Double Your Pleasure

Grand Theft Auto Double Pack
Coming January 2004

Sydney, December 2nd 2003 - Xbox gamers rejoice: Rockstar Games has finally brought not one, but two of the most popular console titles ever to Australia for Xbox. Rockstar has bundled the third-person action hits Grand Theft Auto III and Grand Theft Auto: Vice City for the Xbox in Grand Theft Auto Double Pack, and so the joyous carnage can commence with the double-pack being released in Australia in January 2004.

Notorious for its over-the-top violence, sociopathic gameplay, and black humor, Grand Theft Auto has offended almost as many parents as it has delighted gamers. The game is far more than carjacking, gun battles, and hookers, however (though it has all of those). Grand Theft Auto is a revolutionary and completely immersive experience that defines “open-ended adventure.”

Hit the road, Jack.

Grand Theft Auto Double Pack is rated “MA15+” for a good reason. You play a street-level thug who, if you follow the game’s central mission structure, commits a wide array of increasingly violent and spectacular offenses to move up the ladder in the local criminal organization. There is blood, foul language, drug use, cop-killing, adult situations, and everything else that makes parents see red. It’s all for fun and presented as entertainment, so if you’re not a fan of violent mob humor, you might want to look elsewhere.

The Grand Theft Auto series pioneered and perfected the idea of a vast, living, and interactive city as the backdrop for the game’s plot. You can explore the streets of Liberty City and Vice City, taking or declining missions from higher-ranking mobsters. The more missions you accomplish, the more cash you acquire and the bigger your reputation grows. Eventually, you’ll become a boss yourself and have your own crew of underlings to order around. You can also just cruise around town, creating a vehicular hazard for other drivers, carjacking the sweetest ride you can find, or simply tearing up the scenery. Although there is a definite path to victory that the designers included, the game literally lasts as long as you want to play it, and you never actually have to complete the core missions unless you choose to.

You talkin’ to me?

Missions include things like simple hits on opposing mobsters, transporting female escorts to VIP parties, and scaring rival drug dealers off of your turf. You can take just about any car from anybody (including cop cars, ambulances, and Hummers), ditching them when they’re too hot or too dinged up to continue. You can also travel on foot, engaging rivals and police in shootouts and melee combat with bats, machetes, or meat cleavers. If you get busted by the cops or capped by a thug, you just respawn to your last save point and start over.

The more crimes you commit, the more cops will chase you. The game uses a five-star meter to measure how much hot water you’re in. You can elude pursuing cops if you just have one star, but if you make it all the way up to five, riot squads, the army, and even tanks will be sent out to bring you in. You can run or fight, but eventually the forces of order will take you down. This is really the only disincentive to acting like a completely bloodthirsty lunatic: It shortens the game. Then again, it’s so much fun being bad that you just might decide it’s worth it.

 
Aerial assault.

Grand Theft Auto Double Pack is a milestone game that has to be experienced to be believed. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you like to push the boundaries of acceptable behavior and have a few inappropriately bloody laughs, this game is for you.