Grand Theft Auto: Advance....Who else is playing this?!?!

[Kamino]

Earlier this week, I picked up GTA: Advance. It was in stock the day AFTER San Andreas came in, meaning I had to make ANOTHER long trek from plymouth to sheboygan to get it. That's a 15 minute drive and a lot of gas.
Totally.worth.it.
Now, some may look at the top down viewpoint, and scream "gta1 and 2 clone!" but, this game fixes the problems i had with the first two games.
Problem from GTA on psx: Saving the game is a pain. Costs money in gta2, can only be done after a certain number of missions in gta1.
Solution in GTA:A: You can "Save and quit" anywhere, losing only your progress in the current mission, or save at your hideouts - since it takes place in liberty city, it's fairly easy to get a feel of where things are.
PSX PROBLEM: Controls sucked. IIRC, movement is accomplished by holding down a button and then steering your character.
GBA FIX: Movement is SIMPLE. move with the D pad!

PSX PROBLEM: Camera CONSTANTLY zooms in and out with your vehicle speed, to a level that i would imagine could cause dizziness
GBA FIX: Camera can be set fixed at low, medium, or high height, or left on auto. I leave it on auto as the changes do not seem that bad.


Altogether, the controls are quite intuitive, the storyline flows well, and the game is FUN. The mafia theme is in full swing, unlike Ghetto Theft Auto San Andreas.

I was anticipating this title for a long time, and it is getting as much play as, if not more play than, San Andreas. Hidden packages are a bit too easy to find though....I found the first fifteen without hardly looking...or maybe the Vice City hunt for packages sharpened my hunting skiill....

Anyhoo. is anyone else playing this hardcore gba game?

[SegaAges]

i was thinking about it. now that you say how good it is, iit will be a game that i pick up. how close is it to gta3?

i know it takes place in lc, but does it keep with the same gta3 story and everything, or is it different?

[videogameking26]

Just got the another day, played a bit of it tonight..pretty fun

[Brian_Provinciano]

I absolutely love GTA Advance as well! It wasn't available when I picked up San Andreas either, so I had to make a second trip. It was definitely worth it though! I had been waiting it for so long, but after DSI Games' delay after delay, Crawfish going under, and everything else, I didn't believe it would ever come out--until they released the screen shots about a month ago.

It's a lot like GTA1, with much the same feel. However, it's got much more of a GTA3 theme and landscape than the original GTA1 & 2, which is great! I've been playing it just as much as San Andreas and am looking forward to unlocking all of the cities.

They've put a lot into GTA Advance. One thing is that I've found the street races to be very well done. Far superior to Midnight Club Advance done by DSI games. I bought MCA because I love Rockstar Games, but I can't stand to play it :). MC2 on the PS2 is one of my favorite games though, it's just that GBA version. You can also bail out of the moving vehicle like in Vice City in GTA Advance. Another feature it has over GTA1-2 is that the cars can now tilt and flip over. It's pretty snazzy!

I was a huge fan of the originals as well (especially GTA2), so it's very comfortable. I started playing GTA on the PC, and although I picked up the collection of GTA1,London,2 for the PSX, the controls didn't feel as comfortable. It could be due to the fact that I was used to the PC ones though. I'm a console gamer, but absolutely love GTA2 on the PC. It still holds up well. Nothing beats it's insane stunts! The graphics were also beatiful. Very clean and antialiased. GTA2 was such a good game, I bought my PS2 purely for GTA3 since I couldn't wait for PC version. I've bought more PS2 game since, though my game library is about 90% Rockstar games, heh.

[Kamino]

i was thinking about it. now that you say how good it is, iit will be a game that i pick up. how close is it to gta3?

i know it takes place in lc, but does it keep with the same gta3 story and everything, or is it different?
The streets bear SOME similarity to the gta3 map.....just the neighbourhood layout really.
The storyline is totally new.

[downfall]

I think Target has this on sale right now for $25.

[jaybird]

I have this one ahead of San Andreas on my "to buy" list.

[Cauterize]

ive had a quick go at it.. thought it was quite good...
but im waiting for Brian_Provinciano's Nes one ;)

[jerkov]

I'm really interested in this game, just haven't put out the cash to get it yet. I'm a big fan of GTA 1 & 2, so I don't think getting into this game will be any problem.

Most of my time is still devoted to San Andreas however.......I might hold off on GTA Advance until Christmas.

[Brian_Provinciano]

Thanks cauterize :)

As for this GBA game, I've heard people complaining about the framerate, but it's perfectly smooth to me. I'm looking forward to Payback GBA as well, but it's going to run at about half of the framerate of GTA GBA, so if people have a problem with GTA, I dunno! I also heard complaints about Driver 2 Advance's framerate... but I bought that game as well, and had no complaints either. It wasn't as good as GTA Advance, but it was still a good game.

I myself would rather have better gameplay than a smoother framerate. I can't understand people who won't play a game because they feel the framerate it too weak, but maybe it's just me.

They've sure put a lot of the little details in GTA Advance... was just playing it some more. I just love it!

[petewhitley]

I played through the first few missions (I'll wait until I finish San Andreas for more), but I really like what they've done with this one. Seems like a nice update to to GTA 1 & 2's style. Lots of little refinements to the 2D formula, all of them appreciated. It should definitely help ease the withdrawls after I finish San Andreas.

[PS2Hawk]

Awesome game, I finished it on 28th after playing it forlike 27 hours. I havn't touched my ps2 since then but now I bought Smackdown vs Raw... its aweosme.

[Pedro Lambrini]

I'm one of the people who doesn't like the framerate. If I play for more than 10 minutes I start getting a soar head - not the game's fault really, I have bad eyes. Having said that though I probably prefer it to GTA: SA. I've always had a soft spot for top-down games, don't know why. The presentation is pretty slick and the story is quite fun. All in all, I'd recommend it to anybody with a GBA.

I'm also waiting for Payback (any day now!). I hope the framerate isn't too bad - I've been wanting this game since it came out on the Miggy and my computer blew up (literally!). :)