Multiplayer: Difference between revisions
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=== GTA IV === | === GTA IV === | ||
{{main|Multiplayer in GTA IV}} | |||
Ever since Grand Theft Auto 3 was released to the world, gamers have been scrambling to jump into Rockstar's virtual reality of violence and corruption. While a handful of modifications have done a superb job of bringing online crime to the masses, there's always been a lacking presence of multiplayer in the official games themselves. | Ever since Grand Theft Auto 3 was released to the world, gamers have been scrambling to jump into Rockstar's virtual reality of violence and corruption. While a handful of modifications have done a superb job of bringing online crime to the masses, there's always been a lacking presence of multiplayer in the official games themselves. | ||
Revision as of 08:02, 8 February 2009
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 Grand Theft Auto 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
Rockstar did include multiplayer support with the free download release of GTA 2 for the PC and also in the most recent release of GTA 4 for the xbox360, PS3 and PC platforms. There have been hints that official support was going to be implemented in GTA III, however nothing materialised from it, although snippets of text from the game's GXT language file has some hints of a planned but cancelled multiplayer option. 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 GTA 2 which was released as a free download in December 2004.
GTA III
It is now known that the PC version of Grand Theft Auto III 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 the 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
Ever since Grand Theft Auto 3 was released to the world, gamers have been scrambling to jump into Rockstar's virtual reality of violence and corruption. While a handful of modifications have done a superb job of bringing online crime to the masses, there's always been a lacking presence of multiplayer in the official games themselves.
Until now.
With Grand Theft Auto IV, Rockstar has finally delivered a fully fleshed-out multiplayer experience.1
Unofficial Modifications
Multi Theft Auto (MTA)
Multi Theft Auto was the first attempt made by any team of fans to implement a multiplayer version of Grand Theft Auto 3. It saw its first release February 8, 2003 and quickly gained a large following of eager fans. Development continued through the releases of GTA Vice City and GTA San Andreas and is still ongoing today. The current release for GTA3 and GTA Vice City is 0.5, while a separate version, 1.1.1R is available for GTA San Andreas.
Vice City Multiplayer (VC-MP)
Vice City Multiplayer started development in April 2005 where it was decided it would be used as a codebase for SA:MP. Once San Andreas was released for the PC much of the team focused on that, while some members continue developing VC:MP. It has so far proved to be quite popular, however SA:MP continues to dominate most of the attention. The current release is v0.3.
San Andreas Multiplayer (SA-MP)
SA:MP started out as VC:MP (described above) in April 2005. Once San Andreas was released on the PC, most of the team turned to development for the game. It has enjoyed a lot of success during public beta tests, as well as in releases. It has a large variety of game modes, the most in any third party multiplayer mod, and also supports custom game modes. The current version is 0.2 which was released by the team on June 20th, 2007.
GTA Tournament (gtaT)
GTA:Tournament started out in April 2003 with an idea its creator DracoBlue had, of being able to have scriptable servers, support for up to 96 players, and the ability to have thousands of skins and vehicles in the game. It eventually saw releases for Vice City, and later San Andreas. On 29th April 2006, DracoBlue announced that development on the mod would cease. After talks with the SA:MP team, DracoBlue turned to scripting for the mod. SA:MP already had all the feature gta:T had, and taking advantage of SA:MP's scripting abilities, he could implement feature he had intended for his gta:T mod. Development still continues today and is supported by a very large community.
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. Its 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. Its 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.