E3 2002: Rockstar

Even though Rockstar made major news by announcing GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY, its booth was far from spectacular this year. Nowhere to be found was the new VICE CITY, or MAX PAYNE 2, rather, the very soon to be released GRAND THEFT AUTO III for PC dominated the booth. Yawn. But there were a couple of new games on the floor.

SMUGGLER'S RUN: WARZONES GameCube July

This version of Rockstar's successful smuggling series gives gamers 5 maps, 30 missions and 2-4 player multiplayer mode. Gamers will drive around terrain avoiding the military, police, and rival smugglers in attempt to sneak goods across borders. Expect similar vehicles that were in the PS2 games.

MIDNIGHT CLUB 2 PlayStation 2 Late 2002

The game is back with more of the illegal street racing that made the original a success. You'll race through Paris, Los Angeles and Tokyo in the game. Unfortunately, we didn't get a chance to play the game in the private area of Rockstar's booth at E3.

GRAND THEFT AUTO: VICE CITY PlayStation 2 October 22^nd, 2002

While not on display on the show, we know the following about the follow-up to the best-selling PlayStation 2 game to date: It's set in Vice City, which is to Miami as Liberty City is to New York. The game is also set in the 1980s. Everything else is up in the air, but expect some more innovations to make the game go beyond GTAIII.

Under the Take 2 label, the company will publish games such as CELEBRITY DEATHMATCH, CONFLICT: DESERT STORM, DUKE NUKEM ADVANCE and SPEC OPS: AIRBORNE COMMANDO.

More interestingly though was the other branch of Rockstar/Take 2, Gathering of Developers. While MAX PAYNE 2 was nowhere in site. We did get some new screens of the upcoming game, MAFIA. The game is similar to GRAND THEFT AUTO, but is set early in the 1930s. The game will ship for PCs this summer, along with Gathering of Developers other two titles, STRONGHOLD and AGE OF WONDERS 2. MAFIA is expected to be released for GameCube early next year.

While Rockstar's showing was rather disappointing, there are many games that the company isn't willing to blow the lid on just yet. Keep your eyes on it over the next few months.