D. It's got depth."
The game's scope has expanded not only in size, but in detail as well. Thanks to new streaming and rendering technology designed by Rockstar North's programming staff, the game will boast environments that are both more intricate and more interactive than those in previous titles.
"I think looking back to Vice City, we had a much bigger map, but not everything was as dense and interesting as it could have been " observes Houser. "This time, every bit of the map looks much crisper and has a lot more stuff going on. Obviously, the desert is deserted but there's still some weird s— to see and the map still feels very vibrant and alive."
This sense of immediacy will be heightened by a number of nuts-and-bolts technical improvements to the game's graphics engine, which has been overhauled to incorporate real-time reflections on cars, windows, and mirrors, as well as new techniques like radial lighting, which allows for more realistic shadowing, and soft-shadow lighting for interior levels. Also, everything in the game now has independent models for day and nighttime, in order to make sure that objects look as detailed and vivid during the evening hours as they do during daylight.
Speaking of interior environments, this is yet another area in which Rockstar North is pushing the boundaries. While Vice City introduced interior gameplay into the equation, a vast majority of the buildings were little more than glorified save points. This time, tons of interiors have been fully rendered out, and tailored to facilitate new types of gameplay, most notably robbing houses...but more on that later.
Of course, what's the use of all this new real estate if you can't make it a part of your budding criminal operation? To this end, the purchasing of buildings - which was also present, but not fully developed in Vice City - has been given a much higher importance in San Andreas.
"It was something that we touched on in Vice City, when you acquired property and got this sense of starting to build an empire," said Houser. "That whole thing has been taken a lot further...In Las Venturra, you'll be able to run a casino there, which you will have bought and built."
Home Of The Body Bag
The architect Frank Lloyd Wright once said, "They turned the country up on its side, and everything loose fell into California." This quote goes a long way towards describing the state that is probably one of the most culturally diverse regions on Earth. From hustlers of the Sunset Strip to the intellectual elite of Berkeley, California embodies the entirety of the American experience. All the crass commercialism and hippie idealism, the ghetto misery and Hollywood glitz, all the money and glamour, and suffering and dashed hopes that the country has ever given birth to somehow fought its way out west to lie down by the ocean.
If Rockstar was looking for rich source material for the cultural satire that's become the trademark of Grand Theft Auto, it couldn't do better than California, the state of Ronald Reagan and Ice Cube, hippie icon Jerry Garcia and high-class hooker Heidi Fleiss, the Beach Boys and Charles Manson. As any number of stand-up comedians have pointed out over the years, California is as strange and silly a place a; you could imagine. Houser more succinctly summed up the Golden State vibe with a simple phrase: "Call wierd-ness."
