GTA clones - any good?

[Erkki]

I've heard about there being lots of GTA clones at E3... did any of them seem any good?

What about the existing ones? I don't know how much they can be considered good, but I hear The Getaway, True Crime are similar.

I've played Mafia and loved it. I wouldn't consider it a GTA clone, though -- it's quite different (though I actually wish it WAS more like GTA in some respect).

[Lama Himself]

I don't see lots of GTA clone this year, there was more last year with true crime, the new gameplay of Jak II etc ...

I only see getaway 2 which seems pretty similar to the first one (slow car physics, and avergae gameplay). I hope they will continue to improve it because they are very far from GTA.

There is also dead rush where you drive a car in a city full of zombie and monster but it's not really a GTA clone.

[Guest James]

lec's mercenaries seems to be in the same vein as gta, though i could be hoping too far.

[Chris]

lec's mercenaries seems to be in the same vein as gta, though i could be hoping too far.

Mercenaries is much more destruction-based than GTA. From what we saw at E3, it looks to be something of a stress-reliever. You load up the game, and you have a million and a half ways to destroy a city. Honestly, in person it looks a lot better than I expected it to.

[Guest James]

Interesting. Edge seemed quite interested in it as well, which suprised me. I assumed it was a rapid response to snm2 cancellation, but would appear I was mistaken.

[Chris]

Well, don't expect anything extraordinarily deep or revolutionary. Its main draw is what appears to be an awesome physics engine and highly destructable environments. As Jake was saying at E3, it's sort of what Armed and Dangerous should(/could) have been, without the humour.

[Guest James]

And also sans the world turning upside down gun, I'd imagine. No, the days of me expecting something revolutionary from LEC are long gone i'm afraid. Destructable environments have enjoyed a bad press since the woefully inept Red Faction "dig up, stupid!" Hopefully with a good physics engine, this could go some way to redressing the balance.

[Jake]

Its weird that people think things like an entire game announcement could be a rapid response to a game cancellation. Mercenaries popped up mere weeks (days?) after Sam & Max 2 got killed, with full screenshots, gameplay descriptions, concept art, etc, and the "Free Agent" rumors had been floating around long before Sam & Max got the axe. (Free Agent was the codename for Mercenaries)

[Guest James]

its timing was hardly coincidental though. id wager if no cancellation it would have been 'unveiled" in the usual fashion at e3, which was a suprising small deal this year for lec.

[StarEye]

They were probably afraid of angry adventuregamers screaming for Sam and Max.

But seriously, you would have thought a gamedeveloper in trouble would make the most of the PR it gets at a big show like E3. They obviously didn't think it was necessary, but if they want Mercenaries to be a big hit, then they have to market it too. It's not a Star Wars title, so it can't rely on that. Kick the marketing staff, who must be doing nothing these days. They're obiously busy playing the near-complete version of Sam and Max 2 and having more fun with that, rather than trying to get the company back on feet again with some actual work.

[schepton]

They were probably afraid of angry adventuregamers screaming for Sam and Max.

But seriously, you would have thought a gamedeveloper in trouble would make the most of the PR it gets at a big show like E3. They obviously didn't think it was necessary, but if they want Mercenaries to be a big hit, then they have to market it too. It's not a Star Wars title, so it can't rely on that. Kick the marketing staff, who must be doing nothing these days. They're obiously busy playing the near-complete version of Sam and Max 2 and having more fun with that, rather than trying to get the company back on feet again with some actual work.

Let's all just agree that LucasArts is evil, and killing off our most beloved game characters ever.

[Dr Edison 007]

To get back on topic (I can't say anything about LEC that hasn't been said) The Simpsons Hit & Run is a pretty good GTA, but I'm a fan of The Simpsons so my word may not be so trustworthy.