The year is 1998, a little game called Grand Theft Auto gets published by Take2 and developed by DMA Design for the Sony Playstation and PC. Controversy sparked, the media was all over GTA, due to its high graphic nature of blood, such as; brutally killing people, throwing them on train tracks, running them over with a car, and many more typical city-like behavior that many of us have become accustomed to. Heck GTA was so hot, that even MSNBC aimed at it with their report on violent videogames being targeted at children. I personally loved 'every single minute of GTA, and can't stress that enough. GTA is just one of those games that you'll play ages to come, and the fact that it wasn't a visually pleasing game to look at, proves it even further that graphics don't equal gameplay. So it's another year, and it would be obvious another GTA game. This one was sadly a bore, the cars took too long to fully accelerate and the overall fun just felt downgraded. But I forgave Take2, they still released the London 1969 add-on for both PC and PSOne, and I thought that the game was quite amusing, a lot like the first GTA. Well as we enter our new world, full of millions of polygons, it was definite that the next GTA would be 3D, and word came from DMA's mouth that the thought was in high consideration. So it was clear that GTA3 would be in development, in 3D, and thankfully on the PS2. Just recently DMA got the covers off, and showed us all GTA3. And here I am delivering you the screenshots and a preview with everything to expect.

  Judging by these screenshots, the graphics engine seems to have been finalized and may only be needing touch-ups here and there. Overall though, I think the game looks unbelievably good, its car detail is solid, and the surroundings -though not as great as say... The Getaway- look great as well. The buildings are superbly designed, everything from window sills to the individual brick layerings can be easily made out by the human eye. With stages like Liberty City, which is pretty much a cover-up name for New York City, you can expect to see tons and tons of textures, buildings being the most amongst all. The car detail is no Gran Turismo, but these fictional vehicles do look quite intriguing, and I can't wait to get my hands on one of them. Albeit, don't rule out the possibility of coming across a vehicle that looks similar to real life car with a different name. Hopefully Rockstar/Take2 will supply us with more screens of GTA3, so I can speak more freely about the visuals. 

  I figured that it would be way too much to write the gameplay portion of the preview, so I decided to break up the features into a list. The information below was provided by Gouranga!, thanks to them you the readers will know what to expect.

- One massive city to explore with three distinct sections, Brooklyn/Queens (mostly industrial), Manhattan (mostly commercial), and New Jersey (suburban). All the sections are connected to each other by trains, tunnels, bridges, and even ferries. 

- Advanced ped AI which allows them interact with each other and the player. The AI also allows them to go about their business even when the player isn't on screen. 

- Full 3D graphics engine designed specifically for GTA3 featuring day/night cycles, real time lighting, weather effects, 20 peds on screen at one time, and multiple camera angles.

- There are 45 vehicles in the game with 4 to 5 variations on each vehicle, all based on the physics of their real life counterparts. Each car features 18 damage points that can fall off or you can go all the way and blow up the entire car. 

- Working public transportation including trains, ferries, taxis and possibly busses. 

- A full arsenal of weaponry including baseball bats, pistols, sniper rifles, shotguns, Uzis, machine guns, rocket launchers, flame throwers, grenades, Molotov Cocktails, and more. 

- Melee combat is also supported with the ability to punch, kick, head butt, and knee people (yes you can knee a guy in the balls if you want). 

- Special alternate fire modes for some weapons. The sniper rifle features a zoom mode when you use the scope. 

- Targeting system allowing you to lock your target on the toughest opponent and then scroll through the various other enemies around you. 

- Interactive radio with different cars tuned to different stations (just like GTA) featuring up to 50 plus songs. 

  Here's what you'll be using as your weapons, it's certainly better than five weapons you were able to have in GTA 1&2. And yes that is my side-commentary in the parentheses.

Punch 
Kick 
Knee (Cool, hehe) 
Headbutt (Kick ass Dennis Rodman style)
Baseball Bat (Kick ass like my 9th grade dean... errr... don't ask)
Pistol (If only O.J. was in this game...)
Shotgun 
Sniper Rifle (Execution SolidSnake style, no not me!) 
Uzi (Hehehe, Uzi, hehehe) 
Machine Gun (Execution Gabe Logan style)
Rocket Launcher (A GTA classic) 
Flame Thrower (An excellent way to get those pesky cops off of your tail)
Grenade (Cool explosives)
Molotov Cocktail (Cool another explosive)

And finally here is the list of vehicles/vehicle types expected to appear in GTA3. 

Squad Car 
Ambulance 
Fire Engine 
Stretch Limo 
School Bus 
Ferrari Testarossa (Look Alike)
Lotus Esprit (Look Alike)
Taxi 
Compact 
Coupe 
Sedan 
Sports Car 
SUV 
Van 
Mini Van 
Delivery Truck 
Ice Cream Truck
Hummer (Look Alike) 
Boat 
Ship 
Ferry 
Helicopter 
Train- Subway & Elevated

  It may not look like much of a preview, but believe me if I had mixed all of the information into paragraphs, chances are that it would be A) long and B) Not exactly organized. So I just got down to the facts and gave you what you wanted to see. All of this is looking extremely good, GTA3 sounds like it could be my ideal videogame, you've got cars, police, violence, and a mock up of New York City as the game's primary level, things are bound to be amazing. We will try to follow up this GTA3 preview with possibly more screenshots, and who knows, maybe a hands-on preview *fingers crossed*.