Grand Theft Auto for the 3DS?

Sometimes you just get fed up with life, today is one of those days. I can't be Mr Happy all the time, I'm a human, not a Mr Men (Man?).

I'm really sorry if I've offended you or anyone else.

I understand what you mean Martin and you're right. I wasn't focusing on that though, I was making the point that the iPhone has no sticks at all, yet people (Stratman) would play a GTA on that, yet they won't on 3DS or Vita. That makes zero sense to me.

( Edited 11.03.2012 18:51 by Marzy )

Fair enough, my man. You haven't offended me at all, I was just a little taken aback at your cynicism and cutting comments. It looked like one of my posts from years ago, and you don't wanna go down that road. My forum comment will remain. It must be a good few years I've had that up there, don't know if you realise. I was a Marzy-fan long before it became fashionable this week

Give it time, the nest inevitable design for 3DS will include the second stick & a larger screen. That's the sole reason why I haven't bought the circle pad pro since I'm posotive this will happen.

Yeah, I think it's a no-brainer. It'd be kind of a waste of a redesign if they didn't put that second stick into the actual unit. Can't be that hard.

Yup they just need to move some wires over, place a hole in the circut for the second stick or slide pad to go & it's done. If Nintendo feels they need more room then make a larger screen 3DS, bam problem solved.

Also, I imagine in a year or two the parts themselves could be shrunk (smaller PCBs, chips etc). So yeah, it'd be a wasted opportunity if they didn't put the second stick in the unit.

I mean, it's not like I think the GTA series on iPhone/iPad is flawless. For a difficult mission I'd much rather return to the precision of thumb-sticks. But what I was really driving at is that I feel like handheld gaming systems have been completely marginalised by the ability to play similar games on phones and other devices like that.

Why would I buy a Vita or a 3DS when I have a 360 at home? I personally (and I think this is now true for most non-hardcore gamers) can't justify buying a handheld when my iPhone does fine for the odd journey where I actually want to play games on the go.

Having said that, I think Sony have covered that issue by covering all the bases with the Vita (dual sticks being the most important, it's also comparable to current home consoles in power) - so I'm prepared to accept that system as something that stands alongside the current gen as a possible primary gaming platform.

The 3DS on the other hand, is riddled with so many glaring design flaws, that it falls well bellow iOS gaming for me. It's so obviously a secondary gaming system, I don't know why anyone with a home console would want one. If I was a developer looking to get something out into the handheld market - surely iOS is far more attractive than the 3DS. And given we all anticipate a second iteration of the 3DS which fixes the lack of dual analogue and so on. It seems to me, like half a system right now.

And when you're already fighting off Apple, not to mention Sony. I don't understand why you'd make these errors in the first place. Nintendo stunted the 3DS popularity themselves in my opinion. I can't pretend that there's not going to be a decent list of AAA Nintendo titles on the system by next year, but my problem with the 3DS is how its represented. Unlike the Vita, it still acts like a secondary device. And we don't need those anymore, and I don't think developers care about those so much either.

And I don't think Rockstar give two hoots about that sort of platform. Hence, my lack of anticipation for a 3DS GTA.

Thinking about all this makes me miss the original Game Boy..

Nintendo stunted the 3DS popularity themselves in my opinion.

Huh? It was off to a rocky start i'll give you that but it's sold like 15 million units in a year and is actually outpacing the original DS's first years sales.

I don't really understand this "secondary" device stuff your talking about either, as long as it gets some good exclusive games that I want there will be a reason in my mind to own it, same with Vita.

Mr James2t3 said:

Huh? It was off to a rocky start i'll give you that but it's sold like 15 million units in a year and is actually outpacing the original DS's first years sales.

I don't really understand this "secondary" device stuff your talking about either, as long as it gets some good exclusive games that I want there will be a reason in my mind to own it, same with Vita.

Is it really outpacing the DS's first year? Did not know that.

By secondary I mean a handheld is usually considered a secondary purchase, behind a home console. But since Androids and iPhones started handling portable gaming so well, I don't think your average gamer sees too much point in having that secondary device which is specifically designed for gaming anymore. The Vita can be justified more in my mind because it pretty much acts as a home console in your hands. But the 3DS seems less complete, simply because we know at some point there will be another iteration of it with dual analogue sticks. Maybe more..

With that in mind I a) don't see why your typical gamer would be drawn to it right now, and b) I don't think that big developers feel that drawn to the 3DS: a lot of people question whether handhelds gaming devices are a dying bread now that phones and other multimedia devices are handling gaming so easily. That's reflected in both Nintendo and Sony trying to make their systems more multi-media based - it signifies they're know their in competition with Android/iPhone and so on.

The knock-on effect being that big developers may be more interested in making something for iOS than the 3DS. The Vita obviously is better equipped for a home-console-esque GTA experience, but is the 3DS? I don't really see it working out that well. Not that I think they can't, I just think they wouldn't be arsed with it.

But maybe I've bought into all that talk too much. For now developers like Rockstar will be content just porting their classics over to iOS and so on - but give it another few years. Surely smartphones will soon be on par with these current handhelds. I'm sure there's some way they can adapt control schemes even more, and that's already come a long way.

I've now lost all sight of how this is relevant to a 3DS GTA so I'll shut up now.




( Edited 12.03.2012 19:57 by The Strat Man )

I don't think 3DS has much to worry about from developers shunning their system, from Japanese developers anyway, and while western devs will most likely peruse ios devices i'm not sure it particularly matters as they have traditionally shunned or have been very very shit on portables in the past, i mean just look at the PSP/DS/GBA library western developers didn't give much support to those, it's never really been there, except for FIFA or some EA or THQ kiddie branded rubbish.
I think it's perfectly fine to be a "secondary" device, handhelds will never provide a true home console experiences, the Vita is no exception, once next gen systems role around soonish it will look like a last gen system so it needs to rely on providing unique games you can only find on it.

As for iPhone gaming, it will soak up a lot of casual gamers.
I've personally never regarded it as a serious platform I have only played around with my sister ipad and friends iPhones, I don't think I would ever get one as a dedicated game machine.

Edit: Doubt there will ever be a ground up created GTA for 3DS like there was with DS but a multiplatform 3DS/iOS/Vita handheld game maybe, I doubt it though.



( Edited 12.03.2012 23:06 by Mr James2t3 )

Nah so far the 3DS is holding pace against the Vita just like in last gen, but it may be up against stiff competition if sony can regain third party support which won't be easy esspecially with the stories of third party devs opting to drop vita in favor of the 3ds AS WELL AS the 3DS getting titles like KH & Soulcalibur V on the way.

Plus hearing the devs at capcom say "if we could drop our current projects (RE6 ect.) to work on more titles like Revelations om 3DS, we would" made me smile ear to ear =D

Ok, I've been reading through this whole thread here, and I have to say:

First: I don't like playing on a phone. It doesn't feel right to just use a touch screen with my thumbs in the way pressing "buttons" and accidentally press the wrong button. I like dedicated buttons, and that's priority #1 for a portable gaming console.

Second: I see that no one have gotten into the hardware depht of the 3DS and PS2, only visual comparison.

So, the PS2 has a 299Mhz Processor with 32MB RAM and 4MB VRAM (Video Ram). Fair enough, but then the 3DS' turn with a whopping 1GHz ARM CPU, 128MB RAM and 4MB VRAM.

Now I'd say that would've run even San Andreas, as the PS2 can without problems.

Fun fact: The original DS/DS Lite had only a 67Mhz ARM9 CPU and 4MB RAM. Big upgrade to the 3DS?

Third: The original PSP had only one thumbstick, but people didn't complain while playing GTA Vice City stories. I didn't mind either.

Wow, looking back on this, I'm very ashamed and embarrassed about my posts. I apologise for that, sorry everyone.