We knew that the Anniversary Edition of Grand Theft Auto III would be arriving today and we were going to save it as the last thing we checked out today before we headed off out of the office. Y’know, end of day treat and all that.
Given that we’d heard it wouldn’t be coming to the Samsung Galaxy S2, naturally our first port of call was to test this out for ourselves. And you know what? That turned out to be wrong.
It’s there in the Market, available to download now on the Galaxy S2, HTC Sensation XE, XL and Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc S as well, if you’re interested.
The Android version of the game was a little crashy at first when we played it on the Galaxy S2. But it otherwise works fine. The on-screen controls are simple enough and change depending on whether you’re on foot on in a vehicle.
It plays beautifully on the S2 and though the visuals aren’t as sharp as they are on the iPhone 4’s higher res screen, we prefer the bigger screen size of the S2. Chances are any Android phone you play this on will have that advantage over the iPhone 4/4S...
That said, both editions of the game are virtually identical; the original has been faithfully recreated for the smaller screen. You get that same semblance of free roaming freedom that comes with GTA games. The original dialogue, characters and cheesy radio stations with the oh-so-amusing DJ names (Mike Hunt anyone?); it’s all there.
Even though we’ve known about this release for a while, it’s amazing to think that the original Grand Theft Auto III came out ten years ago. This makes us feel really old.
The only salve for this is knowledge that Rockstar might get round to porting Vice City and San Andreas at some point. Until then, we’re happy to while away hours mowing down Liberty City’s pedestrians on our phones.
Now, has anyone found out if the old tank cheats work yet?
