Multiplayer: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 20:05, 18 June 2007

A multiplayer game is a game where more than one person can play at the same time, often using computer networking to allow this. Multiplayer modes are one of the most wanted features fans of the Grand Theft Auto series would like to see included in a GTA game.

Some of the GTA games do have multiplayer features officially supported, but not all have them fully implemented, or have smaller variations on the theme. There have however, been numerous attempts by teams of fans who are dedicated to achieving multiplayer gameplay in GTA. Some of the modifications created by these teams have been critically acclaimed and have proved very successful.

Official Support

While Rockstar did include multiplayer support with the free download release of GTA2 for the PC, no modern GTA game yet has featured a true officially supported multiplayer mode whereby people from anywhere in the world can play against each other over the Internet. There have been hints that official support was going to be implemented in GTA3, however nothing materialised from it. Small implementations have been made in other GTA games and are detailed below.

GTA2

The first game to officially support multiplayer modes was the PC version of GTA2 which was released as a free download in December 2004.

GTA3

It is now known that the PC version of Grand Theft Auto 3 was at one point going to have a multiplayer mode. However, for whatever reason, it appears that the developers at Rockstar North (then DMA Design) decided to stop developing the feature. This is evidenced by the fact that one can view textures related to multiplayer mode menu screens in the file models/menu.txd which can be opened using a TXD viewer. Additionally, strings found in the game's GXT files suggest some of modes and options that would have been available, shown by this excerpt from the american.gxt file:

FEM_MAP - "Select Map"
FEM_MP - "MULTIPLAYER"
FEN_CON - "Connection"
FEN_GAM - "Find Game"
FEN_GNA - "Game Name:"
FEN_NAM - "Name:"
FEN_NCI - "NOT CONNECTED TO THE INTERNET"
FEN_NET - "Network"
FEN_PLA - "Number of players:"
FEN_PLC - "Player color"
FEN_PLS - "Player settings"
FEN_STA - "START GAME"
FEN_TY0 - "Deathmatch"
FEN_TY1 - "Deathmatch stealth"
FEN_TY2 - "Team Deathmatch"
FEN_TY3 - "Team Deathmatch stealth"
FEN_TY4 - "Stash the cash"
FEN_TY5 - "Capture the Flag"
FEN_TY6 - "Rat Race"
FEN_TY7 - "Domination"

GTA San Andreas' co-op mode

The PS2 and Xbox versions of GTA San Andreas featured a co-op mode, which allowed 2 players to either 'free roam' or go on a 'rampage'. It was limited by the fact that both players had to stay within a reasonable proximity of each other.

Liberty City Stories and Vice City Stories

In 2005, Liberty City Stories was released on the PSP and featured a multiplayer mode for up to 6 players through WiFi ad-hoc mode. A total of 7 modes of play were available. In 2006, Vice City Stories was released on the PSP with the same functionality as its predecessor, though had an additional 3 mods of play available.

GTA IV

Multiplayer has been confirmed as a feature in Grand Theft Auto IV, however no major details are yet known on what sort of modes or features it will possess. The only thing currently known is that it will not be a massively online multiplayer game.

Unofficial Modifications

Attempts by other teams

Some multiplayer modification have not enjoyed the same success as the major ones mentioned above, this is mostly down to either the loss of interest or lack of people to help code. Part of the reason for their failure may also be down to the immense success had by other mods, which reduces the need for additional implementations.

GTA Rumble

GTA Rumble was started in December 2005, and is now assumed to no longer be in development, as it's homepage at gtarumble.co.uk is no longer active. The latest beta release was 0.1c. It had many features including chat, spawning, scoreboards, screenshots, weather/time changing, parachutes and many more.

Online Andreas

While no longer in development, Online Andreas supports up to 32 players and its features included chat, a limited teleportation feature, the ability to spawn a jetpack, and the ability to die and respawn yourself. It's official home is at AlienX Software, however the site is no longer maintained by the owner and no downloads are available. A download for Online Andreas 2.0 can be found here.

SA-2P

SA-2P, or San Andreas 2 Player, was as its name implies, a mod to bring the 2 player co-op mode found in the PS2 and Xbox version of GTA San Andreas to the PC. The main improvement being that the 2 players would play over the Internet, rather than on the same computer. After having started in June 2005, version 0.1 only ever reached 10% progress according to its creator's website, which was last updated in July 2005. No versions were ever released. It's homepage can be found at SA-2P.com where you will also find a few screenshots and videos of the mod in action, as well as a short FAQ.

@@ Line 61: / Line 61: @@
 ===Attempts by other teams===
+Some multiplayer modification have not enjoyed the same success as the major ones mentioned above, this is mostly down to either the loss of interest or lack of people to help code. Part of the reason for their failure may also be down to the immense success had by other mods, which reduces the need for additional implementations.
+====GTA Rumble====
+GTA Rumble was started in December 2005, and is now assumed to no longer be in development, as it's homepage at gtarumble.co.uk is no longer active. The latest beta release was 0.1c. It had many features including chat, spawning, scoreboards, screenshots, weather/time changing, parachutes and many more.
+====Online Andreas====
+While no longer in development, Online Andreas supports up to 32 players and its features included chat, a limited teleportation feature, the ability to spawn a [[jetpack]], and the ability to die and respawn yourself. It's official home is at [http://www.alienxsoftware.co.uk/ AlienX Software], however the site is no longer maintained by the owner and no downloads are available. A download for Online Andreas 2.0 can be found [http://www.thegtaplace.com/pafiledb.php?action=file&id=887 here].
+====SA-2P====
+SA-2P, or San Andreas 2 Player, was as its name implies, a mod to bring the 2 player co-op mode found in the PS2 and Xbox version of GTA San Andreas to the PC. The main improvement being that the 2 players would play over the Internet, rather than on the same computer. After having started in June 2005, version 0.1 only ever reached 10% progress according to its creator's website, which was last updated in July 2005. No versions were ever released. It's homepage can be found at [http://www.sa-2p.com/ SA-2P.com] where you will also find a few screenshots and videos of the mod in action, as well as a short FAQ.
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