GTA

alternate meaning: Greater Toronto Area

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GTA (Grand Theft Auto) is a computer game series created by DMA Design (Now Rockstar North) and published by Rockstar Games in 1997. It contains five stand alone games.

The games allow the player to take on the role of a criminal in a city. Various missions are set for completion - such as bank robberies, assassinations, and other crimes.

There have been 4 sequels to the original GTA:

• Grand Theft Auto 2
• Grand Theft Auto: London England 1969
• Grand Theft Auto 3
• Grand Theft Auto: Vice City

GTA2 features better graphics and gameplay than the first installment, considering GTA1 was a DOS game, and GTA2 was made in windows. GTA London England was a continuation of GTA2, only it is set in London. GTA3 is much more controversial than the previous few. Unlike the two former games in the series this game is fully 3D and provides the player with a 'third person view' rather than a 'top down view'. Vice City is set in a Miami-like city in the mid-1980s, and it is more controversial than GTA3.

The GTA series is notable for the large amount of freedom given to the player in deciding what to do. Unlike most action games which are structured as a single track series of levels, in GTA the player can pick and choose which missions they want to undertake, and his relationship with various powers that be changes based on these choices.

Rockstar Games has since released an updated copy of the original Grand Theft Auto as a free download.

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In American state law, grand theft is a felony, individual state penal codes define when larceny or theft misdemeanors become grand and therefore a felony. Generally the division is based on a monetary value and intent. A grand theft auto (GTA) felony involves the taking of an auto from its owner with the intention of keeping the auto permanently. Removing parts or items from a vehicle is a misdemeanor. But both are again often related to monetary value, felony crimes are also subdivided into degrees relating to seriousness. For example in California the change is based around a dollar value of $400, although the term grand theft has actually been dropped - the crime is now CVC 10851.