WEBVTT

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- In 2001, Rockstar Games

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took to the digital
streets of Liberty City

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to deliver a sprawling
open world crime drama

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that offered unprecedented player freedom.

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The game's visceral violence, however,

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drew conversation about
violent video games

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into the mainstream once more.

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Welcome to "Total Recall."

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I'm Claire Jackson,
staff writer at Kotaku,

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and I'm joined by Managing
Editor Carolyn Petit

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to discuss the legacy
of "Grant Theft Auto 3."

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So, what evolutionary game
mechanics and concepts

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did "Grand Theft Auto 3" introduce?

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- (exhales softly) It's not so much

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that any individual thing
it did felt radical.

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Rather, to me, I would say

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that it was the remarkable
combination of things

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that made it so extraordinary.

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I mean, of course, games
before had had driving

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and racing and shooting and exploration,

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and maybe some games took place in worlds

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that kind of resembled our own.

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But there was something about the way

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in which this game brought
all these elements together

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to just create something wholly new.

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It was radical to be, you know,
very often up to that point

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games would use fantasy worlds,

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and of course, they still
do and that's great.

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But, you know, I played
"Morrowind" for instance,

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an amazing open world
fantasy game before GTA 3.

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So of course, I'd already
had the experience

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of exploring a huge world
and killing tons of monsters.

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But just the fact that,
oh, now I'm in this city

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that feels like a modern American city

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with music on the radio,
with dark grungy alleys,

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with pedestrians walking around,

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and sometimes I'm shooting
police officers instead of orcs,

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you know, instead of slaying
orcs with a sword or whatever.

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It felt so just kind of transgressive,

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so much more like culturally significant.

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I mean, I think this
was like around a time

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when like "The Sopranos"
was on TV and stuff,

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and it just felt like,

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wow, this is a texture in
video games that is new.

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This is a tone, a vibe in
video games that is new.

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And I think part of what
made it so extraordinary

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is that as great as all the
gameplay aspects of it were,

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and as exciting as they were
when they came together,

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it was also just the experience

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of being in that world that elevated it.

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So, for instance, you know,
some of my favorite memories

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of of playing GTA 3 are
things like driving around

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on a like rainy evening,

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and a particular song comes on the radio

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that just the vibe of
the song and the weather,

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and the grungy street all just combine

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to create this like cinematic feel.

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But it's emergent.

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Like it's just kind of happening
to come out of the systems

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of me driving, the weather,
the ambient weather.

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You know, whatever happens to
be on the radio at that time.

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Things like that could be really exciting.

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At the same time though,
I have to say that yes,

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by tossing all these elements in there,

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Rockstar created an incredible sandbox

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that both had a lot of great
structured content to it,

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but also allowed players to create

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their own kinds of challenges and goals.

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For instance, as just one small example,

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the only plane in GTA 3 was the Dodo.

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- Yes.
- Which, you know,

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as its name suggests, it can't really fly.

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But I mean, you could sort of like try to-

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- Yeah.
- Fly it.

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- I mean, I never...

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- I spent many hours
getting the Dodo to fly.

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- Right.
- You'd have

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to go down the runway.

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- Yes.
- You'd have

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to hold it down and then
let it go at the right time.

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And it wasn't clear if it
was designed to do that

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or if you were just manipulating

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the physics engine to a certain degree,

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but eventually you could get flight

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and it was like, oh my God.

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- Exactly.

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- Let's talk a bit about the violence.

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- Yeah.
- Because as much as this,

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you know, definitely was,
and is an incredible game

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and a very memorable game,

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one of the trickier aspects of it

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is just how violent it was.

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I mean, for me it was the first game

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that I ever had an experience
with where like my mother

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found out I was playing it
and then had a talk with me

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about the fact that she
heard this game on the news

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and how bad it was.

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- Right.
- And so,

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I would sometimes have to like,

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just when she was around,
play like the taxi missions,

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and tell her I was playing a taxi game.

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(Carolyn laughs)
I was not playing

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"Grand Theft Auto 3." (laughs)

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- Yeah, yeah.

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Right, I mean "Grand
Theft Auto 3" you know?

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It kind of contains crazy
taxi in it in a way, right?

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- Yes.
(upbeat rock music)

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- It did feel so boundary breaking

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at the time that it came out.

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And there are certainly
elements of the way

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the game maybe treats women
that I'm not crazy about.

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- Yeah, it's interesting.

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It was interesting to me with 3

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how sort of unscripted
the violence could be.

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- Right.
- You definitely

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had missions where it was,
you know, kill this person,

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do this violent act that were very direct.

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You always had freedom as
to how you could do that.

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But you know, like I had
played "Doom" before this

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and I'd played "Mortal Kombat",

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which like we were talking before

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was definitely a cultural
moment in the '90s

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in terms of like surprising
people with how much violence.

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- Sure.
- But with those games,

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those were clearly in fantasy realms.

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- Right.

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- And like, once I clear a
room full of demons in "Doom",

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I move on to the next room.
- Yes.

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- In "Grand Theft Auto 3",

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I could park myself on a street corner

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and kill as many people as I want forever.

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- Right.

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- If you wanna play "Grand
Theft Auto 3" in 2023 or 2024,

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you have a few options.

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You can hunt down an original copy

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on either PlayStation
2 or the original Xbox.

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Versions also exist on Steam for PC

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and on Android and iOS.

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And there's also a remastered version

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of the game available on
PS4, PS5, Xbox Series X,

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Xbox One Switch and PC

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as part of the 2021 Definitive Edition.

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That version has notoriously
had a number of issues,

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but in the years since its release,

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the collection has improved.

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All right, that'll do it for us today.

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Thank you Carolyn for chatting with us

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about all things "Grand Theft Auto 3."

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I'm Claire Jackson and this
has been "Total Recall."