Gta 3

[Stanley]

I'm wondering if anyone has picked up a copy of Grand Theft Auto 3 for the PC. I got a copy, and I know Greg has one. I'm only wondering because it plays rather poorly on my machine and last I heard, Greg's as well. So I was wondering if anyone else had tried.

Besides, the issues with getting it to run well, the game is excellent. Good music, good gameplay, in general a lot of fun.
What do y'all think.

[-D12-_LMN8R]

I've heard that it was yet another sloppy port of a quality PS2 game. Problems such as it slowing down to as low as 10fps on an XP 2100+ with a GeForce 3 Ti500. I haven't tried it on my computer yet (2100+ w/GeForce4 Ti4600, 512 megs ram), but judging by some of the things I've heard, I'd expect it to slow down on my computer as well. Also I've heard many things about problems with certain gamepads, but I don't remember exactly what.

[wzoo1]

The problem is that you need a 3d graphic card(Nvidia recommended) and a fast cpu. It's running at a slow fps because you need to download/install the new nvidia windows drivers which provide a lot of 3d gaming acceleration to your graphic card and the fps in think will go up... Never played this game before... Is it good???

[Stanley]

Actually, will, it's a lot more complicated than that. If you check out www.gta3forums.com under Troubleshooting and Opptimization, you'll find out that there is something inherently wrong with the program. It's not about having a fast cpu and an nVidia graphics card. There are people with tricked out gaming rigs (AMD xp 2100's and g4ti 4600) who can't get more than about 10 fps. And it has been proven that updating your drivers won't necissarily fix your problem. I'm at least fortunate enough to get it to play at a reasonable framerate. It's just not as pretty looking as I would have liked.

[GPeszek]

Yeah, my brother got it to work (1700+, ATI All In Wonder 32 [the bad chipset, not the Radeons], 256) and its running alright. Hes got it on the lowest resoultion and detail settings and the biggest complaint is the choppiness and "lag spikes" at times.

Myself on the otherhand (P4 1500, GeForce2 GTS 32, 256)...I keep getting the stupid "12MB required" messages, even though I have a 32 meg card. Doesn't make sense, but I'm wiping this computer next week and starting from scratch. We'll see if that helps out.

[wzoo1]

Or you can overclock your Nvidia Graphic Card(It's possible) by using software. The overclocking is done by a registry patch(downloadable on many websites) and the overclocking is actually hidden in the latest nvidia drivers. Maybe you should overclock your graphic card, but remember NOT TO OVERCLOCK IT TOO MUCH BECAUSE IF YOU DO THAT YOU WILL OVERHEAT AND FRY YOUR GRAPHIC CARD!!!!!!!!!!!!

[jyorke]

overclocking isn't going to help a game which gets 10fps on uber rigs. Only a fix in the code (and thus a rather extenive patch) could fix it.

[GPeszek]

Yeah, I tried overclocking my Geforce2, didn't get that much performace gains (maybe +2% on 3dMark2001 SE). I think increasing my RAM is going to help with game performance more than a vid card upgrade.

[benwalburg]

http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif Greetings....Yeha I played the game on my (pent. 4 1.5 geforce 3 500 with 640 mb of rdram) and it was really lame...I was suprised...They need a huge patch..or better yet...GTA 4 with better time spent programming...(will...I downloaded the reg. crack..and it allowes for the "hardwear" tab..but it isn't the best...your best downloading, PStrip..or motherboard monitor 6 for best result...PStrip is realy cool though...

p.s. sanyo mobo's rock for overclocking... ttyl

i got it a couple days and i had to go through some patches to get it working, but now it runs smoothly on windows xp with no problems. Make sure you get the xp patch mentioned on the forums.

[wzoo1]

I just got the PC version of the game now! There is also a PS2 version! http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/smile.gif THE GAME ROCKS!!! Its excellent and the graphics ROCK!!! NOTE: If your running Windows XP like me, you need to get a patch to improve the graphics like it says in the ReadMe. I really like this game now and play a LOT!!!

[-D12-_LMN8R]

I just bought the game yesterday, and on my XP 2100+ and Ti4600 it runs like a charm Â* http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/tounge.gif

As 100000 other people mentioned, you need to get the XP patch. Â*I've played it for about 3 hours total, and I've only done about 4 missions, lol. Â*It's so much fun just hijacking taxis and playing a game of Crazy Taxi, or getting a police car and stopping people, ambulence and rescuing people etc. etc. Â*

About performance computer wise, here is what I've heard on both Gamespot's review AND PC Gamer's review. Â*You can have a P3 600 with a GeForce 3 and it'll run smoothly, but there are problems with it running on a GeForce 2, even if you have a 1.3+GHz computer. Â*Even though the graphics aren't THAT special (just enhanced PS2 blurry textures etc.), it's still a good-looking game. Â*The look doesn't warrent the huge system requirements, but the game DOES deserve your money!!! Â*Get it!!

BTW - those who are planning on warezing, trust me - it doesn't work to well. Â*I tried it with two different cracks. Â*One didn't let me load saved games, and the 2nd I tried allowed me to load saved games......but the game constantly crashed after about two minutes of play. Â*Circuit City has it on sale for $35 this week, and it is EASILY the best $35 you could spend on a game right now. Â*Of course, if you already have it on PS2, don't bother......but if you have a decent PC - GET THIS GAME!!!!!!!!

Yes GTA 3 rocks, ive had it for a bit now, im on the third island quite fun, i was able to park the dodo in my second island garage (only one it fits in), i am getting quite good at flying it;) haha wana try something cool on the second island get in the back of one of the trucks with a big backs (the army type cargo trucks) then shoot with a pistol the car and it will drive you around the city, get a m16 and just kill anything that approaches:)

As for pirating it, I have the full version fully working so you can just get it burned from me when you get to caen:)

[Stanley]

Actually, lemme give you the scoop on a few things about gta3 for the PC. First, it's not about processor, ram, and video card. It's about complete setup, and a lot of luck. I read the forum www.gta3forums.com and there have been lot of people with systems like Jordan's that get incredibly choppy framerates at the lowest resolution at 16 bit color (even with the patch).

As for warezing it, trust me, if you get the right patch, it'll run just fine. I've been able to load/save and play for hours. It's just a matter of doing things correctly.

Personally, I'd say go ahead and wait for a patch for the game to come out before getting this game. It's still way to buggy. This engine is about two steps shy of needing a complete rewrite. To give you an idea, both Rockstar and Take 2 have recognized the fact that there are HUGE playability issues with the game (you shouldn't need all the latest hardware to run a game that says the recomended system is a p3 700 with 256 memory and 32 megs of video memory). If you wanna play it now, your best bet is to actually find a warez copy or copy a friends cd's, because right now, it's not worth the CD's it's stamped on.

[wzoo1]

To stanley:
The warez, friends copy copyied with a cd burner isn't going to work unless you use a patch to patch the game exe like i did(to bypass it!http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif... The game cd uses Safedisk v2 cd copy protection technology... I know all about this...(the protection is embeded into every cd...)

if you get a group rip you get quality;) As stan said the game is definately buggy, UE's happen every now and then and are quite horrid. As he also said the saving issue was fixed within days of the professional warez release of it. http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/wink.gif

[-D12-_LMN8R]

That's pretty sad about how buggy it really is http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/confused.gif

So yea, I'd also recommend finding a warez version just to make sure that it actually WORKS on your computer. After that, if it works flawlessly don't worry about buying it, lol. Rockstar and Take Two don't deserve any sort of profit for such a crappy port of an awesome game.

[Stanley]

Dear wzoo,
thanks for the info, I probably should have added that for those not down with warez. I knew how to do it, but i guess some people actually buy the games they play and might not know.

[GPeszek]

My new RAM and HD should be here either tomorrow or monday, so I'll add 'em and see if I can't get GTA to be happy with my box for a change.

I bought it. Great game. No bugs... Dunno what you are talking about =)

[EvilPlushToy]

YOU'RE WORKING FOR THEM!!!

[-D12-_LMN8R]

Humph, even with my legal copy, the game seems to like to freeze up randomly. I played for like an hour and a half and lost it all. Yes I should've been smart and saved sometime in there, but the game shouldn't have been dumb on me http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif

Hmmm... I do seem to get memory leaks when I alt tab or change proccess' mid game. However, I think thats only expected in himem applications... (w00t throwing out the d0s termz ;P)... anyhow, I think crashing every once in a while is almost...expected of games today. Or at the very least, accepted.
btw: i WISH I worked for them ;-)

[Stanley]

Crashing and memory leaks are NEVER acceptable. And the kind of issues that GTA3 has been having are unacceptable. If you allow game companies to produce faulty stuff, things will just get worse.

[-D12-_LMN8R]

Well I kept my saved games and reinstalled the games, no hang-ups so far. I'll keep trying it. I haven't heard of that many people with the crashes I have. Graphical glitches/performance issues - absolutely, and those aren't acceptable. But as for the crashes, not many.

PS - kows needs more memory http://campcaen.engin.umich.edu/iB_html/non-cgi/emoticons/biggrin.gif I alt-tabbed in and out of the game like 20 times while I was talking to him with no hang-ups, lol.

my gta3 has become pretty stable resently, haven't had many problems.