The penultimate batch of Grand Theft Auto memories, this time featuring Samuel L Jackson, biker gangs and Peter Moore's bicep.
GTA San Andreas – getting out into the countryside provided a welcome respite from the chaos of the city.We're sticking with San Andreas for a while in this fourth part of our journey through GTA history. But before tackling the behemoth that is GTA IV, we also look at a couple of other moments in the series' past. This one has everything from formation motorbike riding to the principles of drug dealing, hinting at Rockstar's obsession with sociocultural detail.
And we couldn't leave out a certain games executive with a penchant for showing off new game announcements on his own skin...
The $20m Hot Coffee spill (go on then, we'll include it)
[Video contains sexually explicit material] "This is it! She's inviting you in for coffee! Gird your loins for love". So read the on-screen prompts before GTA: San Andreas' infamous Hot Coffee mini-game. One ESRB rating change, a US product recall, a Federal lawsuit and several class actions later; culminating in a staggering $20,000,000 payout, Rockstar might wish she never asked. The madness of San Andreas' (relatively tame) sex mini-game was that no one was supposed to play it – until hackers found hidden files in the code and activated it via a PC patch. The GTA series, so fond of satirising the USA, found itself victim of the country's contrasting attitudes to firearms and sex. (You can read more about it all in Keith Stuart's interview with Dan Houser here).
Killing Officer Tenpenny – and GTA's cult of celebrity
Samuel L Jackson's crooked cop Officer Tenpenny was voted the '#2 best villain' ever according to Game Informer magazine, but GTA's highest profile celebrity voice over is likely its last. GTA IV featured a relatively low-key cast, with celebrities like Iggy Pop on DJ duties. Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser admitted to CVG that most celebrities aren't available for the time they need. "As long as you have good actors, not knowing them actually is an advantage in terms of bringing the game to life. I can't see us moving past that for major parts in the game".
Riding a PCJ 600 off Mount Chiliad
Scrambling your Quad over Whetstone's rolling countryside is a thrilling contrast to Los Santos' dense city grids – but scaling Mount Chiliad, the series' tallest object, is something else. As you wind up the narrow path to the summit, you just *know* something special is in store, before you reach the plateau, and the mother of all stunt jumps. Leaping off Mt Chiliad on a PCJ-600 and parachuting to safety is fun, until you try stunt flips on the Faggio scooter… or Mr Whoopee van.
Peter Moore's GTA IV tattoo
"I've got an important announcement about one of the most powerful gaming experiences of all time", announced Peter Moore at Microsoft's E3 2006 conference, before unbuttoning his jacket. "I'm saving the big guns, for the big guns", he said, unveiling a GTA IV 'tattoo' on his right bicep. What hedidn't say was quite how much Microsoft paid for Xbox 360's timed-exclusivity of GTA IV's DLC episodes, rumoured to be $50-75 million. Over a year after their 'exclusive' release, The Lost and Damned and The Ballad of Gay Tony were available on Sony's PS3.
Online formation riding in The Lost and Damned
GTA IV's Hell Angels-inspired DLC episode wasn't the first 3D GTA game with online multiplayer – that honour belongs to GTA: Liberty City Stories on Sony's handheld PSP (2005) with its experimental six-player ad-hoc Wi-Fi modes – but it *was* the first to let you and your friends ride twelve bikes in formation like Heavy Metal gods. It took a lot of co-ordination and headset chatter to 'roll out' in anything resembling a triangle, but it did make you feel like a badass – and sowed the seeds of co-op play that will drive GTA Online's complex missions.
Dealing in Liberty City
Returning the series to its top-down roots, GTA: Chinatown Wars hit the Nintendo DS in 2009 bringing explosive multi-factional gang war to a handheld more used to Pokemon and brain training. Far from a watered down afterthought, Chinatown Wars is explosive, funny and demanding, and one of its key innovations is the drug market which sees you buying and selling various narcotics, taking advantage of regional price differences to make a killing. It was a smart lesson in street economics and the concept no doubt paved the way for GTA V's stock market feature.