Off-Topic: The Crime Setting For Video Games | Forums

[Assault_machine]

Crime is a very popular setting in video games. It was much popularized after GTA III came out, when other developers started to realize that they can push the level of freedom further. Soon there'd be games like Driv3r, The Getaway, True Crime: Streets of LA, and Mafia. These were, perhaps, the most familiar games that go along with what elements Rockstar North started implementing since GTA III. Some of these titles actually did well (Mafia, True Crime: Streets of LA) while others failed (The Getaway and Driv3r) at not only making themselves popular, but also at being good, overall.

Mafia & The Getaway are perhaps the most different from the GTA franchise because of much more of a focus on narrative than on non-linearity, so they can be considered linear games. Mafia was the better one of the two, as it really pushed the plot for a gangster's life further and, at the same time, had some very fined tuned gameplay, mainly because of the fact that it was the most realistic gangster experience at that time. Team SOHO created The Getaway, trying to replicate what Mafia was able to do, but failed at it, as the narrative could be called the only really nice experience for the game while many of the gameplay elements were annoying and just downright boring. Driv3r could also be considered a linear game, as it did have a main menu and focused on the story the most, but it also can fit in the non-linear section because you're not forced to play through the story, due to the other modes which include TAR mode and minigames.

For those developers whose games did follow the exact footsteps of the GTA franchise, they tried to be as much of Rockstar North as possible. No game could go any deeper than the GTA games, in terms of freedom, so it seems that no developer was ever able to outsmart Rockstar North. Reflections tried to follow as much of Rockstar North's as possible in Driv3r and failed in doing so. The game ended up too full of glitches, lesser in improvement for a Driver game, and just had been so boring, enough that it garnered negatives reviews and a great deal of criticism. Driver: Parallel Lines tried to be enough more like a GTA game and while it did not end up as full of glitches and was less linear (having no main menu), it wasn't enough to make it a very worthy title. The titles that perhaps did well the most were True Crime: Streets of LA and Saint's Row because they did improve over the formula, in certain ways.

The following is a list of every game set in a world of crime, both those which have come out and those that we've heard will be coming out:

- Quarantine

- Grand Theft Auto

- Grand Theft Auto: London 1969

- Driver

- Grand Theft Auto II

- Driver 2

- Grand Theft Auto III

- Mafia

- The Getaway

- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

- Driv3r

- The Getaway: Black Monday

- True Crime: Streets of LA

- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

- Narc

- True Crime: New York City

- Saint's Row

- Crackdown

- GTA IV

- Mafia 2

- next-gen Driver (no title yet)

If I've missed any games that deal with a city filled with crime, please make it clear. Also, I'm so sorry for the long post.

[Assault_machine]

Crime is a very popular setting in video games. It was much popularized after GTA III came out, when other developers started to realize that they can push the level of freedom further. Soon there'd be games like Driv3r, The Getaway, True Crime: Streets of LA, and Mafia. These were, perhaps, the most familiar games that go along with what elements Rockstar North started implementing since GTA III. Some of these titles actually did well (Mafia, True Crime: Streets of LA) while others failed (The Getaway and Driv3r) at not only making themselves popular, but also at being good, overall.

Mafia & The Getaway are perhaps the most different from the GTA franchise because of much more of a focus on narrative than on non-linearity, so they can be considered linear games. Mafia was the better one of the two, as it really pushed the plot for a gangster's life further and, at the same time, had some very fined tuned gameplay, mainly because of the fact that it was the most realistic gangster experience at that time. Team SOHO created The Getaway, trying to replicate what Mafia was able to do, but failed at it, as the narrative could be called the only really nice experience for the game while many of the gameplay elements were annoying and just downright boring. Driv3r could also be considered a linear game, as it did have a main menu and focused on the story the most, but it also can fit in the non-linear section because you're not forced to play through the story, due to the other modes which include TAR mode and minigames.

For those developers whose games did follow the exact footsteps of the GTA franchise, they tried to be as much of Rockstar North as possible. No game could go any deeper than the GTA games, in terms of freedom, so it seems that no developer was ever able to outsmart Rockstar North. Reflections tried to follow as much of Rockstar North's as possible in Driv3r and failed in doing so. The game ended up too full of glitches, lesser in improvement for a Driver game, and just had been so boring, enough that it garnered negatives reviews and a great deal of criticism. Driver: Parallel Lines tried to be enough more like a GTA game and while it did not end up as full of glitches and was less linear (having no main menu), it wasn't enough to make it a very worthy title. The titles that perhaps did well the most were True Crime: Streets of LA and Saint's Row because they did improve over the formula, in certain ways.

The following is a list of every game set in a world of crime, both those which have come out and those that we've heard will be coming out:

- Quarantine

- Grand Theft Auto

- Grand Theft Auto: London 1969

- Driver

- Grand Theft Auto II

- Driver 2

- Grand Theft Auto III

- Mafia

- The Getaway

- Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

- Driv3r

- The Getaway: Black Monday

- True Crime: Streets of LA

- Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

- Narc

- True Crime: New York City

- Saint's Row

- Crackdown

- GTA IV

- Mafia 2

- next-gen Driver (no title yet)

If I've missed any games that deal with a city filled with crime, please make it clear. Also, I'm so sorry for the long post.

[driver_madness]

True Crime: Streets of LA; I never thought was even close to popular and remember driv3r did sell 2.5 million copies on it's first week of sales.

The Grand Theft Auto series could have so much more, if it had more time, more money and many more experienced developers.

I think GTA so far is only touching the surface of what's to come in the gaming world. As the industry becomes more popular the more time/money developers can spend on these games.

Until a game becomes popular developers are quite limited to what they can do. The Driver series was pretty much ruined with atari's funding problems and hopefully ubisoft can fix that all back up (funding wise).

[InsaneDriver06]

True Crime NYC and LA both had a limited, crappy on foot camera view, which kind of ruined the experience a bit. You could zoom out, and zoom in only so far, nothing as good as GTA's 3 different camera views of close, medium, far.

But I really rather have an over the shoulder view RE4 style. Nothing brings the gamer into the action more, next to a FPS view. And then they could throw in a 3rd person view to see the character fully.

The camera is the number one way a player experiences the game. If the camera sucks, I don't play the game very long. Spider-Man 2 and 3 for example both had horrible camera views, too far from the character, resulting in a mild, dull experience tamed by a "safe, distant viewpoint" to experience the game. I want to be IN the game, not watching the character from a safe spot above or too far away.

The camera is seriously important. An interior dash view MUST also be in Driver 4, 5.

[JacksonL2007]

View in the next driver should be:
On-foot:
3rd person, 1st person and FPS view not mention the 3rd person view should be a complete 360 degres viewable and u should be able to zoom in/out like in DPL

In Vehicle:
3rd person also with 360 degree view
In dash view and the classic nose view

[InsaneDriver06]

<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">Originally posted by JacksonL2007:
View in the next driver should be:
On-foot:
3rd person, 1st person and FPS view not mention the 3rd person view should be a complete 360 degres viewable and u should be able to zoom in/out like in DPL

In Vehicle:
3rd person also with 360 degree view
In dash view and the classic nose view </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

Those are good views. I'll throw in some extras, as the more views a player has, the more they'll play the game if it's good.

On Foot Camera Views:
RE4 Over the Shoulder view
Standard 3rd person view
FPS view

In Vehicle/sportbike Camera views:
FP view (no car/dash/just road)
Interior Dash View (A MUST)
Front Hood view
Roof view/over the shoulder exterior
3rd person close view
3rd person medium view
3rd person helicopter view(like from a real highway chase on the news).
3rd person zoomed view(where the foreground looks up close compared to a normal view).

TDU has some great views for the vehicle cameras that Driver should include.

[Assault_machine]

Yes, it's true that both of the True Crime games had a bad third-person camera view. It would've been a lot better to have it positioned behind the character, much like in the GTA games and that you could turn the game to where you desire as well. Even though True Crime: Streets of LA had mostly positive reviews and was better than True Crime: New York City (check out this review as part 1 of 4 at YouTube), but a big flaw about it was that many of its elements for the gameplay looked interesting, but didn't end up very decent at all. Also, the part of the story in the game, where you fight zombies and other creatures didn't make very much sense at all, as it later brings you back to playing as a cop, pretending as if it never happened, so the way that the story connects it is very unreasonable and is quite confusing as well. You have to then stop to think and say to yourself, "why was this included in the game?" It just was something that really made the story worse.

We do need more camera views, but they must be done correctly and they all must feel good to play with, as opposed to having players abandon the other camera views. If there is a third-person view (along with an over-the-shoulder view like in RE4 & the Splinter Cell games, when trying to shoot someone or something) and a FPS view as well, this could be enough, especially if it's done really well, but we could have even more camera views too. And yes, we definitely are going to need the Interior dash view for when driving inside of any vehicle in the game because the really big games, like GT5 & PGR4, are having those features. Even Test Drive Unlimited had that as a camera view. If Reflections is to leave out the interior dash view in the next game, I think that the most of us will be pretty disappointed with that.

[InsaneDriver06]

Is this DSF story again about busting the organized crime syndicates who deal illegally or steal cars? I hope we get something original this time around. It's just not very exciting doing all this undercover work to once again try to bust some dealers. Maybe something more epic, even if it's been done before. World domination maybe. The meaner and more powerful the villain, the better the story. I hope Jericho steps it up this time...

[PeaceMaker_101]

Speaking of powerful people, why has nobody ever considered making a game that involves a very powerful, royal family like the Thurn und Taxis, Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, etc.? For once, it would be interesting to see a conspiracy theory-like game, where one of these families (or many of them) controls the government, crime, and much of the world's economy. According to many sources, the top 1% control 90% of the world's wealth, so this is not so far from the whole truth, actually. That isn't something that most open-ended crime stories have to offer. And it'd be a whole lot more interesting than seeing another story that involves Jericho or cars only (Driv3r comes to mind).

http://www.google.com/search?h...&oq=top+1%25+control

This may seem a bit random, but I didn't know that Anderson Cooper is part of the Vanderbilt family.

[InsaneDriver06]

Interesting. I wonder if the heirs to their wealth or power would oppose a game about their family history or influence being retold in a new light. It probably would work best for past history, say over 200 years ago or more.

From what I've played, Assassin's Creed more or less retells history and those in control of it, but they're probably mostly fictional characters, excluding the use of Da Vinci's flying machine in part 2.