GTASA - released (follow up to pool resources thread)

[orappa]

I don't know if anyone saw this on PlanetGTA.com:

Our partners at The GTA Network have put up a world exclusive preview of the PC version of San Andreas thanks to the great guys at GTAReactor.de. Here is what we know:

# The draw distance is considerably higher in the PC version.

# Real reflections on buildings can be seen in a screenshot. Real reflections will also be visible on cars and shiny floors.

# The German version will be censored of blood, you also won't be able to mug people for money.

# You can forget washed out textures from the PlayStation 2 version. The PC version will not be a 1:1 copy of the PS2 version, but a whole new graphical experience.

# It is not yet confirmed how the 2-player mode will work on the PC.

# The PC version will allow you to import your own MP3 for listening on the radio. You can even specify an MP3 folder on your hard disk, which the radio will play songs from between advertisements and DJ commentary.

# As of writing the preview, the game is 90% complete and ready to be released in June (June 7 in USA and June 10 in Europe).

The preview will be available in the May issue of GameStar magazine which comes out on March 23 in Germany. More details may surface soon, so stay tuned!

I always thought that they weren't allowed to make significant changes to the PC version due to their contract with Sony. Either way, I'm not complaining

[MAD_BOY]

they're just using the loophole in the contract, hence why vc and gta3 on xbox had all the shiney stuff

[orappa]

According to PlanetGTA, SA for PC will be DVD only (not confirmed officially though).

Also, don't buy it from Walmart if you're under 21 (not sure if that applies to WASDA):

http://www.forumplanet.com/PlanetGrandT ... id=1626360

[MAD_BOY]

well, the rumors about it's only available on dvd is because the boxart you can see on the take2 site, clearly shows "PC dvd-rom"

[orappa]

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas will be released for the PC on June 7, 2005 and it looks like it will be one of the first PC games to not be distributed on CD-ROM. Here is an e-mail written by someone that ordered the game from the Rockstar Warehouse with the reply from Rockstar first and the question second:

Hi -------,

This game will be available on June 7th. We will try to ship it a day earlier but cannot promise that we will get it in time to ship before the 7th. To answer your DVD question, the game will only be available on DVD.

Thanks for your order!

Rockstar Games

-----Original Message-----

From: -------

Sent: Thursday, March 03, 2005 1:56 PM

To: Store

Subject: GTA San Andreas

Hi I wrote about a week ago and haven’t gotten a response …. I’ve since then added you to my allowed senders list I had a few questions concerning my pre-order of gta san andreas I noticed on take2’s uk site it says it will be released on DVD and on the North American site it says PC CD ROM and DVD… and was wondering what type I will be getting I prefer it on DVD if I have a choice also I was wondering if it will shipped to arrive on june 7 or will shipping start june 7?

This is still unconfirmed. Hopefully, we can get an official response on this issue soon. Thanks to GTAForums.

(From PlanetGTA)

[orappa]

Some people have been speculating whether the PC version of SA will include "proper" multiplayer. PlanetGTA has confirmed (via IGN) that this is false, although it is still unknown whether the PC version will include the PS2's rudimentary 2 player mode.

* There will be no multi-player, although the actual quote is "nor will Rockstar add any multiplayer," so it's still unknown if the co-op mode will be included. I will try to get clarification on this.

* No mod tools this time around either. It's ok, though, as people will definitely make them.

* Apparently, the textures for buildings, roads, objects, characters and vehicles won't be scaled down from their originals at all unless your video card calls for it. This means that Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas for the PC will have the most high resolution textures of any GTA game to date.

* There will be no additions storywise or with weapons, vehicles, objects, etc.

* As previously mentioned in GameStar magazine, the MP3 radio station will return and you can insert commercials between your mp3's if you want. This makes for a brand new trend in the GTA community: making the best commercials.

http://www.planetgrandtheftauto.com

[Si|ent]

nice one john. In response to the mp3 adverts: http://forum.mtavc.com/viewtopic.php?p=176625

[orappa]

Minimum specs leaked:

Minimum System Requirements:

1GHz Intel Pentium III or AMD Athlon Processor

256MB of RAM

8x DVD-ROM Drive

3.6 GB of free Hard Disk space for a minimal install

64MB Video Card with DirectX 9 compatible drivers ("GeForce3" or better)

DirectX 9 compatible Stereo Sound Card

Keyboard & Mouse

Recommended System Requirements:

Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP processor (or better)

384(+) MB of RAM

16x DVD-ROM drive

4.7 GB of free Hard Disk space for a full install

128(+) MB Video Card with DirectX 9 compatible drivers ("GeForce4" or better)

DirectX 9 compatible Surround Sound Card

Game pad with twin axis analog controls (USB or Joystick Port)

Keyboard & Mouse

http://www.planetgta.com

In comparison, these are the specs for Vice City:

Minimum System Requirements:

800 Mhz Pentium 3/Athalon or 1.2 Ghz Celeron/Duron processor

128mb RAM

8 Speed CD/DVD Drive

915mb HD space (+ 635mb If video card does NOT support DirectX Texture Compression)

32mb Video card with DirectX compatable drivers ("GeForce" or better)

Sound Card with DirectX compatable drivers

Keyboard and Mouse

Win 98/98 SE/ME/2000 Pro with Service Pack 3/XP with Service Pack 1

DirectX9.0

Recommended System Requirements:

Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP Processor

256(or more)MB of RAM

16 Speed(or more) CD/DVD Drive

1.55GB HD Space (+ 635mb If video card does NOT support DirectX Texture Compression)

64(or more)MB Video card with DirectX compatable drivers ("GeForce 3"/"Radeon 8500" or better with -DirectX Texture Compression support)

DirectX compatable sound card with surround sound

Gamepad (USB or Joystick Port)

Keyboard and Mouse

Win 98/98 SE/ME/2000 Pro with Service Pack 3/XP with Service Pack 1

DirectX9.0

Processor requirements aren't vastly different but RAM and graphics memory requirements have doubled.

[MAD_BOY]

3.6GB, holy shit

i've gotta find stuff that i can throw away when it comes out

[orappa]

Rockstar has created a PC mini-site for SA with exclusive screenshots:

http://www.rockstargames.com/sanandreas/pc/

[Si|ent]

Nice find jon. I'm especially intrigued by:

- player modifications support giving PC gamers the oppertunity to create their own world within San Andreas.

If this is what I suspect then it could make the whole process of creating certain Addons for Blue a lot easier. Exciting stuff.

[orappa]

Hmm... that's interesting. The previews said that they wouldn't specifically support modding (i.e. with an SDK) but they wouldn't protect against it either.

[Brophy]

Description

Now that Rockstar Games has given us a date for the appearance of the PC and XBox versions of GTA: San Andreas, June 7th, we can give you some of the details behind the new versions. Rockstar revealed that far from being simple ports of the PS2 version, the XBox and PC versions will breath new life into the gang-ridden state of San Andreas and will offer a wide range of improvements.

XBox

Rockstar describes the XBox version of San Andreas as fully optimized and graphically and sonically invigorated...

XBox San Andreas will offer players the opportunity to build their own custom radio station while a neat replay feature will let you relive the last 30 seconds of your gameplay.

CJ will look much better on the XBox, the game will support 480p (progressive scan) and 16:9 widescreen, will offer higher resolution textures, increased draw distance and new lighting and shading models. You can view a couple of sample XBox screenshots by following the screens tab above (hint: they are the widescreen ones).

PC

If you think CJ will look good on XBox he'll be a super model on PC, according to Rockstar the game has been developed in order to ...take full advantage of powerful PC hardware... To view PC images of the game follow the screens tab above (hint: they are NOT the widescreen ones).

The PC version will let players use their mp3 collections in game (much like Vice City) offering a radio station which will play them back.

The 30-second replay will also be available in the PC version giving gamers the ability to use cinematic effects during playback.

Possibly the most exciting feature of San Andreas PC is the modding capabilities offered by Rockstar. Considering the vastness of San Andreas, the options seem endless and we look forward to what the multi-theft-auto team will be able to offer.

source: http://www.megagames.com/news/html/cons ... ails.shtml

[orappa]

Gamesradar has a preview of SA. Items of note:

You'll also be able to save the in-game photos you take [via the camera] as jpg files, which can then be emailed to friends and posted on web forums.

A PC-exclusive feature is the option to view and save your character's stats to an HTML webpage, which can be either emailed to friends for offline

viewing or uploaded to webspace and shown to the world.

...Especially if the fan in question happens to be a keen 'modder' - Rockstar have confirmed that the modding community will be supported with this release, allowing tinkering players to adapt the game in numerous ways we're not imaginative enough to predict ourselves.

I also noticed this:

Price: £34.99 (GBP) | Developer: Rockstar North | Publisher: Rockstar Games | Format: PC | Players: 1 | Out: 10 June 2005

It's still unknown whether the PS2's simple multiplayer is included but GR seem to think that it isn't.

http://gamesradar.msn.co.uk/previews/de ... ionid=1599

[Brophy]

yeah i heard they removed it cuz of the way the pc 3rd person camera works

[Si|ent]

http://www.computerandvideogames.com/r/ ... ry.php(que)id=118087

Note the last paragraph in particular

Unfortunately, those dreams of multiplayer PC San Andreas won't make the game's release next month. Nonetheless, Rockstar was keen to tell us that it is a huge fan of the Multi Theft Auto mod team's work and would be doing everything in its power to support their efforts.

[orappa]

"Everything in its power" eh? That's a lot.

[HardCoRe.]

hah, sweetest thing evr.

good luck with sa....everyone.

(samp gtac mta gtas, maybe gtat and the new people that decide to make a mod lol.)

[Brophy]

quality find bump m8

[orappa]

Jordan has written a summarised list of changes between the PS2 and PC versions.

http://www.planetgrandtheftauto.com/fea ... ofchanges/

It has been long talked about that the co-op feature will be removed from the PC version. This is due to an incompatibility with DirectX having two players going on one computer. Even though there have been confirmations that it will and won't be kept in the game, we will know for sure after I report from E3 (if the game is playable at the show).

Serious Sam had support for 4 players on the same keyboard...

[Oyst3r]

Wow, those requirements are lower than I thought. But, I don't have a DVD Rom Drive on my computer, so I'm gonna stock up on RAM with my laptop and get SA for it. My laptop meets everything but RAM(192MB ). And I guess it would be better if I got teh screen first, getting it soon tho.

[orappa]

Wow, those requirements are lower than I thought. But, I don't have a DVD Rom Drive on my computer, so I'm gonna stock up on RAM with my laptop and get SA for it. My laptop meets everything but RAM(192MB ). And I guess it would be better if I got teh screen first, getting it soon tho.

It's probably cheaper to buy a cheap DVD drive on eBay rather than expensive laptop RAM.

[orappa]

Jordan from PlanetGTA had the priviledge of interviewing Rockstar representatives at E3.

Here are some of the questions, but I'd advise that you check them all out as I found all of them interesting.

2. Will the PC or Xbox have co-op?

It has been finally officially confirmed from the mouths of Rockstar that the PC will not have co-op, but the Xbox version will. I did ask if the coding for co-op would be included in the coding for modders to use and modify, but he was not sure. This is a question that I will ask in follow-up so he can ask the proper people.

3. Why won't the PC have co-op?

Not only did the Rockstar rep confirm that one of the reasons is because "no one has two mouses and two keyboards," but they also said that "multiplayer on the PC is a hard thing to pull off because of all of the bigger multi-player games coming out these days." While the PS2 crowd doesn't have a lot of multi-player option, the PC crowd has much higher standards.

6. Mod tools! What is meant by "mod support?"

This was the question I really wanted to ask. First off, Rockstar will not ship any tools themselves. He did say that it will be an extremely smooth transition in that the tools used in Vice City should work perfectly with San Andreas.

http://www.planetgrandtheftauto.com/e3/ ... s/preview/

[orappa]

Another bit from Jordan's visit to E3.

Most interestingly:

I asked them about modding in the GTA scene, and they said that they love the community and the fact that so much is being done in the way of mods. Sam mentioned that a minimal amount of mod support will be coming from Rockstar. If a big modder like illspirit or Spooky needs some information on a certain file, they can supply the information. But they won't be giving out help to the public. Fans will be writing FAQ's anyway, so this is not a problem.

http://www.planetgrandtheftauto.com/e3/ ... s/thecrew/