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Grand Theft Auto III series lands on Amazon's tablets and Fire TV
The Grand Theft Auto games have been on seemingly every platform known to humankind, but those with Amazon devices have had to make do without Rockstar's vehicular mayhem. That changes today: you can now snag Grand Theft Auto III, Vice City and San Andreas on both the Kindle Fire tablet line as well as Fire TV. You'll be very familiar with the experience if you've used any of the earlier mobile versions, although that's no big complaint given the quality of the ports. With that said, the real allure may be the pricing. Each game normally costs $5 a pop, but purchasing San Andreas currently gets you enough Amazon Coins to buy the other two releases -- this could be a good way to get started in the crime-filled world of GTA without making a big investment.
Grand Theft Auto III review (iOS)
Be honest: who doesn't get nostalgic for games from the early 2000s? With that in mind, Rockstar Games has released a 10-year anniversary edition of Grand Theft Auto III for iOS and Android ($4.99), meaning all the crime, violence and betrayal you so loved in 2001 has made its way to an iDevice near you. The guns have been collected, pedestrians have been run over, crime bosses have been obeyed and betrayed and prostitutes have been visited to help restore health points. So is the game as good as you remember? Head past the break to find out.
Forget Pay N' Spray: GTA3 for Android and iOS allows proper user mods
A group of cool cats has figured out how to add new textures and other mods to cars and buildings in the Android version of Grand Theft Auto 3. The XDA Developers forum is a good place to start for mod file downloads and the files can be inserted in the sdcard/android/data/com.rockstar.gta3/files/gta3/ directory (which happens to be the same directory structure as the PC version). Click the break to see a video of one of the car mods in action and remember, your ride isn't ideal for drive-by shootings unless Xzibit says so.Update: Jim wrote in to say that the iOS version works as well!
Daily iPad App: Grand Theft Auto 3
I'm not quite willing to call Grand Theft Auto 3 old school -- I spent so much time on the original top-down versions of the series that those are still more retro to me than the fully 3D graphics and living, open-world city that GTA3 made famous on the consoles (a tradition that continues right up into Saints Row: The Third, which I recently played on my Xbox, and next year's Grand Theft Auto 5). But it's been ten years since we first saw the streets of Liberty City from the ground up, and Rockstar Games has now brought this classic to iOS as a universal version. And especially on my iPad 2, I'm willing to call it the best console port I've ever seen. The graphics look and run terrific, and the virtual controls, while still a little creaky, actually work really great despite all of the various things you can do. Newcomers to this one used to modern console games will probably notice all of the polygons, but as a reproduction of the original game, it really does look and play very well. And though it's only been ten years, it's really awesome to drive around the streets of Liberty City once again, and listen in to Lazlo's Chatterbox and all of the other great radio stations, checking out all of the open world city conventions (from grabbing any car to escaping the cops) that originated right here. If you've never played this game, you might find it a little aged. The missions are a little unclear compared to today's more simplistic fare, and there's no line to follow on your minimap: All you get is a little dot to go after. But for those of us who really enjoyed the heck out of this one all those years ago, this is great to see, and it's clear that Rockstar has brought it over to this platform with great care. This is an excellent version of this great game, and playing it on my iPad 2 took my right back to those days in my parent's basement when my friends and I would just drive around trying to get four stars and try to escape the cops. One note of warning: The game says it's built for all current iOS devices, including the iPad 1, but a lot of the iTunes reviews say it doesn't run great on those older machines. If you have an iPad 2 or an iPhone 4S, however, it should run quite well. I had one audio glitch while playing, but it definitely wasn't gamebreaking. Grand Theft Auto 3's anniversary iOS edition is available for $4.99 right now.
Grand Theft Auto 3's Anniversary Edition arrives December 15
That anniversary edition of Grand Theft Auto 3 for iOS has been dated: You'll be able to rejoin the streets of Liberty City on your iPad and iPhone next week, on December 15. Rockstar will be releasing the game for both iOS and Android, and you can see a picture of the game's touchscreen controls above. It looks pretty good, but know that it will only be made to run well on "new generation" devices, so if you're still rocking a 3GS or an iPad 1, you might have a little slowdown. Still, the fact that we're getting this game on mobile devices is pretty excellent, and the price is nice too: Just $4.99. Rockstar says there's a new trailer coming next week, but soon after that we'll see the game on the App Store. Excited? Sure, the game's old, but this is a classic. I'm curious to see both how the game runs, and how it sells -- if this one does pretty well (and works the same), maybe we'll see more "classic" PS2 generation titles arrive on mobile platforms in the future.
Grand Theft Auto 3, Burnout Crash, new PopCap title coming to iOS
This week not only brought iOS 5 to us, but it also brought a number of solid releases on the App Store (including the great Scribblenauts Remix). We're far from done, however: A few different big gaming companies have announced some really high profile iOS releases still coming later on this year. First up, Rockstar Games is going to be releasing (the now 10-year-old classic) Grand Theft Auto 3 on iOS for the game's anniversary. GTA3 was the first title in the series to make the jump to 3D, and it's a landmark title in the open world crime genre that's been copied over and over since then. The game will be compatible with the iPhone 4S and the iPad 2, and it'll be playable this weekend at the New York Comic Con. EA Games has also announced that the XBLA and PSN title Burnout Crash is coming to the iPad, iPad 2, and iPhone 4 later on this year. Burnout Crash is an arcade-style title that turns the popular Burnout racing series in a more puzzle-style game, where you try to crash as many cars as possible from a top-down perspective. The game didn't do great on the other downloadable platforms, but maybe touch controls will help it out. And finally, PopCap, makers of the terrific Plants vs. Zombies and Bejeweled titles, among others, have announced that they're releasing a brand new iOS game called Popcorn Dragon. The player controls a dragon that can breathe fire on corn to pop it, and then can eat that corn to grow longer, kind of like the old game Snake. The screens on that one look... interesting -- we'll have to wait and see how it turns out. Then again, PopCap always seems to know what it's doing. All three of these are due out on iOS later on this year.
