Grand Theft Auto: International Edition

You are tasked with designing Grand Theft Auto in a city outside the U.S. What city do you choose and why?

• Do you run a Yakuza theme in Japan?
• A crime syndicate in Moscow?
• A gang in Rio de Janeiro?

Personally I'd like to see something in Mumbai, India. It's a location that is largely overlooked, very interesting, hugely populated (larger than NYC by population) and would make for a very interesting game.

Happy gaming,

Boz

London-Paris-Amsterdam with all the countryside in-between. It makes sense geographically since they're relatively close, but much more importantly, the cities are an absolute treasure trove of insanely varied sights, culture and crime syndicates. Not just well-known and established ones such as the Russian mafia or the Chinese triads, but also more exotic ones such as Indian, Bengali, Turkish, Algerian, African, etc. Missions would include events such as quetly killing someone during a riot fight between Tottenham and Arsenal supporters, stealing art from the Louvre and meeting a contact in a hash bar.

Considering this is a Grand Theft Auto game, it's also worth mentioning that the Netherlands is one of the biggest gateways for drug and human trafficking in the world (more Rotterdam than Amsterdam, but close enough).

Rio would be nice.

India :) It would make for some funny lines and good gameplay - also driving will be way harder - if you've ever been to India you'll know what I mean by that :)DeX2010

probably not much driving, just traffic jams

[QUOTE="DeX2010"]India :) It would make for some funny lines and good gameplay - also driving will be way harder - if you've ever been to India you'll know what I mean by that :)DecadesOfGaming

probably not much driving, just traffic jams

An 'international' GTA would be difficult design-wise seeing as with the whole 'realism' approach it would be nonsensical to let all the pedestrians speak English with Hollywood accents, and it would be unpractical to let them speak the native language in question.

An 'international' GTA would be difficult design-wise seeing as with the whole 'realism' approach it would be nonsensical to let all the pedestrians speak English with Hollywood accents, and it would be unpractical to let them speak the native language in question.

DraugenCP

An 'international' GTA would be difficult design-wise seeing as with the whole 'realism' approach it would be nonsensical to let all the pedestrians speak English with Hollywood accents, and it would be unpractical to let them speak the native language in question.

DraugenCP

JC2 had a reasonable compromise on that - some pedestrians spoke a little Thai (/asian language) while most spoke English with a South East Asia accent.

(Plus there are tonnes of town name jokes in that game. Lost on me until explained, though!)

I don't see voiceovers as a barrier to making a game, especially since voiceovers have only really become standard in the past five- to ten-years. Voice actors with accents reflecting their country of origin would be perfectly acceptable and has been used in many films over the years as a substitute for the native language, though I see no reason why using the native language with subtitles would be an issue. Pretty much all of Europe speaks English as a secondary if not primary language; the speak it in India, most of Africa, and Australia. Happy gaming, BozBozanimal

As I said, if Rockstar plans on taking GTA further down the path of realism, having voice actors doing bad Hollywood accents simply isn't going to jelly with the aim of the game. Yes, tons of movies do this, but I've always seen this as stupid as it undermines the immersion and believability of the movie. Simply put, war movies that feature Germans who speak broken English and address everyone as 'Herr' are simply laughable.

I think it would definitely be a problem. Yes, a lot of Europeans can speak English to some degree (though definitely not everyone), but that doesn't mean they actually do it all the time. If you walk down a street in Amsterdam, you will never hear two Dutch people speaking English with each other. Sure, there are tourists and ethnic minorities that will use English, Spanish, German or other languages, but most of the ambient chatter would have to be in Dutch. An Indian or Australian GTA would definitely be possible, but as far as mainland Europe goes, I think it would be really problematic to deliver a believable yet functional game world.

"JC2 had a reasonable compromise on that - some pedestrians spoke a little Thai (/asian language) while most spoke English with a South East Asia accent.

(Plus there are tonnes of town name jokes in that game. Lost on me until explained, though!)"

Yes, but Just Cause 2 could afford having ridiculous, bad voice acting because the entire game is ridiculous and defies all logic. In that game it worked just fine because it blended in well with the rest of the game. In GTA, though, it would be much less fitting when you take into account the (quasi-)realistic approach the game has.