GTA

City of London police arrested a 17-year-old on suspicion of being responsible for the hacking of Rockstar Games and subsequent leaking of footage from Grand Theft Auto VI.

On the evening of Thursday 22 September 2022, the City of London Police arrested a 17-year-old in Oxfordshire on suspicion of hacking, as part of an investigation supported by the @NCA_UK’s National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU).

He remains in police custody. pic.twitter.com/Zfa3OlDR6J

— City of London Police (@CityPolice) September 23, 2022

Tech journalist Matthew Keys reported the 17-year-old, who has not been identified, is believed to be part of the hacking group called "Lapsus$." The arrest is potentially connected to the recent hacking of Uber as well as Rockstar.

Around 50 minutes of rough footage from the upcoming game leaked on GTAForums last week. In posts on the forum, the hacker threatened to leak additional footage and sensitive Rockstar Games information if undisclosed demands were not met.

While the gameplay was far from completed, the leaks did confirm rumors of a playable female character and a return to Vice City, the fictionalized version of Miami. The character, named Lucia, is the first female playable character in Grand Theft Auto history.

Grand Theft Auto VI is arguably the most anticipated game of this console generation. Rockstar has not released a new Grand Theft Auto game since 2013, though they've released several updates and continue to support GTA V.

The development of GTA VI has been beset by several production delays and layoffs at Rockstar Games that leave the game currently without a timetable for release.

Rockstar Games released a statement Monday confirming the validity of Grand Theft Auto VI leaks that went viral on social media over the weekend.

A Message from Rockstar Games pic.twitter.com/T4Wztu8RW8

— Rockstar Games (@RockstarGames) September 19, 2022

Around 50 minutes of rough footage leaked on GTAForums over the weekend, with a hacker claiming to have even more extended footage and sensitive information related to Rockstar's most popular franchise.

Most of the gameplay footage was in its infancy, featuring placeholder text and green-screen character movement. However, one extended scene was seemingly deep into development and showed a female character named Lucia committing a robbery at a diner.

The footage confirmed rumors there would be a female playable character for the first time in Grand Theft Auto history. Rumors of a return to the famed Vice City, which is a fictionalized version of Miami, were also confirmed by the leak.

First launched in 1997, Grand Theft Auto is one of the most successful video game series in history. While controversial in its content, GTA does massive financial business for Rockstar and has been an overwhelming critical success.

The development of GTA VI has already been fraught with issues, highlighted by delays and changes in Rockstar management. Grand Theft Auto V came out all the way back in 2013. While there have been subsequent updates and an online world introduced, Rockstar missed an entire console generation cycle with the new game's slow development.

Some fans were already critical of the leaked footage, saying it does not look on par with modern games. Suffice it to say, this was not a banner week at Rockstar headquarters.

Revisiting all-time classics like Grand Theft Auto III, GTA: Vice City and GTA: San Andreas on modern hardware with likewise modern upgraded visuals and controls seems like a dream for gamers everywhere. 

That's just what Rockstar and developer Grove Street Games attempted to do with Grand Theft Auto: The Trilogy – The Definitive Edition, bringing the trio of PlayStation 2 classics to modern and next-generation consoles.  

Promising overhauled presentation features like lighting and infusing modern designs like minimaps and improved shooting controls, the GTA Trilogy had the blueprint to be something special. 

At times, it truly is, as the games stand the test of time and look spectacular in motion. But some major hiccups that at least in part contributed to the game already getting pulled temporarily from PC casts a wide shadow on an offering that seemed hard to mess up. 

    

Grand Theft Auto III

GTA III changed the gaming industry forever in a multitude of ways, so it's an absolute blast to see it revived with some upgrades all these years later. 

This is where the new lighting system developed for the trilogy really shines. For those who have experience with the older versions of GTA III, their jaws hit the floor. Better lighting means more dynamic shadows, whether it's shadows cast from a streetlamp, headlights or something else. 

It's clear there has been a texture bump across the board, too. And sound design, including music, now comes through with modern delivery for a more immersive experience. 

Otherwise, and this applies to the entire trilogy, the visuals are a serious give and take. It's amazing to see some of the revamped interiors to inaccessible buildings that give the world a lived-in feel. But contrasting with that, some absolutely botched character models somehow manage to look worse than the originals. 

As a whole, GTA III and the other two games look stunning within their cartoonish art style thanks to some modern technology. They mostly look great in motion, too. But there are so many noticeable issues that it makes for easy screenshot meme material and gives off an unpolished feel.

One area without that sort of give and take is the souped-up gameplay. GTA III, and in the case of the two other offerings here, gets a new checkpoint system that removes frustration and wasted time. The inclusion of a minimap that lets players set waypoints sure doesn't hurt, either. 

Gunplay also gets a modern boost with the ability to free aim or use the lock-on feature. It by no means feels as good as GTA V, and enemies sort of just stand there in a stupor without reacting to the lead getting pumped into their bodies before collapsing, but it's still quite a bit better than the original.

It's a similar story for driving vehicles, with gas and brakes helpfully placed on shoulder triggers instead of face buttons. This doesn't mean shooting and driving aren't still clunky by modern standards, but it's certainly the best this game has ever felt from a gameplay perspective. 

GTA III is still a fun romp. The story itself still pales in comparison to the next two, and the missions rely on a frustrating timer far too often, but that it can still be enjoyable speaks to just how great it originally was all those years ago. 

     

Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

Tommy Vercetti's wild trip through the 80s enjoys many upgrades and suffers similar setbacks. 

A funny drawback? The sun glares too brightly at times in a way that just doesn't mesh well with the new lighting work. As great as the new lighting system is, Vice City shares the same visual mishaps as the other two in the package. Namely, things seem to oddly go in the other direction. Many areas are just too dark—ducking into an alley, for example, is like somebody flicked a light switch. 

What damages the experience from a presentation standpoint, at least for those who have played it in the past, is the lack of all the licensed music. There are some critical missing pieces that hurt the game's identity. 

Still, the vibe the original game set remains, and Vercetti's journey is still a blast to play. It's remarkable to see how the mission variety and options presented to the player built so strongly upon the base of its predecessor. 

Vice City expanded on the arsenal and, well, pretty much everything from GTA III, so now is a good time to mention the upgraded weapon wheel. Instead of spamming the swap-weapon button like in the original release, players can now pop open a weapon wheel (while time gets slowed) and quickly cycle to what they want. 

Also new is the ability to restart a mission. Back in the day, if players failed, they had to hoof it back to the mission marker from the hospital. 

While Vice City still has pitfalls visually and in terms of bugs, it's still the top way to experience the game for the first time, and returning players will find far more good than bad. 

    

Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas

San Andreas is the game in the trilogy that needed the least help. 

Even so, romping through Los Santos as CJ is a wow-worthy moment for players who have done so before. The lighting is mostly excellent, and the first serious trip to more nature-minded places for the series has clearly seen some trees and shrubs swapped out for much better-looking offerings. 

One thing players will notice right away, though, is that visually, San Andreas appears to have lost some of its fog, which hurts immersion. Going to the top of a skyscraper lets players see the entire city, and it comes off as comically small by modern standards without a shroud of fog or mist to give off that sense of scope. 

That sounds really silly, but it's just the knee-jerk reaction. By that same token, though, it's clear the game has superb draw distance. And where these games used to suffer gigantic pop-in issues on much older hardware, there isn't nearly as much this time out (it's hard to justify any for a PlayStation 2 upgrade, but it's still an improvement). 

Weather as a whole isn't kind to the game, though. There are rainstorms in San Andreas that are especially problematic, as the sheets of white buffets the screen and largely ruin visibility.

Like the other two, CJ's arsenal feels better than ever before to use, and fun minigames like dancing, weight management and otherwise still offer hints of what Rockstar would include in future releases like Red Dead. 

    

Speedrunning Tips and More

This trilogy of games has a longstanding speedrunning community that will only get more interesting in 2021 because these remakes might have an impact on what routes and strategies actually work—or provide new ones to freshen up the scene. 

GTA III, for example, has plenty of run submissions over the last year, with the world-record numbers checking in around the one-hour mark. GTA San Andreas' top run happened just two months ago, coming in at just under three hours and 40 minutes. 

It should go without saying, but getting a top time in any of these speed runs hinges on repeated trial and error for routing, memorization and massive technical skill. While the game employs auto-aim, navigating it properly, so quickly and while perfectly executing a number of different moves in aerial vehicles makes for thrilling runs—for runner and onlooker alike. 

Generally speaking, the basics are pretty simple for all three. Skip cutscenes (and later learn glitches to skip unskippable ones), dialogue and beeline it from objective to objective. Some things will just come down to RNG (traffic, cars that spawn), but generally, aiming to steal something fast like a motorcycle or understanding when and how to grab aerial rides will dramatically chop down times. 

Also, in a funny note—especially early in runs for all three games—it's much faster to just...run over enemies instead of sparring with them. That engages the game's finicky auto-aim and brings in time-wasting things like reloads. 

But, again, much of what makes runs in these games so special is the repetition that goes into practicing each mission individually, then stringing them all together in one single-hour (or three) epic. 

At this point, the focus has to be on where a trilogy falls short. Graphically, the game has all sorts of texture issues and odd hiccups that shouldn't have made it to release. Popular images that keep making the rounds are typos on storefronts and the wrong number colored over a different number on a jersey. 

While the art style won't be for everyone, some characters emerging looking worse is strange. 

GTA III is especially notable for having overworld errors where what's presented visually just doesn't match up. A good example is being able to walk through a barricade but being blocked by an invisible wall near the end of it.

It's also surprising that the game stutters and/or has blips in performance on a PlayStation 5 console. Ditto for the PC release, as we are talking about former PlayStation 2 games initially released in the early 2000s. 

    

Conclusion

GTA Trilogy works loosely with the word "definitive." The number of graphical and performance issues on multiple platforms hurts what should have otherwise been a slam dunk of a release that offers up three classics.

Still, these classics qualifying for the moniker at all means they're still wildly enjoyable despite the issues. Hiccups and all, this is by far the best entry point for newcomers. That said, players expecting a stunning offering akin to the likes of GTA 4 or 5 will leave disappointed. In 2021, these are more rough blueprints that preceded the modern classics of recent years. 

On paper, this is still one of the best values in gaming out there given the titles included. It mostly looks great, took some serious anti-aging upgrades to improve the experience and is a great way to play some of the best games of all time. The hope has to be that, with time, some of these unfortunate black eyes at launch get cleaned up with patches.