"GTA type" games.

[Starwars]

So, what are some good games in this genre (if any)? I've been trying to replay the last 3 GTAs lately, but while I do think their stories, characters and general "dick around" gameplay are a lot of fun, these games frustrate the fuck out of me with their sometimes retarded missions and crappy controls.

I've played Mafia a bit, and I like it, but to be honest I don't really see the greatness in it.

So, are there any other games lik this that are good? Preferably for the PC, but can deal with PS2 as well.

 

[User was nabbed fit]

Saints Row for the 360 (get it?). Haven't played it, but I heard it's not as good as GTA (it's a blatant copy).

But yeah, GTA 4 is coming out next month and that's why I got a 360.

 

[jagged-jimmy]

Never played it, but True Crime: Street of L.A is what you looking for. They tried really hard to take the lead in the Genre...but failed (i guess). Also something tells me there was even a sequel "bla bla of New York", but maybe i am lieing.

 

[Edward_R_Murrow]

Mercenaries: Playground of Destruction. It does require either an Xbox or a PS2, but you can handle that. It actually makes combat slightly fun, and has some pretty fun sandboxy gameplay with great vehicle combat and a wide selection. Plus the Russian Mafia can airdrop tons of destructive toys and airstrikes for you.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Try Boiling Point. It's obviously not on par with GTA series in terms of atmosphere and style, but it's the closest thing you can get on PC.

 

[The Dude]

Merceneraries: Playground of Destruction is pretty excellent until it starts to bore you. There aren't as much possibilites of dicking around doing whatever, but on the other hand most missions are pretty fun and reasonably well designed.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Bully. It may not have bloodshed, but it's the only good GTA-type game next to the real thing.

 

[someone else]

Boiling Point is GTAish with more focus on FPS. The factions vehicles and open end gameplay is something STALKER wanted to be but never delivered. I personally enjoyed the shooting and looting. Plus, you can fly around in choppers and mow down infantry.

The bad: Long boring drives to missions, not so great graphics and sound, stupid story.
Some reviewers complained about the poor aim and poor vehicle handling. The lastest patch fixed the driving. As for the poor accuracy, apparently the reviewer doesn't know guns have recoil. I'm running amok killing people with 1 shot to the head.

The game should be going cheap now.

 

[psycojester]

Saints Row wasn't a very good GTA clone, but it did have a nice final twist in its storyline.

After the stereotypical evil land developer tricks you into assassinating the chief of police and essentially assuring his victory in the mayoral election and allowing him to demolish the ghetto (the fiend ). In the final message your character is sent out to his private yacht in order to meet with him and basically hear how you've screwed yourself and your friends over.

Just when you think its going to switch to the standard boss fight mission, there's an explosion. Turns out your friends had worked some of this out and used the meeting as opportunity for a perfect shot at the evil land developer and that killing you along with him was an acceptable loss.

Also don't play True Crime, its total shit, both of them are.

I do hear good things about Crackdown though. Its basically playing as a Super Powered cop in a GTA style free-roaming city.

 

[Hory]

Urban Chaos is one of the only games of this genre that is good enough for me to recommend. It's challenging and atmospheric, and while you don't have access to the whole big city in every mission, the levels make use of the third dimension a lot more.

 

[Fat Dragon]

Saints Row wasn't a very good GTA clone, but it did have a nice final twist in its storyline.

After the stereotypical evil land developer tricks you into assassinating the chief of police and essentially assuring his victory in the mayoral election and allowing him to demolish the ghetto (the fiend ). In the final message your character is sent out to his private yacht in order to meet with him and basically hear how you've screwed yourself and your friends over.

Just when you think its going to switch to the standard boss fight mission, there's an explosion. Turns out your friends had worked some of this out and used the meeting as opportunity for a perfect shot at the evil land developer and that killing you along with him was an acceptable loss.

Also don't play True Crime, its total shit, both of them are.

I do hear good things about Crackdown though. Its basically playing as a Super Powered cop in a GTA style free-roaming city.

You actually survive that explosion. If what I've heard is correct, the guy you create in the sequel is supposed to be the guy you played as in the 1st Saints Row.

Also, Crackdown's single player mode is complete shit. Every mission in the damned game is "Drive here, kill him." Having to jump around the city collecting spheres to upgrade your stats gets boring quick. There aren't even any interesting characters in the game. At all. The game's only characters are the gang lords you kill, and the guy that gives you the order to kill them. Crackdown is mainly a multiplayer game.

 

[HanoverF]

I enjoyed Crackdown as you basically play a cross between the Hulk, Punisher, and the Tick. I liked Saints Row in that the gunplay both in cars and out isn't pure fail like it is in GTA.

 

[psycojester]

Saints Row wasn't a very good GTA clone, but it did have a nice final twist in its storyline.

After the stereotypical evil land developer tricks you into assassinating the chief of police and essentially assuring his victory in the mayoral election and allowing him to demolish the ghetto (the fiend ). In the final message your character is sent out to his private yacht in order to meet with him and basically hear how you've screwed yourself and your friends over.

Just when you think its going to switch to the standard boss fight mission, there's an explosion. Turns out your friends had worked some of this out and used the meeting as opportunity for a perfect shot at the evil land developer and that killing you along with him was an acceptable loss.

Also don't play True Crime, its total shit, both of them are.

I do hear good things about Crackdown though. Its basically playing as a Super Powered cop in a GTA style free-roaming city.

You actually survive that explosion. If what I've heard is correct, the guy you create in the sequel is supposed to be the guy you played as in the 1st Saints Row.

Could somebody please tell me what was wrong with having my nameless nobody dying at the end of the game? Its not like he has a fanbase crying out for his return and as it was his death kinda managed to mean something.

Also something else i just remembered sucked in Saints Row were the driving missions where you had to escape a pursuing enemy, basically it didn't matter what fucking car you chose. You could show up in a dodge viper or a school bus, the enemies would always travel at the exact same speed as your car. Its really fucking irritating when you go to the effort of stealing one of the top of the line sports cars only to have gang-bangers in beaten up station wagons reeling it in on the freeway.

 

[Starwars]

I think I'll try the games available for PC first. Good suggestions though.

I might give Boiling Point a try despite the fact that opinions seems to vary a lot on the game.

And I just have to ask about Mafia. What exactly made this game a "classic"? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the slightly different take on the GTA formula, with trying to abide traffic laws more (and of course the overall feel of the cars), the Godfather style and the pretty nice story. It just didn't grab ahold of me.
To bad cause I was quite excited about it after hearing so much good stuff.

Did I miss something by not playing this game at its release? Sometimes you just "had to be there".

 

[Fat Dragon]

Also, I've never played the game, but I hear The Getaway for PS2 is a good game.

 

[corvax]

Play the original, designed for PC, Grand Theft Auto. Think you can still find it on Abandonia.

 

[NiM82]

Quarantine, not quite in the same mould but awesome nevertheless.

 

[ghostdog]

True crime tired and failed miserably, don't waste your time. Mafia gives you freedom to mess around, only after you finish the main game. Too bad it didn't capture your attention, it's a very good game and it's similarities with GTA are mostly superficial. It lacks the freedom but it has nice atmosphere and far better story-missions than GTA.

Have you tried GTA I+II ? They are great fun, if you don't mind the top down view. Fact is that not even one GTA clone is even close to the original.

 

[Rhett Butler]

Never played it, but True Crime: Street of L.A is what you looking for.

If what you are looking for is laughable b - grade nonsense. Do not buy this game. Send me postage and I will give you my copy for free.

Although everyone hates it for raping the (very good but overrated) movie and having a combat system that can be difficult to get used to (if you happen to be retarded), The Godfather game is a pretty cool GTA clone. If you forget that is a game about Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour The Godfather and just play it as a game, you will see that it has a lot to offer. Does the SGLF do console games?

 

[Shoelip]

But in True Crime you could stop random people on the street and frisk them!

So why hasn't anyone mentioned Just Cause yet? It was a fairly fun fairly flawed sort of mix between GTA and Far Cry.

Also, the thing about Mafia is that it's not really a GTA-like. It's actually a third person shooter with lots of different cars set in a large city. If you're looking for GTA style gameplay Mafia isn't it.

 

[Zyrxil]

I think I'll try the games available for PC first. Good suggestions though.

I might give Boiling Point a try despite the fact that opinions seems to vary a lot on the game.

And I just have to ask about Mafia. What exactly made this game a "classic"? Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the slightly different take on the GTA formula, with trying to abide traffic laws more (and of course the overall feel of the cars), the Godfather style and the pretty nice story. It just didn't grab ahold of me.
To bad cause I was quite excited about it after hearing so much good stuff.

Did I miss something by not playing this game at its release? Sometimes you just "had to be there".

It had a fantastically well told and well written story, the textures and graphics were very much top of the line at the time of release, great voice acting, great atmosphere that was 90% authentic to the time period, and very "solid" driving and gunplay as oppose to the fast slidey feel of GTA. Plus the missions were a lot less straightforward and much more interesting.

So why hasn't anyone mentioned Just Cause yet? It was a fairly fun fairly flawed sort of mix between GTA and Far Cry.

Because Just Cause is just 1 town copy and pasted 90 times over 500 square miles of procedurely generated terrain, 90% of which you never have to visit, even during the game's very short main plot (and there are no side missions). Its one redeeming feature was a large and varied selection of helicopters, planes, and jets to play around with.

 

[El Dee]

I highly recommend Bully. It's one of the few games I've played all the way through in the last couple of years.

It is easy and pretty mindless but also great fun. I wasted a lot of time just running around and starting random fights sorta like in GTA where you try to accumulate as many stars as possible without getting busted or killed.

 

[Gnidrologist]

Hmm.. there was also this Scarface thing game released year or two ago. I think it was supposed to be GTAish. Anyone played it?

 

[El Dee]

Hmm.. there was also this Scarface thing game released year or two ago. I think it was supposed to be GTAish. Anyone played it?

I didn't play it but I watched my friend play it a lot. It seemed like an OK GTA clone but nothing I ever considered playing myself.

 

[Andyman Messiah]

Scarface was okay. You had a button that made Tony swear.